Spotlight on South Pasadena

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Spotlight on South Pasadena

Long-Awaited Train Station Leaves Shopkeepers Fretting

By CLAUDIA PESCHIUTTA

Staff Reporter





Vanora Savig is torn.

She and childhood friend Alexis Schneider are struggling to make a success of Two Heads Studios, the small arts and crafts shop they run on South Pasadena’s Mission Street. While they both love the area for its small-town atmosphere, Savig wishes they had chosen a location with more foot traffic.

The anticipated July 2003 opening of a Gold Line station a few blocks away, at the intersection of Mission and Meridian Avenue, should bring more shoppers to the area, a development Savig and other local merchants would welcome. But they are concerned that potential parking and traffic problems might take away some of Mission’s charm.

“I’m kind of divided,” Savig said. “It seems like such a big thing for what this area can bear.”

The few blocks that make up Mission’s commercial district, running east to west from Fair Oaks Avenue to Meridian, are a collection of quaint boutiques and antique shops that offer everything from children’s books to hand-dyed clothing to a 1961 copy of TV Radio Mirror magazine.

The quaintness has yet to draw crowds. The stores are rarely busy and most, except for Shiro Restaurant, Buster’s Ice Cream & Coffee Shop and Kaeli’s Essential Oil Body Care, close by early evening. Only during the Thursday night farmers’ market on Meridian do most of the shops stay open late.

This is likely to change. The first phase of the Gold Line, a 13.7-mile line stretching from L.A.’s Union Station through Pasadena, will draw an estimated daily ridership of 30,000 to 38,000.

Also in the works is a mixed-use development for the west side of Meridian that will include 67 condominiums, retail spaces and an underground parking structure with 324 spaces for residents, businesses, Gold Line commuters and an adjacent convalescent home.

Effect of rail station

The question is how the Gold Rail station and the Meridian development will affect Mission.

“We’ve all kind of got baited breath,” said Ellen Daigle, who opened Ellen’s Silkscreening and Promotional Products on Mission in 1978. “It’s going to be a real challenge.”

When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority began preparing for the Gold Line, the South Pasadena station was considered a “kiss and ride” stop. Its design includes a drop-off area but no on-site parking. The Meridian development, which would be built across the street, will provide 142 parking spaces for commuters but that probably won’t be enough. That means parking could become scarce in the area around Mission.

The city also has received $14 million in federal, state and local money to relieve traffic congestion from the Pasadena (110) Freeway and busy Fair Oaks Avenue, Joyce said. Just a few blocks away, a former antiques mart is being converted into a loft housing complex with 17 units and 1,500 square feet of retail space. The facility will have 73 parking spaces. A local bus line is being considered as well.

Size of project protested

Meanwhile, concerned about the size and location of the Meridian project, a group of local business owners and residents has been circulating a petition urging the city to move the project next to the station, onto the site of a commercial storage facility.

“It’s just a matter of time before a passenger will be hurt or killed” crossing the street, said Mary Cassilly, owner of The Frame Shop LTD on Mission. The petition proposes an alternate development with only 40 condominiums and 155 parking spaces.

But despite all this, shop owners still want to attract more business and believe the Gold Line will help.

In order to bring more people to the east side of Mission, a handful of business owners are forming a merchants group to promote the area. The South Pasadena Community Redevelopment Agency has hired L.A. developer Ratkovich Co., known for its work on the Wiltern Theatre, to study ways to make the area more pedestrian friendly.

But it’s the quiet and calm that attracts Sydney Spencer to Mission, which she prefers to the crowds and chain stores of nearby Old Pasadena. And which now might change.

“Old Town is so commercial. It’s so not my style at all,” said the 21-year-old college student, who sports short, spiky hair and a silver hoop in her nose.

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