Sunland-Tujunga is a
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
city neighborhood within the
Crescenta Valley
The Crescenta Valley is a small inland valley in Los Angeles County, California, lying between the San Gabriel Mountains on the northeast and the Verdugo Mountains and San Rafael Hills on the southwest. It opens into the San Fernando Valley at t ...
and
Verdugo Mountains
The Verdugo Mountains, also known as the Verdugo Hills or simply The Verdugos, are a small, rugged mountain range of the Transverse Ranges system in Los Angeles County, California. Located just south of the western San Gabriel Mountains, the Ve ...
.
Sunland and Tujunga began as separate
settlements and today are linked through a single police station, branch library,
neighborhood council
A neighborhood council (also known as a community league) is a governmental or non-governmental body, whose purpose is to promote citizen participation in local government.Martin Minogue, ''Documents on Contemporary British Government: Volume 2, L ...
,
chamber of commerce, city council district, and high school. The merging of these communities under a hyphenated name goes back as far as 1928. Sunland-Tujunga contains the highest point of the city,
Mount Lukens
Mount Lukens is a mountain peak of the San Gabriel Mountains, in Los Angeles County, Southern California.
Geography
It is in the Sunland-Tujunga community within the northeast corner of the city of Los Angeles, above the Crescenta Valley. Th ...
.
Geography
Setting
The neighborhood lies between the
Verdugo Mountains
The Verdugo Mountains, also known as the Verdugo Hills or simply The Verdugos, are a small, rugged mountain range of the Transverse Ranges system in Los Angeles County, California. Located just south of the western San Gabriel Mountains, the Ve ...
and the San Gabriel Mountains. It is contiguous on the east with
La Crescenta-Montrose
La Crescenta-Montrose () is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The community is bordered by Glendale to the south and west, La Cañada Flintridge to the east, and Angeles National Forest to the north. Acc ...
. Sunland and Tujunga are divided by Mount Gleason Avenue, with Sunland on the west and Tujunga on the east.
Mount Lukens
Mount Lukens is a mountain peak of the San Gabriel Mountains, in Los Angeles County, Southern California.
Geography
It is in the Sunland-Tujunga community within the northeast corner of the city of Los Angeles, above the Crescenta Valley. Th ...
, located within Tujunga, is the highest point in Los Angeles, at .
Thoroughfares
By 1927, half of the streets had been paved, and a
state highway ran through the town.
[
]
Streets within the Sunland and Tuna Canyon annex to Los Angeles were renamed in June 1929. The main east-west road, previously known as Michigan Avenue, became Foothill Boulevard. Other streets were renamed as follows: Los Angeles Street to Apperson Avenue, Sherman Street to Hartranft Avenue, Center Street to Grenoble Avenue, North Street to Wentworth Avenue, Third Street to Woodward Avenue, and Hill Street to Hillrose Avenue. Sunset renamed to Commerce St. Manzanita Drive was renamed McGroarty Avenue in honor of John Steven McGroarty, who lived nearby.
In the 1960s, the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce took an active stand in opposition to routing the proposed Foothill Freeway
The Foothill Freeway is a freeway in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, California, running from the Sylmar district of Los Angeles east to Redlands. The western segment is signed as Interstate 210 (I-210) from its western end at I-5 to ...
through Shadow Hills, Los Angeles
Shadow Hills (originally Hansen Heights) is a neighborhood in the Verdugo Mountains and northeastern San Fernando Valley, within the city of Los Angeles, California.
Geography
Shadow Hills is in the northwestern Verdugo Mountains, near the western ...
, claiming the neighborhood's "rural atmosphere" would be destroyed and would wipe out 28 more homes than an alternate route.
After years of discussion and delay, the final stretch of the freeway through Sunland-Tujunga was scheduled for dedication on April 3, 1981, with State Transportation Director Adriana Gianturco presiding. Exits in Sunland and Tujunga are, from west to east, at Sunland Boulevard, La Tuna Canyon Road, and Lowell Avenue (shared with La Crescenta
La Crescenta-Montrose () is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The community is bordered by Glendale to the south and west, La Cañada Flintridge to the east, and Angeles National Forest to the north. Accor ...
). The freeway's right-of-way almost completely bypasses the main part of the community, and runs along a viaduct in the Verdugo Mountains
The Verdugo Mountains, also known as the Verdugo Hills or simply The Verdugos, are a small, rugged mountain range of the Transverse Ranges system in Los Angeles County, California. Located just south of the western San Gabriel Mountains, the Ve ...
.
Today, the neighborhood has one major thoroughfare: Foothill Boulevard; nearly all businesses in Sunland-Tujunga are located on or near it. Tujunga Canyon Boulevard is a heavily traveled north-south route, but is primarily residential. Sunland Boulevard
Sunland Boulevard is a major thoroughfare in the Crescenta and San Fernando Valleys.
Geography
Sunland Boulevard splits off of Foothill Boulevard in the Sunland area of the Crescenta Valley. It runs for about 5 miles (8 kilometers) before ch ...
and Wentworth Street are popular surface streets that connect the community to Sun Valley and the rest of the city of Los Angeles. Sunland-Tujunga is also served by the Interstate 210 freeway.
Big Tujunga Canyon Road connects Sunland-Tujunga to the Angeles Forest Highway
The Angeles Forest Highway is a road over the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, California. It connects the Los Angeles Basin with the Antelope Valley and western Mojave Desert. Maintained by the Los Angeles County Department of Public ...
, while La Tuna Canyon Road provides an alternate route into Sun Valley through the rugged portion of the Verdugo Mountains.
Climate
Sunland-Tujunga has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
(''Csa'' under the Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
).
History
Pre-colonial and Mexican eras
Sunland and Tujunga were originally home to the Tongva people
The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historicall ...
