Taking a page out of the marketing handbook of Los Angeles Angels baseball team owner Arte Moreno, the Breeders’ Cup has left the name Arcadia off the logo for this year’s two-day event at Santa Anita Park Nov. 2-3.
Updated 8 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1: For that matter, there’s not even any mention of Santa Anita on the primary new logo, though there is an alternate logo that says Santa Anita instead of Los Angeles.

Like Moreno, who changed the name of the Anaheim Angels to the bigger and more advertiser-friendly Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) — for which he took a lot of ribbing, Los Angeles is now the only city noted on the Breeders’ Cup logo unveiled this week, with searchlights in the background evoking the glitz of Hollywood.

According to the announcement, “the logo captures the prestige of the Breeders’ Cup with the Hollywood esteem of Los Angeles.”

I suppose this was to be expected when the press conference announcing the decision to stage this year’s Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita was held last year at a hotel in downtown Los Angeles, with L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa being given the primary spotlight.

Both Santa Anita and Breeders’ Cup are targeting a much broader range of customers these days from much further away than the San Gabriel Valley. Ironically, Santa Anita has been advertising its current meet on the electronic billboard at Angel Stadium near the 57 freeway in Anaheim.

More curious is not having Santa Anita mentioned on every version of the logo, since the track is considered one of the finest in the world.

The 29th running of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships will mark the sixth time that Santa Anita will host the event, returning for the first time since back-to-back years in 2008 and 2009. Total purses for the two-day event are more than $25 million.

Tickets for this year’s event are scheduled to go on sale to the general public in early June. Fans may register today at www.breederscup.com/tickets to receive a special pre-sale ticket offer in late May which will allow them to purchase tickets before they go on sale to the general public.

– By Scott Hettrick

HBO‘s Sunday night sneak preview of its highly-touted new series “Luck” offered a sumptuous visual depiction of Santa Anita Park.

by Scott Hettrick

The one-hour pilot directed by Michael Mann also offered glimpses of many people and places familiar to Arcadians, including a scene in Rod’s Grill on Huntington Drive and speaking roles for popular local jockeys Gary Stevens and Chantal Sutherland.

The jockeys are just two stars amidst a stellar line-up that includes Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte, Dennis Farina, Kevin Dunn, and many others.

<Review continues below following in-production video…>

The pilot begins with Hoffman being released from prison and heading to a suite in the Beverly Hilton Hotel where he tries to regain control of his crime world with assistant Farina.

Meanwhile, the gritty, always-on-the-edge of financial disaster lifestyle of a group of gamblers at the track plays out in a way that allows viewers to get an inside view of the life of jockeys, trainers, agents, track officials, and others in track offices, the stables, the paddock area, and even at the morning Clockers’ Corner hangout.

Along the way we get some amazing shots of horses running at Santa Anita against the gorgeous backdrop of the San Gabriel Mountains.

As is the case with many series created and written by David Milch, such as HBO’s “Deadwood,” it may take a few episodes to fully learn and embrace the personalities of the numerous characters and multiple story-lines, but the caliber of the cast and the quality of the production will not make it difficult to hang in there for a few weeks.

The series makes its official premiere on January 29 and will run weekly for nine episodes. HBO is already looking at scripts for a potential second season of the series.

Meanwhile, watch this web site for information about tickets to the glitzy Hollywood premiere of the show in January, and further events in Arcadia connected with “Luck.”

– By Scott Hettrick

The Arcadia City Council has scheduled a special study session for tonight at 5 p.m. in which the public is invited to come and offer input about how response to last week’s wind storm was handled.

by Scott Hettrick

Of course, there are always misunderstandings and media misinformation in these situations, such as KABC channel 7‘s broadcast Sunday of one or two Arcadia residents complaining that the Santa Anita golf course was being cleaned up before power was restored to residential areas where elderly had been living in without heat in their homes for four or five days. The easy answer to that is that the golf course and crews working there have nothing to do with and are not controlled by the City of Arcadia since that is County property.

But there are real issues to be discussed.
Arcadians were remarkably patient with Southern California Edison following the Great Wind Storm of 2011, but the utility company should answer to their customers for a concerning lack of communication regarding timely estimates of restoration of power. Arcadia residents and officials were largely left in the dark for days (pun intended).
Also a little surprising, the Arcadia Chapter of the American Red Cross did not provide any shelter or supplies at the Arcadia office or anywhere in town. Callers were referred to a shelter set up for a couple days in Pasadena.

In the aftermath of the storm, we can look back and realize that despite the hundreds of downed trees and damage to some buildings, sidewalks, and vehicles, and the inconveniences of power outages, we must be grateful that it wasn’t much worse.

It could have been devastating if all those trees didn’t remarkably fall on streets and sidewalks for the most part, instead of homes, buildings, and cars so close by, or if the wind storm had happened during the day instead of in the wee hours of the morning when people and cars were mostly at rest.
And unlike ice storms in the East and Midwest that cause similar tree damage and power outages, we did not have to suffer sub-freezing temperatures, ice and snow in the hours and days of recovery.

