BID TO CLOSE STREETS REJECTED NEIGHBORS OPPOSED AUTO DEALERS' PLAN.Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer GLENDALE - The City Council, acting in its role as the city's redevelopment agency, rejected a plan Tuesday to close three Glendale streets in order to expand car dealerships This article is about car dealerships. For the indie pop band, see Dealership (band). A car dealership or vehicle local distribution is a business that sells new cars and/or used cars at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or . In a 3-2 vote, the redevelopment agency left the dealers to explore more-creative ways to expand. Despite support for any financial windfall windfall An unexpected profit or gain. An investor holding a stock that increases greatly in price because of an unexpected takeover offer receives a windfall. from expansion of the dealerships - Glendale's primary source of sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. last year - the redevelopment agency could not justify the street closures when alternatives are available, Mayor Raffi Manoukian said. Glendale citizens agreed. ``Why should we have to spend our tax dollars so that the car dealerships can shut down our streets?'' asked Margaret Hammonds, a Glendale resident for more than 40 years. Dealerships along the Brand Boulevard of Cars have been pushing for Brand side streets to be closed to through traffic to make room for more parking and other expansions by the dealerships. The closures would have been at the intersection of East Elk Street and Brand Boulevard and where East and West Windsor West Windsor is the name of two places in the United States:
Residents who would have been affected by the street closures said heavy crosstown traffic Crosstown traffic refers primarily to vehicular traffic between Manhattan's East Side and Manhattan's West Side, the two areas being largely discontiguous due to Central Park. would have been funneled along the nearby through streets, and questioned why taxpayers should pay for the dealerships' private interests. Both residents and dealers spoke at a crowded City Hall on Tuesday. ``The street closure is an excellent way for us to expand our business,'' argued Pacific BMW BMW in full Bayerische Motoren Werke AG German automaker. Founded as an aircraft engine manufacturer in 1916, the company assumed the name Bayerische Motoren Werke and became known for its high-speed motorcycles in the 1920s. employee Mabel Paja at the meeting. ``We are in a competitive market and we need the street closure in order to expand,'' BMW's Vasiliki Mantas added. Mantas said dealerships in Alhambra and North Hollywood, which have more room to expand, have a huge advantage. ``The driving force behind these requests is competition,'' said Michael Hastings Michael Hastings may refer to:
Hastings explained that the dealerships' growth is also in the best interest of the city, because the dealerships bring so much business to Glendale. But Glendale business owner Ronald Williams Ronald Watkins Williams (18 July 1907 –14 March 1958) was a British Labour Party politician. He was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Wigan in a by-election in 1948, following the death in 1947 of sitting Labour MP William Foster. was firmly against the closures. ``If I want to expand my business I have to pay for property or build up,'' Williams said. Councilman Dave Weaver
The Weavers are small passerine birds related to the finches. These are seed-eating birds with rounded conical bills, most of which breed in sub-Saharan Africa, with fewer species in tropical disagreed, saying keeping the dealerships happy is essential to Glendale's economy. ``We cannot afford to lose the dealers - that's over $5 million a year to Glendale,'' Weaver said. Councilman Gus Gomez said he could not support a plan that would not benefit all the residents of Glendale. ``Given the amount of opposition that I've heard from the residents I am not persuaded to even close them temporarily,'' Gomez said. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion