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Tamala Takahashi Newsletter — October 19, 2026
🌟 From the Dais with Mayor Tamala Takahashi | October 19, 2026
Hello, Burbank,
The speech is delivered. Thursday at the Marriott, I finally got to share this year's State of the City, Better Together, with a room full of neighbors, and every nomination you sent these past weeks shaped my thinking even when it could not fit on the page. Thank you for that. What struck me most, though, was how quickly the week set about proving the theme. Tuesday night, Council approved the contract that will build Burbank's next Central Library. Saturday, adoptable dogs in Halloween costumes took over a Downtown parking lot. And today brings a deadline that belongs at the top of your list: if you are not yet registered to vote in the November 3 election, Monday, October 19 is your last day. Everything you need is below. Onward.
🏛️ Council Corner
🔹 The vote from October 13, and it is a big one: Council adopted a resolution approving a progressive design-build contract with Clark Construction Group for the New Burbank Library and Civic Center Project, with the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as design partner. The project will replace our Central Library, built in 1963, with a new library and civic center building, a parking structure with EV charging, and true public open space in the heart of Downtown.
→ 📘 What this means: Progressive design-build puts the designer and the builder at the same table from day one, so scope, schedule, and cost get worked out together while the City keeps active oversight. The project carries a firm design and construction cost limit of $155 million, any increase requires Council approval, and funding draws on City infrastructure funds, grants, and bond financing, with the infrastructure half of Measure P doing serious lifting.
→ 💬 My take: A library has never been just a room full of books; it is where a city learns, gathers, and reinvents itself. Picture a maker space, a media lab, a music recording studio, a teaching kitchen, a café, a rooftop event space, and a public plaza, all in one place. As someone who has volunteered in and served our library system, this vote felt like keeping a promise Burbank made to itself years ago. Minutes, staff reports, and video from Tuesday's full agenda are posted online.
👉 Read the City's announcement
👉 View meeting agendas and eComment
🔹 Dark tomorrow, then a full house on the 27th: Council is dark tomorrow, Tuesday, October 20. We return Tuesday, October 27, at 6 p.m. for a joint meeting with all agencies. On the forecast: recognition of City employees with 20 or more years of service, honors for Burbank's 2026 Firefighter of the Year, Police Officer of the Year, and Employee of the Year, Youth Board appointments for the school year, a review of the 2026 Investment Policy with the City Treasurer's portfolio report, and a consent calendar carrying several transportation items I break down below. Once the agenda posts, eComment is open to you, and I do read what comes through.
🗳️ Today Is the Day: Register to Vote
🔹 The rolls close tonight: Today, Monday, October 19, is the last day to register for the November 3 General Municipal Election, where Burbank will choose three Council members, a City Clerk, and a City Treasurer, and weigh in on two local ballot measures. Registration takes minutes online, paper cards are waiting at the City Clerk's Office and Burbank libraries, and if you have moved or changed your name, you need to update your record too. My League of Women Voters years taught me that elections belong to the people who show up, and showing up starts with a form. Do it before dinner.
🚌 Transportation Updates
🔹 BurbankBus heads for the new terminal: Last Tuesday, the first passengers walked through Hollywood Burbank Airport's new front door. Next Tuesday, October 27, Council's consent calendar includes an amendment to our access agreement with the Airport Authority so BurbankBus can serve the new terminal directly, plus a $1,000,000 funding agreement with Metro to purchase a battery-electric bus for the fleet.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: A terminal 96 years in the making works best when you can reach it without circling a parking structure. Connecting our own transit to our own airport, with a cleaner bus doing the work, is exactly the kind of practical, quietly green decision I love seeing on a consent calendar.
🔹 Six million dollars for friendlier Downtown sidewalks: Also set for October 27: a $6,220,000 Measure M funding agreement with Metro for the Downtown Burbank Sidewalk Enhancement Project, covering the work from early planning all the way through construction. Sidewalks decide whether Downtown feels like somewhere to be or just somewhere to pass through, and with a new library and civic center coming to that same neighborhood, the timing could not be better.
🌿 Environment & Sustainability
🔹 Tonight at 5 p.m., the Sustainable Burbank Commission meets: I serve as Council liaison to this commission, and their work on our path from 12.8 percent below 1990 emissions toward our 40 percent goal is some of the most consequential homework happening in this city. If you have ideas, energy, or just curiosity about how Burbank gets greener, this is a very good room to be in, starting with tonight's meeting.
🏘️ Housing & Development
🔹 The Rancho Review Board window has closed: Applications for the five resident seats wrapped up Friday, October 16, at 5 p.m. To everyone who raised a hand: thank you. Five resident seats means real neighborhood influence over how Development Review projects fit the Rancho's distinctive equestrian character, and I would much rather see that review shaped from the inside than argued after the fact. I will share the appointment timeline here as soon as it firms up.
