City, Los Angeles County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Codes: 91201, 91202, 91203, 91204, 91205, 91206, 91207, 91208, 91209, 91210, 91221, 91222, 91225, 91226
Handsome, dynamic and unusual city built in valleys and over two mountain ranges. Loaded with view homes and housing choices. Pretty, clean and well maintained. www.mccormacks.com
School rankings low-middling to high. Third most-populous city in L.A. County, 207,157 residents. Thriving downtown. Distinctive neighborhoods.
Median age of residents is 38. Under 18 years, 22 percent. Over 55 years, 23 percent. Mature demographics. Many empty nesters.
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Why is Glendale unusual? Almost all Los Angeles County cities are built either on flat land or flat land that ascends into hills. Or they are built over gentle hills that often fragment the civic culture and weaken the downtown.
Many cities came out of World War II as villages. When the great housing boom came after the war, the new tracts often obliterated the small-town cohesiveness and atmosphere — instant and, critics charge, sterile suburbia.
Old Glendale started out as farm-commute village at the base of the Verdugo Mountains, a small range, high point 3,126 feet, that runs east-west and peters out in Pasadena. Served by the railroad, just over the hills from Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles, Glendale prospered and by 1940 had a population of 83,000 people residing in 14,000 homes and apartments. www.mccormacks.com
In those days, before freeways, towns were more dependent on local labor. Glendale built its homes for the affluent and it built bungalows and homes for the middle class and cottages and apartments for blue-collar workers and low-income residents. It was a balanced town, leaning toward the high income.
Just north of the downtown, the terrain gradually ascends into the Verdugos, creating valley vistas for many homes. One of the first business leaders, Leslie Brand, built an ornate and lovely home in the hills and this, perhaps, helped establish the north side as prestigious. The home, approached by a road lined with palm trees, was donated to the city and is now used as a library, a park and an arts-lecture-concert center.
When the post-war boom came, Glendale blossomed but the new housing did not overwhelm the old town. Rather, the old neighborhoods filled out and expanded.
A freeway, Highway 134, was routed just north of the downtown and this helped the downtown retain its economic vitality.
To give credit where credit is due, civic and government leaders put a lot of work into the downtown. A lovely movie theater was saved and turned into community playhouse. Redevelopment (an investment-tax capture plan) was used to overhaul the infrastructure and make other improvements. www.mccormacks.com
The Glendale Galleria — Macys, Nordstrom, Penney's, Sears, Mervyns — opened in the downtown, a great magnet for shoppers. Others stores followed, including two giant bookstores and a variety of restaurants. Businesses were retained and wooed. The downtown has about 14 high-rise office buildings and hotels. Many jobs. More people to patronize shops.
At the periphery of the downtown, more jobs and civic boosters in the form of two hospitals and a large college, Glendale Community, enrollment about 31,000.
Between 1940 and 1960, Glendale built about 20,000 housing units — a good amount of old suburbia, the homes typically three-bedroom models. In the 1960s, it erected 10,500 units, in the 1970s, about 11,000 units and in the 1980s, about 12,500 units. In the 1990s, housing starts fell to 5,000. About the 1970s, homes started to add a second story and a fourth bedroom; Glendale has many of these units.
On a map, Glendale looks like it has miles of open space but much of it consists of the steep hills and ravines of the Verdugos — about which residents have become protective. New housing projects in the hills are running into community opposition.
As the city grew, it lost some of its cohesiveness. Glendale annexed north through a gap in the Verdugos and absorbed a large parcel miles away from its downtown, in the foothills of San Gabriel Mountains, near La Crescenta, an unincorporated community. www.mccormacks.com
The San Gabriel neighborhood and La Crescenta should be considered almost one and the same. They have their own elementary, middle and high schools (all in the Glendale district). They have six parks, two community centers and a branch library. Both shop Foothill Boulevard, not mainly downtown Glendale. To get to work, residents use Interstate 210, which parallels Foothill Boulevard.
The housing here, with the exception of Skyview Estates, a cluster of new homes at the top, favors 1960s tract models, ranchers and three-four bedroom homes, well maintained but, by modern standards, modest. The school scores are not modest; they are in the 80th and 90th percentiles. This area is close to the Jet Propulsion Lab and has attracted college-educated professionals passionate about schools.
Returning to the downtown, Glendale also annexed east along Glenoaks Boulevard, Chevy Chase Drive and Camino San Rafael.
Glenoaks Boulevard travels along the floor of a ravine and deadends, which gives it privacy and seclusion. Middle plus to upscale homes, some in a gated community.
Chevy Chase Drive starts in a ravine then ascends into hills with great views. Near end of Chevy Chase: golf course, country club, library.
Camino San Rafael, just above Chevy Chase, quickly moves into the hills. These two streets, and their cul-de-sac spinoffs, have much of housing built over the last 30 years. Both are comfortably upscale, terra cotta roofs, Mediterranean styling. They border Flintridge and west Pasadena, rich neighborhoods. Some residents shop in downtown Pasadena. For commuting, Highway 2, along the west side, and Highway 134 to I-210 and Pasadena. www.mccormacks.com
The state in 2008 counted 74,799 housing units: 26,114 single homes, 3,814 single attached, 44,774 multiples, 97 mobiles. Most of the apartments are located near the downtown and along Cañada Boulevard. Variety of housing choices and styles. Diverse incomes and diverse ethnicity and backgrounds.
Education by the Glendale Unified School District. Academic rankings start at the 30th percentile and top at the 90th, the highest 10 percent in the state. Several schools score in the 40th, 50th and 60th percentiles. For a variety of reasons, scores follow demographics. What these scores and other statistics are saying is, rounded community leaning toward the high end. See Schools.
In 1997, by a vote of 74 percent (good sign), residents passed a $186 million bond to renovate just about all the schools and build new ones. Magnet high school boosts science.
Many activities for kids, adults. Two dozen parks. Three golf courses. Activities and classes at the community college. Old cities usually do very well by parks and rec. Glendale does exceptionally well, especially in encouraging the arts. Little theater. Symphony. Large equestrian center on south side, in Griffith Park, which has 55 miles of trails.
Nineteen homicides in 2005 (train wreck). five in 2004. Counts for previous years are 6, 9, 5, 6, 3, 2, 6, 14, 8, 5, 9, 7. In 2005, in a failed attempt to commit suicide, a man abandoned his SUV on the Metrolink track. Train derailed; 11 killed, over 200 injured. See Crime.
Compared to other places, commute good. Four freeways. About seven miles to downtown L.A. Many media-entertainment jobs in Burbank, which borders Glendale, and in nearby San Fernando Valley. Metrolink (commuter rail) to downtown L.A. and other towns. www.mccormacks.com
• First-class theater, museums and restaurants in Pasadena, to immediate east. Several colleges in region, including Cal Tech and Occidental.
• One Glendale library boasts that it has world's largest collection of books on cats. One central library in town, five branches.
• Forest Lawn Cemetery: W.C. Fields, Humphrey Bogart, Jean Harlow.
• For those who define civilization as a Trader Joe's, Glendale has one. Also a Whole Foods and a Barnes and Noble Bookstore.
• Don't fence me in. Glendale bans front-yard fences. www.mccormacks.com
• New pedestrian signals. City is pitching crosswalk safety to the kids.
For orientation on cities, towns and neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, see County Overview.
Chamber of commerce: (818) 240-7870.
City web site: www.ci.glendale.ca.us
