MAILBAG: Fine chef carries hospital’s cuisine

In the Oct. 24 Food Fight column, “Taking a tour of hospital cafeterias,” Donna Huffaker Evans compared the cafeteria’s of local Glendale hospitals. She was certainly right on in her fight decision. That was a total KO. And in so doing, she has uncovered one of the best-kept secrets in Glendale.

Chef Adam Aviles is a star. He is a chef extraordinaire who is thoughtful about his preparations and tasteful in his choices. If anyone has ever been to an awareness luncheon or any event at Glendale Adventist Medical Center’s Terrace Cafe, they know that the quality of food is top-notch. That is all because of the efforts of Aviles to do his best to please his “guests.”

Glendale Adventist is lucky to have this young man on their staff. I personally thank them for sharing him with the community. We are all lucky to have him in Glendale.

PAULA DEVINE

Glendale

Building restrictions getting out of hand

The news report about actions intended to curb the illegal building (“Council takes ‘new approach,’” Oct. 22) in Glendale tends to concentrate on changes being made to city organizations and to city boards and commissions.

City Council members are intensely focused on legislating what homeowners do with their properties. Extraordinary pressure is brought to bear to produce conformance to “neighborhood compatibility” and “aesthetics” by property owners who legally initiate their remodeling projects.

Enormous amounts of money and time must be invested to satisfy design criteria and building regulations, which seem to multiply from one week to the next. People with expensive Glendale property addresses appear able to absorb such expenses, in addition to their actual building costs, though I doubt if they enjoy the experiences they endure.

However, many Glendale homeowners with modest properties don’t have adequate resources for all of this official scrutiny when they attempt to accomplish a few small-scale livability improvements, hence the persistent whine of power tools and the smell of lumber and fresh paint in local neighborhoods on the weekends.

I look at my own neighbors and I see working people doing the best they can with what they cherish, but can’t afford to remodel, especially if their funds are eaten up by a plethora of fees, or the relentless insistence on standards imposed by arrogant strangers who find fault with their plans and ignore their resource limitations.

Councilwoman Laura Friedman wants the city to hire weekend inspectors to crack down on illegal building. Mayor Frank Quintero says a new day has dawned, when the laxities of prior years will no longer be tolerated.

Council members seem so intent upon these reforms that they have begun to sound like vigilantes. Only Councilman John Drayman reflects on the undesirable swinging of pendulums too far in either direction.

The City Council might be better serviced by a shift of emphasis away from heavy-footed pursuit of code crimes to the development of friendly organizational processes that make it easier for people with limited objectives and funds to manage their small projects legally.

Most of the recent legislation is probably not meant to inhibit all but wealthy residents from doing remodeling projects, but if that’s the effect it has, Glendale will never be able to end illegal building.

SUSAN STEPHENSON

Glendale