'''BURBANK'''

is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, Interwiki: convert » 12|mi|km north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340.
Billed as the "Media Capital of the World"

Interwiki: cite web » url = http://www.usacitydirectories.com/travelamerica/index.php?entry=entry070420-130359 | title = Burbank, Ca. – Media Capital of the World | work = Travel America | date = 20 April 2007

and located only a few miles northeast of Hollywood, many media and entertainment companies are headquartered or have significant production facilities in Burbank, including Warner Bros. Entertainment, Warner Music Group, NBC Universal, The Walt Disney Company, ABC, Cartoon Network Studios, and Nickelodeon. The city is also home to Bob Hope Airport.
Burbank is located in two distinct areas, with its downtown, civic center and key neighborhoods nestled on the slopes and foothills that rise to the Verdugo Mountains, and other areas located in flatlands at the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley.
At one time it was referred to as "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" on Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The city was named after David Burbank, a New Hampshire-born dentist and entrepreneur.

GOVERNMENT

Category: File - :2000 0822 CityHall2.jpg|thumb|Burbank City Hall
In 1916, the original Burbank City Hall was constructed after bonds were issued to finance the project and pay for fire apparatus. Burbank's current City Hall was constructed from 1941 to 1942 in a neo-federalist Moderne style popular in the late Depression era. The structure was built at a total cost of $409,000, with funding from the Federal Works Agency and Works Project Administration programs. City Hall was designed by architects William Allen and W. George Lutzi and completed in 1943.
Originally, the City Hall building housed all city services, including the police and fire departments, an emergency medical ward, a courthouse and a jail. One of the most distinctive features of the cream-colored concrete building is its Interwiki: convert » 77|ft|m|sing=on tower, which serves as the main lobby. The lobby interior features more than 20 types of marble, which can be found in the city seal on the floor, the trim, walls and in the treads and risers of a the grand stairway. Artist Hugo Ballin created a "Four Freedoms" mural in Burbank's City Council chambers during World War II, although it was covered up for decades until art aficionados convinced the city to have the mural fully revealed. Ballin's work illustrates the "Four Freedoms" outlined in President Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 speech at the signing of the Atlantic Charter.
In 1996, the City Hall was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, becoming the second building in Burbank to be listed on the register. The first was Burbank's main post office just blocks away from City Hall on Olive Avenue. In 1998, Burbank's state-of-the-art Police/Fire facility opened.
In the state legislature Burbank is located in the 21st Senate District, represented by Carol Liu, and in the 43rd Assembly District, represented by Mike Gatto. Federally, Burbank is located in California's 27th and 29th congressional districts, which have Cook PVIs of D +13 and D +12 respectively and are represented by Democrats Brad Sherman and Adam Schiff respectively.
Burbank is a Charter City that operates under the City Council-City Manager form of government. In 1927, voters approved the Council-Manager form of government. The five-member City Council is elected for four-year overlapping terms, with the Mayor appointed annually from among the Council. The City Clerk and the City Treasurer are also elected officials.
Burbank is a full-service, independent city, with offices of the City Manager and City Attorney, and departments of Community Development, Financial Services, Fire, Information Technology, Library Services, Management Services, Police, Parks-Recreation & Community Services, Public Works, and Burbank Water and Power (BWP). The first power was distributed within the city limits of Burbank in 1913, supplied then by Southern California Edison Company. Today, the city-owned BWP serves 45,000 households and 6,000 businesses in Burbank with water and electricity. Additionally, the $382-million annual revenue utility offers fiber optic services. Burbank's city garbage pickup service began in 1920; outhouses were banned in 1922.
At the height of California's 2001 energy crisis, BWP unveiled a mini-power plant at its landfill. It marked the world's first commercial landfill power plant using Capstone microturbine technology. Ten microturbines run on naturally occurring landfill gas, producing 300 kilowatts of renewable energy for Burbank. That's enough energy to serve the daily needs of about 250 homes. The landfill is located in the Verdugo Mountains in the northeastern portion of the city.
Category: File - :Magnolia power plant burbank.jpg|thumb|left|Sign At Burbank: Water and PowerMost of Burbank's current power comes from the Magnolia Power Project, a 328-megawatt power plant located on Magnolia Boulevard near the Interstate 5 freeway. The municipal power plant, jointly owned by six Southern California cities (Burbank, Glendale, Anaheim. Pasadena, Colton and Cerritos), began generating electricity in 2005. It replaced a 1941 facility that had served the customers of Burbank for almost 60 years.
The Burbank City Council lost a court case in 2000 involving the right to begin meetings with a sectarian prayer. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that prayers referencing specific religions violated the principle of separation of church and state in the First Amendment. While invocations were still allowed, Burbank officials were required to advise all clerics that sectarian prayer as part of Council meetings was not permitted under the Constitution.
Like other California cities, Burbank took a financial hit after Californians passed Proposition 13 in 1977. The city dealt with the ramifications of maintaining service levels expected by the community but with lower tax revenues. As a result, Burbank officials opted to cut some services and implement user fees for specialized services.Interwiki: Citation needed » date=April 2010

