Reseda ( ) is a San Fernando
Valley
district in the city of Los Angeles,
California
.
History
The area now known as Reseda was originally inhabited by
Native Americans of
the
Tongva tribe that lived close to the
Los Angeles River. The vegetation
was plentiful, and the natives had to work only two hours per day
to support themselves.
Reseda originated as a farm town named "Marian" (or "Rancho
Marian") that appeared in 1912. Its namesake,
Marian Otis Chandler, was the daughter
of
Los Angeles Times publisher
Harrison Gray Otis, a director of
the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company. About 1920, Reseda—named
after a fragrant North African yellow-dye plant,
Reseda odorata, which grows in hot, dry
climates—replaced Marian as a designation for a stop on the
Pacific Electric interurban railway
running along Sherman Way.
The population of Reseda was 1,805 in 1930 and 4,147 in 1940. By
1950 it had topped 16,000, but the
Ventura Freeway lay 10 years in the future,
and most Reseda residents still bought fresh eggs, milk, honey and
vegetables at stands along
Ventura
Boulevard.
The name "Reseda" was given first to a siding
on a branch of the Southern
Pacific Railroad in the south San Fernando Valley.
Development into a suburb
Reseda was
one of the first suburbs in the San Fernando Valley. Its large ranches were sub-divided and the
area was developed by realtors just as the veterans of
World War II were returning home. The earliest
families came to live among orange groves which were successively
plowed under in favor of housing.
At the time, most of the jobs were in the
Los Angeles Basin, to the south,
over the Santa
Monica
mountains.
By 1950, the Valley's population reached 400,000. The average new
Valley home, in 1949, cost $9,000. By 1955, that same house could
be resold for nearly $15,000. But even at that price, a household
income only had to be $6,000 a year, not at all difficult,
considering Valley incomes continued to hover above the national
average.
By 1960, the average market value of a Valley home reached $18,850.
During the 1970s, however, these costs and income patterns over the
rest of the country began to reverse. Land and housing costs shot
upward, while most incomes only crept. By the beginning of the
1980s, the average price of a home in the Valley reached $110,000.
According to a 2004 study by the U.S. Bureau of the Census it has
reached triple that of the beginning of the 1980s.
Although home values continued to increase, the Caucasian
population stopped growing in the early 1980s. As the white
population decreased due to aging and a lower birth rate,
Latino immigrants continued moving into the area. At
the same time, a variety of factors led to a decreasing level of
income, from
discrimination to
gang problems and the changing economy of the
Los Angeles area that is losing blue collar unionized jobs. As a
result, the neighborhood changed from a middle-class neighborhood
back to its working-class roots.
Northridge earthquake
It is not widely known that the epicenter of the
1994 Northridge Earthquake was
actually in Reseda.
The epicenter at first was reported as being
in San
Fernando
, then a few hours later "somewhere near
Northridge", and was pinpointed in Reseda (near the intersection of
Wilbur Avenue and Saticoy Street) about a week later. By
this point, however, the media had dubbed it the "Northridge"
earthquake and the name stuck.
Demographics
As of the 2000
census, the 91335 zip code,
which includes Reseda and other areas, had 68,002 people (estimated
77,250 in 2006) and 22,811 households. The ethnic makeup of Reseda
was34.6%
White,65.2%
Hispanic/
Latino,9.8%
African American,0.8%
American
Indian or
Alaskan Native,11.0%
Asian American,0.1%
Pacific Islander,6.15% two or more races.
91335's median age was 33 years with an average household size of
3.05 persons. Median household income in 1999 was $40,792.
In 2009, the
Los Angeles
Times's "Mapping L.A." project supplied these Reseda
neighborhood statistics: population: 62,174; median household
income: $54,771.
Television, movies, and music
A number of
motion pictures have
been produced and set in Reseda and other parts of the San Fernando
Valley. Films set in Reseda include
The Karate Kid and
Terminator 2: Judgment Day',
with its car chase scenes down the channel of the
Los Angeles River.
Reseda is mentioned in the
Tom Petty song
"Free Fallin'",
Soul Coughing's
"Screenwriter's Blues", and
The
Mountain Goats' "High Doses #2". The 1974
Frank Zappa and
The Mothers of Invention release
Roxy & Elsewhere contains,
on the song
Dummy Up, a reference to the city as
Napoleon Murphy Brock's character is
asked where he is from during a vamp in the song and he is scoffed
at by Zappa when he replies he is from Reseda. Also, the
Zappa-produced album
Trout Mask
Replica by
Captain Beefheart and His
Magic Band contains a reference to the city at the end of the
track "Hair Pie: Bake 1".
Don Van
Vliet asks a girl and boy where they've moved from, to which
the boy replies, "Reseda". Van Vliet responds by saying, "She's
nice".
