A burglary wave that shows no signs of ending ... school closures feeding secession moves ...Millard and Rubio creeks under attack ... allegations of excessive police force ... and business on north Lake, good and bad. These are a few of the top stories of 2010 here in Altadena, and as usual, here's our absolutely opinionated listing of the top ten stories of the year we left behind, in no particular order, after the jump:
1. Schools: For Altadena parents whose children attend Pasadena Unified School District, there wasn’t much good news to be had. The Altadena schools were still underperforming, although some had managed to boost their API scores. But there were two really big stories in Altadena education this year:
First is PUSD’s decision to close down Burbank and Loma Alta schools starting in the 2011 school year. PUSD’s consolidation committee was charged with closing down three elementary schools, and Jackson was also on the chopping block. But in the end, the district opted to close the two Altadena schools and leave Jackson open. On the heels of the closure of Noyes, Edison, and Audobon schools in recent years, one gets the idea that Altadena is a favored PUSD whipping post.
Which only provided fuel to the fire for our other top education story: the movement to separate Altadena from PUSD and launch an independent school district. Altadenans for Quality Education, after four years, finally gathered enough signatures to start the ball rolling to create an Altadena school district, but fully one third of the signatures were disqualified. According to AQE’s website, their November request to audit the signatures has resulted in a lot of foot-dragging by state and county bureaucracies, and Chief Petitioner Bruce Wasson told Altadenablog that there will be renewed effort after the holidays to verify the signatures and keep the process in motion. This story won’t be going away in 2011.
2. Embattled creeks: The creeks at Millard and Rubio Canyons suffered considerable insults this year, much to the dismay of local environmentalists and nature lovers.
In July, Lincoln Ave. Water Co. workers performing maintenance cut off the water supply to Millard Creek to a trickle for a couple of days. Only a cease-and-desist order from the National Forest Service restored the flow. In the meantime, habitat for the riparian creatures (including endemic California newts, who were having a late mating season) suffered.
(Photo: Millard Creek newts in amplexus in April. Photo by Mario and Brenda Miralles)
Wildlife biologist Lori Paul, a resident of the nearby Chaney Trail neighborhood, said that, without water flow, the newts were not only stopped from mating, but became meals for predators (in addition to being temporary playthings and victims of ill-behaved children who wreak their own destruction all year long, according to campground host Lonnie Fehr).
Then, to add insult to insult, thick, pungent foam came down the creek for two days the following week. Lincoln Ave. Water denied that it came from their work, but did say that their dam had captured red, discolored water. While no cause to the foam was ever found, the best guess was that it was a natural process, caused by an unusual algae bloom -- the combination of a slow stream allowing algae to grow in combination with PhosCheck, the orange fire retardant dumped in the hillls during 2009’s Station Fire. One of its functions is to act as a fertilizer to encourage growth after a fire. Fertilizer plus algae in a slow-moving stream equals a stinky foam.
Photo: the wall on Rubio Creek in September.
Lori Paul was also a key player in our other creek story. Paul was one of the ones who discovered that a wall had been built halfway across the creek at Rubio Canyon over the summer. The creek is a “blue line” waterway, where nothing is supposed to interfere with the flow, and runs next to pipes that supply customers of the Rubio Canyon Land & Water Association.
The property owners said they built the wall to hamper a bear and preserve their property (including an old building from the property’s Boy Scout camp past that would never be built today due to its proximity to the creek). However, they built the wall without obtaining any permits from the multiple agencies that have jurisdiction over the creek, and the county issued a stop order in September. Since then, deadlines for removing the wall have come and gone as the agencies wrestle with a mitigation and removal plan (because it’s easier to build an illegal wall halfway across the creek than remove it). Property owner Moninder Birdi said that he was waiting for approval from California Fish and Game before removing the wall -- but even as heavy rains fall, and the water company prepares contingency plans in case of pipe damage, the wall still stands.
Pictured: Writer Steve Bass orders as the crowd waits at the Grilled Cheese Truck outside the Gallery at the End of the World in February in this Bill Westphal photo.
3. Street-smart lunch carts: A new cultural trend certainly made its presence known in Altadena this year: taco trucks that served trendy, tasty, and not-always-healthy food managed to make their way to town and gained local fans. Altadena hosted its share: Kogi BBQ , Hawaiian Shaved Ice, Frysmith, the Grilled Cheese Truck, Qzilla, Baby’s Bad*ss Burgers, all gathered crowds who would sometimes wait in line for hours to try out the latest in mobile cuisine.
