Burbank, California

Yeah, if you grew up with any kind of sense of values, meaning cultural and aesthetic, not necessarily moral, what’s been going on now is just so enervating.

Where’s that vault?
 
 
 
 

 
Shhh!

Don’t tell the crazed YIMBYs about this — they go nuts at the mere mention of historical preservation in Los Angeles, especially if it takes away any mixed-use possibilities near transit ways.

Think of all this wasted real estate!
 
 

 

As we mentioned yesterday, you should see their feverish plans for South Pasadena.

They can’t wait to get those bulldozers in there.
 
 
 
 

 
They’re a fraudulent existence everywhere…
 
 

 

Oh, it’s them again…
 

The rent freeze that Zohran Mamdani promised when he ran for mayor last year — a promise that won over many of the people who elected him — became a reality on Thursday. 

The Rent Guidelines Board, reconstituted with appointees that Mamdani made earlier this year, approved a plan to not raise the rents on both one- and two-year leases for tenants living in more than 1 million rent-stabilized units across the city. 

But then there’s the reality of the rent freeze vote, which Mamdani and supporters of the move are quick to brush under the rug.

First, the freeze applies only to rent-stabilized units across New York City. Tenants living in open market rentals have no relief. Like their neighbors in rent-stabilized apartments, they face the same affordability crisis — but have no guaranteed break that their landlords won’t raise their rent this year.

Yeah, like these friends of “Mom and Pop” really care about non-stabilized tenants. If so then they’d be advocating a rent freeze for everyone.

They’re all such fucking phonies, aren’t they.
 
 

Second, the “mom-and-pop landlords” of this city who own rent-stabilized buildings will need to figure out how to keep their buildings properly maintained over the next year without any freeze in insurance, taxes, construction, material, permit, and labor costs. That will not be easy to do.

Show us a Mom and Pop who are living at a subsistence level and maybe we’ll be concerned.

That’s how most tenants live. The reality is that most if not all of these landlords-of-concern in Burbank (and elsewhere) have long possessed these bldgs and are making a good profit on them.

Tenant advocates seemed to dismiss the concerns of “mom-and-pop landlords” as they campaigned for the rent freeze. The reality, however, is that close to a third of the city’s housing stock is owned by people who own less than five buildings. For some of these “mom-and-pop landlords,” their buildings are generational wealth, a means to make sure their families can have the same opportunities to live and thrive in New York.

Lol.

Five buildings is not a “Mom and Pop.” One building is. Five buildings is a rental corporation. And in New York City a “building” can be hundreds of units.

Yes, the poor dears. Just trying to retire with some dignity.

Now there was a time actually when Burbank had small family l/ls who’d scrimped and saved for years to get something for the future. We knew several. But that was like 60+ years ago or more.

You know btw who got that future?

It was the kids and grandkids who all inherited these Burbank properties. So yeah, let’s boo-hoo for Mom and Pop.

Our wonderful Burbank “housing providers.” Lol.

 
Good article in MyBurbank today.
 
 


 

Who knew about this local stuff?
 

Neat.
 
 
 
 

 
Ten years after these films were made we thought they were hilarious. In that short a period of time. We were all on the floor.

But unfortunately we’re back to this kind of wacky horror and paranoia about sex again.
 
 

 
“Give my regards to your mother,” lol. From the morally perturbed family doctor with an ashtray on his desk.

A few years ago for some reason we posted a bunch of Herk Harvey films. He had a way of making teenage sin seem kind of delectable — at least with the 30 year olds he cast. There’s such a great contrast here between the enthusiastically sneaky bad girls and the straight uptight adults.
 
 
 
 

 
Shaw’s first words to an American audience on a new invention called radio.
 
 
 
 

 
Brooks had just gotten off his huge Young Frankenstein hit and could write his own ticket.
 
 

This reminds us of all these modern-day academics now who tell their students that the reason why All in the Family was such a big hit was because people used to tune into it every week so that they could cheer Archie Bunker.

Seriously. This has become received opinion. Everyone back then was an odious asshole worthy of contempt and ridicule but look how bright and aware we are by comparison.

We’re just so good and cool now.
 
 
 
 

 
These are unbelievable statistics if you know anything about what this area was like 30, 40, or 50 years ago.
 
