The Encino most residents actually live in each July is not the one that shows up on lifestyle roundups. It is a small triangle: a stretch of Ventura Boulevard where a new dinner room finally makes the walk east of Balboa worthwhile, a Sunday parking lot on Victory that becomes the neighborhood's living room for five hours, and a 2,000-acre basin that opens to boats when the weather turns dry. This year, that triangle carries a different weight than it did last summer.
The reason is on the calendar. In 2028, portions of the Sepulveda Basin will host Olympic competition, and the preparatory work that reshapes the site's edges will begin well before the torch arrives. If your habits already include the loop around Lake Balboa or a Sunday market run followed by lunch on the boulevard, this is the last full summer in which each of those anchors stands in the version you know.
What Actually Changed on the Boulevard
The most concrete addition to the eastern boulevard this year is
