MAILBAG: In agreement on Olive Avenue

I agree 100% with Robert Phipps (“Just leave Olive Avenue alone,” Aug. 19) and would like to add to it.

Not only is the so-called “beautification” of Olive Avenue unnecessary and a blatant disregard for public safety, it should not be a priority in a city plagued with serious traffic issues. It seems that for more than a decade, the city government has been oblivious — or indifferent — to the major reason people don’t like to shop in Burbank.

Most of the people I know who avoid Burbank do so for two reasons. The first is the notoriously incompetent traffic signal synchronization. I hear comments like, “Why should I get off the freeway and hit three red lights in a row on Pass Avenue before I’ve gone one mile?” And it’s true.

The other night I was heading west on Magnolia Avenue on my way to Baja Caporales. I hit nearly every red light between Victory Boulevard and Hollywood Way. When the light at Hollywood Way turned green, I proceeded, and the next light, a single block down, at Screenland Drive, turned red just as I arrived.

The second reason is the traffic scofflaws who seem to believe that Riverside Drive is a racetrack; the parking areas at Town Center and Media Center are freeways, the hands-free cell-phone laws apply only to others; the vehicle code is null and void on Glenoaks Boulevard; and crosswalk signals are for decorative purposes only.

If you’re invested in living in Burbank, you’re forced to put up with it, and resign yourself to the fact that most residents are too apathetic to boot out a City Council that refuses to look at the pink elephant in the living room.

If you’re not a resident, you’ll take your money elsewhere. Other than a couple of unique magnet businesses like Porto’s Bakery, we don’t have anything you can’t find in most other cities.

JOHN S. SOET

Burbank

Few asking the right questions

The 1st Amendment carries no guarantee that free speech will make sense (“Emotions shouldn’t come first,” Aug. 16).

On the other hand, there is no fool-proof substitute for free speech. So let’s not worry on a national town hall level about a problem we’ve never solved in our City Council meetings.

Let’s also realize that Saul Alinsky’s tactics are available to every radical, not just those of the left.