🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 1 Sep 1996 09:42:35 GMT, tomklem@netcom.com (Tom Klemesrud)
wrote:

>BajaRat (BajaRat@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
>: MHigby@Primenet.com (Michael Higby) wrote:
>
>: > xenu@@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>: >
>: >>Dear alt.religion.scientology,
>: >
>: >>I promised to give you the names of the Los Angeles City Council.  I have
>: >>also included the e-mail addresses of 13 of the 15 who has e-mail access.
>: >
>: >>Please write to these councilmen and let them know how you feel about
>: >>renaming Berendo Street in Los Angeles after the late Federal Fugitive,
>: >>cult concentration camp creator and all around miserable tyrant L. Ron
>: >>Hubbard 

I am the chairman/organizer of a resident's/businessowners group
called the East Hollywood Community Association, an organization
devoted to improving the quality of life in the East Hollywod area, of
which Berendo street and the Scientology compound are located
geographically.

Our next meeting is next Monday (Sept 9) and we will be discussing
that matter. We have a few members who are residents of Berendo St
(though I don't know for sure whether their block would be affected by
a potential name change). But regardless, it would impact the whole
community. As a lifelong resident of the area (I am a former Berendo
St. resident myself; as a baby I lived right on Berendo St, in the
shadow of what was then the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, now the
Scientology compound - a little historical background here - Cedars of
Lebanon eventually moved west and moved in with Mt. Sinai hospital at
a new medical center adjacent to Beverly Hills. One of the main
reasons why Cedars left was that it was too expensive to seismically
retrofit the old Hollywood hospital after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake -
that was also the main reason why Kaiser Permanente did not purchase
the old Cedars property).

As an area resident, though I thoroughly disagree with Scientology's
theology, I intend no malice on their organization's followers, but I
honestly believe that to change the name of a street is extremely rude
and disrespectful of the area's history and the non-Scientologists who
live in the community. I welcome their willingness to relatively
co-exist with the other residents in the area, who are primarily
Armenian, Latino and Filipino, but renaming the street "L. Ron Hubbard
Way" is pushing it way too far. Even the name itself, "L. Ron Hubbard
WAY" seems to suggest some kind of adherence to the organization's
beliefs ("L. Ron Hubbard Drive" or "L. Ron Hubbard Ave." seems
obviously less insincere, for the sake of argument). But "Berendo
Street" is the way it was, is and always should be.

Elson