- For the community in Humboldt County, see
Glendale, Humboldt County,
California
.
Glendale ( ) is a city in
Los Angeles County,
California
, United
States
. It lies at the eastern end of the San Fernando
Valley
, is bisected by the Verdugo Mountains
, and is a suburb in the
Greater Los Angeles
Area. The city is bordered to the northwest by the
Tujunga
neighborhood of Los Angeles
; to the northeast by La Cañada
Flintridge
and the unincorporated area of La
Crescenta
; to the west by Burbank
; to the east by Pasadena
; to the southwest by the Atwater
Village
neighborhood of Los Angeles; and to the southeast
by the Eagle Rock
and Glassell
Park
neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The
Golden State,
Ventura,
Glendale, and
Foothill freeways
run through the city. The city is policed by the Glendale Police
Department.
As of the
2000 census, the
city population was 194,973. Since then, there have been estimates
of 201,326 by the
U.S.
Census Bureau in 2004,
207,007 by the California State government in 2005, and 207,303 as
listed by the California Department of Finance in 2009 , making it
the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the seventeenth
largest city in the state of California.
Glendale
is famous for having helped—in conjunction with Burbank -- father the emerging age of aviation, with its
now defunct Grand
Central Airport.
Glendale's
Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Cemetery
contains the remains of many celebrities and local
residents. It is famous as the pioneer of a new style of
cemetery.
History
The Glendale area in the 1870s.
The area was long inhabited by the
Tongva
people.
José María Verdugo, a corporal in the Spanish
army from
Baja California,
received a grant of the Rancho San Rafael
in 1798, an area he had been farming since
1784. In 1860 His grandson
Teodoro Verdugo built the
Verdugo Adobe, which is the oldest building in Glendale.
The property is the location of the
Oak of Peace where
early
Californio leaders including
Jesus Pico met in 1847 and decided to
surrender to
Lieutenant Colonel
John C. Frémont.
Verdugo's
descendants sold the ranch in various parcels, some of which are
included in present-day Atwater
Village, Eagle Rock, and Highland
Park
neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
Glendale, 1910.
In 1884, residents gathered to form a town and chose the name
"Glendale". Residents to the southwest formed "Tropico" in 1887.
The
Pacific Electric
Railroad brought streetcar service in 1904.
Glendale incorporated in 1906, and annexed Tropico 12 years later.
An
important civic booster of the
era was Leslie Coombs Brand
(1859–1925), who built an estate in 1904 called El
Miradero featuring an eye-catching mansion whose architecture
combined characteristics of Spanish, Moorish, and Indian styles,
copied from the East Indian Pavilion at the 1893 World's
Columbian Exposition
(World's Fair) held in Chicago, which he
visited. Brand loved to fly, and built a private airstrip in
1919 and hosted "fly-in" parties, providing a direct link to the
soon-to-be-built nearby
Grand Central Airport.
The grounds of
El Miradero are now city-owned
Brand
Park and the mansion is the
Brand Library, according
to the terms of his will.. Brand partnered with
Henry E. Huntington to bring the Pacific Electric
Railway, or the "Red Cars," to the area. Today, he is memorialized
by one of the city's main thoroughfares,
Brand
Boulevard.
Looking south on Brand Blvd,
1915.
The city's population rose from 13,756 in 1920 to 62,736 in 1930.
The
Forest Lawn Memorial Park opened in 1917. Pioneering
endocrinologist and entrepreneur Dr.
Henry R. Harrower opened his clinic in Glendale in
1920, which for many years was the largest business in the city.
The
American Green Cross, an
early
conservation and tree
preservation society, was formed in 1926 (it disbanded three years
later and the current organization of that name is unrelated). In
1964, Glendale was selected by
George Lincoln Rockwell to be the
West Coast headquarters of the
American Nazi Party. Its offices, on
Colorado Street in the downtown section of the city, remained open
until the early 1980s.
