Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Five Hard Years, Written Down: Pasadena Students Publish ‘The Learning Curve’

A student-run anthology, co-founded by a John Muir graduate, debuts in print at Octavia’s Bookshelf

The pandemic scattered Pasadena’s students to their bedrooms and their laptops. What some of them did there was write — and now that writing is a book.

The Learning Curve, known as TLC, is a student-written anthology produced through Pasadena Unified School District’s Student Think Tank. Its first print edition debuted July 17 at 6:00 p.m. at Octavia’s Bookshelf, 1353 North Hill Avenue, gathering into one volume five years of essays, poetry and artwork by students who lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, the presence of immigration enforcement in Pasadena, and the January 2025 Eaton Fire. The project is a collaboration among the district, the Pasadena Educational Foundation and the bookstore.

The project traces back to the earliest weeks of remote school, when Think Tank students began writing personal narratives and then invited peers across the district to submit their own, many of them anonymously. The result is a record of what students carried during years that reshaped their schools and their city.

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Frida Kahlo’s Childhood Comes to a 99-Seat Screen East of Pasadena

Sierra Madre Playhouse will show the 2024 animated film Hola Frida! on September 12 for $15, and reviewers say the polio scenes may unsettle the youngest viewers

Long before the self-portraits, Frida Kahlo was a girl in Coyoacán who climbed trees, befriended a neighborhood dog, and then got polio.

That girl is the whole subject of Hola Frida!, an 82-minute animated feature coming to the Sierra Madre Playhouse on Saturday, September 12, at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $15. The film stops well before the bus crash and the paintings that made Kahlo famous.

Sierra Madre is a separate incorporated city on Pasadena’s eastern edge, and the Playhouse says its seasons draw audiences from Sierra Madre, Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia and across Greater Los Angeles. Riders can reach it from the Metro A Line’s Sierra Madre Villa Station by transferring to the Metro 268 bus.

Karine Vézina and André Kadi directed the 2024 film, adapted from Frida,

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

SoCalGas Introduces Updated Uniforms to Help Customers Identify Workers

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Southern California Gas Co. announced Monday it is introducing updated employee uniforms intended to make it easier for customers to identify SoCalGas workers at homes and businesses.

The updated uniforms feature prominent company branding and employees’ first names embroidered on shirts and coveralls, according to the utility. Employees also carry company-issued photo identification badges and use marked SoCalGas vehicles.

Customers who have questions about whether someone is a SoCalGas employee can ask the worker to show a company-issued photo identification badge, officials said.

The uniforms will be phased into service throughout the company’s service territory beginning this month. Among the most visible changes will be a switch from SoCalGas’ traditional blue uniforms to gray.

“Our employees perform critical work every day to help safely deliver service to millions of customers across Southern California,” Rodger Schwecke, interim president of SoCalGas, said in a statement. “These updated uniforms provide enhanced safety features and functionality that support employees in the field,

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

California Credit Union Foundation Offers Grants to Local Teachers

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The California Credit Union Foundation announced Monday it is accepting applications from Southern California teachers for grants to fund classroom projects.

The foundation said it will award 10 grants of $500 each to help teachers pay for projects aimed at addressing classroom or academic needs and providing additional educational opportunities for students.

The program is open to full-time teachers in Los Angeles and Orange counties, as well as active teachers who are members of California Credit Union.

“Some of the most memorable learning experiences begin with a teacher’s creative idea,” California Credit Union Foundation President Marvel Ford said in a statement. “Through our Teacher Grant program, we are proud to help educators bring those ideas to life and give students new opportunities to explore, experiment and connect with learning in meaningful ways.”

The foundation said it has awarded $235,000 in teacher grants since the program began in 2012. Previous grants have supported projects including STEM-based water rocket experiments,

Monday, August 10, 2026

Altadena’s Free Concert Series Plays On, 29 Summers and One Fire Later

The Blue Breeze Band brings Motown and soul to Loma Alta Park on Saturday, the sixth of seven shows this season

Nearly 15 months after Loma Alta Park reopened, its lower lawn fills again on Saturday night — this time with folding chairs and Motown.

The Blue Breeze Band plays at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 15, covering Motown, R&B, soul, funk, jazz and blues. It is the sixth of seven free shows the Rotary Club of Altadena is staging this summer with Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, and the 29th season of a series that began in 1997.

One Saturday remains after this one. The season opened July 11 with Dream Like Taylor, a Taylor Swift tribute, then ran through Past Action Heroes, the all-female multicultural salsa band Las Chikas, the Beatles tribute Britain’s Finest and the steel drum reggae and soca band Upstream. Stevie Nicks Illusion closes it August 22.

