Living in the Past

I've already harped on talked about the 710 freeway extension. I'm about to do so again. I will try to be entertaining (woohoo! cars! fumes! circus music!) but my feelings will not be hurt if you click away. Please come back tomorrow for silliness.

To recap: Caltrans, its proverbial finger on the proverbial pulse, thought now would be a good time to push ahead with an ancient plan.

OMG, we said, or letters to that effect.

Could we unite behind a presidential candidate? Could we unite over a sports team? Could we unite over so much as a flavor of ice cream? No.

However, nobody, but nobody wants a 710 freeway extension. We don't want it so fiercely that we are practically up in arms against it. Even local governments are involved in the fight.

For a moment it looked like Caltrans (finger to pulse) thought a tunnel under our communities might be some kind of cheery compromise, but yesterday the news broke: I first read it from Elise Kalfayan of Glendale's The Sunroom Desk. Lauren Gold also had the story at the Pasadena Star-News. The Los Angeles Transportation Committee, as Gold reports, "unanimously approved a resolution to oppose the F-7 tunnel route for the proposed 710 Freeway extension."

This is good.

Today at 10 am at City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street in Los Angeles, the LA City Council is scheduled to review and vote on a resolution opposing all six alternative freeway routes. You can go to this meeting. You are encouraged to show up and express your views. The more the merrier, and the better chance of showing Caltrans and the State of California that there are more forward-thinking ways to spend taxpayer money than on outdated concepts like freeways. The idea is so old fashioned that by the time a proposed 710 extension is finished, we'd be able to teleport goods from Long Beach to the Panama Canal.

If the resolution passes at today's City Council meeting, that doesn't guarantee that Caltrans will be stopped. Caltrans is like a chicken with its head cut off--it just keeps on running around in circles, even without a brain. The "No 710 Freeway Extension" group on Facebook grows every day. Feel free to join up.

Freeways have served their purpose, but here in the 21st century where you and I live they represent a disappearing, unenlightened age. They've already gone through Pasadena. They've already divided our city. They've already destroyed homes, businesses and neighborhoods. It's time to move on.

Plans for the YWCA

I believe I promised more photos of the Julia Morgan YWCA.

I noodled around the web looking for information about Morgan and about the building itself. Morgan, the first female architect licensed in the state of California, created many iconic buildings (Hearst Castle is the most famous), including several YWCAs. One is in O'ahu. I found this quote on their website:

"When Morgan closed her office in 1951, at the age of 79, she had her files, blueprints and drawings destroyed because she thought they would be of interest only to her clients who already had their own copies of relevant material."

I thought that was kind of interesting.

Here's an index of Morgan's work;
A link to some photos of the exterior of the Y;
An article by Joe Piasecki in the Pasadena Star-News about how much the renovation might cost, who might do the renovating, and how the building may or may not be used.

I haven't decided what I want the building to become, have you? There's a YMCA across the street but seeing as developer money might be involved, I suppose a YWCA is too much to ask for. But it might be nice to have some chaise lounges along the hallway downstairs and a buffet in one of the large corner rooms. I would adore a garden in the courtyard, where perhaps one could get a foot rub. Most of all, though, I want an office upstairs, with a secretary provided in an office adjacent to mine. I think I'd like to be on the third floor with my window overlooking Holly Street, but don't hold me to that. Let's wait and see what I'll have to choose from.

Oh and room service! There should be room service. And, um...toga-clad waiters.

Those are my ideas. Let's hear yours.

Aura

The atrium outside the Huntington Hospital's Braun Auditorium is not pink. But I was there to learn about "The Mysteries of Migraine" so it seemed appropriate to mess with the visuals.

Last night, the Huntington Medical Research Institute (HMRI) hosted a presentation/reception/wine and cheese thingy (red wine, which a lot of migraineurs can't drink, but their spouses can). I went because I wanted to learn what I could.

Actually, I went because I want to get off of these drugs. If learning will help, I'll do that. If driving backwards down Colorado Blvd. will help I'll do that, too.

Little is known about migraines, yet there's enough to say about them that we could talk about them for weeks. Among other things I learned last night, one of the most surprising is that very little research is being done into this disease suffered by 30 million Americans. But aren't we lucky? Of the very few facilities in the United States studying migraine, one of them is right here in Pasadena.

And last night's wine and cheese was all about recruiting migraine sufferers to volunteer for research.

Hmm. They have to extract spinal fluid. You know--a spinal tap. Our host Larry Wilson, Public Editor of the Pasadena Star-News and a migraineur, said that when these specialists tapped his spine he "didn't feel a thing."

