Pasadena? Huh?

May 29, 2009 2:44 PM

I'm vaguely thinking of applying for a job in Pasadena, CA, and never having been to southern California I have no idea what it's like, culturally OR geographically.

Also (and I know this is an easy question but not knowing the geography over there I'm not getting a good sense from looking online) how far is it from nice beach, mountains, outdoor area, and what's the cost of living like in the area? Do people typically live in houses or apartments? I'd look for a pretty short commute, and ideally something that's not too too far from the beach. I know, I'm clueless, but any thoughts?

FYI: I'm a woman in my mid-30s, married, and we have a dog. We like doing stuff outdoors but we're not hard-core mountain bikers, hikers, or swimmers...we just like to meander about. I currently live in New York and in the past have lived in Boston, Chicago and Ann Arbor, Mich (for context). I'm part of the liberal elite, work in non-profit media, am a vegetarian, and don't like Starbuck's coffee. So there you go.

posted by supercoollady to society & culture (18 comments total)

Pasadena is about 25 miles from the beach. It is close to excellent hiking. Other than that, it's part of Los Angeles, but sort of different, and there are numerous coffee shops. Houses are expensive, produce is cheap at a farmers' market.
posted by mzurer at 2:58 PM on May 29

I don't live there, but I visited friends there recently. Pasadena has perhaps the best small museum in America (the Norton Simon), an outstanding and sprawling botanical garden that also has an exceptional museum (the Huntington Library), great restaurants and a lively shopping district, is home of the Rose Bowl parade, a great university (CalTech), some outstanding period architecture in the form of bungalows and mansions, plenty of palm trees, better air than much of LA, and can be quite expensive with some very pricey neighborhoods. It's far enough from downtown LA to make it feel separate, but close enough that one can commute. If you can afford it, I think you'll find Pasadena to be really quite nice. Good luck.
posted by ornate insect at 3:08 PM on May 29

Pasadena is a city of about 500,000, located northeast of Los Angeles. It's near a lot of great hiking if you're into that. I really like Pasadena, it's small but really convenient. Not hip or cutting edge, but pleasant. There's an old-money side to it. Rents and property values are lower than Los Angeles, but not by a lot.

I'm a nearly lifelong Angeleno, and I'd live there if I could. The downside? Not a lot of employment outside of the government, retail, and Caltech/JPL sector, which is why I "don't* live there.
posted by chez shoes at 3:20 PM on May 29

There are extremely nice parts of Pasadena (and South Pasadena), some extremely rough parts, and a few neighborhoods in between. Speaking broadly, though, it's a pretty upper-middle-class area, generally lefty-liberal but not exclusively. (The few McCain/Palin or "Yes on 8" signs I saw during the election tended to be in and around Pasadena.) There are plenty of vegetarian and non-Starbucks types of places. Dining, drinks, etc. are as expensive as they are throughout L.A. -- which is to say, pricey by most U.S. standards except for New York.

In terms of housing: I know owners and renters in the area. It's very expensive to buy, and the area has generally not seen the massive declines in home values that other parts of SoCal have experienced. It's very possible to rent a house for much less than a mortgage would cost on the same place (and compared to New York prices, rents will probably seem a little on the cheap side) -- for example, my coworker rents a (very) small Craftsman bungalow plus garage and yard on a quiet street for about $1800/month. There are plenty of apartments and condos, too.

Location-wise, Pasadena is easy access to downtown (via public transport, no less!), but the commute can be tougher to other parts of L.A. This would mean you would NOT have an easy commute to and from any of the beaches during regular rush hours. If easy access to the beach is a top priority for you, I don't think you'd be happy in Pasadena. (On the other hand, you do have relatively quick access to the mountains.)

Speaking of which, the entire Los Angeles region has what's known as "micro-climates" -- which means that the weather can vary widely within just 10 or 20 miles. Pasadena is in the San Gabriel Valley and can get extremely hot and dry in the summer -- think upper 90s and low 100s on a regular basis -- while the beaches are in the 70s or 80s.

All told, I like Pasadena fine (and its home to Vromans, one of the last great independent bookstores in the area) but don't particularly know if I'd want to live there unless I had kids (great schools!) -- it's very pleasant and pretty, but it often feels a little isolated and suburban-y to me.
posted by scody at 3:25 PM on May 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

Pasadena was boring for me when I lived there for a few years as a teenager (I was happy when we moved back to LA proper), but it's a nice area. Most of it is sort of upper-middle-class "old money", with well-groomed yards and that kind of thing. The Arroyo is a great place to walk your dog. There are a bunch of nice liberal churches of various kinds. People who work in Pasadena also sometimes live in nearby Glendale, which is cheaper and has lots of apartment buildings. You're close enough to LA to get really great food whenever you feel like it. You'd probably go to the Hollywood Bowl with friends in the summer.
posted by dreamyshade at 3:27 PM on May 29

I live and work in Pasadena and would be more than willing to tell you more than you would ever need to know for any specific questions you have. MeFiMail me and we can chat about whatever strikes your fancy.
posted by milqman at 3:30 PM on May 29

Since it's basically part of LA, Pasadena is a simple commute from any of a number of diverse Los Angeles neighborhoods or LA county cities. This gives you a lot of options as to where you live (Eagle Rock, San Gabriel, Alhambra, Temple City, Glendale, Sierra Madre, Highland Park, I could go on). Housing prices will be high throughout.

