Election Results Coming Today

Should have clearer results in the city council election tonight. From the Glendale City Clerk:

The following events will take place at the Election Center, located at 131 N. Isabel in the GPD Community Room, and are open to the public:

9:00 am - The post-election day Canvassing of Vote-by-Mail ballots and Provisional ballots (opening the returned vote-by-mail and provisional ballot envelopes, removing the ballots, accurately duplicating any damaged or defective ballots, and preparing the ballots for the ballot count) will commence.

11:00 am - The City Clerk or his designee, will review all Provisional envelopes which have been rejected for deficiencies by the City Clerk.

2:00 pm The post-election count of the 2nd batch of Vote-by-Mail ballots and Provisional ballots will commence.

Weird McDonalds

After a debate with my girlfriend on whether McNuggets were disgusting or delicious, I headed over to the McDonalds on Central and Milford to evaluate. (My verdict: they are both disgusting and delicious, especially when dipped in lots of barbecue sauce.)

While there, these large displays caught my eye:

Why, why, why are these creepy mannequins there!? This is not part of Glendale's recent "put art in vacant storefronts" Gate Project. What do they mean? Why are they so intentionally grotesque? Is it some sort of warning about the dangers of fast food? Is the mustachioed fellow supposed to be Groucho Marx or just an Armenian dude? Why does Ronald appear to be threatening him?

As I finished my gross yet satisfying meal, an elderly couple came over and sat uncomfortably close to me. They sat so close that I couldn't laugh without them seeing me, so I started transcribing their conversation on my phone to prevent myself from cracking up. Here are some overheard snippets of conversation:

old guy, to wife: "this is a handicap spot. you dont walk like a handicap. I'm gonna hit you with my cane"

old guy: "there ain't that many nuts. he made a big deal about the nuts. just like an oriental, always getting too detailed"

old guy: "I remember how beautiful America used to be at one time? now you can't tell the men from the women!"

wife: "you blame everything on the queers!"

old guy: "no I don't, just what they're tryin to get! they got some people feeling sorry for them! that singer you like, he's one!"

wife: "dont you say anything about Clay Aiken, he's my adopted son!"

I broke up in laughter at the Clay Aiken line and made a hasty retreat. So long, McDonalds. See you in two years when I have another inexplicable barbecue sauce craving.

The Spirit of CicLAvia

My favorite of the many photos I took at CicLAvia this past Sunday. What a marvelous event.

Armed Jerk Magnets

My proposed solution to the intimidation of fans at Dodger Stadium:

Plant undercover cops wearing the opposing team's apparel throughout the stadium. Armed jerk magnets! Start tazing and arresting those who make threats on the Jumbotron to amusing organ music. It would have the added benefit of being much more exciting than the actual game.

City Council Election Results On April 14th

From the Office of the City Clerk:

Because of the close results, the City Clerk will begin the aforementioned preparations of counting all remaining ballots on Thursday April 14, 2011 at 9 a.m. This process will occur at the Election Center located 131 Isabel St. in the Police Department’s Community Room. Public viewing will be allowed for the preparations, processing and eventual count of the remaining ballots. Results are expected to be announced the same day.

Garden Bandit Menaces South Glendale

Spotted on Maple, just east of Chevy Chase by Jen:

The sign says:-

"To Glendale and my neighbors:

I am sorry, but I can no longer keep my garden beautiful for you. Someone has been stealing plants right from the front of my home. The only clue I have is that a man was seen leaving my property around 4AM. Please watch for him to keep the rest of the neighborhood safe. Because of this, I will be moving many of my plants away from the front.

This makes me sad because I cannot make Glendale more beautiful. It's all I ever wanted from my garden."

In addition to this sad case, my neighbor Cassandra just had a concrete decorative lion stolen from her front porch. What the hell, Glendale?

State of the City Video Report

Also works well if you lower the sound and watch simultaneously with Metallica's "Orion." (Click play on both videos as quickly as you can, and I've already set Metallica to start playing at 1:36)

3153 Votes Remain to Be Counted

From the City Clerk:

Glendale voted on April 5, 2011

The posted figures are the unofficial results of the April 5, 2011 Glendale Municipal Election after the closing of polls. There remain 3153 ballots to be processed which include Vote by Mail (VBM) and provisional ballots. Processing these ballots includes verification of signatures with County Registrar/Recorder records, duplication, and the review of disqualifying requirements of a ballot per the California Elections Code. Following verification, the qualifying ballots will be counted subsequent to the reconciliation of the voting records for Election Day per the California Elections Code.

