Community Commentary:

Albert Hofmann’s Community Commentary on the 710 Freeway (“710 extension would have its advantages,” June 13) is an excellent analysis of a problem that the Glendale community, as well as all of the surrounding communities, have endured for years because of the self-serving interests of what appears to be a majority of the residents of South Pasadena. I have always been amazed that the city of South Pasadena could stop the completion of a portion of a state freeway system that affects not just intra-state commerce, but also inter-state commerce. In my opinion, it is about time for both the federal and state governments to step in and say “enough already” to South Pasadena residents.

Where would Southern California, or for that matter the entire nation, be if one community in an urban area could stop the construction of an inter-state or intra-state freeway. I would suspect that if the nation had just started to build the freeway system in the 21st century, by 2020 we would not have a freeway system at all, but a hodgepodge of completed freeways, with some stretches of freeway the length of the current gap in the 710 Freeway.

I have lived in Glendale, but worked in Pasadena, for 28 years. Because of the gap in the 710 Freeway, in order to get to Long Beach, or anywhere between Pasadena and Long Beach from my office, I get on the 210 west to the 710 south to where it ends, and then take surface streets through Pasadena to the 110. I then head down the 110 Freeway to the 5, contend with the congestion on the 5, get on the 10, and then get back on the 710 south. I then have to repeat this process coming back to my office.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that because of the gap in the 710 Freeway, each trip involved the use of more time and fuel, as well as caused more pollution to the west of South Pasadena, which because of the prevailing winds would then pass over South Pasadena. Likewise, as Hofmann observed, if I had used the surface streets from where the 710 Freeway ends in Pasadena, and where it again starts in Alhambra, each trip would cause the use of more time and fuel from the stop-and-go driving through South Pasadena, as well as cause more pollution. The completion of this gap in the 710 Freeway would save time and fuel, as well as reduce the pollution in South Pasadena and the communities to the east.