Zen Monday #250

Zen Funday! Please tell us your caption for the photo.

You Pave Paradise...

I know! It looks kind of like a golf course, so I forgive you if you mistake it for one. Actually, though, it's a parking lot.

It's in the Arroyo Seco just north of the Rose Bowl Stadium. If you think the Arroyo Seco is a great place for area residents to ride a bike, walk, play soccer, or take their kids swimming or to the Kidspace Museum, once again, I forgive you, because once again, you are incorrect. The Arroyo Seco is off limits to Pasadena residents.

Unless, of course, they have a ticket to the NFL game.

I don't care if you pay taxes. I don't care if you vote. If you don't shell out for that ticket you don't matter around here, so quit yer bellyachin' and go ride yer bike around Victory Park.

That's the scenario, folks. Eight hours before game time, you and your kids and your bike and your soccer ball are out of the Arroyo. It does not belong to us. It belongs to the NFL and thousands upon thousands of cars and people and all the trash and pollution they bring with them. For those who live near the Arroyo, the nightmare of trying to navigate your own street is only the beginning.

We've already rejected this once. Apparently we haven't made ourselves clear and we have to reject it again. A petition, launched by a Caltech professor, is gaining momentum. You can also comment on the EIR but you must do it by Monday. RoseBowlNFLComments@cityofpasadena.net And if you have questions, you can contact Mr. David Sinclair at 626-744-6766.

We can live in our town, or we can sell it.

Calendar

Madison School

(There is a very cool project going on at Madison school right now)

I hope you came by to vote for your favorite of the past week's Camelot Where You are photo contest entries. The poll is at the upper left of the blog.

We've been wasting spending so much time on contest frivolity that we almost missed some important events. So today, as a community service, here's a partial list:

Today!
September 29
Put the Fork in Hunger
I hope you're reading this early, because the free pancake breakfast at Farnsworth Park at Lake and Mount Curve in Altadena is today, 7:30 to 11:00 a.m. It's sort of not free because you should bring non-perishable food items or financial donations, all of which will go directly to Union Station Homeless Services in Pasadena. And you'll get pancakes!

Also Today!
September 29
Muir Ranch

Tomorrow!
September 30
Wiggle Waggle Walk
Pasadena Humane Society's super annual fundraiser where the canine chic meet, greet and even compete. Sweet!

October 2
NFL at the Rose Bowl?
Personally, I think it would be a disaster for the Arroyo. What do you think? The Recreation and Parks Commission will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, October 2nd at 6:30 PM at the Rose Bowl Media Center, 1001 Rose Bowl Drive in Pasadena. Park in Lot F and enter through the auto gate to the left of Gate A. The draft EIR is available here. Public comment ends at close of business on October 8th.

October 7
Bike the Arroyo Seco!
Starting at Hahamongna Watershed Park at 8am (I'll be there a bit earlier), ride the Arroyo to downtown with fellow riders in support of an Arroyo Seco bikeway and healthy transportation alternatives.

Building a Better Altadena
"Studies show that Walmart hurts jobs because other businesses close when Walmart comes to town." Is this what we want just yards from Pasadena's city limits? Click the Building a Better Altadena link and find out what you can do.

The No 710 Freeway Extension and related No on Measure J issues are gaining support from state and local politicians. Definitely worth learning about, as these issues strongly affect our quality of life in Pasadena.

Be sure to vote! (Now, on the Camelot Where You Are contest, and in November, on all the other stuff.)

Weirdly Good

That place in the Arroyo where we walk the dogs, go running, play soccer and ride our bikes is once again about to be out of commission for a few days. The time between Christmas and New Year's is prep time in Pasadena. Cafe Pasadena called it a "weird" period and I'm glad he did, because now I know I'm not the only one who feels that way.

It's not a bad thing, it's just a--well, a weird thing. It's actually nice, in a weird way, to know that all these folks are coming to town for the parade and the big game, and that places so familiar to us are places they've seen only on TV. I once knew them from TV as well, long ago.

If you're coming from out of town, don't get any weird ideas. I took the photo in September. It's colder now. Not Wisconsin cold. Oh god, no. Not even Oregon cold. We'll all be bundled up in our parkas but don't mind us. You guys might want a sweater.

