West Hollywood, California (Thursday, April 3, 2008) From you, our readers:WeHoNews prints every letter it receives, except from Anonymous or Name Withheld Upon Request, printing them all unedited except for brevity (cutting out repetition or ad hominem attacks we’ve already got in the archive, thanks), grammar & spelling.
The views expressed herein are not necessarily shared by WeHoNews, but may be, perhaps, by you…
Dear Editor Re: Todd Bianco’s Car Column: White Is The New Silver - Thursday, March 27, 2008 From: Jerry Weiss, West Hollywood
Thank you for [Todd Bianco's] regular articles on cars. I have listened to Mr. Bianco speak on the radio and he has a lot of knowledge about autos. It's a good thing for you to have every week for people like me who like to read about cars.
Dear Editor Re: Go Gay USA: Flagstaff, AZ - March 20, 2008 From: Billy Glover, Bossier City, Louisiana
Thanks for the excellent "travel' article on Flagstaff, AZ.
As the writers say, this a very good city and area to visit for a day or two, certainly if someone is headed to the Four Corners area, Mesa Verde, Telluride, Durango, etc.
Dear Editor Re: It’s A Small (WeHo) World From: WeHoNews’s Go Gay USA’s Donald Pile & Ray Williams, Kansas City, Missouri
It truly is a very small world!
Donald Pile with the Wehoan readers of their column whom they met recently in Kansas City. Hey guys, let us know your names so we can post them here – and thnx for reading WeHoNews. |
We "Award-Winning, Celebrity Travel Columnists" get invited to a lot of restaurant/bar/nightclub openings all over the country.
Saturday night we were invited to the new Lucky Strike Bowling Lanes which opened this week here in Kansas City.
Two weeks ago we were invited to the opening of the Gordon Beirsch Brewery & Restaurant. It is a chain around the country.
What will be next for us? The opening of a new Walmart? UGH!
Anyway, Lucky Strike is a VERY upscale bar/restaurant and has 12 bowling lanes. They have about a dozen of them all over the country, and even one in West Hollywood!
Anyway, we were there and these two "gentlemen" walked up to us and said, "Hi, aren't you the gay travelers?”
We, of course, said, “Yes,” and asked them where they were from.
They replied, “WEST HOLLYWOOD, and we read your travel column in WeHoNews online. We went to your website and that is how we knew what you looked like!”
Their company had flown them in to Kansas City for the opening so that at least a few gay people would be there, however, there were tons of handsome gay Kansas City men in attendance.
Is it is small world or what?
Dear Editor Re: Hitting WEHONA’s Raw Nerve? - Thursday, March 27, 2008 From: James Fuhrman, Chonburi, Thailand
What's really sad about Neal Zaslavsky's op-ed, March 27, 2008, "Hitting WEHONA's Raw nerve?” is that Neal thinks my mentioning he was a Republican was somehow a "personal attack.”
I, too, was a Republican, from 1976 to 1979. But the difference between me and Neal is that I figured what they were up to pretty quickly, very early on in my life, and changed to be a Democrat for a while, and now an Independent.
It looks like it took Neal Zaslavsky about forty years to pretend to come to his senses.
It was very well known what George W. Bush was all about in 2000, yet Neal still stated publicly he was going to obey John McCain's hollow endorsement, and vote for George W. Bush.
I just can't believe the sincerity of someone who in 2000 praises Ronald Reagan, volunteers for John McCain, says they are going to vote for George W. Bush, then, all-of-the-sudden, has some epiphany and practically overnight is supposedly a liberal, supposedly concerned about the welfare of the downtrodden.
Puh-lease Neal.
Mr. Zaslavsky stated he left the GOP seven months after he publicly stated his intention to vote for George W. Bush. I would love to know what Neal learned in those seven months that made him change his mind.
I never even remotely stated or suggested volunteer work was "diminished" due to not getting a paycheck. I just simply stated the fact…that he was a volunteer for McCain. That was all I said.
Nice try, Neal. You really must be a fan of Karl Rove. I can imagine when you met him, George W. Bush and Bush crony Karen Hughes, you must have been all moist inside.
What a thrill for you to have met those three wicked people. Quite frankly, I think Mr. Zaslavsky is just trying to name drop. Imagine name dropping with those three.
The Tara/Laurel Place costs have not risen "in large part" due to WEHONA's "behavior,” but rather because the people you are trying to kiss up to on the City Council lacked the foresight to understand how bad this project is, and how determined the opponents continue to be.
If you really were concerned about affordable housing, you would support building about 300 affordable units out of town for the same money as the only 20 units to be added to the Tara project. Only 20 additional units.
And remember, not a single unit is guaranteed to go to a current West Hollywood resident. And you look at Allyne Winderman and Jeff Skornek as heroes out to save the populace? Twenty added luxury units isn't even a start to the problem. Three hundred out of town might have been.
Do you ever think about where those other 280 seniors that money could have been used to house are going to live? Does that ever cross your mind, or do you prefer to go along with the City Council, and just fund more "consultants,” lawyers and architects for a 21st Tara redesign?
