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Barbara and Carl Hopfinger were thrilled and proud to move to a brand-new tract home on the western edge of Canoga Park 26 years ago. It was nothing fancy, but it had four bedrooms and a little yard, nice neighbors and an affordable price tag of $19,800.
There was only one problem.
"You really had to be careful on your way home at night that it was your door you entered," Barbara Hopfinger said. "I think there must be 4,000 homes like this. They all looked alike."
The tract homes still stand, although by now their owners have individualized them with decorative touches of brick, stone, paint and landscaping. But the neighborhood has a new name: West Hills.
Nevertheless, Hopfinger, 50, an elementary school teacher and the mother of two, resolutely refuses to call it anything but Canoga Park.
"I'm proud to live in Canoga Park. What's wrong with it?" she asked. "Perhaps it's not as elegant as Woodland Hills or Sherman Oaks, but I've produced two wonderful children from Canoga Park. The markets have fed my family. The shops have clothed my children. It will always be Canoga Park to me."
75th Birthday This Year
Aging, fading, proud Canoga Park ushered in its 75th birthday this year by absorbing a kick in the teeth. What was once a pastoral West San Fernando Valley farming community called Owensmouth now finds itself at a crossroads, forced to face the future minus a chunk of its newest, most affluent neighborhoods.
The defection has longtime Canoga Park residents stepping forward to defend their hometown as a pleasant if not prestigious neighborhood of people ranging from newlyweds lured by moderately priced homes to Latino families who have deep roots in the community.
One of the oldest communities in the San Fernando Valley, Canoga Park took a verbal battering and shrank in size by nearly a third in January after homeowners on its hilly western flank persuaded City Council members Joy Picus and Hal Bernson to give them the newer and supposedly more chic name of West Hills.
Seven months later, Picus is still being hounded by others intent on shedding the name of Canoga Park, which they say conjures up images of a seedy downtown area filled with...