Glad to See You

I hope the tourists arriving in Pasadena for the Tournament of Roses parade and the Rose Bowl game are enjoying themselves and finding lots to do. Although I'm glad they're here I admit, since the Rose Bowl is west of me and Colorado Blvd. is south, unless I'm forced in other directions I'm going only east and north until next Monday.

It's nothing personal. Some of my best friends are Texas Christians and cheeseheads. I'm just not one for crowds.

The Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia (east) is looking beautiful these days, and since it's so big there's room for a few extra people. Isn't that bench inviting? I sat on it.

I made the unfortunate mistake of putting my glasses in my back pocket before sitting down. Even my titanium frames couldn't survive the ordeal, so I was forced to take a drive down Lake Avenue yesterday (south). I would have waited until next week but my glasses were making me dizzy, so I stopped in at Moda Optique to have them adjusted. Hratch said business was good but the Texas and Wisconsin fans are not knocking down his doors. Apparently they brought their glasses from home and haven't sat on them yet.

Retreat

I stopped at Vroman's yesterday. Wednesday afternoon. Middle of the work day. Parking lot packed.

This requires patience. You wait in a line of cars (you have no choice, you're stuck now) while someone backs out of a space. The line moves on and finally it's your turn, your space, the furthest one in the lot, between two SUVs, both of which were parked by people who have apparently never parked a car before. On the return trip, a monster pick-up truck follows you to your space. You try to wave him off because--well, finally he sees he's never going to fit in there and he speeds off, burning frustrated rubber.

It has begun. Christmas/New Year's time, Pasadena is a busy town.

It's good, though. Three clerks worked the back registers at Vroman's and more registers granted angels their wings throughout the store. Employees (that means "people who are employed") helped customers find the things they wanted. Commerce, in my town, in an independent book store, is just fine with me.

I'm glad to leave it to others from this point onward, though. I bought what I hope is the last Christmas present I need to get. Now I think I'll retreat to the less popular mountain trails or my favorite spots in the Arroyo Seco (far north and/or south of the Rose Bowl) until after the first of the year.

Unless someone else wants to do the driving.

1001

Among City Daily Photo bloggers, one's one thousandth post is a big deal. I knew mine was coming but it landed yesterday, Zen Monday. I wasn't about to mess with tradition just to toot my own horn. I didn't want to pass it up, however, so I chose today for tooting.

But what photo to post? I tried snapping photos about town of street addresses. (If you live or work at number 1000 on any Pasadena street, thanks for not chasing me off.) But when I took a look at the photos, all those 1000s seemed wrong when I knew I'd be posting on day 1001.

I considered a "best of" shot, more Boz, more Hahamongna, City Hall, the Huntington and other Pasadena favorites. I couldn't decide.

I was looking up information on the Rose Bowl when I noticed the street address of our famous landmark: 1001 Rose Bowl Drive. How handy for my 1001st post.

The Bridge is Back

Do I recall we didn't have the Colorado Street Bridge party last year? Sure enough. The 2009 event was canceled due to budget cuts. Well, hallelujah! It's back.

Food, music, food, people, fun for kids and more food all begin at 6pm on Saturday night--that's tomorrow, July 10th. Discounted advance tickets are available until 5pm today. Sponsored by Pasadena Heritage, the party is a unique opportunity to hang out on the bridge without traffic--auto traffic, that is. There will be plenty of people traffic, I guarantee. And the extra information link at the bottom of the event page warns of other traffic as well: there's a soccer game at the Rose Bowl tomorrow night (what a great place for a soccer game!), so be forewarned.

Have a good time and take pictures!

Misty Morning Pair

Friday, Boz and I took a misty morning walk around the Rose Bowl Stadium with a good friend and her perky pooch. Walking, running, or biking around the Rose Bowl is something a lot of people do regularly. Even the mayor does it. But I had never done it before.

I take my camera everywhere I go, but it remained in its case for most of our walk. My friend and I were deeply involved in our conversation. Our dogs were deeply involved in the smells they discovered. The sky was gray. I didn't think of photos for a while.

Toward the end of our walk we crossed a bridge over the cement wash. Atlast I took out the camera. I liked the symmetry I saw. The top shot looks north; that's the western part of the Rose Bowl stands on the right. The bottom shot looks south. You'll have to enlarge it to see the Richard H. Chambers Court of Appeals building looming above the Arroyo out of the mist..

A walk around the Rose Bowl is great exercise. I recommend you do it with a friend.

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.

Theme Day: Changes

On January first, 2008, my husband drove me through the hills above the Rose Bowl Stadium during the football game so I could try to get a decent shot with my Olympus SP30. We finally stopped on the Holly Street Bridge where I took this photo.
Never mind that we never got close enough to give the Olympus a chance. Never mind that I didn't have the faintest idea how to get a "decent shot." Inspired by Paris Daily Photo, I was determined to begin a daily photo blog about the Paris of the Pacific, even though I wasn't a photographer and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I posted the photo and Pasadena Daily Photo was born.

After two years of daily blogging I've learned about photography, become a better writer and discovered that Pasadena is infinite--I'll never photograph all of it. I've also met more wonderful people than I can count, on the web and in person, and I can't thank them enough for their contributions to Pasadena Daily Photo. I begin my third year of PDP with enthusiasm, open to what new changes may come my way.

Yesterday I returned to the Holly Street Bridge to try my Canon 20D on the same view.
Happy New Year! May all your changes this year be for the better.

Click here to view how other City Daily Photo bloggers have addressed the theme of Changes today.

Rose Bowl Enochlophobia

I have a confession to make: I love being out and about in Pasadena all year 'round, except during Tournament of Roses week.

I often drive through the Arroyo near the Rose Bowl Stadium on my way home from Hollywood or the San Fernando Valley. But not today. People are down there getting ready for the game and the parade. I don't know how many people are there. It might be fifty, but in my imagination it's fifty thousand, stomping around in those huge, white tents and sipping camp coffee in rumbling RVs while they do whatever it is they do to get ready for the big New Year's party Pasadena throws every year. I'm certain if I drove through I'd get stuck down there and not be able to get out fast enough. I'm terribly impatient. So today I took the Colorado Street Bridge, which was fine.

Colorado Blvd. is lined with bleachers waiting to accommodate parade-watching patoots. All of Pasadena welcomes the tourists and I do, too. You can feel the excitement in the air. (Even if you couldn't feel it the bleachers oughta tell you something's up.) It's all great, it really is.

I'm no party pooper. I want this year's parade and game to be the biggest and best ever. But tomorrow I'm going out one last time. I'm going to run a couple of errands and stock up at the grocery store, and I'm not going out again until January 2nd.

Update per Pasadena PIO: City of Pasadena Holiday Hotline is up and running at (877) 793-9311 for answers to any and all questions about the Rose Parade, Rose Bowl Game and BCS final game. Volunteers are standing by through Jan. 7. More info at VisitPasadena.com.

Theme Day: Big

Update, 3:50 PM: in case you missed it, here's the alternative link for updates from Mount Wilson while the regular site is down: http://joy.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/fire.php

12:01am
For two days I've been trying to capture a compelling photo of the pyrocumulus cloud that hangs over the San Gabriel Mountains north of Pasadena and Altadena. It can be seen for at least 70 miles. I know this because I shot pictures of it yesterday from Huntington Beach. (100 miles my friend Michelle says--she saw it from Santa Barbara.)

But I can't do it justice. There's no way to show you how big the Station Fire is--how much acreage it has burned in our hearts, how the sound of the air conditioner has become the sound of the flames, how we listen for the water-dropping aircraft overhead, how we wonder and worry about the creatures, the views, the smells, the land and the paths we walk--because the fire burns differently for each of us.

There are over 1,000 City Daily Photo blogs around the world. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants in today's theme.

(Take a look at Gem City Images. Keith captured the cloud extremely well. Or view the cloud from San Pedro Daily Photo, where Lori Lynn got a great shot of it.)

Recycling Efforts

I saw my friend and neighbor Linda Centell at the District 3 block party. You may remember Linda; she works with Ann Erdman, Pasadena's Public Information Officer. At the party, Linda introduced me to Gabriel Silva. Linda thinks the world of this guy and now that I know more about him, I do, too.

