Meet & Greet Wed Jan 14 - Coffee Bean

[Sharon W]

I was torn between 'Community' and 'Politics' since this is both - I chose Community. Thanks for another place to spread the word!

The campaign season for the April 7, 2009 Glendale election is ramping up. In an effort to find candidates for City Council with appreciation for historical structures and reasonable development, Michael Morgan and I are sponsoring a "Meet & Greet" for Laura Friedman on Wednesday, Jan. 14 from 7 to 8:30 pm at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, 3701 Ocean View (at Honolulu) in Montrose. Please join us to learn more about Laura's positions on issues that matter to you.

Please let all voters in Glendale know about this opportunity.

We are sponsoring this event as individuals. I suspect more than a few of you are still weary of campaigns from last November but I urge you to find some energy to get involved with this Glendale election. The three incumbents, Najarian, Quintero, and Yousefian, and several other challengers have already announced their candidacy. Filing closes later this month.

The three council members elected in April, along with Councilmen Drayman and Weaver, will vote on the North Glendale Community Plan later in the year. That plan will control development here for the next several years. I believe that makes this election more critical than most.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Sharon Weisman

[anni]

Thanks for posting your event...this is just the kind of message we love to see here!!! Power to the people and their grass roots, right on....

[Brian]

All follow up reports on this event will be appreciated not only by a curious couple in Tujunga, but probably by some other visitors who read the board -- and live in the city of Glendale.

[Sharon W]

Jan 16, 2009 0:24:32 GMT -8 Brian said:

All follow up reports on this event will be appreciated not only by a curious couple in Tujunga, but probably by some other visitors who read the board -- and live in the city of Glendale.

Let's see, Roberta came early and quizzed Laura on a few things and then went home to celebrate John's birthday with him and a dinner he cooked - good deal, I think. About a dozen voters listened to Laura describe her background: film producer, current owner of a small business (http://planetglass.net/index.html), member of LA Conservancy's Modern Committee, former head of the DRB #2 but resigned effective the end of the month due to the campaign. Elaine Wilkerson, who retired last year after being Glendale's Planning Director for the past 8 years and revamping the ordinance for Historic District Overlay Zones and then shepherding her own neighborhood, Royal Blvd, to become the first Glendale HDOZ, is Laura's campaign manager. Laura has the support of the Glendale Historical Society's elite.

As you may have read in the paper, Larua's big campaign idea is an Arts District, using redevelopment money, for the San Fernando Corridor in south Glendale. She envisions dance, music, performance space plus art galleries and post production services. She thinks the current plan to turn Glendale into a hub of the 'hospitality' industry with lots of hotels isn't such a great idea since the jobs created are low pay. Support businesses for the entertainment industry are higher paying.

One business owner, I forget her name but she owns the 'News Stand', came and complained that the Montrose merchants don't get enough support and that the MSPA leadership assess them a lot of money and doesn't really represent them. I noted they didn't seem to represent free speech either and noted the flag issue and the business owner went off about how the 'protesters' could have chosen any corner and was very negative about the vigil - so we can all avoid her shop now. Law of unintended consequences, I say.

Laura is also part of the Cumberland Road neighbors who are objecting to the cell phone tower T-Mobile wants to put in the city right-of-way in front of single family homes.

The Glendale City Council election is April 7th and three council members have announced for reelection: Najarian, Quintero and Yousefian. Filing closes Jan 29th so we won't know all the challengers till then.

Glendale Homeowners Coordinating Council will host a candidate forum at the Central Library, 222 E. Harvard, on Wednesday, February 18th and the Crescenta Valley Community Association will host a forum on Sunday, February 22nd in conjunction with Montrose Founder's Day and the harvest market - location not yet determined but somewhere in Montrose in the morning.

CVTC is hosting a candidate forum for the GUSD and GCC elections (the school districts are larger than the city of Glendale and include unincorporated La Crescenta/Montrose and portions of La Canada-Flintridge (the sagebrush area)). The three incumbent GUSD board members running are Joylene Wagner, Chuck Sambar and Greg Krikorian. I don't know yet who is challenging them. Victor King is not going to run again for GCC board so there's an open seat there - again I don't know who else is running yet.

Probably tmi - be careful what you ask for....

[anni]

As a teacher I say:
"There's no such thing as TMI, nor TMQ (too many questions)!"

And I say thank you, sharonw!!!

[Roberta]

I think that Laura Friedman is very smart and seems to have her politics in the right place, so on that alone I'm willing to support her because we sorely need a woman on our all-male city council.

I did duck out to go home for a b-day dinner with John. However I will say in my defense, that I cooked most of the dinner ahead -- then he made the home-made grill bread at the end while I was politicing. If you are ever lucky enough to have his grill bread you'll know that cooking the whole dinner is a more than fair trade!

Thanks for organizing the meet/greet and for reporting on it Sharon.