What elements of the culture are you interested in? In terms of "things to do and see", LA has basically everything, and it's all very accessible from the San Gabriel valley, Northeast LA region. People might quibble about the quality of our various cultural institutions, but they're for the most part some of the best you'll find in the US. In terms of the people, Los Angeles is a very diverse city, and there's a lot of cultural diversity within Pasadena.
posted by mr_roboto at 3:33 PM on May 29

Pasadena is a nice little community. It's north and not very far from downtown LA, and is adjacent to the Glendale/Eagle Rock area to the west, and the San Gabriel Valley (large asian community) to the east. North of it is the Angeles National Forest, which has a lot of nice hiking. Like ornate insect mentioned, it has one of the best places to meander - the Huntington Library. Its botanical garden is immense and relaxing; the library has fascinating historic and artistic exhibits (Blue Boy lives there).

It's a very pleasant and historic part of Los Angeles. There is an old-money part of it; there is a bad part of town; and there are great bungalows. The city is chock full of craftsman style homes, and there are lots of apartment communities. Also, Pasadena is central to some of the best shopping and eating in Los Angeles.

One thing about LA is that it is full of transplants (even Pasadena), so don't worry about fitting in. There are plenty of mid-30's couples with dogs in the area. The tempo of the Cambridge area outside of Boston kind of reminded me of Pasadena, but without all of the colleges.
posted by jabberjaw at 3:40 PM on May 29

My son is in Pasadena... it is a neat community, Old Town, South Pasadena are wonderful...lots to do, great food... If I had to live in that area, it would be near the top of the list..

ditto on the norton simon, also the Asia Pacific Museum is in Pasadena...
posted by HuronBob at 4:01 PM on May 29

I love Pasadena and wish I still lived there. One of the best libraries I've ever been to, the great Vromans bookstore, a gorgeous downtown/Old Town, as well as lots of independent coffee places, restaurants and the like. It does get hot and smoggy in the summer, so you'll want a place with AC if possible (though I lived without it).

Lots of good places to walk, and it seems like a pretty dog-friendly city, though I didn't have one when I lived there. There are also lots of apartments as well as rental houses; I rented a small Craftsman bungalow for an amazingly inexpensive price, though that was a while ago.

Oh, and the once-a-month Rose Bowl swap meet is LOTS of fun.

Downside: getting to the west side from here will take, oh, forever. They do have a metrorail stop here now, though, so that would probably be the way to go if you're going to commute.
posted by OolooKitty at 4:10 PM on May 29

Pasadena: clean, more suburban, lots of malls, LOTS of teenagers, some hidden gem stuff in the aforementioned answers, but if you're giving a big generalization there's a lot less personality and "hip" stuff. The restaurants bars also have a bit more of a "chain" feel. That all may sound somewhat derogatory, but I assure you that's not the meaning. Also it's a very long drive from the beach when you factor in traffic. Lots of nice hiking. And the "rough" part of pasadena is not nearly as rough as the actual rough neighborhoods in downtown or south LA. It's just not as nice looking as the other parts of pasadena.

Los Angeles: every neighborhood is pretty different but on the whole it's a bit more grimy, much closer to the fun beaches, just as much traffic, no chains, everyone seems to be in their 20s or early 30s, more personality, lots of distinct places. However, it's not as safe. I simply like it better for whatever an opinion is worth but I'm also younger.

Also you can find cost of apartments that run the gamut in both neighborhoods.

so once again the short versions:

Pasadena: sterile, safer, teenagers everywhere, some real nice gems.
Los Angeles: uglier, more fun, more traffic, closer to beach, nice gems coming out the ass
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 4:35 PM on May 29

And the "rough" part of pasadena is not nearly as rough as the actual rough neighborhoods in downtown or south LA.

Well, my friend who had a stray bullet come through her living room wall about 7 years ago might beg to differ... but it's true that the rough parts of Pasadena are pretty much confined to pockets, compared to whole regions in other parts of the city.
posted by scody at 4:40 PM on May 29

I grew up in Altadena, which is an unincorporated area bordering Pasadena, and while I shot out of So Cal like a bullet upon graduating high school, that's the one place in that area I could imagine living in again. There are areas along the edge of the mountains that have a funky, almost rural feel. It's a long ways from the beach, enough that we only went a few times a year, but close to hiking options.

Totally anecdotal, but my sis who still lives in the area said that fairly recently there'd been talk about closing our old high school because Pasadena is generally too expensive for people with kids. Plus several of my cousins have moved out of the area partially due to cost-of-living issues.

