July 2008 Archives

Alleged newspaper will be written by a computer software program.

Read all about it here

The city did a study on the "Central District" of Pasadena, which it defines by the above map. Apparently, people who live there are better-educated, younger, and make better money than the city as a whole. Additionally, they are more likely to bike places.

But more significantly, the city also found that 62 percent of people in the survey work outside Pasadena. They compared this with a AQMD study that showed that 85 percent of people who work in Pasadena don't live in Pasadena. That study does come with a major proviso though: the AQMD only surveyed people who work at businesses that employ 250 people or more.

Surveys also found that 78 percent of downtown people use cars to commute to work, and even amongst those that work in the same area they live, 58 percent use cars.

So most workers are commuting far to get to downtown Pasadena and those that live close are generally set on using their cars to drive short distances.

The point of all these studies is to direct how to plan for the city's future. But, also, as Sid Tyler pointed out in Monday's meetings, they perhaps show that the city's vision for developing itself to become a biking/walking/public transportation mecca has not happened.

There is a counterpoint to be made, which Margaret McAustin touched on Monday, that just because people take their cars to work does not mean they use them to run errands and go to lunch..... once you are parked downtown, you are more likely to move around by foot.

More complete data:

*83 percent in the central district have a college degree or higher compared to 42 percent citywide

*6 percent in central district have kids compared to 28 percent citywide

*71 percent have a household income of higher than $50,000 compared with 47 percent citywide.

We have a picture accompanying today's story about a new, extremely-small microscope being developed at Caltech, which really shows just how small it is. It is, however, lodged in the fingers of the scientist who worked on it, and this picture gives a closer view.

This prototype, which as you can see is about the size of a dime, would be lodged inside an iPod-like device to allow researchers to see digital magnified pictures of whatever liquid sample they load into the device.

The liquid sample is loaded into a small chamber on the bottom of the device picture above and must be charged with electrical current to allow it to flow under the sensor that will create the picture of it.

According to Mayor Bill Bogaard, council members Steve Madison and Victor Gordo did participate via phone in discussions about the city manager on Monday, even though they did not participate in the open session part of the meeting.

I reported in Tuesday's article and on the blog Monday that Madison, Gordo, and Steve Haderlein did not attend the meeting, but did not know they had participated in the closed session.

In other city manager news, an email has been circulating about candidate Michael Beck in the preservationist community to the effect that he would make a poor city manager because of his record in Riverside. Janette Williams will have that story tomorrow.

Lastly, by coincidence, Beck returned my call (from Monday) and officially told me he can't comment on the Pasadena job unless/until he gets the job. He also told Janette he couldn't comment about the preservationist community's views on him either.

A suspiciously well-timed study released today shows that only 12 percent of California has earthquake insurance, down from 30 percent at the time of the 1994 Northridge quake.

The explanation:

Candysee Miller, executive director for the Insurance Information Network of California, said the absence of a major quake over the past decade was partially to blame.

By that logic, there should be many people signing up for earthquake insurance this week. Especially, with a study that just happened to be released today getting media coverage and reminding them to sign up for insurance.

Also, a related 2006 study showed that 31 percent of people think they have insurance, when in reality only 13 percent did.

You may have noticed on astonishing silence of blogging yesterday, after a flurry of activity following the earthquake.

Regrettably our blog server chose the time after the quake as the most appropriate to crash. I think we would all like to blame the earthquake.

So give us a pass on this one, and maybe we can all have a blame the earthquake day. If you're late to work today, blame the earthquake. If you get pulled over by the cops, blame the earthquake (maybe post-earthquake trauma.).

You get the picture.

Bob Dollar a USGS geophysicist told me at his office at Caltech (I was out the door to head there about a minute after the quake hit) that this quake is the largest since the 1994 6.7 magnitude Northridge earthquake.

He also said there is a 5 to 10 percent chance of an aftershock that would match the 5.4 magnitude of the original quake within the next several hours, though the chances decrease as time goes on.

Pasadena Fire Department PIO Lisa Derderian said there have no calls for any serious damage to 911 at this point.

Pasadena city hall and courthouse were evacuated as a precaution but we are not hearing about any injuries at this point

Reporter Nathan McIntire was driving during the earthquake and said he didn't feel it at all. I found that interesting because I was driving in the desert during a 7 magnitude quake in the Mojave in 1999 (it was not felt in Los Angeles County). I didn't feel it either, but stopped for gas 15 minutes after the quake.... a shaken attendant asked me if I had felt the quake. So maybe the natural motion of the car is not conducive to feeling quakes.

The council meeting tonight started 30 minutes late because the council was stuck in the closed session, where they were discussing the city manager job.

However, when the meeting did start, Mayor Bogaard announced the council had not yet taken action, or at least any action required to be reported to the public.

It appears a lot of that extra time likely went towards discussing the new city manager (there were other items to consider), since the council did not actually finish all the items it was slated to do in closed session, despite the extra half hour.

The delay in making a decision could have something to do with the fact that council members Steve Haderlein, Steve Madison, and Victor Gordo are not at tonight's meeting.

And for anyone who is questioning my grammar, using the present tense in the previous sentence is correct, because I am posting this from the council chambers.

I think this item ran on our website over the weekend, so if anyone missed it, photographer Walt Mancini checked out a solar car making a visit to Pasadena, and shot some video. Louis Palmer, of Switzerland, is driving the car around the world to make a point about green technology.

I located the web page of the solar taxi voyage to look at some stats of the car. The key ones:

Freedom: To drive up to 400 km with the latest ZEBRA battery technology.
Max. speed: 90 km/h

That is about 250 miles, and 55 mph. Not bad at all. The only downside is the recharging process:

The battery can be charged on every regular 110 or 220 V power outlet. By using a quick charge it's possible to fill 50% of the whole capacity in 30 mins. The regular charging process takes 6 to 8 hours.

So basically you only go about 250 miles a day on this thing... nice leisurely trip around the world. But in terms of a commuting/local car, the stats are very good.

Of course, right now I wouldn't want to guess how much it would cost to actually manufacture commercially, and I can't imagine that trailer of solar cells the thing is dragging navigates well on city streets. But it's a start.

Will there be any excitement tonight at the city council meeting? It boils down to this: does the council make a decision on the city manager at the 5:30 closed session? As mentioned before Riverside Assistant City Manager Michael Beck is being considered for the job, and three council members did make it out to Riverside on Friday.

I'm going to refrain from making pointless predictions about what happens tonight about the city manager position: I don't know that much, and a lot of what I do know I agreed not to reveal on this blog or in the paper.

So let's talk about what else is on the agenda. The city is endorsing and rejecting some state legislation: endorsing SB 1420, a plan to require restaurants chains to post nutritional information on menus. It is also against Proposition 7, a green energy initiative that will appear on November's ballot.

Yes, the city that aspires to be the Green City is against a solar power initiative. The reason, of course, is that it mandates a certain percentage of utilities' power come from green sources. High percentages: 20% by 2010, 40% by 2020, 50% by 2025.

Is that realistic or just another pie-in-the-sky environmental goal? Should be an interesting question to consider in the next few months.

Also on the agenda, a $55,000 contract for a consultant who will carry out some very generally-worded management strategies to improve the city:

Creating systems to help managers use performance information to continuously improve results;

Provide a presentation on transformation as a context for understanding the
nature of transformational change.

What exactly does all that mean? I haven't the faintest, but I might ask my girlfriend who is soon to receive her MBA.... sounds like the language she speaks when she is talking about class work. One thing I have to ask though, does the city not have a culture of trust already? Also, I could have told you for less than $55,000 that the best way to continuous improvement is to focus on improving results.

And that the best way to understand the nature of transformational change is, in fact, a presentation on transformation.

I more clearly understand Task 4 of the consultant's contract though:

Task 4: Facilitate a retreat of key personnel to reach agreement on change strategies to
recommend to the new City Manager.

I wonder if on this retreat city employees will go out to the woods and do the "trust fall" to work on the city's culture of trust.

Also at tonight's meeting, the city will discuss altering its "living wage ordinance," which will allow companies and their workers to agree to opt-out of the living wage ordinance in exchange for greater benefits or other compensation that would make up for receiving lower pay. I don't yet know a great deal of the specific requirements of the current ordinance, so I will be keeping a close eye on this one tonight.

Riverside city officials are a little more open-mouthed about the Pasadena city manager job than Pasadena officials. The Riverside Press-Enterprise reported over the weekend that Riverside Assistant City Manager Michael Beck is a finalist for the Pasadena job.

