Altadena Above It All

Pal Karen Klein’s latest story about how to incubate a new food biz

http://bit.ly/bfucwe

The show Circa Sometime is closing this Saturday at the Gallery at the End of the World. Wonderfully creative, evocative show of nostalgia, suprises, and environmental installations. Go see! 4 to 10 p.m. You know where it is by now, right!? On lake, next to the Rancho Bar. But there will be drinks and snacks at the gallery.

Got the announcement this afternoon that Altadena’s head sheriff is blowin’ town.  Here’s his official email, complete with his signature statement:

The purpose of this email is to advise you that I will be retiring from
the Sheriff’s Department effective March 31, 2010.
 
You are a great group of folks and it has been an honor and privilege to
have served with you as part of the LASD family.
 
Thank you for allowing me to share this part of my life with you.
 
Sincerely,

CAPTAIN ROOSEVELT BLOW
ALTADENA SHERIFF’S STATION

In order to be a Great LEADER, one must first learn how to FOLLOW.

Adopt the VISION, press toward the MARK, and  your path of LEADERSHIP
shall be clear.

More details and I’m sure a helluva party to come.

Driving up Fair Oaks and what do I see while the sky is pouring on us?

My friends bob and Greg on Canyon Crest tell me the water has washed out the hairpin turn and the road is closed.

Here are their pix.

Bill Westphal says we’ve had nearly 2-1/2 inches of water since midnight.

I’m posting an email that is being forwarded by concerned citizens:

It’s a long one so get comfy.

Friends,

At long last it looks like the Hahamongna Annex Plan is finally going to the Pasadena City Council. The hearing is scheduled for Monday, February 1, 2010 at 7:30 pm in the City Council Chambers in City Hall, 100 N. Garfield St.

And what a plan it is!

TREES Seventy non-native trees are slated to be removed from the Annex in the name of “habitat restoration.” Not surprisingly, thirty-three of the trees to be cut down are located in the formerly proposed road corridor. (Remember that road? It was to be cut across the Annex to provide access to a 1200 space JPL parking garage, which was removed from the 2003 Hahamongna Master Plan after strong community opposition.) The non-natives include majestic Italian stone pines, liquid ambers, Chinese elms, California peppers and others too numerous to mention.

These trees will be cut down despite the fact that the Annex is a landscaped area which was planted by the Forest Service, LA County Fire and Rose Bowl Riders many decades ago. The trees are an integral part of the history and uniqueness of the property just as the same species are in the Central Arroyo where no one is trying to cut them down. The trees serve a variety of wildlife. Cooper’s hawks, a species of concern, have raised their young in their branches and western gray squirrels, driven from higher elevations by the Station Fire, have taken refuge in them – not to mention the human generations who have enjoyed their beauty and shade. This drastic proposal wasn’t always in the Annex documents. An earlier version says that “it is the city’s intent to align the trails in a manner that preserves as many existing trees as reasonably possible… city estimates that the number of trees that would be impacted… in the range of 7 – 19 trees.”

Why the complete about face – is the plan now to do a Colorado Blvd-style chainsaw massacre on the trees in the corridor and just be done with it?

BIKES ONLY The latest proposal from staff, put forth only AFTER the documents had been seen by the advisory groups, is that the northern bikeway will be for “bikes only”. Obviously that isn’t going to work since JPL employees walk on that trail to get from the lab into the park. So staff’s answer is a trail/bikeway which is almost 40 feet at its widest! Now you may have noticed that elsewhere in Hahamongna down by the Flint Wash Bridge, horses, bikes and pedestrians all share a 12 foot hard surface path with a 4 foot shoulder. This is what is also proposed for the three other new segments of the bikeway in Hahamongna – a hard surface path and an immediately adjacent soft surface trail – no buffers or barriers. Why do you think it is only in the formerly proposed roadway corridor that an ultra-deluxe “meandering” greenway with buffers and vegetation is necessary and everywhere else in the park the bikeway/trail is shared use and not more than 20 feet wide?

DON’T BLAME THE CITIZEN COMMISSIONS The Planning Commission, the Design Commission, the Transportation Advisory Commission and the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee all supported nothing wider than a 10 foot path for bicyclists and hikers in the northern corridor . The Transportation Advisory Commission went so far as to say that it should be designed in such a manner that it could never become a road. They all tried their best with what were incredibly confusing documents. There were four different versions of the Plan in the space of seven months and the Plan seen by one Commission wasn’t necessarily the same plan seen by the next. The Final Draft even had material that was not seen by any of the advisory groups whose purpose is to advise the City Council. The documents they approved will not be the documents before the Council. In the final Plan, the trail portion of the greenway seems to have been removed until you take a close look. The trail was taken out of the Exhibits and the Land Use section of the Plan where the casual reader would expect to find it but it is still included in the Mobility section. So is it in the Plan or not? If it is not in the Plan, then why is it being studied in the Initial Study? Questions such as these abound.

