myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
Meet the Candidate: Eddy Polon, Burbank City Council Candidate
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Ever wondered how a game show producer transitions into a bakery owner and then a city council candidate? Join us for a compelling conversation with Eddy Polon on My Burbank Talks: Meet the Candidate. Eddy brings his rich, multifaceted background to the table, sharing stories from his days as a head writer and judge on Tic-Tac-Toe, to pioneering online versions of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, to ultimately buying the Continental Kosher Bakery with his wife. His deep-rooted connection to Burbank and passion for community service shine through in every anecdote and insight.
We tackle some of Burbank’s most pressing issues, starting with transportation and homelessness. Eddy critiques the limitations of the current bus system and proposes innovative solutions for better connectivity and infrastructure improvements. From the structural challenges of the Olive Avenue Bridge to the potential for securing federal and state funds for upgrades, Eddy’s vision for a modernized, more efficient transportation network is both practical and inspiring. We also delve into affordable housing, exploring ideas like "gentle density development" and rent control to make Burbank more livable for all residents.
The conversation then navigates through community resources and local issues, such as the enhancement of the Starlight Bowl and the implications of introducing parking meters downtown. Eddie offers practical solutions and thoughtful perspectives, whether discussing public-private partnerships to improve community venues or balancing public safety resources. This episode is a must-listen for anyone invested in the future of Burbank, as we also highlight the importance of getting to know all candidates running for office, encouraging them to share their stories and platforms with the community.
Meet the Candidate
Speaker 1My Burbank Talks presents another episode of Meet the Candidate, the show where we invite anyone appearing on the Burbank ballot in the 2024 election to join us here and give our listeners a chance to learn about their background and the issues important to them. Now let's join our podcast.
Speaker 2Hello Burbank, craig Sherwood here with you once again and we have another Meet the Candidate episode here. Really enjoying these episodes, really getting to enjoy to know who these people are A lot of them you know they're coming out of. They're brand new candidates and no track record, so it's great to find out what they're made of, what their background is and what their plans are. So today we have Eddie Polin with us, who's going to be running for Burbank City Council, and let me give you a little background on him. He's a small business owner, a baker, a father, a cyclist.
Speaker 2He's on our transportation commission and his family have lived in Burbank for over 30 years. He had a long career as a game show producer, which we're going to ask him about, and a bakery owner, which we'll ask him about also. Eddie has lived his dream life in Burbank. He bought an affordable home in an exceptional neighborhood. His kids grew up and attended quality public schools and is going to day camp in our city parks. Eddie and his wife Emily learned to swing dance in a city-sponsored classroom at Cambridge Park Rec Center Very, very, very cool. So, eddie, good to have you on the show.
Speaker 3Thank you, it's great to be here. Let me, before you jump into it, I just want to say thank you, craig, for your service to the community. Back in the day the LA Times had a Valley section. Burbank Leader used to be a full newspaper and now we're kind of down to. You're like the last one standing. So thank you for you know, burbank needs to have some sunlight shine on it and I think you're someone that can do that.
Speaker 2Well, I appreciate that. I started off in the paper called the Burbank scene back in the seventies and then I went to the Burbank daily review, which became the leader I worked with, the Toluca and I worked with and I did work in the LA Times Valley section for a while and the Daily News had a page three for Burbank. Worked with that for a while, you know, just always as a stringer independent contractor, went to the Burbank Times and then we found, you know, papers were dying. So what could we do to come to the future? And we found digital. So we went to my Burbank and myself and Ross Benson, and we've been very successful now 70,000 readers on our website a month, 60,000, 70,000 social media followers.
Speaker 2Who would have said social media followers 20 years ago? Right, exactly. So I appreciate that, thank you, and I think it's important to do this kind of stuff Because if I don't, really who is Correct and we have no agenda here, we're just trying to get information out to people so they can make informed decisions. So let's start, okay. So I got to ask you first Game show producer. Yes, tell me about the game shows and what was that all about?
Speaker 3I'll ask you first, game show producer, tell me about the game shows and what was that all about? So I majored in theater arts at UC Santa Cruz and I came back to Los Angeles. I was born in Los Angeles and the most memorable thing would be I was the head writer and judge on Tic-Tac-Toe in 1990 with Patrick Wayne as our host, and then I also worked for Sony for many years. In the nineties we transitioned all of the television shows online, so we did Jeopardy online and Wheel of Fortune online, and then I worked with Fremantle Entertainment and did Price is Right online and what's and what's my line online, and even went international. We did shows in Germany and Japan. So I spent many years doing writing the questions and then also producing the shows.
Speaker 2Oh, so you're the ones who kept us stumped at night saying I know that, oh, what's that, and that's great. When we do know the answer and the contestant doesn't, and we're yelling at them saying come on, it's you know, and it's very good. Well, that's great. Now, fremantle here being here in Burbank now, which I don't know if people know that or not, but they're a major player Besides in game shows, also in, like you know, reality shows and stuff. American Idol, of course, yes. So okay, let's talk about being a baker.
