Well, for a number of reasons, I haven't had time to keep up with posting to this blog as of late. I've just finished catching up on the last few City Council meetings, and they never cease to amaze me. They are just incompatible with the best interests of Glendale.

Generally the last 6 weeks or so have been fairly quiet as far as City Council impacts to the community at large - no refusals to downzone large areas of the city, no capricious decisions to ignore the law and grant variances to their friends and campaign contributors, but there were a couple of disturbing moments..

First, there was the case of 240 Sleepy Hollow Terrace - another mansionization project. They debated and debated but never really decided on the issue. Like boxers circling around waiting for an opening, they danced around the issue seemingly desperate figure out a way to just make the case go away so that they wouldn't have to make any decision that would either enrage the community or put them at odds with another developer who is obviously trying to call in favors and who doesn't give a hoot about the neighbors or the neighborhood.

The applicant wants a house that is A.) twice the size of everything else in the neighborhood, B.) 2-story which is prohibited by the CC&Rs and totally out of character with the rest of the immediate neighborhood. The applicant's wife stood up and said their family needs a house that large, and she doesn't care what impact it has on the neighborhood. Not sure how anyone could think of living in a neighborhood after making comments like that, but I guess some people don't give a damn about anyone else but themselves.

The goofs on the Council debated the word "compatibility" and just acted like weasels in general. They all knew full well that a 2-story spanish/mediteranean house doesn't belong in a neighborhood of 1 story ranch houses - any moron would be able to spot the sore thumb in that plan - but they all seemed to want to somehow waffle around with the word "compatible" as if they were just looking for an excuse to ignore the obvious and allow the house anyway.  Weaver even said something to the effect of "Why does everything have to be a ranch house?"

Well, Dave, watch my lips and I'll speak very slowly: When your entire neighborhood is 1-story ranch-style houses, and you put in a monster pink stucco 2-story mansion, the whole look and feel of the neighborhood is changed for the worse. This house would be the poster-child for defining "incompatibility".

(A Mr. Malikian on the DRB said it was a compatible design, but then defined compatibility in terms of the elements of the design itself (i.e. doesnt have tudor walls and craftsman windows with flourescent green shingles). It is clear that the DRB, largely a panel of architects , is TOTALLY incompetent when it comes to issues that involve city planning, neighborhood design or sensitivity to surrounding structures and environment. Another reason to limit the authority of the DRB to things they supposedly understand.)

Ultimately, the wafflers found a way to get a reprieve from having to choose between campaign contributions from builders or votes from the neighborhood and finally spotted problems with the plan that the Planning Department should have caught. As is usual with these mansion cases, the designer of the house (not even a licensed architect) took everything to the absolute limit (floor area ratio, setbacks, 50%-rule on whether it's considered a remodel or a new construction), and they told the guy to go get with the City staff to certify the calculations and representations made in his plans, and to come back in January.

Let's see, what else - while it's not about the City Council per se, the reaction of one Herbert Molano to the Downtown Specific Plan is interesting..  Molano spent a lot of time in Oral Communications railing against the new Downtown Specific Plan because it doesn't include a multi-acre central city park. Let's see Herb, let's just get the city to condemn 4-5 acres of prime downtown real estate, demolish the existing high rise structures and build a park no one in the rest of the city wants or needs. With land values in the millions of dollars per acre in downtown, plus the cost of demolition and construction and maintenance of a central park, anyone with half a brain would dismiss such a plan in a heartbeat. Of course this wacko also wants to turn the Glendale Fire Department into a volunteer fire department - maybe that's how he'd propose to pay for his silly central park. Mr. Molano needs a reality check. He has filed a lawsuit against the City to stop the Downtown Specific Plan because it doesn't include a park. WIll be interesting to watch that case..

Finally, the Council has decided to intervene on behalf of an ex-Glendale resident who was arrested in Armenia and sentenced to 4 years in jail for evading the draft in his home country. The Council decided to play Kofi Anan and write a letter about what a swell citizen this fellow was when he lived in Glendale.

The disturbing thing about the whole case was the way various speakers tried to shame the 3 Councilmen of Armenian descent into taking action because they otherwise wouldn't be "good Armenians".

The GNP has published letters to the editor, and editorials as well that lambast the Council for wasting our City staff resources meddling in international affairs they have no business dealing with, so I won't belabor that.

What really bothers me is some of the public input to the Council that somehow our City Councilmen have to be "good Armenians" and meddle in Armenian politics;  and the apparent resonance that statement had with some of the Councilmen is troubling too.

Well, you may not agree, but I will insist that we don't WANT or NEED "Armenian" City Councilmen! We need American City Councilmen, and it doesn't matter what their ethnic background is - they can be of Armenian descent, Korean descent, whatever - but unless we want our City to devolve into mini-countries, we need to be Americans first. Pride in national origin is fine; keeping one's family traditions is fine; but if we're all not willing to be Americans first and put the old country in the past, our community is in trouble.

 

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