Julia Morgan YWCA

Julia Morgan was the first female architect licensed in the state of California. She's famous for creating Hearst Castle at San Simeon. She also designed the YWCA building across the street from Pasadena's City Hall. You know the place--it's been boarded up for years, sliding into ruin.

A couple of years ago, Pasadena's City Council voted to exercise its powers of eminent domain and take possession of the building. I think that was a smart move. The building obviously needed protection and its owner wasn't lifting one single, proverbial finger to care for it.

I'll post more pictures next week. In the meantime, there's another opportunity for you to see inside the Julia Morgan YWCA Saturday morning (tomorrow), from 9-10 am. Enter at 78 N. Marengo Avenue and the docents of Pasadena Heritage will be there to answer your questions and keep you from stepping into any holes. After your tour, stop by City Council chambers from 10:15-11:30 for a presentation and comments.

Neglect takes a toll. Years of doing nothing are going to cost. I admit, though, I find great beauty in ruins.

Sure, Fine, Just Not Here

Is this a

dog in a puddle?

dog in an airplane?

dog in quicksand?

dog in a soccer field?

dog in a cake?

If you chose "dog in a soccer field," you are correct. Boz is standing on the planned location of "Sycamore Athletic Field" at Hahamongna Watershed Park.

Last July the citizens of Pasadena made it clear to the City Council that we do not want soccer fields in Hahamongna. (Not one citizen spoke in favor of the fields.) At the time, two fields were planned. We had half a victory. The the soccer field planned for the above location is still planned. The one for the location below was scrapped.

...If Boz were in the picture, we'd call it "dog in a lake." But Boz isn't much of a swimmer.

I hope the City Council will scrap Sycamore Field, too, not just because it's in a flood plain but because it's in the watershed. Pasadena gets 35% of its water from groundwater sources, the watershed being one of those. And despite these photos, evidence continues to mount that water is becoming more scarce in southern California. Where we live, water shortage is now a permanent condition.

Officials all over southern California are scrambling to buy water. Our own Water Conservation Manager, Nancy Long of Pasadena Water and Power, says "future droughts are inevitable. With Southern California's water supply uncertain, we can't afford to waste it." (current newsletter, page 7)

Those who built the Rose Bowl and the Devil's Gate Dam can be forgiven for building in a watershed. They were ignorant of the the conditions under which we'd live today. We know better.

Come to the Pasadena City Council meeting tomorrow (Monday, 10/17) and have your say. The Council meets at City Hall, 100 North Garfield Avenue, Room S249 at 6:30pm. Hahamongna is the first thing on the agenda so we shouldn't have to stay all night to be heard.

Our city continues to demand that its citizens save water. We're happy to do it. We expect our City to do the same.

Any Minute Now

A hint of sunshine today. A hint of heat. It's going to get warm this week and I can't wait.

I love the days when you can leave the windows open. I love going for a walk without a sweater. I love sitting on the front porch with a glass of iced tea and a book. I love sleeping without an extra blanket--or without a blanket at all.

It's been so cold and rainy lately that people have been joking about the San Gabriel Valley turning into Seattle. Not that there's anything wrong with Seattle. Some of my best friends live in Seattle.

But I live here where it's warm and sunny. Any minute now.


P.S. Early risers please note: tomorrow morning at 8:00am, the Pasadena City Council will meet with L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich in the Grand Conference Room (basement room S038) at Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave.

Agenda items include:
* $2 million award from the county for environmental rehabilitation of Centennial Place
* Request for assistance developing and implementing a regional San Gabriel Valley approach to homeless services
* City participation in an environmental impact report (EIR) process for sediment removal at Devil’s Gate Dam by the L.A. County Department of Public Works.

The meeting is open to the public. Public comment will be limited to items on the agenda. The meeting will not be televised.
(My god, they go to meetings at 8am for us! Let's show some support!)

Hahamongna Upset Overturned

The Honorable Michael D. Antonovich                                3/1/11
L.A. County Board of Supervisors
Los Angeles, California

Dear Supervisor Antonovich:

On behalf of the City of Pasadena, I convey strong support for your motion on today’s Supplemental Agenda (Item 60C) pertaining to the Devil’s Gate Dam Sediment Removal Project. After due deliberations, the Council unanimously expressed support for the motion.

We recognize the seriousness of the project to be undertaken, and Pasadena is prepared to cooperate fully in its implementation in the years ahead. But like you, we strongly believe that the project must be structured in a thoughtful and environmentally sensitive manner, and we agree that the approach suggested in your motion will put us on the right track for this effort. The City will be represented at today’s meeting by either Vice Mayor Victor Gordo or Councilmember Steve Madison. 

Please share this letter with your colleagues on the Board of Supervisors.  It is our hope that the motion carries and that the short term plan, to be returned within 90 days, will take into account all material environmental concerns. In this regard, our Public Works staff stands ready to confer and cooperate with the Department of Public Works, Los Angeles County, to assure that the interests of the City of Pasadena in Hahamongna Park are taken fully into account.

Please let us know how we can be helpful in pursuing this important matter.

Sincerely,
BILL BOGAARD
Mayor

Locals may already know that Supervisor Antonovich's motion passed and there will be an Environmental Impact Report before the Department of Public Works begins removing silt from behind the Devil's Gate Dam. (Yay!) The referenced "short term plan," as I understand it, will actually be returned within 30 days as opposed to 90. During this period LADPW has permission to clean out the workings of the dam itself. I hope I've got that right.

The Hahamongna walkabout is this Saturday, March 5th, and there's room for you! Sign up and join us! (I'm leading the 9am tour.) Find out why so many people continue to push to preserve this "urbanwild" place (have done so for years and will always do so).

Big thanks to the City Council for standing up for Pasadena's interests and to Pasadena PIO Ann Erdman for sharing the Mayor's letter. Thanks to Mademoiselle Gramophone for videotaping the Supervisors' meeting and reporting. Thanks to the Pasadena Star-News for this excellent editorial that states it all so clearly and evenly. And thanks to the many, many people who signed the petition (you can sign, too) and made their voices heard in support of Hahamongna. I'd list them all, but the band would play me off the stage.

There will be more challenges. Let's stay tuned.

Nesting in Limbo

Nest Furnishings may look like it's going out of business, but it might take a while. The store is located at 680 E. Colorado Blvd. on the southeast corner of Colorado and El Molino, where plans for the new IDS Playhouse Plaza building project have stalled.

The proposed building apparently exceeds city size requirements. The City Council initially waived those requirements but a group of residents, including former City Council member Sid Tyler, filed a lawsuit that has put the project on hold. The Council created a committee to review ways to bring the project down to size and I'm sure we'll hear more about it soon.

In the meantime, there's a wide variety of stock roosting at Nest. The prices are decent. I have no idea how long it'll all be there and I bet the store owners don't, either.

All Smiles

Some of our City Council members had a long night on Monday. Not only did they have a Council meeting that lasted until past midnight, but it was preceded by the swearing in of Pasadena's new Chief of Police, Phillip L. Sanchez.

I have a feeling they preferred the earlier event.

I won't go over the details of Chief Sanchez's career--feel free to click the link and read about him. I'll just tell you the atmosphere in the City Hall courtyard was festive Monday night. As I walked through on my way to the Council chamber, I watched Sanchez float from group to group, lifted by the high spirits around him. Everyone wanted to talk to him. Everyone wanted their picture taken with him. And everyone--everyone--was smiling.

On the second floor balcony I stopped to grab this shot of the Chief posing with a group of very young people--cadets? recruits?--too young to be officers yet, but well trained and excited to be in the man's presence.

A lot of hope greets Chief Sanchez. May he continue to sail on the buoyancy that surrounded him Monday night.

Update from Janet Pope Givens, Public Information Officer of the Pasadena Police Department:
"Today’s photo in the City Hall courtyard is with Pasadena Police Explorer Post 19. Indeed, too young to be officers, but very enthusiastic learners and workers. We have a total of 32 of these young people who attend an academy, and after graduating, volunteer and continue police tactical and operational training. They work hard and they play hard. Our lobby has a case of numerous trophies they’ve won over the years in interagency competitions. But in between the training and the working they, along with their police advisors, go on lots of group trips for enrichment, education and fun!"

Thanks to Ann Erdman, Pasadena PIO, for the Explorer link.

The City Council Meeting Was...

...mixed.

The Council was divided on some things, although thankfully they all saw the wisdom of not building a soccer field in a lake.

The other Hahamongna soccer field, however, may still go forward even though not one single person advocated for it at the meeting.

I could write miles and miles of compelling arguments against building that other field (it's called Field #2 in the Hahamongna Watershed Park Master Plan). The City Council heard them all.

Because the meeting went on until after midnight, because I'm posting late, because I have to get up early, because I have a long day today, I won't write all those arguments here now. Bellis, Roberta (Pasadena Latina), Gina (Mendolonium) and Pasadena Adjacent were there last night and I hope they'll add to today's discussion. I hope you will, too.

Hahamongna Blog Day

Counselors from Tom Sawyer Camp set up a learning center on the shore of a natural lake at Hahamongna Watershed Park (click to enlarge).

This Monday, July 12th, Pasadena's City Council will discuss and probably decide once and for all whether or not to build soccer fields in Hahamongna Watershed Park.

