Free Mulch 'til Eternity

Our street is still lined on both sides with piles of tree branches, although we can see the clean-up approach and it looks like the crews will get to us this weekend if the weather holds. It's been fun, but I guess it'll be nice to have street parking again.

Few members of the relevant Pasadena city staff have had much sleep these last two weeks.  I've spoken with sanitation workers on garbage pick-up rounds, streets workers repairing damaged street lights and electrical workers doing that stuff they do with the wires. Everybody's been working long shifts, trying to put the city back together again. They're tired but still going, still keeping their spirits up as far as I can tell. At least nobody's snapped at me. Honestly, I'd be so nasty by now if I'd been working 12 hour shifts for 16 days straight. They are amazing and they're not finished yet.

Because, you know, GAME. PARADE.

If you're a regular here at PDP you know of at least one tireless city staff member who's been keeping us informed since the early morning hours of December 1st: Ann Erdman, Pasadena's Public Information Officer. Thank you, Ann. You're the best.

I've received more information from Ann's office--four more press releases over the last few days. I'm going to edit them down here to the most pertinent stuff.

The first one is in the "better late than never" category. Ann was on time, just--I wasn't. Fortunately the weather wasn't too bad yesterday. Today we may not be so lucky.

Topics of the press releases include, in this order:
more storm warnings
a fund to replace our lost trees
debris pick-up and dumping
free mulch! dude!

Questions answered. Contact information. Scroll through and find what you need.


#######

CITY OF PASADENA PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE
NEWS FOR RELEASE:
December 15, 2011
5:34 PM
MEDIA CONTACT: Ann Erdman, (626) 744-4755

COMMUNITY ADVISED TO PREPARE FOR SECOND WINDSTORM

Following a ferocious thunderstorm that swept through Pasadena this afternoon, a second windstorm with predicted gusts of up to 60 miles an hour is expected to hit Dec. 16 and 17.

Pasadena Public Works Department crews will be working all weekend to continue the process of debris removal.

“The city of Pasadena has extra crews on call to respond to emergencies should that be necessary,” said Pasadena City Manager Michael J. Beck. “This is a good time for residents to make sure they are prepared in case of an emergency.”        

A page on the city website – www.cityofpasadena.net/windstorm_2011 – includes comprehensive information about windstorms, including instructions for emergency preparedness, important phone numbers, answers to frequently asked questions and more.

To report power-related issues, call (626) 744-4673;
to report fallen or compromised trees in the public right of way, call (626) 744-4321;
to report fallen or compromised trees on private property, call (626) 744-4009;
to report building damage, call (626) 744-4200.

To report a life-threatening emergency, call 9-1-1.


###

December 15, 2011
5:03 PM

LOCAL FOUNDATIONS WORKING TOGETHER TO HELP RENEW PASADENA’S URBAN FOREST FOLLOWING WINDSTORM

The city of Pasadena lost close to 1,100 trees of all sizes and species during the recent hurricane-force windstorm and at least 70 more park trees have been damaged and are being assessed for their chances of survival.

Now two local foundations are working together to help renew the public portion of Pasadena’s urban forest by replacing those lost trees.  

The Pasadena Community Foundation has teamed up with Pasadena Beautiful Foundation to establish the Windstorm Tree Fund for Pasadena to raise money for the purchase and planting of replacement trees on city property.

Pasadena Community Foundation, a non-profit, tax-exempt public charity created by and for the people of Pasadena, will match up to $10,000 in donations to the fund. All donations to the Windstorm Tree Fund for Pasadena are tax deductible and organizers stress that every penny donated will be used for the sole purpose of planting new trees.

“Without us having to ask, these two organizations saw the need, came to the city and offered their help," said City Manager Michael J. Beck. "In a time of very tight budgets, this kind of support from our residents is especially welcome and we’re very grateful.”

“Our urban forest is what makes our community livable,” said Emina Darakjy, past president of Pasadena Beautiful Foundation, a non-profit community organization that has worked with the city of Pasadena for 50 years to plant and protect trees. “Besides adding a natural beauty, trees provide quantifiable economic, ecosystem and health benefits.”

