5

Mountain View News Saturday, May 31, 2025

Pasadena 
to Declare 
Day for Gun 
Violence 
Awareness

Pasadena Installs Pay-
By-Plate Parking Stations

SoCal Gaming Expo set to Level Up 
the Pasadena Convention Center 

 
Pasadena City Council 
is set Monday to issue a 
proclamation declaring 
June 6 National Gun 
Violence Awareness Day 
in Pasadena. This day 
honors and remembers 
victims and survivors of 
gun violence and supports 
efforts to prevent future 
gun violence.

 The proclamation will 
be received by Day One, 
a community-based 
nonprofit organization 
with a 30-year history of 
providing effective, high 
quality and culturally 
sensitive public health 
education; empowering 
youth; and igniting change 
in the San Gabriel Valley.

 National Gun Violence 
Awareness Day kicks off 
Wear Orange Weekend, 
June 6-8. This event is held 
annually in honor of Hadiya 
Pendleton, a 15-year-old 
who was shot and killed in 
Chicago in 2013, just one 
week after performing at 
President Obama’s second 
inauguration parade. Soon 
after this tragedy, Hadiya’s 
friends commemorated 
her life by wearing orange, 
the color hunters wear 
in the woods to protect 
themselves from others.

 The City of Pasadena 
encourages community 
members to wear orange 
June 6-8 in support of the 
gun violence prevention 
movement and to 
share photos on social 
media using the hashtag 
#WearOrange.

 City employees and 
Pasadena police officers 
will wear orange ribbons on 
Friday, June 6. In addition, 
a “remembering those lost 
to gun violence” banner 
will be installed outside at 
Robinson Park Recreation 
Center for visitors to add 
the name of their loved one.

 Free orange ribbons, 
stickers, and informational 
pamphlets will be 
distributed to the public on 
June 6 while supplies last 
from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the 
following locations:

Jackie Robinson 
Community Center,1020 
N. Fair Oaks Ave.

Robinson Park Recreation 
Center, 1081 N. Fair Oaks 
Ave.

Victory Park Recreation 
Center, 2575 Paloma St.

Villa Parke Community 
Center, 363 E. Villa St.

 Day One will hold a Safe 
Home component at the 
monthly Dena Home 
Market taking place on 
Sunday, June 1 from 1 - 4 
p.m. at 175 N. Euclid Ave. 
Day One Staff will distribute 
gun safety locks, engage in 
community conversation, 
and share gun safety best 
practices with the public.

 

 Director of Transportation, 
Joaquin Siques, announced 
Thursday that the department 
has begun installing new pay-
by-plate parking pay stations 
throughout Pasadena, 
eventually including the 
replacement of all existing 
pay-and-display pay stations 
and single space meters 
citywide.

 Seeking to provide 
parking meters for the 
new Playhouse Meter 
District, and to standardize 
parking meter technology 
city wide, the Department 
of Transportation issued 
a Request for Proposals 
for pay-by-plate parking 
pay stations in December 
2022. After reviewing the 
proposals, Cale America, dba 
Flowbird, was ranked as the 
best qualified proposer to 
meet the City’s requirements 
for new parkingThe image 
shows the Flowbird Pay-
by-Plate Parking Paystation 
license plate entry screen. 
The caption reads “Flowbird 
License Plate Entry Screen”, 
and the image displays 
the City of Pasadena logo, 
the date and time, and the 
alphabet. Text on the screen 
reads “Enter License Plate 
Number”. pay stations. City 
Council awarded the contract 
to Flowbird in June 2024.

 The new parking pay stations 
will replace all existing single 
space meters. Existing pay-
and-display pay stations will 
either be converted to pay-
by-plate technology with 
new hardware or replaced 
outright with brand new 
units.