Industry and development
- Grand Central
Airport was a municipal airport developed from 1923 which
became the largest employer in Glendale for many years, and
contributed to the development of aviation in the United States in
many important ways. The main terminal building still stands and
includes both art deco and Spanish style architectural elements.
The facility was the first official terminal for the Los Angeles
area as well as the departure point for the first commercial west
to east transcontinental flight flown by Charles Lindbergh. During World War II, the Grand Central Air Terminal
building was camouflaged to protect it from enemy targeting. It was
closed down in 1959, and made way for the Grand Central Business
Park.
- The Bob's Big Boy chain of
hamburger restaurants started in Glendale
on East Colorado in August 1936, and the Baskin-Robbins, "31 Flavors" chain of
ice cream parlors started in Adams Square
in 1945.
- The Glendale Public Library on Harvard Street houses its
"Special Collections" department which contains original documents
and records on much of the history of Glendale. It also contains
one of the largest collections of books on cats in the world, over
20,000 volumes. It was donated to the library in the 1950s by the
Jewel City Cat Fanciers Club, with the understanding that it would
be made into a special collection and kept permanently for club
members to use and enjoy.
- Completion of the new Glendale Central Library
The city saw significant development in the 1970s.
- Redevelopment of Brand Boulevard, renovation
of the 1925 Alex
Theatre
, and construction of the Glendale Galleria shopping
mall which opened in 1976.
- In
1994, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen formed DreamWorks SKG
, a diversified entertainment company. The
company's animation section is located in the city's Grand Central
Business Park on land formerly occupied by a helicopter landing
base on the old air field. The Walt
Disney Company also has a large campus located in the Grand
Central Business Park that includes the headquarters for its
Imagineering
division, and also owns what's left of Grand
Central Terminal. Part of KABC-TV
has located there.
- In
2005, construction began near to the Galleria of developer Rick Caruso's "Americana at
Brand
", a 15.5 acre outdoor shopping and residential
community. Caruso had previously designed and built
The Grove at
Farmers Market
. The new Glendale development was opened to
the public on May 2, 2008, and features 75 shops and restaurants,
238 apartments, 100 condominiums, and a Pacific Theatres 18-plex Cinema which seats
3000 people.
Economy
According to the City's 2008 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,
the top employers in the city are:
| # |
Employer |
# of Employees |
| 1 |
City of Glendale |
2,565 |
| 2 |
Nestle Company |
2,153 |
| 3 |
Glendale Adventist Medical Center |
2,112 |
| 4 |
Glendale Community College District |
1,442 |
| 5 |
Glendale Unified School District |
1,328 |
| 6 |
Glendale Memorial |
1,300 |
| 7 |
Public Storage Inc. |
1,036 |
| 8 |
Walt Disney Imagineering |
902 |
| 9 |
Bank America North America |
815 |
| 10 |
Acco Engineering Systems |
786 |
Crime
Glendale police officers took on bootleggers and airmen in the
1920s, a decade when the department had both a "liquor detail" and
an "air policeman" charged with citing pilots for flying violations
committed over the city. In 1944, the Glendale city manager took on
Police Chief V.B. Browne over suspected officer corruption, and
Browne was asked to resign for failing to control his staff. But
Browne asked to stay on as a patrolman, and he walked a beat until
his retirement in 1948.
Glendale lost four police officers in the line of duty. The first
officer in the area killed in the line of duty was Charles Whitney
Smith, marshal for the city of Tropico, later annexed by Glendale.
Smith had already been told he was fired, but he wanted to finish
his day. So on his last day, Jan. 9, 1915, he was shot to death
when he tried to stop a robbery suspect on a street car.
Glendale police officer Leslie O. Clem was killed in a motorcycle
accident in 1926 while pursuing a suspect's car. During the course
of the pursuit his motorcycle struck streetcar tracks, causing
Officer Clem to be thrown from the bike. He succumbed to his
injuries the next day.
