Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard is TONIGHT
For more photos of the last Van Nuys Boulevard cruise night, click the image below. The link works this time:
Tonight — Wednesday, Aug. 12 — is the night for this month's Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard event.
The center of the action is at the old Rydell Chevrolet lot at the corner of Van Nuys and Burbank boulevards in Van Nuys. The guy in charge of the event, Reid Stolz, tells me that the Rydell lot opens at 6 p.m., with people starting to arrive at 5:30. The lot fills up by 7 p.m., he says, and I saw plenty of cars in the lot across the street just west of Ralphs market.
Cruising starts at 8 p.m. The group aims to have the Rydell lot cleared out by 10 p.m., so make sure you get there to soak up all that vintage steel.
Many, many cars — vintage, classic and otherwise — will be actually cruising Van Nuys Boulevard, just as they did (depending on how old you are, fill in your own number) decades ago.
The cruise night, which has been taking place on the second Wednesday of every month, has been good to local businesses, which looked pretty full on July 8, the night of the last event.
This morning, Four N' 20 Pies even had a "Welcome Van Nuys cruisers" message on their sign outside the Van Nuys Boulevard restaurant.
While walking the dog (infamous early-riser Poppy), we pretty much stumbled upon last month's Cruise Night, and I can safely say this is the coolest thing to happen to Van Nuys in much longer than I could ever remember.
I was amazed at how well the event ran. From that fact alone, my hopes are high about the event continuing. If you're in the area, come on out and see a whole bunch of really cool cars and the people who pour their lives and money into keeping this tradition alive.
- Official Van Nuys Cruising Association Site
- Dailynews.com story on the Aug. 12 Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard event
- More photos here and here.
- Van Nuys Cruising Association on Twitter
- E-mail the Van Nuys Cruising Association
- Rydell Chevrolet (the Cruise Night cars are at the OLD Rydell lot at Van Nuys and Burbank, not the new one on Oxnard).
- Come on Feel the Nuys photo gallery of July 8, 2009's Cruise Night
I personally hate the fact that Van Nuys hosts this event and brings thugs out to the neighborhood. Because of this event, it gets embarrassing to say I live in Van Nuys.
Maria,
Are you kidding? I was just there this evening and
It was a bunch of white men in Hawaiian shirts with their wives!
Thugs? Just the opposite. It was handled well - no problems - fun and totally clean.
You should take it upon yourself to check it out!
I've been there twice, and you can't find a more family-friendly event. Congratulations to the Van Nuys Cruising Association for running such a tight ship -- and to the car buffs themselves for knowing that this is a good thing that everybody wants to keep going.
Seriously, there were all kinds of people out there, but almost all the guys with cars are 50+, some more "+" than others. They haven't been doing anything remotely stupid.
Seen at August's Cruise Night: LOTS of '50s Chevy sedans and '60s Corvettes.
Check out my photo gallery and Ilene's video.
How can someone with the first name of Maria and the last name of Hernandez be embarrassed to say they live in Van Nuys? I'm laughing so hard right now that I'm actually tearing up!
I'm a Martinez and I'm totally cool with it. Lighten' up lady.
The atmosphere was joyous and not threatening in any way. I only wish I wasn't born in 1980 so I could have seen the bigger cruise from back then instead of hearing it from my elders who witnessed it first hand.
No one calls Chooch a creep, man.
Hey chooch, dont be a hero.
...nobody call Dugan a turd!