A Senate resolution keyed to the 626 area code recognizes the San Gabriel Valley, with a Pasadena senator among its coauthors

The number on the calendar is also the number locals dial. On June 26 — 6/26 — California is recognizing the place that made the 626 area code a point of pride.

The state Senate has designated the date “I Love SGV Day,” a statewide nod to the San Gabriel Valley.

The resolution names a region of 31 cities and unincorporated communities — among them Pasadena, the valley’s largest city, and Altadena, the unincorporated community rebuilding from the January 2026 Eaton Fire.

One of the measure’s coauthors, State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, represents Altadena and Pasadena from a district office at 215 North Marengo Avenue, Suite 380.

The measure, Senate Concurrent Resolution 189, was authored by State Senator Susan Rubio, a West Covina Democrat who chairs the San Gabriel Valley Legislative Caucus. It encourages Californians to mark the day by celebrating the region’s contributions to the state.

According to the resolution, the San Gabriel Valley spans more than 374 square miles and is home to nearly 2 million residents. The San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments, the regional joint-powers agency that runs the “I Love SGV” identity campaign, announced the designation and describes itself as the largest and most diverse subregional council of governments in Los Angeles County.

Pasadena anchors that region. Incorporated in 1886, it was the fourth city established in Los Angeles County, and it remains the valley’s largest. To its north, Altadena — never incorporated as a city of its own — falls within the same valley the resolution celebrates, and within the same year the Eaton Fire reshaped.

A concurrent resolution is a formal expression of legislative sentiment. Such resolutions do not require the governor’s signature and do not create law. The recognition is symbolic, but the geography it names is concrete, and it includes the communities Pasadena Now readers live in.

The “I Love SGV” campaign predates the resolution. “Our region is brought together by our shared values, our love of our vibrant and diverse local communities, and our commitment to supporting each other,” SGVCOG President Ed Reece, the Claremont vice mayor, said in a statement posted by the council. “We are able to speak louder with one voice and deliver key services and infrastructure projects to our residents that would not otherwise be possible without this kind of collaboration.”

For Pasadena and Altadena, the timing lands in a year shaped less by area-code pride than by recovery. Altadena sustained extensive destruction in the Eaton Fire, and rebuilding remains the dominant local story of 2026. The designation arrives as a small note of shared identity in a stretch otherwise measured in permits, claims and reconstruction.

The date itself was chosen for the math: 6/26, for the 626 that has long signaled where in Southern California a person — or at least, their cellphone — is from.