In the center of town the oaks are so thick that the sun is baffled, and this section has been made a public park, which is the Fourth of July and general hot-weather rendezvous of the country round, from Glendale to San Fernando.

The sloping hills of what was called the Monte Vista Valley were the site of vineyards for table grapes, and the town's sole industry, a cannery, specialized in packing olives from local trees.

Monte Vista Park in the center of town attracted picnickers, with a county home for children, sponsored by women's clubs and other organizations.

[15] This charity was a descendant of the Monte Vista Lodge, a home for "undernourished children" organized by social worker Belle N. Hall and opened in 1921 by the Council of Community Service.

After the end of World War I, hundreds of "rent-oppressed" people from Los Angeles did exactly that, and they built their houses with foundations fashioned from the "great masses of stones and boulders" that lay throughout the town.

On Tujunga's main street in the 1920s was a place called "Dean's store, the locale of the 'Millionaire's Club of Happiness and Contentment', a little group of the town's pioneers that is featured in the writings of John Steven McGroarty".

[22] Tujungans led by McGroarty first wanted to become a city of the sixth class to be called "Verdugo Hills" in 1924, and a petition to that effect was submitted to the board of supervisors, which postponed the idea indefinitely because of concerns about the proposed boundaries.

[37] The third and final election in January 1932 resulted in a vote to join Los Angeles, although the actual transfer was delayed by inaction of state authorities.

[28][38] Tuna Canyon Detention Station was a temporary holding facility used for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II in the Tujunga community of Los Angeles, California.

The decision was a victory for local people who had battled the project for more than three years: They contended that the dust from the existing pit affected the area's reputation as a "haven for asthma sufferers".

[40] Los Angeles City Councilman Howard Finn of Sunland died in office on August 12, 1986,[41] and his Northeast San Fernando Valley First District was left without an incumbent.

[46] Despite the fact that Wachs had struggled to prevent being assigned to a district that was 90% new to him,[44] the councilman was warmly greeted when he arrived to meet his new constituents in a reception at the Sunland-Tujunga Municipal Building.

In 2006, one of those lobbyists sent a memo promising to feed and transport 150 people in orange T-shirts to a city council hearing, where they would appear in favor of Home Depot—at a cost of $24,000 to the company.

[51]The city council determined that the extent of construction involved exceeded the limits of what is known as "tenant improvements" and thus qualified as a "project" subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Under CEQA rules, Home Depot would be required to carry out an environmental impact report, so the company filed a lawsuit against Council Member Wendy Greuel, accusing her of improperly interfering with the process.

[53] One of them was reported as follows: The cleanup — and summary eviction of as many as a hundred squatters — on 300 acres of private land a little more than a mile upstream from Hansen Dam was organized and financed by property owners of the Riverwood community of Sunland, a hillside enclave of about 35 homes whose residents come and go on a single road crossing the wash. Over the last three years, the growth of the shanty village has despoiled a public resource and subjected homes along Oro Vista Avenue to burglaries and the threat of violence, said Brian Schneider, who spoke for the residents.

[58] After years of discussion and delay, the final stretch of the 48.6-mile (78.2 km) freeway through Sunland-Tujunga was scheduled for dedication on April 3, 1981, with State Transportation Director Adriana Gianturco presiding.

In 2009, the Los Angeles Times's "Mapping L.A." project supplied these neighborhood statistics based on the 2000 census, showing that Sunland, including Shadow Hills, had a census-measured population of 28,414 in 2000.

[63] In 1957, Coronet called Tujunga "the most healthy place in the world,"[citation needed] and that publicity brought a flood of inquiries into the office of the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce, hundreds a month.

As a Los Angeles Times writer put it: No one really knows why so many long-haired, bearded young men on motorcycles, aligned in groups with names like "The Devil's Henchmen", chose to hang out in this workingman's community perched on the southwest slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains a half dozen miles north of downtown Glendale.

[66]In 2001, another writer called Sunland-Tujunga "part middle-class suburb, eclectic mountain hideaway, and rundown commercial strip dotted with biker hangouts".

[68]Even Marlene Hitt, the community's newly appointed poet laureate, said in 2001 that she got the job in part to counter Sunland-Tujunga's image as a home to drug dealers.

A charge of de facto segregation was made by Los Angeles Valley College instructor John Buchanan, who lived in Pacoima, and by the Sunland-Tujunga Human Relations Council, whose president, Paul Tsuneishi, said overcrowding at Mt.

He added that students were not taking a school bus to Maclay because, "We believe riding and caring for horses is part of producing good citizens.

Gleason Junior High in Sunland, said that discussions with parents when a false address is discovered reveals an adamant attitude, sometimes with table thumping, that they will not send their child to an inferior school.

On January 21, 1977, an estimated 4,000 students—about half the total enrollment—stayed away from classes at nine Sunland-Tujunga schools as parents, led by Samm Ferris of Sunland, staged a one-day boycott to protest any idea of mandatory busing.

[90] By February 2010 Mount Gleason Middle School had been on a federal list of under-performing campuses for 12 years, and a group of parents organized to take advantage of a new state law in an attempt to force administrative changes.

[100] Fehlhaber-Houk Park was built at the northwest corner of Tujunga Canyon Boulevard and Elmhurst Drive on a 1.2-acre (4,900 m2) vacant lot donated by brother and sister J.L.

[citation needed] In the past, Ben-Hur raced his chariot in Big Tujunga Canyon, and Lancaster Lake (now long since gone) adjacent to Sunland Park was home to Tarzanwhich?

Mildred Pierce, The Birth of a Nation, Meet John Doe, The Craft, Ernest Goes to Camp, and River's Edge (1986, with Keanu Reeves) are a few of the numerous films shot in Sunland-Tujunga.