The February meeting of the Crescenta Valley Community Association on Thursday opened with a discussion of the mixed-use condo/commercial project at 3037-3045 Foothill Blvd. in the unincorporated portion of La Crescenta. Sharon Raghavachary has reviewed the revised plans submitted by the developer to LA County Planning and determined the project is still not in compliance […]
The Rattlesnake Murders For those of you who have read “Murder and Mayhem in the Crescenta Valley,” this story will be familiar as it was written up by Gary Keyes for that book. But this murder was so bizarre, so twisted, that I just had to cover it again. In 1935, Robert James and […]
Turkey’s Descent Into Authoritarianism There are few countries with which the United States has a more complex relationship than Turkey. Turkey is a member of NATO, hosts a major U.S. airbase in Incirlik, and has long boasted a vigorous, if flawed, democracy in a strategically important Muslim country. For decades, the United States has cultivated […]
Parking Major Concern As a Montrose business owner of Grayson’s Tune Town, established in 1953, and an active Montrose merchant for 40 years, I am writing about my parking concern for the 2300 and 2400 blocks of the Montrose Shopping Park. I learned just recently that Glendale College is in escrow to buy the vacated […]
The Granite Quarry at Devil’s Gate The mining and quarrying of minerals and stone has gone on in our local mountains since Europeans first arrived – gold, graphite, gravel and granite. One significant gravel quarry existed in the 1880s at Devil’s Gate in the Arroyo Seco at the eastern edge of La Cañada. Local […]
Montrose Search and Rescue – Busy Thanksgiving Weekend The pressure on the Montrose Search and Rescue team increases on holiday weekends. This account of two rescues on Sunday of the Thanksgiving weekend in 1986 shows how this brave rescue team often sacrifices its holidays to save lives. At the same moment that particular Sunday, […]
Getting Into Action Late last month, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed, with a 4-1 vote, a motion that asked the California Legislature to alter the way the state defines “gravely disabled.” The motion was put forth by Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Mark Ridley-Thomas after Supervisor Barger spent time on skid row and […]
In January 1988, two different Boy Scout troops were getting experience in cold-weather camping in the San Gabriel Mountains when an unexpectedly powerful storm blew in, dropping a heavy covering of snow. Troop 108 from Culver City had parked their cars on a turnout of Angeles Crest Highway and then hiked about a mile down […]
The first Crescenta Valley Community Association meeting of 2018 was lightly attended. We were expecting some of those who have been commenting on social media about the Welcome to Glendale monument signs to attend but only one newcomer came. Glendale has added a Facts vs. Rumors entry to its website regarding the project, http://www.glendaleca.gov/government/departments/management-services/communications-community-relations/rumor-page. Tom […]
Montrose Search and Rescue – Ice Rescues Last week I wrote about the treacherous “ice chutes” that sometimes trap unwary visitors to our snowy mountains each winter. These slick, nearly vertical toboggan runs form in the turnouts along Angeles Crest Highway. Motorists sometimes stray too near to the edges and slide into the ice […]