myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
The Week That Was and That Will Be - August 19
Curious about how Burbank is shaping up its transportation and sustainability efforts? We've got you covered! Join us as we discuss the Burbank City Council's latest initiatives, including a new free fare program for students and some rather ironic debates about making council meetings shorter. Plus, we’ll share insights from the Chandler bike path’s 20th-anniversary celebration and reflect on the event with Lynn Lipinski's story and pictures.
On a more serious note, we’ll address a recent bomb threat at Providence High School and discuss the significant impact of such alarming incidents. We also highlight adaptive sports initiatives, such as wheelchair fencing at McCambridge Park, as part of broader efforts to promote inclusivity ahead of upcoming Paralympic events coming to Los Angeles in 2028.
What’s next for Burbank in terms of sustainability and transportation? We’re diving into the details of the upcoming Sustainable Burbank Commission meeting and its many ad hoc committees. Enforcement challenges of new sustainability laws and the practicality of plastic container ordinances are hot topics, as is our upcoming "Ask the Mayor" podcast focused on transportation issues. Lastly, we cover the safety concerns around driverless cars, explore the city's response to evolving technology, and prepare for a fun-filled Kitten Day and Burbank Galaxy Day. Tune in for an all-encompassing look at the week that was and the week that will be in Burbank!
My Burbank Talks presents another edition of the Week that Was and the Week that Will Be a weekly podcast featuring highlights and commentary on local events and issues taking place right here in Burbank. Now let's see what's on today's agenda as we join our program.
Speaker 2:Hello Burbank. Craig Stewart, here with you once again from the my Burbank Command Center with another the Week that Was and the Week that Will Be. So before we start, a couple things to get into here. Number one as always, please subscribe and consider channel membership Just starting to offer them and we will have some great perks down the line. So hopefully you'll consider that. Also, if you're a candidate and will appear on the ballot here in Burbank, we'd love to have you for a podcast. All you got to do is send us an email at news at myburbankcom and let us know when a good time for you to come in is, and we'll be glad to do a podcast with you to the voters in Burbank can get to know who you are and what you're all about. So hopefully you'll want to do that. Last week's winner yes, we had a winner last week and last week's winner was Rob Kadama. Rob Kadama, you are sending the word bike path. You are the winner of the gift card for Hill Street Cafe $25 gift card. Great breakfast and lunch, occasional dinners Over on Glen Oaks, really good food. Burbank's little hidden gem, I would say, because not a lot of people really know about that. I think more and more know because of the show now, but anyhow. So $25 gift card to Hill Street Cafe. Hope you enjoy it. Please continue to listen or watch. Whatever you do, we will have another chance for a gift card later in the show today. So please keep watching and we will have it for you sometime. This episode.
Speaker 2:So Tuesday, the city council met and one of the things they did was approve the Burbank Bus Free Fare program for students with ID cards. Also wanted to look into offering the service for elementary students Probably a good idea, because there are some elementary students who actually live farther away from schools and would probably benefit them to have the cards. I know that you're talking about probably fifth grade and below, but you know, sometimes if a kid's forced to walk, I'd rather have them on a Burbank bus than walking on the streets. So there's really not a good solution there, but at least it's a better solution than just walking, and you know who knows what can happen on the streets. Even though it's Burbank, anything can happen anywhere. Never misunderstand that couldn't happen. Also, here's the thing that I thought was hilarious On the agenda for the city council was a measure about how they could make city council meetings shorter.
Speaker 2:Okay, I get it. Sometimes they're going until 2.45 in the morning. I think it's absolutely ridiculous to go that late. I still think it's ridiculous to bring up the thing about Hamas and Israel and go three to four hours on that alone. We've talked about nuclear proliferation and tried to do proclamations fine, but you know these agenda items on national and international issues anyhow. But they took here's the thing that really cracked me up.
Speaker 2:So the council took 2 hours and 20 minutes to discuss how to short the length of a meeting, while holding more meetings was only mentioned once by the mayor. No one seemed interested. Once again, I don't understand that. Why would you not maybe have three meetings a month instead of two? We've got some issues coming up, such as, as an example, we have the issue of rent control coming up down the line. That's going to be a very heated meeting. That should be a whole separate meeting actually in itself. We're going to have a big issue with the pine trees over in Niagara and I'm sure people are going to mobilize for that.
