Housing, Quality of Life in Crescenta Valley

A fine story by Martha Willman (Jan. 7) on the new subdivision proposed for the already blighted Verdugo Mountains. I only hope local residents wake up and mobilize to forestall the enlargement of this gaping sore in our beautiful hills.

If anyone doubts that all these developers want to do is gouge the mountains and run to the bank, catch the condescending tone of their insulting prediction of homeowner opposition . . . from those “who are fortunate enough to already have their own homes in Glendale.”

Somebody needs to tell the authors of that red-herring argument that those of us who already have homes in the Crescenta Valley chose to live here for specific reasons obviously beyond their comprehension. The streets were not gridlocked. Students did not have to be bused away from overcrowded neighborhood schools. And the only sounds reverberating off the hillsides were the howls of coyotes.

If we had liked living on top of our neighbors and listening to their electric toothbrushes, we would be living in the Santa Clarita Valley tract mansions or Bunker Hills condos.

This community cares about quality of life and aesthetics, terms apparently not in the Gregg-Gangi lexicon.

ROB O’NEIL

La Crescenta