Oh noes! Singer-actress Miley Cyrus had to hit up the emergency room last night after an at-home cutting incident. Oh, and by cutting we mean the kind with a kitchen knife. more ›

AOL's brand of local news websites are growing faster than ever. Just last week, LAist posted about two new Patches in the San Gabriel Valley and today are two more in North Hollywood/Toluca Lake and in Monrovia. more ›

There are some great lunches to be had in this town, and we want to celebrate the midday meal. So, let's do lunch, shall we? more ›

If one bureaucracy wasn't enough, try living on a street owned and operated by the cities of Los Angeles and Burbank. That's the case for residents along Clybourn Avenue in the Valley. more ›

The controversial issue of increasing the speed limit along Riverside Drive between the Burbank border and Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks was approved by a L.A. City Council committee in a 2 to 1 vote yesterday. The proposal, which will up the limit from 35 to 40 m.p.h., will be considered by the full City Council on March 5th. more ›

Patton Oswalt is not only a terrific comedian but also a concerned citizen. In "Toluca Talk," this Toluca Lake inhabitant takes calls from other Toluca Lake residents on environmental issues... sort of. more ›

Rain has caused some scattered power outages throughout the city today, leaving about 5,500 LADWP customers without service, according to department officials. Around 11 a.m., a utility pole's horizontal crossarm fell, knocking out power to some 2,400 customers in the Venice and West LA areas. Other areas with power outages include the Crenshaw District and Eagle Rock, each with about 1,700 customers affected. Power was lost around 1 p.m. in Crenshaw and about 2:30 p.m. in Eagle Rock. Earlier this morning, about 800 customers lost power in Toluca Lake at 9 a.m. Power there was restored around noon. UPDATE: Power has been restored in the Venice and West LA areas. The number of those affected in Crenshaw has been updated to 3,100. more ›

A man was shot in the hand yesterday afternoon after an alleged road rage attack, according to the LAPD. The 35-year-old man while driving on the northbound 101 freeway when at least six shots were fired at him, forcing him to exit onto Lankershim Blvd and stopping outside a body shop on the 4300 block near Bloomfield St. shortly before 3:45 p.m. The shooter crashed into a pole and ditched the car only to be found a few blocks away by police, ABC7 reported. more ›

Jazz musician and Hollywood composer Neal Hefti died Saturday in Toluca Lake at 85, the New York Times reports. Hefti, who also played trumpet, had his biggest influence in jazz arrangements and compositions, but in pop culture, his theme for the original Batman TV show is probably the most well known: "Oddly enough, his most famous tune is among his least musically interesting, even if it was somehow brilliantly apt: the jauntily arch and repetitive theme for the television series 'Batman. Mr. Hefti said that the show was so campy it took him weeks to come up with a suitable melody. It won him his only Grammy." more ›

Happy Meals, a new semi-regular series where I, an LA native, revisit places I ate as a kid, indulge in food and nostalgia, and see what’s changed and what hasn’t. more ›

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You saw that right, except for the date: It's Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl IV, airing all day Super Bowl Sunday. Not only is this a fun idea on their part (why subject your shows to poor overall ratings?), it's mesmerisingly watchable and a great way to keep the kids and pets occupied and away from your guests and food. Or maybe you're not (gasp) a football fan and just want to veg out? I wouldn't be surprised if Puppy Bowl had their own, Teletubby-like following among the tripping set. And yes, there is a "Kitty Halftime Show." more ›

The LA Times reports that copper thieves have been stealing the wire from streetlights in areas across the city where they think they can get away with it. Scratch that, where they can get away with it. more ›

Earlier this week I made a right turn out of a parking lot in order to avoid waiting a lifetime to make a near-impossible left turn. I found myself on a quiet side street in lovely Toluca Lake, and eyeballed my trusty GPS navigation screen in order to see if the road I'd taken would connect me through to a street I knew would hook me up with Riverside Drive and send me on my way home. more ›

We couldn't do a proper tribute to Late Night Eats in Los Angeles without a visit to the original Late Night Eats establishment, the one that started it all, the restaurant that embodies the very essence of car-hopping, car-worshiping SoCal burger culture: Bob's Big Boy. The Big Boy Burger was born in Glendale in 1936, the brainchild of Bob Wian (I know, the alliteration is getting a bit much for me too); the Burbank branch... more ›

