WPRA
West Pasadena Residents' Association 
Neighborhood Update
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Stoddard: Casting Pond
Happy holidays!
We're taking a break!
Your hard-working and diligent WPRA Neighborhood Update co-editors are taking a break during the holiday season. We'll resume publication on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2014.
  
On behalf of the WPRA board,
we wish you and your family
a happy holiday season.
Welcome

Founded in 1962, the WPRA is dedicated to maintaining the character of our neighborhoods and enhancing the quality of life in West Pasadena. 

   
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Editor  

Chuck Hudson

 

View the latest and past issues of the WPRA's quarterly magazine, The News, which is mailed to more than 7,000 homes in West Pasadena.
Neighborhood Update
View past issues of this weekly WPRA eNewsletter, which is emailed each Saturday morning to more than 1,100 residents of Pasadena (and beyond).
 

 

 

 

City Council and commission meetings
- CLICK ON HEADLINES FOR MORE INFORMATION -
 
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25

 

City Council

6:30 pm

City Hall

Council Chambers

100 N. Garfield Ave.

On the agenda: Adoption of a resolution to approve nomination of the Colorado Street Bridge, which is celebrating its centennial anniversary, as a California historic civil engineering landmark; amending the municipal code to reduce distance requirements and regulations to keep chickens; adoption of an ordinance, modeled after Riverside County's, to require spaying/neutering of pit bull and pit-bull cross-breed dogs.

                               

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26
 

Design Commission

6 pm

Hale Building

175 N. Garfield Ave.
Neighborhoods in motion
- CLICK ON HEADLINES FOR MORE INFORMATION -

 

ROSE BOWL TRAFFIC AND CROWD ALERT: The UCLA Bruins will play the Arizona State Sun Devils at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, November 23, 4 p.m. If you live on a street that is barricaded during major Rose Bowl events, you can get your 2013 resident vehicle parking passes at the Rose Bowl Administrative office, 1001 Rose Bowl Dr., 9 a.m.-5 p.m., on any weekday. Passes will NOT permit access through the Event Parking toll plazas in the Arroyo and serve as event parking passes. Rather, they WILL only provide you with access to your home.

Visit Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden this weekend 

With Thanksgiving Day on the way, the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden, 270 Arlington Dr., is especially thankful for all of its Facebook friends. So much so, that everyone who has "liked" the garden's Facebook page is invited to visit the garden for at no cost on November 24, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Everyone else is also invited, but must pay the standard entrance fee of $7.50. Also, at 1 p.m. on that same day, the garden's resident horticulturist, Jesus Rodriguez, will conduct a Composting 101 class. Jesus is the reason the garden always looks so beautiful. Learn about his secret weapon (pssst ... it's his compost, which you can learn how to make, too!) The class cost is $10 per person; reservations are necessary. To make reservations for the class or simply to visit the garden, click on the link in the above headline.

 

City Thanksgiving holiday closures and reminders

Pasadena residents and businesses are reminded that City Hall and most City services will be closed on Thursday, November 28 and Friday, November 29 in observance of the Thanksgiving Day Holiday.

 

Old Pasadena's kicks off annual holiday celebration

Old Pasadena will host fun, family-friendly festivities throughout the district with the "Home for the Holidays" event on Friday, November 29 from 4-8 p.m. Come frolic in the snow, witness Santa's arrival and spectacular holiday tree lighting, and enjoy live music and seasonal cheer at this free annual community event.


Mayor's holiday tree-lighting ceremony

Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard on Thursday, December 5 at 6 p.m. will light the City's official holiday tree during a free, annual festive family celebration, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., with local singers, art projects for kids and a special appearance by Santa Claus! The event will be held at Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave.

 

District 6 Town Hall meeting set for LV-A neighborhoods on December 5

District 6 Councilmember Steve Madison invites all Linda Vista-Annandale residents to attend a Town Hall meeting on Thursday, December 5 at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Art Center faculty dining room, 1700 Lida St. Topics on the agenda include the proposed plans for Linda Vista Park, the Complete Streets Program Improvements for Lida Street and the LA County sediment removal project at Devil's Gate Dam. Look for parking signs on your right as you enter the campus.

   

The Arroyo Seco Foundation reports that the Los Angeles County Flood Control District has released the Draft Environmental Impact Report for its massive sediment removal program from the Devil's Gate basin in Hahamongna Watershed Park. A series of alternatives are described, "each of which would degrade the natural character of Hahamongna if is it implemented, removing somewhere between 2.4 to 4 million cubic yards of silt and sediment and leaving a permanently scarred maintenance zone of from 47-92 acres. It's a costly program ($100 million) that will also have massive impacts on surrounding neighborhoods," says the ASF. The DEIR is available for public reviews and comments until January 6, 2014. The ASF encourages all who love the Arroyo and support sustainable approaches to natural resource management to carefully review the DEIR and make their views know either at public hearings or in formal comments to the Flood Control District.

