Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sunland-Tujunga is a community served by two post offices in the northeasternmost corner of Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. Though Sunland and Tujunga began as separate settlements, they are today linked through a single police station, branch library, neighborhood council. chamber of commerce

Chamber of commerce

A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...

, City Council district, high school and various civic organizations. As an example, the Little Landers Historical Society studies the history of the entire area. The merging of these communities under a hyphenated name goes back as far as 1928 with a baseball box score

Box score

A box score is a structured summary of the results from a sport competition. The box score lists the game score as well as individual and team achievements in the game....

printed in the Los Angeles Times.
The two post-office delivery areas are divided by Mount Gleason Avenue, with Sunland on the west and Tujunga on the east. Mount Lukens within Tujunga is the highest point in Los Angeles at 5074 ft (1,546.6 m). For most of its history, the Sunland-Tujunga valley was described as either rural or semirural. Shadow Hills, a neighborhood within Sunland, is one of the few areas in Los Angeles which is zoned for horse ownership,

History

Sunland and Tujunga were originally home to the Tongva people. In 1840 the area was part of the Rancho Tujunga

Rancho Tujunga

Rancho Tujunga was a Mexican land grant in present day Los Angeles County, California given in 1840 by Mexican governor Juan Alvarado to Francisco Lopez and Pedro Lopez. The rancho lands included the present day Los Angeles communities of Lake View Terrace, Sunland, Tujunga.-History:The Mexican...

Mexican land grant, but later developers marked off a plot of land known as the Tejunga Park, or the Tujunga Park, Tract.

Early Sunland

Sunland began life as Monte Vista in 1885, when 2200 acres (8.9 km²) of the Tejunga [sic] Park tract were divided into lots ranging from five to 40 acres (161,874.4 m²). One of the first uses of the new tract was the planting of 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) of olives, which made it the largest olive orchard in Los Angeles County. In 1887 the Monte Vista Hotel was being served by the Sunland Post Office. By 1906, the entire district was known as Sunland. A 1907 story noted that Sunland was the "first supply store, and a good one, about seven miles from the railroad" at San Fernando, at the mouth of the Little Tejunga and Big Tejunga canyons

Tujunga Wash

Tujunga Wash is a stream in Los Angeles County, California. It is a tributary of the Los Angeles River, providing about a fifth of its flow, and drains about...

(the old spelling).

In 1908, Sunland was referred to as difficult to access, at a height of 1500 feet (457.2 m) "over rough mountain roads." An automobile trip from Los Angeles took "a long day" to complete. In 1910, a Los Angeles Times correspondent wrote about Sunland:

The place is aptly named. . . . one gets no inkling of the beauties till he is right in the town. Great live oaks, scattered with Nature's reckless disregard for expense, give the place a stately quiet. . . . In the center of town the oaks are so thick that the sun is baffled, and this section has been made a public park, which is the Fourth of July and general hot-weather rendezvous of the country round, from Glendale to San Fernando.

By 1923, Sunland had a population of about 2,000 and an active chamber of commerce

Chamber of commerce

. The sloping hills of what was called the Monte Vista Valley were the site of vineyards for table grapes, and the town's sole industry, a cannery, specialized in packing olives from local trees. Monte Vista Park in the center of town attracted picnickers, and there was a County Home for Children, sponsored by women's clubs and other organizations. This charity was a descendant of the Monte Vista Lodge, a home for "undernourished children" organized by social worker Belle N. Hall and opened in 1921 by the Council of Community Service. It had 45 rooms in a former hotel on 2.5 acres (10,117.2 m²) of land.

After Tujunga was organized as a city in 1925, a move sprang up in Sunland to be annexed to the new municipality, but the idea was rejected "by a heavy vote" in October of that year, and activists in the then-Monte Vista School District turned their attention to a proposed $21,000 bond issue for a new school building.

Early Tujunga

In 1907, social philosopher and community organizer William Ellsworth Smythe joined forces with real estate speculator Marshall V. Hartranft

M.V. Hartranft

Marshall Valentine Hartranft , known as M.V. Hartranft, was an agriculturalist, a land developer and the president of the Glendale-Eagle Rock Railway in Los Angeles County, California...

to found what Smythe believed would be a kind of utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

. The movement had been successful in establishing colonies in San Ysidro, California

San Ysidro, San Diego, California

San Ysidro is a community in the southern section of San Diego. It is located in the southernmost part of San Diego County, immediately north of the U.S.-Mexico border. It neighbors Otay Mesa West to the north, Otay Mesa to the east, and Nestor and the Tijuana River Valley to the west...