4. Trails open, La Vina drops appeals: In May, after losing decisively in court, the La Vina Homeowners Association dropped all attempts to appeal the ruling that said that the historic trails around the gated development should be re-opened to the public. According to the court’s decision, keeping those trails open was one of the stipulations that allowed La Vina to be developed -- and the disappearance of those trails in later planning documents was an error, not the new way of life. Some of our hiking friends say that there are still some stray and illegal “No Trespassing” signs along the trails. The homeowner’s association also got stuck wth the county’s legal tab of $784,000.
5. North Lake business district travails: The ravaged economy left its mark on Altadena, notably on North Lake Ave. -- Altadena Nursery and Ronnie’s Automotive both closed in 2009 and stayed that way in 2010 (Ronnie’s vintage gas pumps were removed this year), but added to it were business closures including Ben McGinty’s iconic Gallery at the End of the World, Kat Scrap Fever, and others.
PIctured: the paintings on the MonteCedro fence on Calavaras St. didn't last long after a neighbor complained to the county, which found the paintings in violation of county signage codes.
The businesses that managed to stagger through 2010 complained of other problems, among them the heavy hand of the county regulating signage (sidewalk sandwich board signs, common in many upscale business districts, aren’t allowed in Altadena). The county’s sign regulations even meant ordering removal of the feel-good paintings by children and the elderly that were installed on the fence around the MonteCedro property.
Parking was also identified as a problem -- Michele Zack pointed out in these virtual pages that the business district was originally designed with streetcar travel in mind, and adequate parking will be a tough problem to solve if any business revival is expected.
Other detriments -- such as the ever-attractive WaMu crater on Lake and Mariposa, the sub-par Ralphs, and the county planner’s rather cavalier idea that Altadena was "over-retailed" -- all became part of the discussion. Los Angeles County's institution of a pseudo-green, feel-good 10 cent fee for grocery bags in unincorporated county areas was not a positive, either.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom -- there was promise, too. Altadena Hardware was purchased by the Orlandini family, experienced hands in the hardware business; and Webster’s Pharmacy was purchased by Michael and Meredith Miller, who previously transformed the Fair Oaks Pharmacy in South Pasadena into a community landmark.
And there was a little revival on the corner of Allen and New York, as scissors paper rock salon expanded into the space next door, Patticakes spruced up with a new mural, and Altadena Food Fair Market (after much county-related delay) opened an outdoor cafe, bringing a little life to that neighborhood.
Pictured: Annie Sprinkle, center, processes during the Purple Wedding Oct. 23.
6. The EcoSexual Purple Wedding to the Moon: what can we say about this? When performance artist/former porn star Annie Sprinkle and her partner Beth Stephens booked the Farnsworth Park amphitheater for a wedding on Oct. 23, the county naturally thought it was ... well, a wedding. The couple didn’t tell the county that they had a series of “weddings,” which were actually performance art pieces with multiple performers, wherein the pair also “married” various natural objects. So they announced the Farnsworth Park gathering on various websites, which is where we picked it up.
And Altadenablog is where the county found out that it wasn’t actually a wedding at all. What followed afterward is everyone seeming to play an assigned part, kind of like a Kabuki play: rather than renegotiate the contract in light of the new information, the county shut down the wedding because of the pair’s disingenuous description of what the event actually was. The pair sicced their attorney on the county, which buckled and allowed the event. Then the pair could proclaim it all as a victory of “love” over “homophobia,” which it really wasn’t.
The event itself was by turns festive, thought-provoking, strange, entertaining, and incredibly self-regarding (we find Rev. Billy’s caricature of an evangelical preacher to be smug and superior more than anything else, a hipster talking to other hipsters, satirizing people who aren't like them. How transgressive!). One of our favorite moments was the performer who praised Beth Stephens as an inspiration during her graduate school studies, just before stripping down to a red teddy and matching sheer panties. Wonder if she’s still paying her student loans. (Did we mention that this was supposed to be a family-friendly event?) Yep, it was an interesting time.
But this was just one event in Altadena, which, for a small, unincorporated town, has a wealth of art and culture for all tastes. Farnsworth Park also was the site of this summer’s Sheriff’s Support Group concert series, which is an overlooked gem among the many outdoor summer concerts going on -- it’s the Hollywood Bowl without the hassle, it’s Levitt Pavilion without Pasadena smug! Farnworth also hosted a rare U.S. appearance by Akafuji Daiko taiko drumming group, the Arts Council's ArtBREAK, and many other events. Between Farnsworth, the Coffee Gallery, McGinty’s, and the several North Lake Business District/Altadena Arts Coalition events, Altadena was THE place to be for culture in the San Gabriel Valley.
7. Community and policing: New Altadena sheriff Capt. Steven McLean faced controversy right from the get-go: charges of use of excessive force and strong anti-gang tactics riled up many residents who attended a Nov. 4 meeting at Jackson Elementary School. Crown City News presented a balanced “he said -- he said” between McLean and Pasadena Journal publisher Joe C. Hopkins. McLean promised better communication with the community. A followup meeting is planned to be held early in 2011.