A Riverside city offical told him that Pasadena council members Jacque Robinson, Margaret McAustin and Sid Tyler spent Friday afternoon at Riverside city hall talking with officials about Beck.

Beck also says he expects he could hear something on Monday (today). There is another closed session scheduled at 5:30 p.m. tonight.

Fortunately, in the PE's story they got nothing out of Pasadena officials, which I find relieving, since I also can't get anything (at least on the record) out of them.

A source told the Pasadena Weekly a few weeks ago that a decision would likely be made by the end of July, so this could be it. However, last week, a source who I can't name told me that time estimate was pretty optimistic, and that it wouldn't surprise him/her if it dragged well into August.

The day after liveblogging an entire MTA building, I am quietly running out the clock on a Friday afternoon and not thinking about Gold Line. But then I am not an elected official- they get paid to keep thinking about policy. And I get paid to tell the public about it.

So, with that overblown introduction, let me tell you all that most that San Gabriel Valley's congressional reps (or most of them anyway) have already gotten together and written an angry response to yesterday's MTA meeting. The highlights, from the offices of U.S. Representatives Hilda L. Solis (CA-32), David Dreier (CA-26), Grace F. Napolitano (CA-38), and Gary G. Miller (CA-42):

"Yesterday was a three strikes kind of day for the San Gabriel Valley at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro) board meeting.

The first strike:

First, Metro turned its back on the residents of the San Gabriel Valley
by refusing to support greater equity in the half cent sales tax
proposal.

Second:

Adding insult to inequity, Metro voted a second time to implement toll
roads on the I-10 corridor, in conjunction with implementation of toll
roads on the I-110

Well, that was basically already an established policy. Yesterday's decision was just a rubber stamp. But, there's more. Wait for it:

If inequity and insult aren't enough, Metro Board Members said no to a commitment of less than one half of one percent of its capital budget for the only project ready to be built in LA County - the Gold Line Foothill Extension.

So our local representatives, minus Adam Schiff, who has thus far been silent on most transit issues (though he has expended a lot of energy trying to get funding for the Gold Line) are upset. Our local council members are upset (Glendora councilman Doug Tessitor called today and wants to set up a meeting, along with some other local city officials, about how the SGV should react to the news- on the table, he says is strategeizing about how to defeat the sales tax, to coming up with a legal way to wrest funds away from the MTA to spend on local transit projects.

But, if you read the story I wrote for today, you will notice the state reps have been either supportive or non committal about the sales tax measure.

So there may yet be a divide over how to proceed against the measure.... I'll be looking at this more next week.

And, in one more transit note, a staffer at Anthony Portantino's office noted that the Gold Line Foothill Extension Authority, which has clashed frequently with the MTA, was actually created by a state Senate bill eight years ago by Adam Schiff. I have been writing that MTA created it.

The idea in pointing this out, I believe, is to suggest that the MTA never wanted to create an independent authority that would take over the Gold Line project. The question is whether the senate bill was initated at the behest of MTA, or over MTA's objections. I think that is believable that MTA would not have wanted to create the Foothill Extension Authority, but it is way before my time, so I'll have to look at it in more detail.

Janette Williams wrote a short article on the city's fears of what a state plan to take money from cities to help balance the budget could do to the city's Public Health Department:

[Mayor Bill] Bogaard said the state's budget crisis will require "sacrifice from everyone." But further cutbacks to Pasadena's public health department funding, already facing a state-mandated 10-percent cut in services this fiscal year, are of particular concern, he said.

So, basically, Pasadena already scheduled a 10 percent cut in funding because of state cutbacks and it is afraid it could lose more money.... my question though, is what does this mean for the Public Health Department? What services have they already had to cut, and what might they have to do to make ends meet if they lost more funding?

I got this email from a reader of Wednesday's story on Pasadena's parking enforcement contractor:

Are the Intercon employees exempt from posted parking rules while on the job. I work in the same building as Intercon on De Lacey, and uniformed parking enforcers routinely leave their vehicles on the streets around this building without citation

I want to stress, of course, that this is a totally UNVERIFIED claim- I have no idea if it is true or not.

I don't think it would surprise anyone if it was though- ticketing a co-worker's car is not exactly the best way to make friends on the job.

-Fasana and Antonovich, the two SGV board members who opposed the sales tax, also put on yet another attempt to fund the Gold Line independently of the sales tax. The motion would have committed $80 million with the proviso that the federal government kick in $320 million... if it refused to, the MTA would get the money back. The vote failed, though they did get a 5-4 vote. The measure would have required a 7 person majority to pass.... there were several people absent and several abstentions. For a moment several MTA officials looked horrified as they thought the motion might have passed.

-On the subject of federal funding, I need to take my lumps for a mistake in my reporting at the MTA meeting last month.... I was under the mistaken impression that the SGV congress members had secured legislation that guaranteed the $320 million. In reality, the successful measure RECOMMENDS that the fed transit agencies spend $320 million. The difference is obviously very immense..... I pledge to read the fine print a little more carefully next time.

-Again with the first item: when I said several people were absent from the Gold Line vote, I mean Don Knabe, who did not attend the meeting, and Mayor Villaraigosa, who was... well, preening for the cameras at a press conference in a back room. He missed at least 30 minutes of the meeting after the sales tax passed, including votes on the Gold Line, the 710 tunnel, and the freeway toll lane project. Several public speakers at this meeting, and last month's meeting made reference to his tendency to wander off or show up late to meetings.

-After a lot of grandstanding about equity and how she could not support the sales tax in its current form, Gloria Molina actually abstained on the bill

-Assemblyman Portantino, a big Gold Line advocate who also dislikes the 710 tunnel project (which is in the sales tax plan) said he doesn't know for sure if he will oppose it or not. He also declined to make a prediction of how the bill to authorize the sales tax will do in the legislature. Mike Feuer, who sponsored that bill, said at today's meeting the legislature has already reached consensus on it.

-Mayor Villaraigosa, apparently in a conciliatory mood, said after the vote on the measure, that the Gold Line will be one of the first projects to be funded. Habib Balian, at the Gold Line Foothill Extension Authority, is not convinced. He said that he is nervous that the funds set aside from the Gold Line could be changed or delayed since the MTA board is allowed to change voter-approved funding formulas with a 2/3 vote.

-Almost 2/3 of the board does not really have a lot of love for the Gold Line extension. That is to say there are only 4-5 members who would clearly vote against any changes to the Gold Line. Even so, if the measure were to pass, it is hard to imagine the MTA making such an aggressive move against the San Gabriel Valley.

-I made a spectacle of myself trying to blog at this thing. I ran out of power several times, and was forced to use one of the few wall plugs in the auditorium. The problem was, my plug hung there as sort of a trip line when I sat in my seat. Several people, including a Covina official who recognized me and knew me by name, made jokes about how I was going to get sued, or get MTA sued, if someone tripped. So I ultimately relocated to the floor along the side of the auditorium. The next public building that is built should have a pro-blogger design, with copious power cords and airline-like trays to place laptops on.

-There has been much discussion, both at the MTA meeting, and recently in Pasadena (because of the death of bike advocate Dennis Crowley) about a elevated bike freeway from Pasadena to Downtown L.A. I really think you could run one along the Gold Line.... I have been riding it a lot lately for MTA meetings.... there is a lot of usable elevated space. There would certainly be some right of way issues, some property to acquire, etc., but I think (despite my total lack of engineering prowess or training) that it would be worth looking into.

After movements to amend the sales tax measure to require the MTA to review the project list funded by the measure every 6 years failed, the board voted to authorize the measure.

It will now go to the legislature for authorization. If it passes there, it will be on the November ballot, where it will need 2/3 of county voters to pass.

The vote ended up running 9-2, even though 5 members had voted for the amendments. The only two to oppose were the San Gabriel Valley-area members, John Fasana and Michael Antonovich.

Additionally, the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments is recommending that its board oppose it, and the SGV-based Gold Line Foothill Extension Authority has voted to oppose it.

More thoughts on the subject later.

Two amendments from San Gabriel Valley MTA representatives that would have added language to require funding criteria be based on population of sub-regions failed, 8-4 and 7-5.

Basically, without these amendments there will be no mandate to distribute money based on population, and no requirement that the agency revisit its funding priorities in 6 years.

The final vote has not come in yet, but based on the voting patterns, it looks as if the sales tax measure will be authorized by a narrow 7-5 vote.

