Glendale Rancho Homeowners Association President Joanne Hedge says Public Works Director Steve Zurn invited residents to meet with him and his staff to share a “wish list” of improvements. A street median, more crosswalks, bike lanes, and a “road diet” are all measures Hedge advocates to bridge the wide divide Sonora now creates in the neighborhood.

In October, Hedge urged senior city staff, the City Council, and Disney’s Ed Chuchla (VP Real Estate) and Adam Gilbert (campus community liaison) to push for Caltrans changes to the S-134 eastbound San Fernando off ramp signage that would encourage commuters to use the new Fairmont flyover/Flower Street route instead of their familiar Victory Blvd. exit.

Wisely deciding not to wait for Caltrans action, Hedge also asked the Disney officials to remind employees on a quarterly basis to bypass the Victory off ramp and use the flyover to Flower Street instead. “Bottom line: This would go a long way toward traffic calming Sonora Avenue at very little expense till more ambitious plans materialize later,” she wrote in an email.

Teams design and pitch a new ride, attraction, hotel, or area within an existing Disney facility. This year more than 130 teams from around the world submitted entries for competition.

NJ.com describes how the New Jersey team came together and interviewed team member Elissa Hogan.

Second and third place winners were North Carolina State University’s “Mickey’s Quest To Magma Mountain,” a 3D ride with a circular seating arrangement, and California State University Fullerton’s “Operation SNAP: Destination Dragon,” a ride based on an absent-minded professor’s search for a legendary Chinese dragon.

I hope both videos will be available soon on the city of Glendale’s official website, or on YouTube.

Drayman told business leaders at the luncheon that while the city is experiencing tough times, its future remains bright. This was the right message for an audience which makes the city’s job easier: local businesses (Melby & Anderson, LLP) to locally-based large corporations (Disney) who provide jobs, encourage volunteerism, and support charities.

All the news articles relate directly, however, to today’s highly uncertain business climate, and the ways in which different industries are trying to position or protect themselves.

I believe T-Mobile backed off in response to the unexpected: a highly-focused and very effective negative publicity campaign with wide participation in the community.

Both Disney and the print industry are fighting trends that T-Mobile is hoping to profit from: the transition to purely digital information, available anywhere and on any platform from laptop to cell phone.

Industry-wide, T-Mobile and its competitors lost out in the stimulus package giveaway, as Congress Approves Broadband to Nowhere reported.

Wall Street is playing yesterday’s game and losing badly.

Check out the Paperweight archives section for past collections of weekly clippings relevant to anyone who would like an outlook on Glendale, California.

Citizens (I dislike the word “consumer”) are reducing expenses and changing behavior. Big business models will have to adjust quickly to the new era.

From the Associated Press:

An aging DVD format and a proliferation of viewing options hurt home-video revenue in ways that could not be blamed solely on economic decline, [CEO Robert] Iger said. Studio revenue fell 26 percent from a year ago.

“The average U.S. DVD household owns about 80 DVDs already,” Iger said. “That suggests that, economy or not, going forward people potentially will be more selective about what they buy.”

He said that the abundance of viewing choices had also hurt the ABC broadcast television unit “and may have a long-term potential impact on the DVD business.”

Analyst Anthony DiClemente of Barclays Capital said it was the first time Iger publicly acknowledged that the consumer shift from physical media consumption to digital was beginning to affect Disney’s businesses. The shift has already plagued the newspaper and recorded music industries.

“The fundamental trends are on a slippery slope to the downside,” DiClemente said after the call.

Analyst Alan Gould of Nataxis Bleichroeder Inc. echoed the concern.

“Those comments are a bit scary, frankly,” Gould said. “DVDs, for the last 10 years, have been such an integral part of the profit stream of a movie. If you have DVD sales slowing down dramatically on a secular basis, that changes the whole economic structure of the motion picture business.”