Olive Avenue Confidential: Between a condo and a hard place

But Ledebur says he loves living in Burbank and wouldn't want to leave. He just doesn't understand why the city can't at least temporarily lower the amount of a loan no one's ever going to pay.

"Every time the market changed, we'd want to go in and change it again," said Burbank Assistant Community Development Director Ruth Davidson-Guerra.

Technically, the council could adjust the amount, "but then it would have to be readjusted when the market goes back up. At this point in time we're saying let's ride this out with everybody else," she added.

But to frame the conflict entirely as one of homeowner vs. city isn't telling the whole story.

Doesn't anyone remember the banks were the bad guys who helped get us into this whole financial meltdown in the first place?

Deputy Housing and Redevelopment Manager Jack Lynch said the city has asked Bank of America (which controls former Countrywide loans) to reconsider holding so-called silent second mortgages against affordable housing buyers wanting to refinance, but so far the bank hasn't budged.

Let's see what happens if council members go to bat for their affordable-housing program and publicly call on BofA to take another look.