Sidewalks

A three-month battle over the installation of sidewalks on a section of North Screenland Drive has ended with a victory for sidewalk proponents. In a 4-to-1 decision, the Burbank City Council this week sided with the Public Works Department and approved the construction of sidewalks within the public right-of-way on the 1800 and 1900 blocks of Screenland Drive despite protests from many of the affected residents. Without the sidewalks, council members said the city would be at risk of losing out on thousands more in federal funding for infrastructure-related improvements — a position Burbank can’t afford, given tight budgets and the competition for grants.

Despite a multimillion-dollar deficit, ongoing police oversight reforms and depressed utility revenues, a dispute over whether to install sidewalks on two blocks of North Screenland Drive has become a major political hot potato for City Council candidates. More than half of the homes on the street sport lawn signs supporting City Council candidates based off whether they support their stance on installing sidewalks on the 1800 or 1900 blocks of North Screenland Drive — an issue that council candidates have either avoided or latched on to in the waning weeks of the campaign.

I read where the city of Burbank will get a series of grants for improvements for bicyclists. That's great. What happened to the grant for the sidewalks on Screenland Drive? It's been almost a year and a half since the city council approved sidewalks as a safety issue on Screenland for school kids going to Luther Burbank Middle School. What city projects have priority over school kids' safety? Another school year is over and kids are still walking in the street with the cars, or walking on the grass.

In the article "Airport to raise parking fees" on Dec. 18, we strongly disagree with Lockheed Martin Corporation statements that it had nothing to do with live-fire training of its firefighters at Bob Hope Airport after 1963 (when the airport was still called Lockheed Air Terminal). Thousands of San Fernando Valley residents remember the thick black clouds of smoke near the west end of the airport when these training drills were conducted. Lockheed Martin is shirking its obligation to the residents of the San Fernando Valley to clean up its pollution legacy.

ON THE AGENDA The following items will be considered at Tuesday's Burbank City Council meeting: BUDGET SESSION The council will hold a study session as a part of preparations for the 2007-08 budget. Each city department assembles a budget proposal for the coming year, showing department needs and few wish-list items for funding. WHAT TO EXPECT Tuesday's session will bring presentations from the Library Services and Management Services Department, as well as Burbank Water and Power.

HILLSIDE DISTRICT ? Though the sky may not actually be falling onto Mansfield Drive, residents in the neighborhood have heard their share of loud crashes over the past two weeks. Two limbs from the liquid amber trees that line both sides of the street snapped off during the last weeks of July, the first one crashing down onto resident Jeffrey Daniel's car. "They've been falling like crazy," area resident Bruce Noll said. When the second limb fell on July 26, Maryon Parnes was out in her front yard talking with her son. "All of a sudden we heard this crash," Parnes said.

MAGNOLA PARK — Despite pleas from one councilman to preserve a memorable stretch of shade trees along the Magnolia Boulevard corridor, city officials are forging ahead with a reforestation plan to remove ficus trees they say caused major sidewalk damage. The plan calls for the removal of up to 10 ficus trees along the boulevard per year. Business owners have also criticized the cracked and raised sidewalks, pushed by the tree roots, which have caused accessibility problems for customers, especially those who are disabled.

Karen S. Kim BURBANK -- Removing gum embedded in concrete city sidewalks through years of weather and pedestrian traffic can be a sticky business, but for Glendale resident Mohammed Talukder, it takes less time than it would to chew a stick of Juicy Fruit. Through his new business, Gum Busters of Burbank, Talukder promises to remove gum from sidewalks and carpets in about 10 seconds. Using a small, four-wheeled cart with a long hose attached to it, Talukder uses a combination of dry steam, high temperatures and a chemical to zap away the gummy eyesores.

Burbank police are looking for a man who allegedly groped a 14-year-old girl Tuesday as she and her older sister walked home from school. The girl and her 17-year-old sister were walking about 3:20 p.m. in the 200 block of North San Fernando Road toward a bus stop on Olive Avenue when they passed the man, police said. The man - who was standing on the corner of San Fernando Road and Palm Avenue -- suddenly ran up to the girl, squeezed her buttocks and fled through a pathway on San Fernando Road.