In 1997, Charles Lazzaretto became the first Glendale police
officer in 25 years to die in the line of duty when an
attempted-murder suspect, holed up in a Chatsworth warehouse, shot
Lazzaretto in the head. In the ensuing gunfight, the suspect was
slain and two Los Angeles police officers wounded. Glendale police
officer John Isaacson was killed in an automobile accident while on
duty in 1972.
In 1985, "Night Stalker"
Richard
Ramirez terrorized the Los Angeles area, including Glendale. He
was linked to the death of Max Kneiding and his wife, Lela Ellen,
who were shot to death in their Glendale home. Ramirez also was
later linked to a slaying just south of Glendale's Forest Lawn
Memorial Park. In an earlier case,
Angelo
Buono, a Glendale auto upholsterer, was convicted of sexually
torturing and murdering nine women whose bodies were dumped on Los
Angeles-area hillsides in 1977 and 1978.
In June
1990, an arson fire damaged or destroyed 64 homes in Glendale's
San Rafael
Hills
and caused $40 million in damage. Evening
rush-hour traffic was brought to a halt at the height of the fire
as flames burned on both sides of the Glendale Freeway. The
100-acre fire, one of the worst in the city's history, resulted in
flames leapfrogging from house to house, destroying some, leaving
others untouched. After the devastating fire, the
Glendale City Council passed a
brush-clearing ordinance that called for more frequent inspection
of private property by fire officials, and it allowed firefighters
to cut back overgrown brush on private property and charge owners
for the work.
On February 6, 1996, seven people were killed in the worst
arson-murder in the city's history. The fire killed a Glendale
mother, Turan Avanesian, and her six children, from ages 4 to 17.
Jorjik Avanesian, who was convicted of dousing his family's
one-bedroom apartment in Glendale with gasoline and setting it on
fire, later killed himself in jail.
In 2005, 11 people died and about 180 were injured in a
Metrolink train accident
when a man who later claimed he was suicidal parked his sport
utility vehicle on the tracks in Glendale. The driver was convicted
of murder.
Gangs
Glendale was once home to more than 30 different gangs. Gang
violence peaked in the 90's. Over time, the numbers have dropped
significantly, and now there are only five documented gangs in the
city.
Gang activity is primarily located in the
low-income, Hispanic area of South
Glendale, bordering the Northeast
Los Angeles neighborhoods of Atwater
Village, and Glassell
Park. Historically, South Glendale is claimed by
the Mexican
gang Tooner Ville
Rifa. The gang's ongoing attempt to control this area
has lead to turf wars between it and rival gangs from the bordering
cities. Even the arrest and conviction of one of the gang's leaders
has done little to stop gang activity. The problem has pushed
Glendale and Los Angeles city officials to seek an
injunction against the gang, covering 4.5
square-miles. This area is bordered by the
Los Angeles River, the
Glendale Freeway, and the streets
of Broadway and Verdugo Road. In 2009,
TVR was listed as one of
LAPD's top 14 targeted street
gangs.
Another primary source of Glendale's gang problem is the
Avenues gang, which has also been listed
as one of the
LAPD's
top 14 targeted street gangs. On June 25
th, 2008, over
500 officers, including SWAT teams, participated in a take-down of
the gang. A clique leader was arrested in the 900 block of East
Windsor in South Glendale.
Geography
Glendale
is located at (34.170939, -118.250081) at the juncture of two large
valleys, the San
Fernando and the San
Gabriel. According to the
United States Census Bureau, the
city has a total area of . 79.4 km² (30.6 mi²) of it is
land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it (0.07%) is water.
It is
bordered to the north by the foothill communities of La Canada
Flintridge
, La Crescenta, and Tujunga
; to the south by the Atwater Village
community incorporated by the city of Los Angeles;
to the east by Pasadena and Eagle Rock
(also incorporated within Los Angeles); and to the
west by the city of Burbank.
