Psychics See Better Year for Valley Than for Citron

Forget what you’ve heard about crystal balls, tea leaves and hocus-pocus to conjure up the future.

Prediction is all in the Tarot cards, astrology and common sense. So say three self-dubbed “psychics” from Universal CityWalk’s Wizardz shop.

After it was revealed that former Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron apparently consulted a psychic and an astrologer on financial issues just before the county went bust, the three soothsayers were asked Thursday for their predictions for the San Fernando Valley.

And if Kevin Ackerman, Stardawna and Joseph Barclay Ross shuffled those Tarot cards right, much bodes well for the Valley in 1996.

For starters, the Big One isn’t coming in the next year, said astrologer Ackerman.

And if it does come, the West Hollywood resident added, the epicenter won’t be in the Valley.

“Earthquakes will go up in the next few years in Southern California,” Ackerman said. “But we’re not going to fall into the ocean. This is realityland.”

Meantime, those tough-to-unload mansions will regain some of the value they lost over the last few years.

“Housing values in the Valley will rise 3% to 5% in ‘96,” said the turban-topped, three-piece-suited Ross. “There will be a surge in sales in spring, holding steady in summer and fall. This will be the major break the Valley has been waiting for for three to five years.”

Ackerman upped the housing price boom to 5% to 7%.

And the Valley as a whole will become “much hipper, much more sophisticated,” Ackerman said, prognosticating a virtual renaissance.

The hub of it all? None other than Van Nuys.

“I see a strong redevelopment in Van Nuys,” Ackerman wagered. “They’re trying to spruce up Van Nuys, make it more like Toluca Lake, Burbank. New companies will come to Van Nuys and the Valley.”

North Hills resident Stardawna prophesied the arrival of more entertainment companies, particularly to the West Valley.

Ross, of North Hollywood, saw “high-touch, high-tech” ventures, including massage-therapy shops, spiritual bookstores and ritzy restaurants. Kind of like the Ventura Boulevard of 1995, in fact.

West Valley communities such as Woodland Hills and Winnetka will lure political power and industry from Sherman Oaks and Burbank, they said, and crime will continue its downward trend, with sex crimes and murders falling but white-collar crime and carjackings on the upswing.

Accused serial killer Glenn Rogers?

“Convicted, unless he has the O. J. jury,” Ross said.

Chelsey Thomas of Palmdale, the little girl born unable to smile?

She’ll be smiling by 1997, Ackerman offered.

And Orange County?

“The economy will pick up in two years,” sayeth Ackerman.

Although Ross insisted that most psychics are more accurate than physicians, Stardawna offered a common-sense caveat.

“No, this is not a bunch of hooey,” Stardawna laughed. “But, don’t take it as the gospel.”

In other words, don’t bet the county on it.