Feel the Nuys (and a bunch of other people) now officially in Sherman Oaks
It's official — that square of Van Nuys targeted by the Part of Sherman Oaks (big P, big S, big 0) movement for inclusion within the community boundaries of Sherman Oaks is now just that: part of Sherman Oaks (small p, big S, big O).
Read about it at Dailynews.com, and don't miss the report by Zach Behrens of LAist (and not-un-conflictedly of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council) for the play-by-play.
Most importantly, do I rename this blog? Do I archive it and start anew?
I welcome your suggestions.
I pretty much figured this was going to happen. Check out the Google map below for a rough look at which portion of Van Nuys is now North Sherman Oaks (as I'll be calling it, unofficially of course).
How do I feel about my Van Nuys neighborhood now being an official Sherman Oaks neighborhood?
It's not secret that I was not among those seeking this change. For one thing, every single person who bought into this neighborhood received a discount of sorts on their home by virtue of it NOT being in Sherman Oaks, even though it is close (and this is, for the most part, a fairly nice area).
Now those who live here presently can reap a premium of many thousands of dollars if and when they sell (or rent) their home by virtue of their ability to write the words "Sherman Oaks" in their ads and listings without the additional word "adjacent" following.
All this BS about "feeling" like you're a Sherman Oaks resident, even though you live in Van Nuys — I didn't buy it then, I don't buy it now.
According to Zach's blog post, even though this neighborhood is now part of Sherman Oaks, it will still be represented in the neighborhood-council pantheon by the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council. Zach states his wish that the area be transferred into the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council boundaries.
Another complication, don't you think? Maybe they'll break it in half ...
View This part of Van Nuys (give or take) is now part of Sherman Oaks? in a larger map
I live in this new North Sherman Oaks. It will be interesting to see if the value of our house increases at all. It's not like the name change moved us further away from the industrial strip to the north. Also, given how this movement played out, I doubt that either VN or SO neighborhood councils will be doing us any favors in the near future. On the bright side, now when people ask me where I live, I don't have to describe it as a nice area of Van Nuys next to Sherman Oaks.
Two things:
-- I don't think the neighborhood councils can do too many favors for anybody, so it's not that much of a loss. Sure they've got that $50k to spend per year. But many NCs don't spend it. And look for that money to go away given the current budget crisis. Otherwise, the NCs appear to be a great place to spend an evening (it can be quite entertaining), but they just don't have a lot of power. Both the Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys NCs were opposed to this renaming, but it happened anyway.
-- The recently added portion of Van Nuys wasn't exactly well-represented in the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council because only a few of the seats on the body go to regionally elected members. Many go to "at-large" members who can be from anywhere in the NC district, and I don't think many (or any) of them were from this portion of "southern" Van Nuys (or "northern" Sherman Oaks, if you will).
Four of the board members of the VNNC live in the renamed area. 4/21 is about 20% - so they are represented.
Four out of 21? That's quite a lot. I stand corrected.
But if SONC and VNNC were opposed to the name change and it still happened, that doesn't say much about NCs having a voice at City Hall.
Much was made during the Part of Sherman Oaks campaign about initiatives of VNNC, from a geographic standpoint, ending at Oxnard St. and not going south of it. I don't know if that's true, but I also don't have any evidence one way or the other.
You're absolutely right, NCs don't have much of a voice.
I too have questioned many of VNNCs initiatives stopping at Oxnard, when the boundaries of the NC are south of that boundary. The best answer I've received was that Cardenas' district ends and (what was) Greuel's district begins at Oxnard. Most initiatives only were carried out with the approval/assistance of one or the other's district offices.
Another (incorrect) notion is that only large auto dealerships occupy the Boulevard south of Oxnard, and since as a group, they pay into and operate out of a maintenance fund, none of that territory is in need of assistance.