 These new pay stations do 
not require parkers to return 
to their vehicle to display a 
permit. Instead, the parker 
enters their license plate 
into the pay station and no 
permit is required. Parkers 
can verify their license plate 
before payment and can pay 
with coin or with credit card. 
Receipts for the parking 
session are available with the 
push of a button.

 The department encourages 
anyone who has questions or 
needs more information to 
contact the Parking Division 
at parking@cityofpasadena.
net, or by calling (626) 744-
7665.


By Dean Lee

 With more vendors, and a 
third day added, this year’s 
SoCal Gaming Expo is set 
to see over 10,000 video 
gamming enthusiasts show 
up to buy, play and trade, at 
the Pasadena Convention 
Center next Friday, Saturday 
June 7, and Sunday June 8. 
This year the show will be 
sponsored by the Japanese 
video game company Sega. 

 This year’s Expo will have a 
bigger marketplace with over 
245 booths, owner and event 
organizer, Kris Krohn, said. 
“Last year we had around 200, 
it’s up by about 15 percent.”

 Some venders travel from 
all over the country including 
Las Vegas. Ludin Romero, a 
first time vender at this year’s 
Expo has plans to open a 
video game store in Las Vegas.

 “SoCal is going to be the 
first step [opining a store] 
to see how it is, hopefully 
monetarily a big jump, my 
sales will determine that, my 
goal is to open next year,” 
Romero said. As of now, “the 
store would be called, ‘Lu 
Dog Games.’ but that could 
change.” 

 Romero will be vending 
at booth 930 under Lu Dog 
Games. 

 One of the largest venders 
to be at this year’s Expo will 
be Anthony Torres who 
runs Retro Infinite, a smaller 
monthly buy sell trade event 
at The Derby Room at the 
Pomona Fairplex. Torres said 
he will have as many as ten 
booths set up in the middle of 
the show floor.

 “I think there is a place for 
both the smaller meet ups 
and the bigger conventions, 
he said. “My show is four 
hours, its kind of like a popup, 
compared to a full weekend.” 

 With panels discussions, 
music, cosplay meet ups, 
skate ramp demos, and 
tournaments, new this year 
will be a number of industry 
guests that include Warren 
Davis the developer of 
the arcade classic, Q*bert, 
David Crane the creator of 
Activision’s Pitfall for the 
Atari 2600, Garry Kitchen 
who programed the home 
version of Donkey Kong for 
Atari and his brother Dan 
Kitchen who has produced 
over 240 commercially 
released games.

 Krohn said this year they 
focused on having high 
quality guest voice actors such 
as, Ned Luke, Shawn “Solo” 
Fonteno and Young Maylay 
all from the popular video 
game Grand Theft Auto. 

 Krohn also said they will host 
the largest Super Mario Bros. 
Speedrunning Tournament 
ever.

 He also said that it was 
unique that Sega would team 
up with a retro gaming show.

 “We coordinated with Sega, 
they have a new Shinobi 
game coming out in August,” 
Krohn said. “There is going 
to be a huge Shinobi banner 
in the lobby, all of the show 
badges and lanyards will have 
Shinobi. They will be photo 
ops with Shinobi cutouts.” 

 Krohn also said he found it 
ironic that Nintendo will be 
released their long awaited 
new gaming system the 
Switch 2 on Thursday, just 
one day before the Expo.

 “You are probably going to 
see hundreds of Switch 2s 
in people’s hands walking 
around or siting playing with 
them,” he said. “It could be 
the talk of the show.” 

 As for other activities, 
featured skaters will include 
Nigel Jones best known as one 
of the Braille’s skateboarding 
YouTube channel team, 
Spicey Ivey, she’ll be tearing 
up the half pipe on roller 
skates and Aaron “JAWS” 
Homoki a legendary pro 
skater.

 All skateboarding demos will 
again be held on the Teenage 
Mutant Ninja Turtles ramp, 
built for a TMNT movie 
premiere. 

 The Classic Tetris World 
Championship Finals will 
return to the Expo and feature 
128 players competing for a 
chance at the world title.

