North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

North Hollywood is a district in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California.

History

North Hollywood, like most of the rest of the San Fernando Valley, was once part of the vast landholdings of the Franciscan Mission San Fernando Rey de España, which were confiscated by the government during the Mexican period of rule. The Treaty of Cahuenga which ended the U.S.-Mexican fighting in California was signed at Tomás Feliz's adobe house at Campo de Cahuenga on Lankershim Boulevard in January 1847.

North Hollywood has certainly come a long way since the late 1800s when the Southern Pacific Railroad opened a branch line from downtown Los Angeles to the Valley. In 1895, the Chatsworth Limited made one stop a day in Toluca, although that name was in conflict with a sign on the new station which read Lankershim. With the Post Office across the street called Toluca, controversy over the town’s name continued and the local ranchers used to quip, “Ship the merchandise to Lankershim, but bill it to Toluca.”

The area formerly known as Lankershim was subsequently renamed North Hollywood in an effort to capitalize on the glamour and proximity of Hollywood proper. North Hollywood today is extremely diverse, with Latino, including El Salvadoran-Americans and Honduran-Americans, Asian-American, including Thai-Americans and Filipino-Americans, Jewish, including Israeli-Americans, Jamaican-American, Middle Eastern, including Iranian-Americans, Eastern European, including Armenian Americans, and African-American populations.

North Hollywood's landscape has been transformed in recent years, with condominium towers (including a 15-story building on Lankershim Blvd) being built in the midst of older one-story bungalows and small apartment complexes. The community is being transformed from a relatively lower-middle class suburb into a regional center, in large part as a result of the construction of Metro Stations for the Red Line and the Orange Line, two lines that have made the city into a regional hub for the San Fernando Valley. Medium- and high-density developments are being built around the Metro Station, particularly in the NoHo Arts District, with the intent of creating a walkable urban village.

Infamous Bank Heist

In 1997, the nationally infamous "North Hollywood shootout" between the LAPD and two heavily armed gunmen who were caught in the act of robbing a Bank of America branch on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, occurred over a period of several hours between Victory Boulevard and Vanowen Street in central North Hollywood. The police arrived but didn't have the firepower to put down the robbers, who wore full body-armor and had superior firepower. The shootout resembled a combat zone. Bullets were flying in all directions hitting cars, buildings, and bystanders. The battle was broadcast live on television and ended up being made into a movie ().

Two suspects were killed in the shootout and 15 people were injured, including 10 policemen. More than 200 police officers were on hand for the siege, which lasted more than an hour. Initially out-gunned, the officers found they needed extra weapons and went to B&B Sales in North Hollywood for high-powered semiautomatic rifles and shotguns.

Attractions

It is home to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park is located in the area, and is notable for its special section memorializing aviators.

The new MTA Orange Line is now open, running from North Hollywood to Woodland Hills. The MTA Red Line also connects North Hollywood to Hollywood, Wilshire, and Downtown Los Angeles.

NoHo is home to and birth place of critically acclaimed sketch comedy group, Dynamite Kablammo.

NoHo Arts District

Business & Theatre Owners in the Universal City/North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce formed the idea of establishing a theatre and arts district in 1992 with support from L.A. Department of Cultural Affairs. They chose "NoHo" as it not only distinctly revealed our location, but also plays off the well-known "SoHo" Arts District of New York City.

Central to the new NoHo Arts District, located near Valley Village in North Hollywood, are contemporary theaters, art galleries, cafes, and interesting shops. The area features more than 20 professional theatres producing new work and classics, diverse art galleries, public art and professional dance studios. The district also features the largest concentration of music recording venues west of the Mississippi.

The theater district is growing at a steady pace, including two new large venues that expand upon existing theatres, the newly redesigned NoHo Arts Center (formerly the American Renegade Theatre), and the redesigned Historical El Portal. They add to the existing 31 theatres located in and around the NoHo Arts District. New mixed-use development, the NoHo Commons, is planned near the NoHo Arts District's commercial core and subway station by Los Angeles developer J.H. Snyder Company.

The $100-million, 292-unit loft apartment project by Snyder is the first segment to be completed of NoHo Commons, part of a "transit village" rising at the terminus of the Metro Red Line subway and the Orange Line busway. Also planned are hundreds of other apartments, condos, stores and other developments, including a high school.

Other projects nearby include NoHo Tower, a 15-story apartment building with 191 units at Lankershim Boulevard and Cumpston Street that is complete, and the historic North Hollywood train depot at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards, which is getting restored to its 1920s condition. The old train depot sits on land owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, across from the Metro Red Line subway station and next to the termination of the Orange Line bus line.

Education

Public schools

The Los Angeles Unified School District serves North Hollywood.