 

 

 
South Pass has some major problems with SB 79 coming in. Tragic problems, really.

Look at how loud and ugly these apt buildings are in the official little utopian dream-projections they hand out. These boosters could at least show some taste considering the cool nature of the area they want to ruin.
 
 

Trouble Ahead: SB 79 Comes for South Pasadena – What the New Statewide ‘Transit Housing Law’ Actually Is

 
Because South Pasadena’s a smaller city they have a quarter-mile radius from their rail line to be concerned about instead of a half-mile like Burbank, but that’s where all their historic properties are.

Naturally, the YIMBYs are thrilled. They’re even competing with each other to see who can target the most potential teardowns while mocking and ridiculing the existence of these old early 20th-century properties all the way.

It’s truly nuts.

 
That’s an exorbitant amount.

We remember when it was $1.10! Which seemed much more reasonable at the time.
 
 

 

Remember a while back when some of the Bob’s were trying to pawn non-Bob’s dressings off on the salads? What an idea.

We’ll take Tommy’s over any of these places. Tamale, extra chili, extra tomato. Tommy’s is so much a better value, and infinitely hipper.
 
 
 
 

 
You can also easily detect who wrote it — which is usually someone on some payroll somewhere. Or a big need or desire to use AI.

Or both.
 
 
 
 

 
Unless this is some kind of virtue-signaling, badge-of-honor, “look at me” self-advertisement of something as dumb and lightweight as your sexual proclivity, big deal. And if it is that, why?

Also, Glendale? Jesus, get a life…
 
 

 

Incidentally, this reminds us. Why is straight sex now so quickly and easily defined as predation when males are involved — always potentially culpable — but gay sex among males is always automatically deemed to be a wonderful expression of the human spirit?

Gay guys never stalk, harass, or assault? You never hear about it.

Really, don’t you want to tell most people to just shut the hell up in public? Especially about sex. This kind of stuff is like 40 years out of date. The point’s been made and accepted. Onward and upward.
 
 
 
 
 

 
Better Disney than Nazis.
 
 

 
The rancid attitudes of the people there really has made the UK completely ungovernable. You can just tell now.

Stiff-upper-lip time, yes…
 
 

 

You know what 25C is in Fahrenheit?

77 degrees. 31.2C is 88 degrees.

So yeah, ok, they’re not used to it. So what. And contrary to popular belief, LA is not like Phoenix. Most homes in Southern California do NOT have much air conditioning to speak of. Maybe a window unit.

Few places built before the mid-1980s here have any kind of real AC at all.

All this snowflake-y hysteria, and it’s everywhere now. Get a grip, people. And cut all the damned umbrage and intolerance about the frigging weather, OK?

No one’s doing it to you. There’s no one to angrily blame for this. It’s fucking summer.
 

 

 
That’s 97 degrees Fahrenheit.

The horror, yes.
 

 

 
Scorching? Deadly?

Seriously? This is all performative, isn’t it. Strained sensibilities and all that, proving thus how sensitive and caring everyone is. Hype and excess, that kind of thing. And catered to by a corrupt and psychotic corporate media machine.

Or are there no sane people left anywhere? What would people do now if something really bad happened in the world?
 
 
 
 

 
Subliteracy now reigns supreme no doubt. Gaming is such a total waste of time and effort.
 
 

Yeah, who needs libraries now. Tear ‘em down and sell off the real estate to your favorite developer.
 
 
 
 

 
The use of this totally phony euphemism is always a great tipoff about what a complete asshole the user is.
 
 

 
She also thinks that a solution to the current housing crisis is more government subsidies to the lesser-housed — money that will then immediately flow into the pockets of these same “housing providers” and mortgage holders. In other words, socialism for the rich and well-heeled.

This woman will be easy to beat as long as her opponents really stress the fact that she’s a Republican fraud. Make this upcoming city council election in Burbank as partisan as you can.

Unlike the school board elections in California it’s perfectly legal to do so.
 
 
 
 

 
These YIMBY/BRT fanatics are delusional enough to think they’re not only on the right side of this issue but that the people of Burbank actually support them.

