Project Kickoff: Glendale Narrows Riverwalk

A NEW RIVER project just around the bend from North Atwater Village kicks off tonight with a community meeting.

LA River: Glendale Narrows Riverwalk
Community Meeting
Thursday, Feb. 18, 7:00pm
Pacific Community Center
501 S. Pacific Ave., Glendale

Design of Phase I of the Riverwalk is underway, with construction scheduled to begin late 2010. Highlights of Phase I include:

• Half-mile recreational trail for pedestrians and bicyclists.
• Half-acre pocket park at the west entry of the LA River at Paula Avenue and Garden
• Street with parking for 6 cars
• Equestrian staging area open to the neighborhood
• Equestrian ramp that will provide access from the parking area to the trail
• Staging area in the park for pedestrians and bicyclists
• Picnic and recreational area east of the I-5 crossing
• Entry trail head at Flower Street

Thursday: Jackson Burial Takes Over South Glendale

View Street Closures for Michael Jackson Burial Service in a larger map

THIS THURSDAY watch for swarms of media vehicles around Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, just across the tracks from Atwater Village. The private burial service for Michael Jackson is September 3, 2009, 7:00pm.

• Media parking: 1600 and 1700 block of S. Glendale Avenue
• Crew parking: 1400 to 1600 blocks of S. Glendale Avenue
• Media camp: Cerritos Park (restrooms, tables, rest area)
• Streets closed: Laurel, Eulalia and Cerritos (except for school dropoff) between Brand and Glendale

Assume afternoon and evening backups along surrounding streets like San Fernando Road and Brand Boulevard. So, fellow Atwater Villagers, you may need to find another Thursday commute home.

Send in the Christmas Cows!

LAST NIGHT'S performance of Charles Phoenix' Moonlight Rollerway Holiday Jubilee may have been the best 3 hours of Christmas-related fun we could have without standing directly under mistletoe. Get tickets to today's 3:00 p.m. matinee, even though it's standing-room only ($20 at the box office, 5110 San Fernando Road). You'll get to see the shockingly retro Americana slide show, and a holiday extravaganza that includes Christmas cows and, for reasons you have to see to believe, a bottle of tequila on roller skates.

Toonerville Gang: No Chevy Chase Park After 10 PM

THIS WEEK'S lawsuit from Los Angeles and Glendale, the cities' first joint injunction against Toonerville gang members, includes a city park ban. From the Glendale News-Press: "They would also be barred from Chevy Chase and Palmer parks, and be placed under a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily curfew with few exceptions. Those found to be in violation of the order would be subject to immediate arrest and prosecution, officials said." I'm sure North Atwater Village families will be pleased to know they only have to wait till 3 or 4 hours past sunset each night to let their kids play safely in Chevy Chase Park. (UPDATE: Scott notes that the park ban as worded may be 24/7.) Complete coverage: Lawsuit targets Toonerville gang [Glendale News-Press] Gang Injunction To Be Filed Against Toonerville [Tropico Station] Gang Injunction To Be Filed Against Toonerville in North Atwater Village [Atwater Village News]

Life Costs Less Just Across the Tracks in Glendale

THE HIGH COST OF living in the Big City, from a report on LA City Council's vote to raise trash rates to $36/month: Atwater Village resident Dennis Keene said the council is ignoring the cumulative effect of fees, charges and taxes. Keene said he paid $639 last year in city charges on his cell phone, land-line phone, cable, natural gas, sewer service, trash collection and electric bills. The trash-fee increase will add $350 a year, he said, for a total more than the $674 he pays in property tax for the duplex he bought in 1972. The City of Glendale, just a stroll away, collects trash and recycling for as little as $16.96/month.

Convicted: Metrolink Murderer Could Face Death Penalty

Metrolink Derailment Monument, originally uploaded by Atwater Village Newbie.

