New Future, New Reputation

For years Blythe Street has been synonymous with crime, murder and urban decay. A half-mile stretch of it near the former General Motors plant in Panorama City earned a reputation as one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley. Drug dealers, gang members and murderers turned Blythe Street into a bloody playground where residents lived in terror.

But a massive cleanup that included financial investment and intensive policing has helped turn Blythe Street around. Some residents, property owners and city officials now want to change Blythe Street’s name to Amber Way--a moniker inspired by the liquidambar trees planted as part of the renewal efforts. The thinking: A new name would help close the books on the past and allow the neighborhood to move forward. Blythe Street, name change proponents argue, is no longer Blythe Street.

Perhaps, but name changes are superficial fixes that do little to address the reasons Blythe Street became such a nasty place to live in the first place. More than $4 million in federal and local money has helped take care of that. The money paid for everything from building renovations to increased police patrols. And a 1993 gang injunction obtained by the city attorney’s office help push out some of the neighborhood’s worst thugs.

In a way, residents are right. Blythe Street is no longer Blythe Street. But they are also wrong. Blythe Street is slowly returning to the sort of place it was before poverty and violence crept in--a place where families can feel safe. The past will haunt Blythe Street no matter what it’s called. The way to change its reputation is to change Blythe Street’s future, not its name.