We Are Old!

Big, big doings today for the Pasadenish because it's our 126th birthday.

We're having our party from 12-4 pm at the Pasadena Museum of History (free admission, free parking). There will be art, music, antique cars and more. In honor of this year's Olympics, the Synchronized Cake Cutting will be held at 3pm, officiated by Mayor Bill Bogaard.

Many organizations sponsor the event. A big co-sponsor is Pasadena Water and Power (a super important entity in this part of the world), and this year the cakes (also super important) come from Vons.

Everybody gets a free piece of cake. Everybody. You are Pasadenish. Come and get your cake.

Hahamongna Upset Overturned

The Honorable Michael D. Antonovich                                3/1/11
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.

I'll Wear Daffodils in My Crown

daffodils grow along an old fence at the Hahamongna Annex

Monday night I went to my first Pasadena City Council meeting. Because so many of you commented on Monday's post, where I expressed concern for the fate of the Hahamongna Annex, I thought I'd report back.

Everybody won!

That's the gist of it. Everybody got some of what they wanted. Nobody got all of what they wanted. In other words, democracy worked.

With 35 people asking to speak on the Hahamongna issue, Mayor Bogaard asked the public to refrain from speaking if someone before them had already made their point. I'm sorry to say there was an awful (and I do mean awful) lot of repetition. But the mayor, known for being a gentleman, kept the meeting moving and pretty much kept commenters to the time limit. (One of those commenter occasionally comments here--Laurie Barlow. Check out her well thought-out post on the subject at The Greensward: Civitas. She's in my blogroll, by the way.)

I was impressed with the City Council. They listened to the Staff presentation and public comments and asked good questions. There are some very sharp people on the Council. And here's the best part: they included almost all reasonable public requests in the plan.

I know. The mind boggles.

There's still a "bikes only" path in the plan. (For now.) I don't want it. But this isn't about what I want or don't want, this is about what the majority of people want. Democracy worked this time. When the bike path comes up for review, maybe we can try a different governmental system, such as Petrea As Queen.

Something else you should know, by the way: it took from just after 7:30pm to 11:15pm to resolve the Hahamongna issue. Most of the people clapped, got up, put on their coats and bumbled noisily out of the room, not noticing the small group that stayed behind: the City Council. With more items on the agenda, for them the night was young.

Fluorescents Be Damned

We had to duck out early on the Mayor's State of the City event last night (actually tonight, as I'm typing this) because I had (have) a migraine. There's Mayor Bogaard on the right, getting ready for his speech. He looks calm and collected, I think.

We stayed long enough to hear my voice-over for the "Charting a New Course" video. John says I sounded good. I'll have to listen again. I think there'll be a link to the video on the public access TV page of the City's website today, or soon.

I very much appreciate being included in the event and I regret the lousy timing--mine, not the Mayor's.

Nature's Course

A transient river flows through Hahamongna Watershed Park, charting its own course to carry the recent rainfall from the mountains to the dam. See it while you can. We live in the desert after all.

Tonight the Mayor's State of the City event will be held at LaSalle High School. The event's theme is "Charting a New Course." Mayor Bogaard and his staff choose a different location for his speech every year. Last year--or was it the year before?--it was the Rose Bowl locker room, remember? Wish I hadn't missed that. This year I'll be sure to attend because I did the voice-over for the video presentation and I haven't heard the final edit. Could you miss that? I can't. It's a big event (free), starting at 6:30pm, and all are invited.

Another free event I plan to attend is the upcoming City Council Meeting on Monday, February 1st. The Council will discuss the "Adoption of the Initial Study and Approval of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Master Plan Addendum for the Hahamongna Annex." I've read the addendum and find it difficult to follow (and my degree is in Rhetoric). I dearly wish they'd write these things in English. But because they don't they've got some Hahamongna lovers up in arms wondering if they're trying to pull something. Are they going to put in a road across our precious mid-city wilderness? Are they going to tear out non-invasive, non-native trees using funds that might be better used elsewhere in this economy? (Actually, that part's pretty clear. They are.) And who are "they?"

