Thoughts on Glendale

Tomorrow I've been asked to participate in some sort of interview with the firm working on Glendale's "brand development and marketing strategic plan". I've been thinking about my relationship to Glendale recently because my work situation is in flux. I hope to be back at my office in downtown Glendale soon, but if I'm not working in Glendale, why am I here? I've been here for three years. What is my relationship to this strange place? There are lots of things I like about Glendale and some that I don't. I've been pondering this for a few days and even considered fleeing in the general direction of Sunset and Vermont. To prepare for the interview I started brainstorming from the prompt "where has Glendale been, where is Glendale now, and where you would like Glendale to be in the future".

historical: negative associations

ultra-white, racist

historical: positive associations

red car link to downtown LA, eagle rock, burbank

small town downtown feel

semi-rural, agricultural

link to golden age of aviation

present: bad

schizophrenic mix of conservative and gaudy

unimaginative, bland, small-minded

nanny-state, over-regulated HOA mentality

soulless retail

eurotrashy conspicuous consumption (MINX)

those fucking frogs

lack of distinctive art/music scene

pedestrian holocaust

present: good

walkable, well-kept downtown

proximity to downtown, atwater, silver lake, los feliz, hollywood, eagle rock, pasadena

safe

good restaurants

wildly diverse (my zip code is 62% foreign born, fairly evenly distributed between armenian, mexican/latin american, filipino, and korean)

beautiful historic neighborhoods

mountainous, good hiking, also close to Griffith

beyond the Galleria and Americana, interesting independent businesses. off the top of my head: Damon's, El Morfi, Kozy Korner, Elena's , Brand Bookshop/Mystery and Imagination, Porto's, Jax, Urartu, Angela's Bistro, Ranch Market, Palate

where I'd like Glendale to go:

truly pedestrian and bike friendly

more open-minded, supportive of art and individuality

negative trends:

A Noise Within fleeing as fast as they can

rampant downtown retail vacancies, especially the feng-shui sucking death star that was Mervyn's

positive trends:

museum of neon art moving downtown (and already looking good with some nice window displays)

Laura Friedman on council

Goodwill moving to Brand/California

forthcoming update of bike master plan