You know they’re assholes too simply because anyone who’s dealing in good faith here would easily see the point of the concerns and criticisms of this intermingling of the proposed BRT and SB79 even if you felt the need for the two.

You wouldn’t so easily hate and ridicule.
 
 

 

No one voted for this fixed-lane BRT scheme in particular, not in Burbank or anywhere else. They voted for real authentic rapid transit options. They also didn’t vote for scores of huge apartment buildings suddenly showing up in their neighborhoods simply because of a new busway-loophole in the law, and that includes the local renters who voted too.

“Bus” rapid transit. How ridiculously oxymoronic can you get.
 
 
 
 

 
We suspect that ever since those Frederick Wiseman and Maysles proposals stopped coming in there’s been more time for reflection.
 
 

 

Literary properties can be chancy.
 

 
Reach for the Stars, yes.
 
 
 
 

 
It’s just gotta go.

Right?
 
 

 
Right?

And it doesn’t match at all Burbank’s wonderful new public art that’s been sprouting up everywhere. Reason enough to replace it.
 
 
 
 

 
Who voted for this horrendous “art”? And didn’t Electra kill her father or something?

Why would you want two of them?
 
 

 
You know what this reminds us of?

A pair of cryotubes.
 

 
There’s some kind of worrying protoplasm going on there in front of the new airport that we really don’t want to have to think about right before the flight.

Like did anyone stop and realize after looking at this in the planning stage that perhaps there should be a reconsideration here? That, “You know guys, this is just a little too visually reminiscent of what happens when an alien invasion is probably on it’s way…?”

That besides being ugly, these weird whatever-obelisks are also kind of stupid-looking in the overall connotation dept? You know, because of movies and all?

In Media City?

Or is the idea to be deliberately campy like the entrance to Fry’s — which looked awful creepy btw after 9/11. From cute and clever to creepy is often a very short leap.

But what do we know. People in Burbank love this:
 

‘Where’s the rest of me!’

“Where’s the Rest of Me!” and Abe nodding off. Public art!
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
We miss all the bookstores you used to find them in!

Remember Al’s Book Nook next to Bill’s Ranch Market? They had tons of great mass market paperbacks along with the magazines. All subjects, and especially scholarly/academic. One of the Marak brothers worked there for years.

The 7/11 on Glenoaks and Cypress had a big assortment too, near the front window.

That’s right: 7-11.

The Book Mark on the Mall was proud to offer what were once known as “quality paperbacks,” like their great curated assortment of Penguins and Scribners.

The Franks would go every month or two to the Vroman’s distribution warehouse in Pasadena and use a shopping cart to hand-select the kind of books they liked and thought would sell.

They were nice people too. The best. They cared a lot about stuff like that.

You know, there’s nothing wrong with change. Everything changes. But there’s a big problem with loss.
 
 
 
 

 
Are these things for real?
 

 

 
These social media posts always take the same form. First, a breathlessly enthusiastic affirmation about how Burbank is the most wonderful place the writer has ever been to and that they’re just so thrilled that they were lucky enough to have moved here only last month. But, what to do?

Then, in quick return, a swarm of eager responses erupts with what look to be in hand a little-too-conveniently-cited list of local businesses in which a new arrival can easily satisfy exactly what the curious poster is so motivated to have wanted to discover on their own but somehow couldn’t.

It’s like, yeah right, uh-huh. All these curious and confused new locals. Can you spell B-I-D maybe? Few of these named attractions will appeal to anyone over the age of 20 either, or younger than 40. And it’s usually always the same ones mentioned (we’re surprised actually that they left out Geeky Teas).

Face it. Burbank’s a great town for kids and geezers who still think they’re kids (or kids like us who turned out to be premature geezers), but for anyone else it’s always been kind of a legendary snooze fest.

And if you have any brains now then you better also have a garden at home to work on. And a car.
 
 
 
 

 
You’ve got to be kidding. Still.
 

 

 
 
What if something really bad happened locally?

Can you imagine all the angst, the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth?
 
 
 
 

 
It’s the Burbank we used to love: Allen Nut and Bolt on Burbank Blvd; the never-equaled Haggerty Plumbing on little San Fernando; Enoch’s Muffler on Magnolia; the auto blacksmith guy next door to Dino’s Pizza; Mike’s Auto Parts; the nice fellow on Victory who sold nothing but ancient welding equipment right next door to Mike Power’s MG shop and Rare Records.

