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Demographics of San Fernando Valley in 1980?

posted 16 years ago by d5ive
2 replies | jump to latest

Every time I've driven through SFV, I noticed that most of the people I saw were Latinos. I was probably just driving through a Latino area, but for the longest time, I ignorantly thought that SFV was mostly Latinos.

I didn't know that Caucasians took up as large a population-- Wikipedia states:

"Latinos and non-Hispanic whites are nearly even in numbers. In general, communities in the northeastern, central, and southeastern parts of the Valley have the highest concentration of Latinos. Non-Hispanic Whites live mainly along the communities along the region's mountain rim and in the northwestern and southern sections of the valley."

Was this true back then? What's your recollection of the demographics?

Also, is there any hint to what part of SFV this is supposed to have taken place in?

[–] lfdow 16 years ago

I grew up in the SFV, in Encino and lived in Encino, Sherman Oaks, Northridge, Van Nuys and North Hollywood and I know the Valley very well. In the 50's - 70's, and even into the 80's in many areas, unless you went to San Fernando or Sylmar, you wouldn't see anything but white, Anglo faces, especially along the southern, western and northern rims. Except, that is, for such workers as gardeners, domestics and a few construction jobs. But the Valley's changed a lot in the last 20 years. I watched my neighborhood in (especially northern) North Hollywood go from mixed white/black to almost completely Hispanic in the 80's and the Hispanic influence has been spreading steadily ever since. I haven't seen this movie in a long time (just put it on my Netflix queue)but as I recall,there are scenes in Thousand Oaks and not too far off Ventura Blvd., all of which would have been white Caucasian. (I could easily be corrected on shooting locations.)

[–] cherubalways 16 years ago

I'm 48 and was raised in The Valley, specifically North Hollywood. Yes, the demographics have changed big time. The previous poster has it right.

The elementary school I attended was mostly white, as was my neighborhood. I went to two different junior high schools. One in North Hollywood with mostly white kids, the other in Sun Valley with mostly latino kids.

Many of the scenes in the film seemed like cobbled bits of all parts of the Valley (something we often use to laugh at watching our favorite t.v. shows that had been filmed in and around The Valley.)

The geography has changed tremendously since I was a teenager (plus, memory fades!) but I think I recognized Lake Hollywood, San Fernando Road in Sun Valley, bits of Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood.

The depiction of teen life then was spot on. That's exactly how me and my friends lived. Our parents were either self-involved, working overtime, hanging out at bars...

We were often left unsupervised. I got a kick out of the reference to the curfew. There was a citywide curfew of 10 p.m. which we mostly ignored (cops usually shooed us home.)

What a trip. Shine on!