I have a very low threshold of pain.

Do you think I signed up?

Phase I

Remember our Last Day Project? For one year, on the last day of every month we stood in this spot at Hahamongna Watershed Park and looked out over Johnson Field, watching it change with the seasons.

A few hundred yards away, Devil's Gate Dam was backing up with sediment. After years of neglect plus a Station Fire and two seasons of heavy rain, the sediment must now be removed. Much discussion has ensued about how to do so, and it looks like a two-phase plan will soon begin. In order to pacify those who don't want debris-laden trucks on their street, the first phase could involve LA County piling sediment in Johnson Field as soon as the annual toad population clears out.

Toads hang out in wet places. They're about the size of a thumbnail and the color of a pebble. Because they run and hide when I come near them the pictures I've gotten are lousy, but Walt Mancini of the Pasadena Star-News got a good one. The toads will go away when the water dries. It's drying now.

I'm glad the County is willing to wait for the toads to leave. Let's be honest, these little guys are being saved long enough to get eaten by snakes and coyotes, but that's better for the ecosystem than a pile of sediment. Then again, a pile of sediment is better for a city than a failed dam in a flood.

So it looks like we might have a decent compromise, at least for now. Nobody gets everything they want but everybody gets something. That's democracy, and it's beautiful when it works. The coyotes and snakes will need to go somewhere when the trucks come. They know all about compromise. They'll likely end up in the yards of the people who didn't want trucks on their street. Are coyotes in the yard better than trucks on the street? If you live alongside Hahamongna, you may not have a choice.

I'm not crazy about piling sediment in Johnson Field, but I'm crazy about compromise. It's the only way unless we want a monarchy, and I wouldn't vote for that.

There will be a Phase II.

The next meeting of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee will take place at 6pm this coming Tuesday, July 26th at the Pasadena City Yards - Training Room, 233 West Mountain Street, Second Floor, Pasadena 91103. On the agenda: Update on the LACDPW Post Station Fire Sediment Removal Project.

Home Shopping: To the Rescue

John saw an article in the Pasadena Star-News about an unincorporated area of Pasadena called Michillinda Park. A group of neighbors there is trying to save a vintage Craftsman house. We decided to drive over and have a look.

Michillinda Park is a lovely, historic neighborhood where peacocks graze on the median. Too bad it's unincorporated because that means there's no historic preservation ordinance and anyone who has the money can buy one of these...

...and tear it down to put in one of these.

To better illustrate my point, here's a panorama John made of these two houses:

I recommend you click the panorama to enlarge it. It looks like the two houses aren't next to each other, but they are. The reason the McMansion on the right is so much brighter than the Craftsman on the left is that there are no trees in the McMansion front yard. I wonder why, when all the old houses on the block have mature trees in their yards.

Click on the photos in the Star-News article. The house the neighbors are trying to save is a beauty. And the only way to save it is to find a buyer within a week.

Plus I sure hope someone finds that rodwiller.

Update 2/25/11:
According to the Pasadena Star-News, the house will be moved instead of demolished. Not great. A McMansion will be built in its place.

The Women's Room

It's not fancy, but to some people it's the closest thing to home they've got. 

I think if I were homeless I'd be afraid all the time. Tired, too. And I'd do what I could to find my way to the safety of The Women's Room at the Friends In Deed House, 444 E. Washington Blvd., at the corner of Los Robles.

Here's a description from Wired Women, a local newsletter written and compiled by Monica Hubbard:
"This project started, as many do, with a small group of women sitting around a patio table trying to discern where there were some 'gaps' in local human services for women that we might fill. After a year of research it became apparent that homeless women who were single, had no families and generally were a bit older, needed some special help. After a few little projects we decided these women needed a welcoming place to go just to get off their feet and out of inclement weather during the day."

I like reading about the germination of this idea--how the women put careful thought into the best way to go about it, then really stuck with it. The Women's Room flourishes.

The Pasadena Star-News recently featured The Women's Room and a quilting project created by clients and volunteers. The article gives you an idea of what The Women's Room is like and what it means to those who find their way there. 

It seems those gaps Monica mentioned are being filled.

The Women's Room is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays, and from 9 a.m. to noon Thursdays. For more information, call 626-797-2402. You can also volunteer: contact Jackie Knowles at TWRandFriends@aol.com.

Trade-Off

Work on the Braley Building has finally been completed after four years, during which many Pasadenish lamented the sale of this historic structure to the Church of Scientology and wondered if renovation would ever even begin. Upon purchasing the building, the Church immediately evicted long-standing businesses only to leave the building empty and waiting. Not exactly starting off on the right foot, but outsiders to this institution generally approach with mistrust, so I suspect the wrong foot was the only one to start off with.