, and in Idaho

Idaho

Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

. The utopianists had as their slogan, "A Little Land and a Lot of Living," and the founders divided their community into 1.5 acres (6,070.3 m²) lots which they called "little lands". A community center built from local river rock, Bolton Hall

Bolton Hall

Bolton Hall is a historic American Craftsman era stone building in Tujunga, Los Angeles County, California. Built in 1913, Bolton Hall was originally used as a community center for the Utopian community of Los Terrenitos. From 1920 until 1957, it was used as an American Legion hall, the San...

, was dedicated in August 1913 and still stands as an historical monument and museum operated by the Little Landers Historical Society.

Tujunga was home to John Steven McGroarty, California Poet Laureate

California Poet Laureate

The California Poet Laureate is the poet laureate for the U.S. state of California. In 2001, Governor Gray Davis created the official position. Each poet laureate for the State of California is appointed by the Governor of California for a term of two years and must be confirmed by the senate...

from 1933 until his death in 1944. McGroarty was also a playwright and U.S. Congressman (Democrat, 11th District). He lived in a home he built himself and completed in 1923, known as Rancho Chupa Rosa. The building is a Historic Cultural Monument (#63) of the City of Los Angeles and is now known as the McGroarty Arts Center.

Tujungans led by McGroarty first wanted to become a city of the sixth class to be called "Verdugo Hills," in 1924, and a petition to that effect was submitted to the Board of Supervisors, which postponed the idea indefinitely because of concerns about the proposed boundaries.

Tujunga was nevertheless incorporated after an election on April 21, 1925, with the southern border following the Rancho Tujunga

Rancho Tujunga

boundary. A. Adams was elected treasurer and Mrs Bertha A. Morgan was chosen as city clerk.
and Bolton Hall served as the City Hall until Tujunga was consolidated with Los Angeles in 1932.

One of the first orders of business for the new city of Tujunga in 1925 was an attempt to enlarge the municipality by taking in the foothills south and southwest of the new city — bounded on the east by the "La Crescenta Rancho line, south to Big Tuna Canyon" and west to the then-Los Angeles boundary and Wicks Road. The attempt failed because Los Angeles annexed the area first.

Tujunga's 1500 feet (457.2 m) elevation and geographic isolation from the San Fernando Valley and the Los Angeles Basin

Los Angeles Basin

The Los Angeles Basin is the coastal sediment-filled plain located between the Peninsular and Transverse ranges in southern California in the United States containing the central part of the city of Los Angeles as well as its southern and southeastern suburbs...

freed it from some of the air pollution

Air pollution

Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....

that was a problem in many other parts of Greater Los Angeles

Greater Los Angeles Area

The Greater Los Angeles Area, or the Southland, is a term used for the Combined Statistical Area sprawled over five counties in the southern part of California, namely Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Ventura County...

. Because of this, it attracted many asthma

Asthma

Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...

tics early on. Coronet magazine

Coronet (magazine)

Coronet was a general interest digest magazine published from October 13, 1936, to March 1971 and ran for 299 issues. The magazine was owned by Esquire and published by David A. Smart from 1936 to 1961.-Typical issue:...

once called Tujunga "the most healthy place in the world." In 1929, the Tujunga City Council set policy to establish zones where "sanitariums and other institutions for the care of tubercular patients" could be established.

Joining Los Angeles, 1926–1932

The major part of today's Sunland was annexed to the city of Los Angeles effective August 4, 1926. La Tuna Canyon was annexed in 1927. On June 23, 1927, the city of Los Angeles held an election for much of the same territory as claimed by Tujunga, above, and the annexation passed, "based largely on a big block of votes within an old-folks' home at Sunland which can participate in the Community Chest

Community Chest

Community Chest may refer to any of the following:*The Community Chest of Hong Kong*The Community Chest of Singapore*Community Chest , a forerunner of the United Way of America...

funds when and if they are within the city limits of the greater city." The result was a legal dispute that had to be settled in the courts.

