Seen on Meridian St in South Pasadena across from an open house for CNU attendees at Mission Meridian.
Someone (whose name escapes me, as names tend to) spent a few hours talking with the neighbors at the little block party reception they were having. Turns out they’re longtime neighborhood activists, having gotten 30+ years of practice at it while campaigning against the not-dead-yet 710 freeway (which would wipe out 1/3 of South Pasadena). Overall, the neighbors admitted that they preferred residential development to the long-vacant lot. The main issue is indeed the trees: despite repeated assurances from both the developer and the town planning officials, a row of truly giant street trees all came down just a few weeks ago — well after major construction was done. The developer’s people said that the trees were diseased; they’re 80 years into their 100-year life expectancy, and have been badly pruned in recent years. (I also have a photo of the street trees up on Flickr.)
A secondary issue is the bulk of the loft building. It is indeed a few feet higher than anything else in the vicinity, and retaining those trees would have done a lot to mask that bulk. Apparently, they really like the Craftsman maisonettes, which are a great way to insert density into the low-scale context.
However, the escalation of the attacks from one development and a half-dozen trees to the whole of New Urbanism, and the loaded addition of “terrorism,” is just inexcusable rhetoric.
west north 