August 13, 2011 Meeting Summary

Agenda Items:
Preparation
Acknowledgments
Attendees
Meeting

Preparation

E-mail and phone reminders

Acknowledgments

Susan brought seedless grapes

Attendees

8 members

Meeting

Agenda Items:

The meeting began about 11:20 am

    • Neighborhood tour with city’s new planning director on October 21, 9-11 am
      • We have an appointment to tour our neighborhood on Friday October 21 from 9-11 am with Vince Bertoni, the city’s new Planning Director. He has invited Neighborhood Associations to set up walking tours with him in their neighborhood areas to get to know the neighborhoods and the concerns of their residents.
      • We have not yet set a meeting location.  Based on what we want to look at / discuss, we can figure out a tentative route.  For example, start at SMV/ Foothill, N on SMV, W on Las Lunas, S on Avocado, E on Alameda, S on Santa Paula, W on Mataro.    Or the inverse: start at SMV/ Foothill, east on Mataro, N on Santa Paula, W on Alameda, N on Avocado, E on Las Lunas, S on SMV.
      • Whether or not you want to personally participate, what would you want him to see and discuss?  The Planning Department is responsible for things like designing and enforcing zoning codes.  Here’s a list so far:
        • Sierra Madre Villa – Rosemead, brick building’s parcels potential development
        • Sierra Madre Villa pedestrian crossing problem
        • Sierra Madre Villa traffic problems just north of Foothill caused by driveway from Bed Bath Beyond.
        • PCC-CEC parking
        • Kaiser and, potentially future, business parking on residential streets
        • city possessed properties such as 3175 Alameda
        • Avocado frontage to Edison land
        • Pedestrian access to park
    • Council District 4’s new Field Representative
      • Here is the official announcement for the new District 4 field representative for Council member Masuda:

“In April of this year the constituents appointed Gene Masuda as the new Council member for East Pasadena and its neighborhoods.
Last month, Council member Masuda recruited Noreen Sullivan as his Field Representative.
Noreen has been working in Pasadena as a Community Outreach/Facility Marketing Manager at the Western Justice Center.
Her duties entailed promotion of the services that WJC offers as well as market the facility for use.
The Western Justice Center (WJC) mission is to increase the opportunity for peaceful conflict resolution and displace the power of violence in our society.
Noreen hopes to utilize her experience and knowledge in her new position and looks forward to working with the constituents of District 4.
Noreen grew up in Sierra Madre and presently resides there. She is fond of the race track due to her father’s job as a horse trainer at Santa Anita for over 30 years.
Noreen can be reached at (626) 744-4740 or by e-mail at [email protected]”

