From: Elias, Seta
To: Adjemian, Aram; Cortes, Karen
Cc: Abajian, Suzie
Subject: FYI ONLY - FW: Scofield issue?
Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2024 9:58:20 AM
Attachments: glendaleca_logo.png
Good morning,
FYI Only - Please see below. This email was also sent to Ardy.
Seta Elias | Administrative Associate
City Clerk
613 E. Broadway, Room 110, Glendale, CA 91206
P: +1 (818) 550-4388
[email protected] |
GlendaleCA.gov | Follow us!
From: Michael <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2024 11:08 AM
To: Kassakhian, Ardashes <[email protected]>; Elias, Seta <[email protected]>; Casanova, Pastor <[email protected]>
Cc: Garry Ackerman <[email protected]>
Subject: Scofield issue?
CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links, open attachments, or reply if you are unsure as to the sender.
Dear Pastor,
You and Sarkis Oganesyan, said you would keep Garry
Ackerman and me in the loop regarding the business of the all way stop at Scofield.
I see that the issue may come up at Council tomorrow..
Tuesday, October 22, 2024.
I am having some health issues as is Mr. Ackerman. We are both in our eighties.
I am feeling blindsided.
The Council agenda states that the issue may be simply dismissed or other actions. This is to lobby you and Mr.
Oganesyan, as well as Councilman Kassakhian, someone I know and trust to simply dismiss this idea.
Because of my recent health issues (surgery coming on
Thursday) I've been slow to create my response to what seems to be an appeal from the decision of the Traffic and Parking Commission voting to NOT vet the Scofield project.
I'd hoped to prepare a presentation for an upcoming meeting of Council, but have been focused on this surgery.. which is frankly.. very disconcerting to me.
I am copying this to Ms Elias in the City Clerk's office as proof of my interest and concern.
If Council chooses to simply dismiss this terrible reboot of the failed Scofield 'roundabout' idea from some months ago, that will be ..probably best for our Adams Hill Neighborhood.
Sincerely,
Michael Sheehan
by the way.. Mr. Ackerman and I circulated letters with sase postcards regarding an idea for a stop on Adams at Cornell before we were told that some regulation would prevent it.
About forty pencent of our one hundred residents respoded by returning the cards. I can provide the cards at a later date.
From: Stephen Meek
To: DL City Clerk
Cc: Asatryan, Elen; Najarian, Ara; Brotman, Daniel; Kassakhian, Ardashes; Gharpetian, Vartan Subject: Adams Street Stop Sign
Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2024 7:07:13 AM
CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links, open attachments, or reply if you are unsure as to the sender.
Stephen Meek
1520 Stanford Dr.
Gln CA 91205
United States
818-919-1757
[email protected]
October 22, 2024
Glendale City Council
Mayor and Council members,
I am commenting to agenda item 8b.
I have worked for some time with our Public Works department to achieve traffic calming on Adams Street. In the past we have discussed a traffic circle and I circulated a petition to install rumble strips. The rumble strips were installed but had to be removed as many motorists chose to drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid them.
After further discussions Glendale PW reached out to LA and then decided they could use the LA regulations for a stop sign in our city. PW chose the intersection of Adams and Scofield as the location for the stop sign because Scofield has sidewalks leading to the intersection which would allow for the installation of crosswalks.
I then walked the area designated by PW and circulated a petition for a stop sign at Scofield. All houses that I spoke to, with the exception of one, were enthusiastic to install a stop sign. They all expressed that traffic on Adams is too fast and several had had hit and run occurrences. The one person who objected to the stop sign said it was because they did not want to lose a parking space on the street as they have 5 cars and could not fit all of them in their driveway.
I’m very happy that this has come before council and urge you to approve this stop sign and make our neighborhood a safer place to live for all the residents.
I am sorry I am not able to attend council in person but I am out of state for a family memorial service.
Please, please approve the stop sign.
Sincerely yours,
Stephen Meek
You don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important From: Abajian, Suzie
To: DL City Council
Cc: Golanian, Roubik; Garcia, Michael; Hernandez, Daniel; Cortes, Karen Subject: FW: Please no all way stop at Scofield
Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2024 12:30:35 PM
Attachments: glendaleca_logo.png
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Dear Mayor Asatryan and Councilmembers,
Please see below an email from Michael Sheehan regarding the installation of the all-way stop at Scofield.
Best,
Suzie Abajian, Ph.D.| City Clerk | City of Glendale
613 East Broadway, Suite 110 | Glendale, CA | 818-548-2090 [email protected] | www.glendaleca.gov | Follow us!
Suzie Abajian | City Clerk
City Clerk
613 E. Broadway, Room 110, Glendale, CA 91206
P: +1 (818) 548-2090
[email protected] |
GlendaleCA.gov | Follow us!
From: Michael <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2024 3:17 PM
To: Abajian, Suzie <[email protected]>
Subject: Please no all way stop at Scofield
CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links, open attachments, or reply if you are unsure as to the sender.
Dear Ms Abajian:
Please forward the message below to each of the Glendale City Council Members regarding the agenda item dealing with the failure of a project to create an all way stop at Scofield and Adams Streets here in Adams Hill.
Thank you.. Michael Sheehan
//
Re Agenda Item re: All Way Stop at Scofield and Adams in Adams Hill Neighborhood
Dear Mayor Elen Asatryan
Council Member Ara Najarian
Council Member Ardy Kassakhian
Council Member Dan Brotman
Council Member Vartan Gharpetian:
Greetings:
My name is Michael Sheehan. I have lived in Adams Hill here in scenic south Glendale since 1986.
