Lawn

Picture this. You wake up. You dress for work. You go out to get the paper. It’s a beautiful, crisp winter morning. You peruse the front page. And as you turn to go back inside, you discover two 7-foot-tall trees have been planted on your front lawn. For some unknown reason, the city of Glendale decided that our home in the Rossmoyne area needed two trees. My girlfriend and I do not know why our house was chosen or what prompted them to pick whatever species they selected.

GLENDALE — Media from across the world packed into tents facing the entrance of Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park Thursday, beaming reports to Russia, Brazil and Japan in an effort to sate the voracious appetite for information about the slain pop star, whose lyrics needed no translation, they said. “For me it’s a mixed experience,” said Jessica Maldonado, a reporter whose Univision dispatches on the life and times of Michael Jackson have informed the Spanish-language audience for years.

Morrie Fiss, manager of Glendale Flower Mart, has been a media darling lately. Reporters from London and Germany have swung by his flower store asking for interviews and insider tips about Forest Lawn Memorial Park across the street on South Glendale Avenue. The cemetery is now the final resting place for Michael Jackson and could become a pilgrimage of sorts for fans of one of the greatest pop stars of all time. And so if location is everything, Glendale Flower Mart is poised to see big business.

Michael Jackson’s funeral Thursday at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park was, for all its anticipation, a relatively subdued affair — absent of the chaos that poured into streets for his Los Angeles memorial in July. The crowd that amassed outside the cemetery’s South Glendale Avenue wrought-iron gates was largely made up of local and international media, who were confined to the area immediately outside. The funeral service, which was to begin at 7 p.m., started late, with the 26-vehicle Jackson motorcade arriving about 8:30 p.m. Dozens of fans carried signs and cheered as the motorcade passed Los Feliz Road and Glendale Avenue as Jackson’s music played in the background.

GLENDALE — At least nine streets surrounding Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park will be closed starting at 4 a.m. Thursday for Michael Jackson’s burial, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. that day. Glendale police will close the streets for the family’s caravan and to accommodate a large media presence, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. Media agencies from Australia, Hungary, Japan, China and Belgium will be covering the funeral, he said. Last week, Glendale police announced that media attendance was at capacity.

MONTROSE — David Wood’s artificial turf lawn isn’t going anywhere — at least for now. Following days of intense media attention and public support for Wood’s illegal artificial front lawn, City Council members have been notified that officials will put off enforcement until after the matter comes back to the dais for consideration, Councilman Ara Najarian said Thursday. “In light of the fact that council will look at it again, and there is a possibility that we may permit turf, we didn’t want to have him pull it out until there was a clear direction,” said Najarian, a vocal supporter of artificial turf.

CITY HALL ? Residents will be limited to irrigating their yards three days a week starting immediately in response to a statewide water crisis that has cities across the region enacting similar restrictions. The City Council on Tuesday voted 4 to 0, with Councilman Dave Weaver absent, to initiate the second phase of a water conservation ordinance limiting outdoor watering to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for no more than 10 minutes a day. Irrigation will also not be allowed between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. ?

In a recent news article, it was suggested that David Wood’s synthetic lawn is a controversial violation of city codes (“Not the typical turf war,” Aug. 7). Forgive me for failing to see the controversy in such an isolated case. It is not as if Wood is scattering auto parts on his lawn, asking to put cardboard cutouts of Hollywood celebrities in front of his house, or even mounting those dreaded plastic flamingos. Then I would understand calling the tacky police and issuing a citation.