Reseda, Los Angeles, California
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Reseda, California is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California.
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Location
Northridge, Woodland Hills, Lake Balboa / the Van Nuys Airport and Canoga Park bound Reseda to the north, south, east and west. The concrete-lined Los Angeles River runs along the southern edge of Reseda.
Reseda is located at 34.201N, 118.535W. It is relatively flat and is approximately 740 ft. above sea level.
ZIP Code: 91335
Early history
The area now known as Reseda, California was originally inhabited by Native Americans of the Tongva tribe that lived close to the Los Angeles River. The vegetation was plentiful, and the natives worked a mere two hours a day to support themselves.
Reseda originated as a farm town named "Marian" that appeared in 1912. (Marian Otis Chandler was the daughter of Los Angeles Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis, a director of the L.A. Suburban Homes Co. syndicate.)
In 1905, after Edgar Rice Burroughs bought 550 acres (2.2 km²) near the intersection of Reseda and Ventura boulevards and named it "Tarzana" (after his famous fictional character), Reseda came to refer more directly to an area farther north.
About 1920, Reseda, named after a fragrant North African yellow-dye plant, Reseda odorata, which grows in the hot dry climates -- replaced Marian as a designation for a stop on the Pacific Electric interurban railway running along Sherman Way.
The population of Reseda in 1930 was 1,805. In 1940, 4,147. By 1950 it had topped 16,000 -- but the Ventura Freeway lay 10 years in the future, and most Reseda residents still bought most of their fresh eggs, milk, honey and vegetables at stands along Ventura Boulevard. The name "Reseda" was given first to a siding on a branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad in the south San Fernando Valley.
Development into a Suburb
Reseda was one of the first suburbs in the San Fernando Valley. Its large ranches were sub-divided and the area was developed by realtors just as the veterans of World War II were returning home. The earliest families came to live among orange groves which were successively plowed under in favor of housing. At the time, most of the jobs were in the Los Angeles basin, to the South, over the Santa Monica mountains.
By 1950, the Valley's population reached 400,000. The Valley pioneered the post-war baby boom, many of the children of which are today called the 'Yuppies'. The average new Valley home, in 1949, cost $9,000. By 1955, that same house could be resold for nearly $15,000. But even at that price, a household income only had to be $6,000 a year, not at all difficult, considering Valley incomes continued to hover above the national average.
By 1960, the average market value of a Valley home reached $18,850. During the 1970s, however, these costs and income patterns over the rest of the country began to reverse. Land and housing costs shot upward, while most incomes only crept. By the beginning of the 1980s, the average price of a home in the Valley reached $110,000.
Northridge earthquake
It is not widely known that the epicenter of the 1994 Northridge Earthquake was actually in Reseda. Some have suggested that this possibly reveals a demographic bias on the part of the media at the time. Northridge is a much more upscale community than Reseda, which is a downwardly transitional blue-collar and modest white-collar community. For example, per capita income in Northridge is US$24,122 while in Reseda it is US$15,142. For the State of California, that figure is US$16,409 (US Census 1990). Another odd incident was the failure of the media to cover the hardest-hit ZIP code in the city, 90016, in the Crenshaw District. Although located 20 miles from the epicenter, this area had the greatest concentration of destroyed and heavily damaged buildings in the city. The epicenter at first was reported as being in San Fernando, then a few hours later "somewhere near Northridge", and was pinpointed in Reseda about a week later. By this point, however, the media had dubbed it the "Northridge" earthquake.
Television, movies, and music
Today, Reseda's claim to fame is that it was the movie set of The Karate Kid and other Valley-oriented fare, including Arnold Schwarzenegger's car chase scenes down the channel of the Los Angeles River.
Tom Petty immortalized Reseda in his song "Free Fallin'" with the lines:
It's a long day living in Reseda
There's a freeway runnin' through the yard
And I'm a bad boy cos I don't even miss her
I'm a bad boy for breakin' her heart
Ironically(?), the 101 (undoubtedly the referenced freeway), technically does not pass through Reseda, but through the neighboring community of Tarzana, California.
Soul Coughing mentions Reseda in their song Songwriter's Blues:
you live
in Los Angeles
and you are going to
Reseda; we are all
in some way or
another going to
Reseda someday
to die
In Boogie Nights, the night club scenes were filmed at The Country Club on Sherman Way and Reseda Boulevard. The scene where Dirk prostitutes himself in a pickup truck was filmed in the Bank Of America parking lot across the street from that club. Burt Reynolds' character asks Mark Wahlberg's character if he was from "Reseda? Canoga?" (in reference to neighboring Canoga Park, California).
Features
The business and cultural centers of Reseda are Reseda Boulevard and Sherman Way.
Reseda is home to a large duck pond that lies inside the large Reseda Park at the corner of Reseda Blvd. and Victory Blvd.
Schools
Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, despite the name, is located in Reseda, kitty-corner from Reseda Park; Reseda High School (http://www.resedahighschool.com/) is also adjacent to Reseda Park.
External links
Construction of the "Northridge" Earthquake in Los Angeles' English and Spanish Print Media (http://www.csuchico.edu/geop/chr/scehc97.html)