Human nature trumps parking meters

I was immensely pleased to read in a recent Glendale News-Press column that someone was motivated to criticize in writing the parking meters on Brand Boulevard (“Unclassified Info: Turning against the tyranny of the meters,” March 22).

I’m sure a lot of people don’t like them, but with everything else going on, they simply haven’t been able to muster the energy to complain about one more irritating inconvenience. Yet Gary Huerta did a beautiful job of it.

As far as I’m concerned, the city might as well have painted all the curbs red on Brand Boulevard. I haven’t parked there once since the “new-and-improved” system was installed.

To begin with, I have a rule that I will not use my credit card for any transaction of less than $10 unless I absolutely have to. Thus, I’ll walk four blocks to avoid parking on Brand Boulevard nowadays, and if I can’t find a spot cruising side streets, I go elsewhere.

Sometimes, the latest, in-vogue idea has unintended consequences, for human nature is often not as pliable as the efficiency experts would like it to be.

Gerry Rankin

Glendale

Preservation, or extortion?

I read with extreme dismay the March 29 article titled, “History may trip up Caruso’s Nordstrom plan.”

The Glendale Historical Society (is the last entity on this earth that I would have expected to see jumping onto the “Extort Rick Caruso bandwagon.” Here three years and millions of dollars later (and the genuine efforts of Caruso to revitalize Glendale) — not to mention the odyssey and outrageous payment by Caruso to Ray Patel for the Golden Key Hotel next door — the historical society announces that it hopes to “save” the vacant brick building.

Why did it not bring up these “hopes” long before Caruso’s journey through the red tape morass of Glendale development and no doubt above-market payment for the property? If the Glendale Historical Society is serious about “saving” this 1928 building, I suggest that it move the structure up to be with the Doctors’ House in Brand Park.

If they do not move this building, then we’ll all know that this last minute theatrical stunt is merely an extortion attempt.

Claude W. Soderstrom

Verdugo City