Pasadena Star News - December 22, 2001

Thanks, readers! We've now received over 50 letters and many more phone calls and backslaps on the street over my column and a subsequent Star-News editorial calling for the Cirque du Soleil to be invited once again to our town.

The polite Quebecois troupe of tumbling and artistic genius, you will recall, withdrew its bid to pitch its big top in Brookside Park south of the Rose Bowl after its leaders heard that there might be some opposition from Arroyo Seco neighbors.

It's understandable. Since the whole world loves this acrobatic circus, and every city imaginable wants it, Cirque du Soleil knows it can have its pick of dozens of other Southern California cities for its upcoming March and April shows.

What the Montreal-based group didn't know was that the so-called opposition among Pasadenans amounts to probably less than a dozen people, some of whom control the official stands of my own neighborhood group, the Linda Vista-Annandale Association.

Over a thousand people belong to the LVAA, but its membership was not in any way polled on the Cirque du Soleil. If it were, I'd bet the naysayers a big fat lunch at the Athenaeum that the overwhelming majority of our neighbors would be in favor of being able to enjoy the Cirque in our backyard next year.

Many of the letters and calls we received were from Arroyo Seco-area residents, including quite a few Linda Vistans, outraged at the fact that so very few had scared this high-art entertainment from our city.

We received precisely two letters in opposition to Cirque du Soleil coming to Brookside, both from LVAA leaders and both of which we published right away. That's right: two. (Both writers are smart, caring and otherwise reasonable people, by the way. Everyone should be allowed to be in the cranky mini-minority on one civic issue.)

But letters in support continue to come in literally every day. One e-mail that arrived Friday from Ann and Duane Allen of Pasadena was beautifully concise: "Cirque du Soleil -- oui, oui, oui."

And in response to our little campaign, the Pasadena City Council on Monday instructed Mayor Bill Bogaard to write a letter tout de suite to Cirque du Soleil reinviting it to Pasadena. We now know for sure the Cirque would be welcomed with open arms and a standing ovation here. Please continue to write in to show your support for the circus of the sun in the park.

Speaking of the arts, I want to congratulate Pasadena schools Superintendent Percy Clark for the boldness with which he's approaching his idea of creating an arts magnet school at the old McKinley campus in downtown Pasadena.

It's already plain that Dr. Clark is smack dab in the Rick Cole school of governance. You'll recall the former mayor used to frequently quote somebody or another -- I looked it up and it's sketchily attributed to architect Daniel Burnham -- as saying "Make no small plans." It goes on, it turns out: "They have no magic to stir men's blood."

So, rather than trying to merely test the waters, run it up the flagpole to see who salutes, other bureaucratic strategies, Clark is jumping right into the river with his plan. Can he lead us across? We'll see. But I love it that he wants this school to open in the fall of 2002. That means applications have to be taken this coming spring. That means there has to be a school there to attend.

Right now most of McKinley has been long-shuttered; it's also home to the continuation Rose City High, the Children's Center for the Arts and the Arroyo Theater. That plus frequent filming by "Boston Public," which likes the look of its bathrooms, probably because they appear so, well, urban. To bring some 500 kids there full time in September will take a miracle. But, what the hey?

Longtime administrator Bill Bibbiani, leading a group of us through McKinley early this month, calls it the "Ready! Fire! Aim!" strategy.

"So -- you think it's too fast-track?"

"No, no, no!" he exclaimed, looking as happy as if he'd found a classic '65 BSA under the Christmas tree. "I mean, what have we got to lose?"

Nothing but the image of a moribund school district that doesn't know how to market itself.

Wouldn't it be a kick to find outsiders applying to get IN to the PUSD?

-- Larry Wilson is editor of the Pasadena Star-News. Write him at larry.wilson@sgvn.com.