Tributes Tell Why Valley Is Home

Couched as it was with reminders of the earthquake, the wildfires and the sagging economy, our question to readers was simple: Why do you stay in the San Fernando Valley?

In dozens of poems, essays and even a limerick, written on manual typewriters, computers or scrawled on note cards, you responded, defiantly defending your neighborhood, your strip mall, your Valley.

For some, it is the memories that keep you here: of orange groves, farmlands or the deer that once roamed the Valley floor. For others, it is as simple as the convenience of nearby malls or the endlessly sunny days. Others point to something less tangible, a collective spirit that rises in the face of each new disaster.

But we asked for your words, so we’ll let you explain. Here are some of our favorite remarks, illustrated with photographs by Brian Vander Brug about why there’s no place quite like the Valley to call home.

Why Do We Still Live in the Valley?

I know I’m not into masochism, so why indeed do I stay?

The legendary rural quality of the Valley that appealed to me at first disappeared so long ago that when I mention it to newcomers, they question my sanity; the traffic snarls that occur constantly can rival the worst of the ones in the city; the property values have plummeted to inconceivable depths; the schools don’t seem to be doing any schooling.

The rural characteristics were destroyed by the engineers that gave us sidewalks, curbs, gutters and the great feat of our drainage system. My profession (architecture) contributed with horrendous strip shopping centers, monstrous malls and slums of tomorrow.

Natural disasters can (and actually do) happen everywhere, so let’s not include them in the same list as man-made acts of stupidity (such as riots), even though they indeed contribute to our seemingly unstoppable deterioration. All things considered, this is a terrible place to live, but . . . every other place is so much worse!

NELSON FAY

Encino