A Couple of ‘Infuriating’ Decisions by Politicos

* As a Sherman Oaks resident, I have recently read about some of the most infuriating political behavior I have ever encountered.

First the Department of Transportation had nine beautiful and towering trees on Dickens Street removed so a few more cars could drive by unimpeded. Of course the people who made that decision don’t live there. What do they care? Take a look around you, politicos. A neighborhood is pretty and valuable in direct proportion to the greenery in it. It becomes run-down, crime-ridden, graffiti-splattered and worth less in all ways as a place to live as the asphalt and concrete increase.

Then we learned that the Department of Corrections spent $2 million to find a site for its parole office in Sherman Oaks. Wouldn’t it have been smarter and fairer to have found out what communities the parolees were from and put the office in one of those cities? Two million dollars! Isn’t that what real estate brokers routinely get paid commissions in the neighborhood of $5,000 to $10,000 to find? That’s a lottery payoff. I could have found a site for $1,000. Assemblyman Richard Katz of Panorama City says that’s why the parole office should stay in Sherman Oaks--otherwise, we’d waste that investment. It’s already been wasted, Mr. Katz!

ROBERT K. WILCOX

Sherman Oaks