Annexation Opposed

Zev Yaroslavsky’s decision to continue pushing the annexation of Hillgreen Drive to Beverly Hills may be presented as a “safety” issue, but the facts speak for themselves.

Anyone who has looked at Hillgreen and considered the arguments of safety and accessibility must wonder why this street is so special compared with hundreds of other cul-de-sacs in the city. Perhaps the difference has to do with other issues altogether.

Hillgreen’s safety appears not to have bothered anyone until Twentieth Century-Fox began a major push for expansion.

The excuses for annexation and the reasons why it doesn’t make any sense become academic before the implication that this is one of those sweetheart deals that benefit a few at the expense of the public. Yaroslavsky can describe this as appropriate city business, but, as a wise politician (or perhaps it was a comedian) once said, probably with a knowing grin, “If it looks like a duck. . . .”

ALLAN RABINOWITZ

Los Angeles