Wednesday, February 25, 2026

School District Reports Mixed Progress on Midyear Academic Goals; 8th Grade Math Targets Exceeded

Pasadena Unified School District students are showing gains in reading and math at midyear, though the district fell short of several interim targets for Black and Hispanic students in literacy, according to a presentation scheduled for the Board of Education’s Thursday meeting.

The 48-slide report covers the district’s progress on academic goals adopted by the board in three areas: literacy, mathematics and college and career readiness, as measured primarily by the iReady diagnostic assessment administered this winter. The goals are interim benchmarks on the way to longer-term targets the board set for 2030: 75% of third graders proficient in English Language Arts on the CAASPP state test, 70% of fifth graders and 60% of eighth graders proficient in math, and 75% of graduates qualifying as prepared on the College Career Indicator.

In reading, the district reported a nine percentage point increase in students placing into on-level placements — defined as mid or above grade level combined with early on grade level — between fall and winter of the 2025-26 school year,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Altadena Composer Brings Songs of the Enslaved to Free Pasadena Chorale Concert Tonight

The “I Believe” program pairs Michal Dawson Connor’s spiritual arrangements with Margaret Bonds’ civil rights choral work for Black History Month

The Pasadena Chorale will perform a free concert tonight honoring Black History Month with works by two Black American composers, including an Altadena resident whose spiritual arrangements draw on songs his great-grandmother sang to him — songs that originated in slavery.

The concert, titled “I Believe,” pairs original arrangements by composer Michal Dawson Connor with Margaret Bonds’ “Credo,” a seven-movement choral work setting W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1904 call for racial justice and equality. The 85-voice chorale and its High Notes youth ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 500 E. Colorado Blvd. Admission is free, though reservations are required at pasadenachorale.org.

Connor, who lives in Altadena and whose home was singed in the Eaton Fire last January, has spent decades arranging slave songs created before the Civil War. His great-grandmother’s mother was enslaved in Virginia, and the older woman sang those songs to Connor when he was a child.

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Many Altadena Renters Were Long-Term Residents Before Eaton Fire, UCLA Policy Brief Finds

Tenant households included seniors and families with children; researchers say those residents face heightened displacement risk

Before the January 2025 Eaton Fire upended the local housing landscape, more than one-fifth of Altadena households were renters, and nearly 70% of those tenants had lived in the community since 2010, according to a new policy brief released Wednesday by UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute.

The tenant-focused findings — presented as part of LPPI’s broader “Rebuilding Altadena: Housing Recovery After the Eaton Fire” research series — paint a picture of a renter population with deep community roots but far fewer economic protections than homeowners heading into the disaster. Researchers warn that those conditions now place displaced tenants at heightened risk of permanent displacement from the community.

Tenant heads of household in Altadena were more likely to be people of color than homeowner heads of household before the fire, the brief said. More than half of tenant heads of household — 56% — were people of color,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Altadena Included as County Moves to Expand Large-Vehicle Parking Restrictions

Altadena is among the unincorporated communities already subject to Los Angeles County’s restrictions on oversized vehicle parking, and those rules could soon expand further under an ordinance given preliminary approval Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

The measure would broaden the list of areas where “nonconforming vehicles” — those exceeding 8 feet in width, 7½ feet in height or 20 feet in length — are barred from parking on county streets.

Current law already prohibits such parking in several unincorporated communities, including Altadena, Ladera Heights, View Park/Windsor Hills, Long Beach, South Whittier/East Whittier/East La Mirada, West Whittier/Los Nietos and Whittier. Such parking is also barred during overnight hours in Marina del Rey without a permit.

Under the extension given tentative approval Tuesday on a 4-0 vote, with Supervisor Kathryn Barger absent, the restrictions would extend to unincorporated areas around Azusa/Charter Oak/Covina, Del Aire/Lennox, East Los Angeles, East Rancho Dominguez, El Camino Village, Florence-Firestone/Walnut Park, Hawthorne, Rancho Dominguez, West Athens/Westmont, West Carson, West Los Angeles,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Sterling K. Brown, Regina Hall Among Presenters as NAACP Image Awards Return to Pasadena

Sterling K. Brown, Regina Hall, Halle Bailey and Ryan Coogler are among the presenters scheduled to appear at Saturday’s 57th NAACP Image Awards, where Salt-N-Pepa and DJ Spinderella will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, organizers announced today.

Additional presenters include Chase Infiniti, Delroy Lindo, Janelle James, Nicole Beharie, Regé-Jean Page, Ryan Michelle Bathé, Miles Caton, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, NAACP Chairman Leon W. Russell and the cast of Tyler Perry’s “Sistas.”

“As pioneers of hip-hop, Salt-N-Pepa and DJ Spinderella rewrote the rules and boldly claimed space in a genre that forever changed because of their voices, style, and undeniable talent,” Johnson said in a statement. “Inducting them into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame is a celebration of more than an iconic career — it’s a tribute to trailblazers who opened doors, and inspired generations in a way that still resonates today.”