Speaker 3So in 2003, my wife and I took a leap and returned to a family and personal passion when we purchased Continental Kosher Bakery. The big background is in 1920, my grandfather, philip Levinson, opened up our first family bakery in New York City. He was an immigrant from Russia, came here and opened a bakery. Then my dad actually sold supplies to bakeries. And then we just started, as many people do in their midlife, remembering passions and really trying to focus their lives. And we started in our kitchen baking again. We developed a little mailing list, an email list of friends that we were baking for, and we ended up staying up all night cooking in our kitchen and we decided you know what, why don't we actually see if we can rent a facility and make this a real business?
Speaker 3And in my search I walked into a neighborhood bakery and I talked to the owner. I said I just want to rent your bakery for a few hours a week. And he looked at me and said no way, but I'll sell you the bakery. And I walked into the back and the guys are back there rolling out danishes. And all these memories came back of when I was a child and my dad would often take me. He had an emergency. He had to deliver a bucket of filling to somebody and he would take me with him. And a little kid in a bakery is amazing. And I just came, was overcome by the joy of it and I said let's do it. And that started 18 years of being a baker.
Speaker 2A little kid. Grown men are excited with bakeries. You know how do you not smell fresh baked bread and just want to grab some right there and eat it. I mean you are in very good shape. If it was me, you could see where my love goes. I love the bakery and the pastries and everything else, and I don't even own or work there. So how do you stay away from testing everything?
Speaker 3Well, you don't stay away from it. You can't. But everything's in moderation and I'm also an avid bicyclist and that's sort of part of my story of how I got to this campaign. But I like to bicycle everywhere. I do it for exercise, I do it for recreation, I do it for shopping. I have panniers on my bicycle and I do it for recreation. I do it for shopping. I have panniers on my bicycle and I'll bike down to Trader Joe's and fill up the panniers and bike right back.
Speaker 2Okay, so you say your inspiration for the campaign really is bicycle riding, so talk about that.
Speaker 3So when I own the bakery, one of the great things about it our bakery was in North Hollywood and I used to commute by bicycle really every day from my home to the bakery and it was great because a lot of that is along the Chandler bike path, which is an amazing protected bike path.
Speaker 3That's an amazing asset to the community. But the bike path ends and then you're dumped out on the street. One day, coming home in the evening, coming home from the bakery, I was driving down Burbank Boulevard and a parked car flung open their door, sent me flying into traffic, two broken ribs and a punctured lung, and as I came to laying on the asphalt there's a guy standing over me saying I almost ran you over, so it was a near death experience. That got me very upset. It got me upset that I was risking my life just riding a bicycle on a city street and that got me activated to become a safe street advocate and that first led me to win an appointment to the Transportation Commission and then I'm a co-founder of Strong Towns Burbank, which we can talk about in a little bit of what that's all about, and then now to run for city council.
Speaker 2I will echo your thoughts about bicycle safety. I grew up in Burbank. My first banquet was a Schwinn Stingray. I will echo your thoughts about bicycle safety. I you know, I grew up in Burbank. My my first banquet was a, a Schwinn Stingray, did my paper routes with it and everything else. And, um um, I used to ride my bike everywhere you know, over to Stevenson, everywhere I used to go, I rode my bike.
Speaker 2Now I'm I'm scared to ride a bike because it's not so much. And even I look at Verdugo and they put the bike lane in and it's only one lane of traffic. But I watch people all the time in their cars and the first thing they do is look down at that damn phone of theirs. If they get a text, yeah, they don't, maybe text in the car, they don't call, but they're looking at their phone in the car and I watch cars sway over into that bike lane all the time.
Speaker 2And I'm saying I don't think I don't feel safe on a bicycle. It's not because it's not, there's not good designated areas to ride in, but because drivers don't pay attention to driving. And I look at some of the bike lanes in Burbank, such as Pass Avenue. Pass Avenue has a bike lane in there that's about 12 feet wide for a bike and a car. I'm saying, how is that safe? So I mean, yeah, we have. You know, we want to say all these great things, but there's a lot of issues in Burbank when it comes to riding bikes and that's what my scare is, the fact. I don't think drivers pay attention to their driving. I look at what they did in Olive. They put that single lane in right next to parked cars, nowhere for a bicycle, and I said, why not put a bike lane in? Oh well, orange Grove, next street over is a designated bike lane. I go, but that's a small street. I don't understand. So give me some understanding on some of the thoughts that go in the Transportation Commission to bicycle safety.
Speaker 3So I'll start by saying, craig, you are like 60% of Americans. They don't ride a bicycle because they're afraid they're going to get killed. That is just a fact. They've studied this and anyone knows this how dangerous it is. So certainly, burbank has great stretches of good bike paths, but they're not connected, and a challenge that we really have is to connect those paths, because I always I liken it to when we built the freeways.
Speaker 3If we built freeways like we build bike paths, we would have built one mile of the 101 freeway, stopped and asked everyone what they thought of the 101 freeway. Stopped and asked everyone what they thought of the 101 freeway and everyone would have been outraged Pointless, it's noisy, everything about it is bad. But they didn't do that. They completed the complete freeway system and guess what it works.
