THE VIEW FROM HERE-Welcome to the San Fernando Valley. We are a leader in education, recreation, energy- efficiency, and entertainment. It’s time to give the Valley its due! We are neither unsophisticated nor uncultured. We should be a role model for the rest of the City, worthy of emulation. Yet, we tend to get short-shrift politically and are allotted fewer allocations needed to build, grow, and renew our communities compared to what others expect and tend to take for granted.
We boast some of the best amateur athletic teams that have won CIF championships in football and basketball and produced such stand-outs as John Elway, Tom Ramsey, Charlie White, and Ontiwaun Carter.
The “real” stand-outs, though, come from our multiple award-winning Valley high schools. El Camino Real, Taft, and Granada Hills high schools have garnered innumerable National Academic Decathlon Awards. Reseda High school won the NJROTC Distinguished Unit Award. San Fernando High earned a place in the State Decathlon contest and claims outstanding programs under the umbrella of the Los Angeles Educational Partnership (LAEP)—which guides students through writing résumés and mock interviews for beyond-high school preparation.
Innumerable public golf courses abound, such as El Cariso, Encino-Balboa, Knollwood, Woodley, and Hansen Dam. The latter also sports a lake around which families can gather to picnic or even go boating. Many Valley high schools can sponsor golf teams because of their access to these courses. AYSO and club soccer are also popular activities that draw a lot of family attention.
The Student Recreation Center on the CSUN campus, paid for through “self-imposed” student fees, offers outdoor and lap pools and a number of courts for a variety of other sports. There are exercise and nutrition centers and a boxing facility. Baby-sitting services are similarly available.
The university has paid special attention to mandating environmentally-positive construction. The elliptical machines at the sports center produce renewable energy. Fin windows diffuse light so as to redirect glaring streams of sunlight, therefore minimizing air conditioning demands during the scorching-hot days of summer. Solar rooftop tubing is generally utilized as well.
A crown jewel set on the CSUN campus, serving the greater community, is the Valley Performing Arts Center. (See photo above.) It houses a state-of-the-art facility where one can take in magnificent performances by symphonic orchestras, dance ensembles, opera and other musical theatre. Also associated with the facility is the flexible experimental theatre. Junior and senior high school students can take advantage of the superb summer programs which expose them to nearly every aspect of the entertainment field.
As an environmentalist, myself, I am particularly proud of its inspired architecture with its vaulted ceilings which claim “LEED gold certification for its commitment to energy efficiency and the use of sustainable materials.”
In fact, energy produced on this campus powers many of its buildings and the drought-tolerant landscaping reduces the need for high levels of irrigation and labor-intensive maintenance. This low-water use is especially important during this time of state-wide drought conditions.
What made me think about the Center recently and its prominence in our community is the Valentine’s evening performance my husband and I enjoyed on the 14th. It was just one of a myriad of outstanding performances we have attended there.
The Center staff was so welcoming as it took pictures of patrons and offered dessert and wine and other beverages prior to the rise of the first curtain which revealed a splendid stage filled with ballerinas cloaked in wispy, angelic gowns.
The second portion of the ballet featured a short version of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, an interpretation that was quite impressive. So many curtain calls ensued that I am certain the danseurs were genuinely touched by the American enthusiasm for their artistry.
Earlier in the evening we had had the opportunity to meet with some of the ballerinas from the Moscow Ballet. Though speaking little English, they were still so forthcoming, friendly, and eager to chat and take pictures with us, some of which will appear on the Performing Arts Facebook Page.
I had the chance to mention how I had been able to take students to the Soviet Union/Russia in 1992 (during the time when Al Gore was being nominated as Clinton’s VP). My rather large group had the pleasure of attending a Kirov performance in St. Petersburg of Fiddler on the Roof with its Marc Chagall-inspired backdrop. The performance was especially moving because, despite the amount of anti-Semitism that was rampant throughout that nation, the performance was able to put all that aside. Though these ballerinas were likely just tots at that time, they seemed to understand the source of my emotion now.
That night the audience was mesmerized by Romeo and Juliet, a timeless story of anger and forgiveness, of love and loss, of purity and villainy—but with the ultimate message that we all share the same emotions wherever we live in the world, a reminder that we are more alike than different and all envision similar hopeful futures.
Thus, through cultural exchanges such as what the Performing Arts Centers has to offer, we can open up our mutual worlds to each other. Perhaps, if there were more of these cultural exchanges and less political drama, our nation would be richer for it, offering greater prospects for world peace.
In the meantime, the San Fernando Valley (with its Performing Arts Center and so many other inviting sites) will continue to lead the way to bring all of this about. Hey, you across-the-hill Angelinos, come to the Valley to see for yourselves all that we have to offer!
(Rosemary Jenkins is a Democratic activist and chair of the Northeast Valley Green Coalition. Jenkins has written Leticia in Her Wedding Dress and Other Poems, A Quick-and-Easy Reference to Correct Grammar and Composition and Vignettes for Understanding Literary and Related Concepts. She also writes for CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 14
Pub: Feb 18, 2014