Glendale Galleria

Lolita Harper MEDIA CITY CENTER -- Although many shoppers said they come to the Media City Center Mall to avoid large crowds, there was no escaping the masses of people who scrambled to buy last-minute gifts this weekend. At Kaybee Toys, the line to the cash register was consistently 20 people deep, despite the increase in open registers. And dozens of shoppers milling about the aisles made the store hard to navigate. "It's busy and crazy," said Kaybee Toys employee Jinggay Alba.

Claudia Peschiutta GLENDALE -- Of all the galleries in all the cities in all the world, Thomas Kinkade chose to stop into hers. Beverly Bruce isn't sure why Thomas Kinkade at the Glendale Galleria, one of the artist's signature galleries, was selected for a visit. "I don't know why, but I sure feel blessed," she said. Kinkade -- a popular artist known for paintings of countryside scenes and cozy cottages -- will make a personal appearance at the gallery on Nov. 19, when he will sign the first 300 lithographs sold at the Glendale locale through Nov. 18. "This is a very wonderful, unique opportunity," Bruce said.

Ryan Carter BURBANK -- Lions clubs in Burbank and Glendale are asking trick or treaters to trade their old eyeglasses for treats as they knock on doors this Halloween. That's right. The little ghosts and goblins will give the used eyeglasses they have collected to the person who hands them the treats. Then, those who receive the eyeglasses are to take them either to the Lenscrafters in the Glendale Galleria, 2148 Glendale Galleria; to Industrial Plastics, 1525 Flower St., in Burbank; or Daniels Transfer & Storage, 6150 San Fernando Road, in Glendale.

DOWNTOWN GLENDALE — Shopper Viridiana Lugo slouched into a wood bench as she drifted to sleep early Friday while hundreds of people with shopping bags scurried around her at the Glendale Galleria. Lugo slipped off a boot for a much-needed break and surveyed about dozen shopping bags that her group had accumulated — and it was only 5 a.m. “We didn’t get much sleep because we have been up 24 hours straight,” she said. “I am tired.” Lugo and her family were just a few of the people who arrived at the sprawling mall the pre-dawn hours for Black Friday deals.

Robert Chacon The Glendale Galleria, Burbank Town Center and Rose Bowl have been selected by the Department of Homeland Security to receive a portion of $13 million allocated to California for terrorism preparedness. The three local sites are among 73 locations throughout California which will share the grant funding -- which includes $50,000 per potential site, said David Sommers, spokesman for Los Angeles Supervisor Don Knabe, a member of the State and Local Officials Senior Advising Committee to the Homeland Security Council.

Shopper Viridiana Lugo slouched into a wood bench as she drifted to sleep early Friday while hundreds of people with shopping bags scurried around her at the Glendale Galleria. Lugo slipped off a boot for a much-needed break and surveyed about a dozen shopping bags that her group had accumulated — and it was only 5 a.m. “We didn’t get much sleep because we have been up 24 hours straight,” she said. “I am tired.” Lugo and her family were just a few of the people who arrived at the sprawling mall during the pre-dawn hours for Black Friday deals.

GAIN GLENDALE SHOULD KEEP ITS OWN CRIMINALS It's bad enough that the city of Burbank has a homegrown criminal element, but when court officials try to force the Burbank Superior Court to hear Glendale's criminal hearings in exchange for tame civil hearings, enough is enough. And that's basically what the Burbank City Council told Glendale when all five council members unanimously agreed to oppose the plan hatched by Los Angeles Superior Court officials in order to streamline the court system.

Send DATEBOOK items to Burbank Leader, 221 N. Brand Blvd., 2nd Floor, Glendale, CA 91203 or fax to (818) 241-1975. Submissions must be received two weeks before publication. ? TODAY The Disney Store in the Glendale Galleria is hosting its first Super Sleuth ?Hunny? Pot Hunt, inspired by Disney Channel?s Playhouse Disney series ?My Friends Tigger & Pooh,? from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2227 Glendale Galleria, Glendale. Youngsters 3 and older are invited to participate in a scavenger hunt through the store.

TODAY Burbank?s La Providencia Guild of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Thrift Shop has added sales days today and July 24 for selected clothing items in addition to the 10% discount on Wednesdays for seniors. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, at The Childrens Hospital Thrift Shop, 3301 W. Burbank Blvd., Burbank. Call (818) 846-7888 or e-mail fancynanj@ charter.net. ? The Disney Store in the Glendale Galleria is hosting its first Super Sleuth ?

