Valley Glen Name-Change Proposal

Re “Splitting Image,” Jan. 11.

The coverage of the Valley Glen name change was not just ludicrous but insidious. In an egregious distortion of the truth, The Times played the race card. With references to segregation and absurd comments about the renaming recalling real estate covenants that once barred blacks, our effort to establish a better and safer community was characterized as an apartheid-like movement.

The Times well knows that exclusivity and race have nothing to do with the name change and should be ashamed of such race baiting. Valley Glen is a mixed area--whites in the majority but also comprising Latinos, blacks and others--that is decidedly middle class. The sad reality is that if Valley Glen were a minority area, we would be heralded by The Times for our multifaceted efforts to create a better community.

EDWARD PLACIDI

Van Nuys

* I am outraged by this article, specifically at the inciting nature of its tone: “Traditionally . . . a Jewish enclave . . . more white than the rest of Van Nuys.” To make it a Jewish, African American or Hispanic issue is not to do justice to the issue at hand, which is that 70% of residents in a given area want a greater sense of community and should be entitled to determine their own destiny.

Why not focus on [City Councilman] Mike Feuer’s total inactive presence in the area? There has been more than one issue that he has chosen not to address and from which he has distanced himself. I love the way that his “non-decision-making” council, with (according to The Times) 25 members, is deadlocked at 5 to 5 with three abstentions. Where is the rest of this council? Where is Feuer? Why can he not make a decision unless every voter is 100% behind him?

[The proposal to rename] was supposed to be a positive, not a negative, and if the name change inception had stemmed from any racist agenda, then I can assure you that most, if not all of us, would not be in favor of it!

ABIGAIL SPIEGEL

Van Nuys

* We are sick and tired of being ignored by the rest of the official Van Nuys community. Less than four hours before the Livable Neighborhood Council meeting, a Mid-Valley Chamber of Commerce spokesperson informed me that they had no statistics on the actual size of Van Nuys, that the population is 228,203, not the 140,000 reported in The Times, and that they had no position on our name change. Contrast this to the statement made by Flip Smith to your reporter. Likewise, the Van Nuys Homeowners’ Assn. has been a stealth organization in the Valley Glen area. They have a lot of nerve claiming that we are being divisive, when they have never reached out to us in the first place.

We resent that the Valley Glen Neighborhood Assn. was forced to almost beg for recognition from a politically created town council (the Livable Neighborhood Council) that was superimposed over our area less than 18 months ago. The VGNA began in the early 1990s as a grass-roots association, and its efforts should be seen as a model for neighborhoods that wish to improve communities through noncontroversial, volunteer activities. After years of hard work to bring together over 1,200 homes (not 1,200 people as reported) and beginning an outreach program to over 2,000 apartment units, we have earned the right to be recognized.

MARTIN KORN

Van Nuys

* Perhaps the most regrettable result of this kind of smear campaign is that it has necessitated mentally breaking down all of our friends and neighbors and putting them into racial / cultural groups in an effort to refute this unwarranted attack on our motives and belief systems. These are the same people who only yesterday were simply the fine people I was fortunate enough to live among and call my friends. If it is possible to be apolitical, then the best part of living in Valley Glen is that this area is a-racial / cultural. We are raising our daughter to celebrate and nurture diversity. How dare anyone label her parents, friends and neighbors greedy bigots simply because we are trying to make her home the best possible place it can be.

Reflecting on the time I spent talking with the misguided [Jill] Leovy and reports I have had from others with whom she spoke, I must give her credit for trying very hard to get one of us to say something that could be lifted out of context and deemed bigotry. Well, folks, the reason she was unable to accomplish this is because it does not exist!

BOBBIE FRESH-GHENT

Secretary, Valley Glen

Neighborhood Assn.

Van Nuys