. In 1840, the area was part of the Rancho Tujunga
Rancho Tujunga was a Ranchos of California, Mexican land grant in the western Crescenta Valley and northeastern San Fernando Valley, in present-day Los Angeles County, California. It was granted in 1840 by Mexican governor Juan Bautista Alvarado, ...
Mexican land grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
, but later developers marked off a plot of land known as the Tejunga Park, or the Tujunga Park Tract.
The name "Tujunga" (or Tuxunga) is assumed to have meant "old woman's place" in the Fernandeño language, a dialect of the extinct Tongva language, where ''tuxu'', "old woman", is a term for Mother Earth in Tongva mythology
The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historicall ...
. The term is thought to relate to an ethnohistoric narrative, known as Khra'wiyawi, collected by Carobeth Laird from Juan and Juana Menendez at the Leonis Adobe
The Leonis Adobe, built in 1844, is one of the oldest surviving private residences in Los Angeles County and one of the oldest surviving buildings in the San Fernando Valley. Located in what is now Calabasas, California, the adobe was occupied ...
in 1916. In the narrative, the wife of Khra'wiyawi (the chief of the region) is stricken with grief over the untimely loss of her daughter. In her sadness, she retreats to the mountains and turns to stone. It is this event that is thought to be the basis for the village name. In fact, a large rock in Little Tujunga Canyon looks like an old woman in a sitting position.
Early Sunland: 1885–1925
Sunland began as Monte Vista in 1885, when of the Tejunga Park tract were divided into lots ranging from five to .[ One of the first uses of the new tract was the planting of of olives, which made it the largest olive orchard in Los Angeles County. In 1887, the ]Monte Vista Hotel
The Monte Vista Hotel was a building which had been formerly located at the intersection of what today are Fenwick Street and Floralita Avenue in the Sunland-Tujunga district of Los Angeles. It was considered the first structure built in the di ...
was being served by the Sunland Post Office. By 1906, the appellation "Sunland" was being used by the ''Los Angeles Times'' rather than "Monte Vista". A 1907 story noted that Sunland was the "first supply store, and a good one, about seven miles from the railroad" at San Fernando, at the mouth of the Little Tejunga and Big Tejunga canyons (the old spelling).
In 1908, Sunland was referred to as difficult to access, at a height of "over rough mountain roads". An automobile trip from Los Angeles took "a long day" to complete. In 1910, a ''Los Angeles Times'' correspondent wrote about Sunland:
The place is aptly named.. . . one gets no inkling of the beauties till he is right in the town. Great live oaks, scattered with Nature's reckless disregard for expense, give the place a stately quiet.. . . 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.
By 1923, Sunland had a population of about 2,000 and an active chamber of commerce. 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
The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a par ...
and other organizations. 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. It had 45 rooms in a former hotel on of land. just a block from Sunland Park.
After Tujunga was organized as a city in 1925, a move sprang up in Sunland to be annexed to the new municipality, but the idea was rejected "by a heavy vote" in October of that year, and activists in the then-Monte Vista School District turned their attention to a proposed $21,000 bond issue for a new school building.
Early Tujunga: 1907–1929
In 1907, social philosopher and community organizer William Ellsworth Smythe
William Ellsworth Smythe, known as W. E. Smythe (1861–1922), was a journalist, writer and founder of the Little Landers movement, which aimed to settle small suburban lots with people who would farm their own properties, live off the land and sel ...
joined forces with real estate speculator Marshall V. Hartranft to found what Smythe believed would be a kind of utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...
. The movement had been successful in establishing colonies in San Ysidro, California
San Ysidro (Spanish for " St. Isidore", ) is a district of the City of San Diego, immediately north of the Mexico–United States border. It neighbors Otay Mesa West to the north, Otay Mesa to the east, and Nestor and the Tijuana River Valley ...
, and in Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...
. The utopianists had as their slogan, "A Little Land and a Lot of Living," and the founders divided their community into lots, which they called "little lands". A community center built from local river rock, Bolton Hall, was dedicated in August 1913 and still stands as a historical monument and museum operated by the Little Landers Historical Society.[Marlene A. Hitt, ''Sunland and Tujunga: From Village to City'']
Arcadia Press, 2002.
An early advertising slogan was "Move to Tujunga with a trowel and a bag of cement, and build your own." After the end of World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, hundreds of "rent-oppressed" people from Los Angeles did exactly that, and they built their houses with foundations
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
fashioned from the "great masses of stones and boulders" that lay throughout the town. For the most part, the "Indian pueblo
In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
idea" was followed, or a "rustic hills" style, and homes without boulder foundations were rare. By 1927, Tujunga had about 4,000 residents, having surpassed Sunland in population. Many of the settlers maintained small farms with gardens, poultry, rabbits, bees, and various other livestock.
Tujunga was home to John Steven McGroarty, playwright, U.S. congressman, and California Poet Laureate
The California Poet Laureate is the poet laureate for the state of California. In 2001, Governor Gray Davis created the official position. Each poet laureate for the State of California is appointed by the Governor of California for a term of t ...
. He lived in a home he built himself and completed in 1923, known as Rancho Chupa Rosa. The building is an Historic Cultural Monument (#63) of the City of Los Angeles and is now known as the McGroarty Arts Center.
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".[ 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.]
Tujunga was nevertheless incorporated after an election on April 21, 1925, with the southern border following the Rancho Tujunga
Rancho Tujunga was a Ranchos of California, Mexican land grant in the western Crescenta Valley and northeastern San Fernando Valley, in present-day Los Angeles County, California. It was granted in 1840 by Mexican governor Juan Bautista Alvarado, ...
boundary. A. Adams was elected treasurer, and Mrs. Bertha A. Morgan was chosen as city clerk.
Bolton Hall served as the city hall until Tujunga was consolidated with Los Angeles in 1932.