Etc etc. Real destination joints from all over.
 
 

 
Lockheed leaving in the early 90s did a total number on so many of these neat boutique-y businesses. Burbank was never the same.

There are still a few around though, like Burbank House of Hobbies and Autobooks. Still big favorites.
 
 
 
 
 

 
It’s always the shallow novelty shit they’ve got going on there. When this outfit gets the next Herzog premiere someone should let us know.

Hey, he’s a local. Why not?
 
 

 
Exactly whose culture?
 

“This screening perfectly represents what BIFF is all about — bringing audiences together to celebrate the films and artists that have shaped our culture,” said Anna Maybury, President of the Burbank International Film Festival. “We’re honored to welcome the cast and fans for this special milestone anniversary and create an unforgettable experience in the Media Capital of the World.”

Next year, a salute to Henri Langlois and the Cinémathèque Française!

Ah, and why the hell not as well? There’s no audience for such a thing? Then fuck the audience. Maybe you’ll build one.

Did we ever mention btw that downtown Burbank once had eight or nine different bookstores there all at the same time? And they were to each very good.

 
Hate to disappoint the self-righteous feel-gooders out there, but we’ve seen FL deeds of that very same era from the top available fancy Gardens at the site and there was nothing like this on them at all.
 
 

 

And your point is dude … exactly what? That (you) people are so commendably squeaky clean now by comparison?

That is indeed what all this constant reproachful finger-pointing and gleeful virtue-signaling is about these days, and it’s become more than annoying.

Just as are those local holier-than-thou types who delight in repeatedly insisting that Burbank was once a “sundown city” when it never, ever was. To think it was obviously gives them some kind of perverse personal satisfaction.
 
 
 
 

 
Or Big Money in housing at all. Just like they’ll never talk about rent control as a necessary corollary to growth in high-demand areas.

Instead, it’s always, “Hey, more housing = affordability for everyone!”
 
 

 
 
It’s a start.
 
 
 
 
 

 
Can you imagine what most people would do now — especially the younger crowd — if there were some kind of real local emergency?
 
 

 
Can you also imagine what would happen if there were still those big smog-attack weeks like what Southern California used to have to endure in the early 50s and 60s?

They’d all fucking dissolve away like what those women’s nylons had happen to them.

 
Life obviously ends early now for many. That’s too bad. It makes us 70s kids look like Spartan warriors.
 
 
 
 

 
What the hell is this, and why is it supposed to be funny/clever/cool/anything?
 
 

 
Always remember that these social media sites and Reddit in particular now everywhere are chock full of paid and amateur influencers and PR propaganda plants on a constant mission to promote and exploit. It’s the completely mindless lack of critical perspective that’s always the tip-off.

You can tell real quickly that this is the case because no one with half a brain or a decent life to live would gush so excessively and stupidly about a pretty mediocre place like Burbank, Ca.
 

 
Most of this is bogus; one person jumps in and then they all follow. The script is always the same too: Like it’s the mostest bestest place to live that they’ve ever seen and they’re just so lucky to be here!

Thanks for everything, Burbank!
 
 
 
 

 
Who says AI isn’t useful? Get with it, Hollywood.
 
 
 
 
 

 
We won’t go that far.

Yeah, let them go.

Almost every migration scheme in human history has ended badly. It’s amazing that the gene pool has survived this long considering how whittled down the population got at times and how few the number of individuals were who survived these fateful journeys.

We’re the type who would have stayed back at the village and hung out with the women and gardened around the place a bit. Civilization building!
 
 
 
 

 
They’re talking here about that old reservoir up near Palm Park (there’s another newer one under Palm Park, No. 4 — and there are actually three reservoirs in that area called 1, 2, and 4).
 
 

They’ve been patching No. 2 for years. We remember when you could see water leaking every once in a while from that general location onto Sunset Canyon before No. 1 was replaced.

There are three reservoirs right next to each other in that neighborhood.
 

 
These YIMBYs really are such total fools.

Their car-less, uber-Manhattan fantasy for a geography that simply doesn’t need it is insane.
 
