60-667: Pacoima Wash , 33 miles (53 km) long, is a major tributary of the Tujunga Wash , itself a tributary of the Los Angeles River , in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County , California . The stream begins at Mount Gleason, 6,502 ft (1,982 m), in the western San Gabriel Mountains of the Angeles National Forest . The upper reaches, sometimes known as Pacoima Creek, flow through Pacoima Canyon as
120-434: A navigational context, if one were floating on a raft or other vessel in the main stream, this would be the side the tributary enters from as one floats past; alternately, if one were floating down the tributary, the main stream meets it on the opposite bank of the tributary. This information may be used to avoid turbulent water by moving towards the opposite bank before approaching the confluence. An early tributary
180-473: A "wave of immigrants and working poor" had enveloped Sylmar, Pacoima, Arleta and Sun Valley , resulting in a housing shortage for lower-income people. The 2000 U.S. census counted 69,499 residents in the 12.46-square-mile Sylmar neighborhood—or 5,579 people per square mile, among the lowest population densities for the city. In 2008, the city estimated that the population had increased to 79,614. The City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning released that
240-462: A Los Angeles Police Department stop-in center, includes auditoriums, a lighted baseball diamond, lighted outdoor basketball courts, a children's play area, a community room, an indoor gymnasium without weights, picnic tables, an unlighted soccer field, and lighted tennis courts. The city also operates the Stetson Ranch Park., one of the city's two equestrian parks. Los Angeles County operates
300-539: A battlefield. Dozens of houses are twisted beyond repair. Families camp out in tents or trailers on front lawns, afraid to return even to those houses not condemned ... All homes have been without water for drinking, cooking and flushing toilets, although some service has been restored in the last few days. There is no gas, no heat. Telephones are still out. Housewives must travel out of the community to find grocery stores that are still open. On top of that, Sylmar feels that it has been forgotten ... Four months after
360-427: A community building, a disc golf course, picnic areas, a picnic pavilion, and toilets. The Sylmar Hang Gliding Association operates their Sylmar Flight Park on Gridley Street near Simshaw Ave. Visitors can watch the activities most afternoons. In 1943 Sylmar volunteers, with cooperation from the city fire department, established their own branch station at 15097 Roxford Street, principally because Sylmar at that time
420-411: A community that still retained a largely rural atmosphere with corrals on large lots and horse trails that wound into the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. Tipped off by a Sylmar resident, dozens of investigators from at least five police departments and three federal agencies raided a warehouse at 12898 Bradley Street, on September 29, 1989, and seized some 21.4 tons of cocaine and $ 10 million in cash. It
480-521: A fusion of two Latin words for "forest" and "sea" in reference to the large number of olive trees that once covered the area. In 2018, the northwest portion of the district called "Rancho Cascades". Sylmar has been nicknamed "The Top of Los Angeles," because it is the northernmost neighborhood in Los Angeles. The foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains were transformed in the late 1890s by
540-696: A greenway along the Wash connecting the communities of the Northeast San Fernando Valley. In 2004 the Pacoima Wash Greenway Master Plan was created by Department of Landscape Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona which focuses on the portion of the Wash within the City of San Fernando. In 2008, environmental non-profit Pacoima Beautiful started the Pacoima Wash initiative. The goal of this project
600-545: A land-use document that would preserve Sylmar's image as one of "houses, horses and orchards" and would roll back the then-existing projection from 90,000 residents by 1990 to 53,500. The population actually reached 53,392 in 1986. A proposal in 1980 to build an 80-unit low-income housing project near Sylmar High School at 13080-90 Dronfield Avenue was rejected by the Los Angeles City Housing Commission after eight thousand signatures were gathered against
660-444: A larger stream ( main stem or "parent" ), river, or a lake . A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean . Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they flow, drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater , leading the water out into an ocean. The Irtysh is a chief tributary of the Ob river and is also the longest tributary river in
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#1732859129903720-414: A left tributary which is called Right Fork Steer Creek. These naming conventions are reflective of the circumstances of a particular river's identification and charting: people living along the banks of a river, with a name known to them, may then float down the river in exploration, and each tributary joining it as they pass by appears as a new river, to be given its own name, perhaps one already known to
