Letter to the Editor:
I was pleased and grateful to read last week that the horseback riders of the local Equestrian Neighborhood group were finally told by an official at the recent Burbank City Council Meeting where the horse people were again trying to pressure our council members into stopping new local home construction, “the Rancho is not exclusively for or exclusive to equestrians”, among other statements letting the horse folks know, at long last, that they have no right to claim that part of Burbank as their own personal fiefdom.
I appeared in 2021 at a council meeting to advocate the approval of 24 new homes to be built on the vacant lot adjacent to the horse stables near the Mariposa Bridge, which would have added to our lagging tax base and added much needed housing to the community. The council, however, voted 3 to 2 against allowing that, which helped maintain the extreme lack of low cost housing in Burbank, which is only now being finally addressed by them.
For 7 years I also battled the equestrians for my right to safely walk my bicycle across the public Mariposa foot bridge maintained by all Burbank taxpayers, of which I am one. I attended the 2015 council meeting where the members voted unanimously to allow cyclists to share the bridge as long as they walked their bikes on it and gave the right of way to horses. That vote, however, was followed 6 weeks later by another unanimous vote, after furious pressure put on them by the local horseback bullies to then totally ban bikes from the bridge, even not allowing cyclists to carry them across!
I feel it is now time for the Burbank City Council to take another look at allowing cyclists to safely and responsibly share the public Mariposa Bridge, the same as how our downtown area sidewalks regulated.
Doug Weiskopf
Burbank
