Dreams of Immortality
Like the Mayans, Pasadenans worship in modern temples of culture, art and politics
By Sara Cardine 10/10/2012
BEST ANNUAL EVENT
The Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game
The Valley Hunt Club staged the first parade in 1890 to promote the mild climate and agricultural riches of Southern California. The club’s efforts exceeded beyond its expectations, and 122 years later millions of viewers worldwide can watch the Rose Parade on television and marvel at the sunny weather in Pasadena on New Year’s Day. The annual football game following the parade was held at Tournament Park near Caltech until 1923, when the game moved to the Rose Bowl. Today, that arena is one of Pasadena’s most well-known landmarks, and the annual game has been dubbed the “granddaddy” of college football competitions.
Reader Recommended
ArtNight Pasadena
Make Music Pasadena
BEST ART GALLERY/COLLECTIONS
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino
(626) 405-2100 | www.huntington.org
Railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington was an avid art and book collector, and in 1919, he founded an institution where he could share his collections with the public. Today, those items, and many others, are housed at the site of Huntington’s San Marino estate. Huntington’s former residence displays 18th- and 19th-century French and English artworks, while three other art galleries feature permanent and changing exhibitions. The library’s collection of rare books and manuscripts is an important source of scholarly research, while the botanic gardens and conservatory are a source of enjoyment and beauty.
Reader Recommended
Armory Center for the Arts
145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena
(626) 792-5101 | www.armoryarts.org
BEST BUSINESS PERSON
Wayne Jason
Wayne Jason Jewelry Designs
105 W. California Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 795-9215 | www.wjasondesigns.com
What qualities distinguish a good businessman? Is it devotion to customers? Fair prices? Quality and consistency? Whichever yardstick you use, Pasadena jewelry designer/craftsman Wayne Jason measures up. Serving locals since 1987, Jason has stayed the course where competitors have faltered, offering customers individualized jewelry pieces that are art today, heirlooms tomorrow. “You have to have the ability to adapt and be creative,” Jason says of his success. “You have to change with the times.” He’s done this by using mostly his own materials — which he gets buying gold, diamonds and jewelry — eliminating costly manufacturers and ensuring pieces worthy of oohs and aahs.
BEST CHARTER SCHOOL
Aveson Charter School
1919 Pinecrest Drive, Altadena
(626) 797-1440 | www.aveson.org
A tuition-free charter school, Aveson emphasizes personalized learning, social leadership and healthy living for its students. The Aveson School of Leaders provides instruction for students from kindergarten through fifth-grades while the Aveson Global Leadership Academy offers classes for students from the sixth-through 12th-grades. Students from kindergarten through the sixth-grade can also be taught at home. Multiple grades of students are taught in the same classroom, and each student and his or her teacher creates a personalized learning plan, which integrates real-life skills, like social responsibility and nutrition, into the curriculum.
Reader Recommended
Odyssey Charter School
725 W. Altadena Drive, Altadena
(626) 229-0993 | www.odysseycharterschool.org
BEST CITIZEN
Denise Zeilstra
Philanthropist, volunteer and businesswoman Denise Zeilstra has generously sponsored numerous activities that make Pasadena a better place to live. She and her husband, S. Robert Zeilstra, provided funding to enable Andre Vener to create redwhite+bluezz, a jazz club and restaurant and Pasadena Entertainment, producer of the Pasadena Jazz Fest and other events. The couple also was a major donor for the Zeilstra Research and Training Center at Five Acres child and family service agency. A former board member of the California Philharmonic Orchestra, Denise has sponsored many of the orchestra’s programs through her Zeilstra Foundation, and in 2009 she and her husband organized the Freedom Concert to honor members of the military, police and firefighters.
BEST CULTURAL FESTIVAL
ArtNight Pasadena
(626) 744-7887 | www.artnightpasadena.org
Thanks to the city of Pasadena’s Arts and Cultural Commission, local residents can visit museums, performing arts centers and other cultural institutions without paying a cent during ArtNight Pasadena. The event is held twice a year on Friday nights, with the next ArtNight scheduled for October 12 from 6 to 10 p.m. Free shuttle buses will be available to transport visitors to 16 venues, including the Norton Simon Museum, Armory Center for the Arts and Boston Court Performing Arts Center.
