Good luck, from one coach to another...

Good luck, from one coach to another

I would like to personally thank Art Yanez for his time serving as

freshman football coach at Burbank High School. I also join him in

congratulating our student athletes for their success on the freshman

team. However, he forgot to thank his assistant coaches. Their

knowledge and commitment played a key role in an outstanding season.

Additionally, all three of his assistants have chosen to continue

coaching at Burbank High School. I am excited to have these talented

men progress the vision we have for this football program. I was

disappointed Yanez chose not to continue with the Bulldogs. His

philosophy and coaching style should be a nice fit at John Burroughs

High School. I wish him luck.

GREG SOBIECH

Head football coach,

Burbank High School

Columnist’s coverage was all that he read

I’m writing to express my bitter disappointment about your

decision to drop Will Rogers. By virtue of his insight, verve and

unvarnished observations, Rogers was among the most entertaining and

enlightening columnists in Southern California. I say this not as a

friend or acquaintance, but as a longtime reader who is himself a

professional journalist. Not only was his column the first item I

read when I picked up the Burbank Leader, it was often the only item

I looked at.

I realize that publishing twice a week in the shadow of the L.A.

Times puts a hometown newspaper in an awkward position. No doubt

there are a sizable number of parents who were thrilled to see the

feature of Emerson Elementary School’s Crazy Hat Day, which occupied

two-thirds of the front page on March 19. But I suspect there are

also residents like me who want to know what’s actually going on in

the city. The Times doesn’t cover Burbank politics on an ongoing

basis. Your dismissal of Rogers suggests that the Leader, likewise,

has no interest in hard news. When, for example, are we going to see

some serious analysis of airport expansion? Commercial development?

Our drinking water? With Rogers gone, will we ever see stories like

this? Or is “community journalism” a euphemism for a newspaper filled

with nothing but fluff?

Speaking as someone who has no ax to grind, I found Rogers to be

an equal-opportunity critic, skewering the gadflies for their myriad

misrepresentations, roasting City Council and school board members

for their various failures, and taking city staff to task on the

otherwise unpublicized occasions when they came up short. This is

exactly what a columnist is supposed to do. Rogers played a

particularly important role in Burbank because nobody else is willing

or able to serve as a disinterested and dispassionate civic watchdog.

Well, a few people might be happy that he is gone, but Burbank -- and

the Burbank Leader -- will be much poorer for his disappearance.

PRESTON LERNER

Burbank

Platt Project is foul ball, not home run

Six months ago, the Planning Board turned down the Burbank Media

Center (also known as the Platt Project) with a dramatic 5-0 vote.

After licking his wounds, Platt and his band of minions will try

again -- this time, before the City Council on Tuesday.

A few minor changes were made, but the project -- bordered by

Alameda Avenue, Olive Avenue, Lima Street and the Ventura (134)

Freeway offramp -- is still too large for the neighborhood. The

resulting increased traffic would gridlock an already sluggish

neighborhood. A 15-story apartment building, a 12-story office

building, a six-story glass-box office building, a church replacement

and a smaller condominium building are just too much construction to

squeeze into a parcel of land smaller than four acres.

The other commercial buildings in the area are reasonable, but

this project is way out of bounds for the Media District.

ROLF DARBO

Burbank