Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
September 17 2004
Trends emerging in election results
Two days after residential and retail project is approved, voting
patterns start to develop.
By Robert Chacon, News-Press
GLENDALE — Both sides in the campaign to bring the $264.2-million
Americana at Brand project to Glendale are still analyzing the
numbers, but at least one councilman thinks it came down to
homeowners versus renters.
What is certain is that during Tuesday’s election for measures A, B
and C, about 29,500 city residents showed up at the polls, which,
according to Councilman Dave Weaver, is roughly 36% of the city’s
registered voters. That’s the highest turnout Weaver can remember.
A vast majority of people in southern Glendale, below Colorado Street
— an area with the densest population of renters — voted against the
project. When you start to look at single-family homes and the north
area of the city you’ll see that a majority of them supported the
Americana at Brand, Weaver said.
“I think that after the numbers are counted, it will become obvious
that the campaign was renters versus homeowners,” Weaver said.
Voters in precincts closest to the project’s location across from the
Glendale Galleria opposed it. Concerns about parking and traffic
around the outdoor mall once it is built were raised throughout the
intense campaign waged by developer Rick Caruso and General Growth,
owners of the Glendale Galleria.
A majority of voters in 22 precincts favored the project, and a
majority of voters in 18 precincts opposed it. Most precincts showed
close races, but some had lopsided margins. In those precincts where
voters overwhelmingly supported the project, those margins were much
higher than the ones in precincts where a high majority of voters
opposed the Americana.
Overall, the three measures that reinforced the project won approval
from the residents with an rate hovering near 51%.
Linda Berman, vice president of corporate communications and brand
strategy for Caruso, said that she would not comment on the results
of the election until a more detailed analysis is completed, which
could come in the next two weeks.
“We will want to know where we were strong and where we weren’t. We
know that we had a majority of the support but we want to know where
it came from and who got out and voted,” she said.
General Growth officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Poll numbers also revealed that the city’s Armenian-American
population voted in favor of the project, Mayor Bob Yousefian said.
“Based on the numbers we have so far, on election day about 60% of
the Armenian population voted for the project,” he said.
From: Baghdasarian