Character is key to the Crescenta Valley

Regarding the Nov. 22 story “Owner stops chopping,” they have given us, the local community, the proverbial one-finger salute!

This action by the new owner shows nothing but bad faith, in my opinion, by yet another development company.

Clearly they were in search of a written statement from any agency giving permission to cut it down. Once received, they implemented a “distract and confuse” tactic to deceive anyone who was involved with the process.

While the new owners may have the letter of law on their side (a clause that no new development is planned), OK, for today. We can only speculate they will seek a demolition permit for the building in 2011. This is nothing more than a carefully planned timeline of events, a.k.a., gaming the system.

While the building and tree have a few issues, I ask, doesn’t every property?

Issues are also known as character, or charm. Character and charm are what brought me to live here in the Crescenta Valley and also keeps me here. There are plenty of places that have neither.

Everyone please take a good look around: What keeps you living here in the Crescenta Valley?

David Meyers

La Crescenta

Let’s all end the savagery to trees

I am deeply saddened and appalled at the savagery committed to the more-than-century-old Moreton Bay fig tree (“Owner stops chopping,” Nov. 22), but I think that the poet and author, Joyce Kilmer, says it best in her poem titled “Tree,” which follows:

I think that I shall never see, A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest, Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast.

A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray.

A tree that may in summer wear, A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.

I should add that this poem should apply equally to the savagery done to our beautiful Sequoias and the thousands of other trees destroyed for profit in the many forests of this nation!

Richard Seeley

Glendale

Montrose Collection has been a model neighbor

It’s sad to see that the Montrose Collection Restaurant and Banquet Hall has been forced to file for bankruptcy protection (“Judge orders banquet hall to stop operating,” Nov. 22). The owners spent a plethora of time and money improving the old eyesore only to have a politically motivated City Hall go to great lengths to add it to the long list of empty storefronts.

The war on banquet halls is an attack on Glendale’s middle class who live in apartments, condos or modest single-family homes and don’t have adequate space to host special events and cannot afford pricey hotel ballrooms.

Banquet halls enable people to get together with their loved ones to celebrate family-oriented events, such as baptisms, weddings and birthdays.

I live two blocks away from the Montrose Collection and have never experienced problems. They provide sound-proof walls and valet service. They are good neighbors. I hope they reopen soon!

Dan Khatchaturian

Montrose