AN OPEN LETTER
Mar/03/2009 22:11
TO PARENTS, COACHES AND CONCERNED CITIZENS OF BURBANK:
As you may or may not know, our armory has been used to house homeless men most of whom are bussed in from neighboring parts of Los Angeles. The program has been trumpeted as a shelter for families, but after two years of operation, it has housed men only as women will not go there with their children.
As you may or may not know, our armory has been used to house homeless men most of whom are bussed in from neighboring parts of Los Angeles. The program has been trumpeted as a shelter for families, but after two years of operation, it has housed men only as women will not go there with their children.
The shelter workers cannot monitor the activities of the inmates who are regularly seen wandering up and down Screenland and Pepper to and from the liquor store on Victory Blvd.
When fights occur at the facility, the participants either flee or are escorted out. No one traces their whereabouts. The promise to provide bus tokens for the fighters has not panned out. The shelter now promises to provide taxi service to ejected clients, but may fall through after an assault on a taxi driver by a shelter client.
The members of The Burbank City Council turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the problem until The Burbank Police Department identified four sex-offenders and removed them from the facility. The operators have “promised” closer scrutiny in their intake process, but do not have access to all the websites on sexual predators.
Our County Supervisor, Mike Antonovich (213) 974-5555) gave our city council the option of saying no to this wrong-headed use of the armory. As you know, the armory is located next to a heavily-used baseball park, a public park, a nursery school, two elementary schools, and Frys Electronics Store, already a center of police activities owing to shop-lifting.
It is no surprise that some members of city council not living in our neighborhood nor perhaps not even based in our city would have no qualms about trashing Burbank. Their sob sisterly attitude even damages Burbank property values as real estate agents will be sued if they fail to tell buyers that the city has a homeless shelter.
The state’s Early Release Program gives early-released convicts $200 and tells them to find a homeless shelter. This will allow criminals whose crimes are unknown to us to be funneled into Burbank.
Please assist us in removing this mistake from our city.
Sincerely,
Robert E. Melling
When fights occur at the facility, the participants either flee or are escorted out. No one traces their whereabouts. The promise to provide bus tokens for the fighters has not panned out. The shelter now promises to provide taxi service to ejected clients, but may fall through after an assault on a taxi driver by a shelter client.
The members of The Burbank City Council turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the problem until The Burbank Police Department identified four sex-offenders and removed them from the facility. The operators have “promised” closer scrutiny in their intake process, but do not have access to all the websites on sexual predators.
Our County Supervisor, Mike Antonovich (213) 974-5555) gave our city council the option of saying no to this wrong-headed use of the armory. As you know, the armory is located next to a heavily-used baseball park, a public park, a nursery school, two elementary schools, and Frys Electronics Store, already a center of police activities owing to shop-lifting.
It is no surprise that some members of city council not living in our neighborhood nor perhaps not even based in our city would have no qualms about trashing Burbank. Their sob sisterly attitude even damages Burbank property values as real estate agents will be sued if they fail to tell buyers that the city has a homeless shelter.
The state’s Early Release Program gives early-released convicts $200 and tells them to find a homeless shelter. This will allow criminals whose crimes are unknown to us to be funneled into Burbank.
Please assist us in removing this mistake from our city.
Sincerely,
Robert E. Melling