Six or so years ago, my Glendale News-Press coworkers and I were so sick of hearing about the proposed Americana at Brand. We’d done seemingly millions of stories abut the project — traffic impact, projected revenues for the city, and most importantly, the conflict with the company that owns the neighboring Glendale Galleria. The project was so controversial in Glendale, they had a special election about it.
Let’s take a break from Michael news and take some time down memory lane. Fresh off an internship in Arizona, jobless in L.A., I broke down after a couple of months of compulsively sending out resumes for every available journalism-related job available within 50 miles of Santa Monica and got a job as a barista at Coffee Bean. It was my first retail job, and was surprisingly fun and fast-paced. However, the job had its drawbacks — being so close to the beach, our tip jar got swiped at least once by a homeless dude. Plus, being in an affluent area, there were at least a few self-important jerks who came through.