View Larger Map Ventura Blvd. is well served by three bus lines, the 750, 150 and 240. During the day on a weekday, you can pretty much walk to a stop and find a bus coming. To the north of the Valley's famous boulevard is the Orange Line, which during the same times of day seems to run every few seconds (it's only at 12 a.m. am I waiting longer than 10 minutes). Sandwiched between... more ›

- You don't have to be in snow to say "mush." Try urban mushing in Costa Mesa. - "Cardinal Roger M. Mahony today apologized to victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese." - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa skips his monthly appearance on KABC-TV's Eyewitness Newsmakers because of personal questions. - By the 1930s, the Los Angeles streetcar system had nearly 600 miles of track and used more than 1,200 cars. Downtown... more ›

Universal City, CA - Announced last fall, it is supposed to be the Century City of the Valley. And according to a group named The NBC Universal MTA Project Working Group (a coalition of the surrounding community organizations), it will have 1.47 million square feet of new commercial and residential space, office towers (up to 24 stories tall), a 34 story (445 feet tall) condominium & hotel tower. They also contend that there will... more ›

- Attention Blacks - Dreamworks wants you to audition to be Donkey for the Broadway production of Shrek - Defamer - Was Mayor Tony up to the same monkeybusiness that the Frisco Mayor admitted to? - LA Observed - Now that we know where the Westside of LA begins (La Cienega), has the Associated Press determined that Toluca Lake is in the Hollywood Hills? - LA Brain Terrain - Muslim man in Van Nuys... more ›

Hey, remember when we were all like "Hey LAist peeps! We're moving to Hollywood! In only thirty days! YEAH BABY!" and everything was going great and we got some good tips on movers (Delancey Street) and neighborhoods? And if you'd asked me if thought I was going to be able to make it by July 1st I'd be all like "YOU KNOW IT!!!" Yeah, well, as of eleven o'clock this morning, that was how... more ›

Yesterday thousands of people participated in the weekend long Big Sunday event: more ›

A brush fire broke out just over an hour ago in the Hollywood Hills between Universal City, Burbank, and Toluca Lake. The fire broke out around the 3600 block of North Barham Blvd (shown above) according to KTLA. Nothing huge at this point, no evacs, but we're hearing about alot of smoke in the air -- and it ain't no barbecue. The chopper video shows flames creeping closer and closer to traffic. LAFD spokesman... more ›

It's certainly not the biggest farmer's market around--in fact it's pretty close to fledgling. Operational since last fall, the Toluca Lake Certified Farmer's Market takes over just one tiny block on Sancola, north of Riverside Drive. There are a few produce stands featuring excellent, although somewhat limited, selections of fresh local fruits and veggies, as well as at least one floral stand, craftsmakers with wares from soy candles to jewelry, tamales, baked goods, and... more ›

What were we thinking? Just a quick jaunt to our neighborhood Trader Joe's to grab some nibbly things and vino and appetizers (and, okay, some stuff to brown bag for work lunches this week) and we'd be in and out in plenty of time to catch the Red Carpet Arrival brouhaha on any of a handful of channels. Of course, everyone and their mother--like the gal and her mother we kept bumping into around every... more ›

Throughout this series, we will be asking fellow bloggers about their thoughts on Moorpark Street. LACityNerd summarizes a good list for us to start off with: more ›

Why focus on what seemingly and maybe a random street (to some) in the south rim of the Valley? Why look into the food, the drinks, the people, the graffiti artists and the neighborhoods along this street that one might call a collector, but these days, could easily be called an arterial street. Stuck between the 101/134 freeways and Ventura Blvd., Moorpark is just a way to avoid traffic for many. Ventura Blvd. gets... more ›

New Rule: If you build your house to be a castle in a nice and quaint residential neighborhood, your 3rd Amendment rights are stricken. more ›

Academically speaking, the above title (a quote from one of our commenters) is correct and it only took 15 comments to get there! Not every part of the valley is within city limits (haha, Wiki left out West Toluca Lake!) of the City of Los Angeles (as pointed out: there is Bizarrebank, Glendale, City of San Fernando, the occasional unincorporated Los Angeles County, etc). more ›