Well-Regulated Lifestyle Suits Them Just Fine : San Marino: Residents of this rule-happy enclave of "old money" like their community just the way it is. So do the Asian newcomers.

By GORDON DILLOW

Dec. 22, 1991 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES. Dillow is a La Canada Flintridge-based free-lance writer.

People who live in the city of San Marino have a simple and very straightforward attitude about change.

They hate it.

Consider an incident that occurred a few years ago. It seems the county road department was replacing some of the street signs along Huntington Drive, including one for a street called West Drive. But when the new sign went up, it didn’t say “West Drive,” but “West Road.”

According to City Council member Paul Crowley, all hell broke loose.

“You’d have thought the world had come to an end,” Crowley said, chuckling. City Hall was flooded with calls--and not just from West Drive residents worried about having to order new stationery. The calls came from all over the city.

Because in San Marino, you don’t just up and change anything --not even a drive to a road.

“We have fought change every step of the way,” Crowley said. “And I’m probably the worst of the bunch.”

Like many current San Marino residents, Crowley is a native of the city. He left town briefly for college and military service, but came back as soon as he could.

He and his wife live in a four-bedroom home on Winston Avenue that they bought for $85,000 in 1972. He estimates the home is worth about $1 million now.

As far as Crowley can tell, things haven’t changed much since he was a youngster.

“I imagine that if you had lived here 30 or 40 years ago and you came back today, you’d find everything pretty much the same as it was when you left,” Crowley said.

Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. In fact, when you look around this city of 13,000 people, situated just south of Pasadena, you can understand the residents’ aversion to change. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, why fix--or change--it?

The streets are wide, clean and extremely safe. (The San Marino Police Department has about 25 officers, a high police-to-citizen ratio.) Parks range from the merely beautiful, such as 30-acre Lacy Park, to the stunning--the 207-acre Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens.

The schools are among the best in the state, with students scoring between the 92nd and 99th percentiles on standard tests; 78% of San Marino High School graduates go on to four-year colleges. There is not a single mini-mall in the entire 3.75-square-mile city. There aren’t even any apartments, much less slums.

There are also a lot of rules governing life here.

Overnight street parking is banned, you can’t cut down a tree without a permit, you can’t park an RV in your driveway. And so on.

“We like to say that everything is illegal in San Marino,” Crowley said.

All that might seem overly restrictive to some. But residents generally don’t complain. They see the rules as necessary to preserve the San Marino lifestyle.

San Marino, which traces its name to the Republic of San Marino in Italy, was incorporated in 1913. Henry Huntington was one of its founding fathers, and the city’s first mayor was George S. Patton Sr., father of the famed World War II general. Like Pasadena, San Marino traditionally was the home of “old money” families.

It still requires a hefty sum to live here. Homes, especially those north of Huntington Drive, are often large and sometimes grand, their large yards covered with beautifully sculptured shrubbery. All of the residential streets are tree-lined, as is the small business district on Huntington Drive.

According to Larry Doan, a real estate agent who has lived in San Marino all his life, home prices in the city range between $600,000 and $4 million, although it’s possible--but not easy--to find a two-bedroom house for as little as $400,000. Generally, homes north of Huntington Drive are more expensive than those to the south.

But while the residents are wealthy, they are not, as a rule, flashy. There are probably more Volvos here than Mercedeses.

And although San Marino is home to a number of local celebrities--Merlin Olsen and Jess Marlowe, to name a couple--it is not the sort of place where some newly rich movie star buys a property, knocks down a perfectly good house and builds a 20,000-square-foot mansion with a six-foot setback from the street. For one thing, city building regulations wouldn’t allow it. But it’s also because San Marino is not that kind of town.

“This is a business-oriented, button-down-shirt population,” said Gerald Petievich, a onetime Secret Service agent turned book and film writer (“To Live and Die in L.A.,” “Paramour”) who recently bought a 4,000-square-foot, four-bedroom home north of Huntington after living south of Huntington for several years. “In San Marino it’s not fashionable to show your wealth.”

“It’s also extremely conservative,” Petievich said. “Probably one of the most conservative communities in the entire country.” He laughs and adds, “I bet I’m the only Democrat in the whole town.”

For Petievich, who has a 12-year-old daughter, the San Marino School District is the city’s biggest attraction. But he also likes the small-town feeling--he calls it the “Ozzie and Harriet atmosphere.”