Neighborhoods of Glendale:- El Miradero-
Pelanconi- Fremont Park- Riverside Rancho- Glenwood- Grandview-
Grand central- Brockmont- Rossmoyne- Greenbriar- Emerald Isle-
Rancho San Rafeal- San Rafeal Hills- Adams Hill- College Hills-
Chevy Chase- Glenoaks Canyon- Citrus Grove- Moorpark- Tropico-
Pacific Edison- Mariposa- Somerset- Vineyard- Woodbury- Montecito
Park- Sparr Heights- Oakmont- Whiting woods- Crescenta Highlands-
Verdugo Viejo- Verdugo Woodlands- Verdugo City- Downtown
Glendale
Geology
Several known earthquake faults criss-cross the Glendale area and
adjacent mountains, as they do most of southern California. Among
the more recognized faults by seismologists are the Sierra Madre
and Hollywood faults, which are situated in the city's northern and
southwestern portions, respectively. Additionally, the Verdugo and
Raymond faults intersect through the city's central and
southeastern areas. The San Gabriel fault, meanwhile, is located
northeast of the city. Roughly 75 miles northeast of Glendale,
there's a major part of the
San Andreas
fault known as the "Big Bend," where quake-recurrence tracking
shows major activity roughly every 140–160 years. The closest
portion of the San Andreas is actually 29 miles from Glendale. The
last major quake along the southern San Andreas was recorded in
1857.
In the
1971 San Fernando
Earthquake, which took place along the western edge of the
Sierra Madre fault, there were surface ruptures nearly 12 miles
long, including one portion a few miles northwest of Glendale.
Most of
the damage was in the northern San Fernando Valley, although 31 structures in Glendale suffered major
damage and had to be demolished, plus dozens of chimneys were
toppled. The
1994
Northridge Earthquake had an epicenter about 18 miles from
Glendale. The city suffered severe damage to a public parking
structure and sections of the Glendale Galleria parking structures
and exterior columns incurred damages.
Climate
Glendale has a
Mediterranean
climate (
Köppen
climate classification Csa).
- Highest Recorded Temperature: 43°C
- Lowest Recorded Temperature: -8 °C
- Warmest Month: August
- Coolest Month: January
- Highest Precipitation: February
- Lowest Precipitation: July
Statistics
Foreign-born residents accounted for 54% of the population in
2000.
As of the
census of 2000, there were 194,973
people, 71,805 households, and 49,617 families residing in the
city. The
population density was
2,456.1/km² (6,362.2/mi²). There were 73,713 housing units at an
average density of 928.6/km² (2,405.3/mi²). The racial makeup of
the city was 63.6%
White, 1.6%
Black or
African American, 0.3%
Native American, 16.1%
Asian American, 0.1%
Pacific Islander, 8.6% from
other races, and 10.1%
from two or more races. 19.7% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
There were 71,805 households out of which 32.9% had children under
the age of 18 living with them, 52.3% were
married couples living together, 11.8% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 30.9% were non-families.
25.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.7% had
someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average
household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.27.
In the city the population was spread out with 22.4% under the age
of 18, 8.4% from 18 to 24, 32.2% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to
64, and 13.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was
38 years. For every 100 females there were 91.3 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $41,805, and the
median income for a family was $47,633. Males had a median income
of $39,709 versus $33,815 for females. The
per capita income for the city was
$22,227. About 13.6% of families and 15.5% of the population were
below the
poverty line, including 20.7%
of those under age 18 and 11.9% of those age 65 or over.
Armenian population
Armenian families have lived in the city since the 1920s, but the
surge in immigration escalated in the 1970’s. Armenian-Americans
are well integrated into the city, with many businesses, several
Armenian schools, and ethnic/cultural organizations serving this
ethnic group.Glendale has the highest percentage of residents of
Armenian descent, most of whom arrived in the city in the last two
decades.
