City Council Passes Glendale Bicycle Safety Plan

On March 27th, the City Council passed the Glendale Bicycle Safety Plan. This affects our canyon in that as part of the street resurfacing project [see: Glenoaks Blvd. Rehabilitation Meeting Notes] the city will be painting bike lanes and sharrows markers in the canyon upon completion of resurfacing. Below is a summary of what this means for our canyon.

Here is what the plan proposes:

From Chevy Chase to Mt. Carmel

Current 46' wide 2 lanes with on-street parking

Proposed 46' wide 2 lanes with on-street parking 6' bike lanes 7' wide parking lanes 10' wide travel lanes

From Mt. Carmel to Scholl Dr.

Current 46' wide 2 lanes with on-street parking 9.5' center turn lane 8' parking lanes 10' 3" travel lanes

Proposed 46' wide 2 lanes with on-street parking Remove center turn lane 7' parking lanes 6' bike lanes 10' travel lanes

From Scholl Dr. to Scholl Canyon Park Entrance

Current 40' wide 2 lanes with on-street parking 4' center painted median 7' parking lanes 11' driving lanes

Proposed 40' wide 2 lanes with on-street parking Remove center painted median 7' parking lanes 13' travel lanes with sharrows (see below for an explanation of what a "sharrow" is)

From Scholl Canyon Park Entrance to Tennis Courts

Current 40' wide 2 lanes with parking only from 6am to 10:30pm 6' wide painted lines, no bike lane markings

Proposed 40' wide 2 lanes with parking only from 6am to 10:30pm Stencil and sign existing stripes to create bike lane

A "sharrow" is a shared bike lane. Signified by the symbol:

The stated purposes of the shared-lane markings used in California are to:

• Assist bicyclists with lateral positioning in a shared lane with on-street parallel parking in order to reduce the chance of a bicyclist’s impacting the open door of a parked vehicle;
• Assist bicyclists with lateral positioning in lanes that are too narrow for a motor vehicle and a bicycle to travel side by side within the same traffic lane;
• Alert motorists of the lateral location bicyclists are likely to occupy within the traveled way;
• Encourage safe passing of bicyclists by motorists; and
• Reduce the incidence of wrong-way bicycling.

You can download the full copy of the bicycle master plan here: http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/public_works/GlendaleBicycleMasterPlan.asp

Neighborhood Watch Tips

Here are some great tips that were posted by one of our canyon residents:

• Keep doors and windows locked
• Use an alarm system
• Trim bushes and shrubs lower that hide windows
• Install motion metector lights
• Get outside and open curtains to better see what's going on
• Lock up good when you leave home, most crimes are when you have left your house
• Don't answer the door without checking to see who it is
• Don't allow strangers into your house
• Put up signs indicating dog, dog paraphanelia, or have dog
• Secure the rear of your house as you do the front of your house
• Don't depend on one safety system
• Ask neighbors to watch for suspicious activity, or watch out for you
• Watch for unusual cars hanging around for days
• Log all serialized property and photograph all jewelry and store family valuables off-site
• Don't telegraph behavior with set routine
• Leave lights on and radio on when gone, you could put radio on timer
• Close and lock garage doors
• Lock up tools that could be used to break into your home (ladder, etc.)
• Be alert
• Don't try to stop or apprehend a person committing a crime - call 911
• Don't investigate suspicious activity - call 911

For non-emergencies call Glendale PD at (818) 548-4911

For suspicious vehicles, GPD needs make, model, color, AND LICENSE PLATE #. Also special features like bumper damage, bondo, peeling paint, custom paint job and tell dispatch the direction the car is traveling.

For suspicious people GPD needs as much detail as possible dark skin, light skin, hair color, height and weight approximated AND what they are wearing.

Other resources: Crimemapping.com for up to the minute crimes in our area. lacrimestoppers.com (tip line) 818 507-STOP & 800 222-tips (anonymous tip line) TIPLA@2744637 for texting

City Council Meeting to Discuss Addition of Bike Lanes in Glendale

The City Council will host a “study session” at 3:00 pm on Tuesday March 27th (prior to the regular Council Meeting) to gain input from staff and other sources regarding the proposed addition of Bike Lanes in the City of Glendale. The session should last about 2 hours. All concerned citizens are encouraged to attend the session and voice their opinions – both pro and con.  Council will use the input for further study the program. There is nothing scheduled yet as to when the Council will bring up the program for a vote.

We urge all Canyon residents to participate in the study session and verbally present their ideas regarding adding bike lanes to Glenoaks Boulevard to our Council. if you can't make it to the meeting, please email your thoughts about bike lanes in Glendale to citycouncil@ci.glendale.ca.us.

[UPDATE] City Council to Hold GWP Water Rate Hike Hearing

[UPDATE] Please note that this meeting will be held Tuesday night at 6:00pm. Not Monday as was previously mentioned.

Please see article on GHCC News-page   (http://glendalehome.org)

The City Council will hold a GWP Water Rate Hearing on Monday March 20 at 6:00 PM in the council chambers. Please plan to attend to hear more about it and to voice your opinions.