  • Recent local crime
    • Reports from crimemapping.com:
      • Vehicle break-in / theft, 3300 block of Las Lunas, Thursday August 4, 10 pm, value under $50.
      • Sunday June 19, 11:37 pm, 3200 block of Estado, 647(F) alcohol violation.
      • Wednesday July 20, 12:01 am, 200 block Santa Paula, Fraud.
      • Friday August 5, 1:06 am, 3200 block of Foothill, Theft.
      • A lot of theft from vehicle and vehicle break-ins are reported around the 24 hour Fitness and Hastings Village (Best Buy etc shopping center).  Interestingly, none in the Ralphs or Whole Foods and Sears shopping centers.
    • Reports from the Daisy-Villa neighborhood, which is across Eaton Wash from us:
      • On July 27 at 11 am, the house on the SW corner of Castano and Villa was broken into via a window.  The homeowner had left the previous day for a one week vacation.  The house has a monitored alarm which went off, causing the police to be called, and the alarm was heard in the neighborhood.  Never the less, the house was ransacked.  A neighbor saw a slightly built male hispanic about 16 years old running down Castano.  Four police cars and the helicopter arrived within minutes but no one was caught.   This reportedly fits the same modus operendi of a break in on Daisy 4 weeks previously.  Police believe the thieves are looking for drug money.
      • A homeowner on Castano between Villa and Del Vina has surveillance cameras and caught video of two guys checking out the cars parked in each driveway around 3 am on Monday morning August 8 (trash day).  One guy serves as look out while the other goes up to each car, looks in the windows, and tries to open the doors.  It is the morning of trash day, and the look out at one point also looks in a trash bin – perhaps to provide a cover activity in case someone heard something and looked out their window.  Videos can be viewed on You Tube here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1o30PUKBSk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeNucNXh7bc.
      • A rash of recent vehicle break-ins and thefts from vehicles in the Daisy Villa area are reported on crimemapping.com
  • 3175 Alameda Status
    • This is the house you run into coming north on Santa Paula to Alameda.
    • In  fall of 2009 the City’s CRASH unit boarded up the house, cleaned up the yard, and fenced it off.
    • In 2010, MASH was sent out to whack the weeds and clean up the accumulated trash.
    • It has once again been overgrown with weeds for many months.
    • Contacts with various city departments led to lots of referrals and eventually to Kim Resendiz in the City Attorney’s office, who did not respond to voice mails.
    • Since our last meeting, an e-mail was sent by Kathy’s Mom to Noreen Sullivan, the new councilman’s field representative.
    • Over several weeks she covered much of the same ground of redirection from one department to another, also ending up waiting for Kim Resendiz, who did eventually get back to her.  It turned out that she had been out of the office for about 5 weeks.
    • Reading a bit between the lines, it seems they had let the owner, who reportedly has no money and was living with a relative, off the hook based on a promise that he would sell the property.  The city had not filed the paperwork to “take possession” and had not filed liens against the property in order to pay assessed fines or recoup the costs of cleanup, etc.  It is just essentially red tagged – not allowed to be occupied.
    • Last word we have was that the property was to be discussed at a meeting of the MASH team on August 4, and maybe they would start a process of putting liens on the property to cover maintenance.  No promises were made to actually clean it up.
    • We discussed that pictures should be taken and sent.  And maybe it would help if more people complain, including maybe using the city web site’s complaint mechanism which would create a traceable electronic record of complaints and inaction.
  • Edison line stringing work schedule
    • At the City Council meeting on August 1, the area Edison representative announced that Edison has scheduled adding the new circuit to the high tension wires in Pasadena during two 3 week “pull periods”
    • September 12 to October 2, with helicopters working the weekend of September 17 and 18
    • October 3 to October 22, with helicopters working the weekend of October 8 and 9
    • The helicopters will be pulling the wire. The rest of the time is for various construction, arranging for blocking roads during the pulls, etc.
    • No information was presented which clarified if the entire route through east Pasadena is being done in this time frame, or if it will be only south of the Goodrich Station
  • anything else attendees wish to discuss
    • Household Hazardous Waste and E-Waste collection, Sat Aug 20, Arcadia and Sierra Madre
      • County run Household Hazardous Waste and E-Waste collection at Gate 6 (off Colorado Place) of Santa Anita park on Saturday August 20 from 9 am to 3 pm.
      • A collection is also being held the same day but from 9 am to 2 pm at Mariposa Ave parking lot in Sierra Madre, at Mariposa Ave and Baldwin Ave.
      • This is an opportunity to safely dispose of old paint, varnish, and their removers, glues, pesticides, fungicides, baits, cleaners, lubricants, fuels, polishes, alcohol based products, medicines, nail polish, swimming pool chemicals, aerosol cans, sharps, batteries, fluorescent lights, computers and computer components and accessories, tvs, microwaves, cell phones, radios, alarm clocks, hair dryers, …
    • Sign for park pedestrian access gate
      • A strange incident with a man with children and a dog trying to climb over the pedestrian gate into the park around 11 pm and insisting the park must be open because it is not fenced on the Orange Grove side, Susan was spurred to try to get the city to put a sign including park hours on the gate again.  (It should also have the contact number for when the gate is either closed or open when it should not be.)   The temporary paper sign that had been put on the gate when the entrance was opened has long since disintegrated and disappeared. She was directed to Carl Jones in the parks department.  A message left on his phone has resulted in no response.  The new field rep, Noreen Sullivan was contacted.  She contacted park people.  Someone was supposed to look into the situation.  Nothing has happened yet.
    • More info on Kaiser parking arrangements
      • Kathy learned at a BBQ held at the Church of the Foothills (on the corner of Sierra Madre Villa and Alameda) that their parking lot is used for parking by some of Kaiser’s physicians.  Concerns raised by a car break-in resulted in Kaiser funding the new lights and repaving of that parking lot.  Other employees are supposed to park at the Church of the Nazarene on Sierra Madre Blvd.
      • On a separate note, Kathy learned that the assailants in a car jacking in the Church’s parking lot a few years ago were caught, convicted of car theft and kidnapping, and sent to prison for life.
    • Old medicine disposal
      • Question was asked as to where old medicines can be safely disposed of.
      • One answer is they can be taken to the Household Hazardous Waste event.  But if that is not convenient, or you share the concern by some of us that some of the people working those events might divert them to illicit use, there are now other options.
      • The Pasadena Police Department held a collection event at the police station for a couple hours on a Saturday last spring and said they would be doing it a couple times a year.
      • The Altadena Sheriff’s Station has now installed two drop boxes for disposal, any time, no questions asked.  The drop boxes look sort of like postal service mail boxes with different paint jobs.  They are installed on the northwest side of the Altadena Sheriff’s Station at 780 E. Altadena Boulevard.   One box is  for prescription drugs and one is for for “illicit” drugs.  The announcement says they anticipate installing a hypodermic needle disposal box in the near future.
    • Dog poop
      • It was noted that the poop of some very large dog (based on poop size) is regularly being left on the sidewalk on the south side of Las Lunas, between Sierra Madre Villa and about two thirds of the way to Avocado, prior to 6 am.  By the pattern, it is conjectured that the owner is in a hurry, pulling the dog along, as well as not cleaning up after it.
      • There was also discussion of how some dog owners seem to be oblivious to the need to regularly pick up their dog’s poop, even in their own yard.  That in addition to the smell it is a health hazard.

Next meeting is September 10, 2011, 11:15 am, at Hastings Branch Library

Adjourned about 12:05 pm