Sunday, August 2, 2026

Chris Holden’s Block Party Marks 27th Year, Focused On Eaton Fire Recovery

The 500 block of East Jackson Street in Pasadena closed to traffic Saturday afternoon, Aug. 1, for a neighborhood block party that has drawn residents from across the city for three decades.

The free event ran from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. between Los Robles Avenue and El Molino Avenue. Former Pasadena Mayor Chris Holden has hosted it since his years on the Pasadena City Council. This year it was presented by LA Fire Justice, the Pasadena-based legal and community advocacy coalition Holden leads as chief executive.

Organizers billed the gathering as the 27th. Holden said the count is probably low.

“Now you fast forward to what we’re calling the 27th, but I think in reality, this is probably the 30th,” he said. “We just lost some time along the way.”

The program was organized around recovery from the Eaton Fire, the January 2025 wildfire that devastated Altadena and damaged parts of Pasadena and Sierra Madre.

Sunday, August 2, 2026

League of Women Voters to Brief Commission on Voter Outreach and Election Security

A civic engagement presentation prepared for the Aug. 5 meeting covers ballot access, election safeguards and how to spot misinformation

The League of Women Voters is scheduled to present a civic engagement briefing to the Commission on the Status of Women when the commission meets Aug. 5, walking members through voter outreach strategy, election security procedures and techniques for identifying misinformation online.

Martha Zavala, League Past President and Voter Services Director, is scheduled to deliver the presentation as an information item under New Business. The commission may take action on any item listed on it as it deems appropriate following consideration and discussion of the matter.

The presentation, titled “Engaging Voters & Why Informed Women Are Shaping What’s Next,” is subtitled a guide to showing up, speaking up and protecting rights at the ballot box, and is labeled a 2026 civic engagement briefing carrying the tagline “Every Voice. Every Vote.”

The opening section argues that being an informed voter is a form of power,

Sunday, August 2, 2026

Free Day at The Huntington Is Thursday — And the Tickets Are Almost Certainly Gone

Admission is free on the first Thursday of every month, but only by advance reservation, and the August allotment was released July 30.

There is a version of Free Day at The Huntington that exists in the popular imagination — you wake up Thursday, decide to see the Japanese Garden, and walk in. That version has not been real for years.

Thursday, August 6 is Free Day, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road in San Marino. Admission costs nothing. But it requires an advance reservation, and those reservations are released on the last Thursday of the preceding month at 9 a.m., which means the August 6 tickets went out July 30. The institution runs a virtual waiting room on release mornings, assigning arrivals a random place in line, and the allotment routinely disappears within minutes.

The rules are worth knowing for next month. There is a limit of five tickets per household per year.

Saturday, August 1, 2026

Pasadena Unified Says Bond Refinancing Will Save Local Taxpayers More Than $10 Million

District tells community in Friday email it refinanced $133.4 million in Measure TT bonds

The Pasadena Unified School District has successfully refinanced a portion of its outstanding general obligation bonds, saving local taxpayers over $10 million by reducing its long-term borrowing costs, the District told its community in an email Friday.

According to that announcement, the District issued General Obligation Refunding Bonds to refinance outstanding bonds approved by voters under Measure TT.

Net of all transaction costs, the District said, the refinancing will save taxpayers $10.4 million in total debt service — a net present value savings of $8.8 million, or 6.6% of the refinanced principal. The savings will be realized proportionally over the remaining 10-year repayment period, with final maturity in 2036, the announcement said.

“This refinancing reflects our commitment to being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco said in the announcement.

The refinancing does not extend the repayment term of the bonds,

Saturday, August 1, 2026

Congregants and Officials Gather at Vandalized Pasadena Synagogue to Reject Hate

Speakers ranging from a member of Congress to high school seniors who helped fund and create the mural pledged the artwork would be restored

Congregants, elected officials and neighbors gathered Thursday evening at the fire-scarred campus of the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center, six days after swastikas and an antisemitic message were discovered on a community mural that had itself been created to cover earlier antisemitic graffiti.

The July 30 gathering at 1434 N. Altadena Drive drew civic leaders, clergy and community partners to the site where the Eaton Fire destroyed the synagogue in January 2025, leaving just the last major exterior wall standing.

It was the second time in roughly six months that the surviving wall had been defaced with antisemitic graffiti. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating both incidents as hate crimes.

Rabbi Joshua Ratner, PJTC’s senior rabbi, told those assembled that the congregation had “marked one week since our spiritual home was desecrated by a despicable act of antisemitic graffiti,”

Saturday, August 1, 2026

Author Gregory Orfalea to discuss and sign novel ‘Wonder and Shame’ at Vroman’s Bookstore

Author Gregory Orfalea will discuss and sign his novel Wonder and Shame at Vroman’s Bookstore on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, at 7:00 p.m.

