West Pasadena Residents’ Association

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The 2021 West Pasadena Residents’ Association Annual Meeting

On May 27, 2021, the West Pasadena Residents’ Association held its virtual annual meeting and informational program. This year we took a deep dive into the current topic many people are concerned about: our state’s housing shortage and how it severely affects California’s urban centers.

Two video program versions were placed on YouTube for public viewing.

CLICK HERE for the replay of the entire annual meeting.

CLICK HERE for the housing content only without WPRA’s business segment.

We kicked off our meeting with Dan Beal’s president’s message…

Dan Beal, WPRA President

…and then we presented WPRA’s Community Service Awards to Rosa Laveaga, former Arroyo Seco Project Supervisor and to Priscilla Taylor who recently retired from our board after serving 26 years.

WPRA Board Director, Joan Hearst & Rosa Laveaga
WPRA President Dan Beal & Priscilla Taylor

We elected our 2021 to 2022 Board of Directors and moved on to our discussion topic: The Housing Crisis: How do we build our way out of the housing shortage, and especially affordable housing?  

We started our focus on our local planning challenges within Pasadena, expanding the conversation to the LA County area and then widening the analysis even further to state legislation. Moderating was Avram Gold, WPRA Vice President of Communications. WPRA Treasurer, Blaine Cavena handled the webinar engineering as Tech Director.

Avram Gold, Moderator
WPRA’s treasure Blaine Cavena
Blaine Cavena, Tech Director

Our lineup of introductory speakers were:

Mayor Victor Gordo
Council member Steve Madison
LA County Supervisor,
Cathryn Barger
State Assembly member,
Chris Holden

We then followed these four reports with a panel discussion. Our special guest panelists were:

Senator Anthony Portantino
Pasadena Planning Director,
David Reyes
Non-profit developer,
Robin Hughes
Non-profit developer,
Charles Loveman

Topics discussed were: more production vs the reach for more land, the lack of current state funding and existing county subsidies, the struggle to finance affordable housing, state vs local control, gentrification, communication breakdowns in Sacramento, developer influence and lobbying, and ending with the question: Will there really be a reduced demand for cars in the future?

WPRA Letter to State Housing Committee Supporting SB 15

The WPRA supports Senate Bill 15, which would incentivize local governments to rezone idle big-box retail and commercial shopping centers for housing by providing grants based on the sales and use tax revenue that had been generated by those sites.

2021_03_12-WPRA_Ltr-Supporting-SB-15Download

WPRA’s 2020 Annual Open Board Meeting

Online though Zoom – November 17, 2020  

WPRA’s 2020 Annual Open Board Meeting panel discussion

PASADENA AND DISASTERS – Just before and just after

On November 17, 2020, the West Pasadena Residents’ Association hosted its annual open meeting, a webinar featuring a presentation of special guests, our president’s message, the election of incoming officers and directors, then culminating with our informational panel discussion about disaster preparedness.

Avram Gold, WPRA VP and MC of program
Avram Gold, WPRA Communications VP

Avram Gold, WPRA vice president, opened the program with a welcome to all and the introduction of: (from left to right) Mayor Terry Tornek, Mayor-elect Victor Gordo, Councilmember Steve Madison, and our 28th District Congressman, Adam Schiff.

  • Pasadena mayor Terry Tornek
  • Pasadena mayor-elect Victor Gordo
  • District 6 councilman Steve Madison
  • Congressman Adam Schiff

Mayor Tornek, Mayor-elect Gordo, Councilmember Madison and Congressman Schiff each conveyed statements and information to our attendees.

Mr. Gold conducted the on-line voting process of our next WPRA officers and board members. WPRA’s attending residents elected unanimously: Dan Beal, president – Evan Davis, Administrative Vice President – Avram Gold, Communications Vice President – Blaine Cavena, Treasurer, and Kenyon Harbison, secretary. Our continuing Board of Directors became: Geoffrey Baum, David Bise, Bill Christian, Peter Ewing, Mic Hansen, Joan Hearst, Susan Kinney, Nancy Walker and Linda Zinn.

WPRA President, Dan Beal, then delivered his annual message.
WPRA president Dan Beal
Dan Beal, WPRA president

Kenyon Harbison, past WPRA president and newly elected secretary, introduced the evening’s expert panelists for the disaster preparedness program. The speakers were, from left to right: Pasadena Fire Chief, Bryan Frieders – Pasadena Public Information Officer, Lisa Derderian – Huntington Hospital Disaster Program Manager, Jennifer Waldron and Pasadena Police Lieutenant, Johnny Mercado (image unavailable).

  • WPRA past president Kenyon Harbison
  • Pasadena Fire Chief, Bryan Frieders
  • Pasadena Public Information Officer, Lisa Derderian
  • Huntington Hospital Disaster Program Manager, Jennifer Waldron

Blaine Cavena, WPRA’s treasure, served as an excellent technical director featuring speakers in the full screen while controlling audio feeds.

WPRA’s treasure Blaine Cavena
Blaine Cavena, WPRA treasurer

After presentations followed by questions and answers, our program ended promptly at 8:00 PM.

Joint Letter to Council regarding RHNA Appeal

Linda Vista-Annandale Association, Madison Heights Neighborhood Association & WPRA continue to support Pasadena appealing the SCAG draft 2021-2029 RHNA allocation resulting in an untenable number of out-of-scale, out-of-character, dense, large buildings with related traffic and other infrastructure impacts.