Glendale to Spend $300,000 to Promote Itself Nationwide

Does this slogan catch your attention? “Move Up to the Glendale Triangle on L.A.’s Leading Edge.”

City officials and local business boosters certainly hope so, because they have decided to spend $300,000 on a promotional campaign built around that theme.

The triangle refers to the commercial and residential area around central Glendale, bounded by the Golden State, Ventura and Glendale freeways.

The idea, according to the Burson-Marsteller public relations firm, is to persuade out-of-town corporate leaders that Glendale is conveniently situated and offers a good business and residential environment.

Multimedia Campaign

The nationwide campaign includes brochures, newspaper and magazine advertising, a series of meetings between Glendale businessmen and out-of-town executives and the opening of a central marketing room for all Glendale office and industrial development projects. A videotaped presentation is part of the package.

“We want to promote the advantages of corporate relocation to Glendale and to promote the advantages in the quality of life in Glendale compared to neighboring communities,” Scott Tagliarino, an account executive with Burson-Marsteller, told the Glendale Redevelopment Agency.

On Tuesday, Burson-Marsteller and the Glendale Development Council persuaded the Redevelopment Agency to spend $300,000 on the plan. The council, a private group of business leaders, is to repay the city agency $150,000 as its share of the cost of the project.

$15,000 Seed Money

The Redevelopment Agency, which is composed of the City Council members, had appropriated $15,000 in seed money for the marketing proposal.

Part of that money went toward producing a flashy videotape showing, among other things, new office towers in Glendale, the Galleria shopping center, the central library, City Hall, Forest Lawn cemetery and people talking about how safe, friendly and pro-business Glendale is.

After the presentation and unanimous vote Tuesday, one voice of dissent was heard in the otherwise all-pervasive mood of self-congratulation.

Edward Schneider, a Randall Street resident, said he was disappointed not to have heard a word about what he said were the hundreds of families forced to move because of redevelopment projects or because rents in Glendale have risen too high.

“When we make plans for the future, think about the people who are rooted up and thrown away,” he told the agency.