On Tuesday, a panel of Los Angeles city commissioners appointed by Mayor Karen Bass voted to declare much of Valley Plaza a public nuisance after a hearing that drew neighbors who complained about decrepit conditions and crime at the site at Laurel Canyon and Victory boulevards.

Ken Dorfman has been going to Valley Plaza since he was 16 — back when Victory and Laurel Canyon was still a bustling corner in the San Fernando Valley. There was a Bob Burns restaurant where the food was hearty,