I'm from Northridge, best known for a California State University and an earthquake, but there's more to it than that. Northridge is an ethnically diverse neighborhood; in fact, the Mapping L.A. project notes that it's "highly diverse" for both the city and county of Los Angeles. Drive through the neighborhood and you'll find everything from Indian dress shops to falafel joints to a large Korean grocery store. Go to the Northridge Fashion Center or the local L.A. Fitness and you'll hear multiple different languages overlapping. It's also, in some ways, a college town. In other words, Northridge is low-key weird. There's an apartment building called Das Bauhaus that caters to creative types, a utility box painted like a Mondrian and wide bike lanes running alongside sidewalks lined with mom-and-pop stores. It's not a bad place to visit, but it's not a destination either. This isn't the easiest place to access. It's miles away from the 405 and 101, closer to the 118.
http://www.laweekly.com/news/why-are-san-fernando-valley-stereotypes-so-hard-to-shed-8292043
LA Weekly