How About ‘El Toro’?

STANTON — In this city where civic leaders are proud of declining crime rates, new neighborhood beautification projects and business development programs, Councilman Al Ethans has come up with an idea to spruce up the city’s image: Change its name.

“There’s a kind of stigma that goes along with the name ‘Stanton,’ ” Ethans said. “I’m sure some of the old-timers here will come down and threaten my life, but a change might help us out, from a standpoint of our past reputation.”

Only three years ago, prostitutes crowded the city’s Beach Boulevard thoroughfare, graffiti marred buildings and signs, and gang-related crime was out of control. But police crackdowns and gang intervention programs have turned the city around, city leaders and residents said.

Ethans said he is aware of the fury that a name change can bring. A number of Lake Forest residents are still fuming over that city’s change from El Toro after residents voted to incorporate under the new name in 1991. But Ethans said it is time for his 4-square-mile city of 32,000 residents to take a bold step.

“Times have changed; everything around us has changed,” Ethans said. Besides, the city’s namesake, Seal Beach developer Phillip Stanton, “never lived here anyway.”

As Ethans anticipated, his proposal stirred immediate protest.

“If you want to get rid of the stigma, then you’ve got to get rid of the people who are causing the problems. . . . I’m perfectly happy with the name,” said Sally Valencia, a 43-year resident and board member at the Stanton Neighborhood Center.

The city was known as Benedict until 1911, when residents voted for incorporation to fight a proposal by neighboring Anaheim to put a sewage field in the area. The name was chosen by voters after Phillip Stanton backed their quest for cityhood.

But the sewage proposal died, and Stanton residents voted to unincorporate in 1924. The city did not reincorporate until 1956.

In the late 1970s, former Mayor Ed Allen proposed changing the city’s name to West Anaheim, but that idea never even came to a vote.

These days, the cost of a name change would be significant for businesses and residents, who would have to replace everything from stationery to legal documents, city officials and merchants said.

Pete Muth, chairman of the board at Orco Block Co., said it would be a hardship for businesses such as his. “It’s an added confusion with no real advantages,” he said.

City Atty. Thomas W. Allen pointed out that a name change “would require a great deal of administrative communication with the county and the state. There’s literally hundreds of small items that would have to be addressed.”

The City Council could change the name without a vote by residents, Allen said, if four of the five council members approved. Residents who opposed the change could then petition to put the issue to a ballot.

Stanton Mayor Brian Donahue said he was surprised by Ethans’ proposal but thinks it merits public discussion. It demonstrates that Stanton is not afraid to pursue bold ideas, he said, such as last June’s Measure B. The unsuccessful initiative called for a public safety fee to support police and fire services. It was one of the first local ballot measures in the state to ask voters to make up revenue losses expected under Proposition 218, which restricts how municipalities may raise revenue.

“It was a bold step to put Measure B on the ballot,” Donahue said. “The entire county was looking at us. Even though it didn’t make it, we stepped up and did something dramatic.”

Community activist Kevin Carr campaigned against Measure B but supports the name change.

“That’s one of the best ideas the council has had in a long time,” Carr said. “It would bring our community closer together, especially if the community gets to choose a new name.”

Carr did not venture any suggestions.

“It should be the kind of name that when you say it, it sounds like a nice place to be, like Aliso Viejo,” he said.

Ethans said he will bring up the idea at the City Council’s Sept. 9 meeting.

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What’s in a Name?

Should the city of Stanton decide to change its name, the move would be in keeping with what has happened elsewhere. Some cities, like Lake Forest, changed their names by election. Others were stuck with labels that simply changed with time or circumstances. Here’s a look at what various Orange County cities were once called:

Anaheim: called Campo Aleman by its early Spanish-speaking residents

Brea: Randolph

Buena Park: Boone Park

Costa Mesa: Harper; called Goat Hill by rival Newport Harbor High School students in the 1930s

Cypress: Waterville; hoped to be called Lindbergh in 1927 but name was not approved

Dana Point: called Point San Juan by mariners

Fountain Valley: Squatters Country, Gospel Swamp

Fullerton: La Habra

Huntington Beach: Shell Beach, Pacific City

Irvine: Myford

La Palma: Dairyland

Laguna Beach: Lagona

Lake Forest: El Toro

Newport Beach: called Mackerel Flat by rival Costa Mesa high school students in the 1930s

Orange: Richland

San Juan Capistrano: Capistrano

Seal Beach: Anaheim Landing; founded as Bay City

Stanton: Benedict

Tustin: Tustin City

Villa Park: Mountain View

Sources: “Historic Place Names in Orange County” (Paisano Press); Times reports