David Udoff fondly remembers how his mother would drive him and his brother to Valley Plaza in her avocado Dodge Dart. <\/p>\n
The family would shop at the once-vibrant and bustling selection of retail businesses. They would visit the Sears, a bakery and the animatronic fortune-telling machine in front of the drug store. Then, they would lunch on Salisbury steak and Jell-O platters at Schaber\u2019s Cafeteria.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good old Valley days,\u201d the 67-year-old former North Hollywood and Toluca Lake resident said of his family outings in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
Now, swathes of the historic San Fernando Valley mall are being demolished, after years of complaints from neighbors that the collection of vacant buildings and parking lots had fallen into disrepair. <\/p>\n
The Valley Plaza, which opened in 1951, was among the first and largest open-air shopping malls on the West Coast, and a major center of commerce. <\/p>\n
In its heyday, the sprawling complex of suburban buildings and modernist high rises drew crowds and even a visit from John F. Kennedy during his 1960 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n
The demolition, which began this week, came after a panel of Los Angeles city commissioners appointed by Mayor Karen Bass voted in August to declare much of the site a public nuisance. <\/p>\n
The vote greenlit the destruction of six buildings in the plaza. Some structures deemed historic, including its iconic 12-story, 165-foot-tall tower \u2014 among the first skyscrapers built in L.A. <\/a>\u2014 will be spared.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crazy that it\u2019s happening. It has been an eyesore in the Valley for so long,\u201d said Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. \u201cWe\u2019re excited we are going to have something built there that will be usable.\u201d<\/p>\n The site had drawn squatters, and nearby homeowners voiced concerns about crime and potential fires.<\/p>\n Waldman, who lives nearby, said watching the mall\u2019s deterioration \u201chas been sad.\u201d <\/p>\n He said he expects the property will be turned into a mixed-use commercial and residential space, as was done in the development of NoHo West, which repurposed the site of the former Laurel Plaza mall and a Macy\u2019s department store.<\/p>\n But Waldman warned it could be an uphill battle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to build in L.A. It is expensive, and the city makes it difficult,\u201d Waldman said. \u201cI hope someone\u2019s going to take a chance. It\u2019s an opportunity to help the community while also making a profit.\u201d<\/p>\n The influential regional shopping center was an early example of how building entrances were reoriented to face large rear parking lots instead of streets and sidewalks, emphasizing vehicle access from newly built freeways, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was our stomping ground,\u201d Jack McGrath, a former president of the Studio City Chamber of Commerce, said in a video series on Valley Plaza published by the news outlet Patch in 2013.<\/a> <\/p>\n McGrath, in the video, described how thousands of people crowded into the mall\u2019s sprawling parking lot to see Kennedy speak. <\/p>\n \u201cThis man was absolutely handsome, and more importantly, he had the best-looking tan I\u2019ve ever seen on a man or a politician,\u201d McGrath said. \u201cThe women were goofy, looking at this fellow.\u201d<\/p>\n The shopping center\u2019s decline began with the rise of big-box retail, as well as competition from other newer malls in Burbank and Sherman Oaks. Economic strife in the 1990s and damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake also dealt blows, pushing some businesses to permanently close. <\/p>\n