PHOTOS: Stephanie Asher, Trainman, FireMonkeyfish.
If the residents of a given area vote to rename their neighborhood,
the LA City Council is going to pay for sign changes, according to the LA Times. Such areas as West Toluca Lake, Toluca Woods, Toluca Terrace, Valley Village, Valley Glen, West Hills and Lake Balboa are examples of districts where homeowners sought to bolster their identity by losing it.
Los Angeles, which built itself up by annexing and conquering Highland Park, Eagle Rock and Woodland Hills, wants to pay to further erase and butcher its history and carve up the city into places with names that mean nothing. Is this an attempt at creating community unity by denying it? Why would the City Council make it easier for the unimaginative to create such inane monickers as “Valley Village”?
Supposedly, it improves the real estate values if a community abandons its historic downtown and invents a new village out of a zip code. When North Hollywood hit the skids in the 1970s and 80s, Valley Village didn’t lend a hand, it got out of town.
Now the downtown areas of Reseda, Van Nuys, Canoga Park and North Hollywood are seeing a rebirth. Will Panorama City rename itself North Van Nuys? And will the divorced and dowdy districts of Ms. West Hills and Mr. T. Woods seek reconciliation with their newly hip and artsy parents?
Ventura, Hazeltine and Saticoy all refer to real persons or places. They mean something. So does Van Nuys. Saying a place is a village or a glen when it isn’t won’t make it so.
Here in Van Nuys 