The series has missed exactly one summer,

Monday, August 10, 2026

Writing Group for Altadena Fire Survivors Meets Monday at Altadena Community Center

Disaster-recovery agencies have wound down services at the community center; a free survivors’ workshop meets there Monday afternoon

Altadena wildfire survivors will spend Monday afternoon writing about what the Eaton Fire took from them, in a free community writing group at the Altadena Community Center.

The session, the Altadena Wildfire Survivor Community Writing Group, runs from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at 730 E. Altadena Drive. Participants write to timed prompts about places they valued, what they have lost and found, and how they will move forward, the organizer, Saved by a Story, said in its description of the program.

The group is free and open to all ages, but seating is limited. An RSVP does not hold a seat, the organizer said. Seating opens 15 minutes early, and no one is admitted once the session starts.

Shermaine Barlaan facilitates. She was born in Pasadena and lost her own home in the Eaton Fire, and she leads the organization’s community writing groups as a UCLA Extension Writing Program and VONA scholar,

Monday, August 10, 2026

Uncontested District 5 School Board Election to be Canceled and Incumbent Appointed

By ANDRÈ COLEMAN, Managing Editor

McKenzie to be ‘appointed in lieu of election’

District 5 Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) Incumbent Patrice Marshall McKenzie will be appointed for another term in lieu of an election in November.

No opponent filed to run against McKenzie by Friday’s deadline. The district recently adopted a resolution that allows uncontested races to be canceled as a cost saving measure.

The district will save between $60,000 and $75,000.

Meanwhile, another race, previously uncontested, could end up on the ballot.

On Friday, Cynthia Torres pulled papers to run against newcomer Dennis McNamara. She has until close of business Wednesday to turn in the necessary signatures to qualify for the election.

The deadline in that race was extended to Aug. 12 because incumbent Yarma Velázquez did not pull papers to run for reelection.

The remaining field for the November election has been fleshed out.

Four candidates have qualified for the November election in races in districts 1 and 3.

Monday, August 10, 2026

PUSD Workforce Housing Project Heads to City Design Commission

By ANDRÈ COLEMAN, Managing Editor

The Design Commission on Tuesday will review plans to transform the former Roosevelt School campus into a 110-unit workforce housing development for Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) employees.

The project, proposed for the former Roosevelt School site at 315 N. Pasadena Ave., would include 80 apartments and 30 townhomes, along with a 5,024-square-foot community center and 223 parking spaces. Half of the residential units — 55 — would be affordable, while the remaining units would be unrestricted but rented at below-market rates, according to the staff report.

“This proposal is for the construction of a workforce housing development for Pasadena Unified School District employees that will consist of 110 residential units, 55 of which would be affordable units, developed as apartments and townhouses, a 5,024 square-foot community center, and 223 surface parking spaces at 315 North Pasadena Avenue (former Roosevelt School). The application indicates that the market rate units would be unrestricted but rented at below-market rates.”

Monday, August 10, 2026

Free Notary Service Comes to the Recovery Hub on Woodbury Road

The Altadena Library District offers a notary at the Collaboratory Tuesday afternoon, walk-ins welcome

Rebuilding generates paperwork. Insurance affidavits, title documents, powers of attorney, contractor agreements — and nearly all of it needs an official stamp.

The Altadena Library District offers free notary services at the Collaboratory on Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 3 p.m. Appointments are recommended but walk-ins are welcome. Call (626) 798-0833, ext. 118, to make an appointment.

The library district performs all notary services at the Bob Lucas Memorial Library and the Eaton Fire Collaboratory. The notary does not travel to other locations to perform notarial acts. A valid form of identification is required.

The venue matters. The Collaboratory at 540 W. Woodbury Road is a centralized hub where more than 200 community groups, nonprofits and civic agencies coordinate long-term recovery for survivors of the January 2025 Eaton Fire. Housed in a complex straddling the Pasadena-Altadena border, the building also hosts the Long-Term Recovery Group and the Community Recovery Group.

Monday, August 10, 2026

Altadena’s Permit Counter Closes 90 Minutes Before Its Doors Do

Monday brings the county’s widest slate of rebuilding services to West Woodbury Road, but paperwork has to be in hand by 3:00 p.m.

Anyone bringing rebuilding paperwork to Los Angeles County’s Altadena permit office on Monday afternoon needs to be there by 3:00 p.m., an hour and a half before the doors actually close.

The county’s Altadena One-Stop Permit Center keeps its widest service slate on Mondays, when rebuild consultations, Southern California Edison planner appointments, SoCalGas virtual appointments and the county job center all run out of 464 West Woodbury Road, Suite 210. Walk-in hours run from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Last call for permits is 3:00 p.m. Nineteen months after the Eaton Fire, the Woodbury Road office is where the county’s permitting departments meet Altadena residents in person.

The Monday schedule is not the same as Tuesday’s. Rebuild consultation appointments run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Virtual SCE planner appointments run from 8:00 a.m.