Best and Worsts / Valley Reader Write : Tributes Tell Why Valley Is Home

Couched as it was with reminders of the earthquake, the wildfires and the sagging economy, our question to readers was simple: Why do you stay in the San Fernando Valley?

In dozens of poems, essays and even a limerick, written on manual typewriters, computers or scrawled on note cards, you responded, defiantly defending your neighborhood, your strip mall, your Valley.

For some, it is the memories that keep you here: of orange groves, farmlands or the deer that once roamed the Valley floor. For others, it is as simple as the convenience of nearby malls or the endlessly sunny days. Others point to something less tangible, a collective spirit that rises in the face of each new disaster.

But we asked for your words, so we’ll let you explain. Here are some of our favorite remarks, illustrated with photographs by Brian Vander Brug about why there’s no place quite like the Valley to call home.

Where Else but in Los Angeles?

Where else in the world but in Los Angeles can you watch “Dragnet” and know that 3rd and Saticoy do not intersect?

Where else in the world but in Los Angeles can you be background scenery for the movie of the week?

Where else in the world but in Beverly Hills can you see a smiling Jamie Lee Curtis walk down the street in a white T-shirt and jeans torn at the knees?

Where else in the world but Los Angeles would you want to live?

MARTY O’MALLEY

Chatsworth