Speaker 3And we need to really use the same philosophy with our bike paths. We need to complete the network so that people feel they can go, actually go somewhere, go from their home to the store, go to the home to work, go to the home down to the, you know, to see a movie, whatever that is. And especially our schools, because that's the part that I'm really activated on Anyone that has been by any of our schools at either eight o'clock or three o'clock in the afternoon knows it's gridlock and the reality is most of those cars are taking trips of five blocks, six blocks maybe. Back in the day we rode our bikes and we walked and I understand parents are nervous and that's certainly a very legitimate thing and I think there's strategies we can do to actually just quickly making those. The routes to school is probably where we should start and then kind of expand out and complete the rest of the bike path.
Transportation and Homelessness Solutions
Speaker 2Yeah, I think you're right. I watch constantly the double parking schools and the first week they'll have the Burbank police officers go out there and just sit there and nobody will do it, and then two weeks later they don't show up anymore and they're back to mass chaos again. Yeah, in transportation, let's touch on buses also. I think the Burbank bus system is kind of a failure. In fact, I did a great podcast with the mayor. We did it on a Burbank bus and they can't admit that it's not working. So what's your vision for transportation in Burbank busways and everything. And you're right about the bikeways, because I recently did a video celebrating the 20 years of the Chandler bike path and I did the video. I went back and we about all the opposition, Nobody wanted it and now it's the greatest thing ever, Exactly. So I mean I get your point there. So what's your vision for transportation in Burbank for the next 10?
Speaker 3years. Okay, well, we'll start. You asked about the bus first and the bus first of all, the bus is not that old. It's about 20 years old, I believe, so it's not like it's been here forever. And when it was originally envisioned, it really was a time when people worked Monday through Friday, they had to get to their office, and it made a lot of sense when it was first envisioned. The bus still runs Monday through Friday. It's still running that basic, same schedule, and all they've done is they've changed the routes, and we all know that buses drive around empty.
Speaker 2Right, but also, do they serve the hill? They don't serve the hill area whatsoever. They don't really serve the citizens of Burbank. So what would you do to change that?
Speaker 3Well, I think the way I look at it is that the Burbank buzz should be focused on two things. It should start with serving our community. I think there's a lot of opportunities for connecting our businesses. We have great business corridors, particularly everyone loves Magnolia Park. There's parts of Olive that are great and I hope one day Glen Oaks joins them in revitalizing. But I'd love to find a way of doing something that would get both residents and visitors around our town and we have so many interesting things like we have vintage shops, for instance, for instance and we can maybe even start doing thematic things of actually making it kind of fun taking people around and trying to organize trips and try to give people a chance to experience Burbank in a little different manner than they normally do. So that's one piece of it, and the second piece of it is we need to better connect with the larger region. So we should really look at exactly what the traffic patterns are, where people are going and how we can supplement what Metro does.
Speaker 2Okay, so let's when cars and buses collide, because we all love our cars and faces of buses, just don't get us where you want to go, you know, to the locations.
Speaker 3BRT bus traffic coming in on Olive Boulevard, Olive Avenue.
Speaker 2I'm sorry. What are your thoughts on what's going on there? What should happen?
Speaker 3Well, it's interesting because Bus Rapid Transit has obviously been a lightning rod in our community. We have many people that have spent actually the last several years. This project has been in development for over a decade I believe. So it's a very slow-moving project. Obviously, covid kind of put a pause on it. But what's interesting to me is when I first looked at the bus rapid transit, because I've been on the Transportation Commission for two years, so the previous commission had really dealt with it more than we had. But then this past March the council was going back to finally signing the final design phase and agreement with Metro. So at that time we came back to our commission and we really started looking at it and when I took apart the plan I saw that the plan was fatally flawed. And this is why it was fatally flawed.
Speaker 3The bus goes over the Olive Avenue Bridge and the original intent was to put a bus stop on the Olive Avenue Bridge, which would all of a sudden create a multimodal transit center, because that's where, right below it, is our Metrolink station and that's the type of thing that could actually activate both the bus line, activate the train, get people connected to the airport and possibly be a really igniter to revitalize in our downtown. But here's the problem they couldn't put the bus station on top of the Olive Avenue Bridge because if they parked two of these electric buses on top of it, electric buses weigh significantly more than a regular gas-powered vehicle. If they parked two of them on top of it, very good chance that bridge would collapse. The city knows this. We all, the people in the know, people in the transportation department, have known for years that those are substandard bridges. They were built in 1958. They're steel superstructures that are starting to rust. If you've ever walked across because there are two bridges that are sisters right, magnolia and Olive A big truck going by and you stumble, you're going to be lying on the five freeway, so it's dangerous just for that. You cannot ride a bicycle over it because it's not quite wide enough and people speed because it's like a runway. They're ready to go and they speed, so they're very dangerous bridges. But here's the problem the bridges are actually owned by Caltrans and Caltrans has a rating system. The lowest is poor, so poor bridges get fixed. They consider our bridges fair, so they're not going to get fixed. So that's, that's what kind of stuck. But if the bridge is part of a multimodal transportation center. All of a sudden, we can unlock federal, state and county dollars that would actually make it possible for us to rebuild the bridge. So when I look at bus rapid transit and the BRT, we have to start there because I don't want to be alarmist, but someone's going to die on one of our bridges and this should be a priority for our city.