The famous grove of oak trees, owned by the county, and widely known as the Monte Vista Park of Sunland, is involved in the dispute. The municipality of Tujunga has already agreed to release its authority over the park to the county authorities, so that administration . . . will continue for ten years without change, except as to police protection in event of disorders."

The first election for Tujunga to be consolidated with Los Angeles was held on February 15, 1927. In heavy rain, voters turned down the idea by a vote of 594 to 354. A second election held in March 1930 also resulted in defeat for annexation, "by a large majority." John Steven McGroarty was on a committee opposing annexation, called "All for Tujunga." The third and final election in January 1932, however, resulted in a favorable vote to join Los Angeles, even though the actual transfer was delayed by inaction of state authorities. Tujunga finally gave up its independence and joined the city on March 8, 1932.

City Council redistricting, 1986–2002

Los Angeles City Councilman Howard Finn

Howard Finn

Howard Arthur Finn was a Los Angeles City Councilman from the 1st district. He served from 1981 to 1986 until he died in office afer a heart attack.-References:...

of Sunland died in office on August 12, 1986, and his Northeast San Fernando Valley First District was left without an incumbent.
At the same time, the City Council was under a court order to redistrict itself in order to provide more representation for Latinos. After a bitter contest in which Finn's semirural constituents fought against being combined with more built-up areas and amid traces of ethnic animosity, the result was to move the vacant First District seat into a redrawn, 69-percent Latino area north and west of Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...

and to place Sunland-Tujunga into a reshaped Second Councilmanic District, already represented by Joel Wachs

Joel Wachs

Joel Wachs , was a Los Angeles, California, City Council member for thirty years and a three-time candidate for mayor of that city, who is now the president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York City...

. It was a Y-shaped configuration "with only a long, thin finger of territory" connecting Sunland-Tujunga on the north with Van Nuys on the south. A lawsuit against the plan was dismissed in late September by U.S. District Judge James M. Ideman

James M. Ideman

James M. Ideman is a former United States federal judge.Born in Rockford, Illinois, Ideman received a B.A. from The Citadel in 1953 and a J.D. from the University of Southern California Law School in 1963. He was a Lieutenant in the United States Army from 1953 to 1956...

.

Despite the fact that Wachs had struggled to prevent being assigned to a district that was 90 percent new to him, the councilman was warmly greeted when he arrived to meet his new constituents in a reception at the Sunland-Tujunga Municipal Building. He found an area with a down-home, rural flavor and about 30 percent of the voters in his new district. He told a reporter:

There hasn't been one nasty person, one hostile . . . They want to be friends. . . . In the second largest city in the U.S., that you can have an area like this to live in his just fantastic. Wherever I've gone, preserving the life style seems to be the No. 1 issue.

Wachs served on the council for 15 more years. He resigned effective 2001, and a city redistricting commission took the opportunity to propose a shakeup in boundaries, splitting the Second District in two. Before that could be considered, though, Wendy Greuel

Wendy Greuel

Wendy Jane Greuel is a municipal American politician. She is the 18th and current Los Angeles City Controller and former President Pro Tempore of the Los Angeles City Council representing the 2nd District, which includes portions of the San Fernando Valley.-Early Life, Education, and Early...

was elected to the City Council in March 2002, she reopened the Sunland-Tujunga field office (closed by Wachs) and the redistricting plan was never heard of again. Greuel served until July 2009. She was succeeded by Paul Krekorian

Paul Krekorian

Paul Krekorian is an American politician and member of the Los Angeles City Council representing the second district. He was previously a member of the California State Assembly, and the Assistant Majority Floor Leader representing California's 43rd Assembly District...

Home Depot controversy, 2004–2009

In January 2009, hardware company Home Depot announced it was giving up a five-year battle to turn a former Kmart

Kmart

Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...

store at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Woodward Avenue (the site of the former Sunland Drive-in movie theater), into a big box store of its own. The proposal had solid opposition from Sunland-Tujungans, whose neighborhood council had set up a page on their website to track Home Depot's plans. A group called the No Home Depot Campaign formed and created a popular website that gave almost daily updates on the battle and still exists today as an archive of that 5 year battle (www.no2homedepot.com)to stop the store from succeeding in its plans. The No Home Depot Campaign later became known as the Sunland-Tujunga Alliance and has since been involved in stopping many other bad projects from coming to the area. The Los Angeles Times reported:

Opponents also mobilized hundreds of people to turn out for meetings on the project, including a marathon seven-hour session that turned into a shouting match over day laborers and immigration. Home Depot, in turn, had retained a team of expensive lobbyists who arranged for buses to transport supporters to meetings at City Hall. In 2006, one of those lobbyists sent a memo promising to feed and transport 150 people in orange T-shirts to a City Council hearing where they would appear in favor of Home Depot — at a cost of $24,000 to the company.