Reader Recommended
626 Night Market
Make Music Pasadena
BEST HISTORIC
LANDMARK
Pasadena City Hall
100 N. Garfield Ave., Pasadena
(626) 744-4386 | www.ci.pasadena.ca.us
Pasadena’s seat of local government could impress even the most ardent anti-government Tea Party activist. The Italian Renaissance-style building was designed by architects John Bakewell and Arthur Brown and completed in 1927. A major seismic upgrade and renovation was completed in 2007, and the old building never looked better. City Hall is commonly featured in films and television programs. But it’s far better to see it in person, either by taking a walk around the facility or getting a glimpse of its signature dome from your car window.
Reader Recommended
Colorado Street Bridge
Pasadena Playhouse
39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena
(626) 356-7529 | www.pasadenaplayhouse.org
The Gamble House
4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena
(626) 793-3334 | www.gamblehouse.org
BEST INSTITUTE OF
HIGHER LEARNING
California Institute of Technology
1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 395-6811 | www.caltech.edu
It’s been host to Albert Einstein, produced more than 30 Nobel Prize winners and pioneered the discovery of antimatter, the foundations of molecular biology and the creation of modern earthquake science, along with major achievements in human nutrition, physics, astronomy and neuropsychology. What more can one say about the California Institute of Technology, one of the nation’s premier institutions for scientific research and education? Caltech provides undergraduate and graduate instruction in 40 concentrations in science, mathematics, engineering, the humanities and social sciences.
Reader Recommended
Art Center College of Design
Hillside Campus | 1700 Lida St., Pasadena
South Campus | 950 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena
(626) 396-2200 | www.artcenter.edu
Pasadena City College
1570 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 585-7123 | www.pasadena.edu
BEST KIDS/FAMILY
FUN SPOT
Kidspace Children's Museum
480 N. Arroyo Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 449-9144 | www.kidspacemuseum.org
Kidspace offers children hands-on learning experiences that combine education with fun. This summer, the museum opened the Robert and Mary Galvin Physics Forest, featuring 13 science-related exhibits. Some of the other exhibits enable kids to learn about the anatomy and feeding of insects, create their own artworks, dig for plant and animal fossils and crawl through an ant colony. Children can also explore a miniature model of Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco, one of several activities available in the outdoor play area.
Reader Recommended
Brookside Park
360 N. Arroyo Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 744-7275 | www.cityofpasadena.net
Magical Playground
1778 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 683-8989 | www.magicalplayground.com
The Huntington Library, Art Collections,
and Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino
(626) 405-2100 | www.huntington.org
BEST LOCAL CHARITY
Union Station Homeless Services
825 E. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 240-4550 | www.unionstationhs.org
Union Station seeks to improve the lives of homeless people and families, providing them with the assistance needed to regain self-sufficiency. The nonprofit organization is the largest agency of its kind in the San Gabriel Valley, offering emergency housing and other shelter, free meals, career development, job placement, medical and mental health services, showers, substance abuse recovery support and domestic violence counseling, among other programs. Check out Union Station’s Web site to learn what you can do to help the agency perform its work.
Reader Recommended
Five Acres
760 W. Mountain View St., Altadena
(626) 798-6793 | www.5acres.org
Pasadena Humane Society
361 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena
(626) 792-7151
BEST LOCAL NONPROFIT
Theatre 360
75 N. Marengo Ave., Pasadena
(626) 577-5922 | www.theatre360.org
At Theatre 360, all the world is a stage for children and teenagers who produce professional-level plays and musicals. Founded in 1999 as the Pasadena Junior Theatre, the organization annually stages three productions in March, the summer and December. Kids who want to audition for these shows are required to register for one of the classes in acting, dance, singing, or musical theater. The organization also holds a summer performing arts camp and takes kids on a two-week summer trip so they can live and study in New York City’s theater community.
Reader Recommended
Friends of the Pasadena Playhouse
www.friendsofthepasadenaplayhouse.org
Pasadena Musical Theatre Program
3579 E. Foothill Blvd. Ste. 464, Pasadena
(323) 250-3150 | www.pasadenamusicaltheatre.org
BEST LOCAL
PERSONALITY
Larry Mantle
Not all talk radio hosts are fulminating windbags, badgering listeners into agreeing with their ill-informed and bigoted opinions. On “AirTalk,” host Larry Mantle provides intelligent, non-inflammatory and nonpartisan discussion of news and cultural events. Recent programs have featured discussion of such diverse topics as President Obama’s address to the United Nations, civilian deaths from drone aircraft and the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s flight to Los Angeles. Mantle has hosted his program since 1985, making “Air Talk” the longest continuously running daily talk program in the Los Angeles radio market. The show airs on public radio station KPCC Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; the Friday program includes Film Week, a one-hour segment in which Mantle and film critics appraise the latest releases.