High schools serving North Hollywood include:
*East Valley High School
*North Hollywood High School (in nearby Valley Village)http://www.myvalleyvillage.com/pdfs/VVMap.pdf]

Middle schools serving North Hollywood include:
* [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Madison_MS/ James Madison Middle School]
*Romer Middle School
*Walter Reed Middle School (in nearby Studio City)http://montserrat.globat.com/~scnc.info/PDFS/SCNC_Map.pdf]
*Sun Valley Middle School (in nearby Sun Valley) [http://www.laschools.org/employee/mpd/fs-mpd/download/08-09_boundary_change_webmaps/Proj06.pdf]

Elementary schools serving North Hollywood include:
*K-5
** [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Arminta_EL/ Arminta Street Elementary School]
**Camellia Avenue Elementary School
** [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Coldwater_Cyn_EL/ Coldwater Canyon Elementary School]
** [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Fair_EL/ Fair Avenue Elementary School]
** [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Lankershim_El/ Lankershim Elementary School]
**Oxnard Elementary School
**Saticoy Elementary School
** [http://www.sendakelementary.org/ Maurice Sendak Elementary School]
** [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Strathern_EL/ Strathern Street Elementary School]
*1-5
** [http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Victory_EL/ Victory Boulevard Elementary School]
*Kindergarten
**Bellingham Primary Center

Early education:
* Arminta Early Education Center

Private schools

The high school campuses of Harvard-Westlake School and Oakwood School are in North Hollywood.

Campbell Hall School is a prestigious K-12 Episcopalian school of note.

Laurel Hall and St. Paul's First Lutheran are Lutheran schools.

Transportation

The North Hollywood Metro Subway station opened in June 2000 after 13 years in the planning. Close to half a million people took advantage of free rides on the 17.4-mile Red Line subway in its first weekend in operation. The station is the starting point for the Red Line Metro system, which cost $4.5 billion to construct.

The L.A. county Transportation Commission took four years but finally in 1990 approved the subway station connecting North Hollywood to the Metro Rail from downtown. That followed the Los Angeles City Council unanimously endorsing the Valley Metro Rail extension plan. The subway features a route from Union Station to North Hollywood.

The tunnel to connect the Metro Red Car's Hollywood leg to the San Fernando Valley extension cost $136 million. It included the cost of digging a tunnel under the Santa Monica Mountains. The tunneling work was done by a Traylor Brothers/Frontier-Kemper joint venture. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Sierra Club had fought to prevent the tunneling but ultimately lost. Environmentalists were concerned that the removal of billions of gallons of ground water might affect springs, wildlife and vegetation.

Tunneling from North Hollywood for the subway started in 1995. Workers dug 70 feet deep using specialized tunneling machines to scoop out chunks of earth. Work progressed an average of 50 to 200 feet daily, performed by work crews round-the-clock six days a week. The machines used bore through soil that once lined the bottoms of ancient oceans.

The two tunnels between the North Hollywood and Universal City stations were a total of 10,541 feet. The cost of building the two tunnels was $65.4 million and involved 250 workers. Experts estimate the costs of the same work in 2007 would be well over double if not triple given the increased costs of construction materials and labor.

Libraries

Los Angeles Public Library operates the North Hollywood Regional Branch.

The North Hollywood (Amelia Earhart) Regional Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library is located at 5211 Tujunga Avenue. The one-story, Mission-style brick building with Spanish tile work was opened in 1929 to replace a storefront operation known as the Sepulveda Library, which could not meet the demand caused by the area's rapid population growth. In 1981, at the suggestion of a local resident, officials renamed the library for Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Earhart, who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on an attempted around-the-world flight in 1937, lived in nearby Toluca Lake for several years when she was in her 20s.

Famous residents

Amelia Earhart was perhaps its most famous resident (though she was born in Atchison, Kansas, and probably died somewhere near Howland Island in the Central Pacific Ocean). Norma Jean Baker (Marilyn Monroe) was a student at Lankershim Elementary School. Tom Selleck and Gilbert Arenas were both students at Grant High School. Curly Howard of The Three Stooges was another famous North Hollywood resident. North Hollywood is the birthplace of Jan Smithers and Hip Hip Model Bria Myles. Comedian and radio talk show host Adam Carolla hails from North Hollywood (albeit with a touch of embarrassment) Writer/comedian Sean Kent lives there as well. Andrea Lambert, the author of "Jet Set Desolate," makes her home there. Yo Momma Season 1 Champion "Harp" advanced out of North Hollywood and won the title for Los Angeles's best trash talker. Rabbi Simcha Wasserman headed a yeshiva in North Hollywood between 1955 and 1980. Karo Parisyan, a UFC welterweight fighter, resides here, training and teaching at a local gym. Alyson Hannigan (American Pie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother) attended North Hollywood High School, as did Mayim Bialik (Blossom). Stephen Christian, Lead Singer of Platinum Selling Alternative Rock Band Anberlin recently moved to North Hollywood.

References

External links

* [http://www.nohoartsdistrict.com/ NoHoArtsDistrict.com]
* [http://www.north-hollywood.info/ North-Hollywood.info]
* [http://www.hollywoodnorthinsider.com/ HollywoodNorthInsider.com]
* [http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/communities/2003/la-re-guide27jul27,0,4010439.story?coll=la-realestate-communities-2003 "Los Angeles Times", Real Estate section, Neighborly Advice column: " [North Hollwyood:] NoHo finds its mojo in a colorful, artsy sort of way" (27 July 2003)]