Speaker 2:Now they've put in caveats that say you can have. The amount of cards is going to dictate how many minutes people get to speak, and the system I came up with is after it gets to 20 cards, it gets shortened by a minute, and then it was 30 cards. It gets shortened another minute and once the public comment starts, no new cards can come in and it'll stay the same for the phone people who call in. Also, I don't know, I think it's strange. Well, they finally voted after two and a half hours of talking about how to shorten a meeting and the vote was 4-1, with Zed Mullins dissenting to change the structure of the public comments. But the triggering mechanisms, I think, will work and be a good thing. It's just funny how long it still took to come up with making a meeting shorter. But they still should have more meetings. If there's big events coming up, have more meetings. I know they had a separate meeting when they did the Colony Theater Smart idea, I mean. Sometimes you know they've had special meetings, such as back in the 200 and Flats days Special meeting. So, um, anyhow, oral communications changes about every 8 to 10 years. It has been for as long as I've been around, which is a long time, probably too long. Costi Anthony did try to bring back the comments at the end of the meeting and all he got met with was crickets. Nobody wants to have any kind of comments at the end of the meeting, which I think is a mistake. I think we should have final comments. After all the agenda items are done and just if somebody has a point they want to make or something or maybe a point to put on the agenda in the future gives them a chance to do it. Anyhow, that was that Wednesday.
Speaker 2:We celebrated 20 years of the Chandler bike path and our Lynn Lipinski had a great story. I really hope you have a chance to look at it on myburbankcom. She got some great pictures here. A lot of people attended. It happened over at Pass and Chandler Funny side stories. I remember about probably 30 years ago when I was covering I'm not sure which paper I was working for back then. It could have been the Daily Review, maybe the Burbank Times, I'm not sure where it was, but I actually covered a train versus car at the corner of Pass and Chandler Probably. The train was going 15 miles an hour at the fastest and somebody, an elderly gentleman, just didn't see it coming. And back then there were no arms that went down, it was just a little flashing light and he got hit. And he didn't get killed. He was hurt a little bit. But just interesting that 25, 30 years ago I remember having a train hit a car there and now we have a very successful bike path that's been there for 20 years and it was a great celebration too.
Speaker 2:Lynn was there and her husband also shot some pictures. Really nice, had some speakers. Of course, the mayor was there to speak. I thought he did well Walk. Mike Burbank was there. The Burbank transportation people were there. They had a little wheel set up for you to spin and they ask you a question. The only funny part was if you won, you won a banana. Actually, if you lost two, you still got a banana. So the prize was a banana. I'm not sure how bananas tie into transportation, but that was the prize. Um, all kinds of people there, you know, giving out information about things. Um, as you can see, there were a lot of people there on bicycles. Everybody was there to you know. I mean it was very well attended, very crowded there. Our city council people were there, of course, besides the mayor.
Speaker 2:And here's Tamla Takahashi and her electric bike. I had a great talk with Tamla Council Member Takahashi and her electric bike. I had a great talk with Tamla Council Member Takahashi. She rode her electric bike and I learned about her passion for bike projects and transportation. I mean it was really a good conversation. She is really fired up about the future of bikes in Burbank and I thought that was a real, really interesting. So I know when she gets her chance to be the mayor that that's probably going to be on her agenda to do more with transportation, with bikes and everything else. And there are some hiccups with bicycles in the city and there are things that can be done. But she is very passionate with her bicycle. Her husband was in her riding his bicycle, but his is not electric so he has to do all the manual labor. But they enjoyed the time there but had a great conversation with her and we look forward to more of those.
Speaker 2:A couple more shots here for you. Here's the mayor with Marsha Ramos, who was one of the founders not that I shouldn't say the founders she was the mayor at the time of the bike path 20 years ago and that was very, you know, it was great to have her there, really good to have her there. I had a long talk with her husband, dave. Dave and I actually went to school together at Burroughs and had a long conversation, you know, got to catch up on things. He's actually had a couple knee replacements, something I need desperately, so he was trying to get me fired up about taking care of my knees and something I need to really do. So more motivation on my part. Besides that, though, we had all I can say the city representatives were there, joy Forbes was also there, and Joy Forbes was the original project manager on the bike path.