BEST MUSEUM
Norton Simon Museum
411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 449-6840 | www.nortonsimon.org
Pasadena has an embarrassment of cultural riches, not the least of which is a museum housing one of the world’s greatest private art collections. But it’s not just the exhibition of works by Rembrandt, Picasso and van Gogh that makes the Norton Simon a favorite destination. Many people attend the museum’s regularly scheduled events, including film screenings, lectures, classes, concerts and programs for children and families. The outdoor sculpture garden provides a serene atmosphere where visitors can enjoy food from a nearby café or watch the birds that frequent the pond. Last but not least is the museum’s free admission on the first Friday of each month between 6 and 9 p.m.
Reader Recommended
Pacific Asia Museum
46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena
(626) 449-2742 | www.pacificasiamuseum.org
Pasadena Museum of California Art
490 E. Union St., Pasadena
(626) 568-3665 | www.pmcaonline.org
BEST NEW BUSINESS
Carnelian Salon
350 S. Lake Ave #116, Pasadena
626-795-5555
After 30 years working at other people’s Pasadena beauty shops, Sandra Labbe says it was “time for me to open my own salon.” Labbe opened Carnelian Salon on May 1 and in the short time since then, the shop has received kudos from satisfied customers. A staff of experienced cosmetologists provides a range of services, including hair and nail care and body waxing. Labbe is a painter as well as a cosmetologist and she has decorated her salon with some of her artworks.
Reader Recommended
Big Daddy's Fire Grill
2122 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 796-1266
little junebugs
27 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena
(626) 440-7300 | www.littlejunebugs.com
BEST PARK/OUTDOOR RECREATION SPOT
Brookside Park/Rose Bowl
360 N. Arroyo Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 744-7275 | cityofpasadena.net/PublicWorks/Brookside_Park1
One hundred years ago, Mrs. Everett Wellington Brooks donated a public swimming pool and plunge basin to be located in the Upper Arroyo Seco. In 1913, the city began developing a park in the Arroyo, which it eventually named in Brooks’ honor. Today, the 62-acre park, home to the Rose Bowl and Brookside Golf Course, remains one of the city’s most popular recreation areas, with numerous amenities including fitness trails, tennis courts, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, a kids’ playground and an aquatics center.
Reader Recommended
Arlington Gardens
275 Arlington Drive, Pasadena
(626) 441-4478
www.arlingtongardeninpasadena.org
Eaton Canyon Park
1750 N. Altadena Drive, Pasadena
(626) 398-5420 | www.ecnca.org
BEST PLACE
OF WORSHIP
All Saints Church
132 N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena
(626) 796-1172 | www.allsaints-pas.org
Few local churches are as community-minded or as socially conscious as All Saints, the first Episcopal church built in Pasadena. According to its Web site, All Saints seeks to make the “love of God tangible through spirituality, community, and peace and justice.” It works to attain this goal by sponsoring numerous programs and services that aim to eliminate racism and homophobia, support veterans, educate the parish and community about the plight of immigrants, abolish the death penalty, protect the environment and assist the area’s poor and homeless.
Reader Recommended
Lake Avenue Church
393 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena
(626) 844-4700 | www.lakeave.org
Saint Andrew Church
311 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena
(626) 792-4183 | www.saintandrewpasadena.org
BEST PLACE TO WORK
RateSpecial Interactive
234 E. Colorado Blvd, Ste. 600, Pasadena
(626) 376-4702 | www.ratespecial.com
The employees at RateSpecial Interactive are among those rare people who actually enjoy going to work. Perhaps that’s because this online advertising agency has been rapidly expanding at a time when many other businesses are tanking. In 2011, the Los Angeles Business Journal designated RateSpecial the fastest-growing company in Los Angeles County. RateSpecial has helped pioneer the emerging field of online advertising, devising strategies for marketing its clients’ products and acquiring the most appropriate Web sites on which to place its clients’ ads.
Reader Recommended
California Institute of Technology
1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 395-6811 | www.caltech.edu
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive, LaCañada/Flintridge
(818) 354-4321 | www.jpl.nasa.gov
BEST PRESCHOOL (TIE)
Cottage Co-Op Nursery School
169 Arlington Drive, Pasadena
(626) 799-0387 | www.cottagecoop.org
This nonprofit cooperative nursery school founded in 1972 accepts only 62 students aged 2 through kindergarten in order to provide individual attention to each youngster. Cottage Co-op boasts that its adult-child ratio is no higher than 1:4. The school offers play-directed, hands-on learning for kids, as well as a supportive environment in which adults can learn and grow as parents. .
