Year in review: highest and lowest events of 2003.

Arter Ends 160-Year Odyssey

Cleveland-based Arter & Hadden LLP, the only national law firm with a Valley presence, shut down its Woodland Hills office July 15 following its historic announcement in June to shutter the entire company after 160 years in business.

The firm had been struggling for some time with financial difficulties stemming from an overstock of office space and, as a result, Arter announced to its staff of roughly 240 attorneys nationwide that it was planning for the winding up of its affairs.

Arter embarked on a rapid-fire expansion throughout the late 1980s and peaked with about 450 attorneys nationwide by 1999. However, many of the firm's expansion plans proved unprofitable and by 2000 the company had scaled the number of attorneys down to about 240, yet as recently as late May had only closed two of its offices down.

Glory Days

Old Glory, the 400-ton oak tree once slated for the chipper to make way for expansion of Pico Canyon Road in Santa Clarita, got a reprieve after activist John Quigley spent 10 of the final weeks of 2002 camping out in its limbs, prompting a media blitz that eventually convinced developers who want to widen the road to move the tree to another location instead.

But Old Glory was nearly taken down again this past year, this time by a force of a different kind: Mother Nature herself. The oak narrowly escaped being burned to the ground in the October Simi Valley fire, drawing sighs of relief from Quigley, as well as representatives from the developer, John Laing Homes, which is widening the road to connect its planned 21,000-home development to Stevenson Ranch.

Off the Ranch

Nearly two decades of costly litigation and public protests that included some of the biggest names in Hollywood over a proposed 3,050-home development on the western edge of the Valley, came to a screeching halt Nov. 7 when the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy closed escrow on the 2,900-acre Ahmanson Ranch in Thousand Oaks.

The $150 million transaction put an end to one of the most expensive land battles in the state's history, one that also often pitted housewives and homeowners against the behemoth banking firm, Seattle-based Washington Mutual, Inc., which purchased the land in 1998 and was planning the development, a "master-planned community" that also called for two golf courses and 400,000 square feet of commercial space.

The Ranch will now be preserved as open space.

Ground Breaks for Buses

The first shovel full of dirt was finally dug on the planned 14-mile, $330 million rapid busway that, upon completion, is expected to shuttle passengers between the east and west ends of the Valley in about 40 minutes.

Construction of a $3.8 million bridge in the Sepulveda Basin began last spring and was completed December 12, marking a significant first phase in development of the long-planned busway that has faced opposition by both residents and business owners across the Valley.

Hey, Wait for Us

Fifteen years in the making, a redevelopment project for the city of Glendale finally got underway when city officials selected a developer to create a metropolitan center for living and working on a 15.5 acre site.

But wait.

No sooner did the developer, Caruso Affiliated Holdings LLC, and the city hammer out a plan that would include a movie theater, 475,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and 338 residential units along with a park and walkways than General Growth Properties Inc., whose Glendale Galleria neighbors the development, put forth an alternative.

General Growth's alternative, not surprisingly, suggests a smaller retail portion and a larger residential community, an idea that's presumably not so threatening to the enclosed mall, which could lose shoppers to the new center.

GGP acquired the Galleria a year ago and paid top dollar for it, incentive enough to try and reduce the amount of retail the center will house. But everyone else involved has been working for over two years on a design for the complex, and actually, Caruso presented a similar idea with fewer stores and more residences earlier, and it was rejected by the Glendale City Council.

Like they say, everything old is new again.

101 Widening Plan Hits Roadblock

After several months of preparation, representatives from a Caltrans technical team in April rolled out what they viewed as the most viable solution for relieving traffic congestion along the heavily traveled 101 Ventura Freeway.

The plan called for widening sections of the 101 stretching from Studio City to Thousand Oaks by at least two lanes in each direction.

But as quickly as it was presented the plan was shot down.

Boeckmann Logs a Half Century in a Car Town

Bert Boeckmann celebrated his 50th year at North Hills-based Galpin Motors, Inc., the world's highest volume dealership for 13 years in a row. In the anniversary year, Boeckmann turned a newly acquired Volvo dealership into one of his top performers.