Glenoaks Blvd. Rehabilitation Meeting Notes

Last Monday night, at the Glenoaks Elementary auditorium, a meeting was held to discuss the rehabilitation project to resurface Glenoaks Blvd. and many of the surrounding streets in our canyon. Below are the notes from that meeting.

Councilman Dave Weaver first spoke. He mentioned that on March 27th the city will have a study session on the Glendale Master Bike Plan. He urged all of us to attend this council meeting to voice our opinions and hear what is being discussed regarding bike paths in the canyon and throughout Glendale. Currently, the meeting is scheduled for   3pm but he's trying to get it changed to 6pm. If we get a better idea of when the meeting will be held, we will post the time on the website. The City Council will also be discussing the rehab project at their meeting on Tuesday 3/13. Bike lanes are being proposed but as of now are not part of the plan but the Council will be getting bids just in case.

The City Works Dept. gave a presentation outlining what types of resurfacing and repair will be done on what sections of the canyon. You can view the presentation here (please note this is a relatively large file).

The project is anticipated to being around June 4th and will take approximately 3 months to complete. All work in front of the school will be done during the summer break.

For much of the work where a slurry seal or complete resurfacing will take place, you will not be able to get access to your property from 7am to 5pm the day that they are laying the asphalt. That means if you do not leave your house on that day you will have to stay home until 5pm that evening, or if you leave (before 7am) you will not be allowed to return until after 5pm. This includes walking as well as driving. Of course if there is a life threatening emergency, all bets are off. This will be done in sections and several notices will go out to the residences affected for each section giving plenty of notice before the street is closed.

When they are doing Glenoaks Blvd. they will be doing half of the roadway at a time so there will always be a means to get in and out of the canyon.

Once the paving phase is complete, the roads will be striped and painted. The center divider that is no on Glenoaks Blvd. Will be removed and there will be a center line only. There is a proposal to continue a bike lane from Verdugo Blvd. Along Glenoaks Blvd up to Scholl Rd. (where the road is wider) and then have sharrow markers the rest of the way up the canyon. This is a proposal only and has not yet been voted on.

Three trees will have to be removed for this project. Two of them are already dead. Once complete, the city will be planting 55 new trees along the roadways within the canyon.

2012 Winter ECHO - Digital Edition

In case, for some reason, you didn't get a copy of the ECHO that was delivered to your home, here is the digital version of the 2012 Winter Echo. Enjoy.

Echo Winter 2012

Glenoaks Canyon Rehabilitation Meeting Monday Night

Important meeting Monday night 6pm at the Glenoaks Elementary School Auditorium to discuss the rehabilitation of Glenoaks Blvd.

This meeting will discuss the plans and impact of the rehabilitation of Glenoaks Blvd. from Harvey up to the entrance of Scholl Canyon Park.

At the meeting there will also be discussion of bike lanes on Glenoaks Blvd. that have been proposed in the Glendale Bicycle Master Plan and will be voted on at an upcoming City Council meeting.

If you are at all interested in seeing how the resurfacing and potential restriping of Glenoaks Blvd. will affect us as residents of the canyon, you should definitely plan on attending.

Neighborhood Watch Meeting Tonight - March 1, 2012

There is a Special Meeting tonight hosted by Glenoaks Canyon Homeowners Association (GOCHA) and the Glenoaks Canyon Neighborhood Watch and presented by the Glendale Police Department. The meeting is tonight, Thursday, March 1st from 6:30pm - 8:00pm at the Joe Bridges Clubhouse in Glenoaks Park.

Please join us and your neighbors and learn how you can protect yourself and help make our canyon a safer neighborhood for all of us at this important meeting.

Click here for more information.

[ALERT] Home Burglarized on Mt. Carmel Tuesday

There was a residential burglary on Tuesday on Mt. Carmel which occurred between the hours of 8:50am and 11:00am.  The point of entry was a bedroom window accessible from the hillside.  The front door was the point of exit and was left shut, but not locked.  Items taken include: two large screen televisions and jewelry.  All bedrooms were ransacked.

The Glendale Police Department is talking to neighbors and working leads.  The previous residential burglary was late in the day on a Friday (January 27 between 5:00PM-7:00PM) at the top of the Canyon.

Things to be vigilant about:

• Keep watch on neighbors who have set routines.  They are predictable and become targets.
• If you have access to your home from the side, consider fortifying the back like you would the front.
• Look outside and pay attention to unusual activity.  If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.

Last week, we had thefts from several unlocked cars.  Interestingly, a block captain several neighborhoods over (Glenmore and Trenton) called in at 3:30am to report a male in a hoodie carrying a backpack trying door handles….How much do you want to wager that the next place he headed was up the Canyon?

Shattering the Myths of Window Replacement

The Glendale Historical Society is hosting an event that will discuss and demonstrate how to preserv e and restore your original wood or steel windows. The event will be held on Sunday, March 4th from 12pm - 3pm at the Doctors House Gazebo in Brand Park.

See below for more information.