Lake Avenue Preschool
981 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena
(626) 798-2151 | www.lakeavepreschool.com
Lake Avenue Preschool is open to youngsters between the ages of 18 months and kindergarten. The teachers have a background in early childhood education, and they use various techniques to provide instruction in academic, artistic, computer and social skills. Parents can choose to send their kids to school on either full or half days, and between three and five days a week, or have their children attend during evening hours.
Reader Recommended
Goodman Family Day Care Preschool
1090 El Campo Drive, Pasadena
(626) 578-1815
BEST PRIVATE SCHOOL
Polytechnic School
1030 E. California Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 396-6300 | www.polytechnic.org
When it opened in 1907, Polytechnic School was the first nonprofit independent school in Southern California. It has since expanded from a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade institution and now educates more than 940 students in kindergarten through the 12th grade. The school initially provided both academic instruction and manual training, and it has retained this breadth of curriculum by offering students a range of out-of-classroom learning experiences, such as athletics, outdoor education, community service, and visual and performing arts.
Reader Recommended
La Salle High School
3880 E. Sierra Madre Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 351-8951 | www.lasallehs.org
Westridge School for Girls
324 Madeline Drive, Pasadena
(626) 799-1153 | www.westridge.org
BEST PUBLIC EMPLOYEE
GABRIEL SILVA
City of Pasadena Environmental Programs Manager
An employee of the Public Works Department since 2007, Gabriel Silva is in charge of Pasadena’s environmental programs, including the recycling of everything from hazardous waste to trash from large-venue events. He procured the supplies and equipment needed to clean up the fallen trees and other debris resulting from last year’s windstorm. Silva also helped develop the Zero Waste Strategic Plan, which aims to recycle 90 percent of the city’s trash by 2040, diverting this refuse from landfills. He recently began a pilot program designed to remove abandoned shopping carts from city streets. And he is partnering with the Pasadena Unified School District on Green Curriculum, an environmental program for second-graders. Silva earned a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Stanford University. He and his wife Wendy live in Altadena with their children Elias, 4, and Esther, 1.
BEST PUBLIC OFFICIAL
Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard
It’s hard for many of us to remember a time when Bill Bogaard was not the mayor of Pasadena, and the majority of Pasadenans have few, if any, complaints about the man who has held that office longer than any previous occupant. That may explain why Bogaard was unopposed in his 2011 bid for a fourth four-year term. In September, he was elected president of the board of directors of the League of California Cities. Bogaard also chairs the Pasadena Bioscience Collaborative, a technology enterprise incubator and the city’s Emergency Services Counci. In addition, he’s a member of the Gold Line Foothill Construction Authority. If all that is not enough, the mayor also leads citizens on monthly walks around the Rose Bowl.
BEST PUBLIC SCHOOL
Don Benito Fundamental School
3700 Denair St., Pasadena
(626) 396-5870 | www.donbenito.pasadenausd.org
Don Benito was named a California Distinguished School for the 2012-2013 academic year in recognition of its programs that narrow the gap between low- and high-achieving students. Principal Julie Reynoso attributes this honor to the school’s “seasoned and well-adapted faculty and staff” and the participation of its parents. “We have 85 percent attendance from parents at school events,” she says. “For families, this school is a destination to go to.” The school’s 640 kindergarten through fifth-grade students are selected in a lottery and come from Pasadena, Sierra Madre and Altadena.
Reader Recommended
Marshall Fundamental Secondary School
990 N. Allen Ave.,Pasadena
(626) 396-5810 | marshallfundamental.org
Pasadena High School
2925 E. Sierra Madre Blvd., Pasadena
(626) 798-8901 | www.pasadenahigh.org
BEST TEACHER (TIE)
Jill Ellison
Don Benito Fundamental School
Jill Ellison has taught third- and fifth-grade at Don Benito Fundamental School, but this year she is teaching first-graders. Her boss, Principal Julie Reynoso, describes Ellison as “the type of teacher who approaches every learner with an open mind. She finds an entry way to make learning accessible and is patient and calm. Her students really adore her.” With kudos like this, it’s no wonder Ellison was voted Best Teacher of the Year.
Yvonne Davis
Don Benito Fundamental School
Ellison shares Best Teacher honors with her colleague, Yvonne Davis, one of the kindergarten teachers at Don Benito Fundamental School. According to Principal Julie Reynoso, Davis is “a strong voice” in school activities, who is popular, enthusiastic and adored by her students. In addition to her teaching duties, Davis represents the school’s teachers at PTA meetings and helps Reynoso lead monthly tours for parents of prospective students.
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