Sunroom Desk

You are browsing the archives of 2008 November.

Local neighbors met recently to discuss how to stop T-Mobile’s planned installation of a cellular antenna near the intersection of Cumberland Road and Pacific Avenue (earlier post on the subject here). I thought our city council would be able to consider and pass along every citizen’s concern about this proposed tower. But it turns out that lobbyists working for telecommunications companies have limited both our free speech and the speech of our municipal representatives!

During the neighborhood meeting, I heard that federal law prohibited any protest of cellular antenna installation on the basis of possible health effects. I’ve since searched for the background on this matter and found it on a central New Jersey blog dedicated to blocking a T-Mobile antenna in its residential neighborhood. From Mobile Impact:

Among other things, Section 332(c)(7) provides that
“[n]o State or local government or instrumentality thereof may regulate the placement, construction, and modification of personal wireless service facilities on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the extent that such facilities comply with [FCC’s] regulations concerning such emissions.” The full text of Section 332(c)(7) is set forth in Appendix C.

There is much more text in the document, but I want to point out the two bold sections. The second passage basically says that as long as a transmitter falls below FCC safety limits, no state or local government may challenge an installation on the basis of environmental effects. This is the portion of the FCA that corporations use to push installations through and is the provision that our local government is hiding behind. However, the first statement says that the state and local authority over decisions regarding placement, construction and modification of wireless transmitters is preserved. This is the check and balance system at work.

This effectively shuts out any community protest to local governments citing possible health effects from cellular antenna radiation. The post continues:

According to Common Cause, a nonprofit advocacy organization:

“Since 1997, just eight of the country’s largest and most powerful media and telecommunications companies, their corporate parents, and three of their trade groups, have spent more than $400 million on political contributions and lobbying in Washington, according to an analysis of federal records. All this investment once again gives radio and television broadcasters, telephone companies, long-distance providers, cable systems and Internet companies a huge advantage over average citizens.”

None of this prevents a local government challenge to the placement of antennas. The deck is stacked against the local citizens and their representatives, but it is not the sure thing that the bluster of the telecom corporations or their legal representation would have you believe.

In fact, we were told that many municipalities don’t challenge telecom corporation requests because they believe they will be sued. Just recently, however, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the City of San Diego, who lost a lower court suit Sprint filed against it for restricting construction of its antennas. More from the Coalition to Regulate Antennae Siting:

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld San Diego
County’s limits on the placement, size and design of towers and poles that
are needed for companies to provide cell phone service and wireless Internet
connections. The court also voted 11-0 to discard a standard it had
established in 2001 that barred local governments from adopting any
restrictions that “may have the effect of prohibiting” wireless services.

Federal courts in the nine-state circuit have relied on the 2001 ruling to
overturn restrictions on telecommunications structures in several
communities, including San Francisco and Berkeley. The court said Thursday
that it had misinterpreted federal law when it issued the earlier ruling,
and that local governments can regulate wireless towers and poles as long as
they don’t actually prohibit wireless service within their borders or create
a “significant gap in service coverage.”

Best wishes to our coalition, which is benefiting from the documented experiences of local activitists throughout the nation and from the guidance established by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. If you want that portion of the Federal Communications Act of 1996 overturned, write your representative in Congress, as the blogger at Mobile Impact urged.

Give schools leeway on using federal funds – LA Times, Sunday, November 16, 2008
Proposing a moratorium on NCLB and state mandates.

Debt Man Walking – The New Republic – on the web November 17, 2008
The fatal flaws in our credit system – can they be fixed?

GCC faculty wants more input in budget talk – Glendale News Press, Monday, November 17, 2008
Union wants a seat at the table with trustees considering more budget cuts.

Is the mall dead? – Newsweek, Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Lighter wallets and heavier debt loads are forcing Americans to rethink conspicuous consumption.

The Death of Planet Finance – Vanity Fair – on the web Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wall Street lays another egg.

The Great Bailout Debate – New York Times, Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Should government save the Big Three?

Glendale mayor John Drayman was a great tour guide for this past weekend’s Old Town Montrose Tour. He related family histories, building facts, and development issues in the course of the leisurely stroll along both sides of Honolulu Avenue. What I took away from the tour was that for almost 100 years here businesses have been working together to create a community environment for residents and customers.

The Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley organized the tour, and some of those walking along knew these stories almost as well as Drayman, whose family has owned a local business in the area for decades.

The retail center itself dates back to 1914, when locals began building along a level east/west street (Honolulu), instead of the originally intended, but steeply ascending, main street (Montrose). The Montrose Shopping Park, established in 1968, is the fifth Business Improvement District (B.I.D.) to be set up in the entire nation.

Local retailers used the B.I.D. to study successful retail centers in other parts of the nation, and subsequently created parking lots behind storefronts by buying up residential properties directly to the south. They also established a ground level zone of exclusively retail walk-in businesses (along with banks and a post office) to pedestrian traffic. There were two or three small car dealerships along this stretch, not including the recently closed Hauter Ford, as well as small big-name stores like Safeway and J.C. Penney.

