1393 Posts: Sunroom Desk Marks Third Anniversary 2

Sunroom Desk marks its third year of online publishing today. The blog launched just after the first big impact of the financial crash in 2008.

The first post was a critique of Halloween costume stores dotting Brand Blvd. I wondered then what impression their merchandise made among Chinese factory workers. This October, three years into the Great Recession, I’ve seen no temporary costume shops at all on Brand Blvd., and in fact only one in Glendale (but I haven’t driven around looking for them). This is progress. The less environmentally unfriendly, useless junk imported and sold in the U.S., the better.

My second post lamented the death of a Toll Middle School student in a crosswalk. Even before then, but certainly with intensity since then, city council, city staff, the school district, and the community have focused on improving safety for all users of our roads. Glendale’s Safe and Healthy Streets Plan was created from 2009-2011 and approved this April. GUSD, the city, and concerned parents reached out to National Safe Routes to School and other transportation safety groups, and Glendale has since been awarded more than $2 million in competitive grants to improve pedestrian and bicycling safety around schools.

Reporting on a neighbor’s fight against a parkway cell site led to Sunroom Desk’s focus on wireless technology deployment issues. Cell towers, cell sites, wireless broadband, cell phones, smart phones, wi-fi, smart meters, and more. There’s a lot to consider and a lot to write about. Just yesterday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is hearing the wireless industry’s lawsuit challenging San Francisco’s cell phone radiation warnings, ordered the city to tone down its requirements for retailers. According to the San Francisco Chronicle report on the decision, “City Attorney Dennis Herrera said he would appeal the ruling.”