One of the first orders of business for the new city of Tujunga in 1925 was an attempt to enlarge the municipality by taking in the foothills south and southwest of the new city, bounded on the east by the "La Crescenta Rancho line, south to Big Tuna Canyon" and west to the then-Los Angeles boundary and Wicks Road.[ The attempt failed because Los Angeles annexed the area first.][
Tujunga's elevation and geographic isolation from the San Fernando Valley and the ]Los Angeles Basin
The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary Structural basin, basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an wikt:anomalous, anomalous group of east-west trending chains of mountai ...
freed it from some of the air pollution
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different typ ...
that was a problem in many other parts of Greater Los Angeles
Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Coun ...
. Because of this, it attracted many asthma
Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...
tics early on. In 1929, the Tujunga City Council set policy to establish zones where " sanitariums and other institutions for the care of tubercular patients" could be established.
Joining Los Angeles: 1926–1932
Most of today's Sunland was annexed to the city of Los Angeles, effective August 4, 1926.[ La Tuna Canyon was annexed in 1927. On June 23, 1927,] the city of Los Angeles held an election for much of the same territory as claimed by Tujunga, above, and the annexation passed, "based largely on a big block of votes within an old-folks' home at Sunland, which can participate in the Community Chest funds when and if they are within the city limits of the greater city". The result was a legal dispute that had to be settled in the courts.
The famous grove of oak trees, owned by the county, and widely known as the Monte Vista Park of Sunland, is involved in the dispute. The municipality of Tujunga has already agreed to release its authority over the park to the county authorities, so that administration. . . will continue for ten years without change, except as to police protection in event of disorders.
The first election for Tujunga to be consolidated with Los Angeles was held on February 15, 1927. In heavy rain, voters turned down the idea by a vote of 594 to 354. A second election held in March 1930 also resulted in defeat for annexation, "by a large majority". John Steven McGroarty was on a committee opposing annexation called "All for Tujunga". The third and final election in January 1932, however, resulted in a favorable vote to join Los Angeles, even though the actual transfer was delayed by inaction of state authorities. Tujunga finally gave up its independence and joined the city on March 8, 1932.[
]
Tuna Canyon Detention Station: 1941–1943
Tuna Canyon Detention Station was a temporary holding facility used for the internment of Japanese Americans
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
in the Tujunga community of Los Angeles, California. Some Italian Americans, German Americans, and Japanese Peruvian
Japanese Peruvians ( es, peruano-japonés or ''nipo-peruano''; ja, 日系ペルー人, ''Nikkei Perūjin'') are Peruvian citizens of Japanese origin or ancestry.
Peru has the second largest ethnic Japanese population in South America after B ...
s were also interned there. From this detention station, prisoners were later transferred to permanent internment camps.[Masumoto, Marie. ]
Tuna Canyon (Detention Facility)
'. Densho Encyclopedia. Accessed February 11, 2015
Gravel pit: 1950s–1960s
In 1959, a trial court
A trial court or court of first instance is a court having original jurisdiction, in which trials take place. Appeals from the decisions of trial courts are usually made by higher courts with the power of appellate review (appellate courts). Mos ...
held that the city had no authority to refuse a zoning variance
Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...
to Consolidated Rock Company to continue operating a gravel pit
A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used either ...
in the Big Tujunga Wash. An appellate court
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...
overturned that decision, but in 1962, the California Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sac ...
upheld the right of the city to ban the pit. 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". Attorney Peter R. Rice argued as a friend of the court that climate was more important than commercial mining operations.[
]
City Council redistricting: 1986–2002
Los Angeles City Councilman Howard Finn
Howard Arthur Finn (September 20, 1917 – August 12, 1986) was an expert in city planning, a builder and a land-use consultant who represented part of the San Fernando Valley on the Los Angeles City Council from 1981 until his death in 1986.
Bio ...
of Sunland died in office on August 12, 1986, and his Northeast San Fernando Valley First District
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
was left without an incumbent.
At the same time, the City Council was under a court order to redistrict itself to provide more representation for Latinos
Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spaniards, Spanish and/or Latin Americans, Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include a ...
. After a bitter contest in which Finn's semirural constituents fought against being combined with more built-up areas and amid traces of ethnic animosity, the result was to move the vacant First District seat into a redrawn, 69% Latino area north and west of downtown Los Angeles and to place Sunland-Tujunga into a reshaped Second Council District, already represented by Joel Wachs
Joel Wachs (, ; born March 1, 1939) is an American former politician and lawyer. He is the president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York City. He was a member of the Los Angeles City Council for 30 years, where he was k ...
. It was a Y-shaped configuration "with only a long, thin finger of territory" connecting Sunland-Tujunga on the north with Van Nuys on the south. A lawsuit against the plan was dismissed in late September by U.S. District Judge James M. Ideman
James Merle Ideman (born April 2, 1931) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Education and career
Born in Rockford, Illinois, Ideman received a Bachelor of Arts de ...
.
Despite the fact that Wachs had struggled to prevent being assigned to a district that was 90% new to him,[ the councilman was warmly greeted when he arrived to meet his new constituents in a reception at the Sunland-Tujunga Municipal Building. He found an area with a down-home, rural flavor and about 30% of the voters in his new district.] He told a reporter:
There hasn't been one nasty person, one hostile. . . They want to be friends.. . . In the second-largest city in the U.S., that you can have an area like this to live in is just fantastic. Wherever I've gone, preserving the lifestyle seems to be the No. 1 issue.
Wachs served on the council for 15 more years. He resigned effective 2001, and a city redistricting commission took the opportunity to propose a shakeup in boundaries, splitting the Second District in two. Before that could be considered, though, Wendy Greuel
Wendy Jane Greuel (born May 23, 1961) is an American politician. She served as Los Angeles City Controller from 2009–13. Greuel was the second woman elected to citywide office in Los Angeles, after her predecessor Laura Chick.
Previously, sh ...
was elected to the city council. In March 2002, she reopened the Sunland-Tujunga field office (closed by Wachs), and the redistricting plan was never heard of again. Greuel served until July 2009. She was succeeded by Paul Krekorian
Paul Krekorian (born March 24, 1960) is an American politician, currently serving as the 26th president of the Los Angeles City Council since October 18, 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he has represented the second district on the L ...