Donations to the fund may be made at www.pasadenabeautiful.org (click on Make a Donation) or mailed to Pasadena Beautiful Foundation, 140 S. Lake Ave., Suite 268, Pasadena CA 91101.

For more information about the Windstorm Tree Fund for Pasadena and to follow its progress, visit www.pasadenabeautiful.org and www.pasadenacf.org.  Facebook users can “Like” the Windstorm Tree Fund for Pasadena page.

# # #

December 13, 2011
5:11 pm

CREWS COLLECT YEAR’S WORTH OF GREEN DEBRIS IN ONE WEEK

The enormity of the windstorm recovery effort is becoming clearer every day.

Pasadena Public Works Department crews have been working tirelessly to clear the city’s 325 miles of roadways of storm debris and so far have collected a year’s worth – 18,000 tons – in just one week.

“It’s an incredible amount of material,” said Public Works Director Siobhan Foster.  “We’re going to be devoting the next several weeks to picking up all the green windstorm debris that residents have put out at the curb.”

A small contingent from L.A. County Department of Public Works continues to assist Pasadena Public Works with the massive project. Primary and secondary arterial roads have been cleared and now crews are concentrating on residential streets, moving east to west across the community while responding to day-to-day issues.

Foster reiterated that the Dec. 12 deadline for putting green storm debris at the curb for pickup has now passed and urged residents not to keep adding more, especially if crews have already cleared their streets.  

“Once we finish a street, we’re finished,” she added.  “We won’t be making a second pass to pick up more debris put out at the curb after the deadline. Our crews have to get to every part of the city.”

Residents with additional storm debris not placed at the street are advised to break it up to fit in yard-waste bins or take it to drop-off sites at the parking lots of Robinson Park, 1081 N. Fair Oaks Avenue, or Eaton Blanche Park, 3100 E. Del Mar Boulevard, by Friday, Dec. 16. All green debris, whether already at the curb or taken to a site, should be unbagged.

For more information call (626) 744-4087.

# # #

December 13, 2011
5:30 pm

WINDSTORM DEBRIS RETURNED TO COMMUNITY AS FREE MULCH

The recent hurricane-force windstorm that rocked Pasadena has finally yielded one benefit: free mulch for gardens.

Green debris taken by residents to two drop-off points has been ground up and will be returned to those locations starting this week as free mulch available to any Pasadenan with a shovel and something with which to carry the mulch.

Mulch will be available daily from Dec. 16 to 29, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Eaton Blanche Park, 3100 E. Del Mar Blvd., in the parking lot on Millicent Way; and Robinson Park, 1081 N. Fair Oaks Ave., in the parking lot on Morton Street.

Mulch is an important organic protective cover placed over soil to help retain moisture, return nutrients, discourage weed growth and encourage seed germination and healthy plant growth. 

To prevent contamination of mulch, residents are reminded that yard waste must never contain any non-green items such as mattresses, fence material, roof shingles or other debris.

In addition to a great deal of free mulch, the unprecedented amount of storm debris has led to an increase in illegal dumping on streets, in parks and public rights of way. Pasadena Police are on the lookout for illegal dumping and will issue citations.

For more information about green debris collection and free mulch, contact Environmental Programs Manager Gabriel Silva at (626) 744-4721.

# # #

Ann Erdman
Public Information Officer
City of Pasadena
Public Affairs Office
100 N. Garfield Ave., Room S228
Pasadena CA  91109
(626) 744-4755
Cell: (626) 375-2742
www.cityofpasadena.net/publicaffairs
Facebook:  Pasadena PIO
Twitter:  pasadenapio

Parker-Mayberry Bridge

The Parker-Mayberry Bridge is a small, graceful bridge under the colossal, graceful and more famous Colorado Street Bridge. The Parker-Mayberry doesn't have a Wikipedia page, nor do many links point in its direction. Scroll down to the second photo in this post by Pasadena Public Information Officer Ann Erdman to see how the two bridges compare in size.

