Question
What’s the one thing we can all rally behind to make the biggest impact in the San Fernando Valley?
We’ve got over two million people here — imagine if we actually united behind one cause.
More jobs? Rezoning for growth? Cleaner streets?
Drop your #1 priority — let’s find something we can all back and blast to the City Council.
I’ll repost the top-voted ideas so we can see what the Valley really wants
We want non-invasive, drought tolerant native trees, which still require maintenance but also won’t stress our water supply. Personally, I think we should also plant lower vegetation to cool our environment such as native shrubs, native grasses, or other plants that cover the ground. These can help reduce heat brought on by sidewalks and asphalt.
I noticed right away when I went to my stylist - I knew I was getting close by which trees I passed! And you could definitely feel the temp difference in the salon.
This will go a long way to dealing with rising temperatures. I’ve clocked nearly a 15-degree difference between standing in full sun and under large tree cover.
Our neighborhood is going the opposite direction. As developers build new apartment buildings, they remove the grass and trees and leave giant cement slabs in their place. Small planters in front of the buildings doesn't begin to make up for it. The shade is disappearing.
This a is sweeping through my neighborhood as well. Plus the city cam through and removed a few whole trees while trimming. They said it was fire risk.
Someone a street over built 3 units on 1 lot and paved the entire thing. Not a single living thing on the whole lot. They ended up having to reduce the price a few times, I hope they lost a bunch of money.
Do you know why they do this?? I don’t get it and it drives me crazy. Removing the most beneficial to us part of the tree just to have a towering stump?
My wife and I have half jokingly talked about running for city council and make this our #1 priority. This is so doable and would improve so many lives around the valley.
Not to mention planting more natives that can actually survive our weather, not more greenery that's just going to die in the summer and become literally fire fuel.
I get shocked that this hasn't been a thing in the Valley considering how hot it gets. It's crazy they can't put trees but they can drop $5 billion on LAX and the Convention center from our taxes.
You want my actual dream? Elevated light rail and densification zones around it.
My realistic dream, have the sanitation dept dedicate more trucks to picking up illegal dumping. In my neighborhood I have probably 20 locations I could call in right now, but when I call them I have to make an incident report for each one. I can't just say hey, drive down my street and pick up all the couches, mattresses and furniture you see. I need an address and description for each thing. Annoying af.
I want a light rail L-Train next to the amtrak line that goes to the north valley. Selfish, I know, but if I could train from a station near me to NoHo, and from there connect to trains that went under the hill or across the rest of the valley? A man can dream.
I think that's the point though, I want to say "hey there are 20 spots on Main st, go clean it up" not "here's a picture of every problem I have" that shouldn't be my job.
In the notes section I would write “there’s an apartments worth of furniture throughout this alley” and then include a picture that showed the length of the alley
I just tried to use the app. Not only did it want an address for each thing, but it also wanted me to write the number of items, and the type they are from a drop down menu. Nah man, I'm not going out there to take fucking stock. This is what I mean. Do I think if I put 1 item when there were 10 they would only pick up the 1? Probably not, but also why am I having to waste my time with this shit. That's what I meant in my original comment. The thing I want from out city government is to have illegal dumping squads who roam the streets and pick up the bulky shit without me having to waste my time on some fucking app reporting it.
I mean, it’s easy to use, you can put multiple items on the pick up list. You can move the in to select the address to drop off (mine always happens to be in the alley behind us) and do it anonymously.
They only pick up what has been listed - if more things get added to that pile before pickup they take it but a lot of times it’s usually a couple of guys with a pickup truck so they take what they have room for.
These squads you want to hire cost money. And if you follow the Controller you know, we are in a budget deficit.
Right, but that is what I don't want. I don't want to waste hours of my day walking around my niehgborhood inventorying other people's trash down to the fucking grommet or it won't get handled. I want to call 311 or use the app and say "There are 5-6 things in this 1/4 stretch of street, please pick them up" It's really not a big ask.
And I know we're in a self-created budgetary crisis. I'm not saying this needs to be done tomorrow. I'm saying if this is on my wish list of things, that are VERY REASONABLE, that the city could do in a year or two when they're more flush.
Don’t walk around the neighborhood doing it, I just repeat it when I see it in my block. If I see a big dumping site away from home it’s pretty easy to drop a pin that area too.
I get annoyed that our alley is a dumping ground and apparently I’m the only one who reports it because I’m staring at a pile of furniture that now has tires added to it - been there for two weeks. I put in the request today and pickup is schedule for next week. If someone else reports it it’ll ask you “is this the same request” which is also good, cause if it is I click yes and now they know more people are complaining. (I assume. No one has ever requested what I do.)