All results are unofficial until they are certified by the City Clerk and presented to the City Council on April 18, 2011.

For questions, please call 818.548.4000.

City Council Election Results...Mostly

Manoukian, Weaver, Drayman. In that order. For now. Only 162 votes separate #1 candidate Rafi Manoukian and #3 John Drayman, and only 27 votes separate #3 Drayman from #2 Dave Weaver...and a council seat. However, according to the Glendale News-Press, "roughly 3,000 ballots are still uncounted, including provisional and mail-ins that were turned in at the polls." With that many votes remaining to be processed, any outcome is still possible.

The unofficial results as of last night:

8968 Rafi Manoukian
8833 Dave Weaver
8806 John Drayman
6598 Chahe Keuroghelian
1760 Mike Mohill
1467 Garen Mailyan

Precinct by precinct vote counts are available via this neat interactive gadget here:
http://134.173.236.112/glendale/

Having looked at the precinct-by-precinct counts, it appears that voting broke along predictable ethnic and geographical lines, though Manoukian did fairly well everywhere.

In a nutshell:

• Manoukian and Keuroghelian dominated south of the 134
• Weaver and Drayman dominated north of the 134, with middling support in South Glendale, and strong support in Adams Hill
• In addition to dominating south Glendale, Manoukian did very well with absentees, fairly well in North Glendale (though behind Drayman/Weaver) and even had a fair amount of support in Crescenta Valley
• Overall, Weaver did better in South Glendale than Drayman, slightly better in absentee voting, though Drayman's strong appeal north of GCC was enough to make up the difference and bring him to within a few votes

The full results are worth exploring here.

It'll take a while for every vote to be accounted for, so stay tuned. Two council seats are still up in the air.

Previously:
Our Big Fat Gay Election

Our Big Fat Election

It's election day in Glendale! Here is my long overdue City Council election post.

The candidates for City Council are:

• Dave Weaver (incumbent)
• Garen Mailyan
• Rafi Manoukian
• Mike Mohill
• Chahe Keuroghelian
• John Drayman (incumbent)

The very serious charges of battery brought against fired former Glendale PD spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian in 2000 deny him any consideration in my book, and if those didn't disqualify him, the immigration fraud charges in 2001 should.

Garen Mailyan has no experience and his only platform is running for Jesus and Anglo-Armenian relations, so he's out.

The fact that Mike Mohill is a "happily married to a woman" gay man makes him a much more sympathetic and complex character than I would have thought previously, and I now like him six times more than before.

Unfortunately, six times zero is still zero. Anyone who has ever endured a grueling, non-consensual conversation with Mike Mohill -- and I have endured several -- knows that it would be impossible for him to work effectively on Glendale's behalf, or on behalf of anything other than the sound of his own voice.

On to John Drayman. In the absence of concrete evidence of wrongdoing in the ADI issue, Drayman's record on the council of bringing development downtown, bicycle/pedestrian issues, historic preservation, arts-related projects, the Museum of Neon Art and his sincere dedication to his hometown of Glendale speak for themselves. In my personal experience (dating to before I had this blog or any larger public voice) John Drayman has been very engaged and responsive to constituent issues. He has my vote.

Dave Weaver...I'm not so sure. I believe Weaver always votes for what he believes is right, but we have very, very different ideas about what an ideal Glendale would look like. His vote against the Laemmle Theater complex at Maryland/Wilson over unrealistic parking concerns is one example.

I was not living in Glendale during Rafi Manoukian's previous two terms as a councilman, but in my research, I couldn't find any substantial dirt on him. That's something! Unless someone can convince me otherwise (and feel free to e-mail me personally and off the record if you'd like), I'm voting for Manoukian over Weaver.

For Board of Education, I'm voting Ingrid Gunnell and Mary Boger. Nayiri Nahabedian is disqualified for me due to the relentless negative mailers I received from her during her campaign against Mike Gatto for Assembly. Ugh. Out of my mailbox, mean lady.

Get out there and vote!

Glendale City Clerk on Twitter: @cogCityClerk
Find your polling place
Official City of Glendale Voting Information

Glendale News-Press School Board/Community College Board Endorsements
GNP City Council Candidate Interviews

Other takes on the election:
Burbank Blog
Daily News

Glendale Election Information

Glendale City Clerk on Twitter: @cogCityClerk
Find your polling place
Official City of Glendale Voting Information

Glendale News-Press School Board/Community College Board Endorsements
GNP City Council Candidate Interviews

My take is here.