💼 Economic Development & Local Business
🔹 Holiday in the Park grows a go-kart track: Magnolia Boulevard's signature night returns Friday, November 20, from 4 to 10 p.m., stretching from Hollywood Way to Buena Vista Street with free admission. New for 2026: a children's go-kart track, plus a sensory-friendly Quiet Hour from 4 to 5 p.m. with its first dedicated sponsor, Variety, the Children's Charity of Southern California. The free Ferris wheel rides, free Santa photos, and caramel apples all return too. For Magnolia Park's independent merchants, this single evening sets the tone for the whole holiday season, and tens of thousands of visitors are expected to walk that mile. Mark it now and bring your patience and your appetite.
💚 Health & Wellbeing
🔹 We practiced the drop: Thursday at 10:15 a.m., Burbank joined millions of Californians for the Great ShakeOut: drop, cover, and hold on. From my clinical work, I can tell you that calm under pressure is not a personality trait, it is a rehearsal result. If your household skipped the drill, run your own version this week, and while you are at it, agree on which sturdy table is yours.
👉 Read the city's ShakeOut notice
🔹 Three days left for Tequilas' tenth campaign: Donations to the tenth annual Tequilas Burbank cancer fundraiser close Thursday, October 22, with a $15,000 goal supporting the genetics and genomics program at the Disney Family Cancer Center, all in memory of Julie Franco. The October 21 dinner sold out long ago, which tells you how Burbank shows up, but the donation window is still open. A decade of neighbors funding cancer care close to home deserves a strong finish.
🧶 The Community Thread
🔹 Costumed pups and one very important address: Saturday, the Burbank Animal Shelter brought its adoptable dogs Downtown for a meet and greet in the Ashley store parking lot at 401 N. First Street, with the dog costume contest kicking off at 12:30. My contribution was clearing up the detail that mattered most: First Street, not Main Street, which I posted the moment I saw confusion brewing. Every event like this is a second chance wearing a tiny cape, and if you missed it, the shelter's residents are ready to meet you any week of the year.
👉 Visit the Burbank Animal Shelter page
🔹 Empty Bowl, final tally: The numbers are in from Home Again LA: more than 300 guests on October 10 made this the largest Empty Bowl fundraiser in the organization's history, with soups donated by Centanni, Coral Cafe, Tequilas, and the Metropolitan Culinary Services restaurants. Proceeds go straight into housing assistance, emergency shelter, groceries, showers, laundry, and case management. Last week I told you about Albert Hernandez's Key to the City. This week, his team showed everyone why it fits.
🔹 Help choose the art for Burbank's next living room: Applications are open through November 18 for the New Central Library Public Art Committee, which will work with the project architects and City staff to shape the public art for the future library and plaza: where it goes, what forms it takes, how the Call for Art gets written, and which artists make the cut. It is a roughly 28-month commitment beginning in January 2027, ahead of a Spring 2029 opening. The eligible disciplines include murals, mosaics, sculpture, digital art, and yes, fiber art, which this knitter will happily confirm belongs on any list of fine arts. If you care about what Burbank's most visited building says to the people who walk in, apply.
👉 Apply for the Public Art Committee
🔹 Arts around town: Falsettos wraps its Burbank premiere run at the Victory Theatre Center, closing Sunday, October 25, so this is truly last call. Eric Renard's L.A. Overexposed comes down after Thursday, October 22, at the Betsy Lueke Creative Arts Center, Halloween Squares haunts the Garry Marshall Theatre October 22 through 24, and KAIJU continues at The Road Theatre Company through November 1. Looking to Saturday, October 24: the Salit Foundation brings Peter and the Wolf to the Buena Vista Library at 3 p.m., and the Burbank Community Band's free Chillers and Thrillers Halloween concert, costume contest included, fills Dolores Huerta Middle School that afternoon.
👉 Browse the Burbank arts calendar
🗓️ Mark Your Calendar
🔹 Trunk or Treat on Magnolia, Friday: UMe Credit Union's fourth annual Trunk or Treat rolls into 3000 W. Magnolia Blvd. on Friday, October 23, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., with classic cars transformed into rolling Halloween masterpieces and trunks full of candy. It is trick-or-treating with chrome, and it is very Burbank.
🔹 Find your local scare: Burbank's famous front-yard haunts are up through October 31, with full sets, live actors, and neighbors who take October very seriously. The community map points you to every one of them, and walking it is my favorite free night out of the month.
👉 Explore the Halloween in Burbank map
🔹 Civic service, county edition: Applications are now open for the 2027-2028 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury, a year of real oversight work examining how local government serves its residents. If you have ever wanted to look under the hood of the county, this is the legitimate way in.
👉 Learn about the Civil Grand Jury
🔹 And the rest: From True Crime Burbank at the library tomorrow night to commission meetings all week, the full lineup lives on the city calendar.
👉 View the city events calendar
💡 A Final Thought
Better Together was never meant to live inside a single luncheon. This week it looks like a registration form submitted before tonight, an application to help pick the art in a library that opens in 2029, a donation that closes out ten years of cancer fundraising, and a trunk full of candy on Magnolia come Friday. A city is a group project, and every one of those is a way to sign your name to it. If you have thoughts about what the new Central Library should hold, or anything else on your mind, reply and tell me. I read every message, and more often than you would guess, they end up shaping what happens at the dais.
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
