The 818 Now

The La Canada Flintridge float entry in the 2010 Rose Parade readies for its trip to Pasadena Thursday evening. (Courtesy Laurie Welch)

The monstruous 35 feet tall green origami dragon stretched its wings in the mid-afternoon sunlight, finally free from hiding underneath the Interstate 210 highway on Hampton Road in La Cañada.

The 2010 La Cañada Flintridge Rose Parade float made its first public appearance since its completion at 2 p.m. on Thursday as the crews and workers moved it from out underneath its construction spot, in the Flintridge Prep parking lot, in preparation for the march to Pasadena. A crowd gathered to take pictures and video record the event while the workers put on the finishing touches and tinkered with the motion mechanisms.

“It’s a lot of fun to see it built and then the finished product,” said float construction worker Mike O’Connor, as he raced to screw in a row of three feet tall flowers onto the side of the float. “We’ve been working at this site all week.  It’ll be fun to see it [in the parade].”

O’Connor has worked on floats for 20 years and on the La Cañada float for the past 11.  He first started working on the float in the spring.

The float will leave La Cañada at 8 p.m. to get to its spot in the back of the Rose Parade on Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena.  Worker and former La Cañada Flintridge Rose Parade Association President Sharlyn French said it’ll get there shortly before midnight, traveling at speeds up to 5 miles per hour.  A small convoy of 25-40 people, featuring designated float workers and Sheriff’s Dept. deputies, will escort the float.

Titled “Scissored Wizard,” the float features a purple-robed wizard waving his wand and bringing to life a green origami dragon.

DOWNTOWN — Amid a local economy sacked by underperforming tax revenues, slumping home values and high unemployment, the biggest winners in the Rose Bowl and BCS National Championship Game in Pasadena won’t be taking the field.

The 121st Rose Parade and two post-season college football games are expected to produce an economic impact of $350 million to $400 million for greater Southern California, according to the Pasadena Tournament of Roses and past economic studies.

“This has to be an economic pleasure for the Southern California region,” said Bill Flinn, chief operating officer for the Tournament of Roses. “This year there’s no doubt about the fact. You have two games, four out-of-state teams and a parade that drives hundreds of thousands of people to the area.”

A new rotating collegiate bowl system for the first time brings to Pasadena two major bowl games within a week of each other.

A further economic boon to the area comes in the fact that neither USC nor UCLA are competing in the games, said Bruce Ackerman, president and chief executive of the Valley Economic Alliance.

He noted that not only are the competing colleges from outside Southern California, but the closest school is more than 800 miles away in Eugene, Ore.

Read on.

A volunteer works on the La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association float on Tuesday. The float, titled "Scizzored Wizard," is the city's 32nd entry in the Rose Parade. (photo/Megan O'Neil)

While young volunteers applied the finishing touches to the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn. Float, more than 100 people gathered Tuesday for the Under the Bridge Major Donor Party.

The event honors donors who contributed $125 or more to the association, and serves as an annual reunion for all La Cañada float participants.

Don Ziehl, the first association president and a former La Cañada Unified School District superintendent, said assembling the inaugural float in 1978 was a whirlwind. 

“It was a real scramble to get that float down the parade route that first year,” he said. “It turns out it is a bit of a scramble every year.”

The best part about being involved with the association is the joy of seeing people work together on a project that at some points seems impossible, he added.

“I don’t know anything else that was going on during the 25 years I was here that brought three generations together like building this float does,” Ziehl said. “That alone [makes] it very worthwhile.”

A portion of the proceeds generated by the Station fire charm bracelet will go toward re-planting efforts. (Photo/Raul Roa)

A contigent of La Cañada Flintridge residents are spearheading a grassroots effort to generate money and volunteers to assist in the re-forestation of Angeles National Forest.

The Foothill Communities Re-forestation Committee is trying to mobilize residents from all the Station fire-impacted communities to participate in an already existing volunteer program run by the U.S. Forest Service. The program trains individuals to plant seedlings and prune unwanted weeds.

In addition, La Cañada merchant Sue Stranger designed a Station fire bracelet, which is currently for sale in her store, Adobe Designs. The charm bracelets are $48, and $10 of the proceeds will go toward purchasing Big Cone Douglas Fir seedlings that will be used in the replanting.

