Opposition cancels out Beeline loop

Beeline Route 7 along Kenneth Road, and Sonora and Grandview avenues will cease.GLENDALE CITY HALL -- A decision by the City Council to halt a Beeline bus loop through Kenneth Village Tuesday was met with applause from Sonora Avenue residents, who had complained of noise and pollution since the buses began running on their street at the end of August.

The council’s unanimous decision means Beeline Route 7 will stop running along Sonora, Kenneth Road and down Grandview Avenue within a week at the latest, Traffic and Transportation Administrator Jano Baghdanian said.

The Beeline route in question was realigned in November 2004 after residents on North Allen Avenue asked that the bus line be removed from their street. After a successful six-month trial period along Glenoaks Boulevard, the council approved another six-month trial of a loop through Kenneth Village via Glenwood Road, Sonora Avenue and Kenneth Road. Buses began traveling along the loop on Aug. 29 and it was up for review at the end of January 2006.

The extension was lauded by Kenneth Village merchants, who argued it was needed to bring new customers to their stores and who lost a stop at Kenneth Road and Grandview Avenue when the route was first realigned in 2004. But city transportation officials began receiving complaints from residents along Sonora Avenue soon after the new loop began operating.

The residents complained about the excessive noise caused by the buses traveling along their street up to 56 times a day, from dawn to dusk. Some residents along the street, which was chosen because it runs parallel to Grandview Memorial Park, claimed that the noise of the buses was exacerbated as it echoed off the long, uninterrupted wall running along the length of the cemetery.

“I have had to stop talking on the phone in my living room many times because of the noise made by the acceleration of the buses starting up the hill,” said Dorothy Draper, who lives on the corner of Glenwood and Sonora.

But noise is not all that irked residents.

“I would like the buses to stop immediately,” said Alex Antonesian, who lives on the same street corner opposite Draper. “They congest my street and shake my house all day. I know the route was set up because the businesses on Kenneth Road wanted it. But the wishes of the people living along the route should be more important.”

The residents’ quick actions in notifying the city of the problems caused by the new bus loop were an example of citizens exercising their rights and helping to improve their quality of life, Councilman Ara Najarian said.

“It was only through your actions that we realized this was the wrong move,” Najarian said. “Mistakes happen, and we will make mistakes in the future. But please do not boycott the Kenneth Village merchants, it was not their decision to change the bus route.”