Valley Village, Los Angeles

On page 30 of his autobiography Endless Highway, David Carradine says:[2] The San Fernando Valley is a really hot, dry place in the summer.

It was actually a peach orchard.The idea of separating Valley Village from North Hollywood was brought into public light with a meeting of about 300 homeowners at Colfax Avenue Elementary School in December 1985,[3] yet it wasn't until 1991 that Valley Village got seven new blue reflective markers from the city of Los Angeles to mark its borders.

[1] Reporter James Quinn of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Valley Village no longer wanted to be associated with North Hollywood, "a community that has grown old, heavily Latino and crime-plagued," but, in the same article, Valley Village leader Tom Paterson was quoted as saying that the move "was more than an attempt to boost property values" and that it "had nothing to do with ethnic demographics."

And the cheaper house is likely to have an overgrown, dusty yard and to be in a neighborhood reeling from crime, with gang graffiti splattered on block walls and street signs.

[4]In December 1985, some three hundred homeowners gathered at Colfax Avenue Elementary School to begin a campaign to head off development of what they called "stucco mountains" – continued construction of large apartments and office buildings in the area.

[3] Residents complained about blocked views, parking problems and traffic congestion because of buildings as high as five stories next to their single-family homes.

[5] The measure would not have banned construction but would have limited all new buildings to two stories and the square footage of commercial development to 1 1/2 times the size of the lot.

[5] Eventually, the Los Angeles city Planning Commission recommended that a three-story limit be adopted for the Valley Village area.

[10] The boundaries of Valley Village as delineated by Google Maps are Burbank Boulevard to the north, the Tujunga Wash to the west, the Ventura Freeway (US 101) to the south and CA 170 to the east.

The Santa Ana winds typically occur between fall and spring, lowering humidity levels and raising temperatures, which increases the risk for wildfires.

[12] In 2006, Valley Village was described in another article as a neighborhood "mostly of 1,700 sqft, single-story Spanish- and ranch-style homes that typically sit on nice-size lots."

[21][22] Monroe resided at the property for only one year "and did not live in the unit during the productive period of her career," a report by city planning officials said.

[23] In October 2015, Los Angeles was facing a lawsuit over the house's destruction by a group called Save Valley Village.

The group also asked that the city nullify any development projects that received unanimous support during the previous twelve months.

An intersection in Valley Village
Valley Village Park
Marilyn Monroe while living in Valley Village, 1944