Pasadena city hall

Pasadena city hall

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Heritage Square

Heritage Square house from across the street

After reading Todd Ruiz‘s posts about the Heritage Square development project (Of Struthionidae struthio, Change of heart), I wanted to know where the development site was. I looked up the address (the city’s Heritage Square web page lists it as 760 N. Fair Oaks Avenue) and went there with my camera. One of the local business people said they thought the site stretched along the east side of Fair Oaks Avenue from Orange Grove to Painter.

Northeast block at the intersection of Orange Grove and Fair Oaks

Church’s Chicken (at the intersection of Orange Grove and Fair Oaks)

Empty lot (north of Church’s Chicken)

House (north of empty lot)

Empty lot (north of house)

Habitat for Humanity Builders Surplus Store (north of empty lot)

First Stop Market (north of Habitat for Humanity store at the intersection of Painter and Fair Oaks)

More Heritage Square pictures here.

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City Council Meeting

We stopped by tonight’s Pasadena city council meeting and heard a presentation about the affordable housing plan recommended by the city manager.

Media van outside the Pasadena Senior Center

Senior Center entrance

City council meeting in progress inside the Senior Center’s multipurpose room

Affordable housing recommendations

People with letter signs spelling something out–or perhaps getting ready to spell something out

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Pasadena politics: District 2 runoff links

Aaron Proctor: District 1 and District 2 Run-offs Heating Up!

Pasadena Pundit: Candidate Margaret McAustin Bangs the Table by Robert Pingel (I’m having trouble figuring out how to link to the permalink for this post – it’s dated March 6, though.)

Pasadena Star News: ELECTION07: A rush to stop: Council candidate Jim Lomako explains run-ins with the law and how he would arrest runaway development by Joe Piasecki and Kevin Uhrich

I heard Jim Lomako speak the other day, and I’m wishing I lived in district 2 so I could vote for him.

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Bonus link: Eye Level Proctordena v2.0

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Comments enabled at Foothill Cities!

Foothill Cities is now allowing comments. You go, guys/gals! Short of ad hominem attacks and spam*, I vote for leaving comments unmoderated and allowing people to argue vigorously. That’s my two cents. Open–even heated–conversations in comments often go interesting places and help us all think through ideas.

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*Update: Make that “Short of ad hominem attacks, spam, advocating violence, and talking about people or groups of people as if they are subhuman…”

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Streaming videos of Pasadena city council meetings online

I’m guessing that a lot of people out there already know this, but I just discovered that you can watch videos of Pasadena’s city council meetings online. These are fascinating. They’re talking about what’s going on with our city! They’re making decisions. They’re arguing. The meeting agendas are available alongside the videos, and there’s a drop-down menu under the video screen that lets you jump to whichever part in the agenda you’d like to see on video. This streaming video service is so well done. Check it out:

City of Pasadena – City Council Streaming Video

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L.A. Times on the Pasadena mayoral race

latimes.com: Pasadena mayor speaks softly — and wins: Bill Bogaard strives to be boring, a secret to his successful reelection, he says (by way of proctorformayor.com)

I love this city.

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Update: Kelly at West Coast Grrlie Blather on this article in her post Where the Boring Mayor Lives:

I’ve lived in Pasadena for over two decades, and I’m becoming a curmudgeon. Why? Because of the way this city has changed….

…Pasadena now has scads of expensive, ugly rental housing. (Note to self: post photos of egregious examples.) Our traffic has started to rival the famed Westside of LA traffic. And lower income folks are moving out of this town because they cannot afford to stay here.

I’m glad to read that Bill wants to address the affordable housing issue over the next four years. Sadly, that train left the station quite a while ago. Pasadena does have an affordable housing ordinance, but developers can buy their way out if their deep pockets are so inclined (scroll down to “The Breakdown”). (link)

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Update #2: Aaron Proctor and I were emailing back and forth about this today, too, and he posts an excerpt from one of his emails in Rant to a friend:

It’s a shame that this city actually doesn’t care if low income people can’t afford to live here. My friend and his wife have two kids and are taking care of their 100+ year old grandmother and live in a house that they can’t afford to live in anymore. They’re probably going to move back to Nevada..they can’t afford to live here anymore. But, hey, as long as the Paseo is cashing in on people who live in Arcadia, Monrovia, and surrounding cities – who the hell cares about Pasadena? (link)

And here’s a snip from one of my emails:

I don’t want Pasadena to grow by squeezing people out. I want it to grow for everyone. Otherwise, everyone loses. Squeezing people out hurts the squeezers and the squeezees. I don’t want us to become sterile and chain-storey and even more isolated and lonely and afraid.

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Polls are still open

Polls will be open until 8:00 p.m. tonight. (Polling place info and sample ballot here:
http://lavote.net/Locator/
)

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Pasadena City Elections are tomorrow, March 6

You can find your polling place and see a sample ballot here:
http://lavote.net/Locator/

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Aaron Proctor

I’ve been reading Aaron Proctor’s blog, Aaron Proctor for Mayor of Pasadena, for a few weeks now, and the more I read it, the more I hear myself thinking Yeah! Way to say that. Wow, this guy makes sense.

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