Speaker 2:20 years ago, if you also look at our YouTube page, we did a video on the bike path. In fact, we had one of our. We did a video on the bike path. In fact, we had one of our. We had a friend of mine, a neighbor named Bruce. I don't know if he wants his, I put his last name in the video, but he rode the bike path for us back and forth. The entire ride was about 18 minutes long, and we sparse that with the history of the bike path, so a picture of it was being made, showed, you know, in fact, the old railroad tracks that we used to be on it. So interesting video. We get a chance, take a look at it, you know, and and get some memories of of yesteryear and, you know, 20 years ago doesn't seem that long, but I guess it is that long, you know. I mean just thinking about anybody who's a teenager and was not alive when that was a railroad tracks back then. Okay so, but it was.
Speaker 2:It was a great event and people really enjoyed it. Let's see what else here. Oh, you know what I want to say? Thanks to Janet Deal and our assistant manager, corey Padgett, who also stopped by where I was sitting to say hi, and that meant a lot and good to say hi and catch up. So I want to thank them both for coming by and saying hi to me and I appreciate that. They went out of their way to come by to say hi to me. So it's appreciated. You know I don't get as many events as I used to, so when I do get out, it's you know. It's good to see people and talk to them and I'm making that effort to get more and more events now. So we'll see. Let's move on to Friday.
Speaker 2:Burbank police got a report from Providence High School of a bomb threat that was made at the school. Of course they went over immediately and they searched the school and everything else and took all precautions but nothing was found. You know it's funny how many times bomb threats are made at schools and once again, I think it's kids who, a lot of times it turns out to be a kid who says, wow, I didn't do my homework and I don't want to get in trouble for that class. We got a test today. I'm not ready for it, I don't want to do it. They pull fire alarms, they call it a bomb and let me tell you something they will find out who did it. They will always find out Because you know there are phone. You know they have phone records. There's a way of you know tracing things back, so I'm sure they'll have phone records. They have cameras in the schools to see who pulls the alarms.
Speaker 2:You know, I get it, you're a kid, you're not really thinking big picture, but you know pulling those fire alarms or calling in the bomb threats, you know. You know it's something that is something that's serious and people take it very seriously and it's not really something you should play around with just because you know you didn't do your homework or you didn't study for a test. You know, come on, you're better than that. You know you didn't do your homework or you didn't study for a test. You know, come on, you're better than that. You know, do a better job than that. Anyhow, moving on to the last weekend, on Sunday yesterday we had wheelchair fencing at McCambridge Park. Our sports editor, jim Regio, was on hand with Ross Benson and we will have a story soon for you. So I think that's you know. Once again, they do a lot of handicapped things over at McCambridge Park on Sundays. I know they have the wheelchair basketball and they have some blind sports there. And you know Burbank Park and Rec is really making an effort, which is good because if you look at you know is really making an effort, which is good Because if you look at, you know we're going to the Paralympics easy for me to say huh, coming up in France and we're going to have those in LA for the first time too in four years. So it's good to have that kind of stuff now and get people excited and involved in it. So you know, hats off to everybody involved. Like I say, jim will have a story up on my Burbank, hopefully by Monday or Tuesday, with some pictures from Ross, and enjoy it. So that brings us to our first commercial break. So we will be back in a second.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much for listening to our podcast today. If you'd like to see our podcast, please go over to the my Burbank YouTube channel where you can see all of our podcasts that we do film Also. Please, anytime you need news, go to the myburbankcom website. We have news, sports, entertainment, events, everything you can think of that covers the city of Burbank. So please check out myburbankcom when you can. Thank you, okay, craig Sherwood, back here with you once again in my Burbank Command Center and going with the week that will be, which is this week.
Speaker 2:So today the city announced I got a little flyer here for you the city announced today that or last week that the Verdugo Pool is going to be closed for two weeks, starting today for its yearly maintenance. The McCambridge Park pool is open. I'm not sure what that does, for you know lessons and stuff. I'm sure everything is going to be moved up to McCambridge. I know they've been working on that pool also and doing a whole new renovation of it, and doing a whole new renovation of it. My understanding is, while the Burroughs pool is working, burbank High has not had a pool in it for five years, I think it is, and they use McCambridge pool also, so hopefully that it will be a little crowded up there. But I think it's something that you know they'll work out, but anyhow, so you know it's too bad. They don't work on the pool in December or January when it's like freezing outside. You know they do it on the hot months where you kind of want to get over that pool and get some laps in or just relax a little bit. But oh well, let's see here Moving on bit. But oh well, let's see here Moving on.
