My editor and I were playing around with Pasadena's crime mapping program this morning and noticed an interesting issue: there are no drug arrests listed in Pasadena. This link shows all the crime in Pasadena for July so far.

Compare that with Glendale from the same period:

All the pink hypodermic needle icons are drug possession arrests. There are none listed for Pasadena, but a whole bunch listed for Glendale.

Does this mean there are no possession arrests in Pasadena? I very much doubt that. It likely means the department is not logging those arrests into their crime map.

Those of you who read yesterday's post on the recently-opened Eastern Pasadena restaurant Plate 38 probably gleaned that I was excited to get out there and try the place. In fact, my wife stopped in there this morning for coffee and I poked my head in yesterday just to take a look. Tonight we planned to go there for dinner.

That's not happening. Unbelievably enough, the place caught fire this morning and, according to the Fire Department, is at a minimum a "major loss," and quite possibly, a "total loss."

The whole thing is just a terrible shame for the neighborhood, and of course, for the owners and employees of the eatery, which just opened last week.

I live in the part of Pasadena that looks less like Old Pasadena and more like the rest of the San Gabriel Valley: just south of the corner of Sierra Madre and Colorado.

Currently, the corner sports a strip mall and a Vons/Rite Aid with a giant parking lot.

But all that appears to be changing. First, this week the long-awaited Plate 38 opened in the strip mall on the northeast side of the corner. I call it long-awaited not because I claim to know about how other people in Pasadena feel about the place, but because my wife and I have been clamoring for a place to walk to for breakfast for the last three years, and we've seen the Plate 38 storefront for the last six months with an "OPENING SOON" banner.

I am looking forward to trying it, though I have noted it isn't exactly the cheap hole-in-the-wall option I am accustomed to: despite the small and casual appearance of the store, likes like most menu items go for $10 or more, not much by Old Pasadena standards, but quite high compared to the existing $5 burrito and sandwich stores that currently dominate the neighborhood.

Now, one restaurant can't turn East Pasadena into Old Pasadena, but the next changes are coming very soon. I noticed this morning that the northwest corner of the Vons/Rite Aid lot has been cordoned off for construction. The plan is to move the Vons out to the street, hiding the parking lot, and then adding additional stores that will line the sidewalk. The idea is to make the lot look like it is for pedestrians, rather than for cars. Observe below:

I don't really know how successful these changes are, but because I only use the area as a pedestrian, and not as a car driver, I am totally for them.

Today the county sheriff's department released its annual report for the first six months of crime statistics in 2010. The big news is that in all areas policed by the sheriff (including Altadena, La Canada Flintridge, Temple City, and Rosemead, among others locally) violent crimes are down by almost 4 percent, and homicides down by over 17 percent, compared to the first six months of 2009.

Property crimes are also down countywide. However, Altadena is not in line with the rest of the county- it has actually seen a 39.6 percent increase from last year, part of a terrible five year trend that has seen area property crimes go up by almost 70 percent.

No other station has seen an increase of even 10 percent. Pasadena, has seen slight increases, but only in the single digits, according to its most updated crime figures.

So what is going on in Altadena? We'll have an in-depth look at it tomorrow, but the short answer, according to Captain Steve McLean of the Altadena Sheriff's Station, is people are leaving their cars and homes unlocked, and burglars are having an easy time snatching valuables. The perception in the community, he said, for at least some people, is that the town is exceptionally safe and locking doors is not necessary.

The department has been trying to get the word out about the problem- back in April we wrote a story about a door-to-door campaign from the department to get people to take more care and keep a watch over their property and their neighbor's property.

McLean says the department has been making a ton of arrests, and that the number of crimes has begun to decline. We'll be keeping an eye on the figures over the next few months, and hopefully they will reflect those efforts.

Nominations for the city's second police chief search panel were accepted through Monday. Approximately nine names will be selected for the second panel next week, and those panelists will meet with finalist candidates and give feedback to City Manager Michael Beck.

