‘A pretty big deal’: Once iconic, demolition now looms for North Hollywood’s blighted Valley Plaza

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, the prices were low, and parking was always easy. After grabbing a bite, he’d head to Gold’s Gym for a workout or swing by Quality TV, the appliance store owned by the man who would later become his father-in-law, where he worked for a time.

“It was a great place,” said Dorfman, now 81 and still living in the nearby NoHo Arts District. “And then it just started to deteriorate.”

Today, most of what he remembers is gone. The multiplex movie theater is shuttered. Longtime retailers have vanished. Valley Plaza — once one of the San Fernando Valley’s most iconic shopping destination