June
19 City Council Agenda Item:
No More Diesel Buses In Beverly Hills, Please!
An
Open Letter to the Mayor and City Council
regarding Diesel Buses and the Beverly Hills Council’s
June 19 Agenda, Item 26, page 10.
To:
The Mayor & Members of the Beverly Hills City Council
Please
do not approve the proposal [Amending Resolution # 99-R-10070] to place
an additional three diesel tour buses adjacent to the residential
area of Beverly Hills. Although also directly across from City Hall,
which may have well filtered, central air conditioning and back-up
generators for blackout periods, the rest of us are not so fortunate.
The
EPA, California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality
Management District have all found particulates from diesel powered
buses to be injurious to health. Increases in childhood asthma
and adverse impacts on the elderly are attributed, in part, to
diesel emissions.
Today’s
(6/18/01) L.A.Times Health Section, page 4, has an article entitled “Risk
of Heart Attacks Linked to Air Pollution.” From the 6/12/01
edition of “Circulation:
Journal of the American Heart Association, ” a recent study found a
50% increased risk of heart attacks in the two hours following exposure
to high levels of fine particulates.
It
is time for you to give greater consideration to those who elected you
rather than to tour bus operators.
There
are other reasons to deny the proposal before you: Removing two
parking spaces in proximity to where residents line up in their cars
to deposit their mail, is a disservice to the community.
Depositing
our mail in the Industrial Area at 3rd & Maple is both inconvenient
and generates additional pollution in that largely residential area.
Not
only is parking scarce during the daytime there, now the early evening
finds limos taking up the parking spaces in front of the Maple P.O.
(They are awaiting beepers and cell phones informing them of when their
clients would like to be picked up at Maple Drive restaurant or at the
nearby hotel on Burton Way.)
Additionally,
by approving such an ill-considered proposal you will be obliterating
yet another view of Beverly Hills most magnificent, historic,
Crescent Drive Post Office. You have already blocked the view of it from
Upper Santa Monica Blvd. by parking the City’s shuttle buses there.
These vehicles should be relocated to the Industrial Area.
Please,
reject the proposal before you. And, at your next Council
meeting, please have staff provide you with data regarding diesel
emissions generated by tour buses in Beverly Hills. Part of that report
might include alternative transportation modes. Natural gas or electric
fueled vans come to mind.
Sincerely,
Ellen Stern Harris
Fund for the Environment |
