What’s Happening Around Town

Council Election

     If only 257 more people had read my article about the Burbank City Council election. That was the number of votes that David Gordon received over Bill Wiggins to win the election to fill the remainder of former Councilwoman Stacey Murphy’s term.
     I came out in support of Wiggins because I thought he would do a better job than Gordon, and because I felt he was the only candidate who had a chance to beat Gordon. Although I was impressed with candidates Vahe Hovanessian and Michael Dontanville, I didn’t think they could win. I was right about that. The next council election is a year away. Maybe these two candidates will run again.
     Gordon had mentioned that the issue that got him involved in local politics was the proposed widening of Hollywood Way at Magnolia Boulevard to ease traffic congestion. He was bitterly opposed to it, and takes some credit for defeating the idea.
      I was reminded of Gordon’s position on that issue when I was driving up Hollywood Way around 1 p.m. on a Friday. I had to stop for the red light at Magnolia --- a couple of car-lengths past Clark Avenue. That’s nearly a quarter mile from the intersection. About 5 minutes later, I was able to get to the intersection and make my turn onto Magnolia. Maybe taking some of the extra-wide sidewalk along Hollywood Way to make extra lanes wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
     Perhaps Gordon's first bit of business when he gets on the council should be to try and solve the huge traffic mess that has been caused by those computerized signals that have, so far, only made traffic worse.

Burbank Bad Girls

     While the battle was being waged to fill her seat on the City Council, disgraced former Councilwoman Stacey Murphy was seen filling a seat in the bar of a trendy eatery over on the Universal City/North Hollywood border. It must have been a “bad girls night out” as Murphy was seen in the company of Salle Dumm, infamous for her high school football player sex scandal several years ago.
     Lots of folks think Murphy got off fairly easy with a “no jail time” sentence in her Cocaine possession and child endangerment case. Considering that she was associating with members of a gang notorious for killing cops, one might have expected a harsher sentence. I’m sure her years of community service must have been taken into consideration by the judge. However, if the judge had know about Murphy’s part in putting those damned speed bumps on nearly every street in town, perhaps the sentence would have been much harsher --- maybe 20 years of hard labor removing the bumps.

Tree City

     Burbank prides itself on being a “tree” city. There is some kind of national recognition for our beautiful trees. Of course after the recent windstorm, we may become know as the “fallen tree” city. Trees along Magnolia Boulevard really took a hit. After seeing all the big treees that were blown down, it appears that ficus trees were no match for the wind. Although they look pretty from a distance, those trees make a mess of the sidewalks below them. Perhaps some other variety of tree might be better. Before the City goes and replaces the downed tree, maybe they should find a cleaner, less sidewalk-damaging, more wind resistant variety to plant.

   --- Stan

posted 1/28/06

Questions or Comments email Stan at Burbank Blog.Com