Porter Ranch Community Identity

If Porter Ranch is nothing but an ugly commercial scene of sandbags, trash-laden chain-link fences, empty asphalt parking lots and vast stretches of scarred land, as T. Christian Miller would have us believe in his sophomoric etymology lesson (“On the Road to a New Identity,” Dec. 12), then why is the Los Angeles Times so quick to dispatch photographers to the neighborhood to get shots of beautiful, panoramic vistas of snow-capped mountains or charming pastoral scenes of cattle meandering down Corbin Avenue?

Believe it or not, many of us are proud to live in Porter Ranch, a safe, family-oriented community with well-constructed houses affording often breathtaking mountain and valley views. We welcome the street name change because Porter Ranch is more than Nathan Shapell’s private playground; it is our home.

While I would certainly prefer a better caliber of stores, I do not believe that Shapell is Henry Potter. Winnetka is not Bedford Falls. And Porter Ranch is most certainly not Pottersville. Wal-Mart or not, it really can be a wonderful life in Porter Ranch.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Miller.

RISA SLAVIN, Northridge