“It doesn’t matter who started the fire, it matters who is going to get it done,” committee member Sheri Morton said. “Many hands make light work. We are always complaining about the government wanting out money, well now we are going to give them our hands.”

Malia Mailes, the local Girl Scout who made headlines last spring for her work highlighting the dangers of commercial truck traffic on Angeles Crest Highway, has been named a 2009 National Young Woman of Distinction by Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.

Mailes is one of 10 scouts across the country to receive the award and will be honored at the Girl Scouts’ national meeting in St. Louis in February.

Last Spring, the scout launched an investigation into safety on Angeles Crest Highway, conducting research online, interviewing the city traffic engineer, Erik Zandvliet, and convincing her parents to drive her up and down the highway multiple times.

A last-minute donation push Friday allowed the Crescenta Valley Sheriff Station staff and volunteers to assist more than 160 families in need over the weekend as the station’s annual holiday Toy and Food Drive came to a close.

Dep. Jorge Valdivia said they received 2,000 toys — enough so that every child could be given more than one. Each family was also provided with a $20 gift card plus up to four bags of groceries.

“Friday was a big push, it was a Christmas miracle,” Valdivia said. “We had a great success this year The station volunteers did a lot of work this week.”

As world leaders in Copenhagen last week negotiated a global response to the threat of impending climate change, a different meeting of the minds was taking place in San Francisco.

As many as 15,000 of the world’s leading scientists in astrophysics, oceanography and Earth science convened at the American Geophysical Union conference in an attempt to better understand the scope of changing weather patterns and what it could mean for future generations.

Among them was JPL scientist and longtime La Cañada resident Moustafa Chahine.

He reported that NASA had recently completed a seven-year atmospheric survey of how carbon dioxide collects and is distributed across the planet. The data was collected by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument, a tool originally developed seven years ago to better predict weather patterns.

“A big task is to take the increase in CO2, which ends up warming the atmosphere, and learn how you can make predictions for our own climate 10, 20 or 50 years from now,” Chahine said. advertisement

Five years ago, when the instrument began measuring carbon dioxide levels trapped in the middle of the troposphere — the lowest layer of the atmosphere about three to seven miles above Earth — scientists were able to identify global sinks, where greenhouse gases are more likely to collect.

For more of this story, read here.

From the La Cañada Valley Sun

More than 100 teens and adults made a pledge at La Cañada High to not text messages on their cellphones while driving as the “X the TXT” campaign bus stopped by the high school campus Friday evening.

Allstate Insurance’s “X the TXT” campaign truck, a national campaign designed to make teenagers and their parents pledge they won’t text while driving, has been touring the nation, stopping by at La Cañada High during the La Cañada Classic, a high school boys’ basketball tournament.

“What this is, is a support of teen safety,” said Robert Feldman, an Allstate agent in La Crescenta who was at the site. “A teen is 20 times more likely to be in a serious accident while driving than when not.”

Pledgers were asked to dab their thumbs in blue ink and place a thumbprint on the banner to promote awareness of the dangers of texting while driving on Friday evening. Photos of the participants were posted on facebook.com/thumbsuppledge.

For more of this story read here.

Buddy Imbriale, 16, glues a piece of foam to the La Canada float on Monday. Imbriale has worked on the annual float for six years. (photo/Megan O'Neil)

Two dozen paint-spattered volunteers were hard at work on the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses float on Monday. The city’s entry, titled “Scizzored Wizard,” features a 33-feet-tall animated dragon that will fold and unfold like origami paper.   

Volunteers, ages 4 to 92, cheerfully worked on foam detailing, wire framing and painting. 

Dustin Crumb, who was working on the float with his father, Dwight, and grandfather, Don, is spearheading the design and computer engineering for the project. 

“This one has been a challenge for the design side … trying to figure out how to make everything fold right and look like an origami dragon,” Crumb said. ”I have spent hours folding up origami [paper].” 

The float will be moved under the 210 freeway overpass directly behind Flintridge Prep school this week. On Dec. 26, hundreds of additional volunteers will apply thousands of flowers to the float during what is traditionally referred to as “deco week.”

La Cañada Flintridge Mayor Laura Olhasso replaced her gavel for a shovel Thursday, planting a new tree in Glenola Park as part of the annual Arbor Day celebration.