Speaker 2:Sustainable Burbank is going to be. The commission is going to meet at 5 pm at the Community Services Building. They're going to get recognized and have all their ad hoc committees report. You ask what are the ad hoc committees? Glad you ask. The ad hoc Sustainable Burbank Commission has a budget committee, ad Hoc Outreach Committee, the Ad Hoc Waste Reduction Ordinance Implementation Committee, the Ad Hoc Burbank Habitat Restoration and Ad Hoc Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan, reduction plan implementation subcommittee. Holy cow, we love, we love Burbank Stateable Commission. But you know, we've got to, we've got to simplify some of those names. I mean you have to just to type them out. Took me probably half an hour to get them all typed out and everything else. So they have a lot of subcommittees. But you know they're doing, they're doing good work.
Speaker 2:Um, I am still a little concerned with the um, the ordinance they put out for plastic containers, everything else. I've yet to go by a restaurant that still is not that everyone's still using plastic straws. Um, so I know they're supposed to be using paper straws which basically suck. Still, going to places like Kentucky Fried Chicken, they're using a black plastic container that's supposed to be used. In that, in all honesty, I don't know which number of containers they can use and can't use and everything. It's very confusing. I don't know who number of containers they can use and can't use and everything. It's very confusing. I don't know who's enforcing it. I was told that if you have enforcement issues, that you're supposed to call the recycling center and they're supposed to send people out for enforcement. But from what I understand you know McDonald's and Burger King and Wendy's and all the rest of them they're not using reusable forks and knives and spoons in their restaurants the way that they're supposed to by law.
Speaker 2:Now, so I think that whole thing is a little bit. It's a great law and a great idea, but you know, you can have all the laws and all the ideas you want to have and if you're not going to enforce them, then what's the use with them and what's the use of them? I remember back when we had the pandemic and you know, county health put in regulations that you had to wear a mask inside. You had to wear a mask all over the place and at that time the sheriff said we're not going to enforce it. I don't care, we're not going to enforce it, we don't have the time and the manpower. That's a consideration as we continue to it.
Speaker 2:More and more laws on the books. You have to consider how you're going to enforce these laws. You can't just give the police or a stack of you know 15 new laws and say okay, by the way, besides the 5,000 laws you got enforced now here's 15 more. You know, is that practical? Are they going to do that? I don't think so. So I think that's something that we need to look at down the future and see if that's the way we want to go, as far as you know, having all these laws and everything else. I know they're working on gas leaf blowers, but, once again, who's going to enforce it? You know, I know that. You know food trucks have to have city of Burbank licenses and everything else to operate, but these food trucks roll in here at nighttime all the time. Who's working for the city at nighttime to go check these food trucks? Nobody. The police going to do it? No, that's not their job, you know. So code food trucks Nobody the police going to do it? No, that's not their job. So code enforcement I mean, basically, we need to get code enforcement working 20 hours a day and that's right now not going to happen. You can't even get your house inspected within six months, sometimes from an inspector. So the city has to start deciding what are they going to do with that stuff Anyhow. So moving on. So you know the city has to start deciding what are they going to do with that stuff Anyhow. So moving on.
Speaker 2:So Tuesday, the city council is dark, but we have something very, very interesting that we're going to be working on for you, for you, our listeners. We're going to do our Ask the Mayor podcast that we always do, and it's going to be strictly on Burbank transportation. Back in February in a meeting there was people talking about the Burbank buses and everything else. People said I don't feel safe, this and that, and the mayor at that time said Mayor Schultz said Well, you know what? I'm going to do a mayor's podcast on a Burbank bus and we're going to talk all about all about it. Well, I kind of gulped and said, well, are we really sure? Let me just send my crack technical crew out to set all that up. But we figured it out, got some good people, you know, besides Ross Benson and and Austin Gebhardt, who is is kind of our technical director. They're going to figure out how to get this done.