Here is the list that Beck has to chose from:

Pablo Alvarado

Flo Anang

Eddie Angeles

Greg Apodaca

Danny Bakewell Sr.

Bob Barber

Nicholas Benson

Barbara Bigby

Ishkhan Boghossian

Myra Martin Booker

Raul Borbon

Jim Brooks

Joe Brown

Jean Burch

Pamela Cantero

Bob Carlson

Gabriel Ceja

Geneviève M. Clavreul

André Coleman

Bill Crowfoot

Jaye Curry

Dave Davis

Fausto De La Torre

Prentice Deadrick

Hovig Dimejian

Ida Dimejian

Neidi Dominguez

Kyle Douglas

Marguerite Duncan-Abrams

Randy Ertll

Hector Escobedo

Karen Evans

Vince Farhat

Porfirio Frausto

Geraldine Glidden

Raffi Hamparian

Joe Hopkins

Leo Hurtado

Maria Luisa Isenberg

Eric Johnson

C.L. Keedy

John J. Kennedy

Juan Lara

Beatrice R. Lopez

Kerwin Manning

Frank Marquez

Manuel Marselian

Roberta Martinez

Gene Masuta

Ronald K. Matthews

Pastor Mayorga

John McCall

Yvette McDowell

Robert McGowan

Ralph McKnight

Bob Monk

Jimmy Morris

Al Moses

Molly Munger

Stella Murga

Charles Nelson

Angela Oh

Herminia Ortiz

Bill Paparian

Bill Pellman

Ricky Pickens

Charles Pulliam

Mikala Rahn

Timothy Rhambo

Connie Rice

Kelly Richards

Marquis Robinson

Tarik Ross

Raul Salinas

Robin Salzer

Tecumseh Shackelford

Arnold I. Siegel

Tyrone Skinner

Lucious Smith

Shirley Spencer

June Takenouchi

Charles Thomas

Rodge Tolbert

Stanley Tory

Ishmael Trone

Celestine Walker

LaWayne Williams

Allen L. Williams

Larry Wilson

Lisa Wilson

Del Yarborough

Peggy York

Inez Yslas

Susana Zamorano

Paul Zdunek

General Secretary Michael Beck did his best Wednesday to defend the secret panel that help pick police chief finalists. But in the end, Pasadena politburo's secret committee took some heat in the northwest over the whole enchilada. Reporter Dan Abendschein was there:

PASADENA - Northwest Pasadena residents laid into City Manager Michael Beck at a Wednesday meeting on the city's police chief search, accusing him of not fairly representing their part of the city.

The main issue was a 16-member police chief search committee, which community members criticized for not having enough representatives from the black community, the Northwest, and not enough low-income members.

"You missed a chance to really unify the city," said Dr. Nicholas Benson, a member of the Fair Oaks Project Area Committee, which co-hosted the meeting. "This is another confirmation that there are truly two cities, Northwest Pasadena, and the other Pasadena."

Not sure what the purpose is at this point. But City Manager Michael Beck will meet with residents of Northwest Pasadena to explain his rational behind a secret panel that chose finalists to replace Barney Melekian as police chief.

This from a press release (No he won't be naming the finalists):

ATTENTION PASADENA COMMUNITY

Fair Oaks and Lincoln PAC Community Meeting to discuss Pasadena
Police Chief Advisory Panel process and criteria to select finalist,
with City Manager Michael Beck.

A joint meeting of the Fair Oaks and Lincoln Project Area Committees
will be held on March 24, 2010 at 6:30 p.m., Robinson Park
Multi-Purpose Room-1081 N. Fair Oaks Avenue. Topics of discussion
include the criteria undertaken by the 16 panel Pasadena Police Chief
Advisory Committee to select the final candidates.

Council members Chris Holden and Jacque Robinson will be in
attendance. For more information, contact the Northwest Programs
office at 626.744.7043.

