Utility Lines Are Bad Graffiti

Talk about graffiti. What about the legal mishmash of nonsensical lines that demoralize everyone.

I’m talking about a bad kind of graffiti. The kind our utilities commissioners, local politicians and developers have been making for years.

I’m talking about telephone poles, wires and power lines.

Instead of revitalizing our city by taking these down and replacing them with underground utilities, the commissioners and politicians are authorizing even more unsightly messes.

I can’t understand, for instance, why anyone would permit a third set of high-tension power lines in the Department of Water and Power easement that runs from North Hills through Northridge and beyond.

Sure, it takes a little extra money to put the wires underground. But we’re paying a bigger price for not putting them underground. Our sky, our trees, our buildings are all suffering. And because we have to look at these defaced features, our own outlook on life suffers.

We don’t need more policemen. We need to improve the quality of life in our city. One way to do this is to put the wires underground.

STEPHEN M. BAILEY

Northridge