From that time to this. over the years, the issue of speeding cars on Adams Street has been an issue.
Shortly after moving here, I was in touch with the then Glendale Traffic Engineer, Wayne Ko, who was civil in his responses to the idea of a stop sign on Adams Street at Cornell Drive.
He, in time, was instrumental in the installation of radar feedback signs on Adams at Cornell and down the hill from Dartmouth on the east side of Adams at the cost of $9,800.87 each.
The radar signs blink “Slow Down” almost constantly as
drivers speed up the hill. Cornell remains a problematic entry to Adams to this day.
Over the years the City of Glendale has made other
unsuccessful attempts to ‘calm’ traffic on Adams at great expense.
Some time ago the City spent time and funds to declare that a roundabout at Scofield and Adams was a solution to ‘calm’ traffic on Adams. Thankfully, the City sent notices in US Post to invite input from neighbors. We showed up and the hue and cry about the loss of parking stalls and essentially, a mess would be the result, stopped that debacle. The City was Transparent. It worked.
Later, the City installed ineffective “calming” standards in the middle of Adams that were destroyed in about two days.
Then, it was reported that Adams Hill Neighborhood
Association president. Stephen Meek, had walked up and
down Adams Street with a petition to request that the City install ‘rumble strips’ on Adams in an attempt to, again, calm, traffic. Speculation emerged that because of language issues, Some Adams residents may have thought they were supporting ‘bumps’ or ‘humps’ that are used all over Los Angeles to effect. There was no transparency (as with the ineffective standards) for public input or discussion. What was the expense of these ‘rumble strips’ : Installation and removal? .
The noise from cars speeding over the rumble strips and the dangers of impatient drivers swerving into the oncoming lane going up the hill, especially, at all hours of the day and night, causing neighbors even blocks away to be disturbed, required the additional expense of removal. Thank goodness only ugly patches remain.
Literally, hundreds of thousands of tax dollars have been spent for staff research and these failed projects on Adams Street.
Currently, I have learned that the “petition” to vet the idea of an ‘all way stop’ at Scofield and Adams was a very
NonTransparent collaboration between The City and Stephen Meek in an attempt to target residents only on the east side of Adams Street and specifically on Scofield to essentially ‘re- do’ the failed roundabout debacle.
The Scofield all way stop issue was NOT advertised to inform all of the residents of our entire neighborhood. Why wasn’t this project advertised for locals to weigh in?? Why spend more tax dollars ($5.000.00 estimated) to create a ‘calming device’ at Scofield that is simply not necessary? What this might do for anyone attempting enter Adams from Cornell… nothing… It will exacerbate the danger, as impatient drivers, heading up Adams Street, having been delayed by the forced Stops at Scofield, to lose energy by stopping and then starting again, certainly at an impatient speed, headed past Cornell up the hill.
Why no well advertised public meeting was called for the Scofield idea is a mystery.
At the Traffic and Parking Commission meeting where only two of the five Traffic and Parking commissioners: Ely Lester and Shana Bonstin, voted to move forward with the Scofield idea, I attempted to make it clear why it was a terrible idea, along with neighbor, Garry Ackerman, as well as a resident of Adams, who did to speak English, but it was very clear that his situation would be severely impacted by the Scofield idea.
After the Traffic and Parking Commission meeting, I learned that Mr. Meek had not circulated the ‘petition’ on his own, but was recruited by the City to do it.
Never was one person west of Adams included in Mr.Meek’s petition. Only the east side of Adams was polled. Most
specifically on Scofield.
Responding to my experience at the T&P meeting, I sent
emails to every single member of the T&P Commission asking for consideration.
Only one commissioner, Mr. Andre Ordubegian, responded
and has been involved in attempts to come up with acceptable alternatives to the Scofield re-do of the roundabout.
I contacted Commissioner Ely Lester on Facebook and tried to engage him to discuss why the Scofield idea was a bad one.
Mr. Lester responded briefly to me, but has not answered my question if he had ever visited the Scofield site or would meet with Mr. Ackerman and me to discuss alternatives. Shouldn’t appointed commissioner be responsive, as Mr. Ordubegian has been?The intersection of Scofield east of Adams is almost a hundred feet wide at Adams Street. To install all way stop signs, several parking stalls will be lost. Stopping will require extra power to mount the hill wasting gas (a complaint from a conservative neighbor that makes sense) and by the time impatient drivers, IF they have stopped, reach Cornell they will be back up to being well in excess of the posted and unrealistic 25 MPH speed limit.
Early on, traffic engineers have said that ‘Stops Signs Do Not Calm Traffic’ which I resisted, wanting a stop sign on Adams at Cornell. Now, seeing the folly of all that has gone before, I am of the opinion that it is best to leave ‘well enough’ alone and let the locals find safe passage at Crescent or Dartmouth, and all others take their chances. It is against our impatient human nature to be forced to stop for no apparent reason and then have to regain momentum to mount a steep incline.
Status quo serves All of Adams Hill. Transparency is vital to a healthy democracy. Sadly, transparency has been lost here.
Mr. Ackermanand I circulated about one hundred letters to all homes west of Adams with an explanation of why a Stop Sign at Cornell was a good idea. That was before we were told that ‘regulations’ made that impossible. About forty percent return by Self addressed postcards were received back.
Essentially, we have weathered this situation for years and it seems that now, with no ability to get a stop sign at Cornell, we will continue to be cautious and no longer waste tax payer time and our own.
Please dismiss the idea of the Scofield changes.
Sincerely,
Michael Sheehan
Adams Hill