Income

East Los Angeles is moving closer to becoming its own city despite mounting cost concerns and implications of cityhood, Curbed LA reported.  Officials released the final version of the East Los Angeles Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis late last week, which questioned the financial viability of East LA becoming a city.   Recycling raises income of poor households One Occidental College professor's research suggets that recycling bottles and cans could be a significant source of income for poor people given states set their bottle-deposit refunds high enough.

This letter is in response to Roberta Gutierrez's commentary "Higher rents hurt local merchants," printed on Sept. 10. She states that merchants in Glendale should be "begging" the city to support rent control so renters would have more spendable income. I guess Ms. Gutierrez believes that renters who choose to live in Glendale because of its higher standards than other cities, and can afford to pay open-market rent, will not spend any money here. I think just opposite happens: The higher the income, the more spending locally.

Darleene Barrientos IHOP Corp. closed five of its 32 company-operated restaurants Thursday as the company reported second-quarter income dropped 60%. Executives of the Glendale-based restaurant chain said the dip in income and the closures were all expected as it shifts away from financing new franchises to a more traditional economic model in which franchise owners pay for their restaurant's development. IHOP will also reacquire four franchised restaurants and close three of them.

Runaway film Foto-Kem Industries, Inc. v. Wins Income Group LLC, Case No. EC 050226 When a company spends many hours working on a commissioned project, it expects to get paid. But that wasn’t the outcome for Foto-Kem Industries, Inc. The company, which processes film, signed an agreement with Wins Income Group LLC to prepare footage for a film entitled “C ME Dance.” The film is about a teenage girl who has big-city aspirations to become a dancer with the Pittsburgh ballet.

Free tax return service offered The AARP is offering volunteers to complete income tax returns for residents at two local locations. The service is free and will be available for middle- and low-income taxpayers and especially for those older than 60. No affiliation with the association is necessary, but taxpayers must bring their income tax returns, social security or identification cards, and all income documents, including W-2 forms...

This is written by an "old and poor" Glendalian, who mistakenly voted for Bob Yousefian. I did not care for the remarks you made as quoted in the News-Press. Just because you can bleed the city of Glendale for an obscene amount of money, it doesn't set your up as a person who can be so judgmental. Some day, if you are fortunate, you will be considered "old" and, hopefully, you will have more than poverty-level income to live on. Some of us "old" people have had our income eroded by inflation and misfortunes and have no way to make it up now. Show more compassion for those who aren't as lucky as you. RUTH ANDERSON Glendale

Robert Chacon A federal program that provides financial assistance to low-income families is not meeting the needs of some residents in the city, so city officials tonight will consider whether to drop the program in favor of another one. Under the Handy Workers Assistance Program, some residents can receive up to $5,000 for home improvements such as new roofing, windows, doors, paint, locks, water-saving shower heads...

Robert Chacon Residents who qualify are eligible for up to $5,000 to make home improvements courtesy of the city's Community Development Block Grant program. La Canada Flintridge has $72,000 available for the programs beginning July 1, the start of the coming fiscal year. Titled the Handy Worker Assistance Program, the grant has been largely unused for the past two years, mainly because the city canceled its contract with the company that did community outreach for the program.

Volunteers to help with tax prep AARP Tax Aide Volunteers will be available to help complete income tax forms for low- and middle-income tax-payers from 1 to 4 p.m. each Monday until April 9 at Sparr Heights Community Center, 1613 Glencoe Ave., Glendale. The service is free. Tax-form preparation will also be available from 1 to 4 p.m. every Wednesday until April 11 at the Montrose Library, 2465 Honolulu Ave., Montrose. For more information, call Sparr Heights Community Center at (818)

GLENDALE — Pelanconi residents today are once again set to air their long-held opposition to a planned residential complex on Grandview Avenue that some say has no place in their Northwest Glendale neighborhood. The city’s Redevelopment Agency is slated to discuss new plans for the complex, to be located at 1015 Grandview Ave., after residents complained that the initial design of 300 units in a six-story unit would not fit in a community with smaller, single-family homes and nearby Pelanconi Park.

