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It is time to slow down in Glendale
Whoa! Stop the presses, the stop sign epidemic is coming to a neighborhood near you. Carl Watts’ Community Commentary (“‘Stop’ sign ‘epidemic’ is getting out of hand,” Saturday) was the most ridiculous commentary I’ve read in some time.
Living in a large city has a number of issues, as traffic and safety goes. One of the largest issues we have in Glendale is traffic and pedestrian safety. It appears that Watts has ignored the Glendale News-Press of late. Over the past couple of years we’ve had a rash of hit-and-runs, some resulting in fatalities.
Our neighborhoods are under assault by inconsiderate and uncivil drivers who at best might slow down for a stop sign. More stop signs can only help. It is my hope that the drivers who ignore them get a big fat ticket.
I’m not a fan of all of the stop signs either, but it appears that many Glendale residents don’t have the common sense or decency to slow down in areas where people reside. To try to make an environmental argument out of stopping at stop signs borderlines on lunacy. As far as speed bumps are concerned, you won’t find them on any major street or boulevard in Glendale, so those major backups and congestion Watts referred to are a mystery to me. I wish I could get them on my single-lane residential street. I live on a street that is posted at 25 mph that many find it necessary to drive 50 mph to 60 mph on.
I have two kids who have had drivers speed past them like it’s nobody’s business, with total disregard for anyone. The issue of drunken drivers and speed bumps is a new one. Maybe Watts should slow it down on his next trip to the liquor store. It is a proven fact that freeway meters work by confining traffic entering a freeway; it keeps the traffic moving on the freeway. There are going to be times when both the freeway and the ramps are jammed, and there’s nothing we can do about that. There are just more cars than the space on the freeway will allow. President Eisenhower couldn’t have considered the sheer mass of traffic we now have today more than 50 years later, and metering has been implemented in almost every major city in the country.
I would guess other municipalities have the same feeling. It works.
MARK WALCOFF
Glendale
School board must rethink relationship
On behalf of all Glendale residents and parents, I thank Mayor Ara Najarian for his immediate and firm response to the recent comments with regard to the Glendale Unified School District and its relationship with the city (“Najarian, Krikorian are at odds,” Thursday).
I realize that the negative and erroneous comments were from one individual. It is difficult to believe that his views represent those of the the school board. It is most important that the record is set straight and that all Glendale residents are aware of the enormous contributions that the city makes to the schools and our children.
Further, I would suggest that the school board demand the resignation of this member and issue an apology for his behavior. However, if the school board agrees with this member’s views, I would suggest that the city take a strict vendor/customer stance toward the district for a period of two years and bill for each and every service provided, including utilities, police, fire, facility upgrades, educational services, etc. This would allow the district a two-year period to more carefully explore their relationship with the city of Glendale. They can then make a decision as to whether they wish to avail themselves of services provided by the good will of the city and its taxpayers or by other private service providers.
SCOTT LINDER
Glendale
Community must nurture the ‘art’
I recently read two columns in the Glendale News-Press, one by Patrick Azadian (“Letting children do the teaching,” From the Margins, March 8) and the other by Dan Kimber (“Thinking outside the box,” Education Matters, March 7), which on the surface do not seem related, but in reality go to the core of civilization and society.
Teaching is not just a profession, nor is it just a craft. It is an art. Teaching is an art as defined by the old term “calling.” In any art, the artist takes in the world and then internally translates those events so that others can “experience” the world differently.
The old question: “What is the artist trying to tell me?” has relevance in all creation and all civilization as artists and only artists create and sustain civilization. Of course, each and every profession has within it artists. But teachers touch each of our lives in special ways. Teachers do this by understanding the special magic within each child. Teachers help each child follow their heart’s desire.
Having each child hear and follow their unique calling in life is the key to each and every civilization. It is also the key to individual health and happiness.
We have all seen technically perfect individuals in each field. You could train four young men to perfectly replicate the Beatles in every aspect of dress and every tone and every beat of music played. Yet when they perform a song, it is derivative, it is craft; it is never art.
Kimber practices the art of teaching. He intuitively knows, and within that knowledge he has taken the great leap. He does not think in the box. He does not think outside of the box. The proper term for an artist is aboxic. A person who is an artist does not recognize the presence of the box. The artist is thus unlimited in all that they do. The aboxic artist is born with the ability — that special magic — that permits them to transcend craft, and create civilization.
The teacher-artist recognizes and has the wisdom to understand that you cannot make their art into a craft — a paint-by-number craft at that. It is with people like Kimber on which all of our civilization depends.
Finding the calling, the heart’s desire of each of the students in our schools, cannot happen when the school is structured as a state-mandated craft as opposed to around the creativity of an individual teacher’s art. So as a regional arts alliance is created — keep in mind — all jobs have the potential to be creative arts. All of us have the potential to be aboxic and use that special magic we were born with to create and shape our community. The art of teaching is a calling, and if well done it will open the door to all of the other arts. If done poorly via state mandate, it will close the door to all of the other arts.