(If you just stepped in, I am blogging from today's MTA meeting on the half cent sales tax measure)

I've been meaning to mention all morning that Supervisor Don Knabe, who voted against the sales tax measure at last month's meeting, has not been at the meeting.

VIllaraigosa finally addressed it, noting because of the birth of his grandson, he will not be here.

That doesn't bode well for the people looking to pass proposed equity language.

Of course, Knabe, could have easily changed his view on the bill in the last month- he didn't to have too much to say about at June's meeting.

La Verne Mayor Jon Blickenstaff, part of the Gold Line JPA, spoke briefly about the need to include more money and more concrete language about the Gold Line. He then pointed out that the Gold Line extension authority/SGV government delegation had not been called to speak for a longer presentation (Blickenstaff got only 1 minute).

Villaraigosa said the board had not received a speaker's card from the group before the deadline. I asked Habib Balian, the head of the Gold Line authority, if he had submitted the card on time. He said he did. Big surprise.

There have been a lengthy stream of bus, bike, and ped interests weighing in on the sales tax measure. "Weighing in" basically means speaking in opposition in this case.

The Bus Rider's Union, as expected, stated their opposition and pledged to work to get it voted down. Basically, because there are not large enough promises to expand bus ridership.

A couple of bike and pedestrian activists caught the board's interest, including Damian Newton, an activist who distributed to the board a proposed amendment to the bill that would earmark 1 percent of all funds for bike projects, and 1 percent for ped projects.

Realistically, what will happen, as Villaraigosa said in response to the speaker, is that some cities will choose to spend the discretionary money that get for transit projects on bike lanes, etc. And many others, will not. Villaraigosa pledged to spend an undefined amount on these kinds of projects.

As I have been writing this post, a speaker came up and got some laughs by comparing the proposed equity language that would bring more money to remote corners of the county to Wyoming demanding it's fair share of homeland security funding- the idea being, of course, that nobody wants to attack any targets in Wyoming.

And now, the great John Walsh, is coming to the podium to rant about how rail is a form of class warfare.

(If you just stepped in, I am blogging from today's MTA meeting on the half cent sales tax measure)

I just got a copy of the language that John Fasana and others want to add to the proposal. It looks like they want to put this language in and get the measure passed today.

It could work.... the language is fairly vague. It gives the board more power to change the project list passed by the sales tax down the line. It also mandates that the agency distribute funds to various sub-regions, including the San Gabriel Valley, based on the population in each region. There are no specific figures or formulas included though.

The motion will be introduced by Fasana, Lowenthal, and Najarian, so it looks like I was correct in believing Najarian would be opposed to the measure as it is. Antonovich and Molina have already clearly said at the meeting they want this language in the measure.

One more vote beyond that, and they have enough votes to stall the ballot measure.

(If you just stepped in, I am blogging from today's MTA meeting on the half cent sales tax measure)

John Fasana, the San Gabriel Valley representative on the MTA board, just asked Assemblyman Mike Feuer, whether he thought state legislators would be open to changed ballot language. Feuer has been the leader with the state legislation that will be necessaru to get the bill on the ballot.

The changes Fasana is thinking about, would be to bring a set percentage of funds to each sub-region, thus ensuring that the San Gabriel Valley gets more money than is currently written in the bill.

Feuer responded by saying that state legislators, who also need to approve the plan, have reached a difficult consensus, and that he couldn't say whether legislators would agree to new language. He then directly addresed Fasana and said that he had personally made an "extraordinary effort to address the concerns you brought to me," and that the current language "should leave to the San Gabriel Valley happy with the legislation that has been reached."

Michael Antonovich then chimed in, and started speaking about how voters in the SGV, along with other areas outside the city of Los Angeles won't support the measure in its current form. He went on for a while until Mayor Villaraigosa cut him off, asking if he actually intended to ask Feuer a question.

Villaraigosa, by the way, took over the chairmanship of the board today, and seems to be relishing his new role..

Molina capped off the interaction with Feuer by asking him to read the new language that the San Gabriel Valley representatives are pushing. "Are you planning to stay here and read this, and hear all about it, or are you going to leave?" Feuer promised to stay.

Molina is a very, very blunt person.

(If you just stepped in, I am blogging from today's MTA meeting on the half cent sales tax measure)

A representative of the city of South Pasadena just got up and asked the chair to remove all mention of the 710 tunnel project from the sales tax measure. The measure would give $780 million to the project, though it it does not yet have an established route. That, obviously, makes the city of South Pasadena a little nervous.

(If you just stepped in, I am blogging from today's MTA meeting on the half cent sales tax measure)

He said it last board meeting, he said it at a press conference before today's meeting, and he has already said it twice in the first 20 minutes of today's meeting.

Basically, it means quit your whining about not getting enough money and support the measure, or you won't get any money at all, because without the sales tax measure MTA has no money.

The powers that be decided to give me a laptop and a wireless card to take to today's Metro meeting, so I will be posting updates on all the action today.

And all that action will essentially boil down to a regional fight over the half cent sales tax measure. Mayor Villaraigosa, and three supporters on the MTA board: Richard Katz, David Fleming, and Bernard Parks called a press conference this morning to express their support for the measure.

Michael Antonovich, John Fasana, and Gloria Molina have all expressed some serious concerns with project list that the sales tax measure would fund. Specifically, in the case of Antonovich and Fasana, their concerns that the Gold Line is not getting enough money.

So will the measure pass today? It will be close. In addition to the three mentioned above, board members Bonnie Lowenthal and Don Knabe have raised concerns: both voted against advancing the measure at June's meeting, suggesting they would need a project list outlined before they act.

Additionally, Ara Najarian, a Glendale council member has expressed support for the Gold Line and may be sympathetic to Antonovich/Fasana's point of view.

The measure would take 7 votes to pass. It breaks down like this:

YES VOTES (4): Fleming, Villaraigosa, Parks, Katz
LIkely NO VOTES (4): Antonovich, Fasana,, Lowenthal, Knabe
Possible No votes(2): Najarian, Molina
? (3): Yaroslavsky, O'Connor, Burke

A "No" vote, I believe, would be a vote to rewrite the measure's language and try to sechedule an emergecny meeting before August 8, the deadline to get the ballot measure to the county registrar.

The Sacramento Bee is reporting that the governor is threatening to temporarily reduce the pay of 200,000 state workers to the minimum wage to preserve state funds during the budget impasse. The Bee got a hold of an executive order that it says Schwarzenegger will sign later this week.

Funny, when I last did a story on the budget, the state controller's office told me that the government had enough cash to run smoothly at least through September. So, this couldn't by any stretch of the imagination, be a way for Schwarzenegger to bring pressure to bear on lawmakers whose campaign funding comes from state unions that will surely be howling about any pay cuts that will be imposed on their members, could it? I'm sure nobody in state government would try something that devious.

Of course, once the budget impasse is over, the order says, the employees will get the rest of their salaries paid back.

Incidentally, the legislative wing of the government, including lawmakers, appointees, and their staffs, already are not getting paid at all. Earlier this month, I did a budget story on the subject, where I reported that the bulk of these employees get zero-interest loans from a Sacramento bank to tide them over until they get their pay checks back:

The Sacramento-based Golden 1 Credit Union offers state employees who are credit union members no-interest loans in the amount of their salaries for the duration of the budget impasse. Once the budget is passed, the loans are paid off by the state.

I wonder if Golden 1 has enough capital for 200,000 more zero-interest loans?

Centinel, over at the Foothill Cities Blog, spotted an interesting item over at the Arcadia Police Blog: apparently two middle-aged women made off with a bunch of items from a Victoria's Secret store at the Westfield Mail. These underwear bandits, (not to be confused with underpants gnomes) took about 40 lingerie items according to the Police Department.

I'm going to have to remember to keep an eye on the Arcadia Police Blog.

In all the recent hubbub about the Gold Line, I have not discussed on this blog the possibility that light rail is a bad investment. Departing editor Eddie Barrera (or as of today, I should say, departed editor) pointed out a recent study on light rail. Its conclusions:

- Light rail systems on the West Coast served only about 2% of the workforce in the service areas of the six systems.
- On average, these systems only remove between 0.39% and 1.1% of cars from the roadway.
-On average, West Coast light rail systems require taxpayer subsidies to pay for 73% of operations and 100% of capital improvements per year.
-The average cost to add one additional rider to the light rail systems on the West Coast is between $82,285 and $242,014 per rider.
-Attracting a new rider to light rail costs 16 to 47 times as much as attracting a new rider to a traditional bus system.

