Sunday, March 22, 2026

Pasadena Bank Finances Wave of Office-to-Housing Conversions Across L.A. County

East West Bank’s lending to developer Izek Shomof coincides with the city’s own push to turn vacant offices into homes.

East West Bank, the Pasadena-headquartered bank and lender that last month purchased a 270,000-square-foot office building on Colorado Boulevard for $98 million, is financing a series of projects to convert vacant office buildings into housing across Los Angeles County, the bank said in a company article published Wednesday.

The bank’s lending to developer Izek Shomof — who has filed plans to turn office towers in Long Beach and Glendale into more than 700 residential units — comes as Pasadena itself contends with an office vacancy rate nearing 25% and works to implement adaptive reuse zoning amendments the City Council approved in September 2024 to encourage similar conversions.

East West Bank has provided construction financing, acquisition loans and other banking services for Shomof’s projects, according to the company’s article. The bank said it helped finance Shomof’s purchase of a 24-story Long Beach office tower with a $25 million loan in 2025.

Saturday, March 21, 2026

PUSD Names New Chief Business Officer After Six-Month Vacancy Amid Fiscal Straits

Arik Avanesyans would take over a district facing a $30 million deficit and possible schools consolidation

The Pasadena Unified School District announced Friday the appointment of Arik Avanesyans as its new chief business officer, filling a position that has been vacant for six months as the district navigates a fraught period filled with financial pressures.

The appointment is pending approval by the Board of Education at its March 26 meeting. Avanesyans would start on July 1. He joins PUSD from the Newhall School District, a 10-school elementary district in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he has served as assistant superintendent of business services since 2023.

The CBO position has been empty since mid-September, when predecessor Saman Bravo-Karimi left to return to the Los Angeles Unified School District. The vacancy drew concern from the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which is overseeing PUSD’s finances under a conditional budget approval.

At an October special meeting of the Board of Education, LACOE Director of Business Advisory Services Octavio Castelo said that anytime there is a vacancy in a district’s chief financial officer position,

Saturday, March 21, 2026

Kaiser Permanente Nurses Ratify Contracts After Year of Strikes

Agreements covering 31,000 health care professionals take effect at Pasadena-headquartered health system

Nurses and health care professionals at Kaiser Permanente have voted to ratify new contracts with the Pasadena-headquartered health system, the unions representing the workers announced Friday, concluding nearly a year of negotiations that included three strikes.

The agreements between the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals and Kaiser Permanente take effect immediately and expire September 30, 2029, covering 31,000 Kaiser health care workers across California and Hawaii. The contracts include 21.5% across-the-board wage increases — which the union called the largest in its history — along with what UNAC/UHCP described as strengthened staffing protections and patient care standards.

Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California regional administrative offices are located on Walnut Street in Pasadena. The company also operates medical offices on East Foothill Boulevard in the city.

“This agreement reflects everything our members stood up and stood together for: safe staffing, improved access, and respect for the professionals who provide critical care every day,”

Saturday, March 21, 2026

LA County CEO Davenport Announces Resignation, Effective April 16

CITY NEWS SERVICE

After three decades of service, Los Angeles County CEO Fesia Davenport announced she will be stepping down from her role effective April 16, it was reported Friday.

“I have decided to step down from my role as chief executive officer to focus on my health and wellness. I am grateful to the Board of Supervisors, my CEO department of talented and dedicated public servants and all of the county department heads who provide essential services every day to L.A. County’s nearly 10 million residents,” Davenport wrote in a post published Thursday on her LinkedIn page.

“It has been an honor to work with them all in service to our communities,” she added.

The announcement was first reported by LAist Friday afternoon.

Davenport, who has been on medical leave for five months, sent an email to her department staff Wednesday, saying it was “not a decision I made easily, and I wanted you to hear about it directly from me.”

Saturday, March 21, 2026

No Kings Pasadena 3.0: A March for Democracy From PCC to City Hall

Activists and community members will gather to advocate for civil liberties and democratic values.

Pasadena is set to become a focal point for civil liberties advocacy this March as the “No Kings Pasadena 3.0″ march and rally takes to the streets. This event, organized by the ACLU and San Gabriel Foothills Indivisible, aims to galvanize community members in a powerful demonstration of democratic principles, moving from Pasadena City College to the steps of City Hall. It is a continuation of a series of events designed to underscore the power of collective action in safeguarding fundamental rights.

The march, a third iteration in the “No Kings” series, directly addresses contemporary challenges to democratic governance and individual freedoms. Participants will gather to assert their collective power, echoing the sentiment, “NO THRONES. NO CROWNS. NO KINGS. We Have the Power – and We’re Claiming It Together.” The event serves as a crucial platform for local engagement, highlighting the ongoing efforts to protect rights, communities, and values in the face of evolving societal pressures.

