MAILBAG - Dec. 1, 2007

Adult centers should open at night to help

Regarding the winter shelter for the homeless (“Burbank holds reins for shelter,” Friday): The city of Glendale has scores of adult day care centers with more than 1,000 people attending them Monday through Friday.

The base rate paid out from the state’s taxpayers adds up to a very tidy profit for the owners. It’s time these people profiting from the state give something back and open the centers in the evening for the homeless.

JOHN MUIR

Ventura

School neighbors ought to refocus gripes

A group of neighbors who live near Glendale High are complaining and trying to form a homeowners association based on a sports field renovation from two years ago (“High school neighbors aim to unite,” Thursday).

They are using claims that range from “increased noise, street and crowd pollution” to a “change in the neighborhood.”

Are you kidding me?

As a current Glendale High student, I found the lack of understanding by our neighbors to be at most either painfully ignorant or foolishly arrogant.

The facts are these. Glendale High has about 3,100 students enrolled, ranging from the ages of 13 to 18. This age group is often referred to as teenagers, and it’s the phase of life where a young teen transitions to a young adult.

The place where we house our teenagers from the hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. are the high schools they attend.

High school students partake in traditional activities, ranging from football games, soccer games, graduation ceremonies, etc.

We are all in the same area, at the same time. Isn’t it common knowledge that an area where a condensed group of people are put together is apt to make noise? There is no stopping the chatter, regardless of how much you try.

When you willingly move into a home near any major point in a city — whether it’s a high school, freeway or convention center — you are consenting to the noise that comes along with it.

The complaints by these neighbors are intangible and plainly a mistake on their own part, or their real estate agent’s.

Increased noise, you say? The noise has been the same as ever — the marching band, the announcers, the parents cheering on their children.

That is a baseless complaint — would the same complaints be heard if the neighbors willingly lived near a freeway? The obvious answer is no. When there’s going to be traffic or events, there will be noise. Easy as that.

Perhaps the neighbors forget how important many of the occurrences held at Moyse Field are. Noise can come in the form of a touchdown, the valedictorian’s speech or a track practice.

Increased pollution? What pollution? The only trash I see are in the trash cans that line the food areas or gates near the field. The trash cans reduce the chances of a lone hot dog wrapper floating into the air and possibly tarnishing someone’s perfectly manicured lawn, so no worries about that.

A change in the neighborhood? Did crime rates go up? Have walls been vandalized? Did anything at all happen, besides the fact we closed off our gates (therefore affecting a major traffic problem for students who used to go to class from the back gate and had to change their routine)? I haven’t seen or heard any complaints about these presumed transformations in the area, except from Glendale High students like myself, who now have to deal with major traffic to get to class. Don’t even get me started on how difficult it is to deal with one gateway to the school closed, with only two remaining.

At the very least, I believe the neighbors should be grateful to have a brand new football field that is a gem of our city. College football teams have come to practice on our field. Beautiful sundown graduation ceremonies are held every June. The future of Moyse Field looks promising.

A homeowners association should look to better their neighborhood, not dampen it. If an association is going to be formed, why not work toward improving Glendale High and the surrounding area?

There will always be the need for more volunteers, more helpers — I see no reason why this proposed homeowners association should aim for their goals that have no context. How about we work together to fix issues that actually matter, instead of complaining about a field?

ANI KHASHADOORIAN

Glendale

Intent was apparent by leaving the scene

I just finished reading “Hearing set for hit-run suspect,” Wednesday. I was infuriated when I read the quote from Fred Minassian, the attorney for the defendant, Ara Grigoryan: “Our contention is that this was a tragic accident and there was no intention to try to take this young lady’s life.”

He fled the scene — there’s the intention.

Minassian goes on to say, “And there are losses from both ends: the victim’s family lost a family member and my client’s family has a family member in custody.”

Minassian, these are not the same. Elizabeth Sandoval is not alive because of this. Your client is still alive. He will have to live with the guilt that he killed someone.

He also tried to flee the country and tried to hide the evidence by taking his car to a body shop, and I’m sorry, but there’s the intention.

When my mom crosses the street, there are people who honk at her or throw their car at her because she cannot move faster than they want. That concerns me a lot. As a former Glendale resident, it makes me upset how so much has changed and how there is absolutely no respect for pedestrians or anyone.

Minassian, I suggest that you think before you speak. Don’t paint your client as a saint, because he is not.

If he had no intention, he would have stayed and confessed to what happened. Instead, he ran like the coward that he is.

VERONICA KUZNETS

Granada Hills