Plaques and memorials are placed throughout the district, including the verifiably oldest Vietnam War memorial, at the northwest corner of Honolulu and Ocean View, dedicated in 1968. Drayman encouraged those of us on the tour to attend the local Memorial Day ceremony held right here; I’m putting it on my calendar. Right next to this stands a tall flag pole and plaque commemorating the national establishment of Flag Week, which was instigated by a Montrose business owner.

I found the story of the Zwick brothers’ memorial most touching: the developer of a two-story retail complex, on the site of the former Zwick home, found childhood handprints the two brothers made in a concrete wall. The handprints were incorporated into the hardscape of a courtyard fountain (right outside of Jane’s Cakes and Chocolates). The Zwich brothers were both World War II pilots who died within one month of each other in 1943; a plaque on the opposite wall of the complex pays tribute to them.

There are 216 businesses in the current Montrose Shopping Park, as compared to 260 in the Glendale Galleria. While the two shopping areas are comparable in size, Montrose has a high proportion of family-owned and individual businesses, as opposed to chain or franchise operations.

Drayman’s attachment to the area, and to the business community it built, were quite apparent, and consistent with comments he made at last week’s November 18 Glendale City Council meeting. Reviewing a draft plan for revitalizing the Brand Blvd. business district, which has suffered tremendously during the recent downturn, Drayman, and other council members after him, directed city staff to focus efforts on creating a B.I.D. for Brand Blvd. area retail businesses.

If downtown Brand Boulevard becomes a B.I.D., it will be the fifth in the city of Glendale, which currently hosts the Montrose Shopping Park, Adams Square, Sparr Heights, and Kenneth Village. More on B.I.D.s later.

Thank you, Mayor Drayman, for an entertaining history of Montrose.

Thank you also to local blog Tropico Station for posting about the upcoming tour – I’m glad I found out about it and attended.

West Tower Communications, contractor for T-Mobile, left vague notices on four or five doorsteps the Monday before Veterans’ Day, notifying residents near the 500 block of Cumberland Road that a construction project would begin November 17 and last through mid-December. The notice offered no information about what was being constructed, or who to call for information.

Two homeowners whose parkway perimeters were directly affected contacted the city of Glendale and discovered that a T-Mobile cellular antenna was scheduled to be installed right in front of their homes.

The city council didn’t accommodate their immediate request to put the matter on its next meeting agenda. Quickly mobilizing neighbors, several residents went to the November 12 council meeting anyway, and spoke out during the oral communication portion. Result: the city decided to “postpone” construction and hold a meeting with concerned residents.

The date of this meeting, as well as its purpose (the city refused to call it a “hearing”), are not yet known (but will be posted here as soon as they are!).

What is known?

The city council told residents it has no jurisdiction in this matter as telecommunications activities are overseen by the federal government.

This is not strictly true; the city does have some jurisdiction and can tell companies where they can and cannot place new telecommunications equipment.

Federal law does not allow opposition to transmission towers on the basis of possible health hazards (When I obtain the background information on this, I’ll post it, because it sounds like the telecommunications companies wrote this directly into a bill.)

Residents in some cities and neighborhoods have prevailed against cellular antenna construction on the basis of its negative effect on property values or on the aesthetics of the neighborhood.

Another proposed antenna will be built shortly afterward near the corner of Glenwood Road and Pacific Avenue.

Instead of smaller range antennas, each serving one carrier, telecommunications companies can work together to construct “monopoles” with greater ranges that can host several signals. Poles like this could be built outside of residential areas, although probably at greater cost and inconvenience to the telecommunications firms.

Neighbors in Northwest Glendale just met to oppose construction of the Cumberland/Pacific antenna, which is probably the first of many in the immediate neighborhood. A call to other Glendale residents: if any of you have received notices or learned of cellular antenna construction in your neighborhood, send along a comment and let us know.

The city council will likely approve installing lighted stop signs at the crosswalk where a Toll Middle School student was killed in October. The proposed installation and two other major recommendations are part of the city’s plan to address continuing traffic problems in the vicinity, where more than 4,000 students attend the middle school and adjacent Hoover High School and Mark Keppel Elementary School.

More than 60 people gathered Wednesday night in Hoover auditorium to hear about the city’s plan and voice concerns. More details on the meeting are available in today’s Glendale News Press. One parent, who had asked the city council last week for increased traffic enforcement and police presence in the vicinity, thankfully acknowledged the additional morning and afternoon patrols quite visible since then.

City Manager Jim Starbird commented, and others have noted, that no amount of enforcement or traffic redesign can guarantee no future accidents or fatalities. Drivers need to stay attentive at all times, especially in this crowded area with lots of young pedestrians. Above all, students must be taught to stay alert, watch traffic, make eye contact with oncoming drivers, and walk defensively at all times.

Soroptimists International

Tickets: $75
Online ticket order form
Information: 818-339-7106.