Not Even a Speck on the Map

At its smallest point, you can throw a football from one end of the community to another. It’s so new the local pizza delivery man wouldn’t know where to send your pie. And if you get lost looking for it, forget about asking for directions.

“What do you mean, Sherman Village?” growled Neil Auyoub, manager of a Shell gas station at Magnolia Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon Avenue. “Never heard of it.”

Welcome to the lost Village of Sherman, where many people like Auyoub who live or work there simply, well, don’t know that they live or work there.

At a time when the city is considering official borders for San Fernando Valley communities, the creation of Sherman Village in September illustrates the confusion that many Valley residents have about such boundaries.

“We’re in Valley, uh, it’s Valley something. Valley View. I forget,” said 48-year-old Oscar Sabado as he scratched his head, trying to recall what he tells out-of-towners when they ask where they are.

But even Sabado, a front desk manager at the Best Western Mikado Motel on Riverside Drive, needed prompting.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s Sherman Village,” Sabado smiled when reminded of the community’s new moniker. “It’s very confusing, sometimes. I don’t know why they changed it. The atmosphere is just not a village for me. It’s more like a small city.”

With only about 40 homes and one mailman within its boundaries, however, Sherman Village can challenge that point.

The name change was accomplished after residents petitioned City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky to remove them from the no-man’s land between Sherman Oaks and North Hollywood after Valley Village was created in 1991.

The boundaries include Coldwater Canyon Avenue from the Ventura Freeway to Burbank Boulevard on the west, the Tujunga Wash on the east, the Ventura Freeway on the south and a 10-yard sliver on the north at Burbank Boulevard between Coldwater Canyon and the Tujunga Wash.

“We just woke up one morning and realized we did not touch North Hollywood but were a part of it,” said Mike Russell, 48, president of the Sherman Village Homeowners Assn., which lobbied for the name change. “It didn’t make any sense to be a part of a community that we weren’t even touching.”

But it may be a while before the new name catches on.

There are only two signs marking Sherman Village, both well inside the community’s boundaries. To people heading south, Sherman Village might as well not exist. The only sign in this direction in Sherman Village is at Burbank and Coldwater.

And it welcomes visitors to Sherman Oaks.

But city workers who put up the signs should not feel too bad. Even the phone company can’t help you locate Sherman Village.

“There’s not a city called Sherman Village,” snapped Pacific Bell Operator 746, who acknowledged North Hollywood and Chatsworth. “I’m positive.”

It’s not like people are rushing to find Sherman Village, either.

“The only ones who drive through here are lost and who are trying to get to the other side of the wash,” said Diane Love, who lives on one of the three tiny residential streets with her husband, Charles.

Nor are businesses running out and buying signs to identify themselves as being in Sherman Village. From the lone car dealership to office buildings, many businesses still carry the North Hollywood name on their store windows.

Managers simply do not know they are in a village.

“Down the street we got signs that say Sherman Oaks and one street behind us it says Valley Village,” said a befuddled Charles Echols, shift manager of Pizza Hut Delivery on Coldwater as he gazed at a city map. “I don’t know where Sherman Village is.”

Even the label “village”--chosen because the community is located between Sherman Oaks and Valley Village--is a source of confusion.

“Basically, it’s very quiet,” Russell said. “From that standpoint, it’s like a village.”

Russell points to the heart of Sherman Village at La Maida Street and Bluebell Avenue, which is indeed reminiscent of a peaceful Midwestern enclave. American flags swing softly in the breeze, a mother pushes her baby in a stroller, and there is a noticeable absence of security fences.

But some residents say this atmosphere is misleading.

“It’s not a quaint, little village by any means,” said resident Emily Kaplan, 34, who lives there with her husband and two children. “We’ve been here eight years and have been burglarized three times and had cars stolen off the street.”

Sherman Village does have a few draws, however. Many come for the care at North Hollywood Medical Center and Riverside Convalescent Hospital, both located on Riverside Drive.

Others come to take better care of themselves. There’s a fitness center at Coldwater and Chandler Boulevard, near the community’s only green space, a small park with pine trees that attracts joggers. And then there’s Smokey Joe’s restaurant, near the corner of Riverside and Coldwater, which draws the likes of Billy Crystal and Bob Hope for mouthwatering barbecue.

However, these landmarks have yet to grant Sherman Village a clear-cut identity that alerts the community and visitors to the name change.

This may come in February, when the City Council’s Public Works Committee is expected to consider adopting an official map of the city’s new community boundaries, including Sherman Village. If the proposal is approved, Sherman Village would have its place on the map and, perhaps, its identity.

But some residents, such as Patrice Mengell, care less about knowing where they live than being able to afford to live there.

“If the rent goes down, then I love Sherman Village,” said Mengell, 23, who pays $700 a month for a two-bedroom apartment on Coldwater. “Until then, you can call it Sherman Whatever.”

Times researcher David Brady contributed to this article.