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Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 133,936. The California Finance Department estimates the Pasadena population to be 146,166 in 2005. Pasadena is the main population and cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. It is the 6th largest city in Los Angeles County and famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade. Geography Pasadena is located at (34.156098, -118.131808). The elevation is 864 feet (263 meters) above sea level. The greater Pasadena area is bounded by the Raymond Fault line, the San Rafael Hills, and the San Gabriel Mountains. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 60.0 km² (23.2 mi²). 59.8 km² (23.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.30%) is water. Pasadena is located 10 miles (16 kilometers) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city is bordered by ten communities—Glendale, South Pasadena, San Marino, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, La Cañada Flintridge, Eagle Rock, Garvanza and Altadena. The communities of Eagle Rock and Garvanza are incorporated within the city of Los Angeles and Altadena is an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County. Despite its location well within the Greater Los Angeles metropolis, Pasadena is a largely self-contained city with its own suburbs (Altadena, Arcadia, La Cañada Flintridge, San Gabriel, San Marino, Sierra Madre, and South Pasadena) and a broad economic base, noted cultural, scientific, and educational institutions, and shopping and dining establishments that attract customers from the regional area. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there were 133,936 people, 51,844 households, and 29,862 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,238.7/km² (5,798.7/mi²). There were 54,132 housing units at an average density of 904.8/km² (2,343.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 53.36% White, 14.42% African American, 0.71% Native American, 10.00% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 16.01% from other races, and 5.39% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 33.40% of the population. There were 51,844 households out of which 27.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.2% were married couples living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.4% were non-families. 33.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.30. In the city the population was spread out with 23.1% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 34.9% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 95.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.0 males. The median income for a household in the city was $46,012, and the median income for a family was $53,639. Males had a median income of $41,120 versus $36,435 for females. The per capita income for the city was $28,186. About 11.6% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.3% of those under age 18 and 10.5% of those age 65 or over. History The original inhabitants of Pasadena and surrounding areas was the Native American Hahamog-na tribe, a branch of the Tongva (part of the Shoshone language group). Pasadena is a part of the original Spanish land grant named Rancho del Rincon de San Pascual, so named because it was deeded on Easter Sunday to Eulalia Perez de Guillén Mariné of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. The Rancho comprised the lands of today's communities of Pasadena, Altadena and South Pasadena. Prior to the annexation of California in 1848, the last of the Spanish owners was Manuel Garfias who was allowed to retain title to the property after statehood in 1850. Garfias sold sections of the property to the first white settlers to come into the area, Dr. Benjamin Eaton, and Dr. S. Griffin. Much of the property was purchased by the honorable Benjamin Wilson who established his Lake Vineyard property near the vicinity. Wilson, known as Don Benito to the local Indians, was also owner of the Rancho Jurupa (Riverside, California) and went on to become the first Anglo mayor of Los Angeles. He is the grandfather of the famous WWII General George S. Patton and would have Mount Wilson, the metro-media transmission center of the greater Los Angeles area, named for him. In 1873 Wilson was visited by one Dr. Daniel M. Berry of Indiana who was looking for a place in the country that could offer better climate to his patient base, most of whom suffered from severe respiratory ailments. Berry was an asthmatic himself and claimed that he had his best three nights sleep at Rancho San Pascual. To keep the find a secret, Berry code-named the area "Muscat" after the grape that Wilson so popularly grew on the property. In order to raise funds to bring the company of people to San Pascual, Berry formed the Southern California Orange and Citrus Growers Association for which he sold stock. The newcomers were able to purchase a large portion of the property along the Arroyo Seco and on January 31, 1874 they incorporated the Indiana Colony. As a gesture of good will, Wilson threw in the 2,000 acres (8 km²) of thought-to-be-useless highland property part of which would become Altadena. Naming Pasadena The mail came to the Indiana Colony via Los Angeles so ear-marked. In an attempt to obtain their own Post Office, the Colony needed to change the name to something the Postmaster General would consider more fitting. The town fathers put three names up to a vote. The first was Indianola. The second was Granada, in keeping with the area's Spanish heritage. The third was proposed by Dr. Thomas Elliott, who had contacted an Indian missionary friend in Michigan who had worked with the Minnesota Chippewa Indians. He submitted four names for translation: "Crown of the Valley," "Key of the Valley," "Valley of the Valley," and "Hill of the Valley." The names came back starting with "Weo-quan pa-sa-de-na," "Hat of the Valley." All the names ended in the "pa-sa-de-na (of the valley)" translation. The name was put to a vote, and due to its euphonious nature, it was accepted, thus: Pasadena. Pasadena was incorporated — the second incorporated municipality of Southern California next to Los Angeles — in March 1886. The popularity of the region drew numbers from across the country, and Pasadena eventually became a key stop along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, which led to an explosion in its growth. From the real estate boom of the 1880's until the Great Depression, as great tourist hotels were developed in the city, Pasadena became a winter resort for wealthy Easterners. The first of the great hotels to be established in Pasadena was the Raymond (1886), which sat atop Bacon Hill, renamed Raymond Hill after construction. The original Mansard Victorian 200-room facility burned down on Easter morning of 1895 and was not rebuilt until 1903. It was lost during the Great Depression and torn down to make way for residential development. The Maryland Hotel existed from the early 1900's and was also lost during the Depression in 1934. Two hotel structures have survived to the present day: the Green Hotel and the Vista Del Arroyo. Hotel Green The Hotel Green started construction on South Raymond Avenue at Kansas Street in 1887 by Mr. E.C. Webster who was unable to finish it. Colonel George Gill Green, a wealthy patent medicine distributor from New Jersey, finished the six-story edifice in 1888. In 1898 he finished construction on a second grand edifice on the other side of Raymond and connected the two buildings, the first now called an annex, with a bridge and a tunnel. The magnate patrons and their families would arrive by train at the station adjacent the annex. They would proceed to the second floor where they were trammed across the newer section and go directly to their suites. The luggage was ferried across through the tunnel. In 1902 the hotel was extended to the P.G. Wooster building at the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and Green Street. In 1924 the hotel became a private residence. The annex was razed to its first story and sold away as private property, today known as Stat's Floral Supply. In 1970 the two wings of the hotel were closed off to each other creating two separate buildings. The 1898 section remained the private residence now called the Castle Green. The 1902 portion was taken over by the government's HUD program for senior residents and mentally impaired, and is called the Green Hotel. In 1929 Kansas Street was widened and renamed Green Street. Vista del Arroyo The Vista Del Arroyo Hotel on Grand Avenue, which the Navy commandeered for use as a hospital during World War II, now houses the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. ---- Pasadena's role as a regional hub was cemented by numerous other events, among them the Tournament of Roses Parade, which began in 1889; the construction and opening of the Colorado Street Bridge, also known as "Suicide Bridge" from the period of the Great Depression; the Arroyo Parkway, now Pasadena Freeway, opened as the first freeway in the country in 1940; and the completion of the Los Angeles Metro Gold Line in 2003. Performing arts The Pasadena Symphony, founded in 1928, offers several concerts a year at the Pasadena Civic Center and the Pasadena Pops plays at nearby Descanso Gardens. The Civic Center also holds a few traveling Broadway shows each year. The Pasadena Playhouse puts on seven shows a season, with each show running 6 to 8 weeks. The Furious Theatre Company is one of several small theatre companies in Pasadena. They currently use the upstairs theater adjacent to the Pasadena Playhouse. Boston Court Performing Arts Complex, which opened in 2003, is located near Lake and Colorado. Its resident theatre company, the award-winning Theatre at Boston Court presents four productions a year. * Zebulon Projects presents numerous music concerts each year, ranging from classical to jazz. The Friends of the Levitt organization puts on a free summer concert series in Memorial Park; the 2005 summer season marked its third year. The California Philharmonic * performs two series in Pasadena: Cal Phil at the Ambassador Auditorium from November through April and Cal Phil Music Martinis & the Maestro in the Romanesque Room at the Green Hotel, January to May. They also perform Cal Phil Festival on the Green at nearby Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden in Arcadia from July to September, and from July to August they have Cal Phil at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Also, in conjunction with The Old Mill Foundation, they perform a summer chamber concert series Cal Phil at the Mill in San Marino. Visual arts A number of artists of national repute, such as Alson S. Clark, Marion Wachtel and Ernest A. Batchelder, made Pasadena their home in the early twentieth century. The formation of the Pasadena Arts Institute and the Pasadena Society of Artists heralded the city's emergence as a regional center for the visual arts. The Norton Simon Museum contains over 2000 years of art from the Western world and Asia. The Pacific Asia Museum, with its tranquil garden in the center, features art from the many countries of Asia. The nearby Pasadena Museum of California Art hosts many temporary exhibits from Californian artists. The Gamble House, a National Historic Landmark, is a masterpiece of the Arts and Crafts Movement open for tours. The Huntington Library and its botanical garden are adjacent to Pasadena in the city of San Marino. Literature In 2002 David Ebershoff published the long novel, Pasadena. The novel won praise for its accurate recreation of Pasadena before World War II. Radio Pasadena has been home to a number of notable radio stations. In 1967 radio iconoclasts Tom and Raechel Donahue took over an aging studio in the basement of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church and introduced Los Angeles to FM freeform radio. Broadcasting under the KPPC call sign at 106.7 FM it quickly became the voice of the counterculture and provided the soundtrack to LA’s hippie era. Early on-air personalities included Michael McKean, David Lander, Harry Shearer and Dr. Demento. The staff was fired en masse in 1971 and the station lost its distinctive personality. By 1976 KPPC had changed owners, station managers and its format and would reemerge on the radio dial as KROQ 106.7. Broadcasting from cramped studios on Los Robles Ave in central Pasadena it wasn’t long before KROQ would become one of the most influential radio stations in the United States. Soon after being purchased by Infinity Broadcasting in 1986 KROQ was moved part and parcel to new studios in nearby Burbank and eventually ending up in Los Angeles proper. Today the primary radio station in Pasadena goes by the call sign KPCC located at 89.3 FM. Broadcasting from the Pasadena City College campus this public radio station carries many of the best shows from National Public Radio but maintains a fierce independent streak committing a large chunk of air time to presenting local and state news. Accordingly the station has received numerous awards for journalistic excellence and continues to be an important part of the city’s heritage. Education The world-famous California Institute of Technology is located in the southern-central area of Pasadena, with Pasadena City College located just to the northeast. Fuller Theological Seminary, one of the largest multidenominational seminaries in the world, is located just east of downtown Pasadena. Pacific Oaks College is located right next to Pasadena's National Historic Landmark - The Gamble House. The famous Art Center College of Design is in the San Rafael Hills overlooking the Rose Bowl, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (managed for NASA by Caltech) is located primarily in nearby La Canada Flintridge, though its main gate and many of its buildings are located in Pasadena. The Pasadena Unified School District is in charge of the city's five high schools, three middle schools, and 24 elementary schools.* The school district has been plagued by declining enrollment in recent years, resulting in decreased funding. More and more students have been enrolling at prestigious and accredited colleges over the years, including Caltech, Occidental, USC, The Claremont Colleges, the UC, and Cal State systems of universities, as well as many out-of-state private and public institutions. 22% of Pasadena's school-age children attend private schools. Several private college preparatory schools are located in Pasadena, including: Shopping Old Town Pasadena is a popular shopping and dining area for locals and tourists. Paseo Colorado is a more upscale mall designed to be a modern urban village, with apartments above the mall. An exclusive shopping district is located in the South Lake Avenue neighborhood. The famous Rose Bowl Flea Market is a great place to shop for antiques and collectibles. A swap meet of epic proportions that involves thousands of dealers and tens of thousands of visitors in and around the grounds of the Rose Bowl. The merchandise on display ranges from old world antiques to California pottery to mounds of vintage clothing. Held every 2nd Sunday, rain or shine, since 1967. Half the crowd are locals but shoppers come from all over the city and it’s not unusual to see a celebrity or two. Sports The Rose Bowl, a National Historic Landmark, is host of the oldest and most famous college football postseason bowl game every New Year's Day. It is the home field for the University of California, Los Angeles football team and has hosted five Super Bowls. Important soccer matches include the 1984 Summer Olympics, the men's final in the FIFA World Cup 1994, and the final in FIFA Women's World Cup 1999. For some time, Los Angeles has been seeking another National Football League team to replace the Raiders, which played in Los Angeles from 1982-1994. There is currently a petition underway to have this team play in the Rose Bowl and call Pasadena its home. However, there are also several other cities and stadiums vying for this enviable opportunity. Tournament of Roses Parade
South Orange Grove Boulevard One of several exclusive residential districts in Pasadena, South Orange Grove Boulevard has been a home for the rich and famous since the early 20th century. Because of the number of landmark mansions, the street earned the name "Millionaire's Row." An appropriate sobriquet considering that the estates that once lined this spacious boulevard, and the surrounding neighborhood, read like a Who’s Who of American consumer products. Some of the more notable families include: Not all of the vast homes along Orange Grove belonged to the eastern titans of industry. As was typical of the early 20th century many of the wealthy were doctors, politicians and retired military officers, with the odd Right Reverend sprinkled in. Some of the other notable personalities who lived in this area include notorious occultist Aleister Crowley and brilliant, but troubled, rocket scientist John Whiteside Parsons. In fact Parsons died in an explosion while working in his home laboratory just off of Orange Grove Blvd in 1952. With its singular concentration of wealth and power, both social and political, it’s no wonder that when the first modern expressway in America was built, it went straight from downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena. Today most of the old estates are gone, replaced by 60’s era apartments and condominiums. Though far less regal than the vast homes they replaced these apartment units maintain verdant and metticuously trimmed grounds that still exude a sense of wealth and command high property values. Other noteworthy sites along the Boulevard include: Parrots Pasadena has a population of wild parrots. The city's website identifies them as yellowhead amazon parrots, but according to the * Parrot Project of Los Angeles, the parrots fall into as many as five different groups. There is a cycle of regular public outcry about the noise and the sheer oddity of the birds' presence, but most Pasadenans seem to have come to accept the birds as part of the city's life. They can be seen year-round, but are especially noticeable in the winter. The birds are definitely gregarious, and the amount of disturbance their chatter creates is definitely related to the time of day they may choose to chatter. Theories and myths abound on how these parrots came to claim Pasadena and surrounding towns as their home. A heavily accepted story by longtime residents of the area is that they were part of the stock at Simpson's Nursery on East Colorado Blvd. in the Lamanda Park area. The nursery was burned down in 1969, and the parrots were thereby released to forage in the lush Pasadena area. It is also possible that some parrots moved northward from their normal range in central and northern Mexico as human habitation in the Pasadena area created artificial habitat in which the parrots could survive. Among their favorite foods are the berry kernels of the cedar trees that grow in great abundance around Pasadena. Parking Pasadena is notorious for parking ticket citations and has a very strict parking code. It does not allow overnight parking between 2am-6am on city streets, unless you pay for an overnight permit, or you must check in your vehicle each night with the local Police department for an exemption. The city only allows for 20 exemptions per vehicle, per year. Pasadena severely restricts parking in Transit Oriented Districts (TODs), such as the Pasadena Playhouse District. Pasadena's Zoning Code 17.50.340 stipulates that new developments in TODs will be built with a maximum of 1.25 parking spaces for units 650 square feet or less and 1.75 spaces for units over 650 square feet. On-street parking permits for second cars "for overnight parking shall not be allowed" (section d). Permits for city lots cost $60 per month. City Hall construction The City Hall building is currently under renovation to be seismically retrofitted. It was closed in July 2004 due to safety concerns and construction began in March 2005. The retrofit is expected to be completed in Summer 2007.* Pasadena Civic Auditorium Located on spacious tree-lined Green Street this building was designed to be the southern anchor of Pasadena’s grand civic plaza. The elegant Central Library lies three blocks due north with City Hall tower in between. The intended visual effect is somewhat lost today as the open air mall Paseo Colorado was built along the north side of Green St. obscuring one’s view of the auditorium’s sister buildings. The main auditorium is large and plush. In fact it was home to the Annual Emmy Awards ceremony for nearly twenty-five years, from 1977 to 2001.* Jessye Norman Day After a performance at Blair IB Magnet, the Mayor officially declared September 22nd, Jessye Norman day. Sister Cities Pasadena has five sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI): Notable Pasadenans See also: . | |||||||||
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