Ouch! That looks really bad. So I took a look at the group promoting the study, the Washington Policy Center, and the first thing that struck me was that they are a group that promotes "market-based solutions" to public policy problems. Meaning, that they are ideologically hostile towards big government solutions to problems.

In all fairness though, their study does draw a distinction between different transit systems in different cities. They point out, for example, that Portland and San Francisco's light-rail systems work much better than other cities and attempt to answer why (though it really doesn't take a study to figure it out- they are both small centralized cities with high population density).

Doing so more leg work on light rail, I found that most anti-rail studies come from libertarian groups and most pro-rail studies come from transit agencies. So who do you trust more?

Then I found an interesting study called "Does Transit Work? A Conservative Reappraisal" by Paul Weyrich, the founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Weyrich argues that it is unfair to judge rail by the percentage of trips that it provides (around 2 percent in the above study). His suggestion is that we judge it by how it does in trips that are rail-competitive. To be rail-competitive, a person's trip must go somewhere that is serviced by close-by, reliable, and quality public transportation. Weyrich's point is that most people don't have a rail-competitive option, and until rail systems are more extensive, there is no way they can compete.

Weyrich points to St. Louis as a success story- the city, which has had its population decline over the last 80-100 years as people have moved to the suburbs, recently put in a new light rail system. Weyrich writes:

However we compute it, we see roughly the same picture: despite enormous changes in the city of St. Louis and the displacement of the streetcar by the automobile as most people's primary means of travel, Light Rail now carries between one-half and two-thirds the ridership it did in 1925, in the area served. As a sober, scholarly historian might put it, Wow!

I think both studies have a point: light rail can be a lousy investment.... and to make it a good investment you need to get it close by to a large number of commuters so they are willing to get on it. In other words, you can't do it half-assed..... if you want to really get people on it you need a lot of stations and lines.

In a nice preview for the deluge of criticism that is going to happen at MTA's meeting on Thursday, the Gold Line Phase II Joint Powers Authority, a local board that is made up of council members, formally voted to oppose the MTA's proposed half-cent sales tax increase.

That plan, which the MTA hopes to put on the November ballot, would use money from the sales tax hike to fund transit projects. But local legislators have complained that the SGV is not getting enough funding from the list of projects to be funded with the tax (for much more read here)

The Gold Line JPA is made up of council members from Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale, Azusa, Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne, Pomona, Claremont, and South Pasadena.

From a press release from the organization:

Though the sales tax would allocate $735 million for the Gold Line, language in the measure does not provide a date by which funding must be received over the 30-year life of the tax and does not specify the rail's eventual terminus, meaning it could be cut off in Azusa instead of extending to the county border and Ontario International Airport. It also would allocate more than is needed, $250 million, for a maintenance facility

MTA chief Roger Snoble told me last week that it would specify the county line in Claremont as the rail's terminus, so I took a look at the measure language. I'm not at all shocked to see the language is vague enough that either side can claim it fulfills a different promise. It says that the measure will extend the Gold Line east "from its current terminus in Pasadena at the Sierra Madre Villa Station toward Montclair."

So does that mean it will go ALL the way to Montclair? Not necessarily. But it is a tangible suggestion of where it is supposed to go. Ah, deliberate vagueness.

The maintenance facility project seemed like it was going to help foster opposition to the measure.... it is not something opposed by the SGV leaders, but neither do they particularly care about the project, and they don't want $250 million coming out of their funds.

The release also suggests that John Fasana, MTA's rep from the San Gabriel Valley will oppose the measure in its current form at Thursday's meeting. Michael Antonovich, another board member, has already said he will unless it is changed.

Looks to me like the MTA is going to have to schedule an emergency meeting before August 8, the county deadline to put this on the ballot, if they want to get this done.

UPDATE: Also, on MTA's agenda on Thursday is to officially move the freeway toll lane plan from the 210 Freeway to the 110 Freeway, something we discussed here a few weeks back

The City Council approved a $1.1 million project to build a re-build a bridge over the Arroyo Seco creek in the park area behind JPL last night, but not before Councilman Sid Tyler grilled the city staff hard on the project.

Among his complaints-

*The bid climbed by several hundred thousand dollars after staff was informed that it would have to include wildlife updates to the California Department of Fish and Game.

*City staff lacked urgency in finishing the bid process (the original bids were apparently submitted in April)

*The county and U.S. Forest Service refuse to kick in any money on the project.

*The bridge may not be necessary (in his opinion). "Can't the vehicles just drive through the creek if there is an emergency up there?" (I'm paraphrasing here).

The whole thing culminated with a fired-up Tyler asking the Water and Power employee doing the briefing if he had ever been up there (around 2:03:00 on the city video). The employee never quite managed an answer. The whole thing starts around (1:57:30).

In other news from the Council, they did approve a one-year renewal of a controversial parking ticket contractor, though they plan to take a look at some other options after that point. Margaret McAustin was very emphatic about trying to get a shorter contract period, raising major concerns about the company. Victor Gordo had her back.

Steve Madison, whose district hosts the company, was the most vocal about extending the contract. Disgruntled security guard union members and a few angry citizens complained about the company, and company reps showed up to counter the claims of the union. Much more on that in tomorrow's paper.

Also, the disgruntled citizen who is angry at Steve Haderlein showed up again at this week's meeting, and got a little more detailed about his issues with Haderlein. He claims Haderlein called him up, yelled at him, and hung up on him. Haderlein says the man threatened his field rep, which the man denies.

The man is threatening to show up and speak at each City Council meeting until Haderlein apologizes.

Pasadena's June unemployment numbers hit 5.3 percent, the highest in the city since 2004. The rate has climbed almost a full point over the last two months... before that the city had been keeping its unemployment slightly above where it was last year. In June of 2007 the unemployment rate was 3.7 percent. About 1,000 fewer jobs are available in the city than this time last year.

Of course, Pasadena is in the same boat as everyone else in the county (and still a lot better off than many other cities). Things have been especially bad in the San Gabriel Valley: SGVN reporter Ben Baeder reported last week that the number of San Gabriel Valley jobs dropped 2.2 percent in 2007, even as county wide jobs increased 0.5 percent. And that is before the worst of the economic downturn: unemployment is rising fast in 2008.

However, things could yet get worse for the Crown City: June's numbers don't include the IndyMac layoffs that happened earlier this month.

Also, as I mentioned in a post last week, city property values are finally starting to drop off like everyone else's: until June, home values were still fairly stable.

I'll be turning out a more detailed print version of these latest economic woes later this week.

What does Altadena have in common with Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, and Tonga? Look at the title of the post.

Tim Rutt, over at Altadenablog has done a fine job of following the Town Council elections (not to be confused with a city council- as Altadena is unincorporated, its council plays an advisory role).

The latest: a report issued by the council that details violations in the last Town Council election:

* Three candidates allegedly ignore repeated requests or warnings to stop campaigning within 100 feet of a polling place; one candidates' worker did likewise at one location.

* One candidate may have interfered actively with the Election Chair's process prior to the election.

* Two seated Town Council members, one candidate and a few others are alleged to have verbally abused the Election Chair prior to the election; some of these accused seemed intent on interrupting the process rather than assisting with the election.

So an election to an advisory town council was marred with trouble. The committee investigating the election, did certify the results, suggesting that whatever pressure that council members might have put on the Election Chair, electorate etc. did not have much of an effect on the results of the election.

In a related story veteran council member Steve Lamb had plenty to say on the subject of the council in an interview with Janette Williams:

"The Town Council is just full of conflict, in-fighting and favoritism, and it's always been that way," Lamb said. "I'm tired of trying to reform that, and I decided it was a complete waste of time."

Martin Pastucha, Pasadena's Public Works Director, was interviewed on KPCC's Larry Mantle Show this morning on a segment about Southern California's infrastructure. I believe the show was inspired by the sinkhole that opened up on the 110 last week.

The audio from the show was not yet online when I published the post but you can check back on the show's home page later on, and there will likely be a link up later. Pastucha was on near the end of the first hour of the show.

It was a short segment, and I missed the very end of it, but here is what I learned:

-Pasadena has some of the oldest sewer pipes in Los Angeles County. Some have been around for 130 years.

-The older sewer pipes are holding up as well or better than some of the younger sewer pipes because they are made out of clay, which apparently works better than clay (although Gary Lee Moore, L.A.'s city engineer, talked about this more than Pastucha did).