One field is planned for the location pictured above. This natural lake fills with the spring floods, then slowly dries out in summer. It provides habitat for coyotes, bobcats, ducks, swallows, rabbits, ground squirrels, toads, egrets and herons. These are the animals I've observed there.

Soccer is more popular than ever before. Yet the City Council recently voted millions in budget cuts, affecting salaries and city services. Caught between this rock and that hard place, what's the City Council to do?

We have alternatives. Vacant lots and little-used playing fields all over town lie waiting to be repurposed. There's no need to spend millions during a recession to fill in a lake and build unsustainable soccer fields in a flood plain when we have access to other, more appropriate land.

In almost every issue of Pasadena In Focus, the city's useful and effective newsletter to citizens, we're urged to reuse and recycle. Repurposing unused lots is recycling on a grand scale. Let's use land that's already flat, already outside the flood plain and all ready to be played on, to make financially and environmentally sustainable soccer fields for Pasadena.

If you'd like to email your council member, you can do so here. And thank you.

Today several bloggers have teamed up to talk about why we think Hahamongna Watershed Park isn't the place for athletic fields. Please visit all the blogs (and one website!) participating in Hahamongna Blog Day:
Altadena Above It All
Altadena Hiker
Arroyo Lover
A Thinking Stomach
Avenue to the Sky
East of Allen
Finnegan Begin Again
Go Deep...Find Truth
Greensward Civitas
LA Creek Freak
Mendolonium
Mister Earl's Musings
My Life With Tommy
Pasadena 91105 and Beyond
Pasadena Adjacent
Pasadena Latina
SaveHahamongna.org
Selvage
Temple City Daily Photo
The Sky Is Big In Pasadena
Webster's Fine Stationers Web Log
West Coast Grrlie Blather

My thanks to Barbara Ellis and Karin Bugge for helping put Hahamongna Blog Day together.

Not the Ideal Spot

I get over to Hahamongna Watershed Park about three times a week and I've been taking pictures there for two and a half years. You'd think I'd have enough photos of the place. But it's different every time I go, with new colors, new angles or, right now, a new family of ducks. I tried going without my camera one day last week, but when I saw JPL and the mountains sandwiched between the expressive sky and this field of wild yellow, I ended up taking out my iPhone and shooting away. I couldn't help myself.

In case you were planning on attending the City Council meeting this coming Monday to help defend Hahamongna from soccer fields, it looks like the issue's been put off until the July 12th meeting. Sure enough, I don't see it on the June 7th City Council Agenda. I was feeling optimistic about preventing soccer fields in Hahamongna, but apparently the City Council is under some pressure. Find out more and sign the Save Hahamongna petition at savehahamongna.org.

By the way, the spring flood waters have diminished to small streams, but they're still flowing.

Soccer fields on a flood plain. Call me crazy, but I'm thinking it's not the ideal spot.

Measure CC Forum

Longfellow School

At the City Council meeting I attended three weeks ago, the council chamber was crowded with citizens eager to learn the fate of Hahamongna Watershed Park. But before we could discuss that there were other items on the agenda. One was whether or not the council should recommend the passing of Measure CC to benefit Pasadena schools.

Measure CC is a parcel tax that levies $120 per year on each taxable parcel of property for five years. If passed, it would raise about $7 million a year for those five years. The money would be used in the classroom, not for school maintenance or repairs (that was measure TT).

The Council, after citizen comment and a brief debate, voted unanimously to support the parcel tax. The council chamber erupted in applause.

I don't have kids. Why should I spend ten bucks a month on Pasadena's schools? We have enough rocket scientists in this town. Hell, there's practically a rocket scientist on every block. What Pasadena needs is more juvenile delinquents and petty criminals. And hookers! I never see any hookers around here. We don't have a single prostitute on our block. There's a juvenile delinquent around the corner, and he comes all the way down the street to steal bikes from the neighbor kids with absolutely no competition whatsoever.

Some people say our property values will go down if our schools don't keep up. Well, that's a boon, isn't it? If property values go down then maybe I can pay lower property taxes and put a little less money into the Los Angeles County coffers. 'Cause LA sure doesn't need the money. And while we're at it, neither does the State of California.

Oh--and the school libraries are going to close. Well, nyah, nyah, nyah. When I was a kid I had to walk all the way down the hall in my clean, gorgeous school to check out a book from the library. All the way down the friggin' hall! By myself! Without a sweater! In winter! Why do these kids need to read, anyway? Didn't we already decide they were going to grow up to be criminals? I mean, I suppose we could give them jobs as janitors and busboys, but how many janitors is Pasadena going to need when nobody wants to move here because the schools are so crappy?

Question: How many rocket scientists does it take to clean up the Rose Bowl after a U2 concert?
Answer: Doesn't matter. Even a thousand of them will never get the job done because those people have to count and categorize everything.