Other takes on the election:
Burbank Blog
Daily New

Follow @tropicostation On Twitter!

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If you see something interesting and Glendale-specific, tag it with @tropicostation and I'll retweet it.

A Visual Primer on Caruso and the Golden Key

I put this together for my own amusement a few weeks ago and never got around to posting it. Mike at Franklin Avenue has nicely summed up my own sentiments about the whole Caruso-Golden Key mess: downtown Glendale is full of massive, empty retail spaces! Three-quarters of the intersection of Brand and Broadway is gaping, empty retail spaces! Much of the Americana is giant, empty retail spaces! The most prominent street-facing storefront at the Americana -- the long-promised Panini Cafe space at Brand and Colorado -- has been empty since the Americana opened!

6 months after the Americana opened, I called the management of the Panini Cafe chain to see if they were actually coming to the Americana, and they said the deal had fallen through. The space is still empty! And now we need a tacky, expensive hotel in place of the long-standing, unglamorous-but-tidy Golden Key?

Borders Glendale Officially Closing

Borders is filing for bankruptcy and will close approximately 30% of its stores, including the Glendale location at Brand and Broadway. With the recent closing of the Community Bank at the northeast corner and the closing of Mervyn's several years ago, this will leave the retail locations at Brand and Broadway, ostensibly the heart of downtown Glendale, three-quarters empty. Sorrows can be drowned at BJ's, the only remaining tenant at the intersection.

Images of Circuit City Site Project

Some imagery from the EIR of the "Broadway Lofts" project that is slated to replace the former Circuit City site at the intersection of Maryland and Broadway. Demolition of the Circuit City building is progressing at a rapid pace.




Environmental Impact Report

Article About the Groundbreaking Ceremony from the Glendale News Press

*I'm feeling uncharitable:




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Some Glendale PD Dirt

Woman has affair with cop, cop arrests her husband on fishy charges. Pretty seedy.

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/tn-gnp-lawsuit-20101217,0,3093746.story

Video of Monday's Robbery At Jewelry Mart

Less than subtle, but they're in and out in under 30 seconds. If you watch closely it appears that only one guy on the left side actually breached the case, everyone else is just smashing with hammers but the cases won't break. This was at about 1:30 on Monday at the Jewelry Mart at the corner of Brand and Wilson. 3 of the suspects have been caught, and police are still looking for the other 3.

Map of South Glendale Amenities Within Walking Distance

I have a friend who is considering a move to South Glendale, so I made her a personal map of my immediate neighborhood to illustrate some of the nearby amenities I make use of. One of the reasons I enjoy my neighborhood is because it is dense, urban, walkable and far removed from Glendale's reputation as a homogeneous suburbia.

Crazy Bird at Forest Lawn

I shot this video last week at Forest Lawn Glendale. According to the owners of the SUV (who were picnicking nearby) - the bird had been at it for HOURS.

Moonlight Rollerway in Gossip Music Video

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

Glendale Seeks Google

From Google:

Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

If you're sick of AT&T DSL and Charter Cable (and everyone I know is), you can help Glendale attract Google by nominating the city via Google's nomination form:

Nomination Form

Here are 9 reasons why Glendale is perfectly suitable for Google Fiber. You can find out more at Google4Glendale and join Google4Glendale on Facebook.

Mystery of the Ruins Solved!

I made a trip to the Glendale Central Library today to research the mysterious ruins in the Verdugos that I explored this weekend. I described the site to George in Special Collections and he quickly dug out a binder he thought might be useful. The binder was a treasure trove of photographs and documents relating to the city of Glendale's ill-fated Camp Clarence Edwards, built in 1933 and abandoned in 1938 due to frequent flooding.

Library: 1, Internet: 0.

Apologies for the image quality, I snapped these shots on my iPhone through protective plastic so there are some reflections.



From the Glendale News-Press, March 8th, 1938:

CAMP CLARENCE EDWARDS FACES ABANDONMENT BY CITY

Conceived during the depression years, maintained in a constant struggle with violent nature, Camp Clarence Edwards today faced abandonment by the city parks department. At a meeting of the city parks and recreation commission yesterday afternoon, J.T. Allen, parks superintendent, reported that the flood erosion damage at the camp had been extensive, that ordinary maintenance costs were excessive and that the area constituted an ever-present hazard.