-Rather than replace old sewer lines, the city hopes to use some sort of material to line it and seal up any cracks (I was pulling up and getting ready to step out of the car at this point, so I didn't catch all the details.)

-The city goes down annually and looks at all the pipes under the city.

Doesn't look like a lot going on at Monday's meeting.

Probably the top item on the agenda is a discussion over what to do about the city's parking enforcement contract. The Pasadena Weekly had a nice item this week on problems with the current provider: apparently they have been sued multiple times for violating labor laws.

The story also details some complaints from Pasadena citizens who feel the company has been rude and/or has issued tickets unfairly. Some council members are concerned about it as well.

The suggestion from the story was that the city council will likely dump its current provider at Monday's meeting.... that could happen, but the city is recommending to the council they keep the contract for another year, and continue the search for a company that will be worth keeping for a longer period.

The other item of interest is that the city will likely be voting funds to fix a bridge along the Arroyo Seco behind JPL. The current bridge collapsed in bad weather in 2005.... fixing the bridge will open up some nice national forest land. I discussed this item briefly in a story in today's paper about the Mount Wilson Toll Road.

The city will also vote on a noise ordinance that would set levels of noise for mulit-family homes. Looks like a pretty normal ordinance. It will also set up noise level provisions for larger events that take place at the Rose Bowl. Currently the Rose Bowl Operating Company has to meet to officially vote on getting exemptions to the city's noise ordinance for every event they hold there (or every loud one at least). This ordinance will write those exemptions into the code.

Should be a pretty short meeting.

I somehow convinced my editor to allow me to spend last Tuesday hiking up the Mount Wilson Toll Road with the idea that I would deliver some top notch photos to accompany my story on the road being fixed.

It was a great hike, but the photos did not make the paper. They did, however, make it into an online photo gallery, viewable here. The gallery lists the photographer as Walt Mancini, but only about half are his. The other ones have my name on them once you click on them.

So far, in my time at the Tribune and the Star News I have been shut out in my attempts to land a photo on the front page of the paper. Departing metro editor Eddie Barrera told me about three months ago, when I was still at the Tribune, that I was the only Trib reporter not to ever nail a front page cover, and that any self-respecting reporter should expect to take the winning photo at some point.

That was shortly before he sent me out with a camera to try and get a front-page photo on a story about a wave of shattered windshields. That's Barrera's style of motivation. It didn't work though, as I did not get the photo printed.

So for now, this photo gallery is all I have. Try to enjoy it, even though it is not worthy of a front cover.

In case anyone is wondering, I am in fact at work today, which is why I have spent this much time blogging about my ineptitude with a camera.

I'm cleaning out the notepad in my head of things of interest that happened this week I have not blogged yet, and I remembered a speaker at Pasadena's Monday council meeting stood up and ranted at the council about IndyMac. He said illegal immigrants caused the bank failure by weighing the bank down with loans that were not backed up by real payroll and account information.

He also called Victor Gordo a "reconquista." I guess because he is Latino, and has not specifically denounced the idea that Mexico should reclaim Southern California. You can watch the fun on the Pasadena city video archive (The July 14 meeting), starting at 33:30.

Shortly before he spoke, another man got up to rant and rave about something that Steve Haderlein had done. He wouldn't really say what it was, but he called Haderlein a liar about nine times.

Haderlein said the man had called his field rep and threatened her, but did not go into more details. You can watch that at 26:20.

Yes, there are many things going on in the Pasadena-area right now to discuss, but I can't help but weigh in on two juxtaposed stories in the New York Times and Washington Post this morning.

Compare the lead with this story about electrical disasters causing soldiers and civilian contractors in Iraq their lives:

Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents.

With the lead from a story on the use of terrorism funds by the Air Force:

The Air Force's top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on "comfort capsules" to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs, according to internal e-mails and budget documents.

No wonder people ignore the national news. It is much easier to plug your ears and not pay attention then stomach these kinds of basic leadership failures.

MTA bit the bullet with the latest language for its sales tax ordinance and bumped the Gold Line funding up to $735 million. If the sales tax ordinance passes the MTA board. And through the state legislature. And through the voters.

Also, while the MTA chief Roger Snoble told me that the $735 million will be guaranteed by the county ordinance, right now there is a minimum number listed by the project at $328 million, suggesting that the project could receive somewhere between the two numbers. We'll be watching real carefully as the wording of the ordinance is released sometime in the next week. And so will the SGV politicians (so they tell me).

Meanwhile, there is still potential for state legislators from somewhere in Los Angeles County monkeying around with the project list in the required state bill to try and get more funding for their area projects.

That, says Snoble, would torpedo the whole bill from the county- they have made their project list and they don't want it messed with. Of course, first their own board members have to approve it.

Because of the timing of the county and state meetings on the bill, July 24 and August 4, respectively, the county is in the awkward position of having to approve the measure without knowing what the state might do to it. And if they don't like what it does they have only a few days to reconvene and pull back the ordinance (the county deadline to get the thing on the ballot is August 8, with an emergency last day of August 13 to repeal any ordinance submitted to the county).

If the board missed that deadline the county would be in the even more awkward position of either trying to get the legal standing of the measure killed through their lawyers, or by actually campaigning against the measure they pushed for in first place.

More in tomorrow's paper.

UPDATE: MTA board member and county supervisor Mike Antonovich is not happy with the San Gabriel Valley's share in the new plan, even though it is improved. Antonovich's staff says he will be proposing amendments at the next meeting that will lock in percentages of sales tax funding to equal the number of people in each region. The current MTA plan allocates 16.4 percent of the sales tax to the San Gabriel Valley, which has 18.3 percent of the county's population. Antonovich has other objections as well. This thing still has a long way to go.

While working on today's tunnel story I finally got a chance to do a more extensive reading of the 2006 project study.

As one of the commenters on my last post mentioned, there is talk about a mid-shaft ventilation tower that would be up to 100 feet tall. Where might that go? No idea so far.

There is also discussion of a possible entrance/exit on Huntington Drive, which could cause traffic problems along the street.

Lastly, we referred to the project cost as $4.3 billion to $5.5 billion in yesterday's story for the first time. MTA has been pushing a lesser figure: $2.3 billion to $3.6 billion. That cost estimate does not include all construction costs- it is a planning figure that integrates some of the costs.

I will be meeting with Roger Snoble, the MTA chief today, along with some other media, so expect to see some more about the half-cent sales tax and some of the projects it might fund in the paper in the next few days.

According to a press release from Sen. Jack Scott's office, the mylar balloon ban bill has been altered into a compromise that ditches the outright ban, and instead takes the following 5 steps (the pithy comments in parentheses are mine):

1) Increase fines from $100 to $250. (I guess this means fines on releasing mylar balloons into the air, though I have no idea how you enforce that)

2) Prohibits the use of toys or candy as weights. (?)

3) Balloon safety flyer to be posted at business or handed out with purchase. (yeah that won't get thrown right in the garbage.)

4) Increase in size of typeface used on balloon warning label. (didn't work with cigarettes)

5) Study by University of California to be privately funded and reported to Legislature and Governor. (it would be pretty depressing if the pinnacle of your academic career is to be on this study)

Our intrepid reporter Janette Williams will be filing the full story on the bill tomorrow. Then, let us never speak of it again.

The Sacramento Bee (registration required) has what is becoming an annual story: the state government is looking to take money from transportation funds, and to use local government revenues to fund school districts that should be funded by the state:

Lawmakers are seriously considering grabbing money from local government and transportation funds to balance this year's $15.2 billion budget deficit, say advocates for those programs.

I've been hearing local officials say for months, both at meetings, and in some private interviews that they were afraid of losing revenue to the state this way.

Meanwhile, over at the Los Angeles Times, they are reporting that a think tank gave California a D+ for its ability to govern itself. The issues, say the report, are the fact that it takes a 2/3 vote to pass the budget, the state's over-reliance on income tax as a source of revenue, and the voter initiative system, which locks in funds for specific purposes, taking flexible spending solutions away from lawmakers.

A Pasadena realtor/blogger issued a report on his blog that shows that Pasadena median home price values dropped 7.9 percent in June.

As we reported last week, in the last year Pasadena has still managed to greatly increase its property tax. So is this the first sign of serious weakness in Pasadena real estate?

The data from the realtor's blog (which he gathered from a real estate data site that requires a realtor's license/subscription fee to access) indicates that the median home price dropped from $790,000 last June to $700,000 this June, but that the median home price was still at $760,000 in May. Though I haven't consulted any other real estate sources on his numbers, I would think that it would be more in this guy's interest to present the appearance of a strong market rather than a weak one.

