Sidewalk Presents!

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is a sidewalk! You see my kids walk to school every day and the last block before they get to their school, the street doesn’t have any sidewalks. Now I’m sure that you must think that we live out in the sticks but the truth is that we live here in Glendale, California and while most of the city enjoys a nice sidewalk my kids and I don’t.

Santa, I don’t want you to think I’m greedy or selfish. I only need a sidewalk the length of three or four houses. I promise, I promise, I promise I’ll let all the other 700 kids who go to my kids school use it. I don’t want it just for me. I want it for my entire community! While I do think it would be cool to do some sidewalk chalk art, its not the real reason why I want it for my kids.

The real reason is that I don’t want my kids to get hit by a car as they walk to school. You see my kids have to walk on the busy road without any sidewalks. There are lots of parents who are busy dropping off their kids and they don’t always have time to drive slowly and carefully. I understand that many of the parents are running late and its too difficult to talk on the phone, apply makeup, shave, and eat a breakfast sandwich AND DRIVE CAREFULLY!

Santa everyone tells me that they are broke. Everyone says that they can’t afford to get me a sidewalk. Can you bring me a sidewalk Santa? I’ll leave you the good cookies and the really big glass of milk!

GPS

 

You have no doubt used it. No doubt wondered how you got along without it. It has guided you to a party out of town and has never been wrong. Some may consider it essential when life gets crazy and you find yourself running around getting everything on your list done. No, I am not talking about the old school Thomas Guide. I am talking about the GPS. You know, the Girly Pointing System, aka your wife or girlfriend.

8 Things to make Glendale Safe for driving (& living)

So if you remember, last week I wrote about how Glendale is listed in the Worst Drivers in America as number 3. I asked what can we do to make our city a safer place for driving? Here are some of my thoughts.

1. Make Driver Education a mandatory class. Glendale Unified School District can apply for defense department grants and claim the need for money to pay for this under National Security.

2. GDMV (Glendale Department of Motor Vehicle) – Lets start our own GDMV and issue driver license. Lets make it safer by making it tougher.

3. Civil Suits – I’m no lawyer but I say that the city sues the car dealers and manufactures. Lets not sell over powered cars to people who can’t drive them safely. If the car companies and dealers learn that they will be held responsible for the people who buy them then they might think twice about selling them to anyone.

4. Raise the driving age to 21 in Glendale. – Why not? If you can make it illegal to purchase alcohol until you are 21 why not make it illegal to drive a car until you are 21?

5. Improve Public Transportation – Glendale (and everywhere else in Los Angeles) needs better Public Transportation. If people could get around town easier without a car they wouldn’t drive so much. Less driving equals safer roads.

6. Crossing Guards at all Schools! – Yes I know it’s crazy but really. How much do crossing guards cost? I’m thinking they can’t be a really big ticket item but yet they can save lives every day! So come on, lets

7. Sidewalks – Do you know that there are some neighborhoods near schools that don’t have sidewalks? This requires children to walk in the road on their way to school and home again? Let’s make sure that every neighborhood within 5 miles of every public school has a sidewalk!

8. Car Tax! – Lets make a crazy high tax for everyone who owns a car and stores it within the city of Glendale. The city can own a huge parking lot on the edge of town and with all that money from the car tax they can pay for a public transportation system to get people to the public lot. Maybe the Car Tax can help pay for the sidewalks, the crossing guards, etc.

 

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