Rick Caruso and the Galleria

How does a developer who doesn’t even live in this town get all the power in the world to change the landscape here? Is the City Council even awake?

Rick Caruso forgot to mention the wonderful view that used to be visible from the Glendale Marketplace, but then that view was obliterated by the Americana at Brand.

Now Nordstrom is being ripped from the Glendale Galleria (“Caruso is bullish on Brand,” March 25). So much for the promise that Caruso made to not destroy the Galleria.

The Galleria may not be brand new, but it’s not obsolete. You can park near the section of the mall that you want to go to and walk right in. It’s cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

My family has shopped there for decades. But here comes the billionaire telling us that he has better plans for our city.

And our City Council just can’t thank him enough.

Lisa Charles

Glendale

Having trouble filing his returns

Is anybody else out there having this trouble? The State of California Franchise Tax Board has apparently hatched a conspiracy to frustrate my intention to file my own state income tax return.

For 50 years, I have been proudly filing my own income tax returns without the help of a tax accountant. During this time, as each new year rolled around, I could count on receiving a large packet of tax forms and instructions from the federal government and another such packet from the state government. This year, I waited in vain for these packages.

Eventually, I learned that a new-and-improved way of serving me had been instituted. These tax forms and instructions were on my computer, or I could obtain the materials at my local library or post office.

I hate computers, so I chose the latter option. A helpful librarian at the main library in Glendale told me that the library doesn’t stock tax forms, but I could get them by using one of the library’s computers at 20 cents per copy.

I drove to the main post office in Glendale. I could find no forms. A bored clerk told me the forms were sometimes there and sometimes not, but I could get them at the IRS office on Broadway and Orange. I drove to the IRS office. There I found the federal tax forms and instructions, yet the state materials were nowhere in sight. I was told I could obtain them at a state building in downtown Los Angeles.

At least I could begin preparing my federal income tax, but since I didn’t feel like investing a day running around Los Angeles on another wild goose chase, I decided on a different tack for the state taxes. I would try my computer, after all.

My computer is old, not by my standards, but by the standards of today’s world. It’s all of seven years old. As I suspected, the computer would not download the state tax income tax forms or instructions.

At this point, I suppose most people would have gone to a tax accountant for help. Stubborn as I am, I refused to take that step, even though some of my friends are tax accountants. So, with no other option I was willing to adopt, I phoned the office of my assemblyman, Mike Gatto. The wonderful staff there came to my rescue, eventually providing me everything I needed to file my tax return.

I believe that every U.S. and California citizen has a right to prepare his own income tax returns free of charge. Why must the state make it so difficult?

Gerry Rankin

Glendale