The Parker-Mayberry Bridge was built in 1916, three years after the Colorado Street Bridge. I had thought it was the older of the two, but no. The earlier structures on this spot in the Arroyo Seco were the Scoville Dam and Bridge. "Remnants of the early construction can still be found there," according to the Arroyo Seco Foundation.

The Parker-Mayberry is closed to automobile traffic, but you can approach it on foot. While walking in the Lower Arroyo Park, continue north on the west side of the the wash past the footbridge and cross under the Parker-Mayberry and Colorado Street Bridges. Soon you'll be above the water where I took this picture early in my blogging career. From here you can walk onto the Parker-Mayberry Bridge. Behind you there's stonework; likely the remnants the Arroyo Seco Foundation refers to.

Dogs on leash. Look out for poison oak. Let me know what you find.

Water Rules

Don't freak out, but Pasadena's outdoor watering rules are about to change for the remainder of March.

I know, I know, it gets complicated. But Pasadena's Public Information Office (PIO Ann Erdman, Assistant PIO Linda Centell and Graphic Designer Zack Stromberg) has me on a mailing list so I've got the poop.

Beginning tomorrow (Friday, March 11th) you can water your lawn any day you want to, as much as you want to, for a week--because for ten days after that, from March 18th-27th, you are not allowed to water your lawn at all.

It's only ten days, and it's only March, so like I said, don't freak out. I haven't watered my back yard for over a year and I still haven't been able to kill it.

On February 28th, the Pasadena City Council declared a Level 4 Water Shortage Emergency during the temporary shutdown of a major regional water pipeline from March 18th-27th. "The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), which supplies about 60 percent of Pasadena’s water, is planning a seismic retrofit of the F.E. Weymouth Water Treatment Plant in LaVerne and will stop all water deliveries to Pasadena and neighboring cities through its upper feeder pipeline during the project. For those 10 days, Pasadena must rely solely on its groundwater and reserves."

Those reserves (about 150 million gallons) are sufficient if everyone does their part. Outdoor watering is Pasadena's largest use of water. Under normal circumstances we use about 250 million gallons under normal circumstances. It shouldn't be too hard to cut that back. Established plants can go a good ten days or more without water (especially now, when it's not too hot), but horticulturalists recommend waiting to plant anything new until after the watering ban.

More information here, including tips about pre-watering, storing water ahead of time for hand-watering and how the ban will be enforced.

I hope this won't be a problem for you. It doesn't change a thing for me. I'll water the front yard once or twice this coming week, and I've got a couple of jugs of water set aside for the potted plants. The back yard will thrive, even if I take a flame thrower to it.

PDP/PPM Books Contest, week 4

Local Pasadenamites (as opposed to what--international Pasadanish?) will immediately recognize this rock formation, even though it's covered with gunite. It's our famous devil of the Devil's Gate Dam. This rock formation gave the dam its name.

But who named the "Devil's Gate" gorge? That's this week's contest question. Once again, I've linked you to the answer. (Read the whole post, it's fascinating.) Many thanks to Ann Erdman, Pasadena PIO, for her great blog.

If you've been checking in for the past few weeks you know the contest rules, but in case you haven't, here they are:

1. Email the answer to me. There's a link to my email in my profile at the upper left. You have until midnight tonight, Pasadena (Pacific) time. Answers in the comments section will be rudely ignored.

2. That's all you have to do.

3. Tomorrow I'll ask my cutest, most innocent neighbor child to draw the winning name from a hat. I will search diligently for an actual child. I'll announce the winner in Sunday's post.

4. PRIZES! For your holiday gift-giving for for your lucky self:

Once again, this week's prize will be a brand new copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010, thanks to Colleen Dunn Bates and Prospect Park Media. After today I only have one more copy of Hometown Pasadena to give away. We'll do that next week.

THEN we'll have another week or two of giveaways because we have a copy of At Home Pasadena, the lovely, hardcover coffee table book about beautiful living in our beautiful town;
AND
stick around, because we also have a copy of the brand new novel, Helen of Pasadena, by Pasadanish Lian Dolan. The book is now available at bookstores everywhere. Whet your Helen appetite by reading chapter one here, or meet Lian in person at Vroman's November 14th at 3pm.

