It’s time for Pasadena to lead the charge against Sacramento’s one-size-fits-all approach 

Like many of you, I recognize that California faces a housing emergency and I support the State’s goal of increasing residential units to meet current demand, if Pasadena’s zoning rules and design standards are allowed to apply.

As a council member, I have supported the construction of affordable housing in my district, personally leading the fight to replace two nuisance liquor stores with high quality, affordable housing developments that were compatible with and supported by the surrounding neighbors.  In fact, District 5 has among the highest number of affordable units in the city – 431 and counting, which house over 200 low-income families and seniors.

For many years, the City of Pasadena has been a leader among cities in the development of affordable housing.  Our Housing Department recently received national recognition for creative use of “in lieu” fees which created many more affordable units than we otherwise would have.

In focusing on building these quality affordable homes, we have honored our city’s zoning rules and have preserved the character of our neighborhoods.

Yet, if the Legislature and Governor have their way, none of this will matter. Pasadena will lose control over what its neighborhoods will look and feel like.

In the rush to build even more affordable housing, Sacramento lawmakers just enacted a package of nine piecemeal laws that effectively usurp local control and threaten to end single-family residential zoning.  

While I agree with the goals in these new laws, Sacramento bureaucrats should not be able to override Pasadena’s local creativity and control.  

Instead of forcing one-size-fits-all requirements on cities, Sacramento should recognize that Pasadena’s local residents and locally elected representatives work together to balance the interests of homeowners, renters, businesses and historic preservation while increasing our stock of affordable housing.  We also are better equipped locally to address the politically difficult decisions on how equitably to distribute units throughout the City instead of continuing to concentrate them in one area, where 75% currently exist. 

The only way to get local control back over housing and zoning is by challenging Sacramento. 

The City of San Mateo recently challenged one of the laws that requires municipalities to offer their surplus public land for affordable housing, no matter how unsuitable, before using it for other purposes. 

Because the League of California Cities opted not to join the legal challenge, San Mateo was left alone in its challenge. 

As one of the state’s most respected charter cities, I believe Pasadena needs to step up and join the fight.

Like San Mateo, however, we can’t do it alone.  

That’s why I’m calling on my Council colleagues to rejoin the San Gabriel Council of Governments (COG). 

The COG is the strategic planning and sub-regional governmental agency representing 2.3 million residents of the San Gabriel Valley. Its members include three Los Angeles County supervisorial districts, three local water districts, and 30 member cities.

It secures funding and coordinates efforts on common issues related to transportation, homelessness, housing, air quality, green energy, and environmental matters.

Unfortunately, in March 2018 Pasadena under the current mayor, pulled out of the COG. I voted against it at the time because it was a bad idea. It made absolutely no sense to isolate ourselves from our neighbors while trying to battle these issues, which do not respect city limits.

It still doesn’t make sense – especially as we contemplate going to court to uphold the right under the California Constitution to maintain local control over zoning decisions. 

We must reverse the bad decision to leave this regional planning body so we can join forces with neighboring public officials to regain local control.

Just as homelessness and sky-high rent don’t respect city boundaries, neither should our collective responses. The only way to end this crisis is to join forces with other municipalities, making sure we’re all doing our part.

It’s time for Pasadena once again to lead the charge against Sacramento’s one-size-fits-all approach. 

But we can’t – and shouldn’t – do it alone.

Iker, an English-language-learner, enrolled at the age of 3 in the Pasadena-based Families Forward Learning Center. At the beginning he was quiet, reserved, and mostly kept to himself.

But he began to flourish after continuous exposure to ideas, learning, and engaged classmates. Gaining confidence, Iker asked his teachers to read to him daily, and he followed up with smart, inquisitive questions.  

One day his teacher read him a book titled If, which imagines a series of unlikely combinations, such as “If worms had wheels.” When asked to come up with his own “if sentences” -- a complex cognitive task for a preschooler -- Iker produced an impressive list of 22 combinations, including “If snow lived in the stars.” With his thirst for knowledge and foundational skills learned at Families Forward, Iker is now ready for kindergarten. 

Iker’s experience in a quality early education program should be the norm for all students in Pasadena. 

But new research indicates that this is far from the case. 

Of the city’s approximately 8,275 residents under the age of 5, an estimated 20 percent don’t have preschool experience, and of those that do get the opportunity, not all have access to a  program that delivers the necessary preparation and foundation. 

Local data from the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a kindergarten readiness measurement tool, offer a vivid example of the challenges the city faces in preparing children from the earliest moments to success in school and life. According to the most recent EDI survey, conducted in 2017, 48 % of kindergarteners entering the Pasadena Unified School District were considered “not on track,” or underprepared for kinder. 

Even worse, the number of underprepared kids has risen since the first EDI survey in 2013. 

While these data points are obviously troubling, the good news is that Pasadena has in place a road map to provide every young child in the city with quality early childhood care and education. 

In March 2015, the City Council prioritized early childhood education by voting unanimously to designate Pasadena as an “Early Learning City” by 2025. 

The resolution was accompanied by “The Master Plan for the Young Child,” which outlined eight designated building blocks to become an Early Learning City. They included actions such as creating parent engagement and family supports, aligning system for young children and providing access to high-quality early education experiences. 

But the rise in the number of children entering kinder underprepared indicates that the city is not in step with either its 2015 resolution or Master Plan road map. To officially become an Early Learning City by 2025, city leaders must reaffirm their commitment to early learning.

