Letter -- Joanne Hedge

Three cheers for the city’s long-awaited beautification plans for San

Fernando Road, and frowns to letter writer Tom Harris (Dec. 6) for

dismissing people’s expectations for that area.

Many Rancho property owners living west of the largely bleak,

industrial area where the railroad and the interstate divide them from

the rest of Glendale have for years been hoping for both cleanup and

landscape measures to be taken there under the auspices of the

Redevelopment Agency and Public Works. The corridor is a main access

route to and from surrounding communities whose residents commute to such

as Disney Imagineering and Dreamworks SKG in the Grand Central Business

campus, and should provide a more significant and quality “welcome” to

auto, bus, train and truck occupants, not to mention pedestrians and

cyclists.

We anticipate that the trees, shrubs and grassy berms described at a

recent City Council session will freshen the sensory environment, help

muffle rail noise, and provide a setting that invites more businesses

that can provide neighborly services and attractive storefronts ...

What better place to spend $2 million to upgrade an area that needs to

be on a par with the rest of the city to which it belongs, despite its

industrial demeanor? Many cities, including San Francisco, have

capitalized on their warehouse, rail and dock neighborhoods, turning them

into prized commercial and even multi-unit residential real estate

markets! Neighborhoods to either side of the corridor will benefit by the

facelift.

As for the letter writer’s concerns that trees and shrubs attract or

conceal illicit activities, if that were the case, why more than ever

before do towns and cities plan their urban cores and mall and business

districts with park-like amenities? The “undesirable elements” of which

he writes are best managed through law enforcement, homeless shelters,

low-income housing assistance, accessible drug and health services,

stay-in-school programs, and the combined efforts of private industry and

faith-based groups -- not by neglecting landscape and rejecting beauty.

What a sight for sore eyes it’ll be -- bring on the green!

JOANNE HEDGE

President

Glendale Rancho

Homeowners Assn.