But there are many lessons we should learn and we should use this opportunity to find ways to improve on our response to disasters like this.
For instance, why couldn’t SCE provide daily and more frequent updates to City officials and on its web site about the status of the power outages – how many customers affected in Arcadia (as opposed to the entire San Gabriel Valley), how many lines were down, and estimates of when power would be restored in specific areas.
There was also little explanation or signs provided by anyone about why a handful of streets remained blocked for days by trees that had fallen days earlier.

In the scheme of things, a wind storm is not the biggest of disasters we face compared to fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or terrorist attacks.
But we found out that our new technology has its downfalls when the power goes out. Cordless phones don’t work; tank-less hot water heaters don’t work; Internet and e-mail access is limited to smart phones, and many smart phones didn’t work as well during the hours and days after the storm – perhaps slowed by a sudden increase in usage. In some cases the back-up power supplies of cell towers went dead.
Even those with cell phones to receive e-mails and texts were challenged to keep their phones charged.
For those who could access e-mail, the Internet, and receive text messages and phone calls, the City of Arcadia and the police department provided twice-daily comprehensive updates and intermittent bulletins that were extremely valuable and helpful, and the school district delivered multiple automated phone blast calls.

But I didn’t see SCE providing any of that kind of communication. And City updates consistently had the same message about SCE – that the utility had provided no information to them either.
That’s worth discussing — bring your comments to City Hall tonight, and/or type them here below so Councilmen know how you feel.

– By Scott Hettrick

(Hettrick’s opinions and comments on ArcadiasBest.com are not intended to reflect any official of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, where Hettrick is Executive Director.)

About 15 years ago when my family moved to our current house on First Avenue we were puzzled by a missing stretch of a couple hundred feet or so of sidewalk alongside the field at the Arcadia Christian School. It was an uneven patch of dirt between two sections of nice sidewalk that made it so difficult for the many walkers in the neighborhood that most stepped out into the street at that point, creating many dangerous situations with so many cars coming and going from the popular field for kids soccer and baseball practice.

by Scott Hettrick

More than ten years later in 2003 the City installed new street signs around town. They look great, but we were puzzled at the one on our street and all the streets between Santa Anita and First Avenue that listed a block number of 100. None of those streets are the 100 block — that block designation is the block between First Avenue and Second Avenue, which the street signs also list as 100.
It seemed erroneous and confusing to me, so I imagine it would be the same for delivery people and friends trying to find your home (this was many years before GPS, mind you).
I called the City to ask about the signs and was again switched to someone in Public Works. The man could not have been more polite. He immediately understood my point and asked what number I would suggest putting on the signs — there is only room for one number, he said. Since house numbers between Santa Anita and First carry numbers between 1-99 and that was too many digits to put on the sign, I suggested maybe the number 99 to indicate it is lower than the 100 block.
The next day all the signs up and down First Avenue south of Camino Real were changed to feature the number 99.

Now it’s eight years later and I got an e-mail early one recent Monday morning from my friend and ArcadiasBest.com blogger Larry Stewart. He and his wife had arrived home late Sunday and noticed a large limb had broken off from a curbside tree in front of their house in south Arcadia.
He asked who he should call at the City. I gave him the number to Public Works.
That was about 8:30 a.m.
By 10:30 a.m. he e-mailed to let me know that he was in the back of the house and that the next time he looked out front he saw that the fallen tree branch was gone and the mess was already cleaned up.
“Very impressive,” he said. “City government at its best.”

Indeed.
Kudos to Public Works under department head Tom Tait and City Manager Don Penman, as well as their predecessors for the past 15 years.

– By Scott Hetrick

CITY OF ARCADIA PRESS RELEASE
August 24, 2011

California Chapter of the American Planning Association
Recognizes Arcadia Resident Scott Hettrick

Scott Hettrick has been named the recipient of the Distinguished Leadership Award/Citizen Planner for the state of California Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA).
The award follows Hettrick’s presentation in June of the same award by the Los Angeles Chapter of the APA. That award, along with recognition of Arcadia’s General Plan, was presented in Hollywood during a ceremony at the Egyptian Theatre.
Hettrick will be presented the state award at a luncheon ceremony in Santa Barbara on Sept. 12.  The next phase of the APA Award Program is the national competition, with winners to be announced in December.

Hettrick receives Los Angeles Chapter APA award at Hollywood's Egyptian Theater in June.

“On the Arcadia High Constitution Team we study a man named Cincinnatus. And like that famous public servant of ancient Rome, Scott is an outstanding example of civic virtue and service to the greater good. He epitomizes the volunteer spirit that makes Arcadia such a unique community” said Mayor Gary Kovacic when informed of Mr. Hettrick’s recent accomplishment.

Mr. Hettrick received this recognition for his volunteer efforts and dedication to promoting civic engagement. He has been instrumental in the Arcadia Historical Society’s “History Lives Here” program, which recognizes historical landmarks and buildings in Arcadia with unique and descriptive historical markers. He was also an active member of the City’s General Plan Advisory Committee and is founder of the ArcadiasBest.com website that serves as a resource and promotional service for local organizations and businesses as well as showcases the people, places, and activities in Arcadia. As an offshoot of the Arcadia’s Best website and companion e-mail newsletter, Scott also partnered with two other Arcadians to start the non-profit Arcadia’s Best Foundation, which organize special events such as the July 2 Patriotic Festival and the upcoming second annual One Community, One Book program on Oct. 2, and to encourage the continuation of a vibrant, unified and involved community.