Rose floats should illustrate Glendale

I’ve been reading the input to the newspaper regarding Glendale’s Rose Parade float, and wanted to weigh in, as a Glendale resident, with what I think is an important consideration (“Lots of hard work went into float,” Jan. 15).

As a partner in a regional accounting firm, my focus is on return for investment. Many Glendalians assist the city in making a floral message to the world from Glendale each New Year’s Day. I think it is important that the theme of the float help market the city as a desirable place for clean, tax-producing businesses and for residents seeking safe, beautiful neighborhoods.

The 2011 float fit this criterion, but in too many past years our float’s theme had nothing to do with the city. We’re spending the money, Glendale should get something in return.

Ariel Drachenberg

Glendale

Area can’t afford to lose open space

Recent letters to the Glendale News-Press (“Verdugo Hills Golf Course is a community treasure,” Jan. 20) raised an important question: Will 2011 be the year we are able to protect and preserve the Verdugo Hills Golf Course for the enjoyment of many generations to come? Will we come together as a community with a heart for preservation?

We simply must stop tearing down and paving over our land. If we fail, the destruction of the Verdugo Hills Golf Course will bring about undesirable changes in the surrounding community. I don’t think folks really get what such changes will be like in our daily lives.

The bulldozers will be the first to arrive, and they will bring the destruction of the hundreds of ancient oak trees that we have come to respect and protect. Many of us may have already witnessed similar destruction in Arcadia recently.

After the bulldozers will be the endless lineup of dump trucks needed to haul away the soil and trees that have covered the space for hundreds of years.

Why should we allow the loss of those awesome ancient oak trees? Our environment will suffer from the increased temperatures caused by heat coming from the network of roads, driveways and rooftops caused by hundreds of new houses. Traffic on the already-narrow roads will further deteriorate.

In the face of serious drought conditions, can we afford to pave over the watershed beneath the golf course and at the same time bring in more consumers of our dwindling water supply? This just doesn’t make sense. Our focus should be on positive changes and uses.

I hope that everyone who shares the vision of wonderful promise for Verdugo Hills Golf Course will get involved and express objections to the destruction of this precious lovely open space.

Margaret Rice

La Crescenta