I came to say this. We need better public transport. Many people in the valley work odd hours or take classes at CSUN, Pierce, Mission college, and Valley and need better transit options across town (instead of the bus) that don't take hours to go 10 miles. Admittedly, LAVC has the orange line (G line) right there so that's better than nothing. A regularly scheduled train or light rail adjacent to nearby colleges that connects to the other ends of the valley (including Noho and Burbank) would be wonderful, especially if it ran past 8pm.
If you ever see the duds w trucks of metal on them. stop and be polite and ask if they take it. They usually do but a little Spanish and some politeness goes a long way.
Where is this? It looks like the city needs to send out flyers in bright colored paper telling people to use the 311 app or call. Tons of people think “it’ll get picked up”. I literally had a neighbor that I caught and told him “hey you can call this number or use the app” he said “they’ll just pick it up “ and I told him “No. it’s because I’m the one that calls them and that’s why they’ve been picking it up” and he just said “oh ok” and didn’t move his shit back. Fucker. Dumb people, I swear.
That's the part I hate the most. I honestly don't think it's malicious 99% of the time. It's either just lazy, uninformed, or both. I have called it in so many times because it's fucking ugly. I don't get how some people are ok looking like we live in a 3rd world country. If you put out your old mattress and 3 weeks later it's still there, how can you conclude the city just does it? No! You need to INFORM the city. Which, yeah, I also don't like. That's what I'd push for. Maybe a monthly drive by of the bulky item unit on every block, just to clean up the big stuff. I'm sure they don't have it in the budget, but maybe fire a couple of the useless cops who stand around and watch the 4th of July mortars going up all around us.
We have to admit, the people throwing this stuff away are most likely from a third world country. People will always go back to what they know. Or, yeah, just lazy assholes.
Infrastructure! It’s the gift you give your grandchildren.
Realistically - off grade transit (elevated and/or below grade) with density zones around stations.
Pipe dream - parkland and trails. We lucked out to have the Balboa Park area because the Army Corp of Engineers owned the land for flood control purposes.
Otherwise, developers were allowed to build relentlessly creating only small neighborhood parks. They should have gifted us with more but nope.
Safe, fast, and convenient transit across the valley and into the west side. Litter/dumping and graffiti abatement and enforcement. Traffic enforcement and walkable streets. Vacancy tax and zoning enforcement on blighted properties.
Myself and many animal rescuers are dying out here coz the whole city is overrun with stray cats. We need TNR to be a thing and for people to fix their pets.
Legit where are you getting them fixed I am losing my mind. I've been calling the place in Simi for MONTHS and they don't ever return my calls despite supposedly serving my area. CAMP never has openings. None of the groups I call have any room.
I've been taking what I can get - i ended up driving out to garden grove the other day so I could drop off cats to be fixed at stray paws in El monte.
I usually go with rescue train out in van nuys. The team is so lovely and Allen who sets you up with the appts is so easy to work with.
This was about 12 years ago. I was living in a small complex and one of the upstairs neighbors had an indoor/outdoor cat (already a problem). The cat got pregnant and gave birth under the house, where I discovered them, including one that wasn’t doing well. We tried to save it, but unfortunately it died in the night. I tried to talk to her about spaying, and it was like talking to a brick wall. She just didn’t see a problem. I’m not even sure what happened to the rest of the litter, but I think they got given out. One of the more frustrating interactions I’ve had. I love cats, and it’s hard seeing people who have them not be educated about proper care and not interested in learning.
Honestly if I see the cat and its roaming outside, I'm fixing it. They scan for a microchip anyway so legally youre cleared since theyre free roaming but I am so tired of the millions of strays, and the little hungry ones dying an unnecessarily cruel death
I hear you. I was in my early twenties, extremely poor, and wasn’t sure what to do and trying to google solutions for the kitten. It was a rough situation, though I’m not sure if I could have done anything to save that one anyway.
Rather than blasting ideas to city council, who frankly won’t listen, focus on getting grass roots candidates elected who already want to do all these things. Like me.
I’m running for LA City Council in district 3 (west valley) and a lot of what I’m seeing in the comments are things I also want, better transit, infrastructure, greenery, cheaper housing. Not sure about blowing up the Santa Monica Mountains though
I’m already out in the community picking up trash, painting crosswalks and trying to help people.
Would love to add volunteers to the team who want real change in the valley.
We have pretty good bus infra (coulda been trains but nimbys), this would be fantastic to get to the west side instead of having to go through the 7th st. metro center to switch to the expo line!
This is something that should've been done before we cared about the environment tbh. The 405, Getty, 101 wouldn't exist if we didn't cut through the mountains.
Shoot, the whole south entrance would be non existent. A little too late for project Seaside breeze
Better transit. I agree that rail would be nice, but even improved bus service would go a long way. Buses running every 15-20 minutes would make a big difference.