The store lists the appearance on its public author-program calendar as an in-store discussion and signing, categorized as an adult event and book signing.

The event is scheduled at Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 East Colorado Boulevard, in Pasadena’s Playhouse District. The store was founded on November 14, 1894, by Adam Clark Vroman, and is described in published accounts as Southern California’s oldest and largest independent bookstore. It hosts several hundred author events each year and, on Tuesdays, is open until 9:00 p.m.

Wonder and Shame, stylized Wonder + Shame, was published in June 2026 by the Word on Fire Luminor imprint and released in hardcover. The novel is centered on Frank Matter, a historian. According to the synopsis provided by the author, Matter — disillusioned during the 2016 presidential campaign — learns that his family’s ancestral village has been destroyed in a chemical-weapons attack and travels to Syria to rescue a deaf cousin known as “the Seamstress of Damascus,”

Saturday, August 1, 2026

Vroman’s Summer Sale Reaches Final Day Sunday in Pasadena’s Playhouse Village

Vroman’s Bookstore will hold the closing day of its summer sale on Sunday, August 2, 2026, at its store at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, according to the Playhouse Village Association’s community events calendar.

The sale is listed as running Saturday, July 25 through Sunday, August 2, with daily hours of 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Sunday, August 2, is the final day. Admission is free and purchases are optional, and the calendar lists the event as an in‑person activity in the store’s Playhouse Village neighborhood, the arts and retail district along East Colorado Boulevard in central Pasadena.

The event listing describes the sale as offering discounted books, gifts and selected store merchandise. According to a statement from the store posted on the district calendar, the sale is located upstairs in the Vroman’s Event Space. The store’s statement also notes that all sales are final and that the sale discounts may not be combined with other discounts. The calendar listing does not specify the percentage amounts of the markdowns for the 2026 sale.

Friday, July 31, 2026

Local Democratic Coalition Opens New Green Street Headquarters to the Public

The nearly four-decade-old volunteer hub launches its 2026 election-year home with a Saturday open house

A Pasadena political coalition that has organized Democratic volunteers since 1988 opens the doors of its new election-year headquarters on Saturday, inviting the public into a space on East Green Street that will serve as its base of operations through the November elections.

The United Democratic Headquarters, a coalition of eight local Democratic clubs, is hosting the free open house at 776 East Green Street from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The location is the organization’s hub for the 2026 midterm cycle — a year in which California voters will choose a new governor for the first time since 2018, along with filling congressional, state legislative, and U.S. Senate seats on the November 3 ballot.

The open house is casual, according to the event listing: light refreshments, a chance to meet the volunteer team, and postcards available for those who want to take part in the organization’s mail campaigns.

Friday, July 31, 2026

PUSD Removes More Trees at Muir, Continues Remediation Work Across Multiple Campuses

Soil hauling began at Octavia E. Butler as the district issued a six-site status report, with the city’s tree protection ordinance sidelined

Crews removed more trees at John Muir High School Early College Magnet on Thursday, the Pasadena Unified School District said in an email, as it works to finish Eaton Fire soil cleanup before classes resume across the district on August 17.

The vegetation — “several non-protected” trees and shrubs near the A Building, south of the D Building, east of the track and in the interior courtyard — stood in areas where the district says contaminated soil must be excavated.

Some of the trees had been the focus of recent protests, the district noted.

That work is one step in an ongoing controversial remediation program covering 11 district properties, where about 8,000 cubic yards of soil must come out before mid-August. The district said the work is proceeding under the oversight and in collaboration with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and environmental professionals.

Friday, July 31, 2026

City Will Hold PUSD Accountable for Tree Removals Before District Exempted Itself From Protection Ordinance

By ANDRÈ COLEMAN, Managing Editor

[Updated]   The City said Thursday it intends to hold the Pasadena Unified School District accountable for any protected trees removed before the district exempted itself from the city’s tree protection ordinance, while continuing to challenge the district’s actions in court.

In a statement, Chief Communications Officer Lisa Derderian said the city repeatedly had asked PUSD to obtain tree removal permits before removing trees at campuses undergoing Eaton Fire recovery work. 

According to the city, PUSD proceeded without permits, prompting Pasadena to issue stop-work orders and obtain court-authorized inspection warrants to evaluate affected trees.

The City has now completed inspections at all campuses where work was expected to occur and, “to the greatest extent possible, intends to hold the District accountable for any protected trees that were damaged or removed before PUSD adopted its resolution [to exempt itself from the city ordinance].”

Following the city’s inspections, PUSD’s governing board adopted a resolution exempting the district from the city’s zoning regulations,