Ernie Seiler made one promise to the bikers, joggers and dog-walkers craning their necks to see his crew on the Chandler Bikeway Monday night. “Give me 30 seconds and I'll give you the universe,” he tells them. He points them left, to the cardboard tube mounted to plywood that's pointed at Saturn. He then sends them right, off to view the Sea of Tranquility, where Neil Armstrong once stood. He sells them on the idea of an experience - a few steps away is a journey at one of five telescopes.

I read where the city of Burbank will get a series of grants for improvements for bicyclists. That's great. What happened to the grant for the sidewalks on Screenland Drive? It's been almost a year and a half since the city council approved sidewalks as a safety issue on Screenland for school kids going to Luther Burbank Middle School. What city projects have priority over school kids' safety? Another school year is over and kids are still walking in the street with the cars, or walking on the grass.

The summer heat permeates a New York hotel room, circa 1972. A slim and sexy blond, clad only in a lacy white slip, lifts a languid hand to fan herself as she needles and nags the room's other occupant: playwright Tennessee Williams. In Joe Besecker's poignant and steamy drama, “Tennessee in Summer,” at the Sidewalk Studio Theatre in Burbank, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” answers the young woman's gibes in kind as he sits at his typewriter, struggling to finish a new play.

A three-month battle over the installation of sidewalks on a section of North Screenland Drive has ended with a victory for sidewalk proponents. In a 4-to-1 decision, the Burbank City Council this week sided with the Public Works Department and approved the construction of sidewalks within the public right-of-way on the 1800 and 1900 blocks of Screenland Drive despite protests from many of the affected residents. Without the sidewalks, council members said the city would be at risk of losing out on thousands more in federal funding for infrastructure-related improvements — a position Burbank can’t afford, given tight budgets and the competition for grants.

Despite a multimillion-dollar deficit, ongoing police oversight reforms and depressed utility revenues, a dispute over whether to install sidewalks on two blocks of North Screenland Drive has become a major political hot potato for City Council candidates. More than half of the homes on the street sport lawn signs supporting City Council candidates based off whether they support their stance on installing sidewalks on the 1800 or 1900 blocks of North Screenland Drive — an issue that council candidates have either avoided or latched on to in the waning weeks of the campaign.

Burbank may have to pass on $125,000 in federal grant money if an earlier City Council decision to halt sidewalk construction on two blocks of Screenland Drive near Luther Middle School remains unchanged. Following the outcry of nearly 90% of the residents on the 1800 and 1900 blocks of Screenland Drive earlier this year, the City Council voted 3 to 2 to halt the construction of sidewalks on that stretch of street. The residents argued they weren't adequately notified of the project, and said the new walkways would create their own safety hazards.

In the article "Airport to raise parking fees" on Dec. 18, we strongly disagree with Lockheed Martin Corporation statements that it had nothing to do with live-fire training of its firefighters at Bob Hope Airport after 1963 (when the airport was still called Lockheed Air Terminal). Thousands of San Fernando Valley residents remember the thick black clouds of smoke near the west end of the airport when these training drills were conducted. Lockheed Martin is shirking its obligation to the residents of the San Fernando Valley to clean up its pollution legacy.

MAGNOLA PARK — Despite pleas from one councilman to preserve a memorable stretch of shade trees along the Magnolia Boulevard corridor, city officials are forging ahead with a reforestation plan to remove ficus trees they say caused major sidewalk damage. The plan calls for the removal of up to 10 ficus trees along the boulevard per year. Business owners have also criticized the cracked and raised sidewalks, pushed by the tree roots, which have caused accessibility problems for customers, especially those who are disabled.

Bob Alborzian is giving novice astronomers a glimpse of a whole new world through his Sidewalk Astronomers group. The 64-year-old Burbank resident conducts stargazing events once a month at the Chandler Bikeway at Chandler Boulevard and Lima Street. Members bring out their telescopes, and the public can take a peek at the moon, stars, Venus and other planets — if the skies are clear. “We always emphasize ‘weather permitting,’” Alborzian said. “It all depends on whatever the exterior decorator has planned.