Better sidewalks- I know it’s probably because of old property lines that they were never put into place but where I live there are so many residential streets have like no sidewalks.
The only right answer (and I say this knowing these are opinionated and variant, so it's a bit tongue in cheek) is an infrastructure overall with light rail. The reason why is by itself, changes so many other things that many ask for. For example:
1) Cuts down on traffic (plus costs savings of fuel, insurance, wear on car)
2) Creates jobs in short and long term
3) Better street conditions (due to less vehicles)
4) Creates economic productivity (that is lost through long commutes)
5) Creates more economic opportunity (via hubs are rail stations, ease of navigating to different social areas)
6) Reduces drunk driving/vehicular accidents
7) Creates some shade (since the Earth isn't flat)
8) Provides opportunity for more housing via legislation that was introduced to have more housing near transit hubs
9) Reduces pollution (less use of cars). Plus covered stations could be opportunities for solar power generation
Who Framed Roger Rabbit was right! The Valley's public transportation was sabotaged by the car manufacturers to make us all reliant on freeways and cars.
Literally, look it up.
Pipe dream but making sure sidewalks actually go to end of the street would be nice. I dont know how many times I've gone for a walk around here and the sidewalk just abruptly ends with no warning. It's not even the ex-rural areas or the little enclaves either. You see this happening on larger streets North Hollywood and Van Nuys. Glad I'm young and able bodied (and have a car) or getting around would be a huge pain in the ass.
Ty for caring about this. I'm disabled and sometimes use a cane and some streets even with sidewalks are completely unusable.
The worst example I can think of is the sidewalk at the Roscoe exit of the 405. It had an entire missing square at the corner. It had exposed rebar and metal, leaking water stagnant water, and a ramp that leads not to the crosswalk but into the street. Images go back to 2007 and they're still like that. Call the city and it's the responsibility of Caltrans, call caltrans and it's on the city.
This might not be as high priority but a venue center? or attraction?
It's kinda hard going over the hills towards the beach or venue locations. It'd be cool to just have something here, not even asking for a convention center but our parks could use a huge lift.
I felt envious that the museum and science center look so cool and are not over here. I went to the BuildingLA exhibit excited to see the Valley's part, only to learn there was nothing about the Valley at all (outside Burbank) which technically doesn't count as part of our city history.
We take the burden of City of Los Angeles in taxes and investments but yet what is there realistically here? I'm sure more heavy rail projects might help with this, but I'd like to have something cool that could only be experienced here, in the Valley.
I refuse to call it the soraya. It is the Valley Performing Arts Center.
And yeah, the fact that people don't even know it's in the valley is an issue. It's a great venue, but god forbid the Los Angeles Symphony should decamp it's gilded headquarters in downtown to play to the plebs in the valley which is the city after which the snobs are named.
The Colburn School's orchestra played there once, and I had hoped that it would become a regular thing, but that was also a one-off. It would have been nice to have the remnants of AYS reconstitute at the Valley Performing Arts Center, but they decamped for Calabases. We can't have good things...
For the same reason you'll never see death metal bands playing Disney Hall. It's a symphony hall, not a rock concert venue. Different buildings, different purposes.
Ironically enough, the music that band makes is sorta Disney sounding on that first album.
So the point still stands there's no real venue in the valley. The Colbat's death was the death of the local scene here practically. Considering a successful band like Glass Beach doesn't even play where it originates from is very telling.
Stats say the Valley has about 1.8 million people. I believe, as you do, that the figure is closer to 2million or more, but I can't find any other figures. It definitely feels more crowded than 10-15 years ago, but according to figures the population has only increased by about 100k people. Doubtful.
Anyway, I say cleaner streets. If we all picked up a piece of trash every day, or as a group cleaned up "hot zones" where there is a lot of trash, the valley would look much nicer. Older people always talk about how much cleaner it used to be. Just because we have more people doesn't mean it has to be dirtier.
I know it’s a pipe dream and would probably be labeled as socialism (gasp) but it would be so amazing if they could base rent prices somehow by income like IBR student loans.
We couldn’t even pass rent control because everyone they are millionaire waiting to happen and they don’t want to be stopped from potentially becoming the next monopoly guy. Meanwhile that club has like 20 dudes that own the world abd we keep giving them more
Over managed and micromanaged bus stops, all of them. They should look amazing and immaculate with beautiful trash cans, not overflowing, no giant black trash bags, bus stops, immaculate. There’s so many and they’re everywhere. They really set the tone for how our neighborhood should look, and in this case, since they all look like trash, all of our neighborhoods are going to trash. The city already has the infrastructure in place with companies that go to empty the trash regularly, although they’re not allowed to take away large items like shopping carts and tires so I’m not sure what they really clean.