Olhasso was joined by mayor pro tem Don Voss, Los Angeles County Deputy Forester Tamara Hanna, as well as a dozen community leaders, in planting the crape myrtle sapling, which will bloom in August.

La Cañada traditionally celebrates Arbor Day in April, but delayed the event by several months. The city had to get the tree planted before the end of the year in order to retain its status as a Tree City U.S.A.

“I think it is a really great way to celebrate,” Olhasso said.

VIDEO BY MEGAN O’NEIL

The Green was family among more than 100 volunteers who gathered Saturday to prepare commemorative florographs of organ donors for the Donate Life float, which will be entered into the Jan. 1 Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena.

The year 2010 marks 15 years since the Green’s oldest child, Nicholas, was shot while he slept in the back seat of his family’s rental car in Italy while on vacation, the victim of highway robbers.

VIDEO BY MICHAEL J. ARVIZU

From the La Cañada Valley Sun

Still awaiting the scheduling of the championship game in the Brandt Tournament, La Cañada boys’ soccer made the best of the situation, beating Maranatha 3-0 at home on Thursday.

La Cañada beat Cleveland High, Crescenta Valley and Granada Hills and tied Sylmar to get into the Brandt Tournament’s championship game against Glendale, but rain over the weekend forced delays. The coaches of La Cañada (7-1-1) said they believe the game will be played early next week.

Since then, the boys have been playing their regular schedule, beating Village Christian on Tuesday and Maranatha on Thursday, both of which were 3-0 victories.

Read more here.

From the La Cañada Valley Sun

Angeles Crest Highway above La Cañada Flintridge is scheduled to reopen early next week, barring any delays in clean-up work from mudslides sustained last weekend, a Caltrans representative said Thursday.

The highway has been closed since Saturday, when the second in a series of three rainstorms caused debris and mud flows of land left barren of growth by the Station fire.

“We’re working on cleaning the debris,” said Caltrans spokeswoman Kelly Marcum, “and we should be opening [the highway] up early next week.

“We’ve got crews working around the clock,” she said.

For more of this story read here.

Members of the La Cañada Presbyterian Church have the Christmas spirit and are sharing it with the community for the 10th year in a row.

They will be offering free Christmas gift wrapping for everyone — weather permitting and while supplies last — from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Dec. 19 in front of the Rite-Aid Pharmacy, 627 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge. No donations will be accepted.

Event Organizer Linda Pearson said they do it “because Christmas reminds us to celebrate what has been given to us relationally, physically and spiritually. Christmas also encourages us to model that graciousness to others unconditionally. Because it’s free, we hope that all will see and feel more of God’s presence this season and always.”

From left, Maggie, Eleanor and Reg Green work on portrait of their son/brother Nicholas Green which will be installed in the 2010 Donate Life Rose Parade Float "New Life Rises" at Phoenix Floats in Pasadena on Saturday, December 12, 2009. The Greens live in La Canada. Nicholas was killed by robbers when the family was traveling in Italy 15 years ago this year. (Raul Roa/Valley Sun)

A labor of love
Maggie Green meticulously glued ground flower petals over a photographic outline of her late son’s eyes.

La Cañada home prices dip
Average home prices in La Cañada Flintridge dipped in November for the third consecutive month, according to a real estate report released this week.

La Cañada starts Classic with victory
La Cañada boys’ basketball followed up a third place finish at the Arroyo Tournament last week with a strong victory over Lincoln, 69-40, in the first game of the La Cañada Classic on Tuesday.

Knights spring leak
Despite the fact it was a consolation-bracket semifinal, Saturday night’s Ralph Brandt Tournament contest between St. Francis High and El Camino Real — a matchup of reigning CIF Southern California Regional champions — was a marquee matchup on paper.

Piece of Mind: Mucking around in a heavy issue
It will come as no surprise to those familiar with my regular pleas not to serve alcohol to teens that I’m upset by Saturday night’s death of South Pas student leader Aydin Salek and disgusted by the adults whose Altadena home was the site of the bash where Salek reportedly imbibed.

Under the coordination of La Cañada High School 7/8 eighth grader and School 4 Vice President Jacob Brown and family, pillows, blankets, socks and gloves were delivered to the homeless living on the streets in Pasadena on Saturday morning. The group also served the homeless breakfast. Originally scheduled to take place at Central Park in Pasadena, the distribution was moved to Memorial Park in Pasadena due to the heavy rain.