ON THE BORDER of Glendale and Atwater Village, a jury said yesterday, Juan Manuel Alvarez triggered the deadliest Metrolink train crash in history. He parked his gasoline-soaked SUV near the Chevy Chase Drive rail crossing, January 26, 2005, injuring 180 and killing 11. Man convicted of 11 counts of murder in 2005 Metrolink crash [LA Times]

7 Things Caruso Could Learn from Disney

MANY TIMES (like here and here and here) I’ve read this appraisal of Rick Caruso's new shopping extravaganza, The Americana at Brand: "It wasn't Vegas that came to mind when I set foot in the Americana. It was Disneyland." As basis for real-life comparison -- and for other reasons better left unnamed -- I visited Disneyland (4 times) and the Americana (4 times) in the last month. And I must conclude, the Glendale mall is most certainly not the Anaheim theme park. But if Caruso did want to be more Disney, here are 7 things the Americana could try: Gateways. Have one. Or two. Don't just jam people in from Glendale’s crosswalks and those overstuffed parking elevators. Ever see the jigs pedestrians have to dance to avoid knocking skulls in front of H&M? Crowd Flow. Get some. By the time they survive the square dance, shoppers are walking too hard to look at window displays. I wouldn’t want to pay rent on any slot between the entrance gauntlets and the central lawn. Planter Boxes. Level them. Flowers and soil don't do well on slopes. (Even if it never rains.) They look like an afterthought. Finished walls. You know those empty spaces above Katsuya? Do something with them. Theme them with whatever “Americana” is. They look like the architects went home early. Ground cover that isn't sod. Or just put the grass where people don’t want to walk. Unless it's more fun to keep replacing it. And replacing it. Rights to replicate the Eiffel Tower. Get some. If for no other reason than to avoid having a publicist call it a "top spire ... not intended as any kind of recreation of any other tower.” Flexible hours. On weekends the Americana gets hopping at 10:00pm, just as retailers close. Missed opportunity. Is it a Glendale ordinance? Shop managers' preference? One would think Caruso influence could change that. On the other hand, there are at least 3 things Disney could learn from Caruso: Bathroom Attendants. A dollar for a spotless restroom? Sold. Condos. Who wouldn't want to live in Cinderella's Castle? Coffee. Let in the chain-store baristas already!

Americana's Late Night Fireworks Not Just for Glendale

Americana Fireworks, 11:15pm, originally uploaded by Atwater Village Newbie.

ATWATER VILLAGE at 11:15pm tonight got an earful of the "private" fireworks show at the Americana at Brand shopping center, 2 miles away in Glendale. The neighborhood letter promised "fireworks and musical performances staged between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m." It seems the staging has slipped a couple of hours. And so close to this weekend's grand opening! In their Disneyfication of the California shopping experience, I hope the Americana people soon realize that even Disneyland tries to wrap up the exploding light shows by 10:00pm.

Glendale Target Needs to Stop Asking for Receipts

Former Robinsons-May, now a Target, originally uploaded by Tortuga One.

COSTCO CAN ASK FOR for your receipt on the way out the door because Costco is a membership retailer. As a Costco member, you agree to the paper pat-down. The Target store in Glendale Galleria, on the other hand, is not a membership store. Anyone can shop there. But Target still posts guards to check receipts at the exits. How it went down today: Rent-a-cop: "May I see your receipt, sir?" Me: "I don't have to show it." Rent-a-cop, pointing to my 35-pound tub of cat litter: "If it's not in a bag, I need to see your receipt." Me: "This isn't a membership-based retailer." Rent-a-cop, figuring no one's stealing a 35-pound tub of cat litter: "OK, you can go." There's no reason to put up with it, fellow Target shoppers. A New Mexico Walmart ceased its receipt-checking practice when one of their customers complained. And, truthfully, I don't think the Glendale guard's heart was in it. Maybe he knows deep down that no one has to comply.