780-415: A man who pointed a high-powered spotlight at a police helicopter monitoring one of them on San Fernando Road near Roxford Street. In 1993 it was reported that drag racing had been going on since the early 1970s, drawing hundreds of youths, and that the most popular "speed strip" was San Fernando Road near Balboa Boulevard. There had been four deaths within the previous two years. In one, a teenager speeding to
840-521: A museum best known for its collection of classic automobiles. The Nethercutt museum also houses collections of mechanical musical instruments, including orchestrions, player pianos and music boxes, antique furniture, and a historical locomotive and train car. Los Angeles Public Library operates the Sylmar Branch Library on the corner of Polk Street and Glenoaks Boulevard. The City of Los Angeles Sylmar Recreation Center, which also functions as
900-475: A place centered around equestrian activities. Today, the dramatic influx of residents has serious consequences for a community that has too little housing stock, too few employment opportunities, overburdened public facilities and decaying public infrastructure. The median yearly household income in 2008 dollars was $ 65,783, considered average for the city. Sylmar is home to the Nethercutt Collection ,
960-476: A rapid mountain stream. It then reaches the Pacoima Dam Reservoir in the western San Gabriel Mountains of the Angeles National Forest and proceeds south in a free-flowing stream alongside Pacoima Trail Road. Below the dam, it is generally known as the Pacoima Wash. From there, it joins several other unnamed streams that drain the nearby mountains, collecting at Lopez Dam. South of that dam, Pacoima Wash
1020-498: A swimming pool. In addition the county operates the 96.5-acre (39.1 ha) Veterans Memorial Park in an area adjacent to and outside of the Los Angeles City limits. The site of the park was the site of a veterans hospital that was built in the 1920s and closed in 1971 due to an earthquake that killed many veterans and employees at the hospital. The park, which was dedicated in 1979, has barbecue braziers, group camping areas,
1080-410: A third stream entering between two others is designated the middle fork; or the streams are distinguished by the relative height of one to the other, as one stream descending over a cataract into another becomes the upper fork, and the one it descends into, the lower ; or by relative volume: the smaller stream designated the little fork, the larger either retaining its name unmodified, or receives
1140-440: A threat to the horse-owning community. Practically every corner on Foothill Boulevard had been purchased for development, and a 109-room hotel was planned at Roxford Street, a block from the hospital. "We are bound to be concerned any time you start bringing sick people, mentally ill people, indigent people into our community," said one community activist. "We welcome the hospital, but that doesn't mean we are going to sit back and let
1200-507: Is a tributary that joins the main stem river closer to its source than its mouth, that is, before the river's midpoint ; a late tributary joins the main stem further downstream, closer to its mouth than to its source, that is, after the midpoint. In the United States, where tributaries sometimes have the same name as the river into which they feed, they are called forks . These are typically designated by compass direction. For example,
1260-581: Is encased in a concrete flood control channel , and travels south from Kagel Canyon in Sylmar though San Fernando , Pacoima , Mission Hills , Panorama City , and Van Nuys . In 1911, the developers of the Van Nuys townsite altered the Pacoima Wash from Sherman Way to the Los Angeles River, for 3 miles by adding a 50’ wide street/flood channel. Years of flooding downstream followed, and Van Nuys flooded in
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#17328591299031320-698: Is located within Los Angeles City Council District 7 represented by Monica Rodriguez . Eleven percent of Sylmar residents aged 25 and older had earned a four-year degree by 2000, one of the lowest percentages for the city and the county. Schools within the Sylmar boundaries are: Sylmar is serviced by the Mission Community Police Station of the Los Angeles Police Department . Olive View–UCLA Medical Center
1380-580: Is no record as to the results of this plan. In 1922 the Taft Realty Company of Hollywood purchased 300 acres (120 ha) from Ben F. Porter and divided them into tracts containing 1–15 acres (0.40–6.07 ha) each, which it planned to make into a townsite called Sylmar. Part of the acreage contained orange and lemon trees, and the rest had been used by the Ryan Wholesale and Produce Company for garden and truck farming . The land lay directly across
1440-616: Is to create a linear greenway composed of bike lanes and a walking path along a 12-mile stretch of the Wash between the Pacoima Dam in Sylmar and the Tujunga Wash in Arleta . The Pacoima Wash Vision Plan, which covers the Sylmar and Pacoima portions of the Wash was produced in 2011. An addendum to the plan focusing on the Arleta portion of the Wash is currently being produced. Several new parks along