Frankly, I'm not sure. But I'll go to the meeting and listen. Since I don't understand the plan I'm dependent on others to interpret it for me, and different people have different interpretations. My request of those who wrote the plan would be to please rewrite it in English and make their intentions clear.

The time of the meeting is listed as 6:30pm and the public hearing on the Hahamongna Annex issue is listed as 7:30pm. Many postings say the meeting is at 7:30. I'll try to get to the bottom of this today and let you know what time to show up so you can get a seat. Update: I just called City Hall. The meeting begins at 6:30 but it's okay to enter late. The issue will be heard at 7:30.

Time after time, nature shows us that she will out. She showed us in Haiti just over two weeks ago and undoubtedly she'll show us again and again here at home. Whatever the powers end up doing or not doing to Hahamongna in our lifetime, nature will chart her own course long after we're gone. The decisions we make now must be about how best to flow with her in our lifetime.

State of the Blog

In PDP news:

Editor Colleen Dunn Bates of Hometown Pasadena has named Pasadena Daily Photo on her list of Top Ten Experiences in Pasadena for 2009. PDP proudly shares the #9 slot with Timothy Rutt's powerhouse Altadenablog.

The San Gabriel Valley blogging community is a thriving, generous, positive place where I've been encouraged and buoyed by my fellow bloggers from the very beginning. I'm grateful to Colleen for her recognition, and to all the bloggers I've met for being such cool people.

In PB news:

Each year Pasadena's mayor gives a State of the City address. This year's theme is "Charting a New Course." A video will be presented to go along with the theme of Mayor Bogaard's speech. I auditioned and was chosen to do the voice-over for the video! It was a fun experience and a real departure from my usual :30 second and one minute spots. Linda Centell, Pasadena's assistant Public Information Officer, edited the video.

If you're in town, you can attend this free event on January 28th at 6:30 p.m. at LaSalle High School, 3880 East Sierra Madre Blvd. For more information call (626) 744-4311 or email Inagahiro (at) cityofpasadena.net.

Sanctum

Pasadena's Public Information Officer, Ann Erdman, showed me around what she calls "the inner sanctum" of City Hall. That includes the mayor's office. (By the way, Mayor Bogaard, Ann said she'd take the heat for this photo.)

Merriam-Webster Online defines "sanctum" as 1) a sacred place; and 2) a place where one is free from intrusion.

I wonder if that's the case here. I suppose the mayor can say, "hold my calls!" and close the door if he has to, but how often does he actually get a minute to himself?

At least he has a nice office. It has good light. The woodwork is original to the 1927 structure. At first glance, the room looks tidy. But click on the photo to enlarge it and you'll see stacks of notebooks beside the desk. The shelves, desk and conference table are covered with papers. The mayor's suit jacket hangs over a chair as though he might be working in his shirt-sleeves. I doubt there's much time for snoozing in that comfy chair behind the desk.

Here's a challenge for you: find a one-word antonym for "sanctum."

Honcho Hallway

Of the many treasures in the inner sanctum of City Hall, this is one of my favorites. Along the wall outside the mayor's office are three rows of portraits, in black & white, of all the men and women who have served as mayor of Pasadena. They're in order, left to right, top to bottom, so if Wikipedia has it right that's Pasadena's first mayor, H.J. Holmes, on the upper left.

Pasadena has had 54 mayors but they've only been 52 different people. Our current mayor, Bill Bogaard, is a popular guy. Do you know who else was popular enough to be elected two different times?

You can't see it in this picture but two blank frames hang at the opposite end, bottom row. Ann Erdman, our Public Information Officer and my guide through City Hall, told me a frame is filled only when a mayor leaves office. So one of those frames will be filled when Mayor Bogaard leaves, and the last will be filled by the mayor after him. After that, what next?

I don't know, but there's a big future and a blank wall across the way.