Speaker 3So in this context, I sat down with David Kris and I said look, we all know this bridge is dangerous. And Dave shared with me the history that I think it was about 10 years ago. There was an initial effort to actually get the funding to rebuild the bridge. They were unsuccessful and they ended up having to give back some of the money. But he told me we have $10 million in an escrow account for Measure R funds that could be used for that, and I'm really pleased that, after talking with David, he took it back to Patrick Prescott and they internally discussed it and now in this year's budget actually includes money has been requested and will be used to start the design phase for those bridges. So obviously, $10 million doesn't get you a bridge, but it gets you started and that's really key. So, and I think, if you look at it in the big picture, bus rapid transit is a way, is a vehicle to get something even more significant for our community that will have economic, safety and quality of life issues that will greatly enhance our entire community.
Speaker 2I agree 100% with about the bridges. I talked about my Schwinn Stingray and if I'd ever went uptown back when I was even 12, 13, 14, on that bridge, I was scared to death back then and even now you look at that, the railing is only three or four feet high and, like you said, you know you wouldn't stumble, want anything, and you are on that freeway. I also recently heard that there's a Glendale commissioner who sits, I think, on the Metro board, tried to put in an amendment saying that you know they would put no money in fixing the bridge in Burbanks and I said thank you, glendale. Yeah, exactly, we appreciate that. But yeah, you are right, those bridges need to get improved and to put a transit station on all of it would greatly increase the size, the width of it also, I think too. So that would be a major undertaking.
Speaker 3Oh, yeah, well, yeah, I mean. This is I mean what the initial when, when, when our city transportation department 10 years ago first costed out, they were looking at 68, 60 to $80 million per bridge. The reality is we're probably closer to a hundred million, so clearly way beyond anything Burbank could ever do and it's even beyond what Caltrans would be willing to invest. But again we have. We have an opportunity. There's so much money flowing towards connected community infrastructure projects and all of a sudden we have a prime project and we need to take advantage of that.
Speaker 2Well, maybe with the infrastructure projects the government is trying to do right now, it might be down the line. I don't know if we got it in this round, but maybe down the line. Okay, that's one of the easier questions. Let's move on to something a little difficult now. Excellent, homelessness in Burbank and everything associated with that. What are your thoughts? How are you going to improve that? What are you going to do to help get people off the streets?
Speaker 3Give me your opinions on that. Okay, I mean, I'm a longtime Burbank resident so, as I know, our history hasn't been great in this regard. But in the last two years things have started to change with our new homeless services center that's being built by the transit center. That's an amazing first step to actually provide services here in Burbank. And then the mental health professionals are now working with the Burbank police department are also going to be a great help. So I think it's a combination of compassionate policing and ideally cause.
Community Resources and Housing Development
Speaker 3I'm thinking back the thing that made the news recently with with the unhoused person that that are Burbank police dropped off in front of Paul Krikorian's office and I stepped back and saying why were the police officers having to do that? Because this wasn't a violent situation. I understand that you don't want to just send out a social worker with unprotected, but I would have loved to seen more of a social worker situation that would have been. That would have dealt with it. I think it would have deescalated it. I think the optics would be better, because that's half of it right. We know that. He knew that too when he put that video out. Yes, yeah, 100%. And you know it's so easy because everyone loves to jump to horrible conclusions. I know that we have.
Speaker 3You know, again, burbank police has a history that maybe is not shiny, but today is an exemplary police force.
Speaker 3And now you know we should, we should honor their service to our community. And again, I think they're making a lot of efforts but they're put in really untenable situations. And it's not just the Burbank police, by the way, because the paramedics are in the same situation, because oftentimes they're going to recidivists. You know they get calls from the St Joe's waiting room because the hospital will not give them their Narcon or whatever they're looking to get. And they know if they call the Burbank Fire Department they're going to send a paramedic to help them. And all of a sudden, our vital resource of a paramedic if somebody has a heart attack on the other side of the city we only have four. We have four paramedic vehicles. If one of them that's 25% of our force is now sitting there in the parking lot of our hospital, and that is a complete waste too. So I think we have to balance both serving the community and also serving the entire community and not just one piece of it now, how are we going to improve that, though?
Speaker 2because I think we have two MET teams and we have the street smart and everything else, but they're not working all night long. They're not working. In most times we don't have. It's not a very large resource. It's all great to talk about, we have this and this and this, but if they're not available and they're not around, how are we going to get you know? Would you want to put more into the budget to get more facilities like that, more people out and around during the day and the night? I mean, what's any thoughts on that?
Speaker 3Sure, you know, I'm a small businessman, you know, and I know what it took to meet payroll every week. So you can't. I mean, there's a lot of dreams we all have and the reality is we have to look at resources and we have to look at what the needs are, and sure I would love to live in a situation where we had unlimited resources for everything. So I think we have to really kind of really take a hard look at it. We need to really do it collaboratively in terms of city staff, in terms of professionals, in terms of really and community leaders coming together and really trying to identify it, because obviously, this is not just a government function, this is a community function, and I know that we have many great institutions here religious institutions, social welfare institutions and I think we have to start learning to better harness the resources we have in this community to better serve our community. Agreed.
Speaker 2Turn the page. In your bio, which I read it was interesting, you used the word affordable. He bought an affordable home in an exceptional neighborhood and I'm happy.
Speaker 3I'm happy because that's the dream.
Speaker 2So let's talk about rent control in Burbank and affordable housing. Okay, so those are two big buzzwords right now. So what are your thoughts on rent control? You know and all they're doing right now, you know the studies and everything else. And how will you get more affordable housing? Because we're under SB 35 mandates that we have to include X amount of units by you know, in two or three more years. So what's your thoughts?
Speaker 3on that. Well, I'll start by saying rent control is a band-aid. It's a band-aid to address a crisis, an immediate crisis. The reality is we should be looking at the policy and where we want to go. And where we want to go is, I believe, and I think most bankers believe that the market, if properly developed, if there was enough housing units available, the market can self-regulate. And we need to move towards that, and not just I mean the SB35 buildings they are what they are but I think that we need to start encouraging what I call gentle density development, the idea of three to five story buildings that are mixed use with retail on the ground floor, units above, and I think that actually is a pathway to unlocking the potential of some of our major streets.
Speaker 3I look particularly. I live by Glen Oaks and Glen Oaks is a first of all, it's a freeway, it's a very dangerous stretch of Burbank and it's lined by buildings that are all built after World War II. Essentially they're single stories, small structures with parking lots in the back, and I think there's a huge potential to redevelop those areas in a way that doesn't actually touch the single family neighborhoods, because I certainly I live in a single-family neighborhood. I know you do too, craig, and what someone told me on the campaign trail and I firmly agreed with, is that the sanctity of the single-family home is really the core of what Burbank is. But we have room, especially along what we call the transit corridors. I look at Glen Oaks, I look at Olive, I look at Magnolia. Those are really the areas that already have some mixture of both business and residential, and I think that we could actually greatly improve it. And there's a pathway to that.
Speaker 3See, the pathway is not just building up and just using the existing codes.
Speaker 3We need to kind of look at our codes and make sure those codes are actually serving the needs of both the future residents but also the owners of these properties, because I'd like to see more owners of small lots be in a position to actually do this, because the problem is you own a regular size lot. It doesn't pencil out for you to throw it down and build up, for several reasons. For one, some things that, if you haven't looked into it. For instance, there's some codes that say a three-story building needs two stairways and I think you and I know that seems more than we need, and these are codes that are relics from the 1900s when there were fires and it was a much unsafe situation. But now, today, if we think of things like removing that second stairway all of a sudden gives you more square footage. I think we look at the parking mandates. I think parking mandates should be minimized to then allow someone, if they have their small lot, that there actually is a pathway to actually redevelop it in a way that makes sense for everybody.
Speaker 2Parking is a serious problem. We just had passed an SB7 project 35 project on Empire that had seven stories, 150 units and seven parking places. They said, well, people go down and park at the Empire Center, which is private property. I don't know how they can say that, but you have to look at the fact. I understand parking is a thing, but if you don't have enough parking, isn't that going to put parking into the single family neighborhoods? Then People are going to park, you know, a block away, you know, or half a block away, because there's not enough parking where they live.
Speaker 3Well, I think the real way to deal it's more of a holistic approach. I think we need to look we talked earlier about the Burbank bus because the reality is to build a building with no parking and not really accessible to transit is wrong. I will go a step further and say it's almost criminal, because you're putting people in a situation where they don't necessarily want to drive two blocks away to park.
Speaker 2Well, they said that as the thing on the empire, the reason they could build it there was because they had access to mass transit and they consider mass transit. A bus stop across the street.
Speaker 3So yeah, that's not a bus.
Speaker 2It's not probably going to run once an hour and probably only certain days of the week, you know. So I still think that you know parking is a major issue in Burbank when it comes to we have a lot of protected neighborhoods now because of that.
Speaker 3Yeah, again, I 100% feel for anybody. You know, if your neighborhood changes because of a development that really was not your development, that was not there when you bought your house, and that's a really changing condition and that's not right. I mean that people should have some expectation. Most of people who buy a home that's their biggest investment they'll ever make, that's their retirement, and so we need to preserve that and we need to preserve the quality of life, because Burbank is built on a great quality of life. So I 100% agree with you that we can't just willy-nilly just create situations where our planners can look with foresight and say this is going to be detrimental to a neighborhood.