Reporter Dan Abendschein sat as a guest on Pasadena's City Beat public access television program on March 5 for a discussion on the city's decision to use a secret committee to help search for a new police chief.

The League of Women Voters Pasadena Area Saturday will host an open government forum featuring Pasadena's City Attorney Michele Bagneris, who is not such a big fan of open government herself.
Bagneris defended City Manager Michael Beck's decision to keep secret the names of community members who will help choose the city's next police chief.
She claims its not in the public interest to disclose those names.
Oh really?
What if former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach is among those advising Beck (himself the former Riverside City Manager)
I believe Pasadenans have the right to know who is on this secret committee and open government advocate Terry Francke, the head of the Californians Aware open government group, agrees.
He said that the names of the panel members should be released under the California Public Records Act.
"There's nothing in the law that would exempt those names from being released," Francke told reporter Dan Abendschein.
FYI there will be a Q&A session at the open government forum about 9:15 a.m. If you think Bagneris and Beck should be challenged on this I urge you to attend.
The forum will be held at Neighborhood Church, 301 North Orange Grove. it begins at 8:30 a.m.and ends around noon with a call to action.

Any questions for City Councilwoman Jacque Robinson?
I'm meeting with her later today. Perhaps there's something you want to know..
Send me an email : frank.girardot@sgvn.com

Thanks for your votes in my little poll. Consider this a revival -- albeit a slow moving one.
A few Pasadena stories of interest:

1) As many as 500 felons could be back on Pasadena streets, if they qualify for early release. The big question Pasadena cops are grappling with is "what to do with all these men and women?"
The answer they've come up with is: "get community organizations involved in rehabilitation."
Seems like a noble effort...

2) Caltech has been monitoring developments in Chile and Haiti and officials at the brainiest institution in Pasadena believe events in both countries should serve as a reminder to us in the Southland that the big one is coming ....

3) Stand and deliver for Jaime Escalante. The famed East Los Angeles is battling cancer and needs your help. The nonprofit Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education in Pasadena, which publishes Escalante's educational materials, is taking donations. Contributions can be sent to "Friends of Jaime," C/O FASE, 236 W. Mountain St., Suite 105, Pasadena, CA 91103.

4) Expect more rain this weekend...But don't expect anyone to say the drought is over.

A crucial part of city officials' plan to deal with an ever-growing deficit this year has been to get one of its major employee unions to agree to give up a pay increase that is scheduled to take place this month.

Apparently, the framework of a deal is now in place, according to City Manager Michael Beck, though the agreement still needs to be approved by the City Council, and by board members of the Pasadena Management Association union.

Beck's position was for the PMA to completely give up the four percent raise its members were due as part of an ill-advised agreement city officials agreed to in August of 2008, just as the severity of the recession was starting to become painfully obvious.

PMA negotiators were trying to convince the city to agree to a salary deferral or some other lesser cuts.

Details of the deal are not being released right now since both sides still need to approve it. But when the details come out, it should be interesting. The city's strength in the negotiations were that it had as an alternative the threat of furloughs if the pay cut was not accepted.

But the union felt it had a strong backing from City Council matters. Several of them were questioning why the PMA in particular was being targeted when other unions were not. One of them, the IBEW, refused to take any kind of reduction in the raise it was due last year.

Which one had the stronger position, we'll hopefully find out soon.

I got an interesting call a few minutes ago from someone who read our story on the biker who kicked the 13-year-old kid in the jaw.

I can't vouch for the accuracy, but this caller told me that he used to ride with a guy at the Rose Bowl who had a very valuable bike. This biker, like the other, collided with a female pedestrian. Like Paul Teal, he blamed her for the collision, and got quite angry- according to the caller, he punched her in the face.

Needless to say, the caller said that was the last time he rode with the other guy, who never faced any trouble with the law.

Also, I notice from our comments section that almost none of our commenters seem to care very much for bikers in general- seems to be a lot of hostility. No doubt bikers can be obnoxious like anyone else, but as someone who rides a lot in this town, I do think it is a case of just a few bad apples. I'm kind of shocked to see so much anger focused at bikers, even for doing nothing more than riding on the streets during rush hour.

