CAR CULTURE: The percentage of San Fernando...

CAR CULTURE: The percentage of San Fernando Valley workers who use public transport is small in all communities, above, but there is a range of fluctuations in local bus-a-phobia. . . . For example: 7.5% use public transport in Mission Hills-Panorama City-North Hills, 6.4% in North Hollywood and 6.2% in Van Nuys-North Sherman Oaks. It’s 1.7% in Chatsworth-Porter Ranch and only 1.3% in Granada Hills.

FURRY FRIENDS: West Valley homeowners angry over the decision to halt coyote trapping have a new thing to be annoyed at: There are now so many coyote complaint calls to Los Angeles animal regulation officers--about 30 a day--that they were ordered to stop responding and refer callers to a downtown spokesperson (B1). “People have a pressing problem . . . and cannot get an answer from officers with 30 years of field experience,” a Woodland Hills resident complained.

NO LICENSE: How do you register an otherwise legally owned handgun? Well, you don’t, as the Street Beat column explains (B2).

GIFT HORSE: For just about anybody else, what to do with a 5% pay raise would pose no problems. But not for elected public officials such as those on the Los Angeles City Council and Board of Supervisors. With just one exception, they chose not to take the raise, given the gloomy state of local government funding (B5).

KICK’S AFTERMATH: It’s just a soccer game between two private Valley high schools, but it carries a lot of hidden emotional freight. Notre Dame plays at Harvard-Westlake today, returning to the field where a media and legal bomb went off a year ago (C8). A Harvard player injured Notre Dame’s Ryan Herrera by kicking him in the head--and was arrested, apparently the first such case in state history. . . . Playing for Notre Dame: Herrera, who says he still has neurological problems.

Using Public Transport

Only a small percentage of Valley residents take public transportation to work: Southeast Valley: 5.5% Northeast Valley: 4.2% Northwest Valley: 3.7% Southwest Valley: 3.0% Source: 1990 U.S. Census