From The Herald:
Welcome to Woodland Park.
That could be the greeting at West Paterson's border after voters answer a referendum on changing the municipality's name in November. It will be the fourth time in 20 years that residents have considered a new name.
Three times before, West Paterson voters rejected new names: Woodland Park in 1989, West Park in 1995 and Garret Mountain in 2001. This year's drive resurrects the first alternate name of Woodland Park. But unlike the previous campaigns, the Committee to Change the Name of Our Borough appears to be operating very quietly.
"Woodland Park" better represents the borough as "a community of parklands, wooded areas, and the flowing Passaic River," according to the committee's leaflets. Supporters of the movement said they want to drop the association with the neighboring city of Paterson to avoid being confused as a neighborhood within the city. Others believe the current name may hurt property values.
The bulk of the 877 signatures filed with the petition were collected from residents of the borough's newer town house developments, including Wedgewood Knolls, and Garret Heights.
The next question may be whether to call the residents "Woodlanders" or "Parkers."
If Woodland Park rings familiar, it maybe because of the 2,610,000 Google references to similar entitie -- including The Seattle Zoo illustrated in our graphic.
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