SALES UP, $$$ DOWN: After years of...
SALES UP, $$$ DOWN: After years of gloom for sellers, Valley housing sales may be rebounding. House resales in July increased 24% from a year ago . . . the best month since April, 1991. But the average price dropped 10% to $246,000. See Valley Business, page 3.
OLD WOUNDS: Time hasn’t healed antagonisms between Bobbi Fiedler and Rita Walters, opposing generals in the Valley school busing wars years ago. Anti-busing leader Fiedler clashed often with Walters, a busing advocate. Walters, now an L. A. councilwoman, tried Monday to block Fiedler’s appointment to a powerful city board, calling her insensitive to minorities (B1). . . . Walters failed.
BENEFICIAL SMOG: You can see it at the end of a Sylmar dirt road. Or in Woody Allen’s “Sleeper” or “Galaxina.” (You didn’t see “Galaxina?”) What is that odd, egg-shaped dome atop four spindly struts? A solar observatory, where Cal State Northridge scientists probe global warming (B1). . . . Oddly enough, smog helps.
BACK TO BASICS: Time was when American prison philosophy was “jail ‘em and house ‘em.” Then came attempted rehabilitation, but now we’re back to “jail ‘em,” modified by remedial programs. So says Otis Thurman, warden of the state’s newest prison, in Lancaster (B5). . . . Thurman, whose prison opened in February for 2,400 inmates and is already jammed with 3,000, gave Gov. Pete Wilson a tour Monday (B7). . . . There are now 115,000 people doing time in 26 California prisons.
DESERT DREAMS: It’s cow-grazing heaven now, but former TV mogul Merv Adelson and longtime partner Irwin Molasky see much more . . . a championship golf course, equestrian center and master-planned housing community. After four years of planning, the partners’ $1-billion Ritter Ranch project in Palmdale is set for groundbreaking. . . . But there are still plenty of risks. See Valley Business, page 8.
Valley House Sales
Single family house sales in July jumped 24% from a year earlier. July 1993: 828 Source: San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors
