CITY SMART: How to thrive in the urban environment of Southern California. : Locked Out of Paradise : The Pinecrest Drive entrance to scenic Eaton Canyon has been closed since a March rockslide, frustrating hikers but delighting many neighbors.

A gateway to a bit of urban paradise lies just outside Henry Shatford’s front door, but it’s been locked since a March rockslide and Shatford couldn’t be happier.

The Pinecrest Drive entrance to Eaton Canyon, down the street from Shatford’s Altadena home, is easily missed, hidden deep within a residential neighborhood of large homes, old trees and manicured properties of flowers and shrubbery.

The brown canyon and the small gate that sits atop one side is a jarring contrast with the greenery and homes just across the winding, narrow street.

Before the spring slide fell into the main trail, the gate’s pedestrian entrance had long drawn in-the-know hikers and nearby residents looking for the closest route to Eaton Falls, the Mt. Wilson Toll Road and Henninger Flats.

And that’s where the problems began, between hikers availing themselves of a wonderful public treasure and neighbors who largely wish they wouldn’t.

County fire officials say they expect to clear the slide by fall. Once the debris is gone, the gate will reopen--along with the battle.

“If they open the gate we’re going to have the usual problems, there’s just that percentage of irresponsible people who spoil it for everybody,” Shatford said.

Neighbors said that over the years, the canyon gate has left their quiet street vulnerable to bad behavior by some of the park’s users. Because the entrance is secluded, teen-agers began entering on Pinecrest to have loud canyon parties just below the residents’ homes.

Transients and gang members followed, residents said, bringing litter, noise, crime, fire hazards and firearms to the little street where the unwanted visitors parked their cars. Cars were vandalized, and the sheer numbers of unfamiliar faces made some residents fearful for their children’s safety.

That leads some hikers to suggest that the mostly white neighborhood is really unhappy about minorities who frequent the public space--a charge the neighbors strongly dispute.

Although sheriff’s deputies say the area has never suffered more crime than other foothill communities, the residents in the 1970s were able to convince officials to lock the gate at night.

Later, residents gained control of the keys with the promise that they would open the gate just before sunrise and not close it until one hour after sunset.

If they could, residents would direct all canyon users to either of the other two entrances down the road: A roadside path into the canyon at Altadena Drive and Roosevelt Avenue or the main entrance and parking lot at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center, 1.1 miles away from the Pinecrest gate.

But some hikers and mountain bikers still prefer the Pinecrest gate.

“It’s a public right of way,” said Michael Jenkins, a 47-year-old Pasadena resident who has been hiking the canyon and its surroundings for 15 years. “All of the residents of Pasadena and surrounding areas should be able to use it.”

For children and older people, Jenkins said, the Pinecrest entrance can offer their easiest hope of seeing the waterfalls. The other entrances are too far for some and demand a harder hike.

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Mountain bikers can only use the entrance on Pinecrest. Since bikes are forbidden on the main trail leading to the toll road, those heading for the Mt. Wilson Toll Road would have to carry their two-wheelers the 1.1 miles to the road or ignore the prohibition.

Many residents said they moved to the area because of its proximity to the swath of parkland.

The Pinecrest entrance was gated in the late 1960s by the Pasadena Water and Power Department, which owns most of the property between the county’s Eaton Canyon Nature Center and Angeles National Forest, after the board of health ordered it to keep the public away from the water there.

When the department began diverting the water in the late 1970s, it reopened the gate.

The neighbors say their trouble began shortly thereafter.

And for those who use the gate, the problems are no less weighty.

“There are people who go into the canyon to see the sunset and who come back too late and get locked out,” Jenkins said. “They have to hike all the way down and then back up to their car.”

Sometimes, he said, the neighbors lock and unlock the entrance at unexpected times.

“Yeah, you have people going in to party and yes, they may have their boomboxes and yes, they may have their beer and no, they may not carry out everything they carry in,” Jenkins said. “But the residents shouldn’t be able to decide who does and does not have access to county property and a wildlife nature area.”

Jaime Ceres and Norma Avila, both 18, were not much interested in the ongoing debate after a recent hike to the falls in scorching heat. Back at their car at a nearby entrance on Roosevelt Avenue, the two nursed their trekking-related wounds, wiped sweaty faces and griped about the closed gate at nearby Pinecrest.

“There’s no trail that leads directly over here, you have to find the way under bushes through the rocks and the water,” Ceres said. “If you go in down there at Pinecrest, you just go under the bridge to the falls.”

Another group of teen-agers, making the same argument, ignored the locked gate and the warning signs and slipped under a break in the fence along Pinecrest.

“This place is supposed to be for everybody,” said 22-year-old Mark Donoso as he shimmied under the barrier. “Not just for people who live in the hills.”