Speaker 2:We're going to be on a Burbank bus on Tuesday talking with the mayor. Now, here's the only thing they won't let us use the bus in service. Okay, I get it, I kind of wanted to, but when you look at a bus in service, is the driver going to get you know, think about what's going on? Is the passenger not going to be one on, be on camera or or, you know, be talked to or something? So, yeah, there's reasons. So, legally, I think you know the city wanted not to do that, but they're going to provide us a bus. We will be on a bus. It's part of the burbank metrolink station t Tuesday night.
Speaker 2:And here's the great thing, though the entire podcast will be on Burbank transportation. We're going to talk all aspects of transportation in Burbank. That's the only thing we're going to talk with. If you have a question, you want to talk about Burbank transportation in any way, shape or form, send the questions to news at myburbankcom. Make sure I get them before 3 o'clock on Tuesday and we'll include those on the broadcast on Tuesday. But here's the great thing we're going to have David Kriske with us. He's Burbank's transportation czar. David Kriske is one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to transportation in Burbank. He does not set the policy. You understand that. All he does is whatever the city council wishes and tells his department to do. That's what he does. He does not take things on his own. Everything has gone over through community development and they give out the orders from the city council and he attends to it. But he knows everything about buses and about bicycle lanes and all transportation. So it's going to be great to have him on the show. He'll be on the entire show with us. So, once again, if you have questions, please Send them over to us and we will talk with him.
Speaker 2:Let's see here Now. Wednesday here we go no meetings on Tuesday but on Wednesday, and no meetings on Thursday but on Wednesday. We're going to have three meetings at the same time. I don't get it Three meetings at the same time. So if you want to find out multiple things, you've got to pick your meeting and decide which one's more important.
Speaker 2:So we're going to have a community meeting on the proposed downtown Burbank parking management plan. That's at 530, but that's going to be on Zoom, zoom, okay. So there's not a physical location for that, it's a zoom meeting. So they want people to learn and provide feedback on the development of the down of the proposed downtown Burbank management plan. So it'll be interesting to see what they come up with. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with. They're going to talk about on-street parking spaces on San Fernando Boulevard and the final version of the plan is going to be presented at an upcoming city council meeting at the end of 2024. The police commission they're going to meet at 6 pm at City Hall and I'm not going to get into a lot of the police commission stuff, but I'll just tell you what they're going to talk about here and then you can decide what you think is important and what you want to listen to, but I know these are also on YouTube.
Speaker 2:So I have a presentation on the update of the 2023 to 2025 strategic plan report, a presentation by Burbank Police on Policy 464, homeless Persons. I'm not sure what Policy 464 really is, but I'm sure it's how they deal with homeless persons. I know it's been now over. Maybe they'll talk about the homeless person that was dropped off in North Hollywood. We can't get information, so I don't know. It's been over two months and they won't tell us a thing, and there's been no report made official or public or anything else about what happened. We're talking about a 10 minute incident where nobody was injured or hurt, but we cannot get any information two months later. So maybe they'll talk about that information two months later, so maybe they'll talk about that. I doubt it, though. They're going to have a reporting out on recommendations by the school safety ad hoc committee. They're going to have the election of their officers and, of course, general announcements by the police chief, which are brief announcements regarding upcoming events or items of note related to the police department items of note related to the police department. So I hope they ask him about why there's been no if they don't come with a report during the homeless part. I hope they ask the chief why no report after over two months now.
Speaker 2:So I'm just a little miffed by that. I really thought when it happened that it was an unfortunate incident. Burbank police maybe made a mistake, maybe not, I don't know. That's why you want to see what happened. They said you could not see the body-worn camera footage, but they haven't released a report either. I want to believe that they were doing the. There's more to it than what Kikorian and LA City reported. I want to be on their side about it because I really think that Burbank police officers do care and I've seen them in the field and spend time with homeless people and try to help them. So I don't think this was nefarious in any way. But it's just when you're not hearing anything for months of an incident that took no more than 10 minutes. I just don't get it. So hopefully something comes out of that. You know maybe they'll really support. On Wednesday night We'll find out there's going to be a special meeting of the Burbank Heritage Commission and that's at 6 pm also, but it's a community services building. Now they're going to get an overview of the nomination process and resulting designation on the National Historic Register of Historic Places for the Mariposa Street Equestrian Bridge.
