Name Change for Community

The Times is wrong in its appraisal of the situation in Valley Glen (“New Lines in Splitsville,” Jan. 18). We live there and we should know. All the letters to the editor (“Valley Glen Name-Change Proposal”) were right on. For various reasons, The Times has spread misinformation and innuendo about a neighborhood it knows little about. We are not a Jewish “enclave,” we are not racially motivated, we do not put our real estate values first and foremost in our priorities in forming a new community.

Your sentence, “If the time and energy spent arguing over the Valley Glen name change were spent trying to solve problems like truancy or graffiti . . .” is absolutely false in its premise. The people who are interested in the formation of Valley Glen are the same people who paint out the graffiti, watch over our schoolchildren (truant or not) and work the hardest for our community. We have battled with all the problems of urban blight. . . . None of the problems addressed would have been solved by the City Council alone, without active involvement of neighborhood volunteers.

The Livable Neighborhoods Council is an experiment, and the more we see of it, the less we think of it. To think that this newly formed mini-bureaucracy could be the answer to our urban prayers is ridiculous.

MARSHA ROSEMAN

and BURTON ROSEMAN

Van Nuys

* That this group has taken tremendous strides to make their community a model in working to improve the quality of life in their area is not to be questioned. Many other community groups could learn from this example.

The leaders of the movement for the name change state that the residents of the area want the change, yet they admit that only homeowners were polled because mailboxes to apartment residents were not accessible. Setting emotions aside, one must question whether the majority of the residents want a name change.

The Valley Glen Neighborhood Assn. was not forced to beg for recognition from our group, but rather the City Council representative who represents all the residents in this area, Mike Feuer, asked for our recommendation. That our group is made up almost equally by members who live inside and outside the newly proposed area speaks volumes for its impartial stance.

Whichever way this goes, it has been divisive in that it has turned good neighbors into opponents. Race and religion were inserted, because [that] is the easy argument nowadays. Hurtful words that should never have been spoken were.

CARLOS FERREYRA

Chair, Van Nuys Livable

Neighborhoods Council

Van Nuys