Many thanks to Colleen, Lian and everyone at Prospect Park Media.

Hot Set

I'm a fan of Pasadena PIO, the blog of Ann Erdman, Pasadena's Public Information Officer. That's where I read that KPAS, our local cable access TV station, is moving from channel 55 to channel 3 on the Charter Communications System. The move happens on Tuesday, January 12th. Ann wrote a PSA to publicize the move. You can see it if you click on her blog.

If you're not a Charter customer (if only we had a choice!) you can go to the City Manager page on the City of Pasadena website and can click on Video Streaming at the right side of the page. I just clicked and found Ann Erdman herself, interviewing a nice young woman about planting 700 trees in Pasadena!

I had the pleasure of recording an important voice-over at the KPAS studios recently. I'll tell you about it soon.

Water Control

There's water under the Devil's Gate dam again. We were told that last week's rain wasn't much and truly it's only a stream, but it's good to see.

Click on over to the Pasadena PIO's recent Mystery History piece about the dam and scroll down to the well-known photo of the "completed project." The dam is no longer a public road, but that square control tower or guard house is still there. From where I was standing when I took this shot, all the water in the PIO's photo would have been behind me, where this is now.

The dam was built back in the days when there was enough water that it needed controlling. We don't have that problem now.

I check in at LA Creek Freak a lot. I don't comment much because I don't know what to say. But they do, and they're worth reading.

Embracing Our Diversity

Folks said 7:30 was a little early--not to be out of bed, necessarily--but to be showered, dressed and out in public being civil on a Monday. But none of us would have missed it for anything.

It was the Pasadena YWCA's Women for Racial Justice Breakfast, chaired by Ellen Portantino, emceed by NBC's Beverly White and put together (obviously) by a lot of unsung but dedicated people. I was one of the lucky women invited to share a table with my friend and Pasadena's Public Information Officer, Ann Erdman. Did you know the YWCA's whole mission is "Eliminating Racism and Empowering Women"? And the YWCA in Pasadena is huge.

I knew I'd enjoy it. I even knew I'd be inspired. But I didn't know how much.

This year's recipient of the YWCA Racial Justice Award was Marge Wyatt, a Pasadena activist for more than 50 years. Sandra Davis Houston gave Wyatt a rousing introduction, saying there's no way we can know how many lives she influenced over the years. Wyatt has fought for equality in many ways: by writing about it, by standing up for desegregation, as the founder and former board president of Child Care Information Service and as an active presence on the PTA. When asked what his mother did, one of her sons once said, "She goes to meetings." She has spent the better part of 50 years going to meetings to make Pasadena a better place for people of every heritage.

Dr. Joy DeGruy, yesterday's keynote speaker, holds more degrees than a hot day in Pasadena. Her speech was funny and poignant. Most interesting to me, she challenged my assumptions and those of everyone else in the room, from the responses I heard. She spoke for about half an hour but I could have listened to her all day. If she writes like she talks then her book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Enduring Legacy of Injury and Healing, promises to be a hell of a read.

All thousand or so of us took a Racial Justice Pledge together yesterday morning. You can take it, too.

I believe that every person has worth as an individual.
I believe that every person is entitled to dignity and respect.
I believe that every thought and every act of prejudice of all kinds is harmful; if it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others.
Therefore, from this day forward I will strive daily to eliminate prejudice from my thoughts and actions.
I will discourage prejudice by others at every opportunity.
I will treat all people with dignity and respect; and will strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world will be a better place because of my effort.

Other posts about the event: An Inch At A Time, Hometown Pasadena
If you see other posts about it, let me know and I'll link to them here.

If you think about this pledge, it's not an easy thing to do. But let's all take a good shot at it, shall we? And when we mess up, let's keep trying. That's what Marge Wyatt did, and she's succeeded in making the world a better place.

Win Yerself a Quality Pasadena Tee

What building is this?