Speaker 2We're on the page again, the moment of bark and wreck. Here's something that's kind of near not near and dear to me, but an issue. I think that we need to look into the Starlight Bowl. I think it's a gem. It's a beautiful facility, burbank's very unique in having it and we've let it run down to nothing. All the bands we ever hire are there or we get. There are cover bands, all the original entertainment, and we can't get any of that here in Burbank. The facility is run down. What do you think we should do with the Starlight Bowl? Should we not expand it? But should we modernize it? Should we try to use it more than six days a year? Any thoughts?
Improving Burbank
Speaker 3Absolutely. I think there's actually two pieces to that question, because the Starlight Bowl is a great opportunity for our schools in terms of learning the skills that they could use to be professional sound operators, for instance, and that I know that our local entertainment unions I've always started talking to one of them, one of the IATSE unions, who said we would love to create an apprenticeship program for students in our high schools to work up at the Starlight Bowl and gain those skills. So I think there's an opportunity in terms of career training, and so we should look at it not just as an entertainment value but actually as something, an asset of Burbank and something that could actually further the lives of our kids. Now I live up near the Starlight Bowl, lives of our kids. Now I live up near the Starlight Bowl and I, you know, for me I love, you know I have never been to the fireworks show, but I watch it from my backyard and that's amazing. So I know it's a treasure I've. You know I've been to other shows there and I would love to see it, you know, improved.
Speaker 3You know, obviously there's a cost to everything, so I'm imagining that the reality is we need to find a private public partnership to do it right, because the thing is, you don't want to do. You know, this is my biggest fear you do something, you spend a lot of money on it and it's just not good. You know, anything that Burbank does needs to be excellent, and we need, that has to be the vision and we need to start planning for it and we need to, we need to make it happen, and it's not a simple fix. Money is not. Again, I go back to my small business. I had lots of dreams of automating my entire bakery and I was like, well, that's not going to happen because that's expensive.
Speaker 2I feel that if you modernize the bowl and you brought in a good mid-level axe that you could bring in, you would be able to increase the ticket prices to pay for the bowl, in fact, make a profit every year. It makes a small profit now, with really no shows and very few sellouts. And as far as traffic, I think you do like the Greek theater, you have parking areas near Glen Oaks and you shuttle people up on buses. So I think it could work and I just think it's a shame that we're letting that just keep deteriorating every year, year after year. So also in Park and Rec, we have a situation now where they're looking to take out hundreds of pine trees and very few have been deemed, you know, dangerous. They're just going to take them out just because, well, they're going to become dangerous someday. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3You know we live in a very litigious society, so I understand the reluctance of our city leaders you know, particularly our lawyer to allow any situation which can be seen as a potential hazard. So I understand the motivation behind that. But again, I think it's another situation where there's an opportunity here to do something better, and to do something better means figuring out what can we replace them with, how can we enhance the park and do it in a way that makes sense.
Speaker 2I look at Bel Air all the palm trees. And if they said next week we're going to take all the palm trees out because they're going to fall down one day or whatever is going to happen, I just don't know. If that's, you know, yeah, you can replace them with little baby palm trees and then three generations later we'll see real palm trees again. So I think people in Niagara are very upset, for a good reason, that they're going to lose all their trees and replace them with sticks.
Speaker 3And again I think that I go back to the litigious world we live in Because, for instance, the Empire Center, when that was permitted, that parking lot was supposed to have a shade cover on it and they never followed through in it. For the exact same reason, they're terrified that someone's going to get a branch on their Mercedes and they're going to get sued and we end up with this heat island in the middle of our city.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's also traffic mitigation things that we're supposed to do also, which they still have not done to this point. Let's move on to police and fire. What are your thoughts on the strength of our departments? Would you do anything to fortify them, or just give us your thoughts on public safety? Give us your thoughts on that.
Speaker 3Public safety is probably the first thing on anyone's mind. I mean, if you're choosing a place to live, you're looking for someplace safe and I would say you know, when I've talked with the firefighters, I often say thank you. My house has never burned down in 33 years and that's not a given right, because you know, I live in the hillside and the fire, you know, a few years ago it crested the hill and the ashes started falling and I really thought we might lose everything. Very scary, but we didn't. So I would say that we have great, great personnel. We have, in general, enough equipment at the moment, but the reality is Burbank's changing. We're bringing in those.
Speaker 3There's going to be thousands of new residents, which is going to place new demands on our safety and those have to be. They have to be met and they have to be met on two sides. One is the key is you want to retain. You need to retain your personnel because they develop such a deep understanding of our city that a new recruit is never going to have and it's going to put people in danger. I mean, there's a lot of. We have a lot of buildings with odd numbering systems, you know, by the equestrian center. There's a large, if you there's a large. On Riverside there's a large apartment house that you look at it and you wouldn't know driving by, there's stables behind it and so a new fire you know recruit might show up and not even realize there's horses to save as well as people. So that's what you lose when you have turnover. So we need to find a way to make people want to, to make the quality people that we've been able to attract feel this is the place they want to have their career. So that requires meeting some needs.