The realtor, Doug Willis, also points out that real estate markets usually heat up in summer, so having that much of a one-month drop sounds pretty serious.

As far how it fits in with the County Assessor's report that shows the property tax for the last year up- this last month would not have figured into that report. Also, the assessor's office includes commercial real estate in their figures. If this last month is the beginning of a new trend, next year's report may not be so kind to Pasadena.

Still, considering how few of us can afford to buy a $700,000 house, I'm not inclined to root hard for the price to go back up.

UPDATE: One reader comments on the confusion caused by our reports that Pasadena has increased tax revenue in the middle of a foreclosure crisis. It is confusing, so I thought I would post the comment, and my response to it up here in the main entry.

Truly Confused Reader said:
Very surprised to read this when only a few days ago your newspaper had a story on housing prices in San Gabriel Valley actually increasing in value.... No wonder people don't believe in newspapers. Responsible reporting please! The housing market is plummeting, banks are failing and the Star News says housing values are up! Come on! Yours truly,

Dan said:
Truly Confused: I believe the main difference, as I mentioned in the blog, is that the commercial real estate still is doing very well. The other reason that the assessed property values managed to go up is the way the county assesses them- if you don't sell or improve your house for many years, they don't reassess. So if you suddenly sell your house for $450,000, even if it would have gone for $600,000 two years ago, the county might have it assessed at $250,000 if that is the price you paid for it 15 years ago. Essentially, because of Prop 13 (which limits the percentage the county can increase property taxes annually) they leave a lot of property tax on the table when property values skyrocket, but it stops them from losing money when the values come back down. Hope that leaves you less confused.

There was some brief discussion on IndyMac on Monday, with Councilman Steve Madison suggesting that the city agendize discussion about the bank's failure at a future meeting, to see if the city has any role to play in its recovery, or perhaps in finding a new tenant if the bank is to pull out of the city.

I called Barney Melekian, the interim city manager, yesterday and asked him about his concerns with the bank. His response: the city will be fine no matter what happens. In fact, he said that if the bank were to actually leave the city, there is so much demand for Pasadena office space that it would be easy for the Planning Department to find a tenant (while also pointing out, of course, that since the property is not owned by the city, it would not have to do so).

Steve Madison, who apparently led the grand opening ceremonies for the bank, was a little less upbeat about the bank's failure. His concern is that the city does not have any power over whether another bank takes over IndyMac, and whether they would want to keep their offices in Pasadena or not.

However, he said the main thing the city could do at this point is to go into public relations mode to try to keep people from associating the bank's takeover with Pasadena. His concern are the many national bank failure stories with Pasadena datelines.

Otherwise, the only other role the city has right now is to provide police officers for the long lines outside IndyMac branches. It charged the FDIC for their presence on Monday and Tuesday, according to Melekian.

Metro just put together a draft copy of projects that a county sales tax increase would fund, and the 710 tunnel is on the list. That project would entail building a six-mile toll tunnel between the end of the 710 and the 210 Freeway. No route has been established for the tunnel, and a study on the subject will not be completed for at least a year.

Previously, Metro had released a list of rail projects and highway corridors that would receive funding, but had not issued the list.

The controversial tunnel project could slow things down for the ballot measure, which is already behind schedule.

The proposal needs to be in final form by August 8 to make it on to the county ballot. According to a source in the office of a San Gabriel Valley legislator, the Senate Appropriations Committee, which needs to approve the plan, will meet on August 4.

Steve Hymon, over at the L.A Times, points out that will lead to trouble for Metro, which is meeting in late July, and had hoped to already have legislature approval of the plan.

That could mean that either Metro schedules a last minute meeting between August 4 and August 8, or that it approves a measure which might not end up being legally valid.

The factions on the tunnel project break down by geography: Alhambra, Monterey Park, and other cities near the 10 Freeway have long pushed to have the road finished up to the 210 Freeway to alleviate their traffic concerns. South Pasadena opposed the freeway version of the project to avoid having it run through their town, and La Canada Flintridge has opposed it because of traffic concerns.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, who used to be a La Canada council member, has been the most vocal opponent to the project, splitting a usually-united San Gabriel Valley group of politicians. Mike Eng, D- Monterey Park, has been the most vocal in supporting the project.

Portantino was originally very involved in pushing the half-cent sales tax increase, but had already started to be less supportive after language was added to the bill that would restrict how funding from the sales tax could be used on the Gold Line extension. I suspect that the inclusion of the tunnel project will lead him to gather whatever support he can to defeat it.

The list also includes $590 million for fixing the dangerous I-10/ I-605 freeway interchange.

UPDATE: Less of an update, more of one last thought. The tunnel project is supposed to be a tollway done in conjunction with a private company. Does the fact that MTA has a specific $ number on how much it needs to contribute to the project suggest it already has a private company in mind?

I'll see what MTA has to say about it... we should have an article in Thursday's paper.

A lost hiker in the San Bernardino Forest claims to have seen Moe the Chimp.

I hiked the same trail that she did on Sunday (she got lost Thursday and was found Saturday). Somehow I missed spotting Moe.

The picture on the left is one of the forest areas I walked through on the way to the Mt. San Gorgonio summit (I spared you the picture of my ridiculous posing on the mountain top). Looks lush enough for a chimp.

Bicycling was much in discussion at the City Council meeting last night. That was mainly due to the council remembering Dennis Crowley, a city biking advocate who died over the weekend.

Vice-Mayor Steve Haderlein suggested that to honor Crowley, the city council and city staff should ride their bikes to next week's meeting. I can't say that the idea received a lot of visibly enthusiastic support. We'll see what happens.

Additionally, a bike advocate who was ticketed for biking in the left lane on Walnut Avenue lobbied the city to instruct the Police Department on the traffic rules for cyclists (he claims he was in the right, and is appealing the ticket after losing the case in local court).

Finally, after the meeting I met the city's assistant Public Information Officer Linda Centell face-to-face for the first time. Centell, who I have to say is just an incredibly friendly person, apparently reads my blog, or has read it at least once, and commiserated with me about my stolen bike.

And then she went a step further and asked me if I wanted to borrow one of her husband's bikes, at least until I buy a new bike of my own (perusing craigslist has become a daily habit for me).

On the way home I started to wonder if it would be a breach of journalistic ethics to borrow the bike. Usually we have a written or unwritten code (depending where you work) on not accepting gifts from anyone related to work. But in my time at journalism school, both learning and teaching, I can't say anyone has ever mentioned the ethics of borrowing something.

I think it may be a moot point, however, because I am focusing my energy on nailing down a bike purchase, and I have a feeling by next Monday's meeting I may be able to join Steve Haderlein on a ride to the meeting (although not in the left lane on Walnut Avenue).

Tonight's council meeting features two items that I am psyched about: fixing a collapsed bridge on the Arroyo Seco hiking trail behind JPL, and fixing the Mount Wilson Toll Road above Eaton Canyon.

The Toll Road is used mainly to access Henninger Flats, a leafy campground (now closed) about 2.5 steep miles of hiking above Pasadena. The picture below is taken from there looking up to Mt. Wilson.

The trail, although technically closed, is used frequently by hikers. There are some sketchy sections where rain has washed away most of the trail, including one spot that requires scrambling up a steep and narrow path that winds over a hillside that is completely washed out.

The below picture is from the bottom of the trail along Altadena Drive. The circled portion is Henninger Flats.

I thought I had a picture of the Arroyo Seco Creek bridge, which partially collapsed in 2005, but I don't. Basically, its collapse led to the closure of national forest hiking area behind the bridge.

In reality, people either cross the river, or they jump the fence and dart across what is left of the bridge. It used to be that you could stand by the bridge for about 5 minutes and chances are you would see someone on it. Recently, however, the city built a higher fence around it.

Not a lot else of interest in the council meeting (or so it would appear). PWP is contracting to get solar panels installed on the roofs of some of its buildings. The city is renewing the contract of its representative to the federal government (they have deemed the firm has done well at bringing home the bacon).

The one other item that might be of interest is a condo project (3 South Grand Avenue) that is seeking permission to cross the public right of way with some private work on their property. I am interested to see the plans for this at the meeting, as well as whether there is any public protest about the project.

Pasadena Weekly's Andre Coleman took a crack last week at figuring out the next Pasadena city manager, and came up with a few names from some of his sources, including Richard Bruckner, the city's Director of Planning and Development.

