Letter to the Editor:
With the passage of SB 79, in part made possible by Nick Schwartz’s abstention, and the entreaties from METRO’s infrequent City Council live-for-all-to-see petitioners for the urgent completion of its 2028 Olympics BRT route, it would seem now that Olive Avenue’s pedestrian flanks will become linear double walls of half-skyscrapers.
Installation of two 6-story “walls” of condos, business buildings, apartment-houses will affect avian diversity in Burbank, especially considering the adjacency of George Izay Park and Abraham Lincoln Park, just 2 of Burbank’s 42 park facilities.
Burbankers have already endured the poisoning of its street trees by smog and by the City of Burbank’s own hand with its removal of old-growth trees during recent years.
I have noticed that I rarely hear or see birds within my neighborhood on West Olive Avenue that is close to George Izay Park! Does this portend, post-BRT, merely the sounds of whooshing traffic? The zone in Germany where the Berlin Wall once stood, as well as the DMZ between North and South Korea, became flourishing wildlife habitats. That’s not going to happen if METRO, triggering SB 79 real-estate development Olive Avenue desecrations, has a hand in Burbank’s future.
Richard B. Cathcart
Burbank
