The San Fernando Valley is the kind of place where the A/C is on year-round and almost everything is a shade of brownish-gray, either a “coming soon” construction site or some anonymous strip mall, sun bleached and covered in a light film of dust.
When people think of L.A. traffic, they’re thinking about the Valley, where the 101 and 405 slow down to a bumper-to-bumper crawl; but the relatively affordable housing, pool to person ratio, and untouched hiking trails do make it a pretty nice place to live.
For a tourist, however, there’s no real reason to sit in a rental car for two hours. Unless you’re making the pilgrimage to the Chuck E. Cheese in Northridge, home to what was supposed to be sole remaining Mr. Munch’s Make Believe Band.
