Hahamongna: The Friday column today
After insisting to me and thee that it was up to absolutely nothing nefarious -- no man behind the Hahamongna curtain -- it was interesting and a little bit gratifying to see the city of Pasadena this week admit it was wrong. Too much development would have been allowed if it hadn't been for citizen outrage over what should be the fairly pure open space of the Watershed Park.
"Oh -- those words in the plan about a new roadway and a parking garage in the Upper Arroyo Seco? Just words. We would never do that," the city in essence said.
Well, as the conservative movement activists used to say, words matter. So now that they've been pointed out, the city says the words -- a mistake, see -- will be removed from the plans. Pictures matter, too -- and a look at the city zoning map for the project still shows a Planned Development area within the Hahamongna Annex Plan that is not the nearby surface parking lot leased to JPL that is also zoned PD. And, now we've got rid of the language about a 50-foot access road across the northern park, we still need a 30-foot road for horses and bikes, taking down some 19 trees? What kind of gargantuan horses and bikes are those?
Is it any wonder Pasadenans I talk to are more distrustful of City Hall motives than at any time in the quarter-century I've been newspapering in the city? There's lots of talk about greenwash -- talking a good sustainability game, but it's mostly for show.
Look, there are plenty of good and even brilliant people on what Pasadena calls its Green Team. I saw Alice Sterling of Planning & Development speak recently, and she's right on, a potential star. Rosa Laveaga has been restoring the Arroyo Seco for decades. But I've heard that citizen members of the Environmental Advisory Commission say they're not being listened to. All kinds of resolutions have been endorsed and Green City Action Plans filed -- but where's the real creativity on a local basis? Where are the trash trucks backing up to McDonald's to fuel up on french-fried bio-diesel? The ARTS bus is nice and there are token nods to bike lanes -- but where's the real commitment to getting around without cars promised 20 years ago in the General Plan? Ever tried to ride a bike on Lake Avenue, or Colorado?
Ever tried to find a bus -- or, hey, free-market shade of Roy Begley, a jitney! -- off the major boulevards? It's a city that can't even close down the Arroyo Seco to cars more than one distant afternoon ago. Colorado in Old Pas should be closed to cars every weekend night and become a pedestrian party. Even Gotham is worried that it can't be what New York's Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan calls "a world-class city" without radically updating its transit infrastructure. NYC now will have streetscapes with narrower roadways that slow down cars and mix in walkers and bikes and trees with real shade. If the Big Apple can envision streets as public spaces for strolling and sitting, for sidewalk cafe-ing -- if it can, get this, close down eight blocks of Broadway in Midtown to cars -- can't Pasadena, too, make a break from the exurban blahs?
Comments
Good on Larry boy!
Stick up for the La Canada horse riding biddies. What about Pasadena people who could really use parks for kids to play in, not open space for La Canada horse riders to keep for themselves? Oh, they're not rich and white, so get no love from yakking Larry.
What happens if JPL can't find parking for all those workers who pay taxes and buy stuff in Pasadena?
Oooooo. A thirty foot road. No jobs?
Good trade off if La Canada biddies get to keep their horses riding in Pasadena. Oh, I'm payin' for them to do that, aren't I?
Poifect!
Mike
Posted by: Sharkey | May 21, 2009 11:04 PM
foolish questions, from a fool -- what a surprise! don't you just love them anonymous internets? fortunately, easy to answer: 1) no one is proposing or has proposed taking any parking away from jpl. the long-term lease of the pasadena-owned surface lot will go on as long as the lab has people to employ. 2) pasadena has parkland with variety -- irrigated, soccer-fielded, jungle-gymed and then the more natural open space of the arroyo and eaton canyon. i believe in both. who doesn't? when i was a kid i played behind devil's gate all the time. i've never ridden a horse there but i have nothing against people who do. what do anonymous poseurs propose: charging out-of-towners, like san marino does with lacy park? yeah, that's the ticket. larry wilson
Posted by: larry | May 22, 2009 10:00 AM
In Hahamongna, Pasadena has a potentially great urban wilderness park (with some passive recreation activities on the periphery) that I think will be even more valued in the future as our region gets more and more densely developed.
As to Mike's comments, do we never draw the line when it comes to open space? Is there nothing ever off-limits? All is fair game for concrete and blacktop?
It's so easy to make a cheap shot about the equestrians who have worked so hard to try to save Hahamongna. Mike might be surprised to learn that most of them live in Altadena and Pasadena and most of them would be mighty amused to hear themselves described as "rich."
Posted by: Miss Pitt | May 22, 2009 12:33 PM
Mike understands that people quoted in the story in the S-Nooze were equestrians from La Canada, not Pasadena.
If we had a better newspaper, maybe there's be more than one view in a story and somebody would mention how much of my money is making Hahamonga useful for La Canada, Altadena and Pasadena horse riders?
I like open space as much as the next person and even have an adventure pass so I can hike up in the San Gabriels sometimes. You know, those huge mountains just to the north of Pasadena. The million acres of open space. The ones all our tax dollars pay for.
How much does it cost to keep a horse in La Canada these days? I'm thinking rich was the right adjective there.
As for you, Larry. Maybe this fool will stop buying your birdcage liner and just read it online for free from now on.
Michael R. De Leeuw
East Pasadena taxpayer
Posted by: Sharkey | May 25, 2009 4:30 PM