Ventura Boulevard Goes Ape

It’s the real-life home to much of Hollywood. CBS and Universal are in the neighborhood, and other major studios reside nearby. Industry moguls broker deals at its coffeehouses and pasta parlors. And its high-end boutiques attract some of the biggest names in front of and behind the camera.

So why isn’t Ventura Boulevard more hip?

Perhaps it’s the aluminum monkeys dangling from Tarzana lampposts.

A coalition of business and home owners is once again trying to glitz up the boulevard’s image, but some call the efforts a longshot. Among the glamour-promoting “improvements” are jungle-motif touches in Tarzana (the hanging monkeys among them) and some soon-to-be-installed lamppost medallions depicting jolly boulevardiers in Sherman Oaks (newly dubbed “The Village at Sherman Oaks”).

Boulevard boosters hope those and other features will turn the urban-suburban thoroughfare into a broad-shouldered Third Street Promenade, Old Pasadena or even Sunset Strip. At the very least, they say, the entire boulevard should reflect the trendy air of its star-prowling stretch through Studio City.

Others wonder.

“Why bother?” Simin Borj asked with a heavy sigh as she browsed the boulevard shops in Studio City. She dismissed the rest of the boulevard as down-market. “It’s tacky. There’s nothing for me.”

For decades, developers and residents have tried to pump a little jazz into the San Fernando Valley’s lifeline, a 17-mile stretch from the Studio City-Universal City border to Woodland Hills that is known in part for its blaring billboards, super-size carwashes, seedy motels and lack of parking.

At various times, the boulevard has been touted as a chic shopping district and an antiques row. Planners have envisioned grassy knolls and jogging paths. Woodland Hills residents once wanted to erect a 12-foot-tall statue of a Little League pitcher at one busy intersection.

Neighborhood squabbles, political indecision and a recession have all foiled the would-be make-overs. But with support from the city of Los Angeles, the boulevard backers are back at it.

“I picture a tour bus coming through here,” said Lillian Wall, a longtime Tarzana resident, developer and real estate broker. “Westsiders will visit too.”

That day will come, Wall and others said, if they can build a cultural center in honor of Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan of the Apes. In 1919, the author named his 540-acre estate Tarzana Ranch, whose moniker was passed on to one of the boulevard’s five communities. Today, Burroughs is the inspiration for the “Tarzana Safari Walk,” the first attempt at making the boulevard a themed destination.

The walk is decorated with 29 Tipuana Tipu trees, 24 aluminum street medallions shaped as jungle animals, 28 boulders for use as benches and eight topiaries trimmed into gorillas, giraffes, elephants and flamingos. It is one of four city-supported business improvement districts along the boulevard.

“My 2-year-old likes the animal things,” Marlene Herrera said as she roamed the boulevard. “Me, I don’t really care.”

Last month, Tarzana sponsored a “Safari Night” with strolling musicians, puppet shows and mimes. Another is set for this month.

So far, the viny appointments have done little to ease Tarzana’s storefront vacancy rate, one of the boulevard’s highest. And while the walk does boast thriving smoothie bars and a British gift shop, it also is home to littered lots, a brake center and a sex emporium that embraces the jungle genre with a window display of leopard-print lingerie and whips.

Greg Nelson, president of the Tarzana Improvement Assn., which oversees the BID, said the organization is trying to land a big chain bookstore or, in keeping with the safari look, a Banana Republic.

But will that be enough to lure scenesters, a la Melrose Avenue?

“Of course,” Nelson said, rolling his eyes with sarcasm. “I’m being realistic here. We’re more likely to get people from Europe than West L.A.”

The other improvement districts along the boulevard are not as far along as Tarzana’s. They include portions of Studio City, Sherman Oaks and Encino, with the last presenting a particularly tough challenge in terms of hipness. In Encino, the boulevard yawns with dark-glass office buildings, pastel mini-malls and dated carwashes.

Several miles east in Sherman Oaks, Saturday afternoons bring jazz bands, henna-tattoo artists and balloon twisters. Ivy-green metal benches with matching trash cans are on the way, as are faux-antique medallions depicting diners and shoppers. They will grace lampposts that already are hung with bright banners decreeing the area “The Village at Sherman Oaks: The Main Street Shopping Experience.”

“I’m in a village?” Dee Mann, 28, laughingly asked while eating a lunchtime sandwich at the La Reina shopping center. The funk musician and actor moved to Sherman Oaks two years ago from the Midwest.

Farther east on Ventura, few mock the haven of upscale retail that is Studio City, where a blue lace bra from a specialty lingerie store costs $195 and teenagers shell out $7.50 for a burger.

Improvements in the neighborhood around Laurel Canyon Boulevard have focused mostly on parking, street cleaning and security. On any given day, unlike some other parts of the boulevard, the area bustles. And the local show-biz element--Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. and NBC are based nearby--generates plenty of buzz.

Screenwriters and novelists procrastinate at a half-dozen java joints while directors and producers dig in at Art’s Deli, the Out Take Cafe and in the “margatini lounge” at Mexicali Cocina and Cantina.

Sharon Stone once had her nails painted in Studio City.

But the highest compliment came from Luanne Schoenburg, who works at Fables Victorian Nouveau Antiques: “We get Westsiders here all the time.”

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(Valley Edition, B7) Ventura Boulevard Lifeline

The San Fernando Valley’s main artery reeks of 17 miles of super-size carwashes, tacky billboards, seedy motels and an abundance of fast-food joints. Ventura Boulevard boosters want to glitz up the urban-suburban thoroughfare with aluminum street medallions, jungle-themed topiaries and upscale retail stores. Here is what they’re up against:

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Type of business: Number

Strip malls: 36+

Carwashes: 14+

McDonald’s restaurants: 6

Bowling alleys: 3

Car dealerships: 7+

Motels/hotels: 16

99 Cents Only stores: 2

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Researched by STEPHANIE STASSEL / Los Angeles Times