GEOGRAPHY

According to the United States Census Bureau, Burbank has a total area of Interwiki: convert » 17.4|sqmi|km2. Interwiki: convert » 17.4|sqmi|km2 of it is land and Interwiki: convert » 0.04|sqmi|km2 of it (0.12%) is water. It is bordered by Glendale to the east, Toluca Lake on the west, and Griffith Park to the South. Hollywood is easily accessible from Burbank.
Elevations in the city range from Interwiki: convert » 500|ft|m in the lower valley areas to about Interwiki: convert » 800|ft|m near the Verdugo Mountains. Most of Burbank features a water table more than Interwiki: convert » 100|ft|m deep, more than the measures found in the 1940s when the water table was within Interwiki: convert » 50|ft|m of the ground surface in some areas of Burbank.

ECONOMY

Interwiki: Refimprove section » date=March 2010
Category: File - :Waltdisneyco1.jpg|thumb|right|The Walt Disney Studios, the headquarters of The Walt Disney Company The second-largest office space market in the San Fernando Valley is located in Burbank. Much of the space is utilized by the entertainment industry, which has among the highest office lease rates in the region.
More people work in Burbank each day than live in the city. The combined payroll for all of Burbank's private sector businesses totaled $6.7 billion in 2005, according to the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at California State University-Northridge. In 2005, Burbank employed 125,871 people in the private sector, while the neighboring city of Glendale, California employed 74,149 people, according to CSUN's economic researchers. Burbank's media, entertainment, telecommunications and internet industries dominated the list in employment numbers and payroll, generating a combined $4.2 billion in payroll and accounting for 64,948 positions.
As the figures above show, much of Burbank's economy is based on the entertainment industry. While Hollywood may be a symbol of the entertainment industry, much of the actual production occurs in Burbank. Many companies have headquarters or facilities in Burbank, including Warner Bros. Entertainment, Warner Music Group, NBC Universal, The Walt Disney Company, ABC, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Cookie Jar Entertainment, New Wave Entertainment, and Insomniac Games.
Many ancillary companies from Arri cameras, to Cinelease, Entertainment Partners, JL Fisher, and Matthews Studio Equipment also maintain a presence in Burbank. Xytech Systems Corporation, a business software and services provider to the entertainment industry, is headquartered in Burbank.
Local IATSE union offices for the Stagehands Local 33, Grips Local 80, Make-up and Hairstylist Local 706 and Set Painters Local 729 also make their home in Burbank with Teamsters Local 399, IBEW Local 40 and many other IATSE locals nearby.
Burbank has not been immune to the U.S. economic and housing impacts from the severe recession. City officials prepared for severe cutbacks going into 2009. Burbank's new City Manager, Mike Flad, estimated the city's 2009-10 fiscal budget will suffer a 5% shortfall. For the city's 2010-11 fiscal year, the city projected a deficit of $5.8 million and projected the deficit will remain a problem at least until 2014-15 when it's projected to be $6.9 million. The current budget problems do not appear to compare to the revenue hit the city took in the early 1990s when Burbank was hemorrhaging aerospace jobs after Lockheed left.
California's state budget woes are expected to put more pressure on cities such as Burbank. State lawmakers have proposed eliminating the individual redevelopment agencies, a move that would force cities such as Burbank to eliminate much needed infrastructure projects. Local redevelopment agencies also may be forced to reimburse the state. For example, Burbank Redevelopment Agency could be forced to pay the state nearly $20 million.
As of June 2009, unemployment in the Burbank area stood at around 9.2%, just below the national rate of 9.5% and well below Los Angeles County, according to the state's Employment Development Department. By January 2011, the unemployment rate in Burbank reached 10.7%, up from 10.3% in December 2010, according to EDD.
One bright spot in the otherwise bleak job market was Kaiser Permanente's decision to relocate some administrative offices near the Burbank airport.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Interwiki: USCensusPop »
|1920=2913
|1930=16662
|1940=34337
|1950=78577
|1960=90155
|1970=88871
|1980=84625
|1990=93643
|2000=100316
|2010=103340
|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census
Burbank experienced a 3% increase in population between 2000 and 2010, bringing its total population in 2010 to 103,340. Population growth was influenced by Burbank's expanding employment base, high quality public schools, and access to regional transportation routes and metropolitan Los Angeles. According to the Southern California Association of Government's 2007 Regional Transportation Plan growth forecasts, the population of Burbank is expected to grow to approximately 116,500 by 2015 and 125,000 by 2025, a 15% increase over the 18-year period.Interwiki: Citation needed » date=July 2010

