Letter to the Editor:
While we have several good candidates for city council in 2020, one stands above the rest. Linda Bessin. As a long time Burbank resident she has seen the changes and developments – good and bad – that have altered our fair city.
Linda brings a level-headed, pragmatic approach the city council needs to break out of its current rut. In recent interviews she has taken a critical look at issues which others choose only to look at the surface. She brings her career experience as a claims analyst into her examination of issues and gets to the point.
We know we need to address housing, and Burbank is well past being a bedroom community. Linda supports reasonable and locally responsible development that includes truly affordable units, not just cookie-cutter “luxury” condos that are well out of reach of most local incomes. She understands that development should happen in under-used areas first, such as Front St., rather than opening up blocks of homes to bulldozers, and that developers need to answer to the citizens of Burbank rather than ignore them.
The challenges of infrastructure to support new housing are also on her list. Improved public transport plans, considering the old Ikea space for something like a mixed use community and cultural center, continued support of and coordination with our excellent Burbank Water and Power utilities, these are all things she is thinking of.
Linda Bessin brings a plan to work toward the solving issues that won’t happen overnight. Previous city council members have kicked problems down the road too many times, and Linda is the woman to put them into perspective and make progress. I urge voters to check the box for Linda.
Mike Krause
