Canyon Sees More Auto Break-Ins

On June 10-11 in the overnight hours, we had multiple vehicles broken into via smashed windows and some unlocked doors.  This spree took place on Eat Glenoaks, Hollister, and Scholl.  In many cases, victims reported losing the usual items: GPS, iPods, sunglasses.  In others, the garage remote was taken.  Please remove ALL ITEMS of value including your remotes every night and lock the doors.  When possible, installing a motion light near the parking area may help.  The individuals will keep coming back when they need more loot for their dope habit, so any night owls would be useful in keeping an extra eye out for any movement on the street.

New Glendale Crime Trends Bulletin

The Glendale Police Department has begun putting out a regular bulletin outlining some of the crime trends going on in our city. Glendale Police Chief Ron DePampa (rdepompa@ci.glendale.ca.us) attributes the increased crime in the city to the release of "realigned" felons into the community. These felons are considered by the state to be lowrisk offenders: non-violent, non-serious, and non-high risk sex offenders. But, the reality is that these felons are also career criminals: five felony convictions already, 56% have mental health issues, 56% have substance abuse issues and re-offenders with a 70% recidivism rate. It is estimated that the state will be releasing 55,000 of these felons by the end of 2012. To read more about this problem and how it affects our city and neighborhood, read the full bulletin here:

http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/police/pdfs/crimetrends/crimetrendscrimetrends_1qtr2012.pdf

If you would like to subscribe to the Crime Trends Bulletin, a sign up form (name and email address) can be found here:

http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/police/crimetrends/signup.asp

Be safe and vigilant out there and report anything suspicious you see in the canyon.

The Bow Wow Pow Wow is Next Saturday

Dog ParadeJune 2, 2012 1-4pm Glenoaks Park

Yup, it's that time of the year again when all the canyon K-9s can come out and show their stuff (and bring their humans too).

The Dog Parade will be held this Saturday, June 2nd from 1-4pm. As in past years we will have a costume contest, a contest to see who's dog can do the best tricks, and the ever popular obstacle course. We will also be parading all of the neighborhood pups around the park for a fun-filled afternoon.

See you there.

Emergency Guide Posted

We have posted a comprehensive, 130 page Emergency Guide written by Isabelle Meyer on the site. This guide has everything you will need to get prepared for an emergency and help you be confident in what to do when an emergency happens.

You can find the guide on this site's Disaster Preparedness page.

We have also provided a link to download the guide here:

Emergency Guide

This guide covers everything from preparing for an emergency, to what you need to do after an emergency strikes. This is something that everyone should check out.

Please note that as this document is quite large, it may take some time to download.

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