Letters to the Editor: Clark Magnet freshman endorses idea of later start times, reader questions Wells Fargo variance
The state Senate has approved SB 328, a bill that calls for California middle and high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Prominent school districts like South Pasadena Unified and La Cañada Unified have already voted to require middle and high schools to start school at 8:30 a.m.
The Glendale Unified School District should also start its schools after 8:30 a.m. There have been many studies on this, and the benefits to teenage students are startling. They include: increased physical growth, better attention in school, better attendance, lower likeliness of major diseases and a decrease in teen depression.
Glendale Unified School District may be waiting for the state Assembly to make its decision, but I don’t think we need to wait. We should be the front-runners, not late-followers, in the education of our youth.
Connor Choi
Ninth-grade student
Clark Magnet High School
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Young men (and some women) with no regard for the law driving fast expensive cars should actually put Glendale at the bottom of the Allstate “America’s Best Drivers Report.”
Obviously city spokesman Tom Lorenz and Chris Cochran, spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety, never drive in Glendale.
Seldom a day goes by that I don’t see speeding, cellphone use and a total disregard for stop signs. On the rare occasion young drivers do stop they don’t recognize the concept of the car that arrives first at a four-way stop has the right of way. When you honk as a reminder, “the finger” is the usual response.
I have been passed by cars at the intersection of Pacific Avenue and Stocker Street who have used the left-turn lane as a passing lane. Amazing!
More enforcement would certainly help but there don’t seem to be enough officers or time and “education” is a complete waste of time and money.
When someone does figures out how to solve this problem they should be given a Nobel Prize.
Jim Kussman
Glendale
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It is always interesting and amusing to review the annual bad driving record of the city of Glendale, and the same canned objection by the city, which actually is nonresponsive to the report.
First of all, this is not just an Allstate report; that company is just one of a great number of insurance companies that are members of a huge, highly technical database that also includes the Department of Motor Vehicles, the California Highway Patrol, and the service centers where you take your vehicle (your carrier can tell you how many miles you drove your car in any given policy period based on those records). This is an incredibly complex operation, being a rival to the IRS.
The law in California is that you must report, within 10 days, any accident involving bodily injury, or property damage in excess of $1,000, so these are not “minor claims,” as the city wants you to believe. If you did include all the minor incidents that occur in Glendale, another data bank would probably have to be set up.
There is a culture that now dominates Glendale driving patterns, a mixture of aggression, thoughtlessness, arrogance and an overlay of hysteria. Perhaps the fact that the vast majority of all the fancy BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus vehicles, etc., are leased and not owned, a lack of ownership concern has something to do with it, as there is as much lack of concern for the vehicle as there is for the public. With all the amazing new safety devices the latest cars have, you would think accidents would decrease, but Glendale motorists find a way to overcome them.
Does anyone think next year’s report will be any better? I doubt it.
James Weling
Glendale
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There was a time when they came after the Muslims, and I didn’t do anything because I wasn’t a terrorist.
Then they came after the Latinos, and I didn’t do anything because I wasn’t a rapist or a criminal.
Then they came after the Asians, and I didn’t do anything because I wasn’t related to Kim Jung Un.
Then they came after African Americans, and I didn’t do anything because my life surely matters.
Then they came after the blue-eyed white Christians, but I didn’t have to do anything because I was a corporation!
Mike Gomez
Glendale
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On June 28, I attended a hearing of the Glendale Community Development Department concerning a variance requested by Wells Fargo to keep the fence on the southern boundary of their new branch at Foothill Boulevard and Pennsylvania Avenue.
Like all residents who spoke against the application, I believed Wells Fargo built in violation of plans approved in July 2015. Those plans required a 7-foot wall along the southern boundary. That action came shortly after a teenager drove through a wall at a gas station on the southwest corner of Foothill and New York Avenue, ending upside down in the backyard of a home below.
I was shocked to hear Wells Fargo claim the city had approved the fence in September 2015, with a set of plans as proof. Neither the hearing officer nor the planner disputed this.
What happened between July and September 2015? Why weren’t the Far North Glendale Homeowners Assn., the Crescenta Valley Community Assn., or immediate neighbors informed of the change? All were involved in discussions with the builder and city prior to July 2015. There was no public Design Review Board hearing on Wells Fargo’s permit application. If this is an example of how the streamlined Administrative Design Review works, it doesn’t.
Wells Fargo claims it was told to apply for a variance only a week prior to the branch opening. Now the Development Department’s staff report recommends granting the variance.
This raises two vital issues: the safety of those who live downhill from the property and the accountability of Glendale city planners. Did the city approve one set of plans and later drastically revise them without public notice, only to force the applicant through a sham variance process?
Mary-Lynne Fisher
La Crescenta