Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 1, 2013

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, June 1, 2013 


Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia 
to be Held Sunday

Elderly 
Man Goes 
Missing

 More than a thousand 
participants are expected from 
all over the States and beyond to 
participate in the second a Giro 
d’Italia this Sunday. Organizers 
say the event will offer a fairly 
urban experience and a great 
opportunity to ride the distance, 
while experiencing the full 
flavor of a Giro d’Italia event.

 “We are very pleased to 
welcome the Gran Fondo Giro 
d’Italia back to Pasadena,” said 
Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard. 
“Last year’s inaugural event was 
a huge success, and we expect 
the 2013 ride to attract even 
more participants. Cycling is a 
vital component of Pasadena’s 
transportation plan. Named 
the most bike-friendly city in 
LA County, Pasadena is home 
to 50 miles of bike routes. With 
the city’s passion for cycling 
and the spirit of Italy filling 
our streets, this Gran Fondo is 
destined to be the best yet.”

 In the three courses presented 
this year (25, 68 and 94 miles 
with a maximum of 5134 
vertical gain and 7.7 % max 
grade): picturesque mountain 
views of the San Gabriel Valley 
and an opportunity to ride 
through cycling friendly towns 
like Claremont, Monrovia, 
Temple City, and some of 
the most remarkable natural 
reserves of the area. The long 
ride goes through the campus of 
Scripps and Pomona Colleges, 
past the Huntington Library 
and Botanical Gardens, and 
through charming communities 
in Eastern LA County. Other 
cities included are: Arcadia, 
Azusa and Glendora, La Verne 
and a thigh-burning climb, 
Claremont, Covina, San Dimas 
and the great regional Bonelli 
Park. 

 All three courses start and end 
at Pasadena City Hall. The event 
begins at 7:00 a.m.


Project at Vacant Lumber Yard Proposed 

 Police say they are still 
looking for a man that 
went missing after walking 
away from a Pasadena care 
facility May 24. They have 
asked anyone who may 
know where he is to call 
detectives. 

 Manuel Rojas, male 
Hispanic 73, walked away 
from a facility, in the 1800 
block of North Fair Oaks 
Ave, at about 10:00 p.m. He 
was last seen in that area 
police said.

 Rojas, 5 feet 7 inches, 190 
lbs., with gray hair suffers 
from dementia but is able to 
communicate. 

He was last seen wearing a 
red jacket, dark pants and 
white shoes. 

 His destination was not 
known and he does not 
have family that lives in the 
area police said. Anyone 
seeing someone resembling 
or matching his description 
is asked to please notify 
the Pasadena Police 
Department by calling 911 
or (626) 744-4241.

By Dean Lee

 The city council got a first look 
last week at a new mixed-use 
project proposal that would 
demolish the closed Davis 
Lumber building on East Walnut 
Street and close off Meridith 
Avenue to make way for 5,000 
square feet of retail/restaurant 
space and 203 parking spaces 
among other things.

 The 80,895 square foot project 
would have two buildings 
over one-level of subterranean 
parking. 

 According to a city staff 
report, the west side of the site 
would have a 39-foot tall, three-
story building with 15 rental 
apartment units. On the east 
side of the site would be a 58-
foot tall, four-story building 
with 5,000 square feet of ground 
floor commercial space and 
113 rental apartment units. 44 
of the 203 total parking spaces 
would be located on the ground 
level. “These spaces would be 
allocated for residential guest 
parking and the commercial 
tenant customers. Access to the 
site would occur from Walnut 
Street along a private driveway 
where Meridith Avenue is 
currently located. There would 
be no access to/from Allen 
Avenue.” 

 The city’s Director of Planning 
and Community Development 
Department, David Reyes, 
said a number of changes 
had been made based on staff 
recommendations including 
reducing the west side building 
units from 25 to 15 and reducing 
the height of the from 45 feet tall 
to 39 feet tall. On the west, the 
overall number of units went up 
from 103 to 113 he said. Parking 
was also reduced from 217 to 
203.

 “This is a pioneer project in 
this neighborhood,” District 
2 Councilmember Margaret 
McAustin said. “The design will 
be very important… we will 
get a lot of interest from the 
community.”

The project is within walking 
distance from the Allen Gold 
Line station and meets the 
city’s requirements for transit 
oriented development. 

 AMCAL Equities, Inc. has 
submitted a formal Conditional 
Use Permit for the changes staff 
said. The project is in the early 
stages and needs approval from 
the planning commission and 
city council.


Holden’s Bill 
Heads to the 
Governor for 
Signature

Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia 2012

 Assemblymember Chris 
Holden’s bill to standardize 
the start date of newly elected 
Municipal Water District 
Directors has been approved 
by the State Legislature and is 
now on its way to Governor 
Brown for signature. It is 
the first bill from freshman 
Assemblymember and 
Majority Whip Holden 
(D-Pasadena) to pass the 
legislative process.

 Assemblymember Holden 
applauded his colleagues’ 
bipartisan support “for 
this common sense, good 
government bill designed to 
limit the ‘lame duck’ term 
for outgoing Water District 
Directors.” Holden added, 
“This bill will ensure water 
districts are able to move 
swiftly between terms and 
critical business is not delayed 
unnecessarily.”

