STATUE FOR THE VALLEY; MAN MAKING CASE FOR MONUMENT.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Bring them all to the junction of the San Diego and Ventura freeways, and let them feast their weary eyes upon the San Fernando Valley's monument to the befuddled masses of the '90s who call this place home.

A monument nearly the size of the Statue of Liberty - 200 feet tall on a 20-foot-high pedestal - looking out over the Valley from the mouth of the Sepulveda Basin.

Instead of a robed woman holding a torch to welcome immigrants to U.S. shores, our monument will be a Spanish vaquero astride his steed, waving to the poor, tired masses as they inch their cars home along the freeways, yearning to breathe free.

Overcome with emotion, we could wave back or respond however the spirit and traffic flow of the hour moved us.

The man atop the steed will be Gaspar de Portola, a Spanish leader who historians say laid eyes on the San Fernando Valley back in 1769 - about 200 years before the first mall went up.

This brazen idea for a Statue of Liberty-size monument right here in the Valley has been kicking around inside the head of Kenneth Johnson since 1972 when he looked around one day and figured we all deserved something more than the Budweiser brewing plant as a cultural landmark to celebrate our rich heritage.

``There's no graphic symbol that says this is the San Fernando Valley,'' says Johnson, a retired commercial artist living in Granada Hills.

Now, before you start thinking this is the biggest pipe dream to get thrown our way since mass transit for the Valley, let me tell you that Johnson has been receiving rave notices from all the pols and bureaucrats he's talked to about this idea.

``You have a wonderful idea,'' former Assemblywoman Paula Boland writes in a letter to Johnson. ``I can really envision the impact it would have on those thousands of people who travel the 405 freeway, down from Mulholland Drive each day, to see the statue looming in the distance.''

An ``exciting concept,'' says state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal, D-Van Nuys. L.A. City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski has asked Johnson to keep her office abreast of any new developments because ``we would be happy to participate in any meeting you put together.''

The city's Department of Recreation and Parks art coordinator, Al Carmichael, says his office would be very interested in the project if the Army Corps of Engineers office signs off on the idea.

The federal government owns the land in the basin where Johnson sees the statue being built. Fred Eteler, head of public affairs for the Army Corps of Engineers, said Wednesday that until his department had a chance to study Johnson's plan, it didn't want to comment on the feasibility of using basin land for a monument.

``Nobody's said `no,' yet,'' an optimistic Johnson says Wednesday, completing a clay mock-up of his grand design to welcome people to the Valley's shores.

The only real hangup so far is the oldest hangup in the book. Money. Who's going to pay? Building a monument this size ain't cheap.

The real Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of France in 1884 to express friendship and the ideals of liberty shared by both peoples, the history books say. It cost them about $400,000 to express this friendship in 100-year-old dollars.

It's doubtful the French people are still in the mood to reach into their pockets again to express their friendship and solidarity with the people of the Valley, so Johnson figures we're going to have to go looking elsewhere for support.

I opt for the west side and Mayor Richard Riordan. They'd pay good money to have us behave out here and drop our threat to secede.

Most likely, though, the money for Gaspar de Portola's 200-foot wave probably will have to come from our own pockets, like the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty did.

The French may have paid for the 151-foot-high statue in New York harbor, but it was the American people who anted up $300,000 for the 150-foot-high pedestal it stands on.

``I'm hoping that either the city or state will get involved to establish a fund-raising committee people can contribute to,'' Johnson says. ``I've also been told something like this may be eligible for grant money, so who knows?''

Personally, I think Johnson's monument could be just the shot in the arm the Valley needs to get us back to our roots.

Every time we get on the freeway, and sit there with nothing to do, we could think of the Valley that Father Juan Crespi wrote about when he and Gaspar crested that old Indian trail up Sepulveda Canyon (now the San Diego Freeway) and looked down on this real estate of ours for the first time.

``We saw a very pleasant and spacious Valley,'' Crespi wrote. ``We descended to it and stopped close to the watering place, which is a very large pool.

``Near it, we found a large village of heathen, very friendly and docile. They offered us their seeds in baskets . . . and we reciprocated with beads and ribbons.

``We gave to this plain the name of Valley of Santa Catalina de Bononia de los Encinos. It is nearly three leagues wide and more than eight long. It has hills and in its valleys there are many live oaks and walnuts.''

If Johnson pulls this off, we'll all be getting back to our roots.

Sitting in our cars on the freeway, and thinking of the Valley that old Gaspar and Father Crespi found.

Taking a look around now, and wondering, ``What the hell happened?''

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Photo

PHOTO (color) Kenneth Johnson of Granada Hills holds his painting of a statue that he would like to see in front of Sepulveda Dam.

John McCoy/Daily News