A sign outside Cupid’s Hot Dogs, in the San Fernando Valley, alerted customers to the big day this week: “A Love Letter to the Valley,” it read. “Celebrate the 818 on 8/18.”
For nine years running, the San Fernando Valley has celebrated 818 Day, an unofficial recognition of the vast suburban region north of downtown Los Angeles. The area is a substantial part of the city of Los Angeles, though residents often speak of the Valley as being a world apart.
Though the Valley has been celebrated and caricatured in popular film over the decades, residents feel as though they still get short shrift in the Los Angeles hierarchy. Separated by the Santa Monica Mountains from downtown, Dodger Stadium and Hollywood, the Valley gets less of the spotlight.
“There’s a lot of us who feel like, OK, we are kind of the ugly stepchild that is hidden underneath the stairs by the city of Los Angeles,” said Buck Weber, the president of the San Fernando Valley Historical Society.
So 818 Day is a way to give the Valley its due, on Aug. 18, or 8/18. The celebration is named for the 818 area code, which has been associated with the Valley since the mid-1980s, when the population in and around Los Angeles grew so large that L.A.’s classic 213 area code could no longer contain it. It was the part of Los Angeles where people mostly went to live, not visit.
There are special offers at local malls, and items at restaurants priced at $8.18. There are hashtags: #madeinthe818, #proudtobeSFV. Politicians save the week for announcements that are likely to tickle the Valley’s hallmark middle-class character. This year, Mayor Karen Bass, who is running for re-election, will make a Valley appearance and count the ways that crime rates have dropped since she assumed office, including a significant decline in burglaries.
“I can’t wait to celebrate,” said Morgan Walsh, who with her sister runs Cupid’s, which was established by her grandparents in 1946 and is one of the Valley’s oldest businesses. “I’ll be there on my roller skates bringing the vibe.”
The Cupid’s parking lot has a bright mural that celebrates the Valley, and its tropes. “Like Totally,” it reads, a nod to the stereotype of the ditsy Valley girl.
The 818 was the part of Los Angeles that, by design, wasn’t exciting. It was a place of hard work and single-family homes and teenage yearning for the other, more glamorous L.A. over the hill on the other side of Mulholland Drive. It was where comedy show hosts joked about broadcasting from “beautiful downtown Burbank.”
It was “a long day, living in Reseda,” as Tom Petty sang of the neighborhood. There was “a freeway runnin’ through the yard.”
Blocked by the mountains from ocean breezes, the Valley tends to suffer more than other parts of the city during heat waves. (True to form, the Valley is under a heat advisory on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.)
Some say the Valley suffers in other ways, that city leaders rarely consider it a priority.
“We just feel like we don’t get the services that we deserve,” Mr. Weber said. “We feel like we are kind of an afterthought.”
While 818 Day brings bands, discounted miniature golf, arcade specials and D.J.s, the celebration is also an expression of civic pride for a region that has often felt left out of the excitement of Los Angeles, and neglected by City Hall.
On Monday, Mr. Weber guided a visitor through the Andres Pico Adobe, the oldest building in the Valley, which was built in 1834 by Native Americans working with Catholic missionaries. He pointed to a picture depicting the signing of the 1847 Treaty of Cahuenga — which established a cease-fire in fighting between the United States and Mexican forces — that took place in the Valley near where Universal Studios sits today.
Mr. Weber, a retired high school history teacher, also spoke of the stereotypes that have long defined the Valley — and are sometimes true.
“The first thing most people think about is ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High,’” he said.
He recalled a former student, who he said fit the “surfer dude” stereotype. “He and I got along so well, but he called me Mr. Hand — and I called him Spicoli,” he said, referring to characters in the movie.
Almost 25 years ago, a group of residents, tired of feeling neglected by City Hall, tried to lead an insurrection at the ballot box. But the measure to secede from Los Angeles, voted on citywide in 2002, was rejected.
Despite the failure, the attempt at secession cemented the Valley’s standing as a side of Los Angeles that city leaders ignored at their peril. More than 1.8 million people now live there, and a new generation has come to appreciate its attractions.
It’s the muse of Paul Thomas Anderson, the director whose body of work celebrates California. It’s where the Haim sisters grew up before they struck it big, began hanging out with Taylor Swift and sang about Los Angeles like insiders. (Before they were in Haim, two of the sisters were in a different group called Valli Girls.)
The region — home to Universal Studios — is a critical economic engine. Mayor Bass and her challenger, Nithya Raman, a City Council member, will debate this week in the Valley, a font of moderate-to-center-left votes that can swing citywide elections.
Today, residents say they still feel a sense of separation from Los Angeles, even as they feel a growing sense of pride in where they live.
“Now, I would say, we go toe to toe with L.A.,” said Louie Padilla, 56, who has lived in the Valley since the 1970s. “Because, if you look, how many celebrities live out here?”
Oscar Urrutia, 50, a lifelong Valley resident who produces events for theme parks and corporate clients and is the founder of My Valley Pass, an online visitor’s guide, said 818 Day had come about because residents had casually been celebrating the day every August.
This year, he said, the day will have something special: the unveiling of the design for the Valley’s first ever float in the Rose Parade, on New Year’s Day in Pasadena. He said that with the float, “we get to highlight ourselves as opposed to just being a part of Los Angeles.”
In a region where the car is king and traffic shapes daily life, the Valley has something especially enticing.
“Parking is easier, and it’s free for the most part,” said Kelly Walsh, who runs Cupid’s with her sister.
“I feel like I never want to go to L.A.,” she said.
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