 

The big phony joke about this picture here is that this is NOT what their YIMBY paradise would look like. They can’t even be honest about it.

They left out the rows and rows of the thousands of 6- and 9-story apartment buildings (and higher) that will comprise their little fantasy dream world (!)

It ain’t gonna look like Rancho Park here, assholes. So how completely dishonest can you be?

It ain’t gonna look like this, you fucking lying assholes-on-the-take.

And condos. Yeah, for a million dollars plus maybe.

There will be no bargains or housing “affordability” in their nightmarish, 21st-century high-density hellhole.
 
 
 
 

 
We love this huge “woke” myth going around these days in scholarly circles and elsewhere that the LA Freeway system was deliberately designed by old white racists to harm and destroy ethnic neighborhoods by splitting them up into pieces and make people scatter. It’s become received opinion by now — a truism.

Hardly.
 
 

 
 
Yeah. Tell that to those BH residents.

The bitter truth for the righteous revisionists is that the LA freeway system impinged upon white affluent and middle class neighborhoods far more than ethnic. There really weren’t even that many ethnic neighborhoods back in the late 1950s anyway.

Anyone who knows maps and LA history knows this fact. Just look at where they go through. And wanted to.

But, what can you say. People believe what they want to believe especially if it makes them feel morally superior. We’re so much … better now!
 
 
 
 

 
How gawdawful. They’re really doing it.

Imagine having to live inside one of these new apt units with the lights on all time…
 
 


 
Admittedly we’ve always preferred the patina-of-age look with these old buildings — the way God intended age to look — but this is really beyond the pale…

“The Flatiron Building is now illuminated for the first time in its 124‑year history, marking a major milestone in the landmark’s exterior restoration and residential conversion,” a spokesperson for the project told Newsweek. The lighting installation comes as scaffolding is gradually removed and portions of the restored façade are revealed, signaling a visible turning point in the long‑awaited revival of the building designed by the late American architect Daniel Burnham.

 
Ugh. Who left lights off, btw.

That’s kind of the original color they stripped it down to, but what’s the deal with wanting to artificially light everything up these days? It’s totally gross and tacky. There was obviously a reason why it’s never been done before.

Now it is kind of witty when the Empire State Building does it, but this one is totally out of scale. Not only does it look like a flatiron, it looks like a flatiron that just came out of the fire.

Why do people always have to louse things up now?

As the old saying goes, all their taste is in their mouth.

 
You just know some kind of nonsense is gonna go down there.
 
 

 

Exactly where is this?
 
 

 

It’s on the official Burbank webpage. Is there a new AI Burbank somewhere?

This is what it came up with?

That’s sure a lot of white soccer fans. Is that Konstantine there taking pictures of the sky?
 
 
 
 

 
 
Yeah, their conflict of interest, lol.
 
 
 
 
 

 
From foolishly going after the local Chris Rizzotti for petty reasons and making life difficult for Konstantine Anthony, to this, progressives everywhere have become completely expert lately in always shooting themselves in the foot…
 
 

 

We won’t get into the details here but this is a totally great idea.

Except for this:

The proposed legislation, passed by the state legislature on June 5, would require every homeless shelter to have Wi-Fi available in common and private areas, and require shelters to provide internet with upload and download speeds of at least 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps).

It‘ll be a miracle if the corporatist Hochul signs this bill because that is a ridiculously excessive and expensive/difficult-to-obtain speed requirement. Why not just make it 200 megabytes per second and call it quits?

Just 10 would be enough.

No one needs a gigabit per second unless they’re stealing movies on torrents half the night. So why do it this way?

You really gotta death wish, don’t you liberals? We should put that description in scare quotes too. Because if only they really were.

 
Ruth Leitman. Super 8. This is a seriously great film.
 
 
 
 

 
Of course they did. Several times.
 
 

 
One of the big ones at Burbank City Hall was deliberately kept behind a blackout curtain for years. Post Office almost lost theirs several times.

There’s other good stuff now that few in town want to preserve. People laugh at the idea.
 
 
 
 

 
What a ridiculous and almost bigoted assertion.
 