8. Altadena Library: This didn’t make the cut last year, but we couldn’t do that again this year. The Altadena Library District -- a small one, with a main library and a branch -- is an unending feast for residents. Besides many children, teen, and family events, the Library hosts talks and workshops by authors in all genres, the April Poetry and Cookies festival, and the occasional celebrity plugging their biography, It also shows the work of local artists in its Community Room art shows. The Friday Fun Flick brings new, family-friendly films to you for free.
And this is all IN ADDITION to being a fine library that works on literacy for children and adults, sets itself as a resource for homeschooling parents, and is a lifeline for the people of Altadena. The Friends of the Library is the supportive group that helps keeps the quality up, and we are proud and grateful members (you should be, too!) No wonder we were all cut to the heart when this lively and beloved community institution was twice burglarized by losers looking for petty cash. If you or your children don’t have your cards (or a Friends of the Library membership), you’re missing the heart of Altadena.
9. Burglary wave: Overall numbers were down over 2009, thanks to increased citizen vigilience, better response by officers, and more arrests, but Altadena is still in the grip of a wave of burglaries that shows no signs of ending anytime soon.
10. Urban Farmer's Market: The environmentalist/ gardening/ foodie/ 60‘s counterculture contingent of Altadena and environs is a mighty force -- the Arroyo Co-Op idea got its start here, the Arroyo Time Bank is very active, the RIPE Altadena garden produce sharers always have something going on. Even Altadena Heritage is mostly about sustainability these days. We just needed a place for all these folks to get together.
And behold, it was so: Gloria Putnam and Steve Rudicel opened their home to host a monthly Altadena Urban Farmer’s Market. But it's not just any home: they have the historic Zane Grey Estate, which they have spent the past few years turning into a sustainable urban farm. Every month (and so far, always in the rain) they open up the estate to vendors of everything from food and produce to clothing to personal care products. It becomes a tent city (OK, a booth city) with hundreds of people looking for some of the best food the San Gabriel Valley has to offer. It also attracts a lot of the most interesting people, too, movers and shakers and dreamers and friends. Bring your reusable bag and go. Only negative so far: no restrooms!
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And we had to cut off at ten, altho’ there were other stories that stood out: the end of the Fork in the Road (altho’ our little birdies tell us it may yet reappear); the June 10 suicide that frightened a neighborhood with police and helicopter traffic; the seemingly-endless rescues of hikers by the pros at the Altadena Mountain Rescue; the Altadena artist’s home studio tour; the “Christmas in Altadena” tour fundraiser for St. Mark’s School, which turned out to be the last hurrah for Pasadena flower icon Jacob Maarse. We’re sure you can think of others (and don’t be afraid to put ‘em in the comments!)
For 2010, we found that the people of Altadena embraced this website as its own -- which it is! -- and we welcomed many more voices on our virtual pages as community reporters and commenters. Also, thanks to the support of our sponsor team, we were able to actually pay some freelancers to cover stories that were vital to gaining an understanding of our town. In a time of economic uncertainty, we’re extremely proud that we could provide local jobs -- and that the support came from our local business community. We don’t have a $50 million corporate sugardaddy funding our coverage, and we have pledged to only rely on local advertising, so that local support means a lot to us.
In 2011, with continued and improved sponsorship, we hope to be able continue to increase our coverage (it would be nice to have more stories from the west side, for example). We will continue to provide the best coverage of arts and artists in Altadena, and the small neighborhood events that are so vital to this community and really show its character. We’re pleased that Sheriff Capt. McLean has made it a priority improve communications, and has assigned Lt. Joe Dempsey as his public information officer, which has radically improved our crime coverage in the past year.
We are grateful to our freelancers: Erika McCarden, Devon Pettengill, and Laura Monteros, who helped us through 2010 with excellent reportage. We thank all of the community-minded people who make sure to inform us about what’s going on: Carolyn Seitz, Elliot Gold, Monica Hubbard, Alice Wessen. Chris Considine for his pictures and neighborhood eyes and ears. Steve Gerow, photographer extraordinaire. Gary Altadena for his unique looks at our somewhat eccentric hometown. Bill Westphal, for whom any words are inadequate. Michele Zack, whose “big picture” view is matched by a sharp, discerning eye and pen.
Thanks to Frank Girardot of the Pasadena Star News and Colleen Dunn Bates of Hometown Pasadena, who’ve said such kind words about the value of this homegrown, hometown news site.
And to all our community correspondants, members of the sponsor team, those who comment and those who lurk: you’re what makes this site a unique reflection of a unique place to live.
We love this work. We love Altadena.
Now, let's start 2011!
