Letter to the Editor:
As the official City of Burbank website “bills” itself to the world, the phrase puts far too much global social media razzmatazz into a tattered 1970s face-saving PR gimmick. The advertising fable is subject to great risks of reputation degradation or total loss as a consequence of an urban legitimacy crisis if the local economy ever derails.
The phrase encompasses outdated technology, namely broadcast airwaves television and theater-shown films. Hollywood is widely suspected to be in general economic decline. Authentic cities such as Burbank must maintain their historical and cultural integrity to serve as anchors for those durable citizens seeking a sense of belonging, stability and continuity. However, citizens–especially young adults and older children, sometimes even the elderly–often suffer from generational amnesia about Burbank, its history and consequential changes.
Future infrastructural replacements and modifications of Burbank, both public and private, should be done only after governmental outreach, engagement, stimulated interest, and successful informal education of the public because directly involving citizens shapes not just the transformations we do immediately but also what forethoughtful Burbankers can understand as most urgent needed.
An installation viewable by all, including out-of-City people, might help in coming to terms with the extant infrastructure, a mature civil infrastructure, and finding new ways of inflicting and transforming it beneficially. Possibly under the management of the Burbak Museum complex staff, I suggest that the City of Burbank consider building and operating a low-cost 2-way televisual PORTAL, the most recent of which opened in Piaui, Brazil. GOTO: https://www.portals.org . Such a PORTAL would have the obvious effect of widening Burbankers view of what is possible, surpassing local top-down macro-planners’ limited designs.
Richard B. Cathcart
Burbank
Burbank