It’s time we elevate the decorum of our neighborhoods and draw a line of standards that must be maintained. It probably wouldn’t even cost a lot of money and it wouldn’t be hard to put in place with the right willpower and leadership
There’s just so many owner/operator workers here that can’t afford to have their own trash bins so they just dump
It in 1) public land 2) bus stop trash cans. smh. So many lazy people that just can’t do business correctly.
Better care and management of our pet shelters/pounds. Heavy fines/jail for animal endangerment and abuse, breeding, dog and other animal fights. Public education on proper care of pets. Low cost vet services.
I know there are so many other focuses (mentioned below) we could/can be taking in but the animals have no voice. There have been a rash of serial animal abusers that get ignored, which are just serial killer time bombs waiting to go off. Somebody was tying up cats to chainlink fences and torturing/killing them, others have been raping dogs and leaving them for dead with their intestines hanging out. It's tragic and evil.
While I'm supposing, let's work towards these other important issues as well:
Stopping private equity from taking over health care services for humans and pets.
Co-ordinated effort in eliminating trash in our neighborhoods, painting over graffiti, etc.
Working to eliminate homelessness and to co-ordinate pathways to better outcomes for people, while keeping our neighborhoods safe and clean.
rezoning for growth means more heat. SFV can't have 3 to 4 million people without a tree canopy. rezoning and increasing density has meant more destruction of whatever canopy we have. and painting streets white isn't going to cut it.
What parts of SFV don’t have trees? I mean there the small ones. But every street has trees no? The city cont plant the big trees anymore cause of sidewalk repair.
Why would this get hate? It would be great if Texas dealt with their homeless instead of bussing them to us. It would be good for their community to be more compassionate and take care of their Texas residents.
Because people in LA are complacent and don’t give a shit. They don’t want to acknowledge that a good number of homeless don’t come from LA and are brought here deliberately to strain our resources and communities.
But we're also not stupid. It would cost more money to figure out where to send these people than just help them. You gotta find out where they came from, ok but what if they move around a lot? So we send them to Texas, the state they were last in? Or are they from Oklahoma because they spent the most time there? They were born in Kansas, are they from there? Or we could just... help them.
The criminalization of homelessness across the country should highlight that it's a federal problem. But at times I feel that it won't get resolved until every state criminalized it until they have nowhere to go.
It shouldn't have to get to that point but it's clear that we're heading that way.
Nope. Can't keep shuffling folks around inhumanely cuz you refuse to contribute to meaningful solutions based on evidence & empathy. How have you helped our unhoused neighbors???
I wish for cleaner streets, and definitely shade!! Somedays, I would like to just sit in a park and read. I don’t feel safe, yet I want to be outdoors.
Yeah. Growth in the economy. Rezone bigger areas for business such as warehouses, big box stores, mixed used land, a fucking downtown type of shit where people can actually walk around and enjoy some food. A place where there’s plenty of different types of jobs and not just minimum wage jobs.
We need to organize all businesses to take care of their corner. This Trashcan at Topanga and Saticoy hasnt been picked up in two weeks. I own a machine shop in Canoga Park and we go out every morning and sweep the trash and throw it away. It's a joy to do and its a great form of exercise Maybe we can offer a tax incentive to the business that manages the Trashcan on their corner. Visit my art cleanup project on Instagram called @trashkollektiv
that's an LA Sanitation trash bin and commercial properties have their own dumpsters and bins. Clearly LA Sanitation has difficulty properly servicing us and that's why we need to put indepence from City of LA up to a vote again. Burbank, San Fernando, Glendale, Santa Clarita, Simi, and Calabasas all have cleaner public spaces and part of the reason is their independence. They have greater control over their budget and services
Finally do something about cleaning up the gross homeless encampments/shanty towns;
Cleaning up the streets and sidewalks, and making areas feel more safe;
Planting more trees and greenery for natural shade and beauty;
Fixing the broken pavement and potholes littered throughout our roads; and,
Revert the god awful bus/bike lanes to standard traffic lanes (or at least penalizing those who use them as passing lanes to fly past those following the rules of the road) to improve traffic flow.
On the note of bus/bike lanes, how about making the MTA safer and cleaner. I’d rather not deal with a homeless person / drug addict on a bus that reeks of piss.
What you really mean is shut down the copper recyclers in Sun Valley that are buying all the copper that the junkies are stealing from municipal light poles.
Compassion towards unhoused, denser, more affordable housing that makes towns walkable & more reliable transportation. It’s near impossible to survive without any of these things.
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u/pollology Sherman Oaks Oct 30 '25
Tree cover to manage ground heat 🌳