An Oasis in the Northeast Valley

Efforts to build two lakes in the Hansen Dam Recreation Area are positive steps toward restoring a once-popular park--and turning around a community that has suffered a long, slow slide into disrepair. But getting the northeast San Fernando Valley back on its economic feet will take more than fancy new swimming and boating lakes.

The lakes in the Tujunga Wash flood plain offer the best opportunity yet to attract people to the park that for years served as a popular destination for residents across Los Angeles County. When the natural Holiday Lake filled with silt and turned to little more than a mudhole in the 1950s, the park’s popularity plummeted. Efforts to reopen recreational lakes on the site were stymied for years by everything from endangered species to funding shortfalls. Only through the efforts of high-powered supporters such as U.S. Rep. Howard Berman (R-Mission Hills) did the project survive.

That’s good, because it’s just what the northeast Valley needs--a safe and clean recreation area where families can start to reclaim their neighborhoods from gang members and transients. Combined with projects such as the first public library in Lake View Terrace and the proposed federal empowerment zone--which offers tax credits to businesses--the new lakes may help attract the kind of investment necessary to make the northeast Valley’s communities the kind of places their residents know they can be.

Such a change takes the kind of commitment demonstrated by Berman in getting the lakes built. And not just from politicians. Yes, officeholders like Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) and Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon must keep the momentum up, but success depends on community leaders, merchants and everyday citizens.