LOS ANGELES \u2014 A piece of Los Angeles history is coming down in North Hollywood.<\/p>\n
Demolition is underway at the former Valley Plaza shopping center, once the largest open-air shopping plaza on the West Coast and a symbol of post-war growth in the San Fernando Valley.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Valley Plaza opened in 1951 and was once the largest open-air shopping center on the West Coast
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The plaza helped define LA\u2019s auto-centric design, featuring thousands of parking spaces
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Competition from newer malls, fractured ownership, and damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake caused its downfall
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City leaders said the site could be redeveloped, potentially including affordable housing<\/p>\n
The 17-acre site opened in 1951 and was built around a then-radical idea: the car.<\/p>\n
Designed with thousands of parking spaces, Valley Plaza helped shape Los Angeles\u2019 car-centric culture and became a retail hub for generations of Valley residents.<\/p>\n
At its peak, the shopping center was home to major department stores and even drew a campaign stop from future President John F. Kennedy in 1960.<\/p>\n
But over time, competition from newer shopping centers, fractured ownership, and damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake contributed to the site\u2019s decline.<\/p>\n
After sitting vacant for years, Los Angeles city officials declared the property a public nuisance \u2014 clearing the way for demolition.<\/p>\n
Now, attention is turning to what comes next.<\/p>\n
City leaders said the property presents an opportunity at a time when Los Angeles is grappling with a housing shortage and budget pressures.<\/p>\n
Council member Adrin Nazarian, who represents the area, said the priority is ensuring redevelopment happens quickly and serves community needs.<\/p>\n
Even local historians said the urgency of housing can\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n
Evan Lovitt, creator of the popular social media account LA in a Minute, believes the site\u2019s size and location make it a strong candidate for affordable housing \u2014 a future that honors the city\u2019s past while addressing its present challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 A piece of Los Angeles history is coming down in North Hollywood. Demolition is underway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[26528,12862,151,153,152,387,7,6634,13,5999,136,5996],"class_list":["post-98391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-anna-albaryan","tag-app-local-business","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-business","tag-california","tag-los-angeles-app-region","tag-politics","tag-socal-what-you-need-to-know","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}