818 Roundup: Some Burbank-based businesses close up shop, citing sharp rise in rents
The Helping Hands for Animals Thrift Store, at 2800 W. Burbank Blvd. in Burbank, will close at the end of the year. Some local business proprieters who are closing up shop have put the blame on sharply increasing rents.
Good morning, 818. Today is Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015. Temperatures for today are forecasted to reach a high of 84 and a low of 68, with a 30 percent chance of showers during the day, according to the National Weather Service.
Here are your local headlines:
Locally owned Burbank businesses have been disappearing recently, a micro-trend proprietors are blaming on sharply increased rents in spots throughout the city. The latest to announce plans to move is the Helping Hands for Animals Thrift Store, which has occupied a bright yellow building at the corner of Burbank Boulevard and Florence Avenue for four years.
After their surveillance photos were made public, two men suspected in a series of armed robberies reported in Glendale and Los Angeles last month turned themselves in, police said.
La Cañada Unified School District is poised to take advantage of a solar contract that could create more than $5 million in energy savings over two decades but only if it acts fast, a solar company representative told school board members Tuesday.
- Burbank school officials are pushing parents to help prevent unnecessary absences after the district reported losing about $4.5 million in revenue during the 2014-15 school year.
Two men are in custody in connection with a stabbing reported in Glendale early Wednesday morning, police said. The victim, a 21-year-old man, was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, a Glendale Police official said.
- Burbank residents may not be getting the results they expect with a voluntary drug testing policy under which City Council members are randomly selected for screening every three months, Councilman Will Rogers suggested Monday at a special meeting of the City Council. Additionally, he said, “it’s far too invasive.”
After installing solar panels on nearly half of the district’s campuses, Glendale school officials aren’t done yet. The school board recently agreed to apply for clean renewable energy bonds to pay for installing panels at nine schools, only one of which — Glendale High — already has solar panels.
Features editor Steve Appleford talked to Monty Python member and film director Terry Gilliam, who is set to make an appearance at the Alex Theatre on Oct. 19 to discuss his new autobiography.
For nearly three decades, the PTA at La Cañada Elementary has staged its popular Halloween Haunt on the school’s playground, drawing costumed ghouls, princesses and pirates for a day of amusement and fundraising. This year, the event will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24 and is open to the public.
- Woodbury University selected David M. Steele-Figueredo as its new president Wednesday, bringing to an end a six-month search that began after Luis Ma R. Calingo stepped down in February after fewer than three years in the post, citing a mismatch of his abilities and the larger goals of the university’s Board of Trustees.