A Growing Desire

Van Nuys Boulevard is getting spruced up.

Or at least cleaned up, in an effort that Los Angeles officials hope will enhance the area’s businesses and attract more customers.

Until November, Department of Public Works crews will battle traffic from Victory Boulevard to Calvert Street along Van Nuys Boulevard to replace about 43 old, unhealthy and unattractive trees with new ones, said Sandy Kievman, field deputy for L.A. City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who represents the area.

“We want to make it an inviting place for people,” Kievman said. “Right now it looks terrible, like downtown L.A.”

The city plans more renovations around the Van Nuys government center, she said. The $36-million federally funded project--$3 million for each of the 12 selected Los Angeles neighborhoods, including Van Nuys--is aimed at improving areas by repairing streets and sidewalks, replacing old traffic signals and removing eyesores.

Some area business owners said they hoped a cleaner image would attract customers from other parts of the city.

“Now we just have to see if people will maintain the city as clean as the city wants it to be,” said Teresa Aguilar, operator of a clothing and luggage shop inside Latino Mart in Van Nuys Boulevard. “Some people just don’t care. They throw trash in the streets, in the stores, anywhere.”

Zoila Olguin, who works at Zoraida’s Shoes in the same strip, said she has grown tired of glancing through the shop’s tall windows, only to see dying trees and other eyesores.

“Maybe a cleaner look would encourage people to be clean inside the stores,” Olguin said. “Sometimes clients come in here with food and I tell them they cannot eat inside.

“They walk away and say, ‘What is this, the mall?’ ”

Relief is on the way, Miscikowski said. But it will take a few months before Van Nuys Boulevard acquires a greener and cleaner look.

The trees chosen to be replaced were public hazards, dead or eyesores, according to a manager with the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services.

Jim Summers, forestry director with Los Angeles TreePeople, a nonprofit education group, said a lot of trees the city cuts down are 30 to 40 years old and have had enough time to mature.

“Usually trees that are removed are not the best choice for a street tree. Trees are good, but there are some trees that are expensive to care for and maintain,” he said. “We are pro-tree, but we try to understand what these cities are up against.”

The 43 trees in Van Nuys will be replaced with Mexican fan palms, flame and maidenhair trees.

To continue the revitalization effort, other enhancements are planned, including improvement of commercial building facades and the addition of benches and trash cans. Parking spaces will be added near Van Nuys Civic Center and an enlarged gym will be built at Delano Park, Miscikowski said.

Kievman said she hopes the project will make the Civic Center the shopping mecca it was in the 1960s. Many stores abandoned the boulevard with the construction of new shopping malls. Today, swap meets, pawnshops and bail bond businesses dominate the boulevard.

Some shops, she said, have opened without the proper permits, and some sell remedies or potions that may be unsafe. She said some stores “violate all sorts of safety code regulations.

“I am hoping that, once business leaders start noticing how nice it looks, they would start moving back to Van Nuys Boulevard,” Kievman said. “We are hoping to make it nice again.”