SNAPSHOT OF THE VALLEY ACCOUNTANT COMFORTABLE WITH ENCINO'S 'RICHNESS' OF CULTURE, NEIGHBORLINESS.

Byline: BETH BARRETT

Staff Writer

For more than four decades, San Fernando Valley native Bill Harris has watched the allure of the American dream reshape the fabric of the region. The 45-year-old accountant, who commutes between his Encino home and an office in mid-Wilshire, has seen a tide of diversity create increasingly unique economic and cultural pockets. For Harris, this evolving "richness" is what he relishes about his neighborhood.

"It's even different from Calabasas, which is a more homogenous community," he said.

Harris epitomizes the demographic picture of his neighborhood that has emerged in a new snapshot of the region released today by the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center.

While long seen as a bastion of middle-class suburban families, the Valley portrayed in the new report is a tapestry of widely diverse communities.

Nearly 60 percent of Valley residents still fall within the middle class, defined as households earning $35,000 to $150,000. And most are non-Hispanic white homeowners with families.

But the new face of the Valley is marbled with changing demographics that have created pockets of disparity among neighboring communities.

Harris' Tarzana-Encino neighborhood has emerged as one of the Valley's relatively affluent communities. The Harris household's annual income of $125,000 is just a bit above the $112,000 average for his community.

In a neighborhood where half of all households still bring in less than $70,000 a year, that puts the Harris family in the upper tier.

Harris is a non-Hispanic white -- like 75.6 percent of the residents in his community. He also owns his own home, as do 62.2 percent of his neighbors.

With three kids -- they attend public school in Sherman Oaks and Bel-Air -- the Harris household is larger than the average household of 2.44 people.

Harris went to Birmingham High School, lived in Reseda and Van Nuys after he married, and now lives "south of the Boulevard," a phrase that embodies the fulfillment of the American dream.

Harris says he's happy in the Valley and enjoys friends of different ethnicities, cultures and sexual orientations -- many developed through his kids' activities in softball and soccer leagues at Balboa Park. While Harris said he sees some "downside" to diversity when it manifests in gang violence or other problems, he says for the most part it's a positive for his family and the Valley's economic and cultural life.

"There's a place for laborers, whether it be craftsmen working construction, or manufacturing," he said. "Everyone can't be an accountant or a lawyer or a stockbroker -- and conversely, not everyone can be a craftsman, a plumber or an electrician. So the diversity is good for the economy."

And Harris said his children have benefited from exposure to all kinds of people and the relative economic equity. The difference may boil down, he said, to some extras: trips to the theater, or dues to attend a temple.

"But I don't think my kids do a lot of things that other kids aren't able to," Harris said. "My oldest daughter has a cell phone; most kids she knows have a cell phone. We have Internet; they have Internet."

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

Tarzana-Encino

Median household income: $69,575

Percent of people below poverty level: 7.3%

Percent of renters: 37.8%

Average household size: 2.44

Hispanic: 11%

Non-Hispanic white: 75.6%

Asian: 8.3%

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) HARRIS

(2) Bill Harris, 45, an accountant and a resident of Encino, stops to have breakfast Thursday at nearby Jerry's Deli. His family has made friends largely through his children's athletic teams.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

(3 -- color) no caption (Valley)

Photo illustration by Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

Box:

Tarzana-Encino (see text)