1500-472: Is upon a street." About a hundred trees would be planted on each acre. Half of these lands were placed on the market in 1897-98 at $ 350 an acre (0.4 ha), with a minimum purchase of five acres. The terms were $ 350 in cash and $ 350 a year until paid for. The Olive Growers group would take care of the groves and, "When the premises are turned over to the purchaser at the end of four years, it is an established, profit-yielding property, without incumbrance." There
1560-625: The American River in California receives flow from its North, Middle, and South forks. The Chicago River 's North Branch has the East, West, and Middle Fork; the South Branch has its South Fork, and used to have a West Fork as well (now filled in). Forks are sometimes designated as right or left. Here, the handedness is from the point of view of an observer facing upstream. For instance, Steer Creek has
1620-649: The Newhall Pass and landed in or near Cascades Golf Club in Sylmar. The Sayre Fire in 2008 resulted in the loss of 489 residences in or near Sylmar, the "worst loss of homes due to fire" in Los Angeles's history. In 2016 the Marek Fire destroyed 41 homes. The plan of the Olive Growers association in 1898 was to divide the area into 40-acre (16 ha) blocks bounded by "broad drives," and within them 5-acre (2.0 ha) blocks would be laid out, "each one of which
1680-626: The San Fernando Boulevard from the Sylmar olive grove and packing plant. A later advertisement stated the name of the subdivision as "Sylmar Acres," with "city lots" selling for $ 450 to $ 550. The property of the Sylmar Packing Corporation, with frontage of more than 4.5 miles on Foothill Boulevard , was offered for sale in October 1938. At that time it was planted in olives, lemons, oranges and figs. A 40-acre (16 ha) section
1740-460: The San Fernando Valley to be made a concrete channel. In 2007, the wash was cleaned up after being cited as a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus . Pacoima Wash has been the site of several rescues of people, mostly of children and teenagers trapped in the spring runoff. Incidents occurred in 1985, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 2006. There have been efforts to create
1800-474: The 18th century and the founding of the San Fernando Mission . In 1890, olive production was begun systematically. The Sylmar climate was also considered healthy, and so a sanitarium was established, the first in a series of hospitals in the neighborhood. There are fourteen public and eight private schools within Sylmar. In 1874, the settlement was named Morningside. In 1893, the name changed to "Sylmar",
1860-526: The 1971 earthquake, a methane gas explosion in a water tunnel being drilled beneath Sylmar killed 17 workers and is the worst tunneling disaster in California history. It resulted in the state adopting the toughest mining and tunnelling regulations in the United States. A memorial for the victims was erected in 2013. Cal/OSHA . 23 years later Sylmar was hit again by the 1994 Northridge earthquake . It caused fires that burned over 70 homes. In 2000, two pilots were killed when two light airplanes collided over
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1920-444: The 2021 population was 80,155. In 1980, Sylmar was predominantly white, the ethnic breakdown being 58% white and 36% Latino. Twenty years later, in 2000, the neighborhood was considered "moderately diverse" ethnically within Los Angeles, with a relatively high percentage of Latinos. The breakdown in 2000 was Latinos , 69.8%; whites , 20.7%; blacks , 4.1%; Asians , 3.4%, and others, 2.0%. Mexico (71.7%) and El Salvador (8.4%) were
1980-548: The 79-acre (32 ha) El Cariso Community Regional Park, which was dedicated to the twelve fallen firefighters and survivors, members of the El Cariso Hotshots, an interagency hotshot crew in the Loop Fire in 1966. The park has a lighted ball diamond, a basketball court, tennis courts, children's play areas, a community building, horseshoe pits, an indoor kitchen, picnic areas for large groups, picnic tables and shelters, and
2040-510: The Los Angeles Basin during the summer months and cooler during the winter months. The average high temperature in summer is 95 °F (35 °C), dropping down to 68 °F (20 °C). In winter, the average high is 66 °F (19 °C) and average low is 40 °F (4 °C). The population of the Sylmar area was roughly 3,500 in 1940, 10,000 in 1950, 31,000 in 1962, 40,000 in 1972, 41,922 in 1980 and 53,392 in 1986. By 2000,
2100-616: The Los Angeles Olive Growers Association. In 1894, up to 1,700 acres of land were planted with olives trees, and by 1906, the property had become the largest olive grove in the world. During the picking season in the early 1900s, 300 Japanese were employed and housed in a village of tents. In 1927, the packing plant employed some five hundred workers during its busiest season. The 1971 San Fernando earthquake caused widespread injury and damage. The New York Times described two weeks later: The community looks like
2160-483: The Pacoima Diversion Channel took the stream east from Laurel Canyon and the I 5-CA 118 interchange to the Tujunga Wash. several miles of Pacoima Wash remained, drained by several miles of adjoining storm drains. And from Vanowen to the Los Angeles River, the historic Pacoima Wash disappears. In 1991, the section between Lassen Street and Parthenia Street was one of the last sections of natural stream beds in
