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. Holden said the fire changed what the party is for.

“We had to lock arms and make sure that this event then took a different kind of a stint,” he said. “But the heart of it was always education, information.” Survivors, he said, could connect with family and friends and also learn how to move forward. “Last year was about distress. This year is about moving forward.”

Mayor Victor Gordo told the crowd that the damage still to be addressed is the damage no one can see.

“The fire left a physical scar and we can see it,” Gordo said. “What we don’t see and what we need to pay more attention to is the emotional scar that that fire caused, the trauma that it caused.” He added: “Whether or not you were impacted directly, it hurt us all.”

Speakers also described the coalition’s advocacy on behalf of fire survivors, including lobbying that they said persuaded the Federal Emergency Management Agency to extend temporary living expense assistance for displaced homeowners by one year past its scheduled July expiration, and proposed legislation aimed at insurance companies that survivors say have delayed or denied payment.

In a news release issued before the event, LA Fire Justice said the fair would include more than 60 resource tables staffed by state, county and local organizations, a farmers market zone, a “rebuild zone” with fire-recovery information, a wellness area offering mental and physical health support, and a mobile health clinic providing on-site medical care. The release said a bilingual team, including Spanish-speaking attorney Maribel Medina, would help Spanish-speaking survivors understand their rights and recovery options.

Jon B., the rhythm-and-blues singer who grew up in Pasadena, performed. Born Jonathan Buck, he received a Grammy nomination for best pop collaboration with vocals for “Someone to Love,” his 1995 duet with Babyface, and later recorded “They Don’t Know” and “Are U Still Down.”

Holden traced the event to his first term on the City Council, when downtown Pasadena was adding residents and people on either side of the freeway rarely crossed it.

“We decided in order to get information out, we needed to do something that was harmonizing, that brings everybody together,” he said. Firefighters ran the grill in the early years, cooking hot dogs; Robin’s Wood-fired Barbecue took over later with sausage links. “But it was always about, notwithstanding the great music, the important information that was always shared.”

Holden served on the Pasadena City Council and as mayor, and represented the 41st District in the California State Assembly from 2012 to 2024. Asked whether he might run for office again, he said he had ruled nothing out.

“I couldn’t have predicted that I would be where I am now,” he said. “My dad always said it’s not where you serve, it’s how you serve.”