Renovations finally began in earnest early this year. I took this shot in mid-May, grabbing a peek while the doors were open to Mercantile Place. It shows the first floor atrium in mid-construction. There, one could once find entry to the Pasadena Antique Mall, and a great little Italian restaurant where J. and I began falling in love, and a sandwich shop run by an immigrant couple who named the shop after their daughter. Apparently the the old wall clocks will be allowed to stay.

Walt Mancini's photo in the Pasadena Star-News shows a chapel. Knowing the Braley Building, I can only assume that's in the basement where the Knightsbridge Theatre once was. There I performed the Shakespearean roles of Tamara in Titus Andronicus and Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra. Fun times.

The theater company moved on to a better space before the Braley was sold. Say what you will about Scientology, but my bet is the chapel doesn't have cockroaches.

Plate 38

I'm not one to stand in line for the opening of a movie. I won't camp out to be the first to buy the latest product from Apple. I figure if these things are any good, they'll be around for a while and I can take advantage of them when sanity sets in and the crowds die down.

This was my thinking about Plate 38. As interested as I was in this new Pasadena restaurant, I wasn't in any hurry to get over there. But my usual method of operations didn't work for me this time. Just days after opening, a serious fire closed the place yesterday.

The location, on the northeast corner of Colorado Blvd. and Sierra Madre, had long been empty. (The window signs promising coffee taunted me cruelly.) The new owners put a lot of work into the place and took their time to make it right. I was willing to wait and I was glad when I heard they'd opened. I figured I'd get over there sooner or later.

Well, later. Robert Humphreys, the chef and owner, is quoted in the Pasadena Star-News saying he's not sure when he'll be ready to open the place again. Not soon. Maybe October. I wish him and his staff all the best.

Next time, I'll wait in line.

Thank You

As Bellis said, it was "like Christmas."

Thank you, Barbara Ellis (aka Bellis), Karin Bugge (aka Altadena Hiker) and Michael Coppess (aka East of Allen) for helping create a terrific groundswell yesterday, a blogging extravaganza to express our communal desire to keep soccer fields out of Hahamongna Watershed Park.

And thank you, Pasadena/Altadena blogging community, for teaming up to make a powerful statement.

When I spoke with Janette Williams of the Pasadena Star-News for her story about our efforts she asked me, in so many words, how one rallies a bunch of disparate bloggers in this world of online snark. I told her I've heard of snarky blogging but that's not my community. San Gabriel Valley Bloggers like each other. We tend not to go that route.

We bloggers don't always agree, we don't vote the same way, we don't care about the same stuff. But we're nice to each other.

Not everyone we invited to participate in yesterday's event responded to the call. Chances are those people want soccer fields at Hahamongna and it's their right to feel that way. But they didn't sabotage, send nasty messages or shout us down. (And blogs we didn't even think of added great posts to the mix.)

So thank you. We were heard on many levels. We made a statement about Hahamongna, and about community. People can work together. People can be nice to each other. At a time when hatespeak has become the vernacular of politics and TV news, I'm proud to say I hang with a crowd that doesn't speak that language.

Deja View

I know. You're thinking I posted this photo the other day. I don't blame you.

Look again. Since I took last Sunday's photo on May 1st, the Crown City Loan And Jewelry "Money To Loan" signs have been removed on both the Colorado Blvd. and Raymond Avenue sides of the building. According to one commenter on that post, that signage has been up since the 1970's.

The older lettering--"For Values," above, and I'm not sure what, below--has suffered in the intervening years. So has the black grid, which I'm going to guess was once clear glass.
I suppose I would have noticed this eventually, but what drew me to Old Town this time was Terry Griest, PDP's Bay Area designer friend, who was in Pasadena for a short family visit. She saw the changes and emailed me, so I ran over to get a shot. This time I actually stopped into the pawn shop. I had never been there before. Nice girls don't go to pawn shops, or something like that.

Well. This is Pasadena after all. Our pawn shop is not your creepy, greasy TV kind of pawn shop but rather a bit upscale. Sunlight streams in through big windows, gleaming on all sorts of cool stuff including jewelry, guitars, rare coins, power tools and three beautiful, antique cash registers. I asked the woman behind the counter about the changes to the facade and she said the plan is to remodel the building to its original appearance. When I told her I thought that was pretty cool, she said she thought so, too. She was excited about it.