 The problem: Newly elected 
directors of California Water 
Districts take office on the first 
Friday in December, while 
those elected to Municipal 
Water Districts must wait until 
the first Monday after January 
1st, making it difficult to 
proceed with municipal water 
business until new members 
are seated some 60 days later.

 Testifying in favor of the bill 
was sponsor, Three Valleys 
Municipal Water District 
President Bob Kuhn, who 
noted following the hearing, 
“We are pleased with the 
Legislature’s positive response 
to AB 72. The bill establishes 
good governance for all 
Municipal Water Districts 
and we urge the Governor 
to sign this valuable piece of 
Legislation.”

 AB 72 passed the Senate 
on May 24th by unanimous 
consent. It was approved in 
the Assembly earlier this year. 
If signed by the Governor, it 
will into effect January 1, 2014.

Symphony/POPS CEO Joins 
Music School Advisory Board

Bowl to Host Open House 

 
The Neighborhood Music 
School in Boyle Heights 
announced today that Paul 
Jan Zdunek, Chief Executive 
Officer of the Pasadena 
Symphony and POPS, has 
joined the NMS Advisory 
Board.

 “We are very pleased Paul 
accepted our offer to visit 
the Neighborhood Music 
School, take a tour with 
Bernard Leon our office 
manager, meet with members 
of our board of directors 
and Wendy Kikkert, our 
administrator, and accept our 
offer to be on our honorary 
Advisory Board. Paul is a 
leader in music and the arts 
in Southern California, and 
has done a tremendous job 
at enhancing the value of 
the Pasadena Symphony and 
POPS as a beloved part of the 
Pasadena and San Gabriel 
Valley community. We hope 
with his wise counsel and 
sharing of ideas

we’ll be able to do the same 
for the Neighborhood Music 
School and the Boyle Heights 
community we serve,” 
said Jeff De Francisco, the 
chairman of the NMS Board 
of Directors and a Pasadena 
based attorney.

 Growing up on the streets in 
Baltimore and being ‘saved’ 
by a Boy Choir Director, I 
know firsthand the power 
of music and the Arts in a 
child’s life. I’m pleased to 
be a resource to NMS in all 
they do to transform the 
community,” said Paul Jan 
Zdunek.


‘Intimate 
Science’ 
Exhibition 
Opens

 “Intimate Science,” an 
exhibition showcasing 
contemporary artists 
conducting projects in 
scientific and technological 
domains, opens at Art Center 
College of Design’s Alyce de 
Roulet Williamson Gallery, 
Hillside Campus, Intimate 
Science will be on view from 
May 31 - August 18. For more 
information on the event, 
visit Art Center’s Williamson 
Gallery web site: http://
www.williamsongallery.net/
intimatescience

 Milestone in renovation 
of historic stadium will 
be celebrated with ribbon 
cutting, open house on 
Saturday, June 8 

 The iconic Rose Bowl Stadium 
will open its doors to the 
public for a special look inside 
the new Pavilion, the apex of 
the 90-year-old landmark’s 
renovation. 

 Mayor Bill Bogaard, members 
of the City Council and the 
Rose Bowl Operating Company 
Board of Directors will host the 
open house on Saturday, June 8. 
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 
2 p.m., with a ribbon cutting at 
noon. 

 “With the completion of 
the Pavilion, Pasadena has 
achieved a milestone,” Bogaard 
said. “We’re proud to share 
this wonderful moment with 
the citizens and businesses 
of our community who have 
supported this ambitious 
project from the start.” 

 The Pavilion houses the 
Stadium’s premium seating, as 
well as a state-of-the–art press 
box, sound system and security 
operations. Although portions 
of the structure were open in 
time for the 2012 football season 
and the Jan. 1, 2013, Rose Bowl 
Game, the open house marks 
the first public viewing of the 
Pavilion since its substantial 
completion this spring. 

 In addition to the Pavilion, 
the $181 million renovation 
includes improved access 
into and out of the Stadium, a 
state-of-the-art video board, 
reconstruction of the Rose 
Bowl’s 1940s vintage scoreboard 
and needed improvements 
to the 90-year-old building’s 
infrastructure. 

 In January 2014, the Rose 
Bowl will host its fourth BCS 
Championship Game. 

 Visitors to the open house 
and ribbon cutting are asked to 
enter through Gate F and follow 
the directional signs. 

 To RSVP or for more 
information, please contact 
Mary Henderson at (626) 577-
3107.

Pet of the 
Week


WISE Mission Identifies 
New Asteroid Families

 

 Data from NASA’s Wide-
field Infrared Survey Explorer 
(WISE) have led to a new 
and improved family tree 
for asteroids in the main belt 
between Mars and Jupiter JPL 
scientists announced this week.

 Astronomers used millions 
of infrared snapshots from 
the asteroid-hunting portion 
of the WISE all-sky survey, 
called NEOWISE, to identify 
28 new asteroid families. The 
snapshots also helped place 
thousands of previously hidden 
and uncategorized asteroids 
into families for the first time. 
The findings are a critical step 
in understanding the origins 
of asteroid families, and the 
collisions thought to have 
created these rocky clans.