STEVEN KAMAJIAN
Montrose
Whoa! Stop the presses, the stop sign epidemic is coming to a neighborhood near you. Carl Watts’ Community Commentary (“‘Stop’ sign ‘epidemic’ is getting out of hand,” Saturday) was the most ridiculous commentary I’ve read in some time.
Living in a large city has a number of issues, as traffic and safety goes. One of the largest issues we have in Glendale is traffic and pedestrian safety. It appears that Watts has ignored the Glendale News-Press of late. Over the past couple of years we’ve had a rash of hit-and-runs, some resulting in fatalities.
Our neighborhoods are under assault by inconsiderate and uncivil drivers who at best might slow down for a stop sign. More stop signs can only help. It is my hope that the drivers who ignore them get a big fat ticket.
I’m not a fan of all of the stop signs either, but it appears that many Glendale residents don’t have the common sense or decency to slow down in areas where people reside. To try to make an environmental argument out of stopping at stop signs borderlines on lunacy. As far as speed bumps are concerned, you won’t find them on any major street or boulevard in Glendale, so those major backups and congestion Watts referred to are a mystery to me. I wish I could get them on my single-lane residential street. I live on a street that is posted at 25 mph that many find it necessary to drive 50 mph to 60 mph on.
I have two kids who have had drivers speed past them like it’s nobody’s business, with total disregard for anyone. The issue of drunken drivers and speed bumps is a new one. Maybe Watts should slow it down on his next trip to the liquor store. It is a proven fact that freeway meters work by confining traffic entering a freeway; it keeps the traffic moving on the freeway. There are going to be times when both the freeway and the ramps are jammed, and there’s nothing we can do about that. There are just more cars than the space on the freeway will allow. President Eisenhower couldn’t have considered the sheer mass of traffic we now have today more than 50 years later, and metering has been implemented in almost every major city in the country.
I would guess other municipalities have the same feeling. It works.
MARK WALCOFF
Glendale
School board must rethink relationship
On behalf of all Glendale residents and parents, I thank Mayor Ara Najarian for his immediate and firm response to the recent comments with regard to the Glendale Unified School District and its relationship with the city (“Najarian, Krikorian are at odds,” Thursday).
I realize that the negative and erroneous comments were from one individual. It is difficult to believe that his views represent those of the the school board. It is most important that the record is set straight and that all Glendale residents are aware of the enormous contributions that the city makes to the schools and our children.
Further, I would suggest that the school board demand the resignation of this member and issue an apology for his behavior. However, if the school board agrees with this member’s views, I would suggest that the city take a strict vendor/customer stance toward the district for a period of two years and bill for each and every service provided, including utilities, police, fire, facility upgrades, educational services, etc. This would allow the district a two-year period to more carefully explore their relationship with the city of Glendale. They can then make a decision as to whether they wish to avail themselves of services provided by the good will of the city and its taxpayers or by other private service providers.
SCOTT LINDER
Glendale
Community must nurture the ‘art’
I recently read two columns in the Glendale News-Press, one by Patrick Azadian (“Letting children do the teaching,” From the Margins, March 8) and the other by Dan Kimber (“Thinking outside the box,” Education Matters, March 7), which on the surface do not seem related, but in reality go to the core of civilization and society.
Teaching is not just a profession, nor is it just a craft. It is an art. Teaching is an art as defined by the old term “calling.” In any art, the artist takes in the world and then internally translates those events so that others can “experience” the world differently.
The old question: “What is the artist trying to tell me?” has relevance in all creation and all civilization as artists and only artists create and sustain civilization. Of course, each and every profession has within it artists. But teachers touch each of our lives in special ways. Teachers do this by understanding the special magic within each child. Teachers help each child follow their heart’s desire.
Having each child hear and follow their unique calling in life is the key to each and every civilization. It is also the key to individual health and happiness.
We have all seen technically perfect individuals in each field. You could train four young men to perfectly replicate the Beatles in every aspect of dress and every tone and every beat of music played. Yet when they perform a song, it is derivative, it is craft; it is never art.
Kimber practices the art of teaching. He intuitively knows, and within that knowledge he has taken the great leap. He does not think in the box. He does not think outside of the box. The proper term for an artist is aboxic. A person who is an artist does not recognize the presence of the box. The artist is thus unlimited in all that they do. The aboxic artist is born with the ability — that special magic — that permits them to transcend craft, and create civilization.
The teacher-artist recognizes and has the wisdom to understand that you cannot make their art into a craft — a paint-by-number craft at that. It is with people like Kimber on which all of our civilization depends.
Finding the calling, the heart’s desire of each of the students in our schools, cannot happen when the school is structured as a state-mandated craft as opposed to around the creativity of an individual teacher’s art. So as a regional arts alliance is created — keep in mind — all jobs have the potential to be creative arts. All of us have the potential to be aboxic and use that special magic we were born with to create and shape our community. The art of teaching is a calling, and if well done it will open the door to all of the other arts. If done poorly via state mandate, it will close the door to all of the other arts.
STEVEN KAMAJIAN
Montrose
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