Mission Statement

By Jesse L. Byers

An overview of my beliefs and goals.

But changes is needed. It is needed before our quiet, family neighborhoods are overrun with McMansions. It is needed before we end up with an airport that rivals LAX. It is needed before Burbank is a city we can no longer call home.

There are certain simple steps we can take to ensure that Burbank stays home. It begins with the upcoming election. The council has become stagnant and lax in their efforts to serve Burbank and her citizens. They’ve done little to ensure the sanctity of this beautiful city. The change begins with your vote.

If elected, I will work to implement a Master Plan agreement with the airport. Such a plan under my guidelines would eradicate any possibility of expansion of the airport.

While we’ve all feared for a long time the possibility of an expansion up to twenty-seven gates, that reality is fast approaching. The council and the airport have utilized trick wording and confusing legalities to avoid ruling out an expansion. But the matter of Measure B is a simple one. If there’s to be an expansion we as citizens must vote on it. I’ll go one better—I will work to adopt a simple and straightforward resolution that prohibits any and all expansion of the airport.

In our downtown and business community, I will work to see that the lifeblood of this city remains the small, family-run companies that gave birth to American values, the values we still hold here in Burbank.

While it’s true that the Targets, Best Buys, Barnes & Nobles all provide immense economic boons to the community, we tend to think of big box retailers as immune to economic hardships. But we cannot forget that companies like K-Mart are bankrupt and American staples such as Montgomery Ward simply don’t exist anymore. Brand names come and go, giant corporations vanish everyday. When that happens we’re left with vast, empty buildings lining our streets, gaping holes in our city, sucking wounds in our community. Sometimes these boons to our economy become nothing more than urban blight. Sometimes they become siphons on our tax dollars.

If elected, I promise to find a stable balance between small business and superstores in Burbank. We cannot rely or become dependent on one or the other and a strong, healthy medium creates a vital economy and a thriving community. My election would ensure that your tax dollars go back to the economy and the community, not become handouts to multimillion dollar corporate investments that litter our downtown, hinder our economy and stomp on American values, doing more harm than good.

I spoke earlier of our neighborhoods. I live here, so do you. There’s a reason for that. We want to live in a city where we feel safe to walk down the street. Where we feel good about raising a family. We want a place to live where we feel at home. Part of that is being able to afford it.

The cost of living in Burbank is astronomical and rising everyday. One bedroom apartments run upwards of $1800 per month. Condos go for over $500 thousand. Two bedroom houses as much as $1 million! The fact is, with today’s economy, the average family cannot afford that. A single person starting out in the world cannot afford that. A struggling young family cannot afford to live here. You shouldn’t have to live in a terrible neighborhood or a dirty urban city simply because you aren’t rich.

Burbank was built on family values and I mean to keep it that way. Rent control is a legal impossibility, but there are other legal means to keep rent costs down. There are ways we can help citizens find and keep affordable housing. Most of all, the city can’t be responsible for the increased cost of housing. There were, at one time, affordable apartments on Grismer. The city, through imminent domain, claimed the property and raised the rent. A lot of people cannot live there now. They can’t afford it. Acts such as these tarnish the glory of this city. If elected, I won’t let it happen.

Burbank is a wonderful city, a wonderful place to live. But if we don’t begin now, if we don’t start our work now, it won’t always be.

We start by making a change in our city council.

We start by making our voices heard.

I hope to make a change for the future of Burbank. A change that exhibits not the unappealing, overcrowded, polluted metropolis some would have us become. The change I can make reflects the bygone glory of old America, of the real Burbank. The wonder of the city we moved to, the beauty of the city we want to stay in.

This change also prepares Burbank for the future.

Together, we can make Burbank great again. I can speak for her citizens and always fight the good fight, the fight for our values and our concerns. But I can’t do it alone. I need your support. I need your vote. I need you to believe in me the way I believe in all of you, the way I believe in Burbank.

Jesse L. Byers