KEEPING PROMISES: Standing under a banner reading...

KEEPING PROMISES: Standing under a banner reading “Promises to Keep,” Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan told volunteers from a San Fernando Valley community organization Sunday that he would work with them on a model program to make the West Valley a graffiti-free zone. Riordan also freed up $2.5 million in city money for a community-based gang intervention program called Hope in Youth (B1).

LAST AIRPORT MOVIE?: With more than 30 features under its belt, the Van Nuys Airport is one of the Valley’s most popular filming locations. In the past two years alone, the airport has generated about $781,000 in filming fees, most from productions--such as “The Last Action Hero” and “In the Line of Fire”--filmed at the former National Guard headquarters. But the income the city Airport Department earns in filming fees is likely to drop in the future (B1).

SURF BUS: It may not be in the Valley, but Zuma Beach is pretty much the Valley hangout on summer days. . . . “Everybody’s from the Valley here,” said veteran county lifeguard Alfred Laws. . . . One reason is that several cities have begun running buses over Malibu Canyon Road that carry the suburbs-to-the-surf crowd. . . . While Agoura and Westlake Village have been sending buses to the beach for several summers, Calabasas only joined the ritual last year (B1).

VALLEY CHRONICLE: George Schechter, who spent 35 years as a Valley sign painter, is now turning his artistic talents to laundry ‘toons. . . . Since buying the Woodman Coin Laundry in Van Nuys three years ago, he has been sketching people caught in the act of washing up. . . . “Funny things happen at the Laundromat,” he said. The ‘toons are also good for warning people to obey rules against stripping off their clothes and washing them. . . . Yes, it happened. Now he is thinking of publishing a book of his cartoons. Maybe, “How Clean Was My Valley?” (B5).