• Ray Bradbury celebrated his 90th birthday in South Pasadena. The Star-News did a nice piece on it but, I think, made a slight boo-boo: “The Fremont Centre Theater regularly shows Ray Bradbury movies.”
• Interesting story in the Wall Street Journal on the Modern Whigs includes this bit: “Nationwide, Whigs point to just two members in political office, both in unpaid, local positions. Alan Reynolds, a 25-year-old engineering consultant who stumbled onto the Whigs by Googling ‘Political Parties,’ holds an appointed post on the Parks and Recreation Commission in South Pasadena, Calif.”
• A little stale for me to mention now, but blogging.la listed the five worst Trader Joe’s parking lots, and didn’t include South Pasadena. Vigorous debate ensued in the comments.
• Writer and urban designer John Leighton Chase, who grew up in South Pasadena, has died. He was 57.
• The L.A. Times once quoted Alhambra City Manager Julio Fuentes as saying, ”This is not just an Alhambra versus South Pasadena issue. We’re fighting for the regional benefit of this freeway. We want to get the traffic off our streets and onto the freeway.” He was talking, of course, about the 710. But now there’s a proposed high-speed rail system that could cut through Alhambra. Is Fuentes for it? “Sure, it’s good for the state, but depending on how it effects our neighborhoods, we’ll fight it.” Sigh.

• City Water Manager Marcelino Aguilar says of the Wilson Reservoir: “It’s about 100 years old. The life expectancy is supposed to be about 50 years.”
• Trader Joe’s is suing a New York store that’s decided to reopen as Trader John’s.
• Drilling began, in a testing phase, for the 710 tunnel. Right now it’s in Alhambra, where the freeway ends, and at Westmont Drive and Sherwood Avenue (just south of Main Street).
• Athens Services is making a move for exclusive trash rights in Montebello, and some residents are unhappy to the point of threatening a recall campaign.
• Jonathan Gold drinks our milkshakes.
• The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services fined South Pasadena-based RJJ Pasadena Securities Inc. $4,000 after discovering the company had at least four Oregon clients but wasn’t licensed in Oregon.
• Alhambra has some great Chinese restaurants, but you might want to stay away from the turtle soup.
• Forbes Traveler names The Dinosaur Farm one of 10 Amazing Toy Stores in America.
• Charles Phoenix is the Doo Dah parade grand marshal.

• Two weeks after an architect unsuccessfully lobbied Alhambra’s Planning Commission for more bedrooms in a condo project, the place burned to the ground.
• A week or so after Maureen Dowd reminded us that Pasadena Now reports from India, the L.A. Times’ James Rainey talks with the site’s owner.
• The headline would make you think this wasn’t South Pas: “Pasadena Councilman Sifuentes takes over as mayor.”
• Anonymous blog The Foothill Cities is back up and running.

Earlier: Four Alarm Fire in Alhambra

Alhambra, South Pasadena and L.A. County firefighters responded to the blaze late Tuesday night at 101 N. 3rd St. The fire left about 7,000 people without power. No injuries or deaths have been reported. The L.A. Times also have this story, but it’s, um, four sentences long. This little blurb is five.

With Circuit City filing Chapter 11 today, there’s a good chance that the shopping center being erected at Palm and Main in Alhambra will have an immediate vacancy. On the plus side, Fresh & Easy would have have oodles of parking, which should make Trader Joe’s a tad nervous.