Next month, the City Council will vote on the budget for 2019–2020, which provides an opportunity for Pasadena to demonstrate that it values its youngest residents and has recommitted to the Master Plan. We urge that the members support an increase in funding for early childhood education. 

The benefits to our communities are both immediate – as in the case of Iker being ready for kindergarten – and longer term. 

According to just-released research from Nobel Laureate James Heckman, the benefits of attending high quality preschool spans generations. The data show that even the children of those who attended high quality preschool are also better educated, healthier, better employed and more likely to remain stably married.  This is an outcome we desire for all Pasadena families, and research clearly shows that supporting early care and education is one of the best ways to achieve it. 

Early childhood education is also an important component of the effort to reduce poverty among the youngest and most vulnerable members of our population. According to End Child Poverty in California, nearly two million children (1 in 5) across the state are experiencing poverty, the highest rate in the nation. 

As part of its plan to address this crisis, Child Poverty in California recommends “guaranteed access to early care education for children 0-8 living in poverty.” The same urgency applies to Pasadena, where approximately 19 percent of children live below the poverty level. 

In our own city, providing all children the access to quality preschool makes it more likely our poorest neighborhoods and communities can one day break the cycle of poverty. 

As part of the 2015 resolution designating Pasadena an “Early Learning City” by 2025, the council also adopted an Early Child Development Policy.  The current members of the council would do well to remember these words from the policy as they weigh priorities in the upcoming budget. 

“Revising our policies and investments in ways that most contribute to optimizing young children’s healthy development has a direct benefit in the lives of young children but is also a long term investment in the future health and well-being of our city as a whole.”

The City Council’s statement is as true in 2019 as it was in 2015 and the upcoming budget decisions give our leaders the opportunity to recommit to our next generation by prioritizing investments in Pasadena’s kids.

In Civic Center, Pasadena must protect its unique sense of place

Nearly a century ago, Mayor William Thum exhorted Pasadena residents to join “the great forward civic movement” by approving a plan for a group of civic buildings that would serve as a “joy to the people” and “become known far and wide.”

The voters responded, passing a $3.5 million bond issue to pay for the construction of three iconic public buildings that we now enjoy: the City Library, the Civic Auditorium and our magisterial City Hall.

Along with the YMCA and YWCA, these buildings form the perimeter of a grand civic commons that indeed delights Pasadena residents and gives our city its unique sense of place.

Now, however, there is a proposal before the City Council that would drastically alter the heart of our city — a change that is drastic change to the civic core that some say is badly out of step, if not a giant step backward, from the people’s original vision.

I am talking about the proposal by the Kimpton Hotels & Restaurant to lease the YWCA — located across from City Hall, on the western edge of the Civic Center — for a boutique hotel.

When the city first approved the project in 2013, it did so out of economic need.

The high-end hotelier stepped forward, agreeing to put up the millions needed to rehabilitate the historic Julia Morgan-designed YWCA building, which sat abandoned for two decades until the city bought it from an absentee owner for $8.3 million in 2012.

In return, the city agreed to give Kimpton a 99-year lease to create and run a boutique hotel within the structure’s scale and footprint. The city figured to recoup its original investment and create a revenue stream through rent on the ground lease and hotel taxes.

Although not ideal, this was a tolerable solution, especially coming in the wake of the Recession.

Yet unlike the 1923 bond vote, which reflected the will of the people, this has morphed into a developer-driven deal. As the developer’s needs and desires changed, so did the scope and scale of the project.

Last August, Kimpton’s financing affiliate, KHP Capital Partners, told the council that for the project to pencil out, it needed the number of rooms to be 181.

The council was also told the number of rooms necessitated the construction of a six-story building so massive it would intrude into the Civic Center, violating its carefully planned balance and proportion.

The City Council grit its teeth and went along, figuring it was a necessary tradeoff for the new revenue stream the developer promised.

Now even that promise is gone.

Citing a vague 64% increase in construction costs, KHP is asking the city to grant the hotel a 50-year subsidy on the lease—50 years rent free! That means forfeiting $7 million of revenue over the first 20 years alone. KHP also wants to keep all the revenue generated from the 136 city-owned parking spaces the city was counting on as well. The parking represents the handing over of $3.7 million over the same 20 year period.

Shocked at the change, I asked for, and my council colleagues graciously agreed to, a pause in the project so we could think it over. It comes back before the City Council on May 22 for a vote.

Many believe this deal as last presented no longer makes sense. I agree that it is a bad deal for Pasadena. It’s my hope that the developer has taken advantage of the pause to bring back a better financial deal and one in keeping with our vision for the Civic Center.

Although the city certainly faces its budget challenges, we should not feel compelled to make Faustian bargains that compromise the grace and dignity of our urban spaces — the very aspects that have drawn people here for more than 100 years.

Thanks to the sacrifice and vision of Pasadena leaders like Mayor Thum, we’ve inherited a civic jewel. And we’ve done a very good job over time of keeping faith with their confidence in future generations.

We have made Pasadena a desirable place to live, work and play by honoring our traditions and taking the same deliberative care to preserve the character of our residential neighborhoods.

We can’t let short-term economic expediency of the city or developers to dictate the long-term look, feel and use of the city, especially its most famous public space.

The Kimpton project has hit a nerve: People are anxious about development. They worry that developer-driven projects threaten Pasadena’s sense of place. If this KHP deal falls apart, I firmly believe that returning to our Progressive Era roots of community-driven planning will give us the best – and most elegant — solution for how to save and repurpose Julia Morgan’s historic YWCA.

It will also be the best way to protect our sense of place and make sure Pasadena continues its “great civic movement forward.”