.
Home Depot controversy: 2005–2009
In January 2009, hardware company Home Depot
The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement r ...
announced it was giving up a five-year effort to turn a former Kmart
Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States.
The company was inc ...
store at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Woodward Avenue, Tujunga, into a big-box store
A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The t ...
of its own.
The ''Los Angeles Times'' reported:
Opponents also mobilized hundreds of people to turn out for meetings on the project, including a marathon seven-hour session that turned into a shouting match over day laborers and immigration. Home Depot, in turn, had retained a team of expensive lobbyists who arranged for buses to transport supporters to meetings at city hall. 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.
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. The company paid $2 million to lobbying firms on behalf of the project.[
]
Homelessness: 2010 and after
Beginning in 2010, news accounts began to highlight a homeless problem in the Big Tujunga Wash. As Channel 7 Eyewitness News put it:
For years, the Big Tujunga Wash has provided a picturesque backdrop for local residents who enjoy the rare natural river bed that's perfect for hiking, jogging, or collecting butterflies. Also, the new Angeles National Golf Club is right in the middle of the wash. But, residents say there's trouble brewing in Big Tujunga. Homeless camps are big concerns for residents, who say they sympathize with the homeless, but say they drag in too much trash.
Major cleanups were undertaken in the homeless encampments in the wash in 2015 and later, with tons of trash removed by volunteers and by city workers. 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.
Population
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. Tujunga was slightly smaller, at 26,527. In both Sunland and Tujunga, the percentage of White people was high for the county. The percentages of divorced males, married females, and divorced females were among the county's highest.
; Sunland:
Population (without Shadow Hills): 15,316. Median household income: $68,720, high for the city of Los Angeles, but about average for the county. The percentage of residents 25 and older with a high-school diploma and some college education was high for the county.
; Shadow Hills:
Population: 13,098. It was a moderately diverse neighborhood. The area had a high family income. The median age at 39 was old for both the county and the city. The percentages of veterans who served during World War II or Korea and Vietnam were among the county's highest.
; Tujunga:
Population: 26,527. Median household income: $58,001. The percentages of residents 25 and older with a high school diploma and some college education were high for the county. The median age was 36, old for the city of Los Angeles but about average for the county. The percentage of residents ages 35 to 49 was among the county's highest. 9.7 percent of the population were veterans – high for the city of Los Angeles but about average for the county overall. The percentage of Vietnam veterans was among the county's highest.
Reputation
Sunland-Tujunga's reputation has changed over the years (see below)
Fresh air
In the 1950s through the 1970s, the area was known as a "haven for asthma sufferers" and that it was "long noted for the beneficial qualities of its pure air" and had a "reputation as a health resort" or a "reputation for clean mountain air". Tujunga was seen as having a "near-Switzerland setting – high and dry".
In 1957, ''Coronet
A coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. A coronet differs from other kinds of crowns in that a coronet never has arches, and from a tiara in that a coronet completely encircles the head, while a tiara doe ...
'' called Tujunga "the most healthy place in the world," and that publicity brought a flood of inquiries into the office of the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce, hundreds a month. In 1963, the area was seen as "famous for its climate beneficial to asthma sufferers".
Biker gangs
By 1990, however, Tujunga had developed a reputation as a tough community and a center for biker gangs. 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. But hang out they did, in droves, and Tujunga developed an unenviable reputation as one of Southern California's premier "biker towns".
In 2001, another writer called Sunland-Tujunga "part middle-class suburb, eclectic mountain hideaway, and rundown commercial strip dotted with biker hangouts". That same year, still another writer said this about Tujunga:
Police say the bad-apple bikers bring a particular set of problems, mainly the use and sale of speed methamphetamine_.html" ;"title="amphetamine.html" ;"title="amphetamine">methamphetamine ">amphetamine.html" ;"title="amphetamine">methamphetamine Tujunga's reputation for meth peaked in the 1990s, and the LAPD singled out the area in 1994 as the speed capital of the Valley. Users cruising for a fix were a common sight on some of the narrow side streets off Tujunga Canyon Boulevard. Police say the meth scene, though still active in Tujunga, is no longer the problem it was, thanks to block-by-block community policing efforts and the town's relative gentrification.
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.
Education
About 22% of Sunland and Tujunga residents aged 25 and older had earned a four-year degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
by 2000, an average percentage for the city and the county.
Local schools
Schools within the Sunland-Tujunga boundaries are:
Public
* Mount Gleason Middle School, 10965 Mount Gleason Avenue, Sunland
* Sunland Elementary School, 8350 Hillrose Street, Sunland
* Apperson Street Elementary School, 10233 Woodward Avenue, Sunland
* Verdugo Hills High School
Verdugo Hills High School (VHHS) is a public school located in the Tujunga community of Los Angeles, California, United States, within the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The school serves students from several areas of Los Angeles, inclu ...
, 10625 Plainview Avenue, Tujunga
* Plainview Avenue Elementary School, 10819 Plainview Avenue, Tujunga
* Mt. Lukens Continuation School, 7705 Summitrose Street, Tujunga
* Pinewood Avenue Elementary School, 10111 Silverton Avenue, Tujunga
* Mountain View Elementary School, 6410 Olcott Street, Tujunga
Private
* Trinity Christian School, 10614 Oro Vista Avenue, Sunland
* Fairhaven Christian Academy, 10438 Oro Vista Avenue, Sunland
* Canyon View Academy, 8100 McGroarty Street, Sunland
* Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes (french: Notre-Dame de Lourdes) is a title of the Virgin Mary. She is venerated under this title by the Roman Catholic church due to her apparitions that occurred in Lourdes, France. The first apparition of 11 February 1858, ...
