Economy

GLENDALE — Fewer motorists will be traveling this Thanksgiving due to the state’s economic downturn, officials said. Californians have less money to spend on travel this year, even with plummeting gas prices, said Marie Montgomery, spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California. Travel by car and airplane has declined 2% this holiday as compared to last year, which is the first decrease of its kind since 2002, she said. But while overall travel is down, Montgomery said, motorists should still expect traffic congestion on major highways, because about 82% of the holiday’s travelers will be driving.

GLENDALE — Home prices in the region fell slightly in August while sales of new homes decreased for the first time in six months as officials continue to notice the slow decline of a once bursting housing market that could be correcting itself after a prolonged period of increased home values. In Glendale, the average price for a single-family home fell about 11% in August to $614,500. The average price for a home in La Crescenta dropped 14.1% to $599,000 while the price of an average single-family home in Montrose shot up 9.6% to $655,000, according to local Realtors and DataQuick Information Systems, a La Jolla-based market research firm.

It was an adventure hatched during a bedroom book talk: Quit the job. Sell everything. Spend a year traveling with the kids. Bob Redpath and Brenna Gibson Redpath were sitting in their bed on a Saturday morning when it happened. The kids, Owen and Eleanor Redpath, were watching Saturday morning cartoons in the living room and the parents, inspired by literature on making the most of life and taking on difficult challenges, got to thinking about their own lives. Redpath was an Emmy- and Golden Reel-award-nominated supervising sound editor at Warner Bros.

At the beginning of the fiscal year, City Treasurer Ron Borucki had questioned the market's ability to recover, but was hopeful that despite two-year lows, interest rates would rise. His hopes didn't last long. “Would this third year be the one where the recovery catches fire, where people go back to work, where consumer spending picks up, and where interest rates finally pick up and start to rise? Nope, not this year,” Borucki wrote in a report to the City Council. Glendale's investment portfolio dropped to $409 million, down $39 million from $448 million at the end of last fiscal year, according to the report.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Against a backdrop of high unemployment rates, crushing deficits and a spiraling economy, hundreds of city leaders gathered early Thursday morning for some inspiration as they wade into an uncertain 2009. As in years past, the 46th annual Glendale Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast offered words of encouragement and solace from Islamic, Jewish and Christian text, Hindu proverbs, and the like. But at a time when reports of hiring freezes, work furloughs, layoffs and deficits are now commonplace, the program this year was heavy on encouragement.

GLENDALE — A lack of funds, not a lack of love, doomed what would have been the 26th annual Love Ride. Organizers of one of the largest one-day motorcycle charity events in the world announced Thursday that it had been canceled due to poor ticket sales and other financial worries. “The numbers were scary dismal to where we thought, ‘Gee, this thing is going to bomb,’” said Oliver Shokouh, Love Ride founder and the owner of Glendale Harley-Davidson, which organizes the ride.

CITY HALL — The national economic downturn appears to have caught up with Glendale, with some on the City Council Tuesday issuing warnings to city executives leading into budget study sessions for fiscal year 2008-09 that they will face tough scrutiny over operational costs. The potential for future belt-tightening came after Jess Duran, assistant director of the Community Development and Housing Department, found himself defending his staff’s use of federal grant money to fund an extensive oversight system for local nonprofit organizations that receive government aid. Pointed questioning from council members serving on the Housing Authority about how administration costs could be reduced next fiscal year had Mayor Ara Najarian warning other department chiefs that they too would face the “same level of scrutiny.

BURBANK — The effects of the nearly 11-week-long Writers Guild of America strike are becoming clearer as economists and business leaders painted a grim portrait Friday of the ongoing work stoppage. According to the latest calculations from the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., the strike has resulted in $1.5 billion in lost writers guild wages and, according to the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, 15,000 production workers who work in all facets of the entertainment industry have lost their jobs since the strike began.

Speaking before a Pasadena crowd of about 150 Wednesday night, Republican presidential candidate Rep.  Michele Bachmann  (R-Minn.) hammered the military and economic policies of President Barack Obama. Bachmann's appearance at the Castle Green Hotel in Old Pasadena came one night after the most recent debate among GOP hopefuls for the White House . The congresswoman, whose campaign has faltered after an early rise to the top of the polls, said Tuesday's debate in Las Vegas didn't offer enough opportunities to address national security, an issue that she said is her main focus.

Recently, I’ve noticed with amusement that Burbank is trying to promote local holiday shopping. I even got a nice little card in the mail. Unfortunately, local lawmakers seem to be willing to do little, if anything, to curb the problems that keep shoppers away in droves. The first problem is traffic scofflaws. I have spoken to many friends in other cities, and they absolutely refuse to visit Burbank and Glendale because they feel that they’re taking their lives in their hands due to the abundance of rude and dangerous drivers.