Dr. Steve Ho, a San Gabriel Valley gynecologist, his wife, So Hwa Ho, and their sons Jimmy, 18, and Michael, 14, have lived in San Marino for 12 years.

“We both came to America from Taiwan in 1973 and we first lived in Greatneck, Long Island, which also is a very pretty area with lots of trees. We moved to California because of the weather.”

The Hos’ first San Marino home--with five bedrooms and 4,700 square feet--was sold recently and had almost tripled in value since 1980. Their present, six-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot Colonial-style home, built on a choice one-acre lot, is valued at around $2 million.

“Buying a good piece of property in a good location is a good investment, and it makes good sense with the new tax law changes. Besides we get to enjoy living in it,” she said.

There is a certain non-Los Angeles feeling about San Marino. And, like many small towns, one of its social focal points is a cafe. In this case, it’s the San Marino Grill on Huntington Drive, a narrow, unpretentious home-style coffee shop that just as easily might be situated on Main Street in Sioux City or Dubuque.

“This is a gathering place for the local people,” said Walter Celic, 65, who left his native Croatia for America in the turbulent days after World War II and took over the Grill in 1965. “People come here, they talk, they have coffee, they read the newspaper. It’s a place where everybody gets to see each other.”

Celic bought his first home here in 1972 for $52,500. He sold it three years ago for $477,000 and bought a three-bedroom home on Palomar Road. All three of his children attended San Marino schools, and all graduated from USC. San Marino is a Trojan town.

Like just about everybody else in the city, Celic hopes that change will not rear its ugly head here.

“Everybody wants to keep it the way it is,” he said.

There is, however, one change that has come to San Marino in the past decade. It is no longer an exclusively Anglo community.

Although members of most minority groups are still a rarity here, in recent years the city has seen a heavy influx of Asian immigrants--affluent Asian immigrants, to be sure. According to most estimates, about 25% of San Marino residents are of Asian heritage, primarily Chinese, and about half of the students in the school district are of Asian descent.

According to Eugene Sun, 45, an agent for Region 1 Realty and a resident of San Marino since 1985, Asian Americans are drawn here for the same reasons as anyone else--good schools, safe streets, a pleasant community atmosphere.

“I personally have never sensed any friction between Anglo and Asian-Americans,” Sun said. “I think if you maintain good communication with your neighbors, you get along fine.”

Harold and Susan Wu, both natives of Taiwan, have owned their three-bedroom home here since 1986. Houses similar to theirs sell for about $500,000.

“There were two reasons why we chose San Marino to live,” said Wu, an architectural engineer. “First of all, it was a clean city with a good urban plan. We have nice neighbors and it’s a place where we feel comfortable.

“Unlike other communities, residents do not leave their garbage out on the street; the trash remains concealed until the garbage collector actually comes into the property to pick it up. We pay a little more for this service but it’s worth it.”

Of primary consideration for the Wus was the high rating of the San Marino school district. Their daughter, Peggy, attends second grade at a local elementary school.

“Asian parents have traditionally pushed for good education and expect their children to study hard. It’s not only of benefit to them in the future but also good for the country,” Wu added. “We have a legend about a student of Confucius whose mother moved to three different places so her son could get the best education. That was more than 2,000 years ago and we Chinese still follow that tradition.”

A point of family pride and joy is the Wus’ back yard where Harold and Susan both do the gardening. Since buying their home, they have added a deck, a gazebo and a Jacuzzi.

Despite the harmonious integration of families like the Wus, some Anglo residents privately express concern, some even resentment, about the tide of immigration. But that may be as much a reaction to change as it is racial bias. It’s useful to remember that change of any sort is about as welcome in San Marino as a green and purple double-decker mini-mall.

As Walter Celic, who still carries an accent from his native Croatia, pointed out, “For my first five years here, nobody even recognized me. But once you’re accepted, you become one of them.”

It’s also clear that at least some new immigrants feel the same way about the city as the second- and third-generation residents.

“I like San Marino,” Eugene Sun said. “I want to keep it the way it is.”

At a Glance Population

1991 estimate: 13,054

1980-91 change: -1.9%

Median age: 41 years

Annual income

Per capita: $43,538

Median household: $93,932

Household distribution

Less than $40,000: 14.9%

$40,000 - $75,000: 22.3%