Mailbag: Article seemed one-sided

While it was encouraging to see the Leader write an article about the city staff’s efforts to create stricter guidelines to limit “mansionization,” I was surprised that the entire article was devoted to the opinion of one person, Mr. Troy Peterson. Apparently, he feels the city staff is spending too much time drafting these guidelines. I don’t know Mr. Peterson, and I expected him to be an expert on housing or a representative of a pertinent organization. But judging from the article, he is just a man with his own financial planning business. It’s interesting that the Leader now writes whole articles covering the opinion of a random businessman. Will they then be interviewing people with differing perspectives? Personally, I applaud the city staff attempts to get these guidelines right, because they will affect the lives of residents for decades to come.

Tom Abrams
Burbank

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Questions on mansionization

Time spent on stricter design guidelines for single-family homes in an effort to prevent “mansionization” is time well spent if you want to keep Burbank’s present and historical character of a family comfortable, middle/upper-middle class place to live. mansionization is already taking place in nearby areas such as the Colfax Meadows area of Studio City, huge, two-story lookalike structures oversized for the lots and the area, looking down on neighbor’s homes and yards, destroying the neighborhood continuity and character. I believe it may have already started in the Toluca Lake area.

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Strangely, they look so similar, even though put up by different builders and developers. Perhaps it saves them time and money, as it would seem the builder would be able to predict the exact cost of materials, down to the last nail. They look almost like tract homes for the overprivileged, with prices that seem to begin at about $2.5 million! With little room left for backyards for kids, they don’t seem to me family-friendly as areas like Burbank and Studio City have always been, up to now. Finally, people like me, and perhaps you, won’t be able to afford to live in Burbank or Studio City in the future.

Respectfully, if the city doesn’t knuckle-down and set reasonable standards for Burbank, the desirability of Burbank will attract mansionization, and do the people now living here really want that kind of change?

Harvey Barkan
Studio City

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Ballot story seems unlikely

Why do we Leader readers have to suffer a Hollywood reporter as a political commentator? Ray Richmond expands upon hearing from a single Facebook friend (always a reliable source) about his disqualified mail-in ballot in Dallas, into rhetoric about a vast Republican conspiracy to deny voting rights to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters nationwide. While I cannot speak definitely to the likelihood of an out-of-state ballot judge (of unstated political affiliation) actually communicating with a disqualified voter, I can state that Mrs. Clinton got more than 61% of the votes that were qualified in Dallas. I would imagine that trend was clear when the devious, Dallas ballot judge found a problem with the Facebook friend’s ballot. So, Ray, how about some more precise examples about how the Republican Party spends so much time and energy in keeping people from voting? For the record I am a Republican who did not vote for Trump.

Mel Wolf
Burbank