School, elementary, 7324 Apperson Street
* Smart Academy / Christian, 7754 McGroarty Street, Tujunga
* Crescenta Valley Adventist School, 6245 Honolulu Avenue, La Crescenta
La Crescenta-Montrose () is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The community is bordered by Glendale to the south and west, La Cañada Flintridge to the east, and Angeles National Forest to the north. Accor ...
(within Tujunga, now closed)
Scholastic history
Joining LAUSD
In its early years, Sunland had its own school district—called Monte Vista—and Tujunga was also served by its own district. In March 1926, Tujunga voters approved a bond issue for a high school site. By 1927 Tujunga had two schools built in "quaint Spanish style" for 400 pupils.[
On January 8, 1929, the county Board of Supervisors approved a petition drafted by Tujungans to join the Los Angeles School District.
]
Shadow Hills boundary, 1966–1976
A 1966 plan to require students of the equestrian community of Shadow Hills, Los Angeles
Shadow Hills (originally Hansen Heights) is a neighborhood in the Verdugo Mountains and northeastern San Fernando Valley, within the city of Los Angeles, California.
Geography
Shadow Hills is in the northwestern Verdugo Mountains, near the western ...
, to switch from the overcrowded and virtually all-White Mount Gleason Junior High School in Sunland to the more diversified Maclay Junior High in Pacoima
Pacoima (Tongva: ''Pacoinga'') is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. Pacoima is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley region of LA.
Geography
Location
Pacoima is bordered by the Los Angeles districts of Mission Hill ...
was opposed by the Shadow Hills Homeowners Association. A charge of ''de facto'' segregation was made by Los Angeles Valley College
Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC) is a public community college in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Los Angeles Community College District.
The college is adjacent to Grant High School in the neighborhood of Valley Glen. Often call ...
instructor John Buchanan, who lived in Pacoima, and by the Sunland-Tujunga Human Relations Council, whose president, Paul Tsuneishi, said overcrowding at Mt. Gleason resulted in classes being held on an auditorium stage, a corrective physical education room, and a multipurpose room. Shadow Hills, midway between the two schools, was an optional attendance area for either school, and 215 of its children were attending Mount Gleason, versus just 22 at Maclay. One African-American was among the 2,030 students enrolled at Mount Gleason, while 25% of the 1,200 students at Maclay were African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
and 27% were Mexican-American.
Glenn Haschenburger, president of the homeowners' association, denied the charge, stating, "We were not even aware of the racial composition at Maclay." 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. They can't ride horses if they spend all their time riding buses to and from school."
The Los Angeles school board approved the boundary switch in a 4-3 vote on July 14, 1966. The ''Times'' reported: Nearly 200 persons who filled the board meeting room greeted the action with boos and catcalls, "My child will never go to Maclay!" and "The Communists started to take over in 1928!"
On September 19, 1966, a procession of about 40 cars followed a hearse from the edge of Shadow Hills to Mount Gleason Junior High, parents paraded with picket signs, and leaders "removed a model red schoolhouse from the hearse and laid it in front of a mock headstone" as a eulogy to the concept of the neighborhood school.
Staff writer Jerry Cohen of the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that: A lengthening shadow hovers across the sunny, foothill community of Shadow Hills, the shadow of racial tension.. . . a pervasive bitterness has spread through the quiet neighborhood. . . Neighbor is set against neighbor ;. . . old friendships have dissolved.. . . Even churches and youth groups, the Boy and Girl Scouts, have been splintered by bitterness. Root of the discord is the dispute over which junior high school Shadow Hills children should attend.
The ''Times'' article was attacked by Edward L. Fike, editor and publisher of the ''Record-Ledger'' newspaper of Sunland-Tujunga, who wrote, "The suspicion grows and grows that the Board of Education by a one-vote margin knowingly sacrificed the Shadow Hills neighborhood upon the altar of forced integration as demanded by agitators and by the U. S. government as its price for federal aid."
Nine years later, the boundary change was said to have actually led to a drop in enrollment at Maclay, as parents, both White and minority, moved their students elsewhere, sometimes through falsifying addresses and sometimes through a so-called statement of residence in which parents asserted their children would be living with somebody else five nights a week within a different school's boundaries. About this circumstance, Mike Castro of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote:
Mrs. Edna Susank, principal of Mt. 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.
Cross-district busing, 1977–1981
Sunland-Tujunga residents were foremost in a fight against mandatory busing for the purpose of school desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...
in Los Angeles.
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. About 35 "concerned mothers" picketed three elementary schools, as well as Mount Gleason Junior High and Verdugo Hills High schools.
In May of the same year, Donna Kent of Sunland-Tujunga became president of the local chapter of Bustop, a citywide group opposed to the busing program. She said her chapter managed to raise $1,000 of the $5,000 needed monthly for lawyers, by holding raffle
A raffle is a gambling competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each of which has the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn at random from a container holding a copy of each number. The drawn tickets are che ...
s, rummage sales
A jumble sale (UK), bring and buy sale (Australia) or rummage sale (U.S and Canada) is an event at which second hand goods are sold, usually by an institution such as a local Boys' Brigade, Boys' Brigade Company, Scouting, Scout group, Girlguid ...
, and Tupperware parties.
In August 1980, as the school district was making plans to bus some students from Sunland Elementary School to Pacoima, about 100 parents met at the school to protest. Parent Betty Reeve said she and others had organized a "Yellow Flu" campaign to keep students away from school and show that "our kids are sick of riding a yellow school bus."
Nevertheless, a busing procedure resulted in White elementary students from Apperson Street, Sunland, Plainview Avenue, and Mountain View elementary schools in Sunland-Tujunga being exchanged with minority counterparts in Lake View Terrace, Sun Valley, and North Hollywood
North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...
