Reseda

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By JEANNETTE DeSANTIS

Contributing Reporter

In its heyday in the 1960s, Reseda Boulevard was a bustling thoroughfare, lined with busy shops and restaurants thanks in part to neighboring San Fernando Valley State College, renamed Cal State Northridge.

But then the boulevard fell on hard times.

When Northridge Fashion Center opened in 1971, many of the small shops couldn’t compete and folded. The recession of the late ’80s created more casualties among small shop owners.

Then came the destructive 1994 Northridge earthquake, which left behind cracked storefronts, vacant buildings and ghost-town apartments.

But a core of business owners has not given up on the area once called the “Bel Air of the Valley.” They have joined forces with Cal State Northridge administrators and students to revitalize Reseda Boulevard.

Supporters want to create a Business Improvement District, a special zone in which property owners tax themselves for street improvements, security patrols or other measures to spruce up the neighborhood.

“We would like to make it like Westwood Village with the university nearby,” said Northridge Chamber of Commerce President John Jamgotchian. “We want to help the area realize its potential.”

Though it still has some of the same storefronts from its heyday, the boulevard has lost a lot of its sheen, said Judy Hennessey, chair of Cal State Northridge’s marketing department.

“Reseda Boulevard hasn’t been gorgeous for a long time,” said Hennessey, a consultant for the program. “And people are sick and tired of shopping in malls. We want to give people a sense of community.”

The property owners haven’t agreed to the size of the assessment, a decision that can be quite divisive. “As the process goes on, it gets more concrete,” Hennessey said. “Nothing is solid until the BID is formed.”

Ten BIDS had been in the formative stages in the San Fernando Valley since 1996, and one has been on the drawing board since 1997. None had reached the approval stage until June 10.

That’s when the City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee approved the first BID in Tarzana, giving other BID boosters hope that their districts will come together as well.

Boosters of the Reseda Boulevard BID believe theirs is potentially the most unusual because they have drawn on CSUN students to study and organize the effort, Hennessey said.

CSUN’s art, architecture, marketing, management, accounting and interior design students have canvassed the neighborhoods, conducting surveys, and passing out petitions. All students get school credit for their participation, Hennessey said.

“Even though we are a university town, we don’t think we are,” said Barry Pascal, owner of Northridge Pharmacy, a long-time Northridge business. “We need to remind people that we are a community by adding character to the boulevard.”

Pascal would like to see Reseda Boulevard paved with yellow bricks, (“like the Wizard of Oz,”) as well as having businesses add university-themed products to their inventory.

“I would like to see restaurants have a CSUN breakfast and retail stores sell Matador hats and shirts,” Pascal said. “We should be something like Santa Barbara a university town.”

But when business isn’t doing well in the area, it is hard to convince merchants that line Reseda Boulevard to put money into a grassroots organization that may or may not cause revenues to rise.

“Despite new reports that the economy is coming back, many shops still sit empty,” said C.K. Tseng, owner of Northridge Travel on the boulevard. “It is not easy to convince small business to do something that will entail more costs. It will take some time Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

In the 1930s and 1940s, Reseda Boulevard was still a dirt road, and horse breeding was the No. 1 industry of the area. Film stars loved the ranch image and it became a haven for Hollywood’s early film stars. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard owned a ranch off Devonshire, and Betty Hutton once owned the area that is now Northridge Park.

By the 1950s and 1960s, the Boulevard was paved with shopping centers, a post office, several churches, a bank and Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

But the Reseda Boulevard of today is not the same.

“It was hard hit in the earthquake, which created a lot of problems,” said Councilman Hal Bernson. “It is not going downhill, but it does need some revitalization.”

Hennessey said the BID is the best way to bring Reseda Boulevard back to life.

“It will enhance pedestrian traffic, which increases the number of people in stores and increases the items people sell,” Hennessey said. “Beyond that, it will increase property values for everyone.”

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