Sing a Song of Suburbs

SOMETIMES OUR FRIENDS across the tracks in Glendale get a bad rap. And sometimes they (or streets named after them) get mentioned in rap. Or rock. Or R&B. You be the judge: Beastie Boys - Do It Glendale Boulevard Boulevard Glendale Boulevard is where I'm at It's where I'm at, Where I live Check it out because my head is like a siv Beck - Debra I pick you up late at night after work I said "lady, step inside my Hyundai" I'm gonna take you up to Glendale Gonna take you for a real good meal Bright Eyes - Cleanse Song On a detox loft through a Glendale park over sidewalk chalk Someone wrote in red, "start over" So I muffled my scream on an Oxnard beach Full of fever dreams that scare you sober I found only three solid examples. Surely others have immortalized the suburb that brings us both Porto's Bakery and Brand Bookshop.

The Great Glendale Takeover of 2007

FROM WHAT HAS BEEN hailed as the best restaurant mapping thingy ever, comes this breaking news. Urbanspoon maps show that former northeast Los Angeles neighborhood Atwater Village has been claimed in a hostile takeover by the adjacent city of Glendale. More than 80 years after the failed Tropico-LA-Glendale Mega-Merger, this new foodie invasion is leaving a suburban aftertaste in the mouths of Atwater Village residents. Asia Los Feliz, previously named for a neighborhood on the other side of Atwater Village, could be redubbed Asia Glendale, immediately losing cred with anyone under age 50 Tam O'Shanter Inn, formerly the 3rd most popular restaurant in Atwater Village, is now the 4th most popular restaurant in Glendale Canele, to maintain its media darling status, must now attempt to impress those hard-asses at the Glendale News Press I guess despite how the mayor of Los Angeles corrected him on the air, FOX11 reporter Rick Lozano was right all along.

Americana at Brand Not Yet Looking Too Grove-y

The Americana at Brand shopping, living, life-changing, universe-altering center - also known as The Grove East - is trudging along toward its 2008 opening. No telling which of these dirt piles will house H&M. UPDATE: Curbed LA graciously mentions my photo safari; I added five more images shot atop Glendale Galleria parking to my Americana Flickr set. Americana at Brand and the Piles of Dirt [Curbed LA] Americana at Brand: On Schedule and Loaded [Curbed LA]

'Mega' Housing On Other Side of the Tracks

While neighborhood worry-warts snivel and survey about a proposed 90-unit "mega" housing development in Atwater Village, a 44-unit "workforce" housing project - on the other side of the tracks in Glendale - is nearly complete. The City of Glendale released a list (PDF) of 700 eligible renters - from more than 13,000 lottery applicants - for apartments in the Metropolitan City Lights project. And a walk around the property this weekend shows it might be only a few more months before move-in. Find these green, gray and yellow boxes on Gardena Ave., overlooking where Los Angeles and Glendale meet, where Glendale Blvd. becomes Brand Blvd., just east of the railroad tracks.

FOX11 Learns Where LA Ends, Glendale Begins

This morning on FOX11's journalistically iffy Good Day LA, ace reporter slash community activist Rick Lozano got schooled in Los Angeles geography. From the mayor, no less.

Lozano's holiday charity "Toys for Tots" segment began at a Toys R Us location in, the TV caption said, Glendale. Problem is, Glendale doesn't have a Toys R Us. The store is at 2901 Los Feliz Blvd., in Atwater Village, in the city of Los Angeles.

Banter between Rick and the mental zeroes back in the studio posited that this remote locale might actually be "on the border" of LA and Glendale but, no matter, there were needy ethnic kids to exploit.

After a flurry of speculation over the future of Donald Trump's misbehaving Miss USA, another Toys for Tots segment started.

Again, it had the Glendale caption. But this time it had a special guest who was certainly not from Glendale.

Lozano spilled the beans. We've been debating, he told Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, what city we're actually in, that we might be on the border of Los Angeles and Glendale.

No, said the major of LA, this is "most definitely" LA.

By the end of the segment, no more than 30 seconds later, the caption across the bottom of FOX11's broadcast had changed from Glendale to Los Angeles.