Glendale. What is Good and Bad About That City (Los Angeles: apartment, city hall)

[Ducktales]

I heard it was a good area but I need more information. Thanks!

[SandyCo]

Ducktales, please be more specific in your quest for information. What exactly do you want to know about Glendale? The more specific your questions, the more responses you'll receive.

[newportbeachsmostwanted]

If you make more than 120k/year, go to Calabasas or La Canada. Glendale isn't for you unless like living below your means and dealing with crime.

If you make less than 60k/year, Glendale might be a pretty good place. Especially if you are Armenian. Glendale has the largest Armenian population in the United States.

The galleria mall is in downtown Glendale. It's a nice place, with all the chain stores you could ever need.
Personally, I prefer Burbank but love the area near the hills, Mountain St. and Verdugo, and Glendale C.C. It feels safer, and is much cleaner.

[James T]

Originally Posted by Ducktales

I heard it was a good area but I need more information. Thanks!

It's good if you're Armenian, I suppose.

[TonyT]

Well I think I might be able to tell you something about Glendale since I was born and raised in the city.

Glendale started out as a nice bedroom community for Los Angeles. Quiet, clean, safe, and charming. Brand Blvd. resembled the main street of just about any small town in the Midwest. Which makes sense since the city was founded by people from there.

Over the last say 10 or so years, Glendale has most certainly lost it's charm. The city went on building campaign that resulted in high rises that clutter up the skyline, permitted tear downs of single family homes to make way for apartment buildings and condo complexes, and allowed people to build these ridiculous, over scale homes in the hillsides. The result...way too many people concentrated in too small an area.

The traffic on the three main North/South streets (Brand, Central, and Pacific) is horrendous. Many of the side streets aren't much better because people are attempting to use them as shortcuts to bypass the traffic on the main streets. I gave up trying to go to the Galleria years ago. It's a nightmare to try and access and not worth the effort in my opinion.

Crime wise, the biggest thing you have to deal with is property crime (burglary, auto theft, vandalism). Violent crime is much lower than in Los Angeles itself or some other surrounding cities. By the same token, Glendale is still probably one of the most under policed cities around. Not nearly enough police officers for the population that the city has. They do a pretty good job of keeping a lid on things but they are stretched a little thin.

The school system in Glendale itself is marginal. There are some schools that are better than others to be sure, but over all they have declined since I went through them. There are gang problems in the schools, mostly generated by the ongoing conflict between Hispanics and Armenians. It's actually quite amusing in that the Armenian gangs pattern themselves after the Hispanic gangs, right down to the clothes, the shaved heads, and the music they listen too. Put them side by side and you most likely wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

And yes, Glendale has the largest concentration of Armenians outside of Armenia itself. And they make their presence known. From demands that the city recognize Armenian Holocaust as a official holiday, to wanting the Armenian flag to be flown at City Hall, they very much believe that Glendale is their city. It all causes no end of tension with long time residents of the city.

I could go on, but then I'm guessing someone would accuse me of being just another negative poster. As I said, Glendale is the city of my birth, but I don't consider it home anymore. There are certainly still beautiful parts of the city and I would be happy to list them if you like. But overall, Glendale is not a place that I would recommend to anyone at this point.

[Ducktales]

Originally Posted by TonyT

Well I think I might be able to tell you something about Glendale since I was born and raised in the city.

Glendale started out as a nice bedroom community for Los Angeles. Quiet, clean, safe, and charming. Brand Blvd. resembled the main street of just about any small town in the Midwest. Which makes sense since the city was founded by people from there.

Over the last say 10 or so years, Glendale has most certainly lost it's charm. The city went on building campaign that resulted in high rises that clutter up the skyline, permitted tear downs of single family homes to make way for apartment buildings and condo complexes, and allowed people to build these ridiculous, over scale homes in the hillsides. The result...way too many people concentrated in too small an area.

