Altadena

I've lived in Altadena for the last two years. I am from overseas. I rarely even hear about Sunland or Tujunga and have never been there, to my knowledge at least. I've gone out of my way to go to Glendale. Pasadena & Sierra Madre are right there! I'm not sure I understand the 'snobbish'comment!?

Altadena is always 5-10 degrees cooler than surrounding areas, we live near Fair Oaks, N of Altadena Dr so we are fairly close to the trails. Lots of wildlife here, Barn Owls, Cooper's Hawks, Coyotes. We even saw a Mountain Lion on a close in hike. PLEASE if you can't take the idea that a coyote might eat your pet then do not move here! We are VERY close to the mountains and up closer there are even bears in folks garbage cans...WE LOVE ALTADENA!

For those of you who doubt that Altadena is not naturally aligned with Pasadena and Sierra Madre:

Take a closer look at that map. See the Arroyo? See those foothills to the west? Those are very real natural geographic boundaries.

There's a reason why Altadena has historically been aligned with Pasadena and not Sunland, Tujunga, or any of the communities to the west.

Do the Regions have any validity other than as a convenient lumping of neighborhoods? The next step is having then represent social reality. Northeast LA is well done and it is a much smaller Region. " The Verdugos" is way to big an area. When I lived in Altadena, we never went to Sunland, Tujunga, and almost never to Glendale. We did go to San Marino, South Pasadena, Eagle Rock and Sierra Madre. Altadena/Pasadena has an association with the rest of the San Gabriel Valley, but not to most of "The Verdugos"

We lived in Altadena for 10 year, when our kids were younger. We moved to La Crescenta for the better schools when they were that age. We miss the beautiful, open, nature feel of our Altadena neighborhood. Too many people in Altadena and Pasadena send their kids to private schools. We are big believers in public education (but selfishly we weren't willing to sacrafice our own kids to the mediocre situation in the Pasadena school system.) It fractures the community. If the schools had been better, we would have loved to have remained in Altadena. We also loved the connection to Pasadena, its culture, restuarants, etc. We still drive down there rather than to Glendale more often than not.

i use to live there back in the 1980,s

and in the 1990,s so i want to know how

it is now.

I must agree with the "relocation territory" comments here--never think of any alignment with Sunland/Tujunga/Glendale since living here. It comes as a surprise to me.

Altadena is a great place to live with really good, diverse people.

Altadena does indeed have more links to Pasadena, Arcadia and Sierra Madre. It's not snobbism, it's geography and convenience, not to mention history. I don't head north to Sunland or Tujunga and rarely to Glendale for any local shopping that is outside Altadena itself. I head to Pasadena, a straight drive down Lake St. The two most convenient malls are Hastings Square and Westfield Arcadia.

Anyone living here knows that but I suspect that there may be considerable political motivation for separating Altadena from Pasadena--there is a long history of attempted annexation by the latter and there are issues regarding the school districts, etc. to this day.

I like this L.A. Times feature--it is very helpful. Unfortunately, Altadena has more than a few SNOBS who don't want to identify with Sunland, Glendale, and Tujunga and would rather identify with South Pas, Arcadia, and Sierra Madre. Blech to the Altadena SNOBS!

The problem with Altadena is that it is NOT part of the Verdugos and SHOULD BE. Then maybe its residents would get over themselves and stop being so PROVINCIAL.

Altadena should NOT part of "The Verdugos". I agree with John, we are more like Pasadena, Arcadia and Sierra Madre.

I think this really skews the data being reported.

Agree. Pasadena and Altadena share a lot more "regionality" with South Pas, Arcadia, and Sierra Madre than they do with Sunland, Glendale, and Tujunga. PUSD serves Sierra Madre.

If these regions are truly supposed to be represent cohesive areas, then this should be corrected. Otherwise it just seems arbitrary.

What makes Altadena such a great place to live is the awesome diversity of the residents and the thriving arts community. Live right. Live Altadena.

Altadena, La Canada, Pasadena, Arcadia, Sierra Madre and, of course South Pasadena are a coherent area. Separating Pasadena and South Pasadena for the sake of a somewhat interesting construct like 'the Verdugos' is interesting but not very consistent with the communities themselves.

Having grown up in Altadena, my only critique of this is the completely artificial geographic designation of "The Verdugos." While it is true that Altadena and Pasadena are not so much aligned with the rest of the San Gabriel Valley, the neighborhoods also don't really have any kind of connection, except the 210, with Sunland. Kind of a quandary, though I'd include Sierra Madre with Altadena and Pasadena in whatever region that you create.