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ABOUT LAURA FRIEDMAN

Background

Laura Friedman was raised in South Florida, and graduated from the University of Rochester in 1988. After working as a script reader and junior creative executive for HBO and various motion picture production companies in New York City, she moved to Los Angeles in 1992 to accept a position at Paramount Pictures.

Laura lives in North West Glendale with her husband Guillaume Lemoine, a professional landscape designer. Laura and Guillaume maintain a drought tolerant landscape and an organic vegetable garden. Laura is an experienced equestrian, and has played pool on a semi-professional level. Guillaume and Laura are currently attempting to adopt a child.

Service on Glendale City Council and in the Community

Laura Friedman has been a Glendale City Council Member since April of 2009, and was selected to be Mayor of Glendale April 2011. She servies on the Arroyo Verdugo Subregion, a regional planning board made up of five neighboring cities, and chaired the group from 2009 to 2010. Laura has sat on the on the League of California Cities Housing, Community and Economic Development Policy Committee since 2009. She serves as Glendale’s representative on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District. She is currently the treasurer of the Independent Cities Association. Since 2009, Laura has been the co-chair of Unity Fest, a street fair celebrating cultural diversity in Glendale.

Prior to her election to Council, Laura served for five years on Glendale’s Design Review Board, chairing the Board for one year. An avid historic preservation activist, Laura serves on the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter and was both the Vice Chair and Commercial Chair of the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee, which honored Laura with their Volunteer Recognition Award.

Laura and Guillaume originated the concept of a Garden Tour fundraiser to benefit Glendale Adventist’s cancer programs. The tour funded fitness programs which are free to any cancer survivor. Glendale Adventist Medical Center recognized this extraordinary effort by presenting Laura with their “Flame of Hope” Award.

Laura has been the sole proprietor of her own business for over ten years, dealing in vintage jewelry, fine and decorative arts. Prior to that, Laura had a successful 15 year career in the motion picture and television industry as an independent producer and entertainment executive. During that time she was also Educational Director for the L.A. Intensive, an educational program offered by the Cannes Film Festival’s American Pavilion and co-sponsored by Kodak. She has been a programmer for the Slamdance Film Festival, taught producing at UCLA and Chapman University, and was on the Steering Committee for the Minnesota Film Commission. In February of 1995, Laura’s Los Angeles Magazine feature story was honored in “Best American Essays” and “Best American Sports Writing.” She has been a columnist for “Variety,” and a special contributor to “Metro Mix.”

Selected City Council Accomplishments

• San Fernando Creative Corridor
Laura Friedman developed the concept for the Creative Corridor zone in the San Fernando Road Redevelopment Project Area, with specialized incentives to attract creative businesses, and flexible zoning guidelines to allow a variety of uses. The goal in this district is to further expand the creative industry cluster of viable creative uses that will provide economic stability and growth into the future. Anchored by the Disney and DreamWorks campuses and other entertainment uses, this industrial corridor includes high-demand real estate for new media, arts and entertainment related businesses. The Creative Corridor program has already shown great success in attracting new business and jobs to the area, and retaining existing businesses. The Glendale News Press acknowledged the success of the program by referring to the Creative Corridor in an editorial entitled “The City’s Economic Bright Spot.”

• Glendale Area Temporary Exhibits(GATE)
While chairing the Redevelopment Agency, Laura created the GATE project, which transforms temporarily vacant spaces into art exhibitions to provide an innovative cultural exploration for the community, while eliminating the blighting effect of vacant spaces. Several exhibitions have taken place since 2010, leading to a more vibrant downtown while assisting property owners to better highlight available spaces.

• Safe and Healthy Streets support
Laura has been instrumental in promoting traffic, pedestrian and bicycle safety in Glendale through her support of the Safe and Healthy Streets Plan. To encourage physical fitness, alternative transportation, and traffic safety, in 2011 Laura held Glendale’s first “Mayor’s Bike Ride,” with over 75 participants. She has taken tours of Berkeley and Long Beach to learn first hand how those cities, each of them leaders in the field, deal with traffic and pedestrian safety, and has participated in traffic safety and bicycle seminars.

• Green Building Standards
Laura fought to implement strict green building standards in Glendale with the result that for the first time in history, the city has made sustainability a priority.