The traffic on the three main North/South streets (Brand, Central, and Pacific) is horrendous. Many of the side streets aren't much better because people are attempting to use them as shortcuts to bypass the traffic on the main streets. I gave up trying to go to the Galleria years ago. It's a nightmare to try and access and not worth the effort in my opinion.

Crime wise, the biggest thing you have to deal with is property crime (burglary, auto theft, vandalism). Violent crime is much lower than in Los Angeles itself or some other surrounding cities. By the same token, Glendale is still probably one of the most under policed cities around. Not nearly enough police officers for the population that the city has. They do a pretty good job of keeping a lid on things but they are stretched a little thin.

The school system in Glendale itself is marginal. There are some schools that are better than others to be sure, but over all they have declined since I went through them. There are gang problems in the schools, mostly generated by the ongoing conflict between Hispanics and Armenians. It's actually quite amusing in that the Armenian gangs pattern themselves after the Hispanic gangs, right down to the clothes, the shaved heads, and the music they listen too. Put them side by side and you most likely wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

And yes, Glendale has the largest concentration of Armenians outside of Armenia itself. And they make their presence known. From demands that the city recognize Armenian Holocaust as a official holiday, to wanting the Armenian flag to be flown at City Hall, they very much believe that Glendale is their city. It all causes no end of tension with long time residents of the city.

I could go on, but then I'm guessing someone would accuse me of being just another negative poster. As I said, Glendale is the city of my birth, but I don't consider it home anymore. There are certainly still beautiful parts of the city and I would be happy to list them if you like. But overall, Glendale is not a place that I would recommend to anyone at this point.

So I guess there may be days where I may have to deal with Armenians and Hispanics shooting at each other and I might get hit in the crossfire if I lived there?

I for one would never want to live in a city that has just one race. I'm black and I don't even want to go to a Historically Black College because there are no other races there. I have always been that type of person who likes to live in cities that are diverse or are mixed.

[TonyT]

Ducktales:

I would not go that far. The majority of this back and forth does not include drive by shootings. I'm talking more along the lines of fist fights and the occasional knife fight. Violent yes, but not to the point that innocent bystanders get dragged into it.

I understand your thoughts about living in a diverse community. I would most certainly agree that it makes for a richer culture. Glendale is about 54% white with hispanics making up around 20% of the population. The rest of it is made up of Koreans, Chinese, Filipinos and blacks. Now whether these demographics fit your definition of diverse, only you can say.

My intent was not to scare you away but rather make you aware of things that the Chamber of Commerce folks tend to gloss over. Glendale is not a bad place. In fact it is probably still better than a lot of cities in the L.A. area. It is simply not as nice as it used to be or, in my opinion, could still be. My only advice to you would be to visit the area yourself and get a feel for it. You may find that it suits your needs just fine.

[Dennis P]

I worked in Glendale for a large third-party workers' compensation claims administrator back in 1995-1996. Yes, I commuted from Lakewood to Glendale every day for over a year! (Actually, the traffic was bad only in certain areas, and usually took me 45 minutes each way, coming and going, not bad for a 27-mile commute.) My workplace was located in one of the high-rise buildings directly across from the Glendale Galleria. I enjoyed going to work in part because I was right where the action was on Brand Blvd. and Broadway, with all the shopping and eating places. The traffic on the main roads was bad, however, and parking was VERY hard to find, if you were going shopping at the Galleria.

I have to agree with other posts regarding the large presence of Armenians in Glendale. My workplace had LOTS of them there, and I heard them speaking to each other in their native language often.

Unfortunately, that was the only part of Glendale I'm familiar with, but thought I'd chime in with my experiences of the area.

[LADREAMER]

Ducktales,
I actually live in Glendale and have been looking to move out of the city... The city is over crowded, with a lot of parking issues. The city council just extend building permits without any kind of consideration to the impact on the enviroment.

For a long time I didn't see many blacks in the city however that seems to be changing which I would say it's nice since I enjoy very diverse comunities. However the minuses overwhelmed the pluses and I really want to be out of here... don't like it.

[Ducktales]

And May God Bless everyone of you. Thank God for message boards!