2220-427: The Sylmar area led the northeast Valley communities (which includes Sunland-Tujunga , Lake View Terrace and Pacoima ) in residential burglaries and thefts from motor vehicles. Sylmar gently slopes upward as a geological alluvial plain and alluvial fan from an elevation of slightly more than 1,100 feet (340 m) above sea level near San Fernando Road to slightly more than 1,700 feet (520 m) above sea level at
2280-424: The Wash are in various stages of completion. 8th Street Park is a 4.75 acre park in the City of San Fernando which will be completed in spring of 2014. The city of Los Angeles is creating preliminary designs for a park along the Wash between El Dorado and Telfair Street. From mouth to source (year built in parentheses): Tributary A tributary , or an affluent , is a stream or river that flows into
2340-486: The crest of Hubbard Street. The overall range of elevation in Sylmar is approximately 600 feet (180 m). The slopes steepen into the San Gabriel Mountains on the north side of Sylmar resulting in steep residential streets with homes built on man-made terraces. Sylmar touches the unincorporated Tujunga Canyons on the north, Lopez and Kagel canyons on the east, San Fernando on the southeast, Mission Hills on
2400-416: The designation big . Tributaries are sometimes listed starting with those nearest to the source of the river and ending with those nearest to the mouth of the river . The Strahler stream order examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of first, second, third and higher orders, with the first-order tributary being typically the least in size. For example, a second-order tributary would be
2460-459: The great Los Angeles Flood of 1938 . In the 1950’s many drastic efforts were made to protect residents along the Pacoima Wash. Just after flowing below Interstate 5 , the stream is diverted to the Pacoima Diversion Channel, joining Tujunga Wash further upstream. The Pacoima Wash Headworks were created where the Interstate 5 interchange is for settling of high flood volumes. The threat of flooding
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2520-459: The great 1938 Los Angeles rains and flood, many parts of Van Nuys flooded severely. Through the 1960’s, Van Nuys Elementary School kept a pontoon bridge for students to cross the flood channel when it flooded. Parts of the original streambed disappeared and can be traced behind the YMCA. The Knights of Columbus is shoehorned in a 100 foot wide channel. The flooding issues remained until the 1950’s when
2580-402: The influx of people change our life style." By 2006 Sylmar's open spaces were being rapidly subdivided. Resident Bart Reed noted that Sylmar was the last place in Los Angeles "where a builder can find a single-family home on half an acre. They can tear them down and build 52 homes" in their place. Longtime residents were concerned that the expansion would threaten their equestrian lifestyle in
2640-403: The main stream. Distributaries are most often found in river deltas . Right tributary , or right-bank tributary , and left tributary , or left-bank tributary , describe the orientation of the tributary relative to the flow of the main stem river. These terms are defined from the perspective of looking downstream, that is, facing the direction the water current of the main stem is going. In
2700-424: The most common places of birth for the 36.7% of the residents who were born abroad, an average figure for Los Angeles. Mexican (57.8%) and German (3.2%) were the most common ancestries. In 2000 the median age for residents was 28, considered young for city and county neighborhoods. In 2000, renters occupied 29.2% of the housing stock, and house- or apartment-owners held 70.8%. The average household size of 3.6 people
2760-538: The most popular cruising spots in the San Fernando Valley ;— La Rinda Plaza at Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Workman Street — to be a public nuisance and ordered its owners to install overhead lighting, post security guards and install gates that could be closed at night. Illegal street racing or high-speed figure 8's are frequently heard by residents near the Sylmar Public Library. In 1991,
2820-464: The people who live upon its banks. Conversely, explorers approaching a new land from the sea encounter its rivers at their mouths, where they name them on their charts, then, following a river upstream, encounter each tributary as a forking of the stream to the right and to the left, which then appear on their charts as such; or the streams are seen to diverge by the cardinal direction (north, south, east, or west) in which they proceed upstream, sometimes
2880-488: The plan and protesters filled a hearing in the high school auditorium. In 1984 Sylmar was still largely rural, but there was an area of industrial development in its southeastern portion. In 1986, when its population was given 53,392, it still had some of the last large tracts of undeveloped land in the city, and the opening of the Foothill Freeway had placed it within a 45-minute drive of Downtown Los Angeles . Despite
