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Attracting tourists to Los Angeles has never generally been a problem. The appeal of eternal sunshine, movie star sightings, and well-documented destinations means folks come here without much enticement besides a copy of US Weekly and a dream.
Of course, parts of the city have more stigma than widespread appeal for out-of-towners, including the much-maligned San Fernando Valley (see: Clueless, Swingers, et al). So a couple of years ago Mayor Villaraigosa said he'd "find $1.8 million in city funds to bring more tourists to the San Fernando Valley" reports the Daily News. Only, well, the SFV has yet to see a red cent.
Thanks to a city-level budget crisis--try "a $406 million budget shortfall that is the largest in Los Angeles history" on for size--the funds just don't exist, or are being allocated elsewhere. People like City Councilmember Wendy Greuel see an immediate corrolation between cash for the Valley and profits for the city at large, but LA Inc, the group in charge of marketing LA, have yet to devote funds specifically to the Valley.
Although there are some destinations in the Valley, or that are "Valley-adjacent," such as Universal Studios and Citywalk, as well as shopping meccas (though none more unique than any found elsewhere), it seems as if marketing the Valley as a travel destination to the recreational tourist might be an uphill battle. The bread-and-butter of tourism is often in conventions and meetings, many of which do take place in Valley hotels and business complexes, but might lack the appeal of the same such event taking place "steps from Rodeo drive" or near the beaches.
Further hampering the allure of the Valley to outsiders might be its obvious drawbacks; although the saying goes "everything is 20 minutes from everywhere" in Los Angeles, that person evidently never tried to cross over Coldwater Canyon at 5:00 in the evening. Add a less-than-desirable public transit system, a daunting web of freeways on which to take your rental car, and temperatures higher than the rest of the city and you've got a marketing conundrum. Is it any wonder the budget is sending the funds elsewhere?
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Do most Valley people really want tourists? The vocal NIMBY types there would likely much rather not have out-of-towners trampling on their front lawns. Or at least they would keep the tourists restricted to Universal City and Ventura Blvd. - which are really the only places in the Valley that tourists are interested in anyway.
Other than Universal Studios what's so interesting about "The Valley." That is, unless you make a shrine to where Pauly Shore filmed Encino Man in said city. I just don't think you can convince a tourist, much less a local, to believe that hanging out in Van Nuys sound cool.
We valley folk are indeed comfy with not being overrun with tourists (that's what Hollywood is for...). What makes the valley livable is that it is much less congested than other areas of the city...
That sucks because every time I have relatives in town from out of state I tell them to go check out all the cool sites in the valley. It's a shame that those excellent tourist destinations won't get the funding they deserve.
Seriously though, the valley? Come on now.
Yeah, I don't get this at all. I live in the Valley, and I like the Valley, but seriously: "Valley-centric tourism"? To where?
I mean, you could do the whole "workaday Hollywood" thing - The Universal backlot tour, the Warner Brothers VIP tour, the Jay Leno show, get some audience tix to tapings of their favorite sitcoms, see the 7 Dwarfs caryatids and the giant sorcerer's cap at Disney, yadda yadda yadda - but while that stuff is in the Valley, sure enough, almost all of it is in Universal City and Burbank, not the city of LA. So why spend LA city taxpayer money on it?
And while I'm a long way from a "vocal NIMBY", yeah, I'm perfectly happy to leave the thundering tourist hordes to the other side of the hill.
That's where all the ticky-tacky tourist crap they're looking for is located, anyway.
I long ago gave up trying to show people the really cool stuff in LA - all they want to see is the "Walk of Fame" and the Hollywood sign and Graumann's Chinese and Hollywood & Vine and the Venice boardwalk and Rodeo Drive and the Maps To The Homes Of The Stars.
I've always said that LA is a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit here. :-)
And that goes double for the Valley.
Seriously, if the City Council really feels an overwhelming need to spend that money, I say give it to the Library and cancel that idiotic $1-per-book interbranch transfer fee.
That'll do way more good for Valley residents than trying to persuade tourists to come here.
I live in the Valley, and I get why it's cool to live here and do everyday life here, but I agree that it's just not a destination, except for conventions and people who are seduced by the schlocky charmless tourisma that is Universal Studios. There are some totally cool Valley places, but I can't imagine someone landing at LAX and being STOKED about heading into Chatsworth or Valley Village or Panorama City for a day of... what? Poor Valley. No street cred.
you can drive around in circles in the parking lot where the police officers rode around w/ mclovin in on lassen and superior next to CSUN...?
from Superbad.
Oh yeah, and the flood control channels from Terminator 2!
and the Brady Bunch house. and where Alicia Silverstone got held up in Clueless (Circus Liquor). and the intersection where Erin Brockovitch got in the car accident that led her to the lawyer she would work for (Lankershim & Magnolia). and basically anywhere in a PT Anderson film (pre-"There Will Be Blood"). If we're talking movie locations we could go on, and on, and on...
Dude! Porn Theme Park!
My favorite one, though, is the 6200 block of Orion Avenue in the Cameron Woods neighborhood just north of the Sepulveda Blvd. Orange Line station.
According to local residents it's "the single most-filmed residential block in Los Angeles" (and thus, probably, in the whole world).
It's been used so often in commercials, movies, and TV shows that it can induce a weirdly powerful sense of déja vu in first-time visitors.
The white picket fences, the big suburban homes set back on deep, expansive front yards, the complete absence of palm trees, the gently meandering curve of the street... It's hard to believe that you're actually in Van Nuys.
Bonus location trivia:
P.T. Anderson's Magnolia, filmed entirely in the San Fernando Valley, features two exterior locations with street signs reading "Magnolia". Which two Valley intersections are those?
Hint: Neither one of them is actually Magnolia Blvd. :-)