Gary Morris joins Pasadena Pops LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- The Pasadena Pops Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Rachael Worby, will have Gary Morris as its special guest at the final concerts of the summer season Sept. 13 and 14 at Descanso Gardens. Morris will perform his No. 1 hit "Wind Beneath My Wings" and sing selections from "Les Miserables," in which he played Jean Valjean on Broadway. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking and the concerts begin at 7:30 both nights.

At Bliss Unlimited in the Burbank Town Center, everything has a back story. Take, for example, the work of San Francisco-based Serendipity Glass Studio artist Carla Geraghty, an Army wife who creates decorative fixtures and glass vases. Or the bowls made out of recycled candy packaging by kids in India or the bowls made out of recycled telephone wire made in Vietnam. Each art piece and ware the retail gift shop sells can be traced to independent artists around the world — from India and Guatemala to Vietnam and El Salvador.

Would you believe there once was an empty lot where, only a few decades ago, a traveling circus would arrive, set up a genuine “big top” and proceed to joyfully entertain Burbank residents young and old for a couple of weeks each year? Welcome to Beautiful Downtown Burbank, 1975. The ultra-modern Golden Mall, one of our town’s great commercial failures, began where Macy’s now meets Cypress Avenue. Mall organizers took six blocks of San Fernando Boulevard, blocked off automobile traffic and tried to make the old shopping district a user-friendly shopping experience with trees, fountains, grassy areas, benches and, of course, a wide variety of stores.

If you’re anything like me, you avoid with great effort having to commute to “the other side of the hill.” So, when this year’s Los Angeles Marathon route cut a Mason-Dixon Line from downtown to the Santa Monica Pier, only one thing could make me want to get in my car and venture into that warzone on race day. My wife. Though her already healthy limits of personal fortitude are tested daily by yours truly and proven sound, she’s always looking for new ways to push herself.

General Growth Properties, which operates the Glendale Galleria and Burbank Town Center, rejected a $10-billion bid Tuesday from rival Simon Properties Inc. that could have brought the firm out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. General Growth had considered the offer over the last week, before Simon Properties made the bid public, but in a response Tuesday said it had determined the offer was “not sufficient to preempt the process we are undertaking to explore all avenues to emerge from Chapter 11 and maximize value for all the company’s stakeholders.

Shopper Viridiana Lugo slouched into a wood bench as she drifted to sleep early Friday while hundreds of people with shopping bags scurried around her at the Glendale Galleria. Lugo slipped off a boot for a much-needed break and surveyed about a dozen shopping bags that her group had accumulated — and it was only 5 a.m. “We didn’t get much sleep because we have been up 24 hours straight,” she said. “I am tired.” Lugo and her family were just a few of the people who arrived at the sprawling mall during the pre-dawn hours for Black Friday deals.

DOWNTOWN GLENDALE — Shopper Viridiana Lugo slouched into a wood bench as she drifted to sleep early Friday while hundreds of people with shopping bags scurried around her at the Glendale Galleria. Lugo slipped off a boot for a much-needed break and surveyed about dozen shopping bags that her group had accumulated — and it was only 5 a.m. “We didn’t get much sleep because we have been up 24 hours straight,” she said. “I am tired.” Lugo and her family were just a few of the people who arrived at the sprawling mall the pre-dawn hours for Black Friday deals.

DOWNTOWN — Expectations grew Thursday for improved holiday sales as retailers in October posted their biggest gains in more than a year, renewing hope for a major improvement over the dismal 2008 winter season. Retail sales at 32 U.S. chain stores jumped 2.1% in October compared with a year ago, the second consecutive month of growth following 13 months of declines, the International Council of Shopping Centers reported Thursday. Another survey found mixed signs of improvement in the retail segment, with October same-store sales growing 1.8% over 2008 marks, which was lower than an expected 2% increase, but still a positive sign, according to a Thomson Reuters analysis of 30 national companies.

DOWNTOWN — Halloween retailers have taken up prime positions in Glendale and Burbank, moving into unfilled space left behind by box stores Circuit City and Mervyns. The stores are adding to increasingly fierce competition for Halloween consumers, who will have at least five choices in Burbank and four in Glendale to search for gorilla masks and superhero costumes this season. While the stores have generated traffic in areas that haven’t seen much activity for months, they have also been a surprising change for some shoppers, managers said.