Yet another neighborhood wants out of Van Nuys

Van Nuys, home to L.A.'s Valley government center and once considered the Valley's downtown, is once again under siege. There is a new effort for some residents to break away, in this case to join the tonier Sherman Oaks district to the south. More from the Daily News' Rick Orlov:

Now, another group of residents is launching an effort to break away from Van Nuys. The 1,855 homeowners in an area bounded by Sepulveda Boulevard and Hazeltine Avenue, and Burbank Boulevard and Oxnard Street, want to declare themselves part of the far tonier Sherman Oaks. Laurette Healey, a Valley businesswoman who has run unsuccessfully for local offices in recent years, has collected signatures from about 800 residents and is bringing the proposal to the City Council for a final decision.  Healey -- one of the leaders of the Valley's secession effort in 2002 -- said the community is energized over the issue. She said most of the parents in that neighborhood already send their children to schools in Sherman Oaks and that the name change will help attract young couples.

Bob Pool earlier wrote about the penchant for Valley neighborhoods to break apart.

--Shelby Grad

Comments

[Rodney King]

IT will Still be the Valley!!!

[Albert]

Does this mean that Van Nuys MS will not be located in Van Nuys anymore? Instead of uniting together to deal with community issues, these people want to change their name in order to increase property values. What a freaking joke! I was born and raised in Van Nuys and I'm not afraid to say that!

[Amy - 40 yards from Sherman Oaks]

Throughout history urban and small town boundaries have often been determined by rivers, freeways, canyons, train tracks, etc -- hence the expression "the other side of the tracks". The train tracks that used to be where the Orange Line now runs and the vast difference in urban land/cityscape north of them is the most clear indicator of which neighborhood we belong to - Sherman Oaks. It'd be one thing if just north of Oxnard there were tree-lined, well-kept, single-family homes similar to those south of Oxnard Blvd to Burbank Blvd, and south of Burbank Blvd to Magnolia and beyond, etc. But there aren't. You have to go all the way to Lake Balboa or Vally Glen to match the look, feel of neighborhood, size of homes, lots etc. Our entire southern boundry borders Sherman Oaks, our kids go to Sherman Oaks schools, we shop, jog, walk our dogs, worship, etc in Sherman Oaks so it makes the most sense that we be part of the community that we are already integral to. The problems Van Nuys has are problems that we don't have in our neighborhood and problems we don't have the power to fix. It's not our fault that Van Nuys can't can't seem to fix them - we've done our part with our neighborhood. Perhaps the Van Nuys residents who don't wish to let us leave would be better served fixing the problems that make us want to secede. That said, even if the problems were fixed - our neighborhood still more closely resembles Sherman Oaks.