The city of Glendale is home to the third
largest Armenian community outside of Armenia, after Moscow
and Los Angeles.According to the
United States 2000 Census Glendale
is home to 53,854
Armenian-Americans (making up 27.6% of the
total population), increasing from 1990 when there were 31,402
Armenian-Americans in the city.As
of 2009, one of the five members of Glendale's city council is of
Armenian descent—Ara J. Najarian. Former Armenian-American mayors
of Glendale include
Larry Zarian,
Bob Yousefian,
Rafi Manoukian, and
Ara Najarian.
Government
Local Government
According to the city’s most recent Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report, the city’s various funds had $575.6 million in Revenues,
$542.8 million in expenditures, $2,089.7 million in total assets,
$480.9 million in total liabilities, and $460.4 million in cash and
investments.
The structure of the management and coordination of city services
is:
| City Department |
Director |
| City Manager |
James E. Starbird |
| Assistant City Manager |
Robert K. McFall |
| Deputy City Manager |
Yasmin Beers |
| Director of Glendale Water & Power |
Glen O. Steiger |
| Police Chief |
Ron De Pompa |
| Fire Chief |
Harold Scoggins |
| Director of Public Works |
Stephen Zurn |
| Director of Finance and Administrative Services |
Robert Elliot |
| Director of Human Resources |
Matthew Doyle |
| Director of Development Services |
Philip Lanzafame |
| Director of Planning |
Hassan Haghani |
| Director of Community Development and Housing |
(vacant) |
| Director of Information Services |
|
| Director of Parks, Recreation and Community Services |
George Chapjian |
| Director of Library Services |
Cindy Cleary |
Education
The
Glendale Unified
School District operates the public schools in Glendale. The
GUSD high schools include:
A number of private schools also operate in Glendale:
Glendale
is also home to Glendale Community College
.
Politics
The city of Glendale, along with neighboring Burbank and Pasadena,
falls under California's 29th district in the United States House
of Representatives. Congressman Adam Schiff has represented the
district since 2000, and his vocal stances on issues regarding
US-Armenia relations reflect the large Armenian presence in the
district.
In the
state
legislature Glendale is located in the 21st
Senate District, represented by
Democrat
Carol Liu, and in the 38th and
43rd
Assembly Districts,
represented by Republican
Cameron
Smyth and Democrat
Paul Krekorian
respectively. Federally, Glendale is located in
California's 29th
congressional district, which has a
Cook PVI of D +12 and is
represented by Democrat
Adam
Schiff.
Transportation
Glendale offers many transportation options.
LADOT,
Metro Local,
Metro Rapid and
Glendale Beeline all have buses that run in
the city.
GTC (Glendale Transportation Center)
provides connections to
Greyhound and
three train lines. Glendale is also served by four
freeways: the
Glendale
Freeway (
State Route 2), the
Ventura Freeway (
State Route 134), the
Foothill Freeway (
Interstate 210) and the
Golden State Freeway (
Interstate 5).
Shopping
Glendale
has many options for shopping including; Glendale Galleria which is anchored by
Nordstrom's
, Macy*s
, Target and JC
Penny, The Americana at Brand which is an up-scale outdoor mall
(similar to The Grove in L.A.) some stores include, H&M, A/X Armani
Exchange, True Religion, Michael Stars, Lacoste,
Urban Outfitters, etc....
Shopping can also be done at Montrose Shopping Park in Northern
Glendale. The shopping park runs down Honolulu Ave and is filled
with many stores and restaurants.
Community organizations
Brand Library and Art Center.
The City of Glendale includes a variety of nonprofit organizations
that enhance the quality of life in Glendale. Strong links between
local residents, business owners, and government have created a
network of organizations that provide support in the areas of
education, employment, homeless services, after-school activities,
and social services. Local organizations include:
Sister cities
Currently, Glendale has the following
sister cities.
Notable residents
A number of notable people are natives of or have lived in
Glendale, including:
See also
Notes
External links
_crop.JPG/180px-Saint_Gregory_the_Illuminator_Armenian_Catholic_Church_in_Glendale_,_California_(2001)_crop.JPG)
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