Toluca Lake Portrait

If you want to see the real Toluca Lake, many residents say, visit late at night.

“You can be getting out of your car at 10 or 11 o’clock at night, and you’ll see someone walking by and they’ll actually say hello,” said 28-year resident Jana Olson-Collins. “That’s when you know this place is unusual.”

Passersby are not only cordial; they often are famous. The shaded, almost completely residential community--and its celebrated Lakeside Golf Club--finds stars like Denzel Washington, Bob Hope and Jonathan Winters mingling with lesser-known folk seeking seclusion without snobbery. As resident and businessman Paul Ramsey once put it, “We’re kind of a poor man’s Beverly Hills over here.”

Change crawls into Toluca Lake. Guarded by old money, buttressed by younger success stories, the community scrutinizes everything from commercial development to a neighbor’s choice of landscaping.

That skepticism breeds loyalty, many say.

Plenty of people got their introduction to Toluca Lake at Bob’s Big Boy, a 24-hour Riverside Drive coffee shop that was designated in 1992 as a state historical point of interest. The fight to gain that designation says more about Toluca Lake than does even the stylish ‘50s architecture of Bob’s. When the building’s owner sought permission to tear it down, the residents rallied, forcing the owner to change his plans.

“People have a strong, almost small-town sense of community here,” Olson-Collins said.

History

Toluca Lake began in 1923, evolving quickly from an apple-, peach- and walnut-producing area known as Forman Toluca Ranch into a stately residential spot taking its name from an Indian word for “fertile or beautiful valley.” Initially backed by a syndicate of Hollywood financiers and developers who called the development Toluca Lake Park, the community offered a tranquil respite from rapidly expanding Los Angeles. Aviator Amelia Earhart, Bing Crosby and Hope were among the first to settle in lakeside homes, the latter quickly growing accustomed to rounds of golf at Lakeside. Over time, Hope would tee it up there with former Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon and Ford. Toluca Lake’s original boundaries were Cahuenga Boulevard, Clybourn Avenue, Camarillo Street and the L.A. River. The borders have swelled a bit since then, but at about 35,000 people, Toluca Lake is one of the smallest slices of the Valley. The lake, whose cement-covered bottom goes from 18 inches to 10 feet deep, is said to have stemmed from a natural flow that trickled from the hills north of Chatsworth. The lake remains stocked with fish--and closed to the public.

Local Issues

* Parking: As the business district on and around Riverside Drive keeps bustling, the need for parking has become a “concern in capital letters,” says Natalie Bloxham of the Chamber of Commerce. One possible remedy would be a two-story parking garage behind shops on Riverside envisioned by the chamber’s Parking Committee. The capital letters could be put into boldface in 1997, when a complex of offices and a 120-seat theater built by movie and television producer Garry Marshall is scheduled to open.

* Beautification: Residents occasionally look eastward with envy. Unlike neighboring Burbank, Toluca Lake is an unincorporated area within L.A., which sometimes delays improvements like tree-trimming and street-sweeping. In response to that reality, a group of about 30 women has recently aimed to spruce up flower boxes and median strips. “If we’re going to make our community beautiful,” Bloxham said, “we’re going to do it ourselves.”

Sources: Toluca Lake Chamber of Commerce, Times staff.

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Community Profile

(Including parts of Sherman Oaks and Studio City)

Population: 71,602

Median age: 38.1

Number of households: 37,439

Persons per household: 1.9

Owner-occupied housing units: 46%

Population below poverty level: 6.1%

Population over 18 with bachelor’s degree or higher: 40%

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Income

Average household income is about 35% higher than the Los Angeles city average.

Toluca Lake: $70,418

Citywide average: $45,701

Northeast Valley: $44,444

Southeast Valley: $48,182

Northwest Valley: $56,427

Southwest Valley: $61,722

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Ethnicity

White: 86%

Latino: 7%

Asian: 4%

African American: 2%

Other: 1%

Source: 1990 U.S. Census