As the New Year approaches I penned my thoughts on what key issues would help to improve the City of Pasadena. Lets face it, we are privileged to live in a wonderful City that is exempt from many of the issues being faced by other municipalities, thanks to the leadership of our City Council, but we do have some things it would be nice to improve upon.
- Synchronize the Traffic Lights – as obvious as this seems to improve traffic flow, logistically it has to be much more difficult. I was reminded that they are in sync, go, stop, go, stop. Traffic in the City can move at a snails pace, especially this time of year and any attempt to speed up our commute would certainly be appreciated.
- Protected Left Turns – while we are on the subject of traffic, how about installing traffic lights that would provide a protected left turn. This traffic system as in all of LA County must have been designed 50 years ago. Personally I am tired of playing intersection roulette every time I need to make a left turn.
- Get Serious about Water Conservation – If Pasadena is going to talk the talk, its time to begin walking the walk. Start with low flow toilets and shower heads at point of sale, just as the City of Los Angeles does. Offer incentives for property owners to Xeriscape, just as Pasadena’s power company offer’s incentives for energy conservation. It’s hard to understand why these measures have not been adopted in a City that promotes itself with a green initiative. We have to become proactive and asking the citizens to adopt volunteer conservation methods have fallen short of their desired goals.
- Improve the Public Schools – for Pasadena to become a truly world class city, they must achieve a higher level of public education. We are surrounded by excellent public schools in Arcadia, South Pasadena and La Canada. I think improving the education of our children should be priority number one. It would be nice to hear that people choose to live in Pasadena due to the excellent public school system.
- Eliminate the Sidewalk Ordinance – if the sidewalk in front of your house has become buckled due to underlying tree roots, there is a good possibility that it will be your responsibility to repair it when you decide to sell. The City plants and maintains many of the trees that decorate and line our streets and to me it just doesn’t seem right that the homeowner has to pay to have the sidewalk repaired. To delegate the safety and liability issue of uneven sidewalks to the homeowner, was a loud proclamation by the City saying “because we can”.
The City of Pasadena has many opportunities and challenges before it. Hopefully the decisions to be made will reflect the best interests of its citizens as well as its business interests.
About Doug Willis
I agree with many of your points – good suggestions all around. I do think that #4, improving the school system, will be rather difficult because of Pasadena’s demographics.
The problem Pasadena faces that the other cities you mention do not is that Pasadena has a large pool of lower income families. Good school districts, usually measured by standardized test scores, are the result of involved parents which usually correlates into having enough money to have one parent stay at home to raise the kids. For better or worse, Pasadena prides itself on economic diversity, unlike the other cities you mention. This means we have neighborhoods with cheap rentals, but also associated crime and gangs. Wealthy families don’t like to invest in school systems where they feel the a significant population is not pulling their weight. This has created a huge private school industry in Pasadena, and they are not going down without a fight. If Pasadena’s public school system were to improve, it would require significant parental resources that are not funding places like Waverly and Pasadena Poly. The social pressures alone will prevent those families from shifting their funding priorities.
So for better or worse, Pasadena has reached a comfortable resting place – a symbiosis between the very wealthy families who send their children to the many fine private schools and the structures that keep those private schools funded and thriving. Many forces have to move at once to break this structure – the public at large has to demand that the public schools get better despite the cost of carrying those who are not going to be able to fund their children’s education, and the private schools have to be seen as a lesser alternative. I don’t think either situation is likely to change.
Amen to your list—well done on each item.
I still maintain hope that the public schools in Pasadena will improve. In fact, some of them are very good right now. The problems are complex, though, and just bringing higher-income families into the District is not going to cut it. The attitude that “a significant population is not pulling their weight” is unfounded and serves to maintain the great divide.
Kelly,
Pasadena need to do a better job of bragging on their accomplishments in the public schools. Many of the parents I speak with are very pleased with the elementary schools their children attend.