After the City Council demanded that Home Depot carry out an environmental impact report, the company filed a lawsuit against Council Member Wendy Greuel

Wendy Greuel

accusing her of improperly interfering with the process. The company paid $2 million to lobbying firms on behalf of the project.

Demographics

In 2009, the Los Angeles Timess "Mapping L.A." project supplied these neighborhood statistics based on the 2000 census, showing that Sunland, including Shadow Hills, had a census-measured population of 28,414 in 2000. Tujunga was slightly smaller, at 26,527. In both Sunland and Tujunga, the percentage of white people was high for the county. The percentages of divorced males, married females and divorced females were among the county's highest.

Sunland (without Shadow Hills)

Population: 15,316. Median household income: $68,720, high for the city of Los Angeles but about average for the county. The percentages of residents 25 and older with a high-school diploma and some college education were high for the county.

Shadow Hills

Population: 13,098. It was a moderately diverse neighborhood. The area had a high family income. The median age at 39 was old for both the county and the city. The percentages of veterans who served during World War II or Korea and Vietnam were among the county's highest.

Tujunga

Population: 26,527. Median household income: $58,001. The percentages of residents 25 and older with a high school diploma and some college education were high for the county. The median age was 36, old for the city of Los Angeles but about average for the county. The percentage of residents ages 35 to 49 was among the county's highest. 9.7 percent of the population were veterans, high for the city of Los Angeles but about average for the county overall. The percentage of Vietnam veterans was among the county's highest.

Comparison of Sunland and Tujunga with nearby neighborhoods

Shadow Hills is given separately from the rest of Sunland. Most percentages are rounded to the nearest whole figure.

••	Sunland	Tujunga	Shadow Hills	Lake View Terrace	La Crescenta- Montrose
Population	15,316	26,527	13,098	11,803	18,057
White	65%	61%	60%	22%	66%
Latino	22%	26%	28%	53%	20%
Asian	7%	7%	7%	5%	20%
Black	2%	2%	1%	17%	½%
Household income	$68,720	$58,001	$82,796	$67,985	$82,693
College degree	22%	22%	25%	16%	41%
Median age	37	36	39	31	38
Single parents	10%	14%	9%	12%	9%
Veteran	12%	10%	11%	8%	11%
Foreign born	21%	30%	27%	32%	28%
Where?	Mexico, Philippines	Mexico, Iran	Mexico, Armenia	Mexico, El Salvador	Korea, Iran
Ethnic diversity	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	High	Average
Home ownership	69%	55%	78%	75%	65%

Education

In its early years, Sunland had its own school district — called Monte Vista— and Tujunga was also served by its own district. In March 1926, Tujunga voters approved a bond issue for a 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) high school site. On January 8, 1929, the county Board of Supervisors approved a petitions by Tujungans to join the Los Angeles School District.

Shadow Hills boundary, 1966–1976

A 1966 plan to require students of the equestrian community of Shadow Hills to switch from the overcrowded and virtually all-white Mount Gleason Junior High School in Sunland to the more diversified

Diversified

Diversified technique is the most commonly used adjustment technique by chiropractors. Like many chiropractic and osteopathic manipulative techniques, Diversified is characterized by a high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust...

Maclay Junior High in Pacoima was opposed by the Shadow Hills Homeowners Association. A charge of de facto segregation was made by Los Angeles Valley College

Los Angeles Valley College

Los Angeles Valley College is a community college located in the Valley Glen district of Los Angeles, California in the east-central San Fernando Valley. The school is a part of the Los Angeles Community College District....

instructor John Buchanan, who lived in Pacoima, and by the Sunland-Tujunga Human Relations Council, whose president, Paul Tsuneishi, said overcrowding at Mt. Gleason resulted in classes being held on an auditorium stage, a corrective physical education room and a multipurpose room. Shadow Hills, midway between the two schools, was an optional attendance area for either school, and 215 of its children were attending Mount Gleason, versus just 22 at Maclay. One African-American was among the 2,030 students enrolled at Mount Gleason, while 25 percent of the 1,200 students at Maclay were African-American and 27 percent were Mexican-American.