The Saturday distribution is an extension of the weekly distribution that the students hold on Wednesday afternoons from 4 to 5:30 at Memorial Park, said Brown. Started by his father, Fritz Brown, the Wednesday distributions — which have been held for the last two years — give the homeless food and provide them with Bible study, Jacob Brown said, all within the park.

Students and Wednesday lunch participants gather at Central Park in Pasadena Wednesday afternoon prior to Bible study, which is facilitated by Fritz Brown, father of Jacob Brown. (Michael J. Arvizu/Valley Sun)

La Cañada High senior Kate Hansen’s bid for a place on the 2010 U.S. Olympic luge team ended early Wednesday when she came in third place in a race-off against Megan and Emily Sweeney for the last available women’s luge spot.

Megan Sweeney, 22, of Suffield, Conn., beat her sister Emily, 16, and Hansen with a combined two-race time of 1 minute, 38.003 seconds at the Olympic course in Lillehammer, Norway. Emily finished second at 1:38.168 and Hansen, 17, was third (1:38.578).

Megan won the spot and will travel to Vancouver this year; Emily will be an alternate in case of injury.

“Kate’s anxious to come home for the holidays,” said Hansen’s mom, Kathie Hansen, adding her daughter comes home Thursday afternoon. “She’ll resume racing and training on Jan. 2 with the Junior team.”

The Junior World Cup will be held at the beginning of January; the Junior World Championships will follow on Jan. 31 in at Igls, Austria.

La Cañada High School finished 80th in a recent U.S. News & World Report ranking of top public high schools in the nation. LCHS finished first among open-enrollment high schools in Southern California.

Open-enrollment schools are defined as schools that accept all students within district boundaries without specific admissions requirements and regardless of special education needs.

La Cañada Unified School district governing board president Jeanne Broberg said the ranking is an example of what can be accomplished when dedicated families and committed district staff come together.

“It is very exciting, and it represents hard work by everyone,” Broberg said. “It represents the efforts of the students, but also the faculty and the parents. It is an illustration of why we have all come to live in La Cañada, because almost everyone has moved here for the schools.”

The La Cañada Unified School District is in the process of forming a parcel tax oversight committee that will ensure that special tax funds are spent for their authorized purpose.

The LCUSD parcel tax, passed on June 30 by an overwhelming majority, will bring the district some $900,000 annually for the next five years.

The committee will consist of nine community members, including one schoolboard member who will serve as a liaison between the two bodies. The community members will include two local business organization members, one member active in a senior organization, one community member at large, one parent of a child enrolled in the district, one parent of a child enrolled in the district who is also a member of a parent-teacher organization and three site parent representatives.

Applications are available at the district office at 4490 Cornishon Ave., and can be requested via e-mail at kbergner@lcusd.net. The deadline is Jan. 8.

From the La Cañada Valley Sun

Residents in the Station fire burn areas no longer have to check the weather channel for the latest forecast. They know the prediction is for rain when they see television news vans cruising local neighborhoods and hovering at major intersections along Foothill Boulevard.

La Cañada Flintridge, thrust into the national spotlight during the Station fire in late August, is once again making headlines with the ongoing threat of mudslides. Reporters, photographers and cameramen have joined the mix of safety engineers, public works crews and city officials who swarm impacted communities at the first sign of rain.

On any given cloudy day, a dozen news vans can be seen traveling up and down Ocean View Boulevard and Angeles Crest Highway. In Paradise Valley, camera crews set up equipment in the streets, stopping joggers, dog-walkers and motorists for interviews.

Bud Slotky, president of the Paradise Valley Neighborhood Association, described the television news crews as hovering “harbingers of doom.” He and his neighbors are already under tremendous stress as they fight to protect their homes, Slotky said, and the TV vans are adding to the commotion.

Their presence, however, is not all negative, Slotky said. The media has done a lot to educate the public about the seriousness of the situation in his neighborhood.

“I know they have interviewed a lot of the neighbors,” Slotky said. “The good side is that they are helping raise awareness in the community…about the dangers of the mudslides and about the danger the Station fire has caused.”

For more of this story, read here.