Urges Investigation

While withholding definite recommendation in regard to the camp, Allen urged the commission to make a personal investigation of the property. No action was taken by the commission but members individually agreed to inspect the camp.

Started with the two-fold purpose of providing work for the unemployed and furnishing young people's organizations with a camping place, the camp was finally completed after expenditure of several thousands of dollars. Some of the money for the enterprise was furnished by the American Legion and the remainder by the city.

Named For Fire Victim

At impressive dedication ceremonies, the camp was named in memory of Clarence Edwards, Glendale resident who lost his life battling a fire sweeping the hills back of Glendale.
Despite the work of the CCC in soil erosion and flood control, each heavy storm has spread destruction, the flood of last Wednesday finally completing the havoc, according to Allen.
The problem, Allen told the commission, is an engineering one of providing adequate protection for residences at the mouth of the canyon.

Mysterious Ruins of the Verdugos*

This is what I hoped being on the board of the Glendale Historical Society would involve: exploring mysterious, unknown ruins in the local mountains.

Leading up to the mysterious site is a canyon with the foundations of three structures that were apparently washed out during the 1934 flood. This canyon leads to a debris catch basin. Around the other side of the catch basin, up another canyon, lie the stone foundations of a camp, approximately a dozen structures. At the center of the "camp" is a large flagpole with a concrete base.

View Mysterious Ruins in the Verdugos in a larger map
Unlike the very accessible Brand Cemetery, unless you are an experienced bushwhacker I can't recommend you explore the site yourself. It requires trespassing and avoiding rattlesnakes, bees, and dense thickets of poisonous sumac. Here are two rattlesnakes I had a close encounter with:


My best guess at the moment is that the site was a Civilian Conservation Corps camp - I believe they worked on the nearby catch basin, so that would make sense. The only thing that feels odd about that hypothesis is the permanence of the rock foundations - it feels overbuilt for a temporary camp, and I haven't found references to a CCC camp near Glendale other than in Griffith Park and Tuna Canyon. Perhaps a base for the Army Corps of Engineers working on nearby flood control projects? Or a private ranch? A Boy Scout Camp? If you have any ideas, let me know.*

*Update: Mystery solved (by research in an actual library). Camp Clarence Edwards, 1933-1938.

Glendale Looking For An Art Installation Consultant

This should help liven up some of the many vacant storefronts downtown. From the request for proposals:

"PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Glendale Redevelopment Agency (“Agency”) is requesting qualifications and
proposals from art installation consultant teams that can provide the following services:

• A. Coordinate and manage installation of art displays in vacant storefronts; and
• B. Coordinate and manage temporary art galleries using vacant tenancies."

*Armed Robbery Suspect CAUGHT At the Americana

**UPDATE: The suspect has been caught.

A police chase that started in Burbank ended just outside of Barnes and Noble at Orange and Colorado. Two suspects were taken into custody but one suspect escaped on foot towards the Americana's parking structure. Police have a perimeter around the Americana and are evacuating the area. The SWAT team has just arrived.

Live streaming video:

http://www.kpsplocal2.com/Content/CBS-Livefeed/default.aspx

More info.

*Update from Burbank Police interview on KCAL at 12:45pm: Everyone at the Americana is on lockdown. The police chase started after a liquor store robbery in Burbank. The suspect on the loose is the person who actually committed the robbery (with a handgun) and is also suspected in 5 other robberies in Burbank over the last few weeks.

The View From My Bedroom Window

Before, After

Caucasian Hot Delicacy

If I ever become a rapper, this will be my name:

Photo taken at the always excellent (and frequently amusing) Ranch Market on Central.

Vote Glendale Blogger America's Most Stylish

And it's definitely not me! Vote for Tiffany Tse, the Glendale fashionista who blogs at Style Sophisticate.

From the LAT's Image blog:

Tiffany Tse, an indie fashion blogger based in Glendale, is competing to be "America's Most Stylish Blogger" in a national contest sponsored by AOL lifestyle website Stylelist.com and online designer retailer Bluefly.com.

She's one of eight finalists in the competition -- in which Bluefly sends bloggers a mystery item of clothing every week to style as they see fit. The bloggers then post photos of their styled outfits and are judged by a panel of experts via video. But voting takes place online -- with America picking the weekly winners on Bluefly.