Meredith Babeaux Brucker

When you get out of the car and peer over the fence, the sight is even more surprising. It is a sandy horse corral, and until a few weeks ago, it was inhabited by a beautiful big white horse.

About once a month, after picking up my grandson at nursery school, we would stop there to visit the horse and bring carrots or apple pieces. I’d make a loud clicking noise with my teeth, and clap my hands, and this beautiful animal would slowly make his way across the large yard to hang his head over the fence and be petted and fed. This reminded me of my early days in Arcadia, where small chicken ranches and homes with large victory gardens filled this neighborhood.

Connor Brucker on one of his many visits with Dusty.

At first my grandson was terrified. He is more used to animated animals, or picture book cartoons of animals than he is to the real thing, and that’s why I encouraged these visits. This was a real flesh-and blood creature, sometimes snorting and tossing his big head, and sometimes exposing big yellow-white teeth as he bit into his treats.

I had once met the horse’s owner, Arly Barton, at a Chamber event, and she told me the horse was named Silver Dust. She said he and his brother used to pull their beautiful Cinderella carriage around Disneyland, but now Dusty was grieving for his brother (click here for video of Bartons and photos of Dusty pulling carriages).

Two "neighbors" looking over the fence at the sweet last of the white horses - caption and photo sent to ArcadiasBest.com by Mrs. L Blocker.

Once when I took my grandson to Clockers’ Corner at Santa Anita Park race track for breakfast, he spotted a beautiful grey thoroughbred race horse speeding by at his early-morning workout, and he was sure that he was Dusty and kept calling to him.

On our most recent visit this week with a bagful of carrots in hand we encountered a tiny sign affixed to the fence. It informed us that Silver Dust has passed away on February 20 at age 36.
“We miss him dearly,” the note said, and was signed “The William Barton Family.”

Hey, Bartons, we miss Dusty, too!  Another bit of Arcadia’s rural past has gone.

Having recently returned to Arcadia after 10 years in Orange County, she had been awakened that morning at dawn to the sound of pounding drums and cymbals.
“Hurry over,” she said. “There are thousands of kids in spangled costumes with flags, horns, trumpets, ….I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s amazing.”
I, too, had just returned to Arcadia and was living on Duarte Road. I grabbed my five-year-old daughter and we rushed over. It was our first exposure to the parade, an annual event down Baldwin Ave. in which almost 50 local high school and middle school bands compete, some of them even being considered separately for selection to march in a future Tournament of Roses Parade.

We assisted my ailing father to a seat on the sidewalk and watched the show.  It was magical. We never missed a parade after that. (Continued below following video…)

(Arcadia’s Best video highlights above from 2008 Festival of Bands – click to play.)

My sister eventually moved to a condo near my mother where we could actually watch the hoopla from her second-floor balcony. And the attraction grew when my daughter marched for the first time waving a tall flag for Temple City High. My daughter had already demonstrated the family’s lack of musical talent, but her dancing lessons won her a place at the front of the band, strutting and throwing poles into the air. 

Last year, my sister and I escorted her four-year-old grandson for the first time. Up and down Baldwin we strode, carefully pointing out the various instruments that he might learn to play (with, we hope, a new infusion of musical talent from his mother’s family) in order to march in the parade. And darn, wouldn’t he look adorable in the tall hat blowing the drum major’s whistle? Where can we get him baton lessons?

Every time the host band, Arcadia High, launches the parade, my heart swells and my eyes get teary. It’s not just the memories of own family, but the ability to share such a unique experience with so many others. (Continued below following video…)

In the last twenty years, my hometown and its population have changed in many, many ways. But on the day of the Festival of Bands Parade, all parents and children come together to share the excitement of this group endeavor. Bedecked proudly in “supporter” jackets, parents rush around pulling water jugs in red wagons and carrying suplus costumes and instruments. Kids in all shapes, sizes, and races are carefully rehearsed, dressed to a glittering hilt and polished to perfection. They’re short, they’re tall, they’re pre-pubescent to almost fully-grown, and they’re all bursting with energy and purpose.

After the parade, these eager participants, already up since dawn, will meet at the bus, be filled with food and drink lovingly supplied by band boosters and head for the afternoon field competition. Late in the evening, they’ll arrive back home exhausted but still bursting with the magic of a day in which they actually enjoyed seeing their parents yelling on the sidelines rather than being mortified.

And what is the point of all this hard work and effort? Let’s face it: Being in a band parade probably won’t do that much for the college applications and pounding the cymbals does not contribute to higher SAT scores. Once in awhile my daughter, under nostalgic duress from family, will resurrect her practice broom stick at our 4th of July picnic, for a brief demonstration, but she hasn’t found any other benefits of flag twirling in he career as an economics reporter. Except for potentially earning a spot in the Rose Parade, there really isn’t much in terms of tangible results.

But every year, at the Festival of Bands Parade, magic happens. From all over the LA area, we come together. And together, we watch our kids — our future — strut their stuff. Our hearts swell with hope. And, most important, everyone has a darn good time. It doesn’t get any better than that.

by Laurel Lambert
(Editor’s note: Until recently, Laurel Lambert was longtime director of advertising, promotion, and publicity at Los Angeles public television station KCET.)

Fellow GPAC committee member Scott Hettrick has already expressed support for this proposal.

* Editor’s Note: Arcadia resident Edward Huang is Senior Planner at Community Redevelopment Agency, City of Los Angeles and a Sustainability Committee Member at CRA. In addition to being a member of GPAC in Arcadia, he is also an Arcadia Beautiful Commissioner and a former Arcadia Planning Commissioner. He is Founder-Principal at California Institute of Environmental Design & Management (CIEDM). See video at bottom of Ed Huang’s eco-home in Arcadia.

