Ugly wires

Dear Editor:What happened in the keep Downey beautiful concept that is so graciously advertised by the Keep Downey Beautiful committee and by the city? When we first moved to Downey 35 years ago, the front picturesque view of our house was great to look at. Only one small tension wire was visible across the front of our house and our neighbor's house. All other wires ran in the back of our houses. Then came the age of cable and the cable company installed an oversized bundle of cables spanning two house lots and then later added more cables to the bundle of cables. In addition to this they added two expansion loops which tripled the diameter of the cable bundle, making it look terrible. Preamplifier boxes are hung in the middle of the cable runs to give them more weight. Now that the cable is so heavy it droops and looks uglier than ever. Half of these cables are not even used now; they are cutoff at their ends. They could have routed these cables in the back of our houses. Then another cable company installed another cable at a higher elevation. This cable is used by others outside of Downey; it just passes through Downey. Then the Edison Company came by and installed high voltage wires at the tops of the poles in front of our yards. After that, another cable company installed a third set of cables to facilitate the school system in Downey. As a result of all that, the cable bundles look very ugly compared to the time when we bought our house. Now I understand that Verizon is in the process of installing still another fiber optic cable system for FIOS. At the time the very first cable was installed, I call the city maintenance manager and solicited my objection, not necessarily about the cable being installed but that fiber optic should have been installed underground at the very first time. Now, you might say it was not available at the time, but I was working in the industry at that time and installed miles and miles of fiber optic cable underground in a 640-acre industrial complex to connect various computer, audio and video connections. So, don't tell me it was not available. After looking at cables throughout Downey, I notice that all over the city, cables have brought ugliness to the city that could have been avoided. I suggest that the very least the city mandates that the many cable companies in Downey remove unused cables, tighten sagging cables, remove dangling wires, remove coiled cables and move preamplifier boxes closer to the poles. It would go a long way towards dressing up Downey. As a side issue, I have spotted the ugliest cell tower in Downey. At the corner of Alameda Street and Downey Avenue is the worst one of the bunch. I don't know why Downey does not have a standard for these cell towers. Many cities require cell companies to install fake palm trees as cell towers that are pleasing to the eye. -- Larry Drake, Downey

********** Published: October 28, 2010 - Volume 9 - Issue 28