2 Tapos Is Too Many for Simi; Name Change Sought for Street

Tapo Street has been called dilapidated and quake-ravaged. The old thoroughfare in the east end of town has been dubbed a ghost town and little Beirut. It has been labeled hard-to-find.

Now, maybe, it’s time to call Tapo Street something else.

Renaming Tapo Street, city leaders and boosters hope, will spur an ongoing face-lift of the older business district and eliminate confusion with nearby Tapo Canyon Road.

The proposal to rename the once-bustling boulevard will be the only order of business at a 6:30 p.m. meeting today of the advisory committee of business owners and city officials charged with revitalizing Tapo Street.

City Councilwoman Sandi Webb suggested renaming Tapo Street when she realized she wasn’t the only person who had trouble giving out-of-towners directions for the east side of the city, where both Tapos are.

Even the most attentive note-taker, or avid Thomas Guide reader, can get lost when told to exit the Ronald Reagan Freeway on Tapo Canyon Road, and then jog a few blocks east to Tapo Street, she said.

“There’s just a massive confusion trying to give directions to find the businesses on Tapo Street or the periphery,” she said. “You tell people [the directions], and they say ‘Huh?’ ”

So why not rename it? she asked. Especially as the area is embarking on a revitalization project early next year, one that promises to improve the wide street by adding new landscaping, lights, wider sidewalks and a dash of panache.

Maybe the street should be called Santa Susana Boulevard, as the road is in the heart of the old town of Santa Susana. Or possibly Clark Road, after Simi Valley Police Officer Michael Clark, who was slain in the line of duty two years ago. Or Town Street, as Tapo originated from the Chumash word “taapu,” meaning town.

Those are some of the suggestions that will be presented to the Tapo Street Revitalization Committee tonight. Also at the meeting, Assistant City Manager Don Penman will present a report detailing the city’s estimated expenses if the street name were to be changed.

Then the Tapo Street business owners will be asked to give their opinions on the matter.

Their advisory opinion will be forwarded to the City Council. A preliminary survey sent out by Webb indicates that more than half of the responding business owners approve of a name change, despite that they would have to change letterheads, business cards, billing documents and more.

Marshall Shrago, owner of Holiday Hardware on Tapo Street, is one of the idea’s backers.

“When I first heard the idea, I thought it was like putting a Band-Aid on a major wound,” he said. “But now my vote is for it. . . . The real key is making sure the sign for the [Ronald Reagan Freeway] offramp says ‘Tapo Canyon Road to Santa Susana Boulevard,’ or whatever it’s called.”

His change of heart was prompted by a simple question: Would Tapo Street by any other name still have a bad image?

“Right now, Tapo Street has a negative connotation, a negative image,” he said. “Changing the name isn’t going to change the street or the shop owners or the look, but it may change the impression about Tapo Street.”

Councilwoman Barbara Williamson, who sits on the committee along with Webb, said she is reserving judgment until she hears from the people who would be most directly affected.

“I don’t have a business there, so I’m kind of hard-pressed to say, ‘Yes, I favor it,’ or ‘No, I don’t,’ ” she said. “I’m a 30-year resident, and I kind of like the name Tapo Street, but if the businesses feel they need a new name . . . then I can accept that.”

Both Tapo and Santa Susana have roots in Simi Valley’s history--they were small districts that united when the city incorporated in 1969, said city historian Pat Havens. But she said it seems foolish to have two roads named Tapo and none named Santa Susana.

The two Tapos were legs of the same road in the early 1900s--a zigzagging path that led from the train depot and shops in the south of the valley around fields and up to massive ranches in the northern Gillibrand Canyon area, she said. But both sides of the zigzag were lengthened until the roads ran parallel to each other. Tapo Canyon Road eventually became the site of the city’s government center and got its own freeway exit, choking off most of the traffic on Tapo Street.

“We really have no good reason to hang onto Tapo Street and Tapo Canyon Road,” she said. “New people can’t begin to get all the nuances of why we have two streets named Tapo. We would have been wise years ago to change Tapo Street to Santa Susana Boulevard or Santa Susana Avenue.”