Why complicate things? Let's populate Pasadena with a citizenry that can't count.



Longfellow PTA is hosting a forum on the parcel tax on Feb. 24 at 6:30 PM in the auditorium, 1065 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena.
PUSD Board President Tom Selinske, as well as Darla Dyson of Invest in PUSD Kids, will be available to answer questions.
This forum is open to everyone in the community. Refreshments, childcare and Spanish translation will be available.
For more information contact Steve Cole, president@ptalongfellow.org.

I'll Wear Daffodils in My Crown

daffodils grow along an old fence at the Hahamongna Annex

Monday night I went to my first Pasadena City Council meeting. Because so many of you commented on Monday's post, where I expressed concern for the fate of the Hahamongna Annex, I thought I'd report back.

Everybody won!

That's the gist of it. Everybody got some of what they wanted. Nobody got all of what they wanted. In other words, democracy worked.

With 35 people asking to speak on the Hahamongna issue, Mayor Bogaard asked the public to refrain from speaking if someone before them had already made their point. I'm sorry to say there was an awful (and I do mean awful) lot of repetition. But the mayor, known for being a gentleman, kept the meeting moving and pretty much kept commenters to the time limit. (One of those commenter occasionally comments here--Laurie Barlow. Check out her well thought-out post on the subject at The Greensward: Civitas. She's in my blogroll, by the way.)

I was impressed with the City Council. They listened to the Staff presentation and public comments and asked good questions. There are some very sharp people on the Council. And here's the best part: they included almost all reasonable public requests in the plan.

I know. The mind boggles.

There's still a "bikes only" path in the plan. (For now.) I don't want it. But this isn't about what I want or don't want, this is about what the majority of people want. Democracy worked this time. When the bike path comes up for review, maybe we can try a different governmental system, such as Petrea As Queen.

Something else you should know, by the way: it took from just after 7:30pm to 11:15pm to resolve the Hahamongna issue. Most of the people clapped, got up, put on their coats and bumbled noisily out of the room, not noticing the small group that stayed behind: the City Council. With more items on the agenda, for them the night was young.

Hahamongna Watershed; Theme day: Wood

We interrupt Zen Monday because of an important issue on the City Council agenda tonight. I promise we'll have Zen Tuesday tomorrow. (Hey, maybe I'll find Zen at City Hall!)

Item 6. on the City Council agenda is "Public Hearing: Adoption of the Initial Study and Approval of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Master Plan Addendum for Hahamongna Annex."

If you've followed this blog for more than a day or so you know that to say Hahamongna Watershed Park is close to my heart is an understatement. It's practically my muse.

The plan has benefits, including improved facilities for the Rose Bowl Riders. There will also be a nature center, but if you ask me, introducing nature via a "nature center" is a sure way to teach people that nature is boring. (Oh well. At least the kids get a field trip--that is, if there's any funding for field trips. But that's another post.)

Other parts of the plan are more complicated. I can't explain it because I don't understand it. Apparently there was a road in the original plan. Upon public outcry the road was taken out of the plan and everyone thought things were fine. Nobody wants a road through what is a bit of Eden in the city. But one group, Friends of Hahamongna, fears that the language in the plan is too vague, leaving in the possibility for a road.

I've read this stuff. The language is indeed vague. As I said in last Thursday's post, I wish people would write these documents in English. Whether it means "road" or not, I don't know. I'll have to go to the meeting and listen to what everyone has to say because on this subject I have only questions.

The plan is clear, however, that a large number (some say about 70) of trees will be removed from the park--not necessarily invasive trees, just non-native trees that support wildlife--when we've just lost 250 square miles worth of trees just north of Hahamongna in the Angeles National Forest. (See Altadena Hiker's take on the subject, also Laurie Barlow's post at The Greensward: Civitas.)

That's a long way around to today's City Daily Photo blog theme day, "wood," a lot of which will be chopped down and mulched in the implementation of this shiny plan.

I think we can compromise. If it's really, really necessary to remove those trees I'm sure someone at the meeting can explain why. Then perhaps we can remove them in a few years, once the mountains have regrown some habitat.

John, Boz and I have taken so much pleasure in the open space of Hahamongna. The park belongs to us, just as it belongs to everyone. It does make me nervous that people who don't use it are about to vote on its fate. I hope they've taken the trouble to go there, take a long walk and enjoy the serenity of an hour away from the city's clamor and agitation before they decide to turn it into the more of the same.

The meeting's at 6:30; Item 6 will be heard at 7:30. When I called City Hall I was told citizens are free to skip the first part and come at 7:30. Read the info. Come, speak up, or just be present. City Hall, room S249.

To see what other City Daily Photo bloggers do with today's theme, click here.

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.