Buena Vista Street

As Disney California Adventure reaches the midway point of a $1.1-billion expansion, I'd like to take a speculative look at what Walt Disney Imagineering might have in mind for Phase 2 of the massive renovation project. DCA's extreme makeover was necessitated by the on-the-cheap, off-the-shelf nature of the nearly decade-old theme park that even Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger now calls "mediocre. " Phase 1, which began in 2008, fixes about a third of the flawed park.

The body of a man who authorities said had been dead for about a week was found by state Department of Transportation workers Sunday morning on an embankment south of the Golden State Freeway in Burbank. Police were called to the southbound Buena Vista Street on-ramp about 9:30 a.m. by a road crew that discovered the dead man in the brush. The fully clothed body contained no identification, according to an investigator for the Los Angeles County Coroner.

City of Ventura sanitation workers spent about five hours Tuesday cleaning up a sewage spill that drained into a lagoon near the pier. A sewer line backed up at the corner of Kalorama Drive and Buena Vista Street about 9 a.m., causing a few hundred gallons of raw sewage to flow down storm drains, said Don Davis of the city's sanitation department. Workers were able to clear the line but had to scramble to the beach to prevent the sewage from continuing into the ocean, Davis said.

State agriculture officials said Thursday that they have discovered a fertile Mediterranean fruit fly in Monrovia and will add nearly 20 square miles to the area to be sprayed with the pesticide malathion next month. A mated female fly was found in an area north of Foothill Boulevard near Buena Vista Street, which was just outside the spray zone in the Monrovia area, said Don Henry, spokesman for the Medfly eradication project.

The Burbank City Council on Tuesday authorized $50,000 for installation of more warning signs and other safety measures at the intersection of Buena Vista and Vanowen streets, the site of at least five fatal traffic accidents in several years. The city has already erected barriers and installed highly reflective warning signs to caution motorists traveling east on Vanowen that they must turn where the street ends, at Buena Vista Street.

The Redevelopment Agency and Hurbert and Charles Foulger have entered into a memorandum of understanding under which a 1909 schoolhouse will be renovated as part of Duarte's new auto row. The Foulgers will develop the auto row and relocate Foulger Ford of Arcadia and Santa Anita Acura of Monrovia to the new site on the northwest corner of Buena Vista Street and Central Avenue.

Citing increased traffic, noise and safety problems, the City Council unanimously denied a permit request for a 24-hour Arco gas station and mini-market at the southwest corner of Buena Vista Street and Duarte Road, in an area zoned for apartment buildings and houses. The council's decision Tuesday came after an hour-long public hearing during which residents spoke both for and against the proposed Arco station.

A 17-year-old gang member was listed in fair condition today after his shirt was set ablaze by a burning object thrown from a passing car, Burbank police said. The youth was talking on a pay phone at Buena Vista Street and Victory Boulevard about 9:30 p.m. Monday when a car containing several rival gang members pulled up, Sgt. Don Goldberg said. An argument followed, and a passenger in the car threw a "Molotov cocktail device" at the victim. The device exploded in flames, Goldberg said.

The city will allocate $45,000 of its redevelopment agency funds to place underground utility lines on a portion of Central Avenue. After a public hearing, City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to establish an underground utility district along the north side of Central between Highland Avenue and Buena Vista Street.