Sounds like he thinks he is barking up the right tree with Bruckner:

Interestingly, four City Hall staffers did call us to ask us why we wanted to speak with Bruckner soon after the paper called his office. One person even called just to let us know that the list of candidates is confidential, but no word directly from Bruckner.

The city met again on Friday for a closed-session meeting on the candidates.

Long-time reporter Janette Williams pointed out to me today that the city did not choose to elevate Bruckner to interim city manager when Cynthia Kurtz left.... though he was expected by some to be a candidate.

Which, of course, might mean absolutely nothing.

Always an exciting day in town when the Feds take over a local bank and hundreds of people line up for iPhones.

I made it the IndyMac shutdown- didn't draw the crowds that iPhone did, but there was a little more drama to it- locked bank doors, security guards yelling at photographers and reporters to move away from the bank, a woman pounding on the bank doors and pleading to get her money withdrawn.

It didn't come near the scene at Northern Rock, the British bank that collapsed, but that is probably a good thing.

Metro estimates that there were an average of 26,338 boardings of the Gold Line per weekday in June, up 31.8 percent from last year.

In May, there were 23,141, giving the rail line a 13.1 percent month-to-month bump.

[Insert relevant quotes from transit officials, context about high gas prices, and "man-on-the-street" anecdotes from Gold Line riders and you'd have a news article.]

Yesterday, I wrote about a traffic synchronization grant that the city is pursuing, and hoped it would cover the hated stretches of road between me and the 210 Freeway: Sierra Madre Blvd., and San Gabriel Blvd.

Lucky me! Apparently it is on the project list, which I am listing below (it is not online):

- Fair Oaks Avenue- California Boulevard to North City limit
- Hill Avenue- From California Boulevard to Orange Grove Boulevard
- Del Mar Boulevard- Pasadena Avenue to Lake Avenue
-California Boulevard- Colorado Boulevard to the SR-210
- Orange Grove Boulevard- Colorado Boulevard to the SR-210
- Los Robles Avenue- California Boulevard to North City Limits
- Sierra Madre Boulevard- Del Mar Boulevard to the East City Limits
- San Gabriel Boulevard- California Boulevard to Orange Grove Boulevard

Some of the commenters on Thursday's post blasted Pasadena as having some of the worst synchronized traffic lights in the Southland. I told this to Bahman Janka, a Pasadena traffic engineer I spoke to yesterday and he chuckled a bit and admitted that there are some areas where the city really needs to improve.

The grant is going to be looked at by the city's planning commission in a few weeks. The bulk of the money ($789,000) would come from Proposition 1B funds and would go for cameras, some of which would be "smart cameras" that would know when to switch the red lights for maximum efficiency. The city would have to kick in some money- currently the staff report says $198,000, but Janka said that amount will likely end up being less.

The Racked L.A. blog (the photo is courtesy of their site) is tracking where buyers for the next generation of iPhone are lining up. According to the blog, the longest lines at the Apple Store in Pasadena, at the Grove, and at the Beverley Center. The phones go on sale today, and by now they may be sold out and most stores.

I never did quite understand the line-up phenomenon, but some people seem to enjoy it. The Racked L.A. blog also mentions that one blog correspondent was looking for an iPhone line and instead found one for the midnight showing of The Dark Knight movie (which apparently is selling out tickets all over the country).

A week or so ago I was complaining to my girlfriend that every time I get off the 210 Freeway and head down either San Gabriel Blvd., Altadena Blvd., or Sierra Madre Blvd. (all three lead towards home) I hit every single red light between there and home.

As she typically does when I complain about something utterly uninteresting and beyond my control to fix, she suggested I write an article about it. Or blog. Or complain to Pasadena officials next time I am on the phone with them.

Lo and behold this week I notice there is a city Transportation Committee meeting Friday where they will be talking about a traffic light synchronization grant that would be funded with Proposition 1B money.

I can't seem to find any agenda information on the city's website, but I did leave messages to try to figure it out. I also found some information on a Caltrans meeting agenda, which seems to be referring to the grant. It says it would be on Hill Avenue, Fair Oaks, and Del Mar.

Not the exact streets I was hoping for, but I have noticed a lot of stretches on Pasadena roads are painful for red lights (I really hate the section on Colorado Blvd. that goes through Pasadena City College).

Anyway, I will look into this and see if it merits more attention. In the mean time, any commenters want to weigh in and where the worst red light sections of town are?

-After reading today's story, MTA spokesman Rick Jager called to clarify what he meant when he talked about the MTA studying the idea of putting toll lanes on every freeway in the county. It is true, he said, that the MTA is looking at every freeway as a possible place to expand the program, but the agency does not envision expanding the program to EVERY freeway.

-Another key line in the story came from Congressman Gary Miller:

"The bill is going to happen," said Miller. "There is no way that they can get this project done."

-When I asked Jager about this federal bill that is supposedly a lock to happen, his attitude was basically that the agency can only take one step at a time. Right now, the agency needs to worry more about getting state legislation under way.

-I've heard rumblings that the agency is going to get Fabian Nunez to sponsor the legislation.... I floated the rumor past several legislators, MTA officials, etc. Some said they had heard nothing about it. Some said they had heard the same rumor. Wouldn't be shocking since Nunez and Villaraigosa are buddies, and Villaraigosa really wants this project done.

Finally, there is one key quote at the end of the story:

"The other option would be to change the occupancy rule from two people per car to three," said Fasana. "There is too much congestion for it to continue the way it is."

So, San Gabriel Valley, if the choice is between having three-person carpool lanes or having a toll lane, which is worse? I imagine the answer depends on whether three-person carpools will be able to use the toll lanes for free. And the answer to that depends on whether you talk to MTA or the federal government.

The annual county assessor's report, which came out recently, labeled Pasadena and San Gabriel as two of the top five cities in the county in terms of increasing their property taxes over the last year. Here is the assessor's explanation for their success:

PASADENA

Pasadena has seen an increase in property values due to its efforts in promoting the integrity of its historical neighborhoods and the expansion of multi-family housing projects near major corridors and transit hubs. Major investment in the renovation of Pasadena's Central District and the development of mixed-use projects such as the DeLacey at Green, TRIO, Del Mar Station, Westgate Pasadena, and Archstone Pasadena apartments increased the value of the city's properties, which were further enhanced by important educational, business, and recreational centers.

SAN GABRIEL

San Gabriel's growth in assessed value over the last year was driven by the demand for homes in a community close to major business centers in downtown Los Angeles and important residential communities such as San Marino. The city has implemented zoning laws to allow a greater population density in major corridors and has also invested in the redevelopment of its Mission District. Much of the city's value increase comes from changes in ownership and new construction.

I'll be writing a more detailed story on how the San Gabriel Valley did compared to the county as a whole for Thursday's paper.

With a chimp on the loose and a stunt man trying to break world records in the Rose Bowl, it looks more like we are a paper covering a circus this week.

But in reality, we are far from the only paper interested in these stories (which have not lacked in interested readers, either). The Associated Press covered the stunt man story, which have been picked up as far away as Minnesota. As for Moe the Chimp, he received an extensive write-up in the Washington Post over the weekend.

The L.A Times' Bottleneck Blog is reporting that a plan to turn HOV lanes into toll lanes may be moved from the 210 Freeway to the 110. The 110 was originally on the list to receive toll lanes in the second phase of the project.

The move, if true, appears to have been touched off by widespread opposition from the San Gabriel Valley politicans:

[Walter Hughes, chief of staff to Assemblyman Ed Hernandez] said that he thought the move was motivated by two concerns -- the 10 and 210 plan didn't have the support of the State Legislature and the mayor was trying to win support for a half-cent sales tax for mass transit funding he wants to place on the November ballot.

UPDATE: I am not so sure I agree with Bottleneck Blog author Steve Hymon on the certainty that this shift from the 210 to the 110 will work. Hymon writes:

Bottom line: if congestion pricing happens in Los Angeles County, it will be on the 10 freeway from downtown to El Monte and the 110 freeway from just south of downtown to the Artesia transit center at 182nd Street.

However, it looks to me after reading MTA's contract with the federal government, that in order to get the $213 million being dangled by the feds, the MTA must convert the 210 Freeway HOV lanes to toll lanes.

I am writing a story for tomorrow's paper so I will be hopefully getting some answers both from the feds and MTA, who have so far not always appeared to be on the same page.