Past inductees include the Wayans Family, New Edition, Eddie Murphy, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Spike Lee and Earth,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

UCLA: Most Altadena Rental Housing Shows No Rebuilding Activity a Year After Eaton Fire

A new policy brief says 74% of fire-impacted units remain stalled, with affordable housing disproportionately destroyed

More than a year after the Eaton Fire swept through this unincorporated community, three-quarters of Altadena’s fire-damaged rental units remain on properties with no rebuilding permits, property sales, or active listings, according to a new policy brief from UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute published Wednesday.

The research, the second in a series examining post-fire housing recovery in Altadena, found that the January 2025 fire disproportionately damaged rent-stabilized and naturally affordable rental units — and that displaced tenants, who had substantially lower incomes and higher poverty rates than homeowners before the disaster, face limited pathways to return. Without targeted intervention, the researchers warn, many may be permanently pushed out of the community.

About 74% of identified rental units within the fire perimeter were on properties with no public record of recovery activity one year later, according to the brief. Only 18% of rental units were on properties where owners had filed rebuilding permits,

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

California Opens Third Round of $150,000 Down Payment Program

The application window runs three weeks; a lottery will select who gets help buying a first home

California’s Dream For All program began accepting applications Tuesday for its third round, offering first-generation homebuyers up to $150,000 in down payment assistance through a statewide lottery.

The program, administered by the California Housing Finance Agency, provides loans of up to 20% of a home’s purchase price to help with down payment and closing costs. Applications are open through March 16. For buyers in Pasadena and Altadena — where median home values exceed $1 million — the assistance could cover a significant share of a down payment, though demand has historically far outpaced the program’s funding.

CalHFA expects to make $150 million to $200 million available this round, enough to help an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 households statewide, according to a CalHFA press release. The 2025-26 state budget allocated $300 million for Dream For All overall, which also covers applicants from a prior waitlist.

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Altadena Gets Its First Comprehensive Historic Survey, Spurred by Eaton Fire Losses

The Los Angeles Conservancy will launch the Getty-funded project at a free public meeting Saturday

The Los Angeles Conservancy will hold its first public meeting Saturday for a project that has never been done before in Altadena: a comprehensive survey of the community’s historic places, from landmark buildings to the oral histories and cultural traditions that no map has ever recorded.

The survey comes more than a year after the Eaton Fire destroyed more than 9,000 structures across Altadena in January 2025, exposing a gap that had complicated recovery from the start. Unlike Pacific Palisades, where the city of Los Angeles had already cataloged heritage sites through its SurveyLA program, Altadena — an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County — had no official inventory of what stood before the fire or what was lost, according to the Conservancy.

“In Altadena, it was much less so,” Adrian Scott Fine, the Conservancy’s president and CEO, said of the available data. “In many ways, we didn’t even know what we lost.”

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Coffee Pop-Up Opens Permanent Café On Altadena/Pasadena Border

Bevel Coffee’s 600-square-foot space on Allen Avenue was funded through fire relief grants and small business loans

Bevel Coffee, a specialty roastery whose owner spent three years selling espresso from a patio pop-up, opens its first brick-and-mortar café Saturday at 1866 N. Allen Ave. on the Altadena/Pasadena border, and becomes one of the first new permanent business locations in a community ravaged by the Eaton Fire 13 months ago.

The 600-square-foot space sits directly across the street from Prime Pizza, where owner Kevin Mejia ran a semi-permanent kiosk starting in 2023. The new café — funded through a combination of fire relief grants and small business loans, according to Mejia — will serve coffee roasted by Mejia in Monrovia along with pastries, bagels, and sandwiches. It opens at 7 a.m.

Mejia reportedly signed the lease in July. Building permits were not issued until November, and a final safety inspection was completed approximately February 20, according to Barista Magazine.

The fire wiped out 70% of Bevel’s customer base through displacement,

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Pacific Rim Composers, Including 2026 Composer of the Year, Featured at Sierra Madre Playhouse

Brightwork newmusic performs works spanning Peru to Cambodia in an April concert near Pasadena

A chamber concert next month at Sierra Madre Playhouse will feature music by four composers drawn from cultures ringing the Pacific Ocean, including a Latin Grammy winner who was recently named Musical America’s 2026 Composer of the Year.

Brightwork newmusic, a Los Angeles ensemble in residence at the Playhouse, performs “Ring of Fire” on Friday, April 3, at 8 p.m. The program traces musical connections across the Pacific Rim through contemporary works rooted in Peruvian, South Asian, Cambodian, and American traditions — all performed by four musicians on clarinet, violin, cello, and piano.

The centerpiece is Hilos, a quartet by Gabriela Lena Frank, who in December was named Musical America’s 2026 Composer of the Year. Frank, who holds a Latin Grammy Award and has been nominated for Grammys as both a composer and pianist, wrote Hilos in 2010 as a set of short movements inspired by Peruvian textiles,