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Rick McCloskey Takes Us Back to Cruisin’ Van Nuys Boulevard | Fueled News
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One of my friends that cruised with me was the son of the lieutenant in the LAPD that was in charge of The Valley Traffic Division he supervised the street racing task force and the special force that oversaw Van Nuts Blvd.
He would on occasion tell Mark that we should leave the cars at home and go see a movie. On those nights there was usually a big bust either regarding street racing activities or cruising on Van Nuys Blvd. So seeing a movie kept us from getting busted and kept him from being embarrassed with his son getting into trouble.in the final days of the Blvd being a legitimate cruise scene he would tell us that the businesses were complaining more and more about the mess from the cruisers. There were starting to confrontations between low riders from the San Fernando city area and the hot rodders from the North, West, Central and yes even the South Valley guys from South of the Blvd. (Ventura Blvd ) there were rarely any guys from South of the Blvd that figured out how to build a quick car other than spend their Mommy and Daddy's money to make up for the general lack of talent. However the South Valley guys always had the best looking girls with them.
Let me digress, with all of the social and business issues going on the pressure became high to permanently shut down the Blvd. One warm summer Wednesday night in July of 1979 we had planned on cruising the Blvd and hanging out in the Bank of America parking lot on the North end of the Blvd. Mark's Father told us don't get caught on the South end of the Blvd. after 7:30. Not because of arrests, just because it would be a huge hassle to get back North.
At 7:20 barriers were established that made all of the cross streets the only way off the Blvd. Police cars were parked across the Blvd. All North/South traffic was diverted to the East West streets. By 7:30 the traffic was horrible. I sat in the B of A parking lot ready to head North as there was no side street available. Eventually a black and white showed up and escorted those of us that were landlocked in the Northbound direction to where we could turn West on Roscoe Blvd and get to the 405 Freeway and head home. That was it, it was done, it would never return for a couple of years every Wednesday or Saturday night the barricades were up until we understood. No meant no. By then the hot rodders were cruising on Reseda Blvd. And the low riders were cruising San Fernando Rd.
John