Glenn Haschenburger, president of the homeowners' association, denied the charge, stating that "We were not even aware of the racial composition at Maclay." He added that students were not taking a school bus to Maclay because "We believe riding and caring for horses is part of producing good citizens. They can't ride horses if they spend all their time riding buses to and from school."

The Los Angeles school board approved the boundary switch in a 4-3 vote on July 14, 1966. The Times reported:

Nearly 200 persons who filled the board meeting room greeted the action with boos and catcalls, including "Nigger lover!" "You've had it!" "Phony figures!" "My child will never go to Maclay!" and "The Communists started to take over in 1928!"

On September 19, 1966, a procession of about 40 cars followed a hearse from the edge of Shadow Hills to Mount Gleason Junior High, parents paraded with picket signs and leaders "removed a model red schoolhouse from the hearse and laid it in front of a mock headstone" as a eulogy to the concept of the neighborhood school.

Staff writer Jerry Cohen of the Los Angeles Times reported that

"A lengthening shadow hovers across the sunny, foothill community of Shadow Hills, the shadow of racial tension. . . . a pervasive bitterness has spread through the quiet neighborhood . . . Neighbor is set against neighbor ; . . . old friendships have dissolved. . . . Even churches and youth groups, the Boy and Girl Scouts, have been splintered by bitterness. Root of the discord is the dispute over which junior high school Shadow Hills children should attend."

The Times article was attacked by Edward L. Fike, editor and publisher of the Record-Ledger newspaper of Sunland-Tujunga, who wrote that "The suspicion grows and grows that the Board of Education by a one-vote margin knowingly sacrificed the Shadow Hills neighborhood upon the altar of forced integration as demanded by agitators and by the U .S. government as its price for federal aid."

Nine years later, it was said that the boundary change actually led to a drop in enrollment at Maclay as parents, both white and minority, moved their students elsewhere — sometimes through falsifying addresses and sometimes through a so-called Statement of Residence in which parents asserted their children would be living with somebody else five nights a week within a different school's boundaries. About this circumstance, Mike Castro of the Los Angeles Times wrote:

Mrs. Edna Susank, principal of Mt. Gleason Junior High in Sunland, said that discussions with parents when a false address is discovered reveals an adamant attitude, sometimes with table thumping, that they will not send their child to an inferior school.

Cross-district busing, 1977–1981

Sunland-Tujunga residents were foremost in a fight against mandatory busing for the purpose of school desegregation

Desegregation

Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...

in Los Angeles.

On January 21, 1977, an estimated 4,000 students — about half the total enrollment — stayed away from classes at nine Sunland-Tujunga schools as parents, led by Samm Ferris of Sunland, staged a one-day boycott to protest any idea of mandatory busing. About 35 "concerned mothers" picketed three elementary schools as well as Mount Gleason Junior High and Verdugo Hills High

Verdugo Hills High School

Verdugo Hills High School is a public school located in the Tujunga community of Los Angeles, California, United States within the Los Angeles Unified School District....

schools.

In May of the same year, Donna Kent of Sunland-Tujunga became president of the local chapter of Bustop, a citywide group opposed to the busing program. She said her chapter managed to raise $1,000 of the $5,000 needed monthly for lawyers, by holding raffles

Raffle

A raffle is a competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each ticket having the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn from a container holding a copy of every number...

, rummage sales and Tupperware parties.

In August 1980, as the school district was making plans to bus some students from Sunland Elementary School to Pacoima, about 100 parents met at the school to protest. Parent Betty Reeve said she and others had organized a "Yellow Flu" campaign to keep students away from school and show that "our kids are sick of riding a yellow school bus."

Nevertheless, a busing procedure resulted in white elementary students from Apperson Street, Sunland, Plainview Avenue and Mountainview elementary schools in Sunland-Tujunga being exchanged with minority counterparts in Lake View Terrace, Sun Valley and North Hollywood. Mount Gleason Junior High and Verdugo Hills High schools did not take part. Mandatory busing was ended by a decision of the California Supreme Court on March 12, 1981, and when the practice was finally stopped the next month, most of the Sunland-Tujunga pupils returned to their neighborhood schools, but most of the previously enrolled minority students continued to be bused into Sunland-Tujunga on a voluntary basis.