Speaker 2:I'll give you a little history on the bridge though, which I thought was interesting. The bridge was first constructed in 1939. It's 169 feet 9 inches, with 7 foot wide spans. It's got two 2 1⁄4 inch, 7 by 19 galvanized tension cables, and the timber was replaced in 2001. So that's an old bridge. I mean that bridge is. It's an old bridge.
Speaker 2:I know we have rules that you can't have a bicycle on it, you can't walk a bicycle, you can't have a pedestrian go across it.
Speaker 2:I understand the reasoning behind all that. It's because you know they don't want to spook horses on a bridge like that. I get that. But you know why not build a second bridge somewhere that bicyclists and pedestrians can also use to get over to Griffith Park over there? You know, let's face it, there's two ways to get over there. One is across Barham and the other one's across Victory, so we could use it. You know, for years they're talking about putting a bridge at the end of Bob Hope Drive it used to be called Catalina at that time right by the park. But people there, you know, complain oh, we don't want that there, because the big thing they're worried about is that people are going to park on Forest Lawn Drive, run across the bridge, rob people in Burbank and then run across the bridge and the police weren't able to catch them because there's no way to get a car across there. So I get that, but you know who knows I.
Speaker 2:But I still think we should have some kind of a transport, you know, some way of getting people with bicycles across there, especially now our, our new, you know, walk, walk, bike Burbank and everything else. And we're talking bicycles and transportation. I think we need to come up with something for that also. But that bridge, um, very interesting. Uh, what else are you going to do up with something for that also? But that bridge, very interesting. What else are they going to do here? Let's see, here they're also. Let me come back here with you. They're going to fix the fountain at City Hall. Now, absolutely they should. But because this has to go to the Heritage Commission, because once again the fountain and City Hall is on the historic registry. So because of that, and, by the way, these two reports for the bridge and for this fountain were 150 pages long. So you want to talk about your bureaucracy in action. 150 pages to fix a fountain and to fix a bridge Amazing. But on the fountain they want to do an installation of new fountain, hydraulics and lighting systems, construction of a new pump system, improved waterproofing and tile replacement. So all things that need to be done, because I'm sure that stuff is a little bit old and has been around for a while and we should have a fountain working nicely. You know, once again sometimes you spend money on things and you say you know, should we be spending money on this? But I think there's things that are the amenities sometimes you have to. And you know that fountain sat there for a long time and you know Burbank's had a history of not doing well with their fountains. I know we used to have the old Golden Mall for years and you'd walk and they had fountains on that Golden Mall and after you know, five, ten years they all stopped working and the city never fixed them. It's like, well, don't put in fountains if you don't plan on fixing them. So this, this fountain here, you know is is old as can be and and and it needs new, it needs new plumbing, I guess it needs new, uh, and it'd be nice to have a nice lit-up thing also. So once again, good for them to do that there.
Speaker 2:Let's move on here to Thursday. Here the Advisory Council on Disabilities Monthly Meeting is going to be on Thursday that's a Zoom at 1.30 pm. The Infrastructure Oversight Board is Zoom at 1.30 pm. The Infrastructure Oversight Board is due to be at 6 pm at the Community Services Building, but no agenda has been posted yet, so I don't know what's going to happen there. Now here's a great little event for you here.
Speaker 2:Here's something that's coming up and I think people are trying to do the know after the deaths on Glen Oaks and the car accident. But at 6 pm at Community Chevrolet it's going to be the kickoff to the Drive Right, save Lives Driver Safety Campaign brought to you by the Burbank Armenian Association, and they want to try to make a difference in the community. By joining their campaign you can help promote safe driving habits, reduce accidents and save lives. You can hear from the Burbank Police Department, learn about the campaign and workshops and enjoy some oh, here's the best part light food and refreshments. But if you'd like to go, you must register. So you must register for this at burbankarmorg backslash drive right. So if you'd like to go to this, you have to register for it in advance. You just can't show up, I guess, anyhow. But nice job of the Burbank Armenian Association by putting this together. I know they've taken some hits as far as you.
