Encino Parents Cheer as Children Take to the Street

About 1,000 schoolchildren, a marching band and politicians in fancy cars paraded down Ventura Boulevard on Sunday in Encino, and officials said the event went smoothly despite concerns about closing the boulevard.

The “Encino Celebrates Youth” parade was expected to close a one-mile stretch of the busy thoroughfare for as long as two hours, but the boulevard reopened less than an hour after authorities blocked it off. Although some motorists were upset at being delayed, Los Angeles police Sgt. John Ahrens said that the rerouting of traffic along the parade route caused no serious problems.

Best of all, said parade organizer Jan Sobel, everybody had fun. The parade was a one-time event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Encino Chamber of Commerce, of which Sobel is executive director.

The affair also was meant to salute Encino’s children. Their effervescence was evident in the ranks of the marchers and on the sidewalk curbs from which spectators applauded the passing panorama.

“It was fun,” said sandy-haired, 10-year-old Adrienne Whitlock, who marched with her brother, Scott, 8. “I was embarrassed, though, with the other people looking at me. ‘Cause I didn’t know any of them.”

The young Whitlocks were in a group of red-clad Emelita Street Elementary School students. Marchers in the first row held big letters that spelled E-M-E-L-I-T-A. Adrienne got to hold the I. Scott had his brush with greatness: “I almost got to sit with the cowboys,” he said.

A horse-drawn carriage and a horseback rider wearing chaps prompted 15-month-old Matthew Westerman to step off the curb near Libbit Avenue and waddle over toward them.

“I had to hold him back from the horses,” said his father, Jeff Westerman, 32, of Encino. Other than that, “he liked the big gray car.”

There were several luxurious cars of different colors, carrying local celebrities, including actress Jayne Meadows, who was grand marshal, and politicians such as Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude. Matthew Westerman didn’t know those folks from Adam, but the grown-ups sitting a few feet from him on the curb recognized Braude right away.

“Mr. Braude! Councilman Braude! Don’t forget our cul-de-sac!” shouted a smiling, waving Harmik Carapetian, 43, of Encino. Braude responded with a wave and a nod.

As the parade neared its end at Encino Park, the Reseda High School marching band passed a long line of cars waiting to cross Ventura Boulevard at southbound Balboa Boulevard. Martin Landau, 45, of West Los Angeles, craned his neck out of his driver’s side window to see some of the action. Landau didn’t mind being held up.

“It’s Sunday, and there’s not much traffic,” he said.

Several cars in front of him, another driver was seething.

“I think it stinks,” said Laurel Martin, a Santa Monica woman late for a surprise party in the hills of Encino. “There are no signs; there’s no detour. They should have told us something back by the freeway.” The parade was a fine idea, she added, “ . . . but why take such a major street?”

Sobel, the parade’s organizer, said earlier in the week that closing Ventura Boulevard--which city officials said had not been closed in both directions for any event in recent memory--was so difficult that she would not attempt it again. But after Sunday’s parade went relatively smoothly, she was not so unequivocal.

“Now that it’s over, I’d do it again . . . if somebody asks me,” she said.