Recently in the print press:
This LA Times special feature with high praise for the Glendale Pops and Artistic Director Matt Catingub.

This Glendale News-Press letter to the editor from Matt Catingub urging support for the Alex Theatre and its excellent programming. “The arts are what make a great city a great city.”

Coming up February 14: the public comment period closes for the Southern California Association of Governments Draft 2012 Regional Transportation Plan and its Program Environmental Impact Report. The San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership’s legislative committee has voiced concerns about the RTP’s proposed elevated truck route along the I-60, dedicated to moving goods containers inland. In an email blast, the SGVEP says, “Congestion on the I-60 is affecting distribution and needs to be addressed but the project as originally proposed has issues that need to be addressed as well…”

The No 710 Action Committee, the Coalition for a Safe Environment, and others also object to the plan’s impacts, and argue that funds should be allocated instead to zero-emission, electrified rail for goods movement. A new RAND Corporation study Highway Infrastructure and the Economy, concludes that “In restructuring U.S. transportation policy, Congress should steer funding toward projects of ‘national significance’…’that have positive net benefits dispersed over large geographic areas.’” Eliminating thousands of diesel truck trips on urban roadways daily, which an electrified rail system would do, would have such benefits for this entire region.

Elected officials can no longer kick the can down the road, so they need to stop focusing on roads! We need to invest in projects that will improve air quality, reduce congestion, enhance public health and the environment, and provide 21st century transportation jobs. We don’t need more highways and freeways and trucks in Southern California.

The Alex is the centerpiece of Glendale’s downtown district, providing cultural resources, creating jobs, and attracting spending by patrons, which benefits local restaurants and retailers.

Glendale Arts currently operates the Alex under an agreement in effect through mid-2015. This may delay the forced sale of the Alex, but will not prevent it. The Alex Theatre could be saved as a “carve-out” project through language that allows cities to retain public facilities built with redevelopment money.

A strong message from the community will make a difference, and go a long way in Sacramento. Write to state representatives, send letters to the editor in the Glendale News Press, and spread the word to others to do the same.

Check out the Glendale Arts fact sheet about the Alex Theatre, Glendale Arts programs and its many events and supporters.

Send messages to elected representatives now!
Local representatives contact information:

Senator Carol Liu – 21st District
(818) 409-0400
Senator.Liu@senate.ca.gov

Assemblymember Mike Gatto – 43rd District
(818) 558-3043
assemblymember.gatto@assembly.ca.gov

Assemblymember Anthony Portantino – 44th District
(626) 577-9944
assemblymember.portantino@assembly.ca.gov

Letters to the editor Glendale News Press
gnp@latimes.com

Walk Bike Glendale webpage on the road diet proposal
Glendale city staff report: Proposal to Conduct a Road Diet Test Case
Sunroom Desk Notes on Traffic Safety and Road Diets
Glendale Safe and Healthy Streets webpage explaining road diets and their benefits

Streets named as candidates for the pilot include Honolulu Ave., Pennsylvania Ave., Verdugo Rd., and Orange Ave. Support this city effort to make streets safer and more usable for all! Email council members or attend and speak at the meeting.

The Glendale City Council will tonight consider a proposal by Glendale Water and Power setting smart-meter opt-out fees.

For electric meters, GWP is proposing a one-time fee of $62 dollars to install a radio-off smart meter, and a billing cycle (bi-monthly) charge of $56. For water meters, the proposal is a one-time fee of $55 to turn the radio off, and a recurring $34 billing cycle charge. The fine print, for those who want to opt out of both, or those who currently have an analog meter, is contained in the report. In Glendale, GWP is asking for a decision now, although the CPUC has not come to a final decision.

Meanwhile, the fight against smart meter installations goes on in other parts of the state and around the country. In neighboring Burbank, the Leader carried this update saying city council postponed an opt-out rate decision pending the CPUC’s ruling in February. That ruling is likely to recommend analog meters for customers opting out of the program.