 “NEOWISE has given us 
the data for a much more 
detailed look at the evolution of 
asteroids throughout the solar 
system,” said Lindley Johnson, 
the program executive for the 
Near-Earth Object Observation 
Program at NASA Headquarters 
in Washington. “This will help 
us trace the NEOs back to their 
sources and understand how 
some of them have migrated to 
orbits hazardous to the Earth.”

 The main asteroid belt is a 
major source of near-Earth 
objects (NEOs), which are those 
asteroids and comets that come 
within 28 million miles (45 
million kilometers) of Earth’s 
path around the sun. Some near-
Earth objects start out in stable 
orbits in the main asteroid belt, 
until a collision or gravitational 
disturbance flings them inward 

like flippers in a game of pinball.

 The NEOWISE team 
looked at about 120,000 
main belt asteroids out of the 
approximately 600,000 known. 
They found that about 38,000 of 
these objects, roughly one third 
of the observed population, 
could be assigned to 76 families, 
28 of which are new. In addition, 
some asteroids thought to 
belong to a particular family 
were reclassified.

 “We’re separating zebras from 
the gazelles,” said Joseph Masiero 
of NASA’s Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., 
who is lead author of a report 
on the new study that appears 
in the Astrophysical Journal. 
“Before, family members were 
harder to tell apart because they 
were traveling in nearby packs. 
But now we have a better idea of 
which asteroid belongs to which 
family.”

 The next step for the team is 
to learn more about the original 
parent bodies that spawned the 
families.

 “It’s as if you have shards 
from a broken vase, and you 
want to put it back together to 
find out what happened,” said 
Amy Mainzer, the NEOWISE 
principal investigator at JPL. 
“Why did the asteroid belt form 
in the first place and fail to 
become a planet? We are piecing 
together our asteroids’ history.”

 More information about the 
mission is online at: http://www.
nasa.gov/wise .

 Quinn is a three-year-
old tan Siamese cat. She’s 
very calm and mellow. She 
enjoys being held too. 

 Quinn’s adoption fee is 
$70, which includes her 
spay surgery, a microchip, 
the first set of vaccinations, 
as well as a free follow-
up health check at a 
participating vet. New 
adopters will receive 
complimentary health and 
wellness exam from VCA 
Animal Hospitals, as well 
as a goody bag filled with 
information on how to 
care for your pet. Ask an 
adoptions counselor for 
more information during 
your visit 

 Call the Pasadena 
Humane Society & SPCA at 
626.792.7151 to ask about 
A325668, or visit at 361 S. 
Raymond Ave. in Pasadena. 
Adoption hours are 11-4 
Sunday, 9-5 Tuesday –
Friday, 9-4 Saturday. Pets 
may not be available for 
adoption and cannot be 
held for potential adopters 
from phone calls or email. 
Directions and photos of all 
pets can be found at www.
pasadenahumane.org.

Chu Calls for Recognition 
of Armenian Genocide

Register 

Your Classic 
for Car Show

 


Last week Congresswoman 
Judy Chu cosponsored H. 
Res. 227 that urges President 
Obama to work towards 
stable and durable Armenian-
Turkish relations based on 
the Republic of Turkey’s full 
acknowledgement of the 
Armenian Genocide of 1915 
and its ongoing consequences. 
Rep. Chu released the following 
statement: 

 “The Armenian Genocide 
claimed 1.5 million lives. Able-
bodied men were massacred 
or forced into labor. Women, 
children, the elderly and the 
sick were sent on death marches 
that spanned hundreds of miles. 
Those who survived were often 
separated from their loved ones, 
and left behind the only homes 
they had ever known.

 “The only way to describe 
such atrocities is genocide. We 
owe it to those who were lost, 
their loved ones, and the few 
remaining survivors to push for 
proper recognition of this event 
in the international community.

 “I am committed to seeing 
Congress do just that by 
passing this resolution. I am 
proud to have co-sponsored 
this legislation every Congress, 
and will continue to do so 
until it receives the vote that 
the Armenian people deserve. 
America’s commitment to 
human rights is absolute, and 
we have a duty to recognize 
this tragedy, and to remind 
the world that mass murder 
and destruction must not be 
ignored.”

 The Pasadena Police 
Department will be hosting 
our annual classic car show in 
conjunction with the Pasadena 
Chalk Festival. Vehicles will 
line Green Street at the Paseo 
Colorado between Marengo 
Ave. and Euclid Ave. and 
there will be prizes, food, 
live entertainment raffles and 
mostly fun.

Only pre-1974 cars allowed

 12th Annual Classic Car 
Show Sunday, June 16 from 
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

 For more information go 
to www.cityofpasadena.net/
police , or email callen@
cityofpasadena.net or call 
(626)744-7656. 

 Entries will not be accepted 
without complete information, 
payment, and signature.

 All Proceeds Benefit the 
Police Activities League, 
Pasadena Explorer Program, 
and the Haven House.