My Dear Burned-out Bummed-out Bloggadocious Friends,
Last evening I did attend (Estella took notes, Jaggers drank and took pictures) the public debate for all candidates running for Pasadena City Council. The hopefuls were displayed like little duckies muddy bound to Hahamongna, sitting in one row across the stage behind tables trying to keep the dream alive.
Frank Girardot, the moderator, stood at the podium to the right of the candidates. 
Jaggers let out a loud belch when he saw Mr. Girardot. Horribly rude! Then Jaggers, says, “Frank’s no slouch.” Oh dear, I thought, Mr. Girardot does have a reputation for running a tight ship as well as being known to be rather tight himself, at times, but you didn’t read that here. Frank had to admonish several candidates that attempted to peel away from Frank’s precise instruction. They were shaking in their boots by the end of the evening, learning to do things the Frank Girardot Way.
We sat behind Larry Wilson. What a marvelous head of hair that man has! Estella took note of it. There are 5 candidates running for District 4, which is Guitar Center, Poobah Records, and Jagger’s favorite district dive The Colorado. All of the questions had been submitted in advance of the debate. Absolutely NO clapping, clucking, or blathering of any kind would be tolerated. We screamed and wildly applauded for Jill Fosselman when she expressed her appreciation for beautiful old ficus trees.
Margaret McAustin, and Mayor Bill Bogaard are running for re-election with no challengers. No one wants to be them. Certainly, not I, nor Jaggers… Oh. Jaggers DOES want to be Mayor. You can see how plainly ridiculous this whole thing is. I don’t need to tell you. WHAT A FART FARCE!
The meat and potatoes, of course, or Cornish Pasty of this contest, the HAHAMONGNA urban wilderness TM, wrests with the two couples sitting at the polar extremes. To the right, District 1 Councilwoman Jacque Robinson and her opponent, an impressive young man, James D. Smith.
They both spoke eloquently of their hometown Pasadena upbringing. Mr. Smith made an exceptional showing of concern for the homeless, post-incarcerated, and disenfranchised among us. Estella and I like him very much. Jaggers fell asleep. Union contract talk prevailed. The City of Pasadena is in a financial crisis facing future retirement and health care benefit obligations due to city employees. It seems only yesterday that Ann Erdman was bragging about how financially sound our city was, that it had a surplus into the million$. Apparently, that’s all watershed under the La Loma Bridge (flushed).
District 6 Councilman Steve Madison, or “Maserati Madison” as the former-mayoral-candidate-that-shall not-be-named used to call him, and his challenger Carolyn Nabor, a current Livvie and former Weeper, were the only two to tackle the questions I submitted about the Hahamongna soccer field plan, the L.A. County Devil’s Gate Dam sediment collection “emergency” project, and the EIR.
In this YouTube clip, Councilman Steve Madison calls the Arroyo Seco Hahamongna Watershed behind the Devil’s Gate Dam, “a sacred space”, then goes on to be a warrior to promote the soccer field plan. Steve says it could go in right next to the existing seldom used soggy soccer field/baseball diamond.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOxHCw9YkIQ
Developments in Hahamongna are bad ideas that have been rightfully bogged down in silt for 15 years. Six new soccer fields were relocated to other parts of Pasadena, two of them on the city owned old St. Luke’s property. Steve Madison suggests to L.A. County that maybe Pasadena won’t demand an Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”). Maybe Steve Madison should be running for Mike Antonovich‘s job? Why isn’t Steve more like Sid Tyler? Why can’t we have a Steve Tyler run for council? “He has balls of steel!”, says Jaggers. Either Tyler would protect Pasadena from these self-serving twits.
This is Carolyn Nabor’s first debate with Steve Madison. As you can see in the video, she makes all the right statements. Open space should remain open space. An EIR could provide the public and the council with the awareness of how Hahamongna will be damaged. Alternative ideas and methods can come from demanding an EIR. Mrs. Nabor is vetty vetty right on all counts with regard to Hahamongna. During the debate, she mentioned the traffic and dust cloud expected to invade her lovely Linda Vista neighborhood. But then, Mrs. Nabor began to flounder into teabaggety fear mongering territory when the subject turned to crime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC8oX9OfIM4
She insists, despite what Police Chief Sanchez reports, that everyone she has talked to in Pasadena is being robbed in their homes. The earlier fiscal emergency debate had somehow whizzed past her and she pleaded for the hiring of more police officers. This, to keep her safe, or to provide the illusion of safety while keeping the rest of us broke. Aw, the inescapable insanity of Polly Tix.
Sincerely,
Miss HaHavisham
The next Pasadena City Council Political Debate will be:
March 1, a Tuesday night, 6:30-9 PM,
All Saints Church (across from City Hall)
132 N Euclid Ave., Pasadena, California