Gabriel is Pasadena's Environmental Programs Manager. Do you want to guess what that involves, or should I just tell you?

It'll take too long to get a consensus. I'll just tell you.

The Environmental Programs Manager is responsible for the following recycling programs: residential curbside, green waste, used oil, large venue/special events, compact fluorescent light bulb/battery, sharps (needles, syringes, etc.), e-waste (like the free collection events), composting and of course all those Christmas trees. His duties also include: elementary school education/outreach, household hazardous waste disposal, coordinating the Greening the Earth Day Festival, annual outstanding recycler awards, developing new programs to increase the City's waste diversion, managing several state grants, and reporting.

I know the above is true because I got it from Gabriel. Though it seems like a lot, a paragraph still doesn't give you the scope. Think of each of those duties as containing other duties. For example: did you know that a single Rose Bowl Game (large venue/special event) can generate as much as six tons of recycling trash? Someone has to pick up all that stuff. And sort it. Eeuw.

Silva doesn't collect all those cans himself. He coordinates the effort, though, by teaming up with the Los Angeles Conservation Corps to employ 50 to 80 young adults to help at UCLA Home Games, the Rose Bowl Game and the BCS Bowl Game.

I'd say something about how well he delegates his staff, except if I understand it correctly there's only one staffer to delegate. So I have to assume Gabriel does a lot of the work himself. When Linda introduced us, we interrupted him collecting the trash bins from the block party. It was a Saturday, but these things have to be done and when you don't have underlings to do them for you, you do them yourself.

Just take another look at Gabriel's list of duties and think about that.

Ow. My back is killing me.

Here's more information about recycling in Pasadena.

Summer Course

I need a break from dreary skies, so I looked through my files for a sunny picture. We're supposed to have sun today. Fingers crossed.

I took this shot a couple of weeks ago, peeking through the fence at Brookside Golf Club north of the Rose Bowl Stadium. The stadium has been known to use the course as a parking lot.

I couldn't find much history of the course itself, but it's part of the Brookside Park complex, a Pasadena crown jewel containing the Rose Bowl, Kidspace Museum, miles of hiking trails and more.

Got any golf stories to pass the time until summer finally shows up?

If I haven't been to visit your blog lately, please give me some time to catch up.

Ann Erdman, Pasadena's Public Information Officer, added some terrific information in the comments. I quote her here:

Some history because I can't help myself:
With 36 holes (two 18-hole courses) in a beautiful, natural setting, Brookside Golf Course is continually listed among the top golf courses in California and among the top municipal courses in the nation.

Many people mistakenly call it Brookside Country Club, I presume because it as un-municipal-looking as a golf course could get. But it's owned by the City of Pasadena and membership is not required. In fact, if you live in Pasadena, you get a lower rate than outsiders if you play there.

It's also known as one of college football's greenest parking lots. In the areas where vehicles park during Rose Bowl games and major concerts, the irrigation pipes are situated much deeper under the ground so they don't get crushed. There's also the obligatory and very special turf management as a result of the parking. 

The first of the two courses was designed by Billy Bell and constructed in 1928 at a time when organized recreation was becoming more and more popular in the Arroyo Seco. Since then, of course, the goal is to protect the Arroyo Seco from further development.

The PGA had a Pasadena Open at Brookside annually from 1929 to 1938, and the 1968 L.A. Open was at Brookside. 

Since it is a publicly owned course, you can go into Brookside Clubhouse any time and look around at the memoriabilia, visit the pro shop and have a nice lunch in the restaurant with spectacular views.

The 3.3-mile Rose Bowl Loop goes around part of the property, intersecting between the two 18-hole courses. Walk around the loop with Mayor Bill Bogaard and special guests the first Wednesday of every month at 7:30 a.m. (meet at Rose Bowl Stadium's Gate A).

Pasadena's New Year's Eve

What's that I see across the dark Arroyo? Over there, on the other side of the freeway. Why, it's the Rose Bowl Stadium, all lit up on a cold night.

On this New Year's Eve, as on every other New Year's Eve in Pasadena for the past 118 years, Pasadena awaits the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Football Game.

