By Pete Ewing
President, WPRA
Many of you may not know that this is the second time I’ll serve as the WPRA president. The first time was 30 years ago.
It was an honor to have served my first two-year term. It’s an even greater honor to be asked to return to lead this dedicated and hard-working collective of “citizen activists,” a title one of our WPRA founders proudly claimed.
During my first term as president (1993-1994), I learned first-hand that whenever major issues arise, the Board and its members close ranks and march toward a desired result. For example, the WPRA:
- Halted the U.S. Army’s plans to turn the former Vista del Arroyo Hotel (now housing the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals) into a West Coast draft induction center.
- Opposed a proposal to plant high-rise condo units the corner of S. Orange Grove Boulevard and W. Green Street.
- Promoted a renewed community commitment to the City library system by supporting a special annual real property tax to help fund the central and branch libraries.
- Helped to negotiate the development scope of plans to develop the Ambassador College property. We were successful in whittling the project down from 927 condo units to 225.
- Helped block the National Football League from using the Rose Bowl Stadium.
- Helped thwart Metro’s and Caltrans’ plans for the 710 corridor.
And that takes us to the most recent major topic that will likely take up to as much as 10 years to complete: the re-envisioning, reconnecting and redeveloping the 50+ acre west Pasadena 710 corridor that Caltrans relinquished to the City in 2022.
We see it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Additionally, we believe that west Pasadena should have a place at the planning table. For more than six decades west Pasadena has had to contend with high traffic volumes and cut-through traffic, closed streets, gridlock, unsafe sidewalks, disrupted and blighted neighborhoods, and decades of subsequent neglect of this area. As WPRA Board member Rick Madden put it: “The 710 corridor IS west Pasadena.”
We hope you’ll join us as we help to determine how to best repurpose the land. But this is no sprint; rather, it’ll be a marathon. And it’ll be no easy task. But with your help we’ll get it right and be proud of what we collectively create.
Let us know your thoughts on these (and other) topics in an email to president@wpra.net.