 

 
The YIMBYs and anti-car fanatics are making fun here of a Koreatown fantasy of having nothing but parking lots to help alleviate the big parking problem down there … and that that’s what all the supposed NIMBY racists and idiots in Burbank would like as well.

There are very reasonable objections to fixed-lane busways and wanting to cram everyone into huge apt buildings just because LA somehow has the moral requirement to become a 21st-century Manhattan on steroids.

These guys are going to ultimately fail in their ideological quest of turning Southern California into a Complete Streets paradise of buses and super dense mega-complex apartment living, but they’re gonna cause a lot of damage along the way.
 
 
 
 

 
Here’s an obviously wasted trip.
 
 

 
Are these tacky schemes for real?

Bring back those bookstores, please.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
BPD everywhere.

This is one of the best things we’ve seen in a long time.

 
Dumb, petty behavior is always contagious.

Didn’t they know that Rizzotti was going to retaliate? And probably in the dumbest possible thuggish knee-jerk way?
 
 

 
“Chaos in the Community…”

Lol. These two right-wingers are giving him way too much credit — if only KA were that influential.

It’s best to ignore them, not bait them. They’re in the deep minority now.
 
 
 
 

 
 
In other words the antitrust investigation hadn’t been completed.
 
 
 
 

 
In our own minor-league way we know what happens when authority figures launch bogus “investigations” in order to get you out of the picture.

You should have heard the lies that were said about us here “off the record,” to many different individuals both public and private, back in the days when blogs were in season and we were getting like 5,000 hits a day and really starting to cause pain.
 
 

This is also called “opposition research,” which specifically involves deliberately depositing derogatorily false and slanderous “information” about the subject on the interviewees at the same time, and that about 98 percent of the people involved end up absolutely believing as true and then spread around to others. That’s the tactic behind it, and you really learn who your friends are.

Which is basically no one.

So does this subterfuge and evil bad faith work? Sure it does, with the credulous morons and the mean-spirited. Is there much else out there now?

 
Huge difference, braintrust.

So there’s nothing here to be sarcastic about…
 
 

 
Condescending jerk.

If you’re a regular Streetsblog reader, you’ve probably seen this story before…

 
There’s nothing wrong or inconsistent or wacky about objecting to some of these ridiculously ill-conceived transit plans. These big bureaucracies often get a hold of bad ideas and through arrogance or mass ineptitude they just won’t ever let them fucking go.

And no one’s going to tell them otherwise. It’s group psychosis.

Also … and we’ve said this many times … how come Burbank and Glendale aren’t getting rail? They get cheesy buses instead.

That’s how concerned the MTA is about this area. Second tier, second class.

 
Why?

What kind of crowd was it?
 
 

 
The previews make this movie look like it was shot and directed like a streamer, with those same kind of dumb, shallow, humorless, serioso, in-your-face performances and a complete lack of verisimilitude. Like he used the first or second take before they rid themselves of the posturing.

Hardly typical of Spielberg. So is this new look and mise-en-scène the future of movies?

If so then no doubt in time the frame will be vertical as well. Landscape mode is such a bore. It shows way too much and it’s not all actors!

The paranoid/conspiracy mongering appeal of this movie is also pretty depressing. It’s obviously been IQ-dropping time everywhere now.

And when you get to be his age, shouldn’t you really rather be doing prose poems about truth art and beauty? Or maybe, real life?
 

 
More fantasizing about end times? How about end of your tether.
 
 
 
 

 
We’ve noticed that there’s been an obvious pattern in the media lately of going after cool long-haired kids and making them out to be irresponsible morons in need of tough guidance from the Man…
 
 

 
The people who are running the show now really do have their heads up their ass. They’re just completely vile every way around.

This is a sister ad btw to the other hippie-punching one where a condescending AI voice passes judgement on what is the supposedly understood foolishness of some cool young kid wanting to invest his money in a “vintage rock t-shirt” from the 80s.

Like, what in the world is wrong with that? It’s only 80 bucks. Let the kid spend his money how he wants to, asshole. Who the hell are you?

That shirt will also soon be worth a helluva lot more than any dumb 1 percent annual return from a rip-off bank account.
 
 

Everyone obviously hates this annoying, arrogant commercial. These institutions and the people who run them truly are nuts. But does it matter?