VENTURA & VAN NUYS BOULEVARDS; ROADS TO CHANGE; TWO THOROUGHFARES STRETCH LENGTH, WIDTH OF VALLEY.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

They bind the San Fernando Valley like twine around a package, stretching to the limits east, west, north and south.

And with their bustling commerce and teeming traffic, Ventura and Van Nuys boulevards offer a diversity of cultures and classes - a diversity that defines what the Valley has become.

In a century of dramatic change, the two boulevards capture the Valley's history as it was transformed from farmland populated by a few thousand to the quintessential sprawling suburb to today's urban center home to nearly 1.7 million people.

Van Nuys Boulevard caters to the working class, while Ventura caters to the well-heeled. It's Food4Less and Wal Mart compared to Gelson's and The Gap. Bail bondsmen vs. law offices. Mexican fast food or five courses of French cuisine.

``Van Nuys will get you just about everywhere. It's the artery to everything,'' said Nella Carter, owner of the Styles Ville beauty salon on Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima. ``And Ventura Boulevard will take you from end of the Valley to L.A., to the Hollywood Bowl.''

From its origin at Lankershim in Universal City to its western terminus in the shadow of the Ventura Freeway in Woodland Hills, the 17 miles of Ventura Boulevard feature a seemingly endless string of legal, medical and accounting offices, upscale car dealers, nail salons, furniture boutiques and coffee shops. Then there are the restaurants - a dizzying smorgasbord of Thai, Hungarian, Persian, Chinese, Indian, Mexican and kosher foods.

``I think Ventura Boulevard has its own character. It hits every community,'' said John Brooks, dining room manager of Pinot Bistro, a tony trattoria in Studio City. ``We cater to the young rock 'n' roll crowd of Studio City, and the more established diner in, say, Encino.''

Lee Kitchen has also watched that parade of humanity in his 18 years working at Piccolo Pete's, a Ventura Boulevard shop that sells art deco furniture and collectibles in Sherman Oaks.

``You can see the boulevard's changed so much in that amount of time,'' said the 48-year-old Silver Lake resident. ``A lot of new stores have opened up. All the little mom-and-pop stores are practically gone.''

On Van Nuys Boulevard, Carter is running the beauty salon her mom and pop opened in 1958.

``I moved out and stayed away about 15 years. Then I came back. I wanted to keep it in the family,'' said Carter, 49. She fled the Valley when she grew up because she thought it was too boring but returned to take over for her retiring parents.

Van Nuys Boulevard begins in the foothills of Sherman Oaks, where expensive homes dot tree-shaded side streets lined with BMWs and Mercedes. It plunges north into a commercial zone of Fantastic Sams and Subway Sandwich Shops, and passes beneath the 101. It veers east-northeast in Panorama City and goes under the 5 and 210 freeways for a total of 11 miles until it ends at the dusty foothills of the Angeles National Forest.

Though in some areas Van Nuys Boulevard seems grittier than the posh shops of Ventura Boulevard, it also features far more greenery than the twiggy trees that line sidewalks in Encino and Sherman Oaks.

And people actually live on Van Nuys Boulevard, unlike almost the entirety of Ventura. Block after block of modest apartment buildings rise amid mature pines and willows in Van Nuys, Panorama City and Pacoima.

The two avenues even have appropriate differences in their media presence. Ventura Boulevard has its own web site (www.venturablvd.com), which lists businesses along its route. Van Nuys Boulevard has a namesake 1979 movie, which reviewer Leonard Maltin gave two stars and described as a tale of a small-town boy checking out ``the Southern California disco, drag-race, hamburger-stand scene.''

Van Nuys Boulevard is home to The Plant, a shiny new shopping center that replaced the shuttered General Motors plant that closed in 1992, and the vibrant Panorama Mall.

Meanwhile, perhaps the most famous mall in the world couldn't survive hidden among the office buildings on Ventura Boulevard. The Sherman Oaks Galleria and its Valley girl patrons achieved notoriety in movies and song before it closed this year.

``We've seen everything come and go,'' said Kitchen of Piccolo Pete's, a sentiment that Carter echoed about Van Nuys Boulevard.

When she was little, the area was so empty of homes and businesses that big tumbleweeds chased her and the other children through the neighborhood.

``There's hardly any blanks in the area now. And there are just so many cars - cars, cars, cars,'' she said. ``But it's still little old Pacoima, and Van Nuys Boulevard.''

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, map

Photo: (1) In the 1920s Ventura Boulevard ran through open fields.

(2) Parked cars line Van Nuys Boulevard in 1922. The spacious street had trolley tracks down the center.

Daily News file photo

(3 -- 4 -- color) Above, John Brooks manages Pinot Bistro on Ventura Boulevard. Nella Carter, right, operates a beauty salon her parents opened on Van Nuys Boulevard in 1958.

John Lazar/ Staff Photographer

(5) Ventura Boulevard features a variety of offices and restaurants.

David Sprague/ Staff Photographer

(6) Van Nuys Boulevard, then known as Sherman Way, was paved in 1911. This view looks north near site of downtown Van Nuys.

Map: no caption (the valley)