Speaker 3There's a lot of. You know firefighters in particular face a lot of dangers. You know lithium batteries when they burn they set off a horrible cancerous. You know emanations and that you know emanations and now and that there you know. So our firefighters are on the front lines dealing with that. So I really, you know, one of the things that they've been fighting for is more is better medical coverage and actually, in the sense of having to regular checkups that are really make sure that they're not in danger of any of these things or, if there is, they could catch it early.
Speaker 3So I look at like those types things where, in particular, we look at the health and welfare of our firemen and our police officers and make sure that that is the top priority and then from that again we have to look at the resources we have. Eventually we have all these diesel-powered vehicles that eventually will be electrified and that's going to be a huge expense to get there. We have to start preparing now for how we do it, because it's not just about buying new equipment. We have to have the infrastructure to charge that new equipment. Burbank really has not even started on that. We have the electric car chargers, but we don't have any facilities to charge commercial-type vehicles to car chargers, but we don't have any facilities to charge commercial type vehicles. So we need to really start looking at building that foundational infrastructure that will allow us to grow our departments to meet the needs of tomorrow.
Speaker 2I agree a hundred percent. You're going to have a lot of 20 years. You may have a lot of electric cars and if you are in an apartment building with 20 units, how are you going to get 20 car chargers put into that one building alone? So there will be a huge on the grid, yes. So what about police? How do you feel about our force? Do you think we need to expand our force? Not only do we have a lot of growth coming in the city, a lot more housing coming in, but we have the World Cup in two years. We've got the Olympics in four years. Do you think we need to expand our police department at all, or how you feel about that?
Speaker 3The way I'll answer. That is this I look at local government as actually the highest form of government. Some people think it's the lowest form of government, but I consider it the highest form of government because it's the only place where citizens, elected officials and city staff come together to collaborate to solve Burbank problems, and I think that this is an example of that. I certainly don't have. I'm not a public safety expert, but what I do know is you bring the experts to the table and you need to sit down and really make sure that we're looking at all the issues and that we have all the voices there at the table. So I think the pathway is to make sure that we're really looking at it seriously and that we're really devoting the resources we have today to understand where we need to be tomorrow.
Parking Solutions and Community Development
Speaker 2One more page, and this I just got on the radar recently. One more page, and this I just got on the radar. Recently I went to a meeting the city had for parking meters in downtown Burbank. Three people showed up to the meeting, but we recorded it and I put it on our YouTube channel and in the first week it's already had 250 views. So it sounds as though parking meters are coming to Burbank. What do you think that's going to do for the downtown area? Do you think they need to expand it to other areas of the city? It's a revenue source, although you said that what they're going to do right now will be a break-even, basically. But the more you put down the line, the more revenue you're going to get in, and Burbank's business-wise people love to come here because there are no parking meters. So where do you fall on this?
Speaker 3I'll tell you, it's very interesting because we dealt actually our commission dealt we really tore apart the whole plan and really worked with city staff about what they're planning. And here's the part that really we should focus on. The goal of this is that our transportation department wants every block in Burbank to be no more than 80% full in terms of parking, which means that any You're talking about the business area. The business area, yeah, because this is really for people that don't know Not residential, just business. Yeah, this is just. This is San Fernando and then some of the feeder streets down by the mall, and the idea is I mean, anyone that's been down there knows that there are no spaces available ever. And the reality is they've actually done little surveys and they've counted how many times people drive around, even though we have almost 6,000 free spaces in the parking structures around there. Obviously, people first look for the most convenient spot. So the goal of this program is not actually about revenue generation. It's about making a parking spot available to everyone who wants it.
Speaker 3And what's interesting about their plan which I think is brilliant is they made a game out of it. What they're going to do is they're going to charge. They're going to start by charging $3 an hour. You know, broken down by the quarter hour. You're not required to buy the whole hour, but the idea is we'll start at the $3 an hour and if we achieve 80% we're done and possibly we bring it down. But if we don't achieve that 80% occupancy, we'll raise it to 350. So what you can do is you can start playing with the way the market works and create a situation.
Speaker 3So the goal here is not because the thing is it's not really for revenue generation While money will come in. The reality is the way the city, in terms of our planning, any money that comes in from parking has to be spent on parking, that that is actually by design, that the transportation department is running under that focus, that we're not going to extract money from people and then build a park, for instance. This is all focused on serving parking and I think it's an opportunity. You know clearly, I know Burbank and free parking seems synonymous to me, but the reality is, if every time you went downtown you could find a parking space, you might be willing to go downtown more often, because I think that's part of the detriment, the deterrent to people going down there is that it's so difficult to park.
Speaker 2I agree 100%, and a lot of times I do not get that exact reason. But on the other hand, while you're talking about not making revenue, I think they're looking at maybe expanding that to the parking structures also, because those parking structures are 30 years old and they're starting to fall apart. We all know how the elevators are nearly death traps in those things. They break down all the time. They need to be, you know, redone. The structures need to be modernized and once again that would have come out of the city budget. So I can see where they can think about parking meters in other areas with that revenue going into fixing those facilities.
