Altadena Says ‘No Thanks’ to Big-City Progress

All in all, most of Altadena’s 42,000 citizens would just as soon keep their town the way it is, according to longtime residents. Maybe there could be a few more places to shop, and nobody would mind getting rid of the few “slummy” buildings. “But overall, we’d like it to remain what it is,” said Marcus Lewis, a member of the Altadena Town Council.

Civic leaders are wondering nowadays, though, just how long the unincorporated town, which is administered by the county with the help of a 14-member Town Council, can stay insulated from the powerful forces that are transforming other communities in the San Gabriel Valley.

Such thoughts seem to come naturally around this time of year in Altadena. Spring is a time for taking stock. First, there’s the annual Old Fashioned Days, Altadena’s quirky celebration of itself, with what seems like half the population marching in the town’s big parade and the other half lining the streets of Lake Avenue to watch.

Then there’s an election for members of the Town Council, Altadena’s pointedly assertive “governing body,” which has no legal power to govern, only to advise the county.

During this year’s festival and the election, both of which took place last weekend, the assessments were sounding kind of jaundiced. The modern world may be gaining on this small town, many residents suggested.

Rural View in Jeopardy

It has gotten to the point where Altadena’s rural view of itself is “always in jeopardy,” said Marge Craven, president of the Altadena Chamber of Commerce.

Developers have been nosing around some of the town’s ridge-top properties. For example, for almost three years now, builders have been looking hungrily at a 198-acre former tuberculosis sanitarium in the town’s western heights. A year and a half ago, town leaders beat back an attempt by the Church of Scientology to turn the so-called La Vina property into a training center.

“It was the hottest issue I can remember,” said Lewis, an inspector for the Air Quality Management District. “People were accusing the Scientologists of being a cult, not a religion. The Scientologists were going to change Altadena, brainwash us all. It got hot and heavy.”

But now the Pasadena development firm of Cantwell-Anderson is talking about building more than 300 homes up there, and residents and local equestrians, whose trails run through and around the property, are up in arms again.

At the same time, there is a continuing fear that Altadena’s development-minded neighbor to the south, Pasadena, has a Pac-Man-like urge to annex their neighborhoods.

‘Several Bites’

“They’ve taken a several bites out of us already,” said Craven. Pasadena, which has about triple the population and area of its little neighbor, insists that it has no such intentions.

“If Pasadena gets hold of us, there’ll be condos up on all the hillsides,” warned Camille Dudley, vice president of the Altadena Equestrian Society.

And there is less and less county money for services. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department recently announced that it will merge its Altadena station with the Crescenta Valley station.

“Basic services in almost every area have suffered because of cut-backs,” said Craven. “There are only a couple of people to take care of street trees now. There used to be a lot more.”

Still, the life of the town moves resolutely along at its own measured pace.

A hillside town with rambling homes and backyard swimming pools, leafy horse trails and untouched canyons, Altadena often has the feel of a timeless American small town. During the Old Fashioned Days parade, in fact, the town was reminiscent of one of those folksy suburbs that movie-makers like Steven Spielberg are always trying to evoke, with youngsters on bikes and romping collies and Dads barbecuing hamburgers in the back yard.

What It’s Not

“Well, it’s sure not the Tournament of Roses,” one spectator said fondly, watching the bright, motley procession of hometown folks parading down Lake Avenue. There were smirking Cub Scouts, solemn grammar school stamp collectors and Little Leaguers with their caps pulled menacingly low on their foreheads. Vintage automobile buffs beamed as brightly as the polished cars they drove, local politicians grinned, and high school bands stirred the morning with stacatto riffs.

Youngsters in shorts lined the Lake Avenue curbs, and a woman, almost levitating with pride, stepped into the street to take a picture of her daughter, the spelling bee champion, perched on the back of a convertible.

“It’s just an excuse to get together and celebrate this great little town here,” said Jo Gerpheidi, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the annual event.

21st Observance

This was the 21st observance. “The first time, it was just a bunch of merchants driving up Lake Avenue, honking their horns,” said Craven. “Nobody knew what they were doing. But now, it’s one of the most unifying things we have.”

At half a dozen strategic locations along the parade route, volunteers manned card tables, urging residents to vote for candidates for the Town Council. The turnout was, as usual, disappointing. “Not too many people seem to know that the council exists or even what it stands for,” groused Lewis.

In fact, the council has no legal standing at all. Frank Bridal calls it “a mirror of public opinion,” whose influence rests on “the combined weight of the voters.”

“The voters squawk and the politicians listen,” he said. “It’s the principle of, ‘They hear, they fear, they do.’ The County (Board of Supervisors) has been very reasonable in listening to us.”

This year, the voters, 525 of them, chose Duane Merrill, Arlne Moncrief, Ed Turley, Virginia Bailey, Jim Crowley and Dwight Baker, the last three running unopposed. There were no candidates for Tract 4611, the downtown area west of Lake Avenue, leaving it to the remaining board members to select somebody to represent the area.

Role of Council

According to Ollie Blanning, deputy to Supervisor Michael Antonovich, her boss uses the council as the principal medium of communication with Altadena.

“It provides a really fine format for him to say things to the community and for him to hear from the community,” she said. In recent years, she added, Antonovich has supported most of the positions that the council has taken.

“Of course, the supervisor has a responsibility for the county budget, which the council doesn’t have,” she said.

That feeling of small-town intimacy is there at the council’s monthly meetings, on the third Tuesday of every month in the community room of the public library on Mariposa Street.

Council members, two from each of the seven census tracts like to compare what they do there to the classic New England town meeting.

“I wouldn’t say we’re all buddy-buddy boozin’ friends,” said Bridal, president of the council for the past three years. “There’s no particular clique running things. We’re disparate people, but we’ve gotten to know each other. It’s grass-roots democracy.”

Last month, there was a discussion of the sheriff’s plans for manning Altadena, the presentation of a certificate of appreciation to a sheriff’s deputy who had assisted the town’s Black History Parade, and then committee reports.

Somebody up on Canyon Crest Road was letting his horses graze untethered on his front lawn, a member of the traffic and roads committee reported. “People were afraid that the horses could get spooked and run out into the street,” said Camille Dudley, who is an alternate on the council and chairwoman of the committee.

Cue McKenzie’s report on the parks and recreation committee was refreshingly short. “There were 110 children for the Easter egg hunt and over 300 people for the sunrise service,” she said without embellishment. “That’s my report for the evening.”

‘Two More Years’

The declared council candidates were offered an opportunity to introduce themselves. Most declined. Incumbent Turley raised both hands in the V-sign and, in a foghorn-like voice, demanded, “Two more years!” Half of the 14 council members, all of them unpaid volunteers, face reelection every year.

Someone passed the hat for funds to keep the council in stamps, supplies and secretarial services. “As everybody knows, this is our only means of support,” said Bridal. Council funds that day amounted to $259.51, reported Lewis, the treasurer.

Some Altadenans have been talking for years about turning the town into an incorporated city, if only for self-protection. Conventional wisdom says that the town doesn’t have the tax base to support its own government. “It seems too expensive, too unwieldy,” said Bridal.

Others think it’s inevitable. “Five or 10 years down the road, we’ll have to incorporate,” contended Turley, who counsels youth gangs.

In the meantime, the town will stay just the way it is, if its present leadership has any say on the subject.

Last year, civic leaders completed a brand new general plan for the town. It’s a status quo plan, said Blanning. “Basically, the plan says, ‘We want to maintain Altadena as single-family, owner-occupied homes, with a semi-rural atmosphere,’ ” she said.

“It doesn’t exclude business or redevelopment. But it says that the town doesn’t want to be a hub for other communities. The town just wants to be Altadena.”