I haven't read anything about this in the Pasadena Star-News or on the Pasadena Heritage website. But restoration of one of Pasadena's oldest Greene and Greene buildings, and, according to this 2006 article by Janette Williams, the only commercial building the favorite sons ever designed, is worth getting excited about.

Update 5/26/10:
I heard from Robert Montano, the Project Manager at Pasadena's
Economic Development Division. He says:

"As background to your post, the Owners, helped by a façade grant from the City of Pasadena’s Redevelopment Department are embarking on a façade restoration of the Kinney Building – the only Greene and Greene commercial building. The “Black Grid” is actually a panel of purple glass tiles frequently used in transom windows as can be seen at 55 E Colorado (above the future Intelligentsia and existing Foot Locker), just around the corner.

No one was certain as to the condition of the building when we started out, so needless to say, we are pretty happy to find so much original character in place. We have a long way to go until completion, but are very excited about starting down the path."

I know there's an online photo of 44 E. Colorado, but I couldn't find it today. But this post about Pop Champagne Bar from Fightin' Mad Mary shows the same kind of transom windows, just around the corner from the Pawn Shop.

Owl Drug Store

The old Owl Drug Company doorway now leads into Old Town Pasadena's J. Crew store at 3 W. Colorado Blvd. The corner of Colorado and Fair Oaks is where local commerce began.

Finding information online about this building and about Owl Drug isn't easy. The building, in Zig Zag Modern style, was built in 1930 after the previous Victorian structure burned in 1929. Apparently Owl Drug was there in the 1930s and 1940s (or the 20s-40s, depending on which article you read). Confusing, I know. Also, it looks like Owl was one of the forerunners of Rexall, but not until the 1940s. Yeah. Hard to follow.

This is a treasured old building, but not one of the oldest in town. Pasadena goes back to the turn of the 20th century.

Hey! It's my brother's birthday. One of these days I'd love to tour him around Old Town. He'd love it. Happy birthday, Stu!

This photo was a contender for the November first theme day of Doorways but I set it aside when I discovered how little information I was able to find on the web. In my search, though, I did find this 2006 article about hidden history by Janette Williams for the Pasadena Star-News. It reminded me that if I'll just dig, there are always treasures to uncover here.

Earth Trembles, As Does Memory

This week we've been talking about the Doty Block, a building at the corner of Fair Oaks and Green Street in Old Town Pasadena. Yesterday, Margaret and Trish asked if the mural that once graced the north face of the building had at one time been only partially visible.

I'm coming up on my fourth year in Pasadena. A lot happened before my time. But Terry Griest, a San Francisco Bay Area graphic designer who grew up in Pasadena, experienced the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake while living on South Orange Grove Blvd. And she kept the clippings.

It was a pretty serious quake:
(All three clippings are from the 10/2/87 issue of the Star-News.)

It just so happens that Terry also studied the Doty Block as part of a photo essay for a class called "The City as an Art Resource," at Cal State Long Beach. She created the essay in the mid-1980's, when Old Town was in transition from "scary part of town that you didn't tell your mother you were visiting after dark" (her words, K!) to the shopping mecca it is now.
Terry didn't think this 1984 photo she took was any big deal, but to me it's amazing. I'd never before seen a photo of the mural in context. I'd never seen the garage next door, only an enticing glimpse of the brick work along the top, in a black & white photo (see yesterday's post). I just love it.

I also love this shot from 1887:
Terry says it's "a photocopy of a photocopy." But you can see the turret that was once on the southeast corner, and the bay windows that faced out on Fair Oaks. Sweet.

I blog about Pasadena because I enjoy it. If only I didn't have to make a living! But I can't always run out to the library or the Pasadena Museum of History every time I want to research a post. I'm limited to what I can find on the web, and believe it or not, the web is limited. It doesn't have every photo, and it doesn't have personal memories.

So it's incredibly rewarding when PDP visitors get involved. The posts from yesterday and the day before (and tomorrow) wouldn't have been possible at all without Loren Roberts of Hearken Creative. Additional links in the comments really rounded out the information. And Terry Griest's contributions today are really outstanding. This participation in the conversation about our home town is extremely gratifying, and I can't thank you all enough.

I've also received a few emails this week from people who voiced their feelings about the Old Town they remember from before the changes. I'm only beginning to understand what an upheaval that must have been. I only know Old Town as it is now and I love it, not because I'm a shopper (I'm not) but because I love well kept old buildings. But knowing me and my love for old things with a little bit of dirt on them, I think I would have loved Old Town just as much before.

Maybe even more.