. Mount Gleason Junior High and Verdugo Hills High Schools did not take part. Mandatory busing was ended by a decision of the California Supreme Court on March 12, 1981, and when the practice was finally stopped the next month, most of the Sunland-Tujunga pupils returned to their neighborhood schools, but most of the previously enrolled minority students continued to be bused into Sunland-Tujunga on a voluntary basis.
'Parent trigger', 2010
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. The law, dubbed the "parent trigger", could compel districts to take drastic action to fix failing schools if a majority of parents petitioned for an overhaul. In an interview, four parents told CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
reporter Thelma Gutierrez in October 2010 that Mount Gleason was unsafe and they wanted the principal ousted. An official of the Los Angeles Unified School District messaged CNN that the school had followed proper procedures and had taken "corrective action."
Infrastructure
; Police protection: The Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...
's Foothill Community Police Station in Pacoima
Pacoima (Tongva: ''Pacoinga'') is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. Pacoima is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley region of LA.
Geography
Location
Pacoima is bordered by the Los Angeles districts of Mission Hill ...
serves Sunland and Tujunga.
; Fire protection: Los Angeles Fire Department
The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD or LA City Fire) provides emergency medical services, Fire investigation, fire cause determination, fire prevention, Firefighting, fire suppression, Dangerous goods, hazardous materials mitigation, and Resc ...
operates two stations: Station 24 in Sunland and Station 74 in Tujunga.
; Health protection: The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (abbreviated DHS and LADHS) operates the public hospitals and clinics in Los Angeles County, and is the United States' second largest municipal health system, after NYC Health + Hospitals.
DHS ope ...
operates the Glendale Health Center in Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''.
It may refer to:
Places Australia
* Glendale, New South Wales
** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre
*Glendale, Queensland, ...
, serving Sunland-Tujunga.
; Library: The Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library system (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million residents in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, it serves the large ...
operates the Sunland-Tujunga branch in Tujunga.
Parks and recreation
Sunland Park was originally known as Monte Vista Park.
The Haines Canyon Park in Tujunga is an undeveloped park used for brush clearance. It is open to visitors from dawn to dusk; however, the Los Angeles Park Department said that it does not recommend the park for public
use.
The Sunland Recreation Center serves as a police department stop-in center. It has a 250-seat gymnasium that is also used as an auditorium. In addition, the facility has a lighted baseball diamond, lighted outdoor basketball courts, a children's play area, a community room, a lighted athletic field, picnic tables, and tennis courts. Annual events there include the Easter Carnival and the Watermelon Carnival in mid-August. In addition, the Verdugo Mountain Park is east of central Sunland and south of La Tuna Canyon Road.
Howard Finn Park, named after the city council member who died in 1986, is a park opened in late 1990 behind the Sunland-Tujunga Municipal Building.
Fehlhaber-Houk Park was built at the northwest corner of Tujunga Canyon Boulevard and Elmhurst Drive on a vacant lot donated by brother and sister J.L. Houk and Elizabeth Swanson in 1975. The parcel had been part of a ranch owned by Raymond and Irene Fehlhaber.
Political representation
Electoral districts
The area is within the following political districts:
*
*
* [
* Fifth Los Angeles County Supervisorial District, represented by Kathryn Barger of San Marino.
* ]Los Angeles City Council District 7
Los Angeles City Council District 7 is one of the 15 districts of the Los Angeles City Council. It covers much of the northeastern San Fernando Valley. On May 16, 2017, Monica Rodriguez was elected to fill the open seat following the resignation ...
, represented by Monica Rodriguez of San Fernando.
Neighborhood council
*The Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council (STNC):[About STNC](_blank)
Board of representatives includes 21 elected positions and one appointed position whose purpose is to listen to and communicate resident's needs, ideas, and concerns to appropriate public agencies, city, county and state. STNC's representatives are involved, in an advisory capacity, with city budget planning, city development plans, officially address our community and city issues with governmental officials and departments. The STNC has a $37,000 Neighborhood Council Funding budget annually to allocate to community improvement projects, outreach, and Council operations. STNC website: stnc.org
Media
The Sunland-Tujunga area is served by the newspapers the ''Voice'', the ''Foothill Record'', the ''North Valley Reporter'', and the ''Crescenta Valley Weekly''.
Points of historical interest
*Bolton Hall is a historic American Craftsman-era stone building in Tujunga. Built in 1913, it was originally used as a community center for the Utopian community of Los Terrenitos. From 1920 until 1957, it was used as an American Legion hall, the San Fernando Valley's second public library, Tujunga City Hall, and a jail. In 1957, the building was closed. For more than 20 years, Bolton Hall remained vacant and was the subject of debates over demolition and restoration. Since 1980, it has been operated by the Little Landers Historical Society as a local history museum containing artifacts, photographs, documents, the old clock from the first Tujunga Post Office, and memorabilia of Sunland-Tujunga and the foothill area.
*McGroarty Arts Center is Historic Cultural Monument No. 63 of the City of Los Angeles. It was built in 1923 by John McGroarty, poet, ''Los Angeles Times'' columnist, and author who served two terms as a Democratic congressman from California. The building now offers instruction in art, music, and performance exhibitions, and hosts cultural events.
*Angeles National Golf Club, at the base of the Angeles National Forest, the only Nicklaus-designed golf course in Los Angeles County, is an 18-hole, par-72 championship golf course.
Filming location
'' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' was filmed in some parts of Tujunga, including the house in which Elliot lived. Portions of ''Corvette Summer
''Corvette Summer'' is a 1978 American adventure comedy film directed by Matthew Robbins. It was Mark Hamill's first screen appearance after the unexpected success of '' Star Wars'' the previous year. Hamill stars as a California teenager who he ...
'' starring Mark Hamill were filmed at Verdugo Hills High School.
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 ''Tarzan''which?
''Which?'' is a United Kingdom brand name that promotes informed consumer choice in the purchase of goods and services by testing products, highlighting inferior products or services, raising awareness of consumer rights and offering independe ...
in the jungle hunk's first silver screen epics. ''All The King's Men''which?
