As per LAO, Mall Developer Rick Caruso recoups some of his expensive campaign costs associated with getting his Americana project in Glendale through a referendum process, Times reports:

Caruso gets $74 million in justice

When the owner of the Glendale Galleria pressured the Cheesecake Factory not
to move into developer Rick Caruso's adjacent Americana at Brand shopping
mall, he sued. The jury awarded Caruso $74 million in compensatory damages
for "fraud, malice and oppression."

For awhile, Caruso's proposed Shops at Santa Anita in Arcadia looked headed in the same direction, but a referendum appears off the table with owner of adjacent-mall Westfield Santa Anita opting instead for the litigation route.

Posted by Todd at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There was hardly a dull moment at Tuesday night's Arcadia City Council meeting.

With 15 minutes to type Wednesday's story, here's a few details worth mentioning that didn't make it:

1. Before opening the public hearing on whether to approve Westfield's second phase expansion known as "The Promenade," the City Council voted 4 to 1 to make new rules for that hearing and next week's hearing when it will decide the fate of Caruso Affiliated's The Shops at Santa Anita.

Speaker cards will be collected up until the start of the hearing, at which point the City Clerk will do a Las Vegas-style shuffling to randomize the order they are called. This is in response to voluminous complaints received after the previous week's Planning Commission meeting where proponents and opponents turned in thick stacks of cards -- and according to the city -- the proponents happened to come first.

"It didn't look right," said Councilman Peter Amundson on Tuesday, although he agreed it was an unintended oversight. Amundson added that the city would have to "go overboard" to appear "above the board."

Councilman John Wuo voted against it and questioned why the city should deviate from its traditional process of allowing proponents to be followed by opponents.

The motive cited was that with upward of 100 people wanting to speak, opponents would be required to wait late into the night to speak. Then there's the reporters, who eager to gauge the audience's opinion have to bug out at 9:30 p.m. to write their stories.

Continue reading "Migraine + public hearing = bad times" »

Posted by Todd at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"Brevity is the soul of wit," the Bard wrote.

That imperative of every writer wasn't lost on Gregory Carter, who writes:

from: GREGORY CARTER
to: todd.ruiz@sgvn.com
date: Mar 21, 2007 10:16 AM
subject: poor coverage

you should be fired

More than a terse critique of my overall job performance, Gregory's comment was soon clarified as part of a letter-writing campaign initiated by Arcadia First! 24 hours after Monday night's meeting of the Arcadia Planning Commission.

Opponents of The Shops at Santa Anita are fuming because they felt short-changed during the public comment portion of the meeting, where the commissioners sat before a capacity-bursting crowd at the Masonic temple on Duarte.

Despite a clear majority of the audience raising their hands in support of the project, (or, as one paid opponent suggested, was it "hands?") I was surprised when the first nine of 10 speakers used their three minutes of time to adamantly express their support.

Being professionally and naturally curious ...

(My third-grade teacher at Baldwin Stocker gave me a ribbon which read "Most Inquisitive," to which I immediately said "What does inquisitive mean?")

... once back from Eldon Bowman's place in Simi Valley, I reached for the phone to call up Assistant City Manager Don Penman and ask if he could explain.

Not that it will quiet whispers of conspiracy, but he did, and it's "after the jump."

Continue reading ""Your noble son is mad"" »

Posted by Todd at 4:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)