u/Kelcak

Normally I take my daughter to play at the McCambridge park playground, but I decided to change it up recently and visit the playground at George Izay instead…I was shocked to find only ~4 kids playing vs the ~21+ that I usually find at McCambridge! We often go to George Izay for dance class and the park seems busy enough at those times so what gives?

Well, I was looking at city zoning maps and I think the answer is density! There’s a lot more dense housing within 1/4 mile of McCambridge which means there’s way more people living within walking distance. More people + normal chances of having children + an easy little walk = more people popping in randomly whenever they want to play.

But George Izay has WAY less dense housing even within 1/2 mile! So people only really go there when there’s a big event drawing them such a dance class, softball game, etc. this leads to the park being busy sometimes, and a ghost town at other times.

We deserve the ability to live within easy walking distance of things like parks, the doctors office, grocery stores, restaurants, etc so that we get to have the OPTION of not dealing with the hassle of driving, getting stuck in traffic, finding parking, paying for parking, and all that stuff! And when we’re not already within walking distance of those destinations then being within walking distance of great public transit which stops at those locations is a great way to bridge the gap!

The North Hollywood to Pasadena BRT will do exactly that by stopping at key locations like George Izay Park, St Joseph’s hospital, the Buena Vista Medical Center, the Downtown Area, and key employers like WB. So building dense housing by the BRT stops is a great way for us to give future residents the OPTION of getting to all those locations without forcing them to use a car. If you agree then use this link from Strong Towns Burbank to send an email to city council before their vote on the 20th: https://mailchi.mp/strongtownsburbank/brt-and-sb79