First one to answer correctly gets a Pasadena t-shirt (size small, that's all I've got). The shirt's an attractive navy blue with sophisticated gold lettering. I'm in possession of this nice, new shirt partly thanks to the generosity of Ann Erdman, Pasadena PIO, and partly thanks to the fact that I don't know what size I wear. (Well, now I do, and it ain't "small.") Answers will be accepted only in the comments section for this one.

John, Boz and I are going to the dog beach today. I'll announce the winner when we get back. But you guys'll all know by then anyway. Good luck and thanks for playing!

Free Time

Are you free this afternoon? Well how about that? So is the Pasadena Museum of History.

Pasadena family histories are highlighted at the PMH right now, and on Wednesdays until January 10, 2010 you can get in free if you live, work or go to school in our community. They're calling it Community Wednesdays. Click the link for times and requirements. You have to prove you live here, and the link tells you how.

I took this photo upstairs in the Fenyes Mansion, which is part of the museum. (Mansion tours may be separate; check the website for times. A $4 donation is suggested.) It's the bathroom. Just the bathroom.

As Pasadena's Public Information Officer says, "Don't cry to me that there's nothing to do in Pasadena this summer." (Check this post for a list of free activities for kids and teens.)

Dissemination

My husband has the camera today. What's a blogger to do? Why, dig into her archives, of course.

You may remember my July 3rd post about a fluffy tree in the Hahamongna basin. Well, Ann Erdman, Pasadena's Public Information Officer, read that post. Ann can't bear letting a question go unanswered and, like me, she loves research. Unlike me, however, she knew where to look for the answer. The question was, what was that fluffy tree?

Ann emailed two experts and sent me her results.

From Darya Barar, Certified Arborist at the City of Pasadena:
"The tree in the picture looks like an Arroyo Willow to me. I believe the maintenance policy in the arroyo is to allow trees to be as natural as possible.... that means in the fall there is no intervention by City crews."

And from Elise Jackson, Arroyo Seco Program Coordinator:
"Darya is correct. This is a native willow, a predominant tree in the Hahamongna flood basin, behind Devil's gate dam. The white 'fluff' contains the seeds which aids in the wind dispersal of these seeds. You can see in the photo the seeds (dark spots) mixed in the fluff. These trees definitely give Hahamongna the look of a winter wonderland, when the wind blows the white fluff completely covers the air and the ground, distributing seeds for the natural regeneration of our native willow woodland and providing important wildlife habitat."

In the July 3rd post you see the tree, looking snowy. In today's photo you see what Elise is talking about: the fluff distributing its seeds on the ground along the path.

Thanks to Darya and Elise for responding to Ann, and thanks to Ann for spreading this information.

Thank You, Ann

If you've been visiting Pasadena Daily Photo this week you may have wondered, "who is this illustrious Public Information Officer, this Ann Erdman person, and why is she in Palm Springs?" (The question I've been asking myself is, where's Linda Centell? She's my neighbor and I haven't seen her all week.)

I should have coordinated with Ann; it's not her fault I chose the week of her vacation to post my City Hall photos. She has every right to take a vacation, and Linda is perfectly capable of serving as Acting PIO for a week.

Here's a list of a few of the things Ann does as Pasadena's Public Information Officer (and what Linda's been doing in her absence):

--writes Pasadena In Focus, the newsletter received in every Pasadena household, telling us what's going on in town. (A joint effort. Ann tells me Linda is the "world's greatest editor.")
--prepares and distributes news releases and answers media inquiries.
--oversees all programming on 55KPAS, Pasadena's local cable TV station.
--develops and sells City Hall souvenirs. (I have the tote bag.)

The rest I quote from Ann's job description: The Public Information Office "...produces brochures, leaflets, flyers, posters, ads and other literature; plans press conferences; promotes special events; provides media relations and public relations counsel to city departments; and oversees the information kiosk at Pasadena City Hall..."

As if that weren't enough, Ann has received accolades and awards for putting together The Pasadena Follies, where city officials have a chance to make fun of themselves for a good cause.