2940-578: The population increase and a rise in the number of people living in condos and apartments, it was still one of the least-crowded areas of the city. Between 1980 and 1990 it was the fastest-growing area in the San Fernando Valley : Its population increased by 30.7% during those ten years in which the Valley itself grew by only 12.2%. Reopening of the Olive View Medical Center in 1986 was seen as an impetus to population and business growth, as well as
3000-518: The result of two or more first-order tributaries combining to form the second-order tributary. Another method is to list tributaries from mouth to source, in the form of a tree structure , stored as a tree data structure . Sylmar, Los Angeles Sylmar is a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley and is the northernmost neighborhood within the city of Los Angeles , California, United States. Historically known for its profusion of sylvan olive orchards, Sylmar can trace its past to
3060-553: The site rear-ended a car carrying a family of four, killing a mother and injuring her husband and two children. In 1997 Kenneth Acosta, 21, of Sylmar was charged with involuntary manslaughter after a drag race on the 118 Freeway resulted in an accident that caused the deaths of three people, all of them former members of the Sylmar High School band. He was granted probation and required to spend 250 hours talking to others about his crime. In 1994, city officials declared one of
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#17328591299033120-500: The slowest of all San Fernando Valley communities to develop its multiple dwelling areas, with permits issued for only 35 units in 1961 and 70 units in 1962. Sylmar's major growth came after the 1963 completion of the interchange between the Golden State Freeway and San Diego Freeway and the 1981 completion of the Foothill Freeway and 118 Freeway, which made the community easier to reach. In 1971 city planners presented
3180-557: The south, and Granada Hills on the southwest and west. The Valley shares the Los Angeles Basin's dry, sunny weather, with only 17 inches (430 mm) annual precipitation on average. Snow in the San Fernando Valley is extremely rare, though the neighboring Angeles National Forest is capped with snow every winter. Although Sylmar is only 20 miles (32 km) from the Pacific Ocean, the Valley can be considerably hotter than
3240-433: The world with a length of 4,248 km (2,640 mi). The Madeira River is the largest tributary river by volume in the world with an average discharge of 31,200 m /s (1.1 million cu ft/s). A confluence , where two or more bodies of water meet, usually refers to the joining of tributaries. The opposite to a tributary is a distributary , a river or stream that branches off from and flows away from
3300-495: Was considered high for Los Angeles. The percentage of married women (55.5%) was among the county's highest. There were 3,607 veterans, or 7.7% of the population, average for the city of Los Angeles and the county. A study by four graduate students from the University of Southern California in 2005 stated that: Sylmar in the 1970s and 1980s was a rural, predominantly white, non-Hispanic community, whose residents focused on creating
3360-472: Was diminished greatly. 41 years later, Congressman Tony Cardenas won funding to turn the headworks, bare ground used only to settle flood volumes, into parkland. The earlier attempts to channelize the wash from the Pacoima Headworks south were left alone, and the channel was redirected closer to Van Nuys Bl. Because of the flash floods in the Pacoima Wash, flooding in Van Nuys was an issue every year. In
3420-449: Was met with disapproval by residents at a community meeting. The city's master plan for the area called for much of the agricultural land to be converted to suburban uses, plus zoning that would permit more apartments. There would also be expansion of industrial districts and more shopping centers. The plan proposed that the 4,500 acres then zoned for agriculture be reduced to 2,000, or 17% of the area. City officials said that Sylmar had been
3480-638: Was separated from other stations by railroad tracks. Today, the Los Angeles Fire Department operates Fire Station 91 in Sylmar. The Los Angeles Police Department operates the Mission Community Police Station in Mission Hills, serving Sylmar. Sylmar is located within California's 43rd State Assembly district represented by Democrat Luz Rivas and California's 20th State Senate district represented by Democrat Caroline Menjivar . Sylmar
3540-456: Was the largest confiscation of the drug in history, estimated at $ 6.9 billion, enough for 1.38 billion doses. Three men were convicted on drug charges in 1990. Carlos Tapia Ponce, the warehouse manager, was given a life term, and in 2016 he died in prison at the age of 94. Other culprits were convicted later. Illegal street drag races and automobile cruising still troubles areas in Sylmar and adjacent San Fernando. In 1988, officers arrested
3600-449: Was to be set aside for a new townsite called Olive View and the rest subdivided into 5- and 10-acre (2- and 4-ha) farm lots, with many streets already paved and public utilities installed. In the same month, manufacturer and landowner John R. Stetson announced his 200-acre (81 ha) property adjoining the Sylmar ranch would also be divided and offered for sale. A May 1962 proposal by the city Planning Department for an increase in density
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