Speaker 3You know it's interesting because I look at those parking garages. I agree with you. I mean, you know, anyone that's used them knows that the, you know the elevators go out and there are issues like that, and I you know, again, that's a mixed use opportunity. You know, I would love to find a way that we can find a development partner that would work with the city to put housing and parking together. And again, it's an opportunity to take a piece of city infrastructure that's really not serving us well and reimagine it. Let me give you an example.
Speaker 3At Burbank High School they built you School not so long ago. They built the big parking structure that's become a crime magnet because it's just an empty structure after school's over and there's been problems there. If that had been envisioned as a mixed use, there would be people there all the time and it wouldn't just be an empty structure, it would actually be a piece of our community. So I think that we I would like to see a little higher level, thinking of all by all our planning staff and looking at not just, okay, the zones. The zoning says this. We should look at what the community needs and what will actually enhance the community, Because again, I look at that street, you know, actually enhance the community Because, again, I look at that street, it's behind the old Kmart and obviously we're waiting for it to be redeveloped, but it's not an inviting part of Burbank.
Speaker 3It's very little shade cover. It's kind of horrible. So if we could start thinking about being more community, focused on our things and really starting to build things with people in mind and not just you know, not just we need this many cars to park and that's all we're thinking about. That's only a piece of it. We need to have a bigger view.
Speaker 2Agreed, eddie. This has been a great podcast. I think we really got to know a little bit about. I've got to learn about you too. You know, and I think you're right on with a lot of subjects. What I always do at the end of our shows is I always give the candidate your camera's right here. As you are aware, I will give you as much time as you want to look in that camera and talk to the Burbank voter and tell them why they should vote for you for city council. So this is your time.
Speaker 3Well, thank you, craig, I really appreciate it. Burbank voter and tell them why they should vote for you for city council. So this is your time. Well, thank you, craig, I really appreciate it, and I, too, have really enjoyed this conversation. You know what I found on the campaign trail? The best part of running for office is a chance to meet new people and to talk about ideas. And the reality is, when you start talking about ideas, your ideas start changing too, because you start listening to other points of view, things you may not have considered originally. And that's what I'm all about. I'm someone that listens, I'm someone that wants to learn and I'm someone that wants to bring the best we can to Burbank.
Speaker 3The last two years, I've served on the Transportation Commissioner, and we have seven. If anyone that hasn't served on a commission, I first of all recommend it, because you'll be sitting at the table with your fellow residents, working with city staff, really seriously looking at our city. And on our commission, we have seven members that represent the entire spectrum of the political viewpoints of Burbank, and what I'm most proud of is that, if you look back over the last two years, all of our resolutions have either been unanimous as a yes or five yeses and maybe two abstentions, and that's something I'm very proud of. I was talking recently to one of my fellow commissioners and he said you know, eddie, I don't always agree with you, but you're a peacemaker. And that's really what I felt I've brought to the commission and what I would bring to city council that I'm a peacemaker, because the reality is we have lots of views here in Burbank and there's not a right view and there's not a wrong view, there's just a Burbank view. And I think, when you get down to the day, down to the bottom of what everyone wants for our city, I think of three words they want a Burbank that is safe, they want a Burbank that is livable and they want a Burbank that's inviting. And so our challenge is to find those pathways to get there, and I know that we have.
Speaker 3I'm a baker, so I'll tell you, I think we have all the ingredients we need for a perfect Burbank right here, and I like to share a little story that I always tell at the end of my stump speech is that I owned my bakery for 18 years and not a day went by that someone didn't ask me for a recipe. In fact, people often offered to buy my recipes and I always told them they're asking the wrong question, because a recipe is a list of instructions you can find on the internet. What you need is to find a baker, a person who can take a list of instructions and make something delicious. And it's the same thing in politics. There are nine people running for city council and I guarantee you all those nine people will tell you a list of things they will do for our city. But your job as a voter is to look at each of those people and say is this the person that can get it done? Is this the person that can take an idea and get the consensus that's necessary to move anything forward?
Speaker 3Because change happens incrementally and it only happens when everybody feels they're stakeholders and that they have a voice in the process. And that's what my whole campaign is about is to bring this process. I think Burbank has a way beautiful future ahead of us and I know that I want to be a part of it. I know that Burbankians love it's funny. We always have this controversy over is it Burbankian or Burbanker? I know that Burbankians love it's funny. We always have this controversy over is it Burbankian or Burbanker. I go back and forth because I like them both, because I love our city, and I hope everyone has two votes and I hope that you'll use one of those votes to vote for me, the Baker, to be your next Burbank City Council member.
Speaker 2All right, Thank you very much for coming in. We appreciate it. Once again, I think these are great podcasts to get to know people. So remember, if you are on the Burbank ballot running for any office and your name appears on the Burbank ballot, please email us at news at myburbankcom and request to come in and, like Eddie did, to come in and be on the show, and we would love to have you here. So that's it for another episode, Craig Sherwood saying thank you for watching and we'll talk to you next time.