Speaker 2:You know, people are typecasting some of the younger Armenian drivers as creating the problems. You know what? Speeding is everybody. Speeding is everybody. It doesn't matter, you know, the color of your skin, the nationality, everybody speeds. It's amazing. I constantly drive down the street and a car will pass me. I'm doing 35, a car passed me at 45 or 50. And you know I used to get mad. I'm going to show this guy a list. I'm going to race him down the street. I don't know how dare you try to get in front of me and after a while you know, and once again, I guess age takes over a little bit and you say to yourself is that really necessary? It was funny.
Speaker 2:I was listening to, I was watching NASCAR one time Michael Waltrip was being interviewed and he talked about this exact thing. He said well, when you're driving down the street in your personal car, do you go flying down there? Do you race people? He goes, no, he goes. I get passed all the time. When you're driving down the street in your personal car, do you go flying down there? Do you race people? He goes, no, he goes. I get passed all the time and he goes.
Speaker 2:The funny part of that is is that the people who go racing by me, I just keep taking my time and by the time I get to the next signal, they're at that signal waiting. And then I pull up there and we're both in the same place. We were a minute ago when he went flying by me. And then we go again. He speeds the next signal and waits, and I drive right up next to him, again going the speed limit. So it's really funny how people think by speeding they're going to get there faster and they're probably not, you know, because A the signals are timed certain ways, but it's just, you know, with traffic and everything else, is it worth all that frustration of speeding around cars and changing lanes? And I mean it's just not worth it. And the safety factors, the safety factors alone, people on bicycles, pedestrians, you know, whatever you know, I mean you just can't. You know it's the unexpected that you have to be careful of.
Speaker 2:So, anyhow, nice job by the Armenian Association to come up with this, to be Community Chevrolet, a great partner in the community for things like this. They have a nice little meeting center there. So if you can, please register and go over there. If you've got questions to the police department about transportation issues, they'll be there. They'll have all their experts there. So, anyhow, so it's probably good to go and see. Okay, let's move on here.
Speaker 2:On Saturday, hey, kitten Day is returning to the animal shelter, and that's from 10am to 2pm on Saturday, hey, kitten Day is returning to the animal shelter, and that's from 10 am to 2 pm. I guess they must have a ton of kittens over there, because they have a kitten day about every two weeks. Also, let's see, here we have oh, on Saturday also, it's going to be Burbank Galaxy Whoop, whoop, whoop. Wait a second, wait a second. Is that Galaxy? Oh, my goodness, that can only mean one thing, and that is the word of the week, which is Galaxy. Okay, so if you're still with us my voice has not put you to sleep or made you throw your remote control at the computer or the trash so Galaxy is our Word of the Week. Send it in on the subject line to contest at mybergencom and we will pick somebody to win a $25 gift card to Hill Street Cafe. And let me tell you what people love it. People love that $25 gift card, you know, and bring a friend with you, and, if anything, you bring a friend with you and then you split their part of the bill, and so you know, you kind of both, have a good meal and a low price that way, so something to look forward to.
Speaker 2:But let's talk about the event. The City of Burbank Parks and Recreation Department is going to welcome all residents, friends and family to attend the annual Burbank Galaxy Day. Oh, I said galaxy again. We got to give the old. Anyhow, tickets include an on-field experience, participants who are four feet or taller who have the opportunity to hold the LA Galaxy banner. I'm not sure what that means. I don't think they won the championship last year. I'm not sure what banner they're talking about, but you know they say a limited number of tickets are left.
Speaker 2:So there you go, for you soccer fans or for you fans in other countries. It's called football. There you go. I'll stick with soccer because to me the real football season is just starting right now. Go Rams, go Chargers. I don't know which one to really root for this year. They both look exciting, although the Rams did beat the Chargers. I don't know which one to really root for this year. They both look exciting, although the Rams did beat the Chargers the other night, but it was a field goal extravaganza, okay.
Speaker 2:So the last thing for tonight, today, this week, is my comment, and my comment is basically once again transportation, and I'll probably be asking this of the mayor on Tuesday, but it's going to be about driverless cars. I know Google has their driverless cars and other companies are looking at doing, you know, ride share with driverless cars. Now it's funny that I just saw a story the other day on the news that I guess there's a parking lot in San Francisco that when cars are not in demand it's a staging lot and the cars will go in that lot and they start driving in circles or and then they'll park and then drive in a circle to go park again. Very strange, but the problem they have there is that every time they back up into a parking spot they honk their horn and all the people who live around there are not very happy. But regardless, what I want to know is I have not seen a driver's car yet in Burbank.