 

Editor's top news picks
- CLICK ON HEADLINES FOR MORE INFORMATION -

  

Iconic Colorado Street Bridge centennial exhibit opens

"The Colorado Street Bridge - iconic landmark, connecting thoroughfare, engineering marvel, artistic inspiration, preservation model, and film star - is the focus of a new exhibition opened at Pasadena Museum of History in commemoration of the grand structure's 100th anniversary. The Colorado Street Bridge Centennial Exhibition promises to fascinate and intrigue in the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Gallery from Noon-5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays through April 19, 2014." Pasadena Now

  

No easy solutions for sediment buildup at Devil's Gate Dam

"It's nothing that couldn't be fixed by 400 truck trips every day for five years. That's what it would take to clean out the debris from behind the Devil's Gate flood-control dam in Pasadena, which is so backed up with sediment that heavy rains could cause a big problem in half a dozen neighboring communities." CBS Los Angeles

 

Hillsides Charity (and others) distributes more than 100 baskets of food to needy

"Due to the generosity of four local organizations and businesses, Hillsides, a Los Angeles County charity, has collected 102 food baskets to distribute this Thanksgiving season for families in need. The bins, filled with staples such as rice, potatoes, cereal, canned vegetables and canned fruits, were donated by the Pasadena area chapter of the National Charity League (NCL), the Pasadena Lake Avenue branch of the Bank of America, and Alexandria Real Estate Equities in Pasadena. The city of Pasadena also provided 20 turkeys and 20 bags of Thanksgiving trimmings." Pasadena Now

 

USC absorbs Pasadena's Pacific Asia Museum in friendly takeover

"USC is taking over the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, bringing more than 15,000 works of Asian art dating from ancient times to today under the university's control, along with the nearly 90-year-old replica of a Chinese palace that houses the museum." LA Times

 

Pasadena council to consider revised ordinance for backyard chickens

"A group of local residents are clucking about a Pasadena zoning ordinance they say restricts their ability to have backyard chickens. The group, which calls itself "CLUCKinPasadena," passed through the Legislative Policy Committee this week and will make its case to the full City Council on Monday." Pasadena Star-News

 

Public Safety Committee passes amendments to building code

"The Public Safety Committee on Monday unanimously approved updated building code amendments, which will next be heard by the full City Council. The amendments would incorporate changes mandated by the California Building Code among which is that buildings of at least 25,000 square feet would be required to have a "Cool Roof" and accommodate wiring for electrical car charging." Pasadena Now

 

PUSD scales back role of police officers on local campuses

"In what is being hailed as a milestone in the national movement to clog the school-to-prisons pipeline, the Pasadena Unified School District has scaled back the presence of Pasadena police officers on local campuses." Pasadena Weekly

 

Thanksgiving celebration slated At Pasadena Senior Center

"The Pasadena Senior Center invites you, your family and friends to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal, Thursday, Nov. 28 at 12 p.m." Pasadena Patch

Leisure
- CLICK ON HEADLINES FOR MORE INFORMATION -

 

Looking for other ways to entertain or educate yourself and your family? 

For current events around the area, we encourage you to visit our local news outlets. Click on the publication title to visit that publication's events section (alphabetical order).

Attend WPRA board meetings each month 

Monthly WPRA board meeting dates and locations are on the WPRA website. Click on the headline above or visit our website and look under "Meetings and Events."


The WPRA needs you ... 

If you'd like to serve your community and do it with a group of your neighbors who are equally dedicated, the WPRA encourages you to join your neighborhood residents' association. If you live within our service area, we'd welcome your help. 

  • Got the local news bug? Just curious about your city (and would like to share news with 1,000 or so of your closest friends), consider serving as a co-editor of Neighborhood Update. It will only take a few hours a week (on your own schedule) in the month or two a year in which you'd serve. We'll train you.  
  • We have lots of opportunities to serve on one of our many committees:
    • Land use and planning
      If you care about how we use our land  
    • Education
      If you want to help save public education for West Pasadena  
    • Open space & conservation
      If you care about preserving open space and conservation of land and resources 
    • Membership
      If you'd like to help us continue to build our membership so we can do more  
If you'd like to chat about ways we could help you become more involved or, more likely, more effective (by helping us), send an email to WPRA President. Tell him about your interests.   
To learn more

Visit wpra.net or click on one of the following links

 

To submit information for the Neighborhood Update, send it to update@wpra.net. 

 

Joseph Stoddard's watercolors: The WPRA wishes to express its appreciation to local artist Joseph Stoddard, who has generously allowed us to display his watercolors in our quarterly magazine, WPRA News, on the WPRA website and in this publication. To explore Mr. Stoddard's work, visit josephstoddard.com.