In the process, Galpin took in $720 million in 2002 revenues and was expected to take in $750 million by the end of this year.

It's a family affair at Galpin with the elder Boeckmann at the top and sons Beau and Brad, who worked 15 of more years with him, at his side. The brothers oversee marketing and construction, respectively.

Kohl's Schmoles

After two years of anticipation, Kohl's in May finally entered the California market with about 28 stores, including locations at Fallbrook Center in West Hills, Moorpark Marketplace and Civic Center Plaza in Simi Valley.

Kohl's track record as a consistent high-profit performer along with its strategy of opening numerous stores in a region simultaneously and blanketing the area with advertising contributed all the more to the fanfare which greeted the retailer.

That was then.

By the end of the year Kohl's, like many other retailers, was sweating for every nickel.

Sales year to date as of November 29, the most recent figures available, rang in at $7.9 billion, a 12.6 percent increase over the prior year period, but a 1.6 percent decline for stores open at the same time last year.

Jobs That Aren't Bulletproof 

After escaping serious harm in a bizarre shooting outside a courthouse on October 31, probate and estate lawyer Gerald Curry is back at work at his Canoga Park offices, almost at 100 percent.

William Strier, the gunman, approached Curry and fired multiple shots from a small-caliber revolver. Curry, who dodged the bullets while weaving behind a tree, was wounded in the attack, although he escaped critical injury.

Strier's motive was believed to be that he thought Curry, whom Strier never met, was taking money from his trust unfairly. Since June, Curry was representing the woman who oversaw a trust established for Strier, and he had appeared in court on the day of the shooting to ask for his client's and his payment--his portion was $4,200. At a previous hearing, Strier asked his sister to be appointed trustee instead of Curry's client.

Food Fight Festers

The Southland supermarket strike that began in mid-October is continuing to hurt everyone involved, and has consumers finding alternate ways to shop, perhaps for the long term.

After grocery clerks walked out of Vons and Pavilions stores on Oct. 11, Albertsons and Ralphs locked out their employees. The more than 70,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union are continuing to picket against their employers' demands to cut health benefits, among other conditions.

The employers say they have no choice but to make the cuts because they want to stay competitive with the likes of Costco Wholesale Corp., whose revenue has increased since the strike began.

The total losses for Kroger Co., the parent of Ralphs, Albertsons Inc., and Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Pavilions, are estimated at a half billion dollars thus far. Kroger's losses in the fiscal year's third quarter were reported to be between $135 to 145 million.

Bigger, Not Better

The Valley's community colleges got a windfall in bond financing for new construction in 2003, but the budget crisis in Sacramento could mean those brand spanking new classrooms will go empty.

Take Los Angeles Valley College, which is set to receive a $286 million chunk of the $980-million bond approved by voters in May to fund construction of several new buildings and renovate existing structures and landscape, said Cindy Sardo, a spokeswoman for the school.

Even as the school plans for its bond money, officials have had to reduce the number of classes offered, and the same is likely true for the other campuses of the Los Angeles Community College District.

Worse yet, another round of cuts could be underway when Gov. Schwarzenegger's budget is released in June.

New Civic Center, Finally

After years of controversy and false starts the 142,000-square foot Marvin Braude San Fernando Valley Constituent Service Center had its grand opening in June, billed as the centerpiece of the city's attempts to revitalize. The new civic center, which came on the heels of the failed secession movement, could not have come at a better time for secessionists, who argued the city was too detached from the Valley.

Built where two city parking lots used to be at Van Nuys Boulevard and Sylvan Street near the Auto Row, the building cost $34 million, with the funding coming from a 2000 bond program. The City Council approved allocating additional funds for tenant improvements and office furnishings, and other post-construction purposes.

Several city departments are housed on premises, and the building features 9,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space and about 300 parking spaces.

Who's Citi Is It Anyway?

California Federal Bank's familiar CalFed tag became history as the names of the 22 Valley and surrounding area branches were branded with the Citibank name in April. A merger agreement between Citigroup Inc., parent of Citibank, and Golden State Bancorp, parent of CalFed, was completed in 2002.