What is public art?

Fountain in foreground at plaza of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels downtown Los Angeles

Public art is any media – paintings, sculptures, drawings, mobiles, posters, light arrangements, electronic art, bas relief, and other art forms – that is displayed, staged, or sited in a physical public domain. For the art to be truly “public,” it should be visually accessible to the public and, ideally, at a human scale – a few feet’s distance from observers.

At a more human scale, the public water feature at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (right) allows people to sit and chat on its very ledge. The more that public art is interactive – engaging the public through one of the five senses – the more that art will affect and transform people.

For instance, a piece of street furniture that doubles as a sculpture, an interactive solar obelisk that integrates an analogue bench with light, sound, solar panels, and information displays, or a beautifully-designed urban water feature that allows children to run through its jets: all of these art options offer the possibility of human encounter, exchange, and transformation.

What are the benefits of public art?
Public art has the potential to cause many positive, constructive reactions in a community, ranging from engaging conversations, creating an interesting identity for a place in the community, increasing community pride, providing opportunities for youth to participate in an artistic and cultural dialogue, and promote cultural awareness and tourism that facilitates cultural & economic development in the community.

Cerritos Library plaza from Ralph Toyama at http://www.flickr.com

Public art is able to help the establishment of identity of a public place such as a plaza, a street, a downtown and of an entire community. It is a solution to the anonymity of a characterless place because the creativity of the art works grasps the people eyes and attention, a moment to laugh & relax that pulls them out of their daily monotony, and connects them with a visual pleasure & inspiration.

Public art is a place-making tool, and once a place is identified with unique art features, it will draw crowd to the place and turn the place for cultural & economic opportunities. In case of downtowns, the northeast corner of Garfield Avenue and Main Street in Alhambra has a public art plaza. The plaza along with the buildings & uses around the plaza forms the anchor and an attraction to Alhambra downtown.

Our Arcadia downtown is beautiful & peaceful, but lacks the dynamics and characteristics to be a “downtown.”

In the case of public streets, public art can create a new identity and enhance walkability for a street. Streetscapes integrating imaginative and thought-provoking public art will encourage pedestrians and promote safe streets and healthy neighborhoods.
 
Public art makes alternative transit pleasant for public use. LA Metro regularly commissions artists to design art for transportation projects throughout Los Angeles County. We will soon have a Gold Line Station in Arcadia.

Many cities & states require 1% of the construction cost of public facilities/buildings and/or private development of a certain size to be set aside for public art works. We recommend that Arcadia adopt such a program as many other cities do because it promotes culture, art, walkability, safety, & business opportunities.

Please let us know your thoughts about this proposal by leaving a comment below.

Edward Huang, PhD, AICP, LEED AP, CGBP, CEI
Senior Planner – Downtown Region
CRA/LA

Mary Dougherty

Westfield Santa Anita’s request of the City to allow the mall to convert 13,500 sq feet of space designated for retail use in the newly opened Promenade expansion area to restaurant use was postponed again and placed on the Arcadia City Council agenda for a public hearing Tuesday, July 21, at 7 p.m., for which public input is welcome.

Westfield is seeking a categorical exemption, which, if granted, avoids even a cursory environmental impact review.

Westfield Santa Anita Promenade Grand Opening May 7

That exemption would mean that the City would have to absorb all the costs of any adverse impacts.  As I understand it, this entitlement would be continuing, not just for whatever restaurant is currently proposed.

I also understand that, if approved, the 13,500 square feet of restaurant space could be relocated to any place in the mall without further study or approval; therefore I believe it behooves the City to require further environmental study of such things as:

• Traffic – if there are additional traffic impacts, Westfield should pay for those impacts for such things as signals and other traffic system improvements.
• Water – restaurants use substantially more water than retail. Should limits be placed on water usage?
• Sewer – restaurants generate far more sewer waste than retail stores, both from restroom use and in food preparation and cleanup.
• Trash – solid waste from a restaurant use might be 30-40% higher than retail uses. Garbage, grease and food waste is likely to attract pests. What pest control measures will be used, and what impact on the environment will those have? What recycling measures should be implemented?
• Employees – restaurants tend to have many more employees, and each one contributes to additional water, sewer and trash use. (I believe restaurants have about five times the number of employees in the same space as retail.)
• Air quality – exhaust from restaurant cooking may contain grease, smoke and particulate. It is a substantial change from a retail use and might require air pollution mitigation.
• Hours of Operation – these could be changed once the approval is granted, and a bar and restaurant might be installed with extended hours of operation.
• Police – It appears the greatest demand for police services at the mall has been at a current restaurant location. Another 13,500 square feet of restaurant use is likely to further increase the need for police services substantially.
• Paramedic Services – Paramedic services are more likely to be needed at a restaurant for choking and other such incidents.
• Fire – With grills, broilers, fryers and other cooking equipment there is a greater chance of fire than with retail.
• Parking – What specific arrangements would be made to accommodate the extra employees’ and customers’ parking during the Holidays?

The point of enumerating all of these things is to show that there is a substantial difference between a retail use and restaurant use. The Arcadia Planning Commission’s concern for generating sales tax revenue for the City and a more profitable business for the mall is understandable. However, that is a short-range view.

The Arcadia City Council needs to look at the long range, and recognize that there is a potential for significant environmental impacts.

Plain and simple, Westfield needs to study and address all of these issues. Any impacts that this project may have, should be reduced to less than significant, and that should be the responsibility of Westfield not the City of Arcadia and its citizens.