A Declaration of Not-Quite-Independence

Once upon a time, the San Fernando Valley neighborhood that Harry Flynn calls home was probably called Cahuenga, after a tribe that was here when Father Serra passed through. Harry doesn’t live too far from Campo de Cahuenga, the historic landmark where in 1847 John Fremont accepted Andres Pico’s capitulation of California during the United States’ war with Mexico.

Generations later, this land would become known as Lankershim Ranch and then Lankershim Gardens, after the heir of a San Francisco businessman who got rich during the Gold Rush and invested in the Valley. In the 1920s, real estate interests eager to capitalize on the glitz over the hill would re-dub it North Hollywood.

But Harry Flynn, longtime Hollywood publicist, doesn’t live in North Hollywood anymore. Harry and his wife still live in the same house on Hortense Street that they bought 24 years ago. But now, without moving, the Flynns have a tonier address.

North Hollywood? That’s a few blocks up Vineland. Other side of Camarillo. Now the Flynns live in West Toluca Lake. You know, not far from Bob Hope’s place. Not far from Lakeside Country Club.

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Never mind that West Toluca Lake, unlike its namesake, has no lake hidden by a ring of million-dollar estates--or, for that matter, no million-dollar estates. What matters is that Harry Flynn’s neighborhood is now graced with spanking-new blue street signs that announce West Toluca Lake to the world--testament to the pride and perseverance of West Tolucans, even if one sign wound up on the wrong side of Camarillo Street, in North Hollywood.

“I got off the freeway at Riverside and there was this sign I’d never seen before,” says Debra Sakacs, executive director of the Universal City-North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. “What is West Toluca Lake?”

Don’t take it personally, West Tolucans say. Flynn and Shone Kirkpatrick, president of the West Toluca Lake Residents Assn., say they weren’t trying to diss their neighbors to the north. Still, they acknowledge that North Hollywood’s problems with gangs and crime influenced their decision, just as it helped prompt Valley Village to seek and win a distinct identity in 1991. For that matter, the North Hollywood chamber itself has adopted the “NoHo” image to promote its theaters, restaurants and lofts. (West Tolucans actually cast a few ballots to call their neighborhood SoNoHo.)

Visit this little pocket of little more than 200 households and it’s easy to understand their sense of isolation. The wedge-shaped neighborhood is bordered on the south and west by the interchange of the Hollywood and Ventura freeways. Streets lined with older homes, including several handsome Spanish and Mediterranean designs, are hidden behind newer condos and apartment buildings that line Camarillo. To the east is Vineland Avenue and an ugly dirt median that sprouts metal towers holding Southern California Edison power lines.

More than protecting property values, Kirkpatrick suggests that the effort was more about protecting their children and their political interests. Kirkpatrick, a father of three, is a screenwriter who has won an Emmy for an after-school special. Working at home, he would become a Neighborhood Watch block captain and get angry at the motorists who sped through the neighborhood at rush hour to avoid the congestion at Camarillo and Vineland. “At 5:30 you see kids on Rollerblades and bikes dodging the traffic,” he says.

Their grass-roots efforts filled a vacuum. “In all the years I’ve lived here,” Kirkpatrick says, “I never heard from the North Hollywood Homeowners Assn.”

Several months before the West Toluca Lake signs went up, “SLOW--Children Playing” signs were erected. The residents group has also successfully lobbied for speed bumps to be installed on Hortense, the key to the shortcut. Remaining on the West Toluca Lake agenda is landscaping the Vineland median, in part with money from the Community Redevelopment Agency. And because there’s more to life than circulating petitions, a Halloween party is coming up.

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One of the funny things about West Toluca Lake is that it’s so far west, it doesn’t even share a border with its namesake. To get from one to the other, you still have to traverse a few blocks of good old North Hollywood, even if Realtors call it “Toluca Woods.”

That may change. Once the new blue signs went up, Councilman John Ferraro’s field office heard from nearby residents saying they want in too. Someday in the distant future, West Toluca Lake may consider expanding its boundaries.

Something else is funny about all this. Kirkpatrick and Flynn see in their neighborhood a heartening microcosm of the Valley secession movement--yet they say that Ferraro’s office and the LAPD have been unfailingly helpful. Perhaps this is the kind of spirit that suggests Los Angeles isn’t a lost cause after all.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Please include a phone number.