What are some big changes in Glendora in the last decade?

SERGIO RODRIGUEZ

Owner and operator, Sergio’s Mexican Restaurant

Coming here 20 years ago was really a contrast to hardcore Mexican East Los Angeles where I lived. My brother and I were the first in our family to move here. Now I have three brothers in Glendora. We were all accepted by the community, [though generally] it was difficult to be accepted for Mexican-Americans. Nowadays, acceptance has more to do with being “outsiders,” than with your racial or religious background. It’s a tight community, very conservative. People are protective, concerned about who and what comes into the community, and rightly so.

Going to school in East L.A. and seeing all the crime and gangs there, then coming to this area--it was a wonderful change for me. Unfortunately, now I’m seeing more gang members. It’s scary because I know what they are about. My restaurant is getting more gang graffiti in the bathrooms and in the booths. Five years ago that was unheard of here.

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JOE FRACASSE

Publisher of Glendoran magazine, 1991 Glendora Citizen of the Year and president of Glendora Crime Stoppers

Retaining our small-town atmosphere has been the hardest problem. But there is an abundance of willing volunteers to help, like when there were budget cutbacks in our tremendous youth programs.

Crime is up, encroaching little by little. That’s why we started Crime Stoppers in 1989. It’s totally volunteer with a membership of several hundred. For almost 20 years, politics was directed by Mayor Joe Finkbiner. He was the ruling force and had great respect. He ran Finkbiner’s Market after he came from Missouri, I think. He got off the council a couple years before he died in 1987. When he left the council, it opened up to more people. That was a major change. And now a Korean American family owns Finkbiner’s Market.

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SOO CHO

Graduating Glendora High School senior, plans to attend UCLA. School representative to the City Council. There is a loud population of white-pride people. We had an assembly on the topic of racial equality. There was one picture shown of a Nazi group. You could hear a small part of the crowd cheering. It was disturbing. I don’t think it’s a prevalent movement, but it’s more apparent now within the schools.

My friends and I describe as punks the students who don’t realize the importance of education, but they are more prevalent. Still, for the third or fourth year in a row, we were recognized by the state as a California “distinguished school.” *

JIM DALRYMPLE

Owner of a video production company

We moved from Duarte. I can count a dozen friends who moved here from Arcadia, Monrovia, Temple City and Duarte. We told them about Glendora.

I have six children. They’re into community sports, and piano and dance lessons. I joke with friends and say Glendora is like the place in J.R.R. Tolkien’s book where the hobbits live and don’t like to leave.

Things from the outside do touch us, like the policeman getting killed in San Dimas. And the economy is not necessarily thriving. We have a friend who ran the old-fashioned Glendora Hardware Store. Large hardware chains moved in and he couldn’t survive.

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DAN PARKE

Founder and CEO of Glendora-based Parke Industries, maker of energy-efficient lighting systems

I’ve lived in Glendora since 1958 when I was 3. In the last decade I haven’t seen a lot of change. That’s why I live here. I travel all over the U.S. and see a lot of towns. Glendora is a safe, charming place to raise a family. The way I’m raising my kids and the opportunities they have in town are much like I had as a kid. I’m not aware of a lot of gangs, violence or dangerous drugs here. If you’re looking for excitement and late nights out, this isn’t the place to be. The smog problem has gotten better but clearly we still have it. I live in the hills and don’t notice the smog because there’s a breeze that comes in through the canyon.

There are two reasons why I have my business in Glendora. It’s where I live and it has become a central location in Southern California. We’re less than one hour from the heart of the Inland Empire, Orange County and Downtown Los Angeles.

Interviews for The Times by Berkley Hudson; photos by Jonathan Alcorn.