San Gabriel Valley on a Search for New Image

Deloris Brown, a 20-year Los Angeles resident, is typical of the many Southern Californians who go blank when asked about the San Gabriel Valley.

“I’ve heard of it, I think,” Brown said.

College student Lynn Stogner had a vague impression of the region, describing it as a place “beyond Cal State L.A.”

“I hear about all these valleys--Simi Valley, San Fernando Valley--I get them all confused,” said Stogner, a junior at Loyola Marymount University.

And in her 27 years as a native Californian, El Segundo resident Susanne Stehr said she has visited the San Gabriel Valley only once.

“It was on my way to Big Bear,” she said.

Little wonder that some say that the San Gabriel Valley is suffering from an identity crisis.

Pasadena to Claremont

From Pasadena, the San Gabriel Valley stretches east to Claremont. On the north it reaches the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, and on the south it borders the rolling Puente Hills near Hacienda Heights.

“What we found is not that we have a bad image,” said Alhambra City Manager Kevin Murphy. “It’s just that we have no image.”

Alhambra is one of nine cities that each paid $5,000 for a study on ways of marketing the area as a desirable place to live, work or start a business. The goal is to develop a regional marketing plan and establish a nonprofit organization to implement that plan.

Other participating cities are Azusa, Baldwin Park, Duarte, El Monte, Irwindale, Monrovia, Monterey Park and West Covina. All have active redevelopment agencies interested in bringing quality office and retail developments to their communities.

The West Covina Chamber of Commerce also helped pay for the study, which was recently released. The chamber and participating cities are still reviewing the findings and will meet in June to discuss further cooperative efforts, said Steve Wylie, assistant to the West Covina city manager.

Seek Cohesive Image

The study is part of a growing effort by San Gabriel Valley communities to present a cohesive image to outsiders. After years of competing against one another for investment dollars, cities are beginning to realize that it is to their benefit to present themselves to investors as a single region, officials said.

“Any time you have the consortium of cities and you have greater representation, you have an opportunity to receive attention,” said Tina Gall, business marketing officer for Azusa.

Two recent efforts to promote cooperation between cities in the area have met with mixed reviews.

Last December, the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce hired an Atlanta-based consulting firm to promote Mardi Gras West, an event the chamber hoped would become a hallmark of the San Gabriel Valley and help unify it.

Mardi Gras West was celebrated with a gala banquet and parades in various cities, but there are no plans to continue the event because of the cost.

In January, the West Covina chamber formed a division called the Council on Business and Industry, which is designed to promote investments in the San Gabriel Valley by helping businesses with marketing and expansion plans.

The new council, which has been recruiting members across the San Gabriel Valley, has raised the ire of other chambers of commerce, which fear that a regional business council will rob them of members.

At a meeting last week, West Covina chamber spokesman Fred Burkhardt assured representatives of other chambers that the council is encouraging all businesses to also join local chambers. He stressed the importance of promoting the entire region.

“If the valley does well, we will all do well,” Burkhardt said.

To illustrate the need for a regional business council that would help put the San Gabriel Valley on the map, Ben Wong, president of the West Covina chamber, recalled playing the board game Trivial Pursuit and being asked, “Is the San Gabriel Valley east or west of Los Angeles?”

“That’s how invisible we are,” Wong said.

But others saw it differently.

“I think that it’s a compliment that Trivial Pursuit asked if the San Gabriel Valley is east or west of Los Angeles,” said Richard Jett, a Covina chamber board member. “To me somebody knew about the San Gabriel Valley or they couldn’t have put the question in there.”

Boasts Attractions

The San Gabriel Valley is the home of the Tournament of Roses, the San Gabriel Mission and Santa Anita race track, but it has always been overshadowed by its more glamorous sister to the west--the San Fernando Valley, home of movie stars and “valley girls.” Never mind that the San Gabriel Valley can drop a few names, such as Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser, who lives in Pasadena, and playwright Sam Shepard and model Cheryl Tiegs, who grew up in Duarte and Alhambra, respectively.

“When you say the valley, people think of the San Fernando Valley,” said Dick Nichols, director of the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce.

The San Fernando Valley is more cohesive because most of it falls within the city of Los Angeles, while the San Gabriel Valley is a hodgepodge of cities and unincorporated county areas, said Bob Fast, city manager of West Covina.

Pasadena is by far the best known of the San Gabriel Valley’s more than 30 cities, but residents in other cities say they tire of having to use Pasadena as a point of reference to describe where they live.

The region’s fuzzy, amorphous image has been a major drawback in efforts to draw developers and investment dollars to the area, Fast said. For example, a $150-million office-hotel project proposed by one developer in West Covina fell through three years ago mainly because the developer was unable to find financing, he said.

Upon review, some city officials believe a major obstacle in completing the financing was the San Gabriel Valley’s relative anonymity, Fast said.

‘An Untried Market’

“The San Gabriel Valley had been labled as an untried market,” Fast said. “Oftentimes we run into statements such as ‘Where is the San Gabriel Valley? What is the San Gabriel Valley?’ ”

The marketing study, prepared by Public Technology Inc. of Washington, D.C. and Long Beach, identified the Inland Empire and northern Orange County as the San Gabriel Valley’s main competitors for business investments.

Public Technology researchers surveyed city officials and community leaders as well as developers both in and outside the area.

For developers and investors, the most attractive feature of the San Gabriel Valley is its diverse work force, according to the study. It also surpassed the competing regions in the quality of its shopping centers and police and fire services.

But the Inland Empire and northern Orange County both received higher ratings than the San Gabriel Valley in the amount of developable land.

The study also pinpointed some misconceptions of community leaders and public officials in the San Gabriel Valley. Although local leaders viewed freeway access as a major asset, developers ranked the region behind its chief competitors.

Also, local leaders described poor air quality and absence of a cultural center as significant drawbacks in attracting business developments. But developers said air quality in the region was no worse than in the Inland Empire, and they did not list the need for a cultural center as one of the top 20 factors in their decision-making.

Manuel Ontal, a spokesman for Duarte, said his city helped pay for the marketing study because city officials wanted to publicize new services and opportunities in the community. The Duarte of 20 years ago was known for aging homes and a string of motels lining Huntington Drive, Ontal said.

“Duarte has truly resurrected,” he said. “We have new developments along Huntington Drive.” A new middle school and civic center are also near completion, he said.

“We believe that as a whole it’s important to work with our neighboring cities,” Ontal said. “Promoting Duarte by itself would not be enough to attract business to the region.”