By 2017, property-tax revenue totaling roughly $700,000 from 20 new downtown developments is anticipated, a sum that at least one council member scoffed at this week as being lower than expected. Once the 20 projects start generating property tax revenues, Glendale could make an average $35,000 per development, which Councilman Ara Najarian on Tuesday called paltry. "I am surprised when I look at the list of those projects," Najarian said. "Those are just drops in the bucket.

This post has been corrected. See below for details.  Glendale Community College officials on Friday announced that roughly 100 empty positions that have remained unfilled now for three years will remain so for another. Officials at the meeting on Friday did not go into details on how much spending will need to be cut from the 2013-14 budget plan - that will come later this month - but holding the vacancies over for another year is a clear indication that the college is still in belt-tightening mode.

Several City Council candidates railed against spending on low-income housing in Glendale at a candidate forum Thursday night, specifically pointing to the high costs of a Habitat for Humanity project completed last year. Some candidates compared the cost of the five-unit Habitat for Humanity project at 624 Geneva Street to that of a Ritz Carlton or Buckingham Palace, while longtime City Hall critic Mike Mohill said the city shouldn't even be in the business of building affordable housing.

Having been put on notice by Los Angeles County education officials, Glendale Unified faces some “tough choices” in the months to come as it confronts a yawning budget deficit, Supt. Dick Sheehan warned recently. Speaking to the board of education at a recent meeting, Sheehan said the Glendale Unified's expenditures are exceeding income by $15 million each year, putting the district on pace to fall short by $36.4 million for the 2015-16 school year. That means officials will “have to make some tough choices going forward,” he said.

The money keeps flowing in for the Montrose Shopping Park Assn., which for years had been plagued by revenue problems. For 2013, the organization that promotes nearly 200 businesses near and along Honolulu Avenue is forecasting income of $460,000 - $100,000 more than originally forecasted for 2012, according to data released on Thursday. By August, the organization had taken in $400,000, which is more than the $360,000 it had expected to make in 2012 when it presented a budget to the City Council last year.

The Montrose Shopping Park Assn. - which long struggled to make ends meet until clamping down on cash-reporting procedures - announced Thursday that the business group was on track to exceed income projections by 11%. The shopping park has made about $400,000 so far, “and it's only August,” said Executive Director Dale Dawson at a board meeting Thursday. And with expenditures remaining steady - originally projected at $360,000 - the shopping park board will be in the enviable position of deciding what to do with the extra money.

The nonprofit that manages the Alex Theatre plans to form a task force in the coming months to deal with the impending loss of more than $400,000 a year from the city of Glendale - the result of the state slashing redevelopment powers and possibly taking ownership of the historic venue. The task force will be made up of Glendale Arts board members, staff members and local residents, said Elissa Glickman, who after serving as interim chief executive of the nonprofit that runs the Alex Theatre, was recently given the permanent job. At the first-ever “State of the Alex” presentation to board members on Tuesday, Glickman said the task force will study three areas - fundraising potential, income opportunities, such as rental rates, and operations, including staff costs - and then make recommendations, Glickman said.

For Ascencia, Glendale's largest homeless services provider, the end of redevelopment could mean an annual loss of $50,000 through 2015. Ascencia has a contract with Glendale's Redevelopment Agency for $50,000 each fiscal year through 2015 to help fund an emergency housing program. But with redevelopment agencies dissolved under a state-imposed plan, Executive Director Natalie Profant Komuro said she's not counting on the money. “It's a serious loss of money and we're going to need to figure out how to fill the gap,” she said.

Strong performances at Walt Disney Co. 's domestic theme parks and by Pixar , Marvel, ESPN and ABC ," Disney President and Chief Executive Bob Iger told analysts. Before Disney reported its results, media analysts said they would be watching advertising trends at ESPN, the powerhouse cable sports network that Morgan Stanley estimates contributes about 8% of the company's revenue. Continue reading > > -- Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times Photo: Visitors to Walt Disney Co.'s California Adventure theme park in Anaheim take in the "Ariel's Undersea Adventure" ride.

A Glendale preschool center closed its doors for the second time in three months on Friday in what could represent another disruption in service for low-income families with few child care options. Staff members were packing up and clearing out classrooms Friday at the Riverdale Head Start center in the 300 block of Riverdale Drive. The program is required to vacate the site by Dec. 31, said Kenneth Wolfe, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start.