Suburbia Lost

San Fernando Valley residents, although generally pleased with their communities, are troubled by the quality of their schools and the safety of their streets, and less content overall than those living in the Southland’s other suburban areas, according to a new Los Angeles Times Poll.

The Valley, where the suburban dream first flourished at the end of a Van Nuys streetcar line, has evolved into a rich mix of race and culture--an emerging port of entry for immigrants seeking a better life.

But a Times Poll of Los Angeles’ suburban areas shows that residents view this new Valley as both good and bad.

Nearly eight of every 10 residents say they are still satisfied with their communities, but many say things are getting worse all the time. And Valley residents are not nearly as pleased as those who live in Ventura and Orange counties and in the San Gabriel Valley--or, in some cases, the rest of the city of Los Angeles.

The telephone poll of 2,385 people--including 501 in the San Fernando Valley--found high levels of satisfaction throughout suburbia, and the degree of contentment increased every step away from the heart of Los Angeles.

“You can see the progression,” said Susan Pinkus, director of The Times Poll. “In the older suburbs of the San Fernando Valley, residents are not nearly as happy as they are in Ventura County, where they want to pull up the ladder and keep things the way they are.”

But if Ventura County residents want to freeze time, many Valley residents want to roll back the clock because their suburban dream is turning into an urban experience. One of every four, in fact, say they no longer consider their communities suburban areas.

“People in the San Fernando Valley are part of the city of Los Angeles, so they don’t have the most basic thing that suburbanites want, which is control of their community,” said William Fulton, whose book “The Reluctant Metropolis” traces the growth of Los Angeles and its suburbs. “The Valley communities are in many cases nicer than those in the San Gabriel Valley, but Valley residents feel trapped in this big urban mechanism.”

Low Confidence in Public Schools

This disenchantment is spotlighted by Valley residents’ view of their public schools, which are part of the giant Los Angeles Unified School District.

Just 30% of Valley residents gave their schools good marks, A’s or Bs, compared with 60% in the San Gabriel Valley and 59% in Ventura and Orange counties, and 35% in the rest of Los Angeles. One in five Valley residents gave local schools poor or failing marks.

The Valley also had the highest proportion of residents who thought their schools were unsafe--13% compared with 6% in Ventura County and 11% in the rest of Los Angeles.

“It’s just not a place where I want to bring my family up anymore,” said Ricardo A. Valencia Jr., 50, of Van Nuys. “There is just a lackadaisical attitude of teachers and police. It’s always too big a problem for them to handle. And it’s going downhill fast. It’s like nobody cares. I like a community where everybody knows everybody.”

Valencia said he has established a second home in Eagle Rock, near Pasadena, where he sends his 16-year-old son to high school.

Of all the suburban areas, the Valley has the smallest share of residents who participate in community activities and socialize with their neighbors, according to the poll.

The poll also found that Valley residents felt most threatened by crime--53% of respondents rated gangs, drugs and crime their most important problems. Still, four of five of those living in the Valley said they felt at least fairly safe in their community.

If Valley residents worry about such issues, generally they still like where they live, particularly in the more affluent West Valley, where 69% of residents said they are entirely or mostly satisfied with their communities. That compares with 54% in the East valley.

Similarly, 35% of West Valley residents gave their schools good marks, compared with 27% in the east.

Shawn James, 33, a lifelong West Valley resident, said things are still very good in his neighborhood.

James is a stockbroker who swings out of his West Hills home each morning for a journey to Century City, then hustles back to reunite with his 2-year-old, Alexandra, and English wife, Christine, an office manager at a Westwood brokerage.

To James, the Valley’s sweltering summer heat is its biggest problem. He knows his neighbors, his mom and dad live two minutes away in Woodland Hills, and there is a terrific public school he’s already selected for his daughter.

“Believe me, there’s a decent number who still like living in the Valley,” James said.

Valley communities are notable because 36% of respondents are immigrants or the children of immigrants, the highest proportion in the suburbs, and nearly as high as the 40% figure for the rest of Los Angeles.

Increasing Diversity

Only 27% of Valley residents say they live in mostly white communities, the poll showed, compared with a suburban high of 53% in Ventura County and 19% for the rest of Los Angeles.

The Times Poll found that immigrants often pursue the American dream through a traditional path, home ownership: 52% of immigrants in Southland suburbs own their own homes, as do 63% of first-generation Americans. That compares with 58% ownership by residents who have lived in the country longer.

“In the Valley, and in all of Los Angeles, there is this churning,” author Fulton said. “In older neighborhoods, as people move out, immigrants move in because housing is cheap. This provides opportunities for upwardly mobile immigrants.”

Most Valley residents think the mixing of races and ethnicities in their communities is a positive, the poll showed. But one resident in five in the East Valley said that movement of minorities into their communities had diminished the quality of life. In the West Valley, that ratio was just one in 10.

Sense of Belonging

Chintana Lintong savors the Valley’s international flavor--the diversity of food and culture.

“It makes me comfortable,” said Lintong, 57, the wife of a Los Angeles accountant and former U.S. Army bookkeeper in her native Thailand. “The Valley has all the things I like.”

The onetime villager said she rarely thinks of the Valley’s problems when she meditates among the trees at Balboa Park or when she retires to a sleeping mat for the evening in her modest Van Nuys home.

“I sleep with my door open,” she said. “I like the natural air.”

Not since she immigrated to Reseda in 1969, nor since she bought her Van Nuys home in 1978, has Lintong been a victim of crime, she said. A woman on her block, however, she said, is forming a Neighborhood Watch group.

But to Lintong--who has moved three sisters to the Valley from their tiny village along the River Kwai--the worst thing about her neighborhood is aircraft noise.

“I came to the U.S.A. to see the world,” she said. “My husband likes it here, and I like it here, too. We don’t have problems here.”

The Times has explored Southern California’s changing suburbs in a yearlong series. The articles can be viewed on The Times’ Web site at http://ukobiw.net./suburbs.