Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles

Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, founded in 1927 with boundary changes afterward. With a population of more than 60,000 people, it was part of a 2012 ballot measure proposal to form a separate municipality for the entire San Fernando Valley that was defeated in a citywide election. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than some other areas in Los Angeles.

History

A partner of the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company, Gen. Moses Hazeltine Sherman, developed Sherman Oaks. The company had subdivided 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land that would become Sherman Oaks. In 1927 each acre was sold for $780. Sherman's other major venture was the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad.

In 1991, a group of homeowners living in the Chandler Estates area successfully petitioned former Los Angeles City Councilmember Zev Yaroslavsky to re-draw the boundaries of Sherman Oaks from Magnolia to Burbank Blvd to the north, and from Coldwater Canyon to Van Nuys Blvd to the west, with the goal of including their neighborhood. This request wasn't anything new to the San Fernando Valley; other neighborhoods had either sought to change their names, or sought to attach themselves onto more affluent neighborhoods to escape from what they saw as growing urban blight and the collapse of their social status. Residents in the area argued, however, that the area was originally part of Sherman Oaks, but was labeled Van Nuys instead through the creation of ZIP codes in 1962; some residents were able to produce a few property deeds to present their case.

Rotten School

Rotten School is a children's book series by R. L. Stine concerning the adventures of children at a boarding school. Each book is written from the perspective of Bernie Bridges, a fourth-grader who lives in his dormitory at Rotten School with his pals Feenman, Crench, Belzer, Beast, Chipmunk, Nosebleed, Billy The Brain and others. Their rivals are Sherman Oaks, a rich spoiled brat, and his buddies Wes Updood and Joe Sweety, from the Nyce House dormitory. Bernie has a crush on a girl by the name of April–May June. Bernie tries to earn money by many means, by selling stuff, stealing from his friends and making bets. Unlike R. L. Stine's other works, Rotten School does not contain themes of horror.

Books