She's won the hearts and minds of the local blogging community (and there are a lot of us) not just by answering our questions, which is part of her job description, but by being our friend, which is not.

Ann is also a blogger. Check her out at Pasadena PIO. And you can follow her on Twitter. She even found time to give me a friendly tour of the "inner sanctum" at City Hall.

I think a vacation is allowed.

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."

No One is Incognito

You'll find Linda Centell in the City Hall Public Affairs office. I took several pictures of her and I think this one's interesting. Unfortunately, you can't see Linda in it. If you want to see a cute picture of Linda, scroll down in this post on the Pasadena PIO's blog. You'll find Linda and her handsome husband, Ed Washatka, in their party duds.

Something I love about Pasadena is that people here are connected. It's not just me. I've never been this connected in any other place. See, things work sort of like this: Linda and Ed are my neighbors, and, say, Linda introduces me to a friend who's interested in a cause I care about, and that friend happens to know a professor who wrote an article about a subject I'm interested in, so the professor hooks me up with some people he knows who belong to an organization I belong to, and it turns out one of them is a blogger I had already met online, and through her I meet Ann Erdman who is the Public Information Officer, and wouldn't you know it? Ann is Linda's boss.

I don't think I've made myself clear. What I mean is it's a big circle. Not everyone knows everyone, but sooner or later everyone seems to be connected to everyone somehow, and if you want to meet someone you probably know someone who can introduce you. Somehow.

And no, I didn't uncover any secrets at City Hall. As far as I know, nobody there is incognito.

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.

Power Playroom

Every Tuesday, Pasadena's Public Information Officer holds a Mystery History contest on her blog. So before you do anything else, go on over there and enter. Go on, there's a time factor. I'll wait.

Okay. So you see how it works. PIO Ann Erdman posts a historical Pasadena photo and you guess what the photo's about. If you're the first one to guess correctly you win a prize.

Three weeks ago, I won. When I went to City Hall to collect my attractive City Hall tote bag, Ann allowed me to take photos inside the city government offices. Oh yes she did. I sneaked around behind the reception desk. I saw the secret documents. I poked my camera into the deep, dark playrooms of Pasadena's power politics.

Not really. Actually, the lighting was decent.

I got some fun shots to post this week, so stick around.

Washington Park: What She Said

Yesterday's post about Washington Park brought informative and informed comments from Pasadena's Public Information Officer, Ann Erdman. In case you missed her or you don't read blog comments, I asked Ann if I could quote her in today's post. Ann knows a lot about pretty much everything in Pasadena, plus it gives me a chance to post this photo of the river rock bridge at Washington Park:

"I love giving background about this park!

Credit for the transformation of Washington Park needs to be shared with the Friends of Washington Park and the Washington Square Neighborhood Association. They did tremendous outreach to get volunteers who worked side-by-side with city Public Works crews, and they were at the table throughout the planning and implementation of the improvements.

Big credit should also go to City Councilman Victor Gordo and his field representative Vannia De La Cuba. They advocated for the improvements as well, and worked closely with the neighbors.

Everyone expressed the desire to restore the historic structure and beauty of the park, bring it into compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and emphasize its association with landscape architect Ralph Cornell an horticulturalist Theodore Payne, who designed the park in the early 1920s. At that time it was known as one of the most beautiful places in Pasadena, but later it fell into disrepair.

Much of the funding for the improvements was provided by a Proposition 40 grant from the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. The design team of Troller-Mayer, Bob Perry and Onyx Architects designed ramada-style picnic shelters and a nature interpretive kiosk.

Extensive re-landscaping with new irrigation and indigenous plants, and a stage built from recycled stones are all featured in the 5.2-acre park. The park retains most of its historical hardscape, including river rock structures such as the arched bridge [above] and many original trees.

Washington Park was rededicated in all its improved glory in 2006.

A couple of months ago there was a big cleanup and tree-planting at Washington Park, and the neighbors were right there once again!"


Whew. That was an easy post to write. Admittedly, I spent a little time on the links. But I understand that's good for a blogger.

Thank you, Pasadena PIO.