Variety marks La Cañada Flintridge’s top 10 stories
As a tumultuous 2016 draws to a close, Valley Sun staff members took a moment to pause and reflect on all that’s happened to La Cañada Flintridge and its residents in the past 12 months.
Searching through our collection of back issues, it became apparent the year was punctuated by some momentous occasions — including the closure of locally founded Sport Chalet in April after 57 years of business and subsequent exploration by city officials as to whether its now-defunct corporate headquarters might make a suitable city hall.
Other headlines in 2016 involved longstanding issues and relationships that have continued to evolve since that fateful day 40 years ago in November when La Cañada Flintridge officially incorporated as a city.
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For example, the recent effort by residents living in the western “Sagebrush” area to be transferred out of Glendale Unified School District and into the jurisdiction of their hometown La Cañada Unified revived an issue first raised in 1979.
Negotiations between school district officials and union reps for the La Cañada Teachers Assn. revealed how in recent years, LCUSD had lost some of its competitive edge in terms of the salaries and benefits it offered educators.
City officials, fed up with historic power outages in and around La Cañada’s Flintridge circuit, delivered an ultimatum to provider Southern California Edison that evoked new commitments and the promise that thousands of feet of underground cable would be laid in coming months to improve reliability.
And all this happened as local residents continue to survive tough water mandates inspired by a years-long, statewide drought that failed to be alleviated by a less-than-spectacular El Niño weather pattern.
“I think we had a pretty good year of trying to move things forward,” said Mayor Jon Curtis, reflecting on the city’s efforts to increase transparency and customer service, while continuing to lend a civic voice to wider regional issues. “There’s a lot of work that’s been put into the city, on a local basis and on a regional basis — I think we’re in for a wonderful 2017.”
Here’s a look at some of the highlights in La Cañada in 2016, in order of prominence.
1. “End of the Game for Sport Chalet.” Jaws dropped on April 16, when the parent company of sporting good retailer Sport Chalet announced abruptly it would permanently shutter 47 stores in California, Arizona and Las Vegas.
People take advantage of up to 30% off all merchandise at Sport Chalet in La Cañada Flintridge on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.
That news was followed by another shock two days later when owner Vestis Retail Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, officially ending an era begun by La Cañada residents Norbert and Irene Olberz, who purchased a tiny ski shop on the north side of what is today the 900 block of Foothill Boulevard, where the Town Center is today.
City Manager Mark Alexander called the news of the closure “heartbreaking,” but assured residents La Cañada’s financial future would remain secure.
In an interview with the Valley Sun, Mike Brabham, a ski technician for 27 years, offered his own post mortem: “I personally think it was mismanagement and corporate greed — that was what killed Sport Chalet.”
2. City officials make a bid to purchase Sport Chalet headquarters for new city hall. Months before Sport Chalet owners announced the retail chain would be closing, La Cañada city officials were pondering the fate of the store’s headquarter building, built in 2002 on a property directly adjacent to the in-town store.
The 24,000-square-foot space seemed a prime spot for a new city hall, as the current Foothill Boulevard location — occupied since the late 1970s and purchased in the ‘90s — had become too cramped to meet the city’s municipal demands.
In an Oct. 11 special meeting, the City Council announced a tentative agreement had been reached for a $11.7-million deal with La Cañada Properties Inc. that would include a $250,000 deposit, a $5.65-million upfront payment and a $6.05-million interest-free promissory note the city would have two years to pay back, pending a 90-day due diligence review period.
3. La Cañada Unified talks with teachers union turn ‘adversarial.’ Regular contract negotiations between the La Cañada School District and reps with the La Cañada Teachers Assn. began in February and by March began inspiring public demonstrations on behalf of educators who declared the district’s salary schedule out of date and not competitive with what similar districts offered.
In April, LCTA President Mandy Redfern said in an email statement, “The school district unilaterally moved the bargaining process from Interest Based Bargaining (IBB) to adversarial, positions-based bargaining.” District officials disagreed with that statement, as some teachers acknowledged they were looking for work elsewhere.
Finally, in June, the two parties reached a tentative agreement including a 4.25% salary increase retroactive to the beginning of this school year and a new salary schedule that would amount to $1 million in ongoing expenditures.
4. Sagebrush residents file a county petition seeking a territory transfer. La Cañada residents living in the western part of town known as the “Sagebrush territory” revisited history in September when they submitted a petition with 724 signatures to the Los Angeles County Committee on School District Organization, seeking the transfer of their homes out of the jurisdiction of Glendale Unified School District and into La Cañada Unified.
“Our efforts for a territory transfer are about empowering children and families who live in Sagebrush to be on equal footing with the rest of the La Cañada Flintridge community,” Tom Smith, then-chair of citizens group Unite LCF, said in a statement.
Two public hearings held by the county pitted transfer advocates against GUSD reps, who claimed the loss of students could lead to layoffs and school closures. A legal transfer was first sought by a citizens group in 1979 and was heard at the county and state levels before being denied, yet residents today claim their case is stronger and await the decision of the county committee next month.
5. Edison outages spark outrage, cause officials to explore other options. After a series of September outages left thousands of residents without power, the La Cañada Flintridge City Council voted to hire a consultant to help evaluate service provided by Southern California Edison and explore the option of potentially seeking a different provider.
Feeling the heat, Ken Bodenhoefer, district manager of SCE’s Monrovia service center, shared expedited plans for improving reliability in key parts of town. In addition to laying more than 9,000 feet of new underground cable, he said, Edison would make numerous upgrades in the first quarter of 2017. Bodenhoefer estimated SCE spent “in the tens of millions of dollars” between 2010 and 2015 upgrading La Cañada’s infrastructure, which has a favorable reliability compared to other areas in its system.
“That doesn’t make the outages your community has experienced acceptable,” he qualified. “There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.”
6. La Cañada Flintridge celebrates a milestone anniversary. La Cañada’s early days, and its first civic leaders, were recently honored in a Nov. 17 celebration held jointly by the city and the chamber of commerce at the La Cañada Flintridge County Club to mark 40 years since the city’s incorporation.
The Nov. 2, 1976, vote for cityhood (7,355 in favor vs. 2,849 opposed) also asked residents to select council members and a mayor. George Parrish, one of the leaders of the charge for cityhood backed by the chamber, garnered the most votes and was sworn in as mayor.
Shortly after the new city of La Cañada Flintridge was organized and its first City Council seated, a report suggested the local chamber of commerce should act as a “spokesman” to the new council and be a vehicle by which the city’s business segment could become more influential.
At the November celebration, which also functioned as a chamber mixer, deep red roses adorned table centerpieces to signify the “ruby” anniversary.
7. La Cañada explores adopting a sister city. As La Cañada entered it’s 40th year of cityhood, local resident and former exchange student Vicki Schwartz shared in a Jan. 19 City Council meeting her hope to form the nonprofit La Cañada Flintridge Sister Cities Assn. for the purpose of culturally enriching local residents, businesses and students and for helping promote a positive image of the city before a global audience.
“If ever there was a city that is perfect for the Sister Cities International program, I think it’s La Cañada,” Schwartz said in a presentation seeking $2,500 to help with start-up costs.
Council members’ support was unanimous. Since then the group has sent student delegates to a national Sister Cities Assn. conference in Washington, D.C., and is planning to hold its inaugural annual meeting for Jan. 18.
“I think it’s going to be a fabulous opportunity, (and) not only for the youth in our town,” Councilwoman Terry Walker said of the effort. “I think it will be wonderful for everybody.”
8. JPL scrubs Open House, launches ticketing system. Citing severe traffic jams and long wait times just to enter the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s annual Open House, event organizers announced in April they would transition to a free online ticketing system that assigned visitors arrival windows.
Locals could obtain “A Ticket to Explore JPL” by registering online for the two-day event on a first-come, first-served basis starting April 25 at 9 a.m.
Officials told the Valley Sun the new system aimed to cap attendance at about 15,000 visitors per day and create a more streamlined experience.
On registration day, thousands of space fans rushed to the website, and 30,000 tickets sold out in 1 hour and 45 minutes.
9. La Cañada resident Deyun Shi flees the country after allegedly killing two teenage nephews. On Jan. 22, a home on the 5200 block of Vista Miguel Drive became the epicenter of an investigation into a domestic assault and the subsequent murder of two teenage boys in Arcadia.
Deyun Shi, uncle of the two teens allegedly attacked his wife with a wood-cutting tool but was stopped by his 15-year-old son, investigators reported.
While Shi’s sister-in-law visited his wife in the hospital, the La Cañada resident reportedly drove to Arcadia and bludgeoned his nephews, then took a flight to Hong Kong in an attempt to flee to mainland China, which does not have an extradition agreement with the United States. Authorities detained Shi in Hong Kong and returned him to the U.S.
10. El Niño fizzles out, but delivers enough for state to ease water restrictions. After two years of tightening taps following a statewide mandate issued in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown, local residents learned in June restrictions would be eased following a solid winter snowfall in Northern California.
Forecasters told Southland residents to brace themselves for increased rain during a predicted El Niño winter weather pattern, but the front failed to deliver much serious rainfall in Los Angeles County.
However, having successfully replenished stores and hoping to avoid conservation fatigue, water officials rolled back restrictions from “rationing” levels to “extraordinary” conservation.
“We’re not in an emergency now, but we’re not out of the woods,” said Nina Jazmadarian, general manager of Foothill Municipal Water District.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
