Letter to the Editor:
In 1996, I moved my business about 10 miles from Montrose to Burbank. At the time, my little shop was called ACME Comics. For a short period it became House of Mystery until I finally settled on House of Secrets, located at 1930 West Olive Avenue.
Running a small business is not always easy, and the pandemic certainly did not help. However, when your business is your passion, like comics are for me, you fight for it! Today, I am fighting for my passion and my business by voicing my opposition to Metro’s “NoHo to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit” Plan.
My beef with this proposal starts with the way Metro conducted community outreach, or rather a complete lack thereof. As someone who owns a business on Olive along part of the 1.3-mile route Metro is proposing to use, I was never consulted, much less asked for my opinion. This utter and complete lack of communication, and frankly respect, is an experience echoed by many of my fellow Olive stakeholders. And that is truly unfortunate because we will be the ones most impacted by the addition of dedicated bus lanes either on the curb (“Curb Running”) or in the middle of traffic (“Side Running”).
If removing all our parking or taking away half our travel lanes are our only options, we don’t support BRT! I object to both “Curb Running” and “Side Running,” as do most of us, but Metro would have known that years ago had they bothered to ask! These options for dedicated bus lanes purport to shave less than 2 minutes off travel time through Burbank. Sorry, but that’s not worth the harm to our businesses nor the detrimental impact on the quality of life for our residential neighbors. Not by a longshot! I understand Metro is planning to vote on this plan as early as January of next year. I hope Burbank’s City Council stands their ground, supports their own staff, and firmly opposes the BRT. Protect your constituents from BAD POLICY! Paul Grimshaw House of Secrets