 Homoki will also be 
competing in the Classic 
Tetris World Championship. 

 Krohn said they would again 
hold charity auctions for 
Extra Life. All of the stuff will 
be donated and 100 percent of 
the money goes to Extra Life. 
It will be hosted by Captain’s 
Auctions in Anaheim. Extra 
Life is a fundraising program 
of Children’s Miracle Network 
Hospitals.

 For more information and a 
complete show schedule visit: 
socalretrogamingexpo.com.

 For more information about 
Extra Life visit: extra-life.org.

 Dates and times for Retro 
Infinite can be found at 
#RetroInfinite on Instagram.

 Expo organizers, Aaron Stapish (right) and Kris Krohn (left)

Etta Mae Mumphries at the 
Pasadena Senior Center

Free E-Waste 
Recycling 
Items Event

 

 Feel the need for a little more 
laughter and joy in your life? 
Maybe some encouragement? 
Etta Mae Mumphries is here 
for you! She tells it like it is, and 
the rest is history. The Pasadena 
Senior Center welcomes back 
actor Karen Bankhead’s alter ego 
and encourager extraordinaire 
for another delightful visit.

Miss Etta Mae will share some 
of her stories Thursday, June 5, 
at 2 p.m. at the Pasadena Senior 
Center, 85 E. Holly St.

A fount of wisdom, Miss Etta 
Mae has met and influenced 
exceptional people throughout 
her extraordinarily long life, 
from Josephine Baker to Dr. 
Martin Luther King Jr.

Veteran actress and screenwriter 
Karen Bankhead studied at 
Second City, was a member 
of The Groundlings Sunday 
Company and was cofounder, 
producer, writer and performer 
with groundbreaking improv 
groups such as Hold the Cream 
and Foxy, Fine and Funny. She 
has been a cast member in plays 
in four states from California 
to New York and received the 
NAACP Theatre Award for 
Best Supporting Actress in 
2020 for her role as the flower 
child Wanda in the play “Three 
Times a Lady,” which made its 
national debut in Los Angeles. 
She has performed stand-up 
at such renowned clubs as The 
Comedy Store, The Ice House 
and The Improv. Bankhead 
has played a variety of roles 
on television shows, including 
“Will & Grace,” “Curb Your 
Enthusiasm,” “Gilmore Girls,” 
“Grey’s Anatomy” and many 
more.

 The program is free for members 
and $5 for nonmembers 50 and 
older. Residence in Pasadena 
is not required. To register or 
for more information, visit: 
pasadenaseniorcenter.org and 
click on Activities & Events, 
then Special Events or call 626-
795-4331. 

 Officials have announced that 
Pasadena residents can safely 
dispose of electronics at the 
city’s free e-waste event from 
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, 
June 7. The event will be held 
in Parking Lot I outside the 
Rose Bowl Stadium near 
Brookside Park, 360 North 
Arroyo Blvd. The duration of 
the event is subject to truck 
capacity.

 E-waste items include 
computers, keyboards, 
printers, monitors, laptops, 
docking stations, scanners, 
shredders, fax machines, 
computer mice, telephones, 
televisions, flat screens, 
VCRs, DVD players, PDAs, 
cassette players, tape drives, 
stereos. Household batteries, 
fluorescent light bulbs, and 
LED light bulbs are also 
accepted. 

 Public Works is also helping 
residents prevent identity 
theft by providing free 
paper shredding during the 
event. The public can bring a 
maximum of three (3) legal-
size boxes for shredding. 
Sensitive documents such as 
receipts, checks, pre-approved 
credit applications, credit 
card statements, outdated tax 
returns, pre-printed envelopes, 
return address labels and 
business cards are items 
that can be shredded. Please 
remove documents from ring 
binders and bulldog/binder 
clips.

 For more information, call 
(626) 744-7311 or email 
recycle@cityofpasadena.net.

 
Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com