Campus expansion a victory for the entire city

I enjoyed your Aug. 23 article, “Expanded Garfield campus debuts,” about the history and opening of the Glendale Community College Garfield campus expansion.

Your piece accurately recounted the epic, hours-long Board of Trustees meeting in 2005 during which my fellow board members and I agreed to increase the allocation of Measure G bond monies to the Garfield campus expansion when significant cost overruns convinced some that the project should be abandoned.

An important part of the story is that the trustees encountered intense, unprecedented lobbying to abandon the Garfield expansion project by the highest ranking administrators, and some faculty members who worked at the main campus.

The trustees nonetheless remembered their many promises during the 2002 Measure G bond campaign to make expansion, and salvation, of the Garfield campus a top priority. We held firm to our commitment to the community, particularly to the citizens of South Glendale, who turned out in droves to vote for Measure G.

The first lesson that I learned from the experience is that voters and elected officials must remain ever vigilant whenever a bond measure passes to ensure that the money is actually spent as the voters intended.

The second lesson I learned was how little concern many people who work in North Glendale had for those who live in South Glendale. Those who lobbied for taking the bond money away from the Garfield campus knew few, if any, people who utilized the facility.

In contrast, virtually all the trustees had relatives and friends who had taken classes there and, as a result, knew firsthand about the unacceptable lack of parking and rain leaks.

Ultimately, however, the success of the Garfield campus expansion was not a rare victory of South over North Glendale. It was a victory for the entire city, and the city will greatly benefit when graduates of the programs at the Garfield campus join the workforce.

Victor King

Glendale

Editor’s note: King is a former member of the Glendale Community College Board of Trustees.

PETA protest and the float both misguided

This whole issue is so misguided on the part of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the city of Glendale (“PETA protests Glendale’s elephant float for Rose Parade,” Aug. 31).

First of all, people who love animals, and I am way up there with the most fanatical, have got to direct their efforts in areas where they can really do some good. Protesting a whimsical parade float is just silly.

We all know that, in reality, circuses mistreat animals and they, along with zoos , water parks, etc., should be outlawed. But, animals doing silly things on a make-believe float? Go picket the L.A. Zoo or the real circus. Or, support the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, or the Sanctuary for Farm Animals, who, by the way, are the most horribly mistreated of all.

And, speaking of the whole float idea, what a waste of Glendale’s money. The whole project should be scrapped and all the money saved should go to a well-deserving elephant sanctuary.

Just have a guy in an elephant suit walk down Colorado Boulevard on New Year’s Day, holding a sign that says “The City of Glendale has decided to forgo building a float this year and is donating money saved to an elephant sanctuary!”

People would surmise that Glendale has a heart.

Susan Harris

Glendale.