Lest you think I am anti-trail, nothing could be further from the truth. What I am anti is a corridor which will be as wide as Foothill Boulevard once the trees are cut down. The Annex, and all of Hahamongna, is a rustic, peaceful place that should remain that way for future generations which is what the community has been saying for over 20 years. I’ve been accused of being against progress. If “progress” is bulldozing and asphalting over this little green corner of the world that has miraculously escaped it thus far, I’ll admit to the charge gladly. Enough on what has been quite an amazing process which will take much more than an email to document properly (a case study for a class on CEQA perhaps). I would make one suggestion to those of you who love Hahamongna and have been involved at one time or another in the over 20 year fight to save it.

Now is the time to get back in the game before the chainsaws and the bulldozers start firing up. When that happens, there will be howls of protest and disbelief but by then it will be way too late. It’s up to you. 

Mary Barrie, Friends of Hahamongna

Sorry for the late post. Sheriff’s are serving you tonight, and they’re not serving up tickets.

They’re serving dinner. Head to Equator, 22 Mills Place, Pasadena for some fun and benefit the Baker to Las Vegas ride.

Here’s a little different event for Valentine’s Day. You’ll be helping a worthy cause as well.

What:

Marcielle Brandler presents The Valentine Peace Project Open Mic

Where:

Cafe Culture 1359 N. Altadena Drive Pasadena

626 398-8654

When:

Sunday February 14, 1 pm to 3 pm (Be there by 12:30 to sign in and set up)

Admission: $5

Contact Marcielle to sign up and pay in advance, so we can include you as a performer. marcielle-at-verizon.net 818.388.3409

Bring your guitars, poems, sweethearts, and friends to this Valentine’s Celebration. Everyone is invited to sing, read, juggle, laugh, and network. Bring your CD’s and books to sell. Bring 10 copies of your work to donate.

 We will wrap your poems, lyrics, and thoughts around flowers to distribute to youth recently emancipated from the foster care system (Journey House.) For more information about Journey House, call Tim at: 626.798.9478‎. We appreciate any flower donations, real or fake.

Café Culture directions Take 210 East. Off at Altadena Bl. Turn left at bottom of off ramp onto Altadena. Pass Orange Grove. The cafe is one door past Washington Bl which is about one or two miles north of the 210 freeway. This event is announced on Marcielle’s website: www.marciellepresents.com

Use Pay Pal or mail your payment payable to Marcielle Brandler, PO Box 1201 Sierra Madre, CA 91025-1201.

News of two local galleries!

Next up at Altadena’s Gallery at the End of the World:

Jan 9-31 Circa Sometime, a collaborative installation by an assemblage of artists.

Openng reception Saturday Jan 9, 4-10pm

Gallery hours: Tues, Thurs, Sat, 12-6pm, other days by appointment

Fetured artists: Ben McGinty, Carl Heinz, Dave Lovejoy, Johnny Fox, Kathy Carvellas, Jeffrey Kibbe

www.galleryattheendoftheworld.com

2475 N. Lake Ave. 626.794.8779

February will be all comic art!

The Coffee Gallery presents its January show featuring the photography of Annie Fourgette (we were in the last Art Bender weekend together).

Reception Sunday, Jan. 10 from 4 to 7 p.m.

For more info go to http://galleryatcoffeegallery.blogspot.com

Art-full Living

From the City:

The City of Los Angeles has declared January of each year
‘Los Angeles Arts Month.’

Los Angeles is a hothouse of culture and creativity where the cutting-edge is neighbored with the historic. Los Angeles Arts Month will encourage residents and visitors to explore the City’s vast cultural offerings and seek new cultural experiences:  from visiting a local gallery or museum little known to them, to catching a show at a small theater, to getting a taste of a multi-cultural festival.  Through community outreach, local promotional ticket giveaways, and a viral word-of-mouth and print and radio campaign, we are urging Angelenos to enjoy the best the art world has to offer without leaving Los Angeles.  And we hope they will make it an adventure by discovering a new museum or performing arts venue!

Long considered a haven for artists and creative expression, the
Los Angeles art scene includes—world-class museums; concert halls and cultural institutions; gallery rows; theatres; public art complexes and renowned art; theatre, film, and design schools.  Los Angeles boasts the country’s largest creative workforce, which includes our world-renowned film industry, and employs nearly 1 million people throughout the region.

What are YOU going to do for LA Arts Month?

http://www.laartsmonth.org/