News of the Arroyo


Title:

L.A.'s golden connection

Subtitle:

Date:

2004-02-20

Summary:

February 20, 2004 - Editor Steve Scauzillo sings the praises of the Gold Line and of connections.

Author:

Steve Scauzillo

Publication:

Pasadena Star News`

Content:

\"The completion in 1940 of the Arroyo Seco Parkway, the first freeway in the west, provided a fast and direct route from Pasadena to Los Angeles. Pasadena became an attractive place to live for people working in industrial areas in Los Angeles.\"

from \'A Short History of Pasadena,\' city of Pasadena.net

We strive to disassociate ourselves from it, pride ourselves on our cultural independence from, yuck ... Los Angeles. We are Pasadena, we are the 31 cities of the San Gabriel Valley, we are distinct, separate, quaint. We have our own city halls, our own museums and playhouses, our own restaurants, malls, stores, our own ahem, crime, traffic and smog, thank you very much. We are not the San Fernando Valley and by Joseph, we are not Los Angeles.

But \"no man is an island,\' wrote John Donne, and like Laurel with Hardy, yin with yang, L.A. and Pasadena are connected in many ways. Many of us travel west and south to jobs in Los Angeles, facilitated by the world\'s first freeway in 1940. It\'s still easy to reach Dodger Stadium, Chinatown and Philippe\'s via that sinuous concrete apron string known as the Pasadena Freeway.

Now, more than 60 years after the freeway\'s completion, the new Gold Line light-rail is re- establishing a connection with a city we left behind. Like Al Pacino said in \"Godfather III,\' \"Every time I try to get out, they pull me back in.\'

There\'s another chapter being written in the love-hate relationship between us and it I mean the greater us that includes all of our smaller, sheltered communities and yes, Pasadena, too, and the cold, steel-and-glass skyscrapers rising from downtown LA. Those downtown streets are calling us back to our roots.

As I waited for the Gold Line train to shove out of the Sierra Madre Villa (East Pasadena) station on Sunday afternoon, I looked around at the packed train cars and wondered where were all these people going?

There wasn\'t a vacant seat. Same held true for the ride back. I watched a mom and dad hover over six young boys wearing basketball team jerseys and playing video games on their cell phones.

Could have been the NBA All- Star weekend going on at Staples Center. I didn\'t stop to ask.

Just in were January ridership figures for the Gold Line, which show weekend ridership almost as strong as weekday. Weekday: 14,889; Saturday: 12,537; Sunday: 9,224.

Mobs greeted me and my wife, Karen, at Union Station. Crowds on a Sunday afternoon. We were training it to the Ahmanson Theatre to catch a matinee of Baz Luhrmann\'s \"La Boheme.\'

We left our car in the free Metro Gold Line parking structure in East Pasadena and rode the train for $1.25 each way. We transferred to the Red Line subway for one stop and walked two blocks to the theater. The only delay was when the film crew at First and Grand held us up on the curb until the car- chase shoot was by us and the director had yelled \"cut.\'

Being without a car was like walking in the snow without a jacket. It was freeing, a novelty. We saw new visions, dreamed new dreams. Sights included the new Cathedral of the Angels, the Music Center fountain, and Frank Gehry\'s Walt Disney Concert Hall. We walked a few blocks south to Hope and Fourth, passed the California Pizza Kitchen, the Water Court shops and Tesoro Trattoria at Third Street and Grand Avenue, beyond the Wells Fargo museum and into Nick & Stef\'s Steakhouse, where we had early dinner reservations.

\"Can I validate your parking?\' asked the hostess.

\"Yes, I mean, no,\' I said, \"we rode the train.\' You know how those validations go: they never save you much. I figured at a cost of $5 for two to ride the train, I still saved at least $5 or maybe $10 in parking alone.

I sat in the Gold Line car on the way back, thinking about that scrumptious meal of rib- eye steak, creamed spinach, potato bake a la blue cheese and lemon meringue pie. I made a mental checklist of other downtown restaurants we\'d try on our next training day: Pacific Dining Car, Engine Co. No. 28, and Traxx Restaurant located inside the art deco Union Station, a set used for numerous movies.

Speaking of movies, in that one day, we saw three movie stars: actor James Cromwell, screenwriter/producer Mel Brooks and his wife, actress Anne Bancroft, all leaving the theater.

I can foresee me training to Dodger Stadium come summertime (is there a shuttle to the ball park from Union Station?), to MOCA, to the Disney Hall, for a beef dip at Philippe\'s Original.

The Gold Line has re- established that Pasadena-L.A. connection. And that ain\'t half bad.

-- Steve Scauzillo is the editorial page editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. Write him at 1210 Azusa Canyon Rd., West Covina, CA 91790, or by e- mail at steve.scauzillo@sgvn.com .




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