A flyer circulated through the community this past week attacking the mayor over the Bakewell Co. That's fine -- attack away. The flyer also invited people to a meeting in the community room at Renaissance Plaza, the Bakewell-built shopping center on North Fair Oaks Avenue. That's fine too.

What's disturbing is the choice of visual imagery used. Images of lynchings are among the most chilling and evocative reminders of the depths of our own society's capacity for barbarism. They can be used to great, sobering effect.

But when such important iconography is exploited, it cheapens and insults the gravitas of history's deep injustice.

I got ahold of one of the flyers yesterday and debated whether to post it due to the inflammatory content. But I'm not here to act as moral decider; a gatekeeper for information. I felt ill when nearly all American media refused to publish Denmark's controversial Muhammad cartoons, despite my personal respect for Islam.

But here's a description if you don't want to look: The flyer -- the text of which makes little sense, but carries its sentiment effectively -- depicts a black lynching victim superimposed over the Pasadena City Hall. "Racism is alive in Pasadena. Ask the mayor why he is building an alliance against the people of the Northwest community."

"Continue reading" for the image in full.

Image should pop-up in full with a click.

Posted by Todd at 7:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (64)

After originally applying for a permit with the city as some sort of after-school program, Club Pasadena Underground operated as something else entirely up until the point Ebony Huel was killed outside Friday, as evinced by its profile on myspace.com.

Myspace.com tribute page to Ebony.

My friends and I would sneak off to underground clubs in Hollywood and downtown L.A. throughout high school, but those were, theoretically, 18 and up. Except for Marilyn's Backstreet on South Lake Avenue, which closed in 1992 to become Panda Express. That was a club for teens with different nights for different music genres in a relatively safe/secure environment.

Some pictures from inside Pasadena Underground if you "read more."

Posted by Todd at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Was driving by Pasadena Manor yesterday and who should I see but former mayoral candidate Philip Koebel and one of the tenants he's representing. That's right, Philip passed the state bar exam earlier this year and is a full-fledged lawyer.

Posted by Todd at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

And we get accused of trading hyperbole for sales.

Pasadena Journal publisher Joe Hopkins this week blames Mayor Bill Bogaard for gang and interracial violence, awful public schools, blocking an African Sister City and fee hikes at PCC. The editorial, which exalts Pasadena as "a great city as long as all of the citizens, Black, White, Latino, Asian, and others, are included" laments the preponderance of Asians at our city college. (Guess who's to blame?)

Pasadena is a city of great things with the possibility of becoming a great city as long as all of the citizens, Black, White, Latino, Asian, and others, are included.

...

At the local Pasadena Community College there are a number of policies related to the ability to pay fees that the present Board members have implemented that has the effect of keeping Black, Brown and poor students out. There are no Blacks on that board and, therefore, few Black students at the college which has become known as "PCC, the PASADENA CHINESE COLLEGE."

The polemic is driven by the council's decision not to enter exclusive negotiations with the Bakewell Co. re: Heritage Square, which given its deep factual inaccuracies, must have occurred in the much-theorized about Bizarro Pasadena.

Posted by Todd at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (47)