Meatball Bear to be Depicted on Glendale Rose Parade Float

The Crescenta Valley's most famous bear "Meatball," will be honored for his ursine hijinks by being depicted on the Glendale float at next year's Rose Parade.

The Glendale City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to make Meatball the front and center feature of its wildlife awareness-themed float called "Let's Be Neighbors," according to a release sent out by the city.

Meatball, who also was known by the nickname "Glen Bearian," started his public life in Spring of 2012 when he was found eating food, including apparently meatballs, out of trash and a broken refrigerator over several nights in La Crescenta.  He was also later thought to be spotted in Glendale and La Canada Flintridge.

He was tranquilized and removed from foothill neighborhoods several times.

In August of 2012, believing the bear to be too habituated to eating people's trash, the state Fish and Game Department removed him and took him to a wildlife sanctuary in Alpine, CA.  

The float design, which can be viewed above, depicts Meatball popping in and out of a trash can.

The idea of the float is to suggest that "it is not only desirable, but possible, for all those who live on the wildland urban interface (the place where urban development meets open space) to live together in harmony," according to a city report on the float.

What do you think of this float design?  Tell us in the comments