Then again, maybe I shouldn't be surprised- when I bike home after work I often see aggressive and hostile drivers who don't want me on the road. The worst is at crosswalks: even if I walk my bike across, as I am legally entitled to, cars sometimes accelerate then brake at the last minute, as if to send a message to me that I shouldn't be using the crosswalk and that I am lucky they chose to spare my life.

I think it is all part of the joys of having an overused road system where nobody can get where they want to go as fast as they like.

I had an email back and forth with Jon Dudley of the Pasadena Hockey League, in the wake of the Council's ice rink decision and he said the league is going to move its remaining teams in Pasadena elsewhere.

That will mean longer commutes for local youth hockey players- most of the teams play in Paramount, and the remaining teams that play in Pasadena, including the Maple Leafs, will likely be moved there.

Dudley said he is not willing to wait to see if the Council calls the issue back for further consideration. In his words: "We've been jerked around by the city council and staff for far too long."

We'll have more of the blow by blow of the council's deliberation on the ice rink project in tomorrow's paper, but to put a short summary on it: this was about as bitterly divided as I have seen the Council in the time I've been reporting on them.

Both Steve Haderlein and Steve Madison had some pretty serious things to say about the judgment and motives of the council members opposed to the project. Madison accused the opposition of looking for "political cover" when they subsequently voted to look into renovating the existing ice rink, saying they wanted to make it appear as if they are supporters of youth recreation in Pasadena (also suggesting that they are, in fact, not supporters).

Making matters worse was the fact that more members voted to keep the city engaged on the project than voted to kill it, and the absence of Victor Gordo meant that supporters of the project are now left to wonder where he would have come down in the vote. His support would have meant the project moved forward, at least until December.

The split isn't as surprising as it might seem- though the Council often votes together, more and more often Margaret McAustin and Terry Tornek are pushing for slow development, pro-open-space policies, while Haderlein and Madison are more often backing the business community (like in the dispute over trees). Gordo has tended to side with Haderlein and Madison, and Holden with Tornek and McAustin. Jacque Robinson has been a little bit of a wildcard, but often sides with the business side (effectively meaning each side of the dais tends to be on the same page.) Bill Bogaard, more than anyone else, is in the middle.

Again, in terms of actual votes, the Council still tends to find consensus, but the disagreements are more frequent than they used to be. Not that that is a bad thing- it just means that sometimes a couple of council members are left feeling like they fought the good fight and lost, which is how Haderlein and Madison no doubt feel right now.

Yesterday, I got my first chance to get deep into the Angeles Forest after the fire. Like most people who hike in the area, I'd been feeling a lot of anxiety about what might have been destroyed up there.

The news is not good. The lower end of the forest, up to the intersection with Big Tujunga Canyon Road, is absolutely devastated. There are stretches where there is almost no foliage left anywhere in sight. Guard rails are laying on the side of the road, the wooden posts that held them up burned to ashes. Without any trees left for wind break, yesterday's slight breeze felt very strong, sending up little dust devils whirling around the charred landscape.

There are few bright spots left for outdoors enthusiasts. Hiking trails off Big Tujunga Canyon Road will be useless. The trail up to Strawberry Peak that starts near Mt. Wilson is burned.

The backside of Mt. Wilson is one of the few exceptions in the area. Firefighters did an amazing job protecting the area, and hiking trails down in the canyon next to it could still be intact. Another bright spot is Switzer Falls, an extremely popular picnic area low in the park. Though the fire burned hillsides on either side of the canyon it sits in, the canyon itself is still mostly intact, especially right in the picnic area. The hiking trails in the area may not be open for a while, though, as trees and boulders have rolled down the hills into the canyon.

Further up in the forest is a different story. Firefighters are still battling the blazes up there. One side of Mt. Waterman is burning, but the fire does not appear to be out of control. Higher peaks are still outside of the burn area.