''Which?'' is a United Kingdom brand name that promotes informed consumer choice in the purchase of goods and services by testing products, highlighting inferior products or services, raising awareness of consumer rights and offering independe ...
, '' Mildred Pierce'', ''The Birth of a Nation
''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Clan ...
'', ''Meet John Doe
''Meet John Doe'' is a 1941 American comedy-drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, written by Robert Riskin, and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The film is about a "grassroots" political campaign created unwittingly by ...
'', '' The Craft'', ''Ernest Goes to Camp
''Ernest Goes to Camp'' is a 1987 American comedy film directed by John Cherry and starring Jim Varney. It is the second film to feature the character of Ernest P. Worrell and was shot at Montgomery Bell State Park. It was also the first "Ernes ...
'', and ''River's Edge
''River's Edge'' is a 1986 American crime drama film directed by Tim Hunter, written by Neal Jimenez, and starring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye Leitch, Daniel Roebuck and Dennis Hopper. It follows a group of teenagers in a Norther ...
''(1986, with Keanu Reeves) are a few of the numerous films shot in Sunland-Tujunga.
Also, parts of ''Teen Wolf
''Teen Wolf'' is a 1985 American coming-of-age romantic fantasy comedy film directed by Rod Daniel and written by Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman. Michael J. Fox stars as the title character, a high school student whose ordinary life is chang ...
'' and '' Sons of Anarchy'' were shot there.
The Travel Inn, located on Foothill Blvd in Tujunga, is one of the filming locations for both ''Seven Pounds
''Seven Pounds'' is a 2008 American drama film directed by Gabriele Muccino starring actor Will Smith as a man who sets out to change the lives of seven people. Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, and Barry Pepper also star. The film was released in ...
'' and '' Memento''.
A ''CHiPs'' episode of season five (1981) was filmed at the Foothill Blvd and Mather Avenue intersection.
Notable people
Residents
* David Ackles
David Thomas Ackles (February 20, 1937 – March 2, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and child actor. He recorded four albums between 1968 and 1973.
Describing Ackles' style in 2003, critic Colin McElligatt wrote, "An unlikely ...
(1937–1999), singer and songwriter
* Renée Adorée
Renée Adorée (born Jeanne de la Fonte; 30 September 1898 – 5 October 1933) was a French stage and film actress who appeared in Hollywood silent movies during the 1920s. She is best known for portraying the role of Melisande, the love interes ...
(1898–1933), French actress
* Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war come ...
(1936-), American actor
* Robert Alda
Robert Alda (born Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D'Abruzzo; February 26, 1914 – May 3, 1986) was an Italian-American theatrical and film actor, a singer, and a dancer. He was the father of actors Alan and Antony Alda. Alda was featured in a ...
(1914-1986), American actor
* Joseph Ardizzone
Joseph "Joe Iron Man" Ardizzone (born Giuseppe Ernesto Ardizzone; ; November 19, 1884 – disappeared October 15, 1931, declared dead 1938) was an Italian-born early Los Angeles mobster, who became the first Boss of the Los Angeles crime family. ...
(1884-1931), crime boss
* Greg Burson
Gregory Lewis Burson (June 29, 1949 – July 22, 2008) was an American voice actor. He was best known as a replacement for voice actors Daws Butler and Mel Blanc following their deaths in 1988 and 1989, respectively.
Career
Burson was trained ...
(1949–2008), voice actor and impressionist
* James P. Cannon (1890–1974), leader in the Socialist Workers Party
* Sonia Greene
Sonia Haft Greene Lovecraft Davis (March 16, 1883 – December 26, 1972) was an American one-time pulp magazine, pulp fiction writer and amateur publisher, businesswoman and Hatmaking, milliner who bankrolled several fanzines in the early twent ...
Davis (1883-1972), journalist and businesswoman
* Harry Carr
__NOTOC__
Harry C. Carr (1877–1936) was an American reporter, editor and columnist for the ''Los Angeles Times.'' In 1934 he was given an honorable mention by a Pulitzer Prize committee on awards. When a heart attack claimed his life at the ag ...
(1877–1936), newspaper columnist
* Saralyn R. Daly
Saralyn Ruth Daly (born May 11, 1924) is an American writer and translator.
Life
Daly was born on May 11, 1924 in Huntington, West Virginia. She earned a Ph.D from Ohio State University in English in 1950. The title of her doctoral dissertation ...
(born 1924), university professor
* Wavy Gravy
Hugh Nanton Romney Jr. (born May 15, 1936), known as Wavy Gravy, is an American entertainer and peace activist best known for his role at Woodstock, as well as for his hippie persona and countercultural beliefs. He has reported that his moniker ...
(born 1936), 1960s peace activist and Merry Prankster
*Teri Hatcher
Teri Lynn Hatcher (born December 8, 1964) is an American actress best known for her portrayals of Lois Lane on the television series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' (1993–1997); Paris Carver in the ''James Bond'' film '' Tom ...
, actress
* Ernst Krenek
Ernst Heinrich Krenek (, 23 August 1900 – 22 December 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including ''Music Here and Now'' (1939), a study ...
(1901 – 1991), composer
* Kim Noller (1945–2009), newspaper editor
* Louis R. Nowell
Louis R. Nowell (February 8, 1915 – July 2, 2009) was a fireman and politician in Los Angeles, California. He was best known for serving on the Los Angeles City Council from the San Fernando Valley from 1963 to 1977. He was appointed as a membe ...
(1915–2000), Los Angeles City Council member, 1963–1977
* Frederick W. Plaisted
Frederick William Plaisted (July 26, 1865 – March 4, 1943) was an American politician and the List of Governors of Maine, 48th Governor of Maine.
Early life
Plaisted was born in Bangor, Maine, on July 26, 1865, the son of Sarah J. (Mason) Plai ...
, ex-governor of Maine[
* Alvah Curtis Roebuck, co-founder of ]Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
.