'Parent trigger,' 2010

By February 2010 Mount Gleason Middle School had been on a federal list of under-performing campuses for 12 years, and a group of parents organized to take advantage of a new state law in an attempt to force administrative changes. The law, dubbed the "parent trigger," could compel districts to take drastic action to fix failing schools if a majority of parents petitioned for an overhaul. In an interview, four parents told CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

reporter Thelma Gutierrez in October 2010 that Mount Gleason was unsafe and they wanted the principal ousted. An official of the Los Angeles Unified School District messaged CNN that the school had followed proper procedures and had taken "corrective action."

Today's schools

Sunland and Tujunga are within the Los Angeles Unified School District

Los Angeles Unified School District

Los Angeles Unified School District is the largest public school system in California. It is the 2nd largest public school district in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population...

. Residents are served by:

Apperson Street Elementary School
Sunland Elementary School
Mountain View Elementary School
Mount Gleason Middle School (founded fall 1958)
Our Lady of Lourdes School (Catholic Private School)
Pinewood Avenue Elementary School
Plainview Avenue Elementary School
Verdugo Hills High School
Verdugo Hills High School
Verdugo Hills High School is a public school located in the Tujunga community of Los Angeles, California, United States within the Los Angeles Unified School District....
Village Christian Schools (private)

Government and infrastructure

Police protection

The Los Angeles Police Department

Los Angeles Police Department

The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...

Foothill Community Police Station in Pacoima

Pacoima, Los Angeles, California

Pacoima is a district in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California.It is bordered by the Los Angeles districts of Mission Hills on the west, Arleta on the south, Sun Valley on the southeast, Lake View Terrace on the northeast, and by the city of San Fernando on the north...

serves Sunland and Tujunga.

Fire protection

Los Angeles Fire Department

Los Angeles Fire Department

The Los Angeles Fire Department is the agency that provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the city of Los Angeles....

operates two stations, Station 24 in Sunland and Station 74 in Tujunga.

Health protection

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services

Los Angeles County Department of Health Services

Health services to over 10 million residents in the Los Angeles County are provided by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Mental health services are provided by the County Department of Mental Health...

operates the Glendale Health Center in Glendale

Glendale, California

Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

, serving Sunland-Tujunga.

Library

The Los Angeles Public Library

Los Angeles Public Library

The Los Angeles Public Library system serves the residents of Los Angeles, California, United States. With over 6 million volumes, LAPL is one of the largest publicly funded library systems in the world. The system is overseen by a Board of Library Commissioners with five members appointed by the...

operates the Sunland-Tujunga branch in Tujunga,

Parks and recreation

Sunland Park was originally known as Monte Vista Park.

The Haines Canyon Park in Tujunga is an undeveloped park used for brush clearance. It is open to visitors from dawn to dusk; the Los Angeles Park Department said that it does not recommend the park for public
use.

The Sunland Recreation Center serves as a police department stop-in center. It has a 250-seat gymnasium that is also used as an auditorium. In addition the facility has a lighted baseball diamond, lighted outdoor basketball courts, a children's play area, a community room, a lighted athletic field, picnic tables and tennis courts. Annual events there include the Easter Carnival and the Watermelon Carnival in mid-August. In addition, the Verdugo Mountain Park is east of central Sunland and south of La Tuna Canyon Road.

Howard Finn Park, named after the City Council member who died in 1986, is a 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) park opened in late 1990 behind the Sunland-Tujunga Municipal Building.

Fehlhaber-Houk park was built at the northwest corner of Tujunga Canyon Boulevard and Elmhurst Drive on a 1.2 acres (4,856.2 m²) vacant lot donated by brother and sister J.L. Houk and Elizabeth Swanson in 1975. The parcel had been part of a 58 acres (234,717.9 m²) ranch owned by Raymond and Irene Fehlhaber.

Political representation

The area is within the following political districts:

25th Congressional District
California's 25th congressional district
California's 25th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California that covers part of Los Angeles County and extends out to broad stretches of interior California along the Nevada border. It includes the cities of Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Lancaster, and the...