The area below Waterman is a mixed bag. In the Devil's Canyon area, where there are several popular campgrounds, there are some trees left standing, and some burn areas. It looks different around every curve up on Highway 2. There are still smoky hotspots in the area, and it is hard to tell exactly what has been preserved and what hasn't.

It's hard to say exactly what the future of the forest helds for recreational users: some areas will be reopened, some may not be, at least in the near future. But even in the best-case scenario the loss of great wilderness areas is very staggering, and a little hard to take once you see it with your own eyes.

The fire stopped just short of Millard Camp- or at least it was stopped there, by dedicated firefighters who managed to save the place.

Unfortunately, the hills above it have been absolutely scorched. The creek that runs through is full of dirt.

Lonnie Fehr, the campground hosts describes the place as "eerie" now that there are no children playing in the camp, no hikers walking through. Most of the time, the place is a zoo. Today all I could hear was birds chirping, and a steady stream of pebbles rolling down the eroded hillsides, like a steady drizzle.

It was amazing to stand there knowing that an hour and a half drive's away, in other places I've hiked, the same fire that burned above Millard is still burning.

I teach a journalism class over at PCC. Here is a note I found in my classroom today, on the opening day of class:

"Here are your whiteboard markers for the fall semester. You get three colors. When these dry up (or are misplaced) you will need to purchase your own. The days of unlimited supplies are in the past and possibly in the future, but they are not in the present. Blame your state legislators; blame Arnold; blame Bernie Madoff, but please understand that for now, we do not have an unlimited budget for makers (which cost about $1.20 each) for 100 faculty members. Use them wisely!"

What was absent from the note: whiteboard markers. Apparently a teacher who had already used the classroom had taken them. In the past, my experience has been the whiteboard markers stay in the classroom, not go with the teacher. Those days appear to be gone. Anyone got a spare marker?

I did some personal research into Pasadena's internet situation this week after seeing a link to a report on the average speed of U.S. Internet connection.

To make it succinct: the U.S. has lackluster Internet speed, California has lackluster Internet speed, and Pasadena does as well, at least compared to some other countries that we ought to be competitive with.

The city's has two major providers Charter and AT & T, and the fastest speed you can get from either is up to 6 mbps (megabits per second). Note the "up to." That means it isn't guaranteed to be that fast.

How does that stack up? California's average speed is 6.6 mbps. The U.S. has an average of 5.1. Japan has a 16 mbps average, Sweden, 12.7, and South Korea, a whopping 20.1.

What is discouraging for us in Pasadena, is that 6 mbps, which you can get through AT & T, costs $45 a month. Its cheapest service, which I have, costs $25 a month, and has paltry speeds of up to 768 kbps (also known as .768 mbps, less than 1/20 the average speed the enjoy in South Korea). Try watching TV episodes online with that speed, and you are pretty much guaranteed to have at least a couple of breaks for the screen to "buffer."

The "fast" connection you can get through Charter, which is more expensive than basic, gets speeds up to 1.5 mbps.

If you look at the statewide map, provided in the report, you can see that the Bay Area is generally whopping L.A. County in terms of Internet speed.

The one bright spot for Pasadena, is that we may soon have faster options from AT & T's UVerse option, which offers speeds up to 20 mbps. The company got permission last year from the council to install some cable boxes, that were somewhat controversial at the time. Those boxes may well insure that we can have faster Internet.

The question will be at what cost? I've been told from other UVerse users that in order to get fast internet you have to pay for a bundle package that includes other services, like television or a telephone line.

UPDATE: One reader mentions that he gets speeds of up to 10 mbps in Altadena with Charter. One thing I should note is that different areas may have different speeds available. This post reflects the options I get at my house in the Lamanda Park area. It does make me curious now to follow up and see if the speeds vary throughout the Pasadena/Altadena area a lot, and if so, what might be done about it.