ARLETA : Boycott of ‘Pacoima’ Addressers Is Urged

In the latest salvo of a longstanding struggle to establish an independent identity, community activists in Arleta are mailing complaints to bulk-mail advertisers who address flyers to Pacoima.

More than 100 of the letters have gone out, saying that Arleta residents are insulted when they see “Pacoima 91331” appended to their street address, said Hawley Smith, a member of the Arleta Chamber of Commerce spearheading the drive.

Although the neighboring communities share a ZIP code--which the post office officially designates as belonging to Pacoima--these residents of Arleta want the name of their town on their mail.

“The people in Arleta do resent being called Pacoima,” said John Maxon, who with Smith organized the letter campaign.

The letter warns companies who use computer-generated lists with a Pacoima designation: “Most of the Arleta residents who receive mail addressed as Pacoima will throw out the mail without even opening it. . . . To use the post office in soliciting our area is a waste of your advertising dollar.”

Smith said his request amounts to a postal boycott. “They are the ones that caused the whole problem in the first place,” he said of the post office.

Smith and Maxon have long fought to recover Arleta’s original ZIP code, 91332.

Arleta had that ZIP code from about 1962 to 1968, said Maxon. Then, the U.S. Postal Service took away its branch office, and the ZIP, merging it with Pacoima. Oddly enough, 1968 was the same year Arleta officially divorced itself from Pacoima.

The postal-code battle has raged ever since, inextricably linked with Arleta’s secession.

So for Maxon and others, there’s more to a ZIP than a set of numbers. It’s a step in establishing a sense of identity for a tiny community wedged between Mission Hills, Panorama City, Sun Valley and Pacoima.

But Maxon admits that Pacoima’s reputation as a blighted high-crime area also figures heavily into the campaign. “The salesmen, they knew if they sold property as Pacoima they wouldn’t be able to sell it, so they sold it as Arleta,” Maxon said.

Maxon and the Chamber of Commerce have signatures from more than 5,000 households demanding the ZIP code back. But local postal authorities have rejected their requests, saying the system works fine as it is. Postal officials involved in the decision could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Arleta residents hope their message of “return to sender” will persuade officials to restore the Arleta code.