L.A. County Board of Supervisors
Los Angeles, California
Dear Supervisor Antonovich:
On behalf of the City of Pasadena, I convey strong support for your motion on today’s Supplemental Agenda (Item 60C) pertaining to the Devil’s Gate Dam Sediment Removal Project. After due deliberations, the Council unanimously expressed support for the motion.
We recognize the seriousness of the project to be undertaken, and Pasadena is prepared to cooperate fully in its implementation in the years ahead. But like you, we strongly believe that the project must be structured in a thoughtful and environmentally sensitive manner, and we agree that the approach suggested in your motion will put us on the right track for this effort. The City will be represented at today’s meeting by either Vice Mayor Victor Gordo or Councilmember Steve Madison.
Please share this letter with your colleagues on the Board of Supervisors. It is our hope that the motion carries and that the short term plan, to be returned within 90 days, will take into account all material environmental concerns. In this regard, our Public Works staff stands ready to confer and cooperate with the Department of Public Works, Los Angeles County, to assure that the interests of the City of Pasadena in Hahamongna Park are taken fully into account.
Please let us know how we can be helpful in pursuing this important matter.
Sincerely,
BILL BOGAARD
Mayor
Locals may already know that Supervisor Antonovich's motion passed and there will be an Environmental Impact Report before the Department of Public Works begins removing silt from behind the Devil's Gate Dam. (Yay!) The referenced "short term plan," as I understand it, will actually be returned within 30 days as opposed to 90. During this period LADPW has permission to clean out the workings of the dam itself. I hope I've got that right.
The Hahamongna walkabout is this Saturday, March 5th, and there's room for you! Sign up and join us! (I'm leading the 9am tour.) Find out why so many people continue to push to preserve this "urbanwild" place (have done so for years and will always do so).
Big thanks to the City Council for standing up for Pasadena's interests and to Pasadena PIO Ann Erdman for sharing the Mayor's letter. Thanks to Mademoiselle Gramophone for videotaping the Supervisors' meeting and reporting. Thanks to the Pasadena Star-News for this excellent editorial that states it all so clearly and evenly. And thanks to the many, many people who signed the petition (you can sign, too) and made their voices heard in support of Hahamongna. I'd list them all, but the band would play me off the stage.
There will be more challenges. Let's stay tuned.
19 comments:
That's a terrific photo and title. Three cheers for Antonovich, the Board and the City Council. Madison said the right things in the end, and perhaps now, not all the trees will be removed. I hope everyone will come to look around Hahamongna on Saturday. There's lots to see.
Way to go City of Pasadena! I'd like to be on your tour P. You asked a question on one of my blogs and darn I can't find it to give you an answer. Stay tuned.
V
Thanks, Bellis! Now maybe I can shut up about this for a while.
Virginia, when you visit we'll take Boz on a little walk at HWP. (And don't worry, I've already forgotten the question.)
On Facebook, Roberta Martinez of Latino Heritage says Christle, Don Bremner, David Czamanske, Tim Brick and Mary Barrie all spoke at the Board of Supervisors' meeting. These people have been champions all along.
If I were an actual reporter I'd have Christle's last name for you; she's one of the backbone people at the newly-formed urbanwild.org.
Bremner and Czemanske are with Sierra Club. Bremner is the newly-elected chair of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee.
Brick heads the Arroyo Seco Foundation and SaveHahamongna.org.
Barrie heads Friends of Hahamongna at fohwp.org.
woo-hoo!
had a dream the other night of actually trying to hold onto silt. yeah, lemme know how THAT worked!
and am certainly glad that "urban" was followed with "wild" and not some other word that might create 150+ comments! ;-)
wv: jackings...oh, the places we could go with that one
Big thanks to you too, Petrea, for all your Hahamongna updates. I'm looking forward to your guided walkabout Saturday.
Love the photo!
I'd be happy with 150 comments, Trish.
Thanks, Susan. I don't know about anyone else, but I think I might put this photo on my favorites list because it's so weird.
I hope they drop the criminal charges, it would be a criminal waste of money to prosecute and imprison the tree protestors.
Petrea, this is definitely one of your best photos ever. I'm still amazed that it's a reflection and not just you turning the photo upside down. Such clear, still water!
I love that photo. It looks perfect, still, as though a reminder of what may be lost if we continue to chop down trees and tear up our quiet spots, all in the name of expedience. We see "expedience" every day, all around. I hope you win the war, not just the battle.
I know it's a battle and not the war, but sweet victory. And Patrizzi, the Hahamongna Marianne. Love her; and love the way you caught the shades of purple and blue-lilac in our mountains.
Patrizzi, thanks for going to all the meetings. Some can go to morning meetings; I'm an evening meeting kind of girl.
I agree, Bellis, it's a waste of funds to prosecute the tree sitters. Does anyone have the url/link for their defense? And thanks re: the photo. It's a reflection and it's upside-down as well.
This is/was a big battle, Trish. The war is world-wide and it will always go on.
Impressive. And the photo isn't so bad either.
ginab:
Good job, everybody!
I know only too well how big this battle still is. as it should be if they are actually thinking about paving paradise like this.
and I wouldn't mind 150 comments either...but at least they'd be more useful and positive to the environment than the gigglefest(TM). ;-)
wv: savingish...they thought they'd be savingish money by clear cutting and dragging Hahamonga...then the people who actually use Haha got involved.
Amazing photo (I almost want to touch it to make ripples so I know it's actually water!) and such good news. Just think if no one had taken the time to make a fuss. Yikes! Bummer I can't join you on the walkabout on Saturday but the HWP is definitely on the list for my next visit.
Thanks, everyone.
Hiker, I've been trying to get a picture of the "pink time" on the mountains for a long time. Never seem to do it justice.
YAY!!!
Amazingly surreal photo!
The next job is to go to the EIR meetings, read the documents, write comments, etc. It's the drudge work but at the end of the day it will be what really saves Hahamongna.
Mary B.
Yay is right, Chieftess, and Mary is right, too. We've got to stay on it. It's the old "battle won, still got a war to fight" adage. But it was an important battle.
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