Redwood Village

NAME RESTORATION: from Darnall to Redwood Village

Union Tribune Article: "Farewell Darnall-Hello Redwood Village"!

Farewell Darnall, hello Redwood Village
Community's name change marks a 'new beginning'
By David E. Graham
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 7, 2007


SAN DIEGO – The community of Darnall is no more.

It's now Redwood Village.

Residents voted for the name change earlier this month. The new name, denizens of the community said, sounds more pleasant and conjures images of a more vibrant place to live, which is what the residents have been working toward.

“We're really excited,” said Anna Orzel-Arnita, president of the newly renamed Redwood Village Community Council. “It marks a new beginning for the community.”

Orzel-Arnita said it also caps the past few years of efforts that have built a stronger community for their area, near San Diego State University. Residents have organized street cleanups and graffiti-removal patrols, collected abandoned shopping carts, sent underprivileged children to summer camp and persuaded the city to add speed bumps and raze two abandoned buildings.

“We want to be a model community,” Orzel-Arnita said.

Redwood Village, a modest San Diego bedroom community of about 1,000 homes, is bounded by College Avenue and 54th Street and University Avenue and Streamview Drive. The business district fronting University Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard has a variety of small family shops, automobile service shops and fast-food restaurants.

At a May 14 community meeting, 65 of 71 attending chose to adopt the new name, which developers had given to a 1951 housing development in the area. In 1952, the neighborhood's elementary school was named after Orton E. Darnall, a former city school board member. Over time, the wider community became known as Darnall, too.

Shakespeare opined that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” but Orzel-Arnita said the new name is more evocative of community and reaches back to the area's roots.
She said she hopes it will galvanize people to even greater involvement.
The community council, a nonprofit organization and residents explored the name change for a couple of years, making sure, for example, that it would not confuse police, the fire department and other city services.

Councilman Jim Madaffer supports the name change, and he will introduce a council resolution asking Mayor Jerry Sanders to coordinate the change throughout city government departments, said Aimee Faucett, Madaffer's chief of staff.

Madaffer also has volunteered to make available money from a community development block grant for neighborhood signs to post the new name around the community, Faucett said.

Orzel-Arnita said the community council will be working with Madaffer's and County Supervisor Ron Roberts' offices for help with other improvements: adding landscaping for neglected, small public parcels; adding landscaping and a trail along Chollas Creek by Chollas Parkway; and more community cleanups.

They also want to attract more restaurants and shops and maybe establish a dog park.

Part of the economic improvement may come from the city Redevelopment Agency's plan for the area. It calls for encouraging new businesses along El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue, spokesman Eric Symons said. It also would provide money for some landscaping, he said.
Added Orzel-Arnita, “That's what we're working toward.”

David Graham: (619) 542-4575; david.graham@uniontrib.com