Speaker 2:Now Burbank has banned commercial scooters. You can't rent a scooter in Burbank. You can own a scooter. You can buy your own scooter and ride it around, that's no problem. But you can't rent a scooter in Burbank. You can own a scooter, you can buy your own scooter and ride it around, that's no problem, but you can't rent a scooter. You know one of those rent places. Their GPS is on them, have them blocked out so you can't operate them in Burbank.
Speaker 2:So my question is driverless cars, should they be allowed on our Burbank streets? Now, I don't know the legal ramifications, you know if it's maybe only the state can say yes or no. But I look at it like the technology isn't perfect yet on that and we all know that. I'm sure they know it too. But so what happens if one of those cars and let's you know, car XYZ, no driver gets into an accident in Burbank? Okay, I'm sure you know number one. You know the car is not going to. You can't ask it for its insurance or whatever because there's nobody there to talk to. So there's phone numbers you can call and who knows if you know for all, you know when you call. You might call the Philippines and wait. You know half an hour because your call is important to them. You know, for all you know when you call you might call the Philippines and wait. You know half an hour because your call is important to them. You know that goes.
Speaker 2:But here's the thing which is, I think, the most concerning. And yes, accidents do happen. But what if one of these cars for some reason has a glitch and runs into people? And what if it kills somebody? Now, we have laws in our state, in our country. You know we have vehicular manslaughter laws. We have all kinds of laws that you know.
Speaker 2:If you kill somebody with your car and you know you hit somebody in a crosswalk or whatever it is, is you go to prison? Well, when there's nobody driving the car, who's going to? Who's going to prison? Is it the president of the company? Is it the the, the guy in charge of um, um, that division of cars? Who is going to be responsible if one of those cars kills somebody? That's what really concerns me. It hasn't happened yet. Thank God it hasn't happened. We hope it never does happen.
Speaker 2:But, as we know, things do happen. You know all it takes. You know as much as people hack into everything we. You know all it takes. You know as much as people hack into everything we. You know all these great secure systems. In fact, everybody in the country has their social security number hacked. If we can get into that kind of stuff and hack everything like that, you know somebody will get into these cars and hack them, if they hack those cars, what's going to happen then? You know, technology is a great thing, but if you don't have, you know, safety mechanisms in place, you know you're in trouble. So you know.
Speaker 2:My thing is should Burbank be looking into banning driverless cars in Burbank until they have, you know, systems in place that if a car gets into an accident, the person can talk to somebody here in Burbank and get their insurance taken care of. If a car injures somebody, you know who's going to be held responsible legally. These are all things that need to be looked into. You know, as technology changes, we can't be reactive to that. We need to be proactive.
Speaker 2:We don't allow scooters. Whether that's a good idea or a bad idea, let's face it, nobody likes to see all those scooters laying on sidewalks every day. A lot of things in Burbank we don't allow. We don't allow cannabis shops, we don't allow billboards. There's a lot of things that we don't allow in this city.
Speaker 2:But driverless cars and, like I say, I know that I'm sure there's state agencies that regulate all this and everything else. But you know what, if somebody gets killed, they're not going to call a state agency and say, hey, you know what, who's going to who's responsible. You know who's going to pay for this, who's going to pay for this with time in jail, not just a check made out to somebody. Okay, you know, checks are great and everything else, but responsibility is more important. Anyhow, that's my comment, so I thought I would throw that out there and I will try to bring that up on the Tuesday podcast with the mayor and with David Kriske, which I'm very much looking forward to.
Speaker 2:So anyway, once again, please subscribe to the channel. That really helps us. Think about a channel membership. That would really help us and we're going to come up with some great things for people down the line. We're just starting that right now, so hopefully we'll have some stuff for you as time goes on, some little swag stuff for you. You know it's complimentary if you join the channel. Please support myburbankcom. Please support our advertisers. Without our advertisers, we don't have a website. We don't have, we can't bring the news, and if we don't bring the news, who is going to bring the news? So that's it for another week.