, represented by Republican Howard McKeon
Howard McKeon
Howard Philip "Buck" McKeon is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...

of Santa Clarita
Santa Clarita, California
Santa Clarita is the fourth largest city in Los Angeles County, California, United States and the twenty-fourth largest city in the state of California. The 2010 US Census reported the city's population grew 16.7% from the year 2000 to 176,320 residents. It is located about northwest of downtown...

. Map: Congressional District 25

17th State Senatorial District
California's 17th State Senate district
California's 17th State Senate District is one of 40 Senate Districts. It is represented by Republican Sharon Runner of Lancaster.-District profile:...

, represented by Republican Sharon Runner of Lancaster
Lancaster, California
Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, in the high desert, near the Kern County line. Lancaster currently ranks as the 30th largest city in California, and the 148th largest city in the United States. Lancaster is the principal city within the Antelope Valley...

. Map: Senate District 17

38th State Assembly District
California's 38th State Assembly district
California's 38th State Assembly District is one of 80 districts in the California State Assembly. It is currently represented by Republican Cameron Smyth of Santa Clarita.-District profile:...

. represented by Republican Cameron Smyth
Cameron Smyth
Cameron Smyth is a Republican who has represented California's 38th Assembly district since December 2006. He succeeded Keith Richman who was term-limited...

of Santa Clarita
Santa Clarita, California
Santa Clarita is the fourth largest city in Los Angeles County, California, United States and the twenty-fourth largest city in the state of California. The 2010 US Census reported the city's population grew 16.7% from the year 2000 to 176,320 residents. It is located about northwest of downtown...

. Map: Assembly District 38

Fifth Los Angeles County Supervisorial District
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is the five-member nonpartisan governing board of Los Angeles County, California. Members of the board of supervisors are elected by district. They were as of December 2, 2008:*District 1: Gloria Molina...

, represented by Republican Michael D. Antonovich
Michael D. Antonovich
Michael Dennis Antonovich is a politician and the most senior-serving member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors...

of Glendale
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

. Map: Fifth Supervisorial District

Los Angeles City Council District 2, represented by Democrat Paul Krekorian
Paul Krekorian
Paul Krekorian is an American politician and member of the Los Angeles City Council representing the second district. He was previously a member of the California State Assembly, and the Assistant Majority Floor Leader representing California's 43rd Assembly District...

of Valley Glen. Map: Councilmanic District 2

Streets and highways

Streets within the Sunland and Tuna Canyon annex to Los Angeles were renamed in June 1929. The main east-west road, previously known as Michigan Avenue, became Foothill Boulevard

Foothill Boulevard (Southern California)

Foothill Boulevard is a major road in the city and county of Los Angeles, as well as an arterial road in the city and county of San Bernardino, stretching well over 60 miles in length, with some notable breaks along the route...

. Other streets were renamed as follows: Los Angeles Street to Apperson Avenue, Sherman Street to Hartranft

M.V. Hartranft

Marshall Valentine Hartranft , known as M.V. Hartranft, was an agriculturalist, a land developer and the president of the Glendale-Eagle Rock Railway in Los Angeles County, California...

Avenue, Center Street to Grenoble Avenue, North Street to Wentworth Avenue, Third Street to Woodward Avenue and Hill Street to Hillrose Avenue. Manzanita Drive was renamed McGroarty Avenue in honor of John Steven McGroarty, who lived nearby.

In the 1960s, the Sunland-Tujunga Chamber of Commerce took an active stand in opposition to routing the proposed Foothill Freeway through Shadow Hills, claiming the neighborhood's "rural atmosphere" would be destroyed and would wipe out 28 more homes than an alternate route.

After years of discussion and delay, the final stretch of the 48.6 miles (78.2 km) freeway — through Sunland-Tujunga— was scheduled for dedication on April 3, 1981, with State Transportation Director Adriana Gianturco presiding. Exits in Sunland and Tujunga are, from west to east, at Sunland Boulevard, La Tuna Canyon Road and Lowell Avenue (shared with La Crescenta).

Noted residents

Former Verdugo Hills High School students

Randy Bobb
Randy Bobb
Mark Randall Bobb was a right-handed catcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs.Originally drafted by the California Angels in the 3rd round of the 1966 amateur draft out of Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga, California, Bobb did not sign, opting to play at Arizona State University...

(1948–1982), Major League Baseball catcher
A Martinez
A Martinez
Adolfo Larrue Martinez, III , better known as A Martinez, is an American actor and singer with roles in the daytime soap opera Santa Barbara and the primetime dramas L.A. Law and Profiler.-Early life:...