Santa Cruz County’s public health officer just released a smart meter health impact report commissioned by county supervisors. Excerpts (from EMF Safety Network’s summary: “exposure is additive and consumers may have already increased their exposures to radiofrequency radiation in the home through the voluntary use of wireless devices…It would be impossible to know how close a consumer might be to their limit…There are no current, relevant public safety standards for pulsed RF involving chronic exposure of the public…[and] there is no scientific data to determine if there is a safe RF exposure level regarding its non-thermal effects.”

The ACLU is participating in hearings over Vermont state senate bill S214, which would prohibit installation of smart meters without customers’ written consent and allow no-cost removal of smart meters. The Vermont ACLU’s position on smart meter installations includes these points:

• Utility customers should decide for themselves whether they wish to have a smart meter installed at their home. Consent must be renewed every two years but can be revoked by the customer at any time.

• A utility should not charge extra fees if a customer decides not to opt in and have a smart meter installed at his/her home. The savings the customer forgoes because of his/her decision is already a penalty for non-participation. Additionally, extra fees could, because of the classes of people who might decline to opt in, lead to unintentional, and yet still illegal, discrimination.

Nationally, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine has issued a statement against wireless smart meters in a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission.

California SB 659, introduced by Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), would delay ending redevelopment agencies and allow consideration of a scaled-back program. Glendale City Council agreed to support it last week.

Without quick action, at least $8 million per year will no longer be available for the city of Glendale to balance its own budget, according to Chief Assistant Community Development Director Phil Lanzafame. Redevelopment agencies will have to shut down operations by February 1.

What else is at stake for Glendale? The Alex Theatre and Glendale Arts, a Central Library renovation, downtown live/work developments, and more. In Northwest Glendale, the Casa Verdugo Branch Library renovation, a three-month project that began December 30 (the day after the court decision!) no longer qualifies for redevelopment funds. The city is taking over funding through Public Works, which of course means less money available for other Public Works projects.

It isn’t just time for major editorials, it’s time for a letter-writing campaign to state-level representatives who are looking everywhere to close the state budget gap. They need to be told that local agencies understand how best to deploy funds in local contexts, and that dissolving agencies like Glendale’s will lead to more job losses and problems for this community as well as for the state.

A short, sample letter to state officials:

Dear Governor Brown, State Assembly Representative Mike Gatto, and State Senator Carol Liu,

Please support and sign SB 659 (Padilla), a bill that would temporarily postpone the scheduled February 1, 2012 date to dissolve California’s 425 redevelopment agencies.

Temporarily postponement will allow time to develop a solution that ensures that no further funds are taken from municipalities to close gaps in the state budget, and to provide options for cities like Glendale which have a significant amount invested in cultural and civic projects such as the historic Alex Theatre and library renovations and upgrades.

Once the dissolution process starts, it can lead to lawsuits, endless delays, and ongoing conflict. Thousands of jobs and vital economic development and affordable housing projects will be lost in the meantime.

I support continuation of a redevelopment program in a form that is focused on local community needs such as the arts and our libraries, environmentally sustainable growth, and community improvement and investment.

Please support and sign SB 659 to temporarily postpone the dissolution of redevelopment agencies and work to create a new, scaled-down program that will allow local agencies to decide how to make the best use of funds to create jobs, and build our communities.

Although invitations were extended to all state-level officials representing this area, Portantino was the only one who attended the meeting.

Chief Assistant Director of Community Development Phil Lanzafame provided details on the legislation, and made clear that no additional funds will go to Glendale or other school districts as a result of ending redevelopment agencies. Instead, the tax increment will go directly to the schools and the state will send proportionately less – just as much as is required by Prop 98! (See slide 8 of staff’s AB XI 26 Status report: the net result, it says, is that the state’s contribution to local government is reduced).

Lanzafame also reported that the Friends of the Glendale Library Board, concerned about further cuts to the library budget resulting from loss of redevelopment revenues, and about cancellation of the $10 million Central Library project, would be sending letters of support for the bill. The Glendale Chamber of Commerce, and Glendale Arts and the Alex Theatre, were meeting soon to consider this step as well.