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Tamala Takahashi Newsletter — October 12, 2026
🌟 From the Dais with Mayor Tamala Takahashi | October 12, 2026
Happy Monday, Burbank,
Ninety-six years. That is how long this city has flown in and out of a terminal built in 1930, and as of tomorrow morning, that era ends. Officials cut the ribbon on Hollywood Burbank Airport's new terminal a week ago today, and the first passengers walk through its doors on Tuesday. In between, the week kept handing us reminders of the long game: a restaurant turning 80 tonight, a Key to the City earned over bowls of soup, and Edison Elementary kids proving that the shortest trips matter just as much as the longest ones. Institutions do not simply appear in a city. They are built, kept, and handed down, and this week we got to watch all three. Here we go.
🏛️ Council Corner
🔹 No votes to report: Council was dark on Tuesday, October 6, so the ledger sits empty this week. The quiet ends tomorrow.
🔹 Back at the dais tomorrow night: Council returns Tuesday, October 13, at 6 p.m. The agenda posts online ahead of every meeting, and once you have read it, the podium, Zoom, and eComment are all open to you. I do read the comments. Two threads I am watching for as the fall calendar firms up: staff's prioritized implementation plan for the Creative Industry Taskforce recommendations, and the promised discussion of automated license plate readers. When each one reaches the dais, you will get the plain-English version right here.
👉 View meeting agendas and eComment
🚌 Transportation Updates
🔹 A new front door, 96 years in the making: Last Monday, officials celebrated the ribbon-cutting for Hollywood Burbank Airport's replacement terminal: 14 gates, 355,000 square feet, and nearly $1.3 billion of planning and construction, retiring a building that has served travelers since 1930. The first passengers walk through tomorrow, Tuesday, October 13.
→ ✈️ If you fly this week: Starting tomorrow, the airport's main entrance moves to Winona Avenue and Hollywood Way, replacing the old Thornton Avenue approach, and valet service moves to the new terminal with it. Give yourself a few extra minutes on your first trip; new muscle memory takes a run or two.
→ 💬 My take: An airport is the first hello and the last goodbye a city offers, and ours finally has a building that says both properly. Generations of Burbank hands worked to get this right, and tomorrow we all get to see it.
👉 Read the ribbon-cutting story
🔹 Wednesday morning, measured in sneakers: I joined students, families, and staff at Edison Elementary on Wednesday morning for Walk and Bike to School Day, and the energy on those sidewalks could have powered half the grid. Every kid who walks or rolls is one less car circling the block, which means calmer streets for everyone. It is also exactly why the $1,584,000 Safe Streets and Roads for All grant Council approved in September matters: safer crossings are what turn one special morning into an everyday habit.
👉 Learn about Walk and Bike to School Day
🏘️ Housing & Development
🔹 Four days left for the Rancho Review Board: Applications for the five resident seats close Friday, October 16, at 5 p.m., and this is my last call. The board reviews Development Review projects in the Rancho Master Plan Area for fit with the neighborhood's distinctive equestrian character, and while its role is advisory, its voice carries real weight. If you have been thinking it over, this is the week thinking becomes doing.
👉 Apply for the Rancho Review Board
💼 Economic Development & Local Business
🔹 Eighty years of garlic bread and Hollywood handshakes: The Smoke House marks its 80th anniversary with a commemorative gala tonight, and the numbers alone tell a great Burbank story: opened in 1946 as a 46-seat room, settled into its spot across from Warner Bros. in 1949, and never stopped being the place where deals, first dates, and family milestones happen over prime rib. Legacy businesses are not just businesses; they are where a city keeps its memories. You do not need a gala invitation to join in. Book a table soon, order the garlic cheese bread, and raise a toast to 80 more.
💚 Health & Wellbeing
🔹 Imagine a city, then fund it: Saturday was World Mental Health Day, and the most practical way I know to honor it is to point you toward the Family Service Agency of Burbank, which has kept counseling within reach for Burbank families, teens, and seniors for decades. Their annual Imagine A City gala, billed as a party with a purpose, is coming up, and every ticket and sponsorship translates directly into sessions for neighbors who could not otherwise afford them. Awareness days end; the need does not. Supporting the people who do this work year-round is how a city stays well.
👉 Learn more about FSA Burbank
🧶 The Community Thread
🔹 A Key to the City, one empty bowl at a time: At Home Again LA's annual Empty Bowl fundraiser, I had one of the best honors this job offers: presenting the Key to the City to Albert Hernandez, Home Again LA's chief executive and one of the most persistent forces for good this community has. The event is beautifully simple: a handmade ceramic bowl, a modest meal, and a pointed reminder of neighbors facing hunger and homelessness. If the organization sounds familiar, it should. Home Again LA is the same partner Council entrusted just weeks ago with administering the Immigration Emergency Assistance Fund. Congratulations, Albert. The key fits.
🔹 My Sunday seat is booked: Conundrum Theatre Company opens Falsettos this Friday, bringing the Tony-winning William Finn and James Lapine musical to a Burbank stage for the first time, with performances running October 16 through 25. I will be in the audience this Sunday. Falsettos is funny, aching, and ultimately about what makes a family, which feels like a very Burbank question to spend an evening on.
👉 Get Falsettos dates and details
🔹 Arts around town: Eric Renard's L.A. Overexposed stays on view at the Betsy Lueke Creative Arts Center through October 22, KAIJU continues at The Road Theatre Company through November 1, and Halloween Squares takes over the Garry Marshall Theatre October 22 through 24 for three nights of seasonal mischief.
👉 Browse the Burbank arts calendar
🗓️ Mark Your Calendar
🔹 Indigenous Peoples' Day, today: Burbank stands on the ancestral lands of the Gabrielino-Tongva and Fernandeño Tataviam peoples, and today honors communities whose cultures are living and present, never historical footnotes. It is worth a quiet moment before the week picks up speed.
🔹 State of the City, three days out: The annual address and luncheon runs Thursday, October 15, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport, under the theme Better Together. My Toastmasters years taught me that no speech is truly finished until it is delivered, so yes, I am still polishing. If you sent a nomination these past weeks, thank you; the speech is better for it.
🔹 Trunk o' Treat at the Y: The Burbank Community YMCA's costume-and-candy evening returns later this month with decorated trunks, treats, and community spirit for all ages. Timing and details are on the Chamber's event page.
🔹 The rest of October: From Halloween happenings to commission meetings, the full lineup lives on the city calendar.
👉 View the city events calendar
💡 A Final Thought
A terminal took 96 years to replace. A restaurant took 80 years to become a landmark. Albert's key took a career of showing up for families nobody else was catching. Nothing worth keeping in a city gets built fast, and that is the encouraging part: it means every small contribution compounds. Your piece of the long game can start this week. Send an eComment before tomorrow's 6 p.m. meeting, apply for the Rancho board before Friday's deadline, or simply walk a kid to school and wave at the crossing guard. I will see you Thursday at the State of the City, and if you spot me at Falsettos on Sunday, come say hello.
Together, we're building a community and better future that works for everyone. Thank you for staying connected!
Tamala Takahashi
Mayor, City of Burbank
tamala.takahashi@mygovtools.org