(1948–), actor and singer
Howard McKeon
Howard McKeon
Howard Philip "Buck" McKeon is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...

(1938– ), member of the House of Representatives
Jaye P. Morgan
Jaye P. Morgan
Mary Margaret Morgan , known professionally as Jaye P. Morgan, is a retired popular music American singer, actress and game show panelist.-Early life:...

(1931– ), singer
John Purdell
John Purdell
John Purdell was a musician and record producer who is credited on such albums as the 1991 Ozzy Osbourne's heavy metal No More Tears and Dream Theater's Awake. He was born in San Diego and raised in Los Angeles...

(1959–2003), musician and record producer
Dick Smothers
Dick Smothers
Richard Remick "Dick" Smothers is an American actor, comedian, composer and musician. He is best known for being half of the musical comedy team, the Smothers Brothers, with his older brother Tom.-Life and career:...

(1939– ), comedian
Mike Stanton (1989– ), Major League Baseball outfielder

Sunland

Wavy Gravy
Wavy Gravy
Wavy Gravy is an American entertainer and activist for peace, best known for his hippie appearance, personality and beliefs. His moniker...

(1936– ), 1960s peace activist and prankster
Louis R. Nowell
Louis R. Nowell
Louis R. Nowell was a Los Angeles city fire captain who was elected to the City Council in the San Fernando Valley in 1963 and served until 1977. A conservative, he favored more growth in residential areas and opposed school busing for the purpose of racial integration. He pleaded no contest and...

(1915–2000), Los Angeles City Council member, 1963–77
Maja Trochimczyk
Maja Trochimczyk
Maja Trochimczyk is a Californian music historian, writer and poet of Polish descent...

(1957– ), poet
Tyrus Wong
Tyrus Wong
Tyrus Wong is a Chinese-American painter, muralist, ceramicist, lithographer, designer and kite maker. As film production illustrator in the film industry, Wong has worked for Disney and Warner Bros.. Wong's most famous work was for the Disney animated classic, Bambi.-Early life:Wong was born in...

(1910– ), artist and motion picture illustrator

Tujunga

David Ackles
David Ackles
David Thomas Ackles was an American singer-songwriter. He recorded four albums between 1968 and 1973.Describing Ackles's style in 2003, critic Colin McElligatt wrote, "An unlikely clash of anachronistic show business and modern-day lyricism...deeply informs his recorded output...

(1937–1999), singer and songwriter
Renée Adorée
Renée Adorée
Renée Adorée was a French actress who had appeared in Hollywood silent movies during the 1920s.-Early life:...

(1898–1933), French actress
James P. Cannon
James P. Cannon
James Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...

(1890–1974), leader in the Socialist Workers Party
Harry Carr
Harry Carr
Harry C. Carr , whose byline for most of his career was Harry Carr, was a reporter, editor and columnist for the Los Angeles Times. In 1934 he was given an honorable mention by a Pulitzer Prize committee on awards...

(1877-1936), newspaper columnist
Saralyn R. Daly
Saralyn R. Daly
Saralyn Ruth Daly is an American writer and translator.-Life:She earned a Ph.D from Ohio State University in English in 1950...

(1924– ), university professor
Joy Dawson
Joy Dawson
Joy Dawson is a New Zealand missionary and intercessor who has been teaching the Bible internationally since 1970. Her missionary work has taken her to over 55 nations. She has taught extensively on television and radio, and her books, audio and video tapes have been translated and distributed...

, missionary
John Ingle
John Ingle
John Ingle is an American actor known for his role as scheming patriarch Edward Quartermaine on the ABC daytime drama, General Hospital.-Career:...

(1928– ), actor
Kim Noller
Kim Noller
Kim Noller was the editor of the Mountain Enterprise, a weekly newspaper serving the Mountain Communities of the Tejon Pass and heaquartered in Frazier Park, Kern County, California...

(1945–2009), newspaper editor
John Steven McGroarty (1862–1944), editor, writer, poet, playwright
Bill Scott (1920–1985), writer and voice actor
Mike Vosburg
Mike Vosburg
Mike Vosburg is an American comic book artist primarily known for his work on the Tales from the Crypt TV series.-Biography:...

(1947– ), comic-book artist

External links

Organizations

Other

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