In the film
Boogie Nights,
the night club scenes were filmed at The Country Club (now a
church) on Sherman Way, a block east of Reseda Boulevard. The long
opening shot tracks from the marquee of The Reseda Theatre
(actually long closed) down the block and across a side street to
the club entrance, then inside. The donut shop holdup takes place
several blocks east of the club, which is the donut shop on Sherman
Way called
Miss Donuts, which used to be
a
Winchell's Donuts and the scene
where Dirk Diggler prostitutes himself in a pickup truck was filmed
in the
Bank of America parking lot
across the street from the donut shop.
Several prominent scenes from the 1999 film
Magnolia, also directed by Anderson,
were filmed near the intersection of Sherman Way and Reseda, about
half a block away from The Country Club.
In the 1984 film
The Karate
Kid, character Daniel LaRusso, played by
Ralph Macchio had just moved to Reseda from
New Jersey. The apartment building that Daniel lived in is on
Saticoy St., and the scene where Daniel is being chased in the
empty field is next to the apartment building.
The 1995 film
A Kid in King
Arthur's Court places the home of the main character in Reseda.
Both the beginning and ending scenes of the movie ostensibly take
place on a baseball field in Reseda.
In the film
Erin Brockovich, certain
scenes were filmed near Sherman Way and Yolanda Ave.
The 1996 film
Escape From L.A.
starring
Kurt Russell was filmed in and
around the portion of the
Los Angeles
River that runs through Reseda.
The show
My Name is Earl is often
filmed in Reseda captured to look like rural small town America.
One episode about a hot dog stand was filmed at the Home Plate
Burgers on the corner of Saticoy Street and Reseda Blvd.
The song "Errol Flynn," written by Amanda McBroom and performed by
Barbara Cook on her 1994 album "Live from London", contains a
reference to Reseda as the hometown of the singer & her actor
father.
The show
10 Items or
Less is filmed in an actual store in Reseda, often using real
customers as extras.
In a season three episode of "Angel" called Birthday, Cordelia's
vision leads her to visit a girl that lives in Reseda.
Features
- Reseda is home to a large duck pond that lies inside Reseda
Park at the corner of Reseda Blvd. and Victory Blvd. During the
1950s and 1960s the duck pond also had a boathouse where one could
rent electric boats by the hour.
- The Reseda Country Club, of Boogie Nights fame, was a legendary
concert venue during the Los Angeles Punk Rock and New Wave scenes
of the 1980s. Located at the intersection of Canby Avenue and
Sherman Way, the Country Club was host to bands including Oingo Boingo, U2, Culture Club, Tom Petty & the
Heartbreakers, and Roxy Music from
1980 to 1982. The club remained a music venue throughout the 1990s
but later became a Spanish language Christian church.
- The Reseda Theater is a Reseda Landmark due to be converted
into a Food and Entertainment venue due by the end of 2008.
Government and infrastructure
Local government
Los Angeles Fire
Department Station 73 (Reseda) and
Station 100 (West
Van Nuys/Lake Balboa) serve the community.
Los Angeles Police
Department operates the nearby West Valley Community Police
Station .
County, state, and federal representation
Mail services are provided by the
United States Postal Service's
branch post office at 7320 Reseda Boulevard.
On October 14, 2006,
the branch office was renamed the Coach John
Wooden Post Office on Wooden's 96th birthday, in honor of the
retired UCLA
basketball
coach who lives in nearby Encino
and whose
daughter lives in Reseda.
Education
Primary and secondary schools
Public schools
Like other areas of the city of Los Angeles, Reseda is served by
the
Los Angeles
Unified School District.
Vanalden Early Education Center is in the community.
Comprehensive elementary schools in Reseda
include Bertrand Avenue Elementary School, Blythe
Street Elementary School, Cantara Street Elementary School,
Garden Grove Elementary School, Melvin
Avenue Elementary School, Newcastle Elementary School, Reseda
Elementary School, Shirley Avenue Elementary School, Calvert
Elementary School (in Woodland Hills), and Vanalden
Avenue Elementary School (in Tarzana
).
Comprehensive middle schools serving the area
include Mulholland Middle School (in Lake
Balboa
), Northridge Middle School (in Northridge
), and Sutter Middle School (Winnetka
).
Comprehensive high
schools serving the area include Reseda High School
and Grover Cleveland
High School. Northridge Academy High
School takes some students from the Cleveland zone.
The
Sherman Oaks
Center for Enriched Studies (SOCES), formerly Sequoia Junior
High School lies adjacent to Reseda Park; it is not in or near the
community of Sherman Oaks
, its former location. Sven Lokrantz Special
Education Center, a Kindergarten through 1st Grade special school,
is in Reseda.
Magnolia Science Academy 1, a
charter school founded in 2002, is located
near the corner of Etiwanda Avenue and Sherman Way.
Public libraries
Los Angeles Public
Library operates the West Valley Regional Branch.
References
External links
.JPG/180px-Grover_Cleveland_High_School_(Los_Angeles).JPG)
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