That doesn't mean we just sit around all evening. We have company! Folks are here from out of town! We have to entertain.

So the bars and restaurants are full. Colorado Blvd. is a [no tents allowed] campground all the way from Orange Grove Blvd. in the southwest to Sierra Madre Blvd. in the northeast. It's five miles of solid partay.

Not everyone is celebrating. Tournament officials are busy putting on the finishing touches. The Rose Queen and her Court are presumably getting their beauty sleep (if they're not too excited). I imagine there are some nervous college football players tossing and turning somewhere out there, too. Float decorators are still poking posies into chicken wire, or however they do it these days. Glue guns?

I hope you have a fun and safe New Year's Eve. Here in Pasadena everyone has something to do. The weather has warmed up and it looks like tomorrow's going to be a glorious day for football and roses.

Tournament Time

From here on in, as every Pasadenite knows, it's Rose Bowl, Rose Parade, Bowl Rose, Tournament of Roses, Parade the Bowl Rose Tournament of Posies and Parade Me Down and Bowl Me Over. And if you didn't get enough, well, how about some football?

Every available inch of Colorado Blvd. property that doesn't have bleachers on it will have bleachers on it by Wednesday night. Either that or it's been condemned. And believe me, we expect this year to be just as well-attended as any other.

Some locals live and breathe the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game, and have never missed either.
Some have been to several of each.
Some regale you with tales of partying all night in a tent on Colorado Blvd. in order to catch the parade with a hangover.
Or freezing in a camper at the Rose Bowl Stadium parking lot for a couple of days, just to watch their team play in the legendary game.

Some went to the parade once, as a rite of passage.

I would go if I had tickets. To the main bleachers. Over at the corner of Colorado and Orange Grove, where the media booths are. Where the sun shines. Where the parade goes by early and ends early. If it was warm.

I am not a fan of crowds or of cold, but I'm a fan of Pasadena. So I bless the Parade and the Game. As Tournament week unfolds and Pasadena welcomes thousands of parade and football fans, I welcome them, too. I hope they have a blast.

In the Shadows of the Rose Bowl

Today is Blog Action Day 2008. This year's theme is poverty.

In a speech he made in July of 2000, Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard said, "the vast majority of Pasadena residents cannot afford the median priced home that exists in our community today." And that was before the housing price boom.

Things have certainly changed since then. The most recent statistics I found were cited in an article by Peter Dreier in Pasadena Weekly from September, 2007. At first the numbers make it look like poverty levels are decreasing in Pasadena. But at closer examination, Dreier discovers that there are fewer poor people in Pasadena because they're leaving. They can't afford to live here. Yep, Pasadena is a prosperous community.

I wonder how things will change in the days to come. I wonder, as the world's financial crisis plays out, if we'll need to do more than just write checks to charity to keep our communities afloat. Maybe the crisis will be a crisis by definition: short-lived. Maybe we'll all be fine. Or maybe poverty will hit home. What will we do? Serve food? Build homes? Get our hands dirty? Will someone do that for us if we're in need?

I've heard pundits call it "the American financial crisis." What they fail to understand is that we're part of the world. Our economy is global. Our society is global, too. If society is global, then poverty has already hit home.

What will we do? What will you do? What will I do?

Bad Year

You don't see the Goodyear Blimp hovering over town every day, but in Pasadena it's not unusual to see it every few weeks. If you don't have a great telephoto lens it's not easy to get a great shot of it so you might have to trust me.

Yesterday from what I understand, below the blimp UCLA was getting trounced by Arizona at the Rose Bowl Stadium. But frankly I'm unclear on that because I don't speak sportese.

Pasadena Chines

Pasadenans (Pasadenites?) indulge in the Rose Bowl Flea Market the second Sunday of every month. People from miles around come to pick through acres of stuff. The tradition, pastime or strange habit of rummaging through stuff is called chiner in French. (I learned that at Paris Daily Photo, the inspiration for this blog.)

Ah, but Pasadana is doubly blessed with opportunity to chine. On the first Sunday of each month, the PCC Flea Market is held at Pasadena City College. I hear it's pretty good, too. If I'm going to practice what I preach, I'd better check it out soon.