Jim Mouth, the stuntman/publicity hound who is busy this week sitting in chairs in the Rose Bowl (more on this in tomorrow's paper/online), is primarily known for previous records involving jamming things in his mouth (I haven't confirmed this, but I imagine the last name is not a coincidence).

That's him on the left, attaining a world record by smoking 159 cigarettes. Check out his site to see him stick cigars, pizza, french fries, and other things in his mouth to set world records. Also, most people in bed, and first underwater band.

I'm kicking off what may be a slow and sleepy PAS news week (appears half of the city employees are not at work today) with a totally non-PAS related post on an ad on BBC, Great Britain's public TV channel. I heard about this ad on NPR's "Marketplace" program this morning. I would describe it as overtly threatening in a creepy authoritarian way.

Basically, to give you the background, in Great Britain, if you want to watch TV, you have to pay a license fee to BBC. Apparently, they don't like it when people don't pay.... to the extent that they are threatening to track you down and.... well, it isn't clear, but it doesn't sound good. Check it out.

Note the menacing helicopter noise at the beginning of the ad, and the menacing knock on the door at the end. "It's all in the database."

Oh and if you do want some PAS-related news, we are working on stories on a gas leak (may or may not be a big deal) and the closure of Pasadena Ford (I'm on this one).

This before and after should give a pretty good idea of what the project is accomplishing. It's a good project

BEFORE

AFTER

The pictures don't line up exactly, but the island that is pictured in the first picture would have been up the river a bit in the second one, appearing on the left side of the river where it shows clear water with a light brown bottom.

The dam that appears in the second photo, called a weir, will be used to push water up into a side creek where fish will (hopefully) be able to thrive.

The Cal Poly Pomona students are also part of an effort to push the Golden Necklace project, which would link the Arroyo Seco with some existing (and proposed) trails that would run all over Southern California. The existing link would be to the bike trail that runs down the San Gabriel and Rio Hondo rivers down to Long Beach. That would be awesome.

I have been part way down that trail but turned back and hit up a bus because of bike troubles. Someday, when I get a new bike, I will get back down there and blog the thing. It is WAY underused, and would be quite amazing if it were linked all the way into Pasadena.

The FC Blog has the scoop, courtesy of Claremont Insider: Foothill Transit members apparently are in Paris, and will be visiting other parts of France, with taxpayer funds.

Claremont Insider put it best:

This is the same agency that recently had to increase bus fares for the low-income or environmentally-conscious folks who use the bus system. At first we found this unbelievable, and frankly dismissed it as a crank complaint.

They are there to study public/private partnerships (read: finding companies who want to invest in public transportation). The trip runs from July 1 to July 9, and includes SGV council members Peggy Delach and Doug Tessitor.

Elected officials on trips is an old story, of course. Examples-

-State politicians, using campaign funds, at golf resorts, on Maui, to France and Spain

-Water officials running amok

- Irwindale council members living it up in New York

Looks like officials are taking the threat of fun, enjoyable, spark-causing fireworks (which admittedly are not a good thing when in the hands of morons) very seriously. Many mountain roads in the area will close early, or will be closed off entirely. I've assembled a handy map below to do my part to prevent people from getting locked behind gates that are normally open until dusk or later.

Also, over at Altadenablog (which now owes me a link on its blogroll) there is some detailed recounting of angry Altadena residents hectoring the county to close off Millard Canyon to prevent people from starting fires up there.

View Larger Map

Tomorrow we're running a story I wrote (and am putting the finishing touches on) on the state budget. Basically, the gist of it is that state workers, social service groups, school districts etc. are totally prepared for a late budget because it happens so often. The striking thing that most everyone told me was that their main concern was that the budget get passed by September.

The big question is whether there will be any kind of tax increase passed with that budget. With Republicans able to effectively block any increase, the smart answer is no. However, in a conversation with Assemblyman Anthony Portantino last week, he told me that when he has approached Republicans about a potential tax increase, they have given it some thought.

Most Republicans, Portantino says, tell him that if taxes have to be raised, it should be an income tax increase that passes the tax burden equally to all Californians, and that the tax increase should come with an expiration date so that it does not become entrenched.

Makes sense to me. I've always kind of liked the idea of sales tax because I live pretty frugally and I feel I can dodge the tax man a bit that way, but if you have to raise taxes, that really seems like the most equitable way to do it.

Realistically though, I have a hard time believing it will actually happen.

Reporter Caroline An gives us the official news: Pasadena Unified will put a $350 million bond measure on the November ballot. The plan is to use it for facility and technology upgrades.

Queen Caroline also did a more detailed story a few weeks ago that addresses concerns over the last bond measure that sent money to Pasadena schools:

In 1997, district voters approved Measure Y, a $240 bond measure that was suppose to pay for renovations and upgrades at the PUSD's 28 schools. While some campuses received upgrades, many others, including Blair IB Magnet and San Rafael elementary, received no improvements.

That all notwithstanding, I imagine this vote will break the way most bond measures do: conservatives, the anti-tax crowd, and school critics will oppose it on principle, while most others will grumble about wasted money, then vote for it, knowing that the schools probably do need at least some of the improvements detailed by the district.

UPDATE: Self-anointed local treasure Aaron Proctor is complaining about our lack of coverage of the bond measure. Too bad the link on his site to our home page leads to a web update about the measure and this blog entry. Also read above Caroline's story of June 11. Here is her original story in April (reproduced at Pasadena Political Underbelly).

Sorry, Aaron... you're way off on this one. I do appreciate that you visit my blog frequently though.

I use Google Alerts to send me links on news/blog updates about Pasadena. I figured if I specified Pasadena, CA I might eliminate some blogs which don't clearly specifiy a state.

So that is why I get plenty of short news blurbs from Pasadena, TX. Pretty much all the news coming out of there for the last week has been a freaky home invasion murder that left two members of a family killed and one in critical condition. The picture on the left is a sketch of the subject.

What does this have to do with Pasadena, CA? Maybe nothing. But I do find it a little eerie to see news about Pasadena murders pop up in my email. And there is a connection between the two cities: Pasadena, TX is in fact named after Pasadena, CA. The Pasadena, TX city founder had visited our city and decided that the new Texas settlement looked an awful lot like it (I'm sure I don't need to tell you, loyal Pasadenans, where our fair city derives its name from.)

Also, with a local teenager shot next door in Altadena this week, we're obviously facing similar problems to our Texas namesake.

Today is Day 5 of the Under the Dome crusade over at Altadenablog, a sharp blog that covers the unincorporated county area that we all know as Altadena.

Why the crusade? Your humble blog host has not yet added them to his blogroll, nor replied to emails requesting the inclusion of the blog.

The reason: it has something to do with the 7 stories I wrote in 5 days last week. That, and, I have to say this with real regret: since the departure of our online editor, Esther Chou, it has been hard to get additions/changes made to the blog (and yes, I am capable of adding a blog to the blogroll, but lack the online permissions to do so). Also, btw, I only found out about the crusade today- and did in fact leave a comment under the Crusade Day 4 post.

So rest easy, Altadena. You have my word that I am working on getting the blog link up. Just as someday I also hope to have my photo up on the blog. I hear we are getting a new online editor, so hopefully sooner rather than later.

UPDATE: Thanks to the work of new online editor Rod Leveque, who is in fact on the job today, Altadenablog is now linked. I await the end of the crusade.

Have a journalism degree? Want a writing job real bad? Maybe you should learn how to use a taser.

Then you might be qualified to work at Washington D.C.'s American University. Observe a recent job listing (emailed via Alison Hewitt, former Star News journalist and friend of the blog). The job is for someone to write marketing materials:

To apply: Provide a resume and the following writing sample to demonstrate your abilities. (This is the type of thing we'll ask you to write, so if this doesn't interest you at all, you shouldn't apply) Draft an email that we could send to a student that has taken several courses at our college, but who has withdrawn, encouraging that student to come back and continue her studies.

So far, so good. But here is the part where you might want to have prepared by taking a class in using Mace:

The twist: while you are writing copy you will also fill the role of security guard, working 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. We will buy your uniform. You won't carry a gun. Applicants must be able to pass a drug screen as well as a criminal background check. The security guard spends most of the shift seated at the reception desk, and there will be very minimal security duties. Practically the entire shift you will be able to focus on writing copy - you'll just happen to be wearing a uniform.

Sure, it is all about focusing on writing copy.... until, of course somebody refuses to provide university ID in a library or asks an obnoxious question to a former presidential candidate.