Every redesign the Council orders probably calculates out to maybe 15 fewer seniors that could have been housed out of town. How selfish you are.
For the record, I've never been a member of WEHONA, never went to a meeting of theirs, I'm not on their email list etc.
I do admire their work, for the most part, in keeping the out-of-control City Council in check. And let's not forget that Jeff Prang is the only Councilmember to have the sense to vote to stop funding this money-pit of Tara/Laurel Place.
Dear Editor Re: Walgreens Changes Development Plans – Retail Traded For Turn Lane – Thursday, April 3, 2008 From: Todd Bianco, West Hollywood
I’m glad that the hideous project for Walgreen’s on the south west corner of Santa Monica and Crescent Heights has been scaled back and morphed into a project that better fits the site.
The architecture appears first rate and while it will only serve to increase traffic and congestion, there is at least the addition of a carriage lane and some restrictions on the size of delivery trucks.
This was a hard-fought win for the citizens of West Hollywood, but it’s just one development in a City filled with large projects.
Part of the problem is that there is no way for the average citizen to see and learn about all the current and proposed projects.
The City’s website should have a list of all current and proposed projects, including detailed images, plans, and renderings and accompanying studies such as traffic and environment impact.
I’d like to know more details about large projects such as Pavilions, already in progress, as well as proposals such as the Palm Restaurant, Melrose Triangle and Movie Town Plaza.
I’d also like to see a list of all the smaller projects that seem never-ending, where smaller buildings are demolished and replaced by a bunch of expensive luxury condos.
This City hasn’t seen a demolition permit that it doesn’t approve.
To facilitate the availability of this information, all developers should be required to submit plans and permits in digital form.
Permit and development fees should include a charge for whatever it takes to put the information online. Development Agreements between the City and a developer – legal documents that generally give the developer specific “incentives” in exchange for some concessions from or payments to the City – should be made public too.
These things are public records and should accessible online, not just by standing in person and asking to see plans at the Planning counter.
Notification is a joke. I think the City should develop a database of email address for City residents and send out electronic notifications to all residents in addition to the required snail mail notifications for residents in the immediate area of any project.
The neighborhood watch email lists would be a good place for the City to start.
I have signed up for City notices. Unfortunately, the notices give very little information about any project or hearing. The Commissions and City Council Agendas have a nice list of hearings and proposed projects but give very little detail.
You get a cursory explanation with the address of a project and a hearing date. I’d like to read much more about a given project, a request for outdoor dining, alcohol permits, etc.
It also would be very interesting to read how much a developer pays in fees, including low-income housing fees. And there should be mandatory disclosure (in written and electronic form) of any developer donations to the City or its elected officials. We deserve much more information and transparency from our City, elected officials and employees.
Dear Editor Re: Knifed WeHo Senior Dies; None Heeded His Pleas For An Hour - Thursday, March 13, 2008 From: Jerome Cleary, West Hollywood
In regards to the article of the WeHo resident being stabbed; there are several factors that make this a complicated crime.
The resident was 70 years old and for some reason his family did not want to accompany him on a 10:00 pm walk at night.
The family, I am assuming, did not think that a 70 year old relative was in any danger, even though there had been a lot of crime in that area already.
The resident also did not speak English and when other people heard him in distress did not know what he was saying.
It’s hard to imagine that his family did not think it was important that their 70 year old husband, father and grandfather would not need to learn even a few words of English in case of an emergency.
Residents in that neighborhood have a similar problem [as we have] in my neighborhood. In my neighborhood, my neighbors and I may hear homeless people yelling and ranting frequently at night and during the day.
I, myself, have had to distinguish [between] the many homeless that yell in my neighborhood. There are about four [who] do this on certain days and nights.
It becomes more complicated for one to differentiate between a random yelling by neighborhood homeless and someone that may sound similar to this same type of yelling.
Yes, I have called the Sheriff when it has gone on for too long. But also, since homeless people in my neighborhood have been yelling about nothing in particular, it does not always warrant my neighbors or me to call the Sheriff's Department
And when we do call with our complaint usually is about the noise disturbance it creates as we have sensed it is not of a serious problem.
Some neighbors of mine have called the Sheriff to remove the homeless person[, who was then turned over to the City’s] Social Services [Department]…
Also, this 70 year old victim was not equipped with a cell phone, stun gun, mace or pepper spray on him. Many residents know of our crime blotter statistics that walking on the sidewalk in the evening is not a safe bet. Especially if it is not a main well traffic and lighted area like Santa Monica Blvd. or Sunset Blvd.
I personally would not let my 70 year old relative walk at night on the sidewalk on the street alone and I would not let someone younger do it either.
It's a sad situation that his large extended family and friends did not have enough foresight to accompany or arm and protect this victim on many levels as mentioned above.
So it is too easy to just blame residents nearby this victim for not calling the Sheriff's Dept. when some of the responsibility is on the relatives and friends of this victim too.
My friends have also been robbed at gunpoint one block south of me on Larrabee and other friends of mine have been carjacked on Palm Avenue.
I also have to differentiate from the domestic fights in my neighborhood and drunk neighbors coming home at night too.
Better safe than sorry is the motto.
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