EDUCATION

Category: File - :Providencia School.jpg|thumb|Providencia School
Burbank is within the Burbank Unified School District. The district was formed on June 3, 1879, following a petition filed by residents S.W. White and nine other citizens. First named the Providencia School District, Burbank's district started with one school house built for $400 on a site donated by Dr. Burbank, the area's single largest landholder. The first schoolhouse, a single redwood-sided building serving nine families, is on what is now Burbank Boulevard near Mariposa Street. In 1887, a new school house was constructed at San Fernando Road and Magnolia Boulevard, which was in Burbank's center of commerce.
In 1908, local citizens passed a bond measure to raise money to build a high school. At the time, Burbank-area high school students were attending schools in Glendale. When it opened on September 14, 1908, the original Burbank High School had 42 students and just two instructors.
Burbank is home to several California Distinguished Schools including the confusingly named Luther Burbank Middle School (see history above). Both its public and private K-12 schools routinely score above state and national average test scores. The largest university in Burbank is Woodbury University. Woodbury has a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, including business, architecture, and a variety of design programs. A number of smaller colleges are also located in Burbank, including several make up and beauty trade schools serving the entertainment industry.
During the early 1920s, Burbank was in the running to become the location for the southern branch of the University of California campus. Specifically, planners were looking at locating the university in the Ben Mar Hills area near the intersection of Amherst Drive and San Fernando Blvd. The seaside community of Rancho Palos Verdes was another location considered for the new campus. But both sites were eventually passed up when the Janss Investment Company donated property now known as Westwood to build the University of California, Los Angeles.
PUC Schools has its administrative offices in Burbank.The Concordia Schools Concordia Burbank, a K-6 private school, is in the city.

TRANSPORTATION

The Bob Hope Airport services 4.9 million travelers per year with seven carriers, with over 70 flights daily. The airport, located in the northwestern corner of the city, is the source of most street traffic in the city. Noise from the airport has been a source of concern for nearby decades. A bill introduced in early 2011 by three California congressmen would put into law an overnight curfew on flights from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration previously had rejected the airports' applications for a curfew.
In December 2008, a slowdown in passenger traffic led the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority to curtail spending plans, including deferring multimillion-dollar construction projects. The weak economy continued to affect the airport in 2010, with figures showing a 6% decline in passengers for the fiscal year ending June 30. The slowdown is one reason the airport authority scrapped plans to spend $4 million to erect barriers at the west end of the runway. In 2000, a Southwest Airlines flight overshot the runway and went through the fence with 142 persons aboard and came to a stop on Hollywood Way near a gas station.
The construction of major freeways through and around the city of Burbank starting in the 1950s both divided the city from itself and linked it to the rapidly growing Los Angeles region. Burbank is easily accessible by and can easily access the Southern California freeways via the Golden State Freeway (I-5), which bisects the city from northwest to southeast, and the Ventura Freeway which connects Burbank to the U.S. Route 101 on the south and the nearby Foothill Freeway to the east. The Ventura Freeway was completed in 1960.
Burbank contains about Interwiki: convert » 227.5|mi|km of streets, nearly Interwiki: convert » 50|mi|km of paved alleys, Interwiki: convert » 365.3|mi|km of sidewalks, 181 signalized intersections and 10 intersections with flashing signals, according to city figures. Many of the current signals date back to the late 1960s when voters passed a major capital improvement program for street beautification and street lighting. The funding also helped upgrade dated park and library facilities.
The Metro operates public transport throughout Los Angeles County, including Burbank. Commuters can use Metrolink and Amtrak for service south into Downtown, west to Ventura and north to Palmdale and beyond. For getting around Burbank, there is the Burbank Bus. In 2006, Burbank opened its first hydrogen fueling station for automobiles.Interwiki: Citation needed » date=June 2009


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