* Bill Scott (1920–1985), writer and voice actor
* Judy Shapiro-Ikenberry
Judy Shapiro-Ikenberry (born September 3, 1942) is a former long distance runner. Shapiro-Ikenberry won the 1967 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Las Vegas Marathon, and was the first USA Marathon Championships winner for women in 1974, at the AAU Nat ...
(born 1942), long-distance runner
* Giancarlo Stanton
Giancarlo Cruz-Michael Stanton (born November 8, 1989), formerly known as Mike Stanton, is an American professional baseball designated hitter and outfielder for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2010 a ...
(born 1989), Major League Baseball player
* Ryan Starr
Tiffany Montgomery (born November 21, 1982), known professionally as Ryan Starr, is a singer who finished seventh on the first season of ''American Idol''. She went on to release a successful single on iTunes and participated in a handful of ...
, rock singer and finalist on the first season of ''American Idol
* The Smothers Brothers
The Smothers Brothers are Thomas ("Tom" – born February 2, 1937) and Richard ("Dick" – born November 20, 1938), American folk singers, musicians, and comedians. The brothers' trademark double act was performing folk songs (Tommy on acoustic gu ...
, television actors
* Patrick Swayze
Patrick Wayne Swayze (; August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor, dancer, and singer known for playing distinctive lead roles, particularly romantic, tough, and comedic characters. He was also known for his media image and ...
(1952–2009), American actor
* Maja Trochimczyk (born 1957), poet
* Paul Walker
Paul William Walker IV (September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013) was an American actor. He was known for his role as Brian O'Conner in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise.
Walker began his career as a child actor in the 1980s, gaining recogniti ...
(1973–2013), actor
Verdugo Hills High School students
* Randy Bobb
Mark Randall Bobb (January 1, 1948 – June 13, 1982) was a right-handed catcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs.
Originally drafted by the California Angels in the 3rd round (43rd overall) of the 1966 amateur draft out of Verdugo H ...
(1948–1982), Major League Baseball catcher
* Jan Brewer
Janice Kay Brewer (''née'' Drinkwine, formerly Warren; born September 26, 1944) is an American politician and author who was the 22nd governor of Arizona from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Brewer is the fourth woman (and was t ...
(born 1944), 22nd governor of Arizona (2009–2015)
* Bob James (born 1958), Major League Baseball pitcher
* Howard McKeon
Howard Philip "Buck" McKeon (born September 9, 1938) is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from California's 25th congressional district from 1993 to 2015. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is a former chairman of ...
(born 1938), member of the House of Representatives
* Jaye P. Morgan (born 1931), singer
* John Purdell
John Purdell (July 8, 1959 – July 10, 2003) was an American musician and multi-platinum rock music record producer who is credited on such albums as Ozzy Osbourne's ''No More Tears'' (1991) and Dream Theater's ''Awake (Dream Theater album), ...
(1959–2003), musician and record producer
See also
Nearby communities, cities or areas
* Burbank, California
* Crescenta Valley
The Crescenta Valley is a small inland valley in Los Angeles County, California, lying between the San Gabriel Mountains on the northeast and the Verdugo Mountains and San Rafael Hills on the southwest. It opens into the San Fernando Valley at t ...
* Glendale, California
* La Crescenta, California
La Crescenta-Montrose () is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The community is bordered by Glendale to the south and west, La Cañada Flintridge to the east, and Angeles National Forest to the north. ...
*
* San Fernando Valley
* Tujunga Wash
Tujunga Wash is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 stream in Los Angeles County, California. It is a tributary of the Los Angeles River, providing about a fif ...
* Verdugo Mountains
The Verdugo Mountains, also known as the Verdugo Hills or simply The Verdugos, are a small, rugged mountain range of the Transverse Ranges system in Los Angeles County, California. Located just south of the western San Gabriel Mountains, the Ve ...
Other articles
* California State Route 118, formerly the Sunland Freeway
* Floods, 1978
* Andrew Glassell
Andrew Glassell Jr. (September 30, 1827 – January 28, 1901) was a Los Angeles real estate attorney and investor. He may be best known as one of the founders of the city of Orange, California.
Early life
Glassell was born as Andrew Glas ...
, who purchased Rancho Tujunga in 1875
* Picture-winged fly named ''Tujunga''
* Sunland Boulevard
Sunland Boulevard is a major thoroughfare in the Crescenta and San Fernando Valleys.
Geography
Sunland Boulevard splits off of Foothill Boulevard in the Sunland area of the Crescenta Valley. It runs for about 5 miles (8 kilometers) before ch ...
* The Station wildfire of 2009 near Sunland-Tujunga
* Tongva language
* Verdugo Hills Cemetery landslide, 1978
* Won't Back Down (film)
''Won't Back Down'' is a 2012 American drama film directed by Daniel Barnz and starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis and Holly Hunter.
Premise
Two determined mothers, a car dealer/bartender ( Maggie Gyllenhaal) and a teacher (Viola Davis), lo ...
, a 2012 motion picture loosely based on Sunland-Tujunga's experience with the "parent trigger law."
References
Further reading
*
*
History of the area
from a Verdugo Hills High School site
* Denyse Selesnick,
Progress of NIMBYism in Sunland Tujunga? I Say Let's Make a Deal
" CityWatch, February 4, 2016 (200 homes to be built on a golf course)
External links
Organizations
Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce
Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council
Shadow Hills Property Owners Association
Other
Foothill Corridor Specific Plan, 1995
Foothill Blvd. Corridor Specific Plan Design Guidelines
Scenic Corridor Specific Plan
Motion pictures filmed in Sunland, from the Internet Movie Database
Motion pictures filmed in Tujunga, from the Internet Movie Database
{{Los Angeles
Communities in the San Fernando Valley
Crescenta Valley
Neighborhoods in Los Angeles
Populated places established in 1907
1907 establishments in California