Friday, March 20, 2026

Eaton Fire Lawsuits Against Edison Return to Court as Local Residents Await Start of Trial

Hundreds of Altadena and Pasadena plaintiffs pursue compensation 14 months after blaze killed 19 and destroyed more than 9,400 structures

Judge Laura A. Seigle is scheduled to hear motions Friday morning in the consolidated Eaton Fire litigation that has brought hundreds of Altadena and Pasadena residents into court against Southern California Edison over the January 2025 blaze that killed at least 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 structures.

The 10 a.m. hearing in Department 17 of the Spring Street Courthouse comes as the cases move through pre-trial proceedings toward a first bellwether trial set for January 25, 2027, according to the Eaton Fire Litigation Portal.

Court records available before the hearing did not specify which specific motions would be argued.

The litigation is anchored by the lawsuit filed January 13, 2025, by Altadena homeowner Jeremy Gursey, whose property on Lake Avenue was destroyed. That case, Gursey v. Southern California Edison (No. 25STCV00731), now serves as the lead case in a consolidated proceeding involving nearly 1,000 lawsuits,

Friday, March 20, 2026

State Senator Joins Local Tenants Calling for Audit of Caltrans Home Sales Along 710 Corridor

Residents in Pasadena and South Pasadena say a program meant to provide affordable homeownership has instead blocked them through opaque pricing

California State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena) announced she will join tenants and community leaders Friday to call for an independent audit of how Caltrans has administered the sale of homes along the defunct 710 Freeway corridor, which includes properties in Pasadena, South Pasadena and El Sereno.

The call follows a late 2025 lawsuit filed by three residents — including Pasadena’s Julia Cox — who allege Caltrans determined they had “negative” calculated affordable prices that rendered them ineligible to purchase homes they had maintained for decades, according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It comes 14 years after a state audit found Caltrans wasted millions mismanaging the same properties, and weeks after Pasadena sold 13 vacant former Caltrans homes for $19.6 million to fund affordable housing, according to the Pasadena Weekly.

Caltrans acquired approximately 460 parcels beginning in the 1950s for a freeway extension that was legislatively killed in 2019.

Friday, March 20, 2026

Free Poetry Workshops for Eaton Fire Survivors Continue Friday in Altadena

Glendale’s poet laureate uses $50,000 national fellowship to fund writing sessions, anthology, and scholarships at the Collaboratory

A free poetry workshop for people affected by the Eaton Fire will be held Friday at the Eaton Fire Collaboratory in Altadena, the second in a three-part series funded by a $50,000 Academy of American Poets fellowship.

The March 21 session, led by poet and literary advocate Linda Ravenswood, runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 540 W. Woodbury Road. A third workshop on April 25 will be led by Carla Sameth, who served as Altadena’s Co-Poet Laureate from 2022 to 2024. Both sessions are free and open to anyone directly or indirectly affected by the January 2025 fire, according to a press release from the organizers.

The San Gabriel Valley Phoenix Poets project was founded by Raffi Joe Wartanian, Glendale’s inaugural Poet Laureate and a UCLA Writing Programs lecturer who received the fellowship from the Academy of American Poets in 2025,

Friday, March 20, 2026

Fire-Displaced Pasadena Mosque Holds Eid Prayer at Church Across From New Temporary Home

THERESE EDU

New Horizon School redirects toy drive and marketplace to support children and businesses affected by the Eaton Fire

Masjid Al-Taqwa, the first mosque in the Pasadena-Altadena area, will hold its Eid al-Fitr prayer Friday morning in the gymnasium of a church across the street from the temporary space it has rented since last summer—14 months after the Eaton Fire destroyed the congregation’s building in Altadena.

The board chose Pasadena Covenant Church for the holiday prayer because of its proximity to the masjid’s new temporary location, said Kameelah Wilkerson, a board member. The decision was “very intentional,” she said—an effort to use the energy of Ramadan to bring the congregation back together after members had to disperse.

Wilkerson said the board viewed this Ramadan as “a time for people to come home—a return to home because after the fires, so many people had to disperse because we no longer had a physical structure.”

The Eaton Fire began January 7,

Friday, March 20, 2026

Altadena Chamber Sends $500 Gift Cards to 450 Fire Survivors, Directing Spending to Local Businesses

The cards, issued through an LA County program, aim to couple household relief with commercial recovery in the burn area

Four hundred fifty residents who lost homes, businesses, or property in the Eaton Fire received $500 gift cards this month from the Altadena Chamber of Commerce — money that can only be spent at fire-impacted small businesses in the community.

The cards, delivered electronically on March 12 through the Los Angeles County Shop Local LA program, represent roughly $225,000 in directed relief.

The chamber designed the distribution to serve a dual purpose: provide immediate financial help to displaced and damaged households while steering that spending into Altadena’s commercial corridors, where businesses continue to struggle with reduced foot traffic more than 14 months after the January 2025 fire.

“Supporting our local businesses is vital to rebuilding our community,” said Judy Matthews, president of the Altadena Chamber of Commerce, in a statement. “By providing these gift cards, we are not only offering immediate financial relief to those affected,