Letters to the Editor: Readers weigh in on bad drivers, greedy landlords, the outgoing city manager and the Harvey Weinstein case
I have been living in south Glendale for a dozen years now, and I have learned the rules of the road:
1. The lines in the street that indicate the lanes are merely suggestions, and no one really takes them seriously.
2. When driving on narrow residential streets, you will want to drive in the exact center of the street, because as you cruise along at 40-50 miles per hour, you will have more flexibility to dodge pedestrians or people pulling out of their driveways. Don’t swerve to avoid oncoming traffic until the last possible second.
3. When you are making a left turn through an intersection, don’t drive to the middle of the intersection in order to turn, because that would force you to slow down. Take the shortest possible route; this will mean cutting across the path of cars approaching the intersection from your left, but it’s their responsibility to brake or swerve in order to avoid a collision.
4. This pretty much goes without saying, but a yellow traffic signal means you should accelerate.
5. When entering a busy street from a side street, you must be assertive. No one ever yielded the right of way to a car that actually stopped at the stop sign. Show that you mean business.
Now technically, these agreed-upon community standards do not exactly match up with the laws on the books, but that doesn’t matter because there will never be a traffic police presence in south Glendale. They are needed in the more affluent neighborhoods. We do have have extremely aggressive parking enforcement, but that has probably been farmed out to the private sector and the people giving tickets must be working on commission. If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s only a matter of time.
I’m getting old and I frankly don’t think my driving skills are up to the task of operating by the south Glendale rules, so I am, at long last, moving out of town. I’ll miss Glendale. But I am going to save a ton of money on auto insurance.
Daniel Platt
Glendale
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I ask that the Glendale City Council stop allowing landlords’ cruel practice of increasing rents in our city. If you don’t stop it, none of your work is worth a cent, because you are here to serve the poor.
Of course, not all landowners are bad or cruel; there are many who are kind. Some of them even help the poor renters, but most of them here in Glendale are inhumane. All they believe in is making more money. Because of that, I will talk and talk and I will write and write until I make them fall down on their knees. I will succeed and I will win and the bad ones will fall and ask for help and forgiveness, but it will be too late; no one will want to help them.
So, City Council, think about that and let the people love and respect you. Your seats on the council are not yours forever.
Finally, I say God bless the kind and humble people everywhere.
Razmik Simonian
Glendale
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Re: “Ochoa accepts city manager’s job in Ontario,” Oct. 4. During a recent City Council meeting, current City Manager Scott Ochoa, at the behest for his “expert” opinion by then-acting Mayor Paula Devine, slammed my pitch to have at least one Central Library pay phone reinstalled, more or less like it was during its pre-renovation years.
Well, when I asked, via the putative Ontario Central Library website, about whether they currently have a pay phone anywhere on the premises there, I received the essence of the following email in reply: “Ovitt Family Community Library has a pay phone. It is located near the entry of the library, inside, near the book returns. Helen.” What say you now, Mr. Ochoa? Will you be telling the likes of one very nice “Helen” that you will be allowing their current pay phone to slide into a state of disrepair — or perhaps even recommend ripping it out without further ado? I’m sure inquiring Ontario minds want to know!
Harvey Pearson
Los Feliz
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While City Manager Scott Ochoa was most likely packing his bags for the move to San Bernardino County on Tuesday, Oct. 3, Assistant City Manager Yasmin Beers was exhibiting her finely tuned skills at a City Council meeting that night.
While largely credited with doing all the work and not getting the acknowledgment during Ochoa’s unremarkable term, Beers again showed she’s got what it takes to run this city like a finely tuned machine. Her answers were clear, concise, easily understood, and when she turned to staff to provide details, it was obvious they were prepared and informed.
It is unfortunate that we lost some very good staff during Ochoa’s tenure, but we are lucky that Beers decided to stick it out amid difficult times. Now it’s time for Council to step up and select Ochoa’s replacement from within the current ranks, especially when the best choice is so obvious.
Peter Rusch
Glendale
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Harvey Weinstein gets fired from his own company for abusing his power over women. Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly for the same offense.
Democrats across the land who have received campaign contributions from Weinstein are sending the money back or giving it to charity. They can’t abandon the relationship fast enough.
The hypocrisy of this whole thing is that the biggest sexual harassment and power abuser in recent history, Bill Clinton, is held up as a shining example of all that is good by the Democrats. And to make it even worse, his wife, Hillary Clinton, stands up for him and demeans the women he has sexually assaulted.
Amazing!
Jim Kussman
Glendale