Your living history doesn't including anything particularly southerly, so it's important to note that the "seasons" down there are entirely different. (I've been in WA state for almost 17 years now.) It's not that there aren't seasons, they just have entirely different signifiers. As noted above, there's lots of micro-climates in So Cal generally: closer to the beach or higher up a hill is likely to be cooler (and more expensive), further in or down in a valley is hotter. And don't forget, "LA" in general is HUGE spatially.

Most people are transplants, my folks being a fairly unusual exception, so that's not really a big deal.

There are areas that are primarily apartment buildings, and areas that are primarily single-family. My ad-hoc measure of affluence in that area? The more trees, the more expensive.

(Also: go PCC! Paternal grandparents, mom, dad and sis are all grads.)
posted by epersonae at 5:23 PM on May 29

I live in Pasadena, and I'm a married dog-owning woman in my mid-30s.

Pasadena is far enough away from the beach that I rarely go. But hiking trails are really easy to get to. Aside from the Arroyo mentioned above, Eaton Canyon is a nice place to take your dog. If you want to be even closer to the mountains, you could consider Altadena. As mentioned above, the Huntington is a nice outdoor space, but no dogs allowed. Also, you have to pay $15 to get in.

There's a mix of apartments and houses, so you have your pick, depending on your budget. To give you an idea of prices, my 1100 square foot 2 bedroom apartment goes for $1600 and my friends claim that's a real deal. I've tried looking for a house to rent, but I haven't seen anything I'd like to live in for less than $2200.

The Gold Line will easily take you to South Pasadena and Downtown. I love love love South Pasadena. Good restaurants, nice vibe. I would live there if I could get a good price on an apartment. Lots of good restaurants in Eagle Rock as well. I don't really like most restaurants in Pasadena. They are all chains. But nearby Alhambra and Arcadia have awesome Asian food, and lots of it.

Someone mentioned that Pasadena has great schools. The private schools are great. The public schools are abysmal. No one I know sends their kids to public school. I did some outreach in one of the middle schools, and I think I understand why. South Pasadena and La Canada have good public schools.

Pasadena has moderate crime, but I wouldn't describe any part of it as "rough", not anymore. I first lived here from 1993-1997, and then there were parts that were rough (guard dogs behind chain-link fences along Colorado). I came back in 2004, and all that was gone, and it's only gotten more safe feeling. The pawn shops in Old Town are mostly gone, replaced by chain restaurants and bars. That said, several people I know have been mugged while walking alone at night near Caltech, which is in a pretty nice neighborhood. I have never had a problem. Maybe it's because I have a dog.

I don't think of Pasadena as having a lot of teenagers, but maybe I don't hang out where the teenagers hang out.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to MeMail me.
posted by pizzazz at 5:52 PM on May 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

I grew up in Pasadena (my dad worked at JPL) and seconding pizzazz -- the public schools are widely known to be a drawback, not a feature.

It is also very hot and smoggy in the summer, being right up against the mountains, though that is better now than it was 20 years ago.

It has the Norton Simon, CalTech, ArtCenter, one of the two best city colleges in LA, the Rose Bowl flea market, Burger Continental (a terrific place), an amazing library, several nature areas (several of which allow dogs), some cool historic neighborhoods, you can cross the street diagonally at a few intersections (which really is more exciting than it may sound)...

... But there is something mockable about Pasadena, compared to other LA cities. I think it has a stronger flavor of its own than many other LA cities, and that may or may not be to your taste. You could live someplace normal and just work there, you know.
posted by Methylviolet at 7:49 PM on May 29

the public schools are widely known to be a drawback, not a feature.

Yeah, I should have clarified: I meant South Pasadena public schools. (My sister actually took her kids out of private school in Pasadena to put them into public school in South Pas, because the private school refused to believe that my eldest nephew was dyslexic, and so wouldn't comply with any of his tutors' recommendations.)
posted by scody at 9:16 PM on May 29

Pasadena was my gateway to California, 22 years ago -- fulfilling a long-time dream, I wrangled a transfer to JPL. Thought it would be great working there, but the reality was not so good. I arrived in January and by a stroke of great fortune, in July of that same year, the contract I was on was "de-scoped" so the company found me a position at corporate HQ in El Segundo, just south of LAX -- so I escaped to the beach just as the brutal summer heat/smog season was beginning (which lasts until early October). I had a friend who lived on the beach in Santa Monica and I thought I'd be heading down there often, after work at JPL -- hah! Not until 8PM when the traffic in downtown LA eased. But as for the mountains, you'll be right next to theme, and in the winter months it's a great view (they tend to disappear into the haze in the summer). And I didn't actually live in Pasadena -- my apartment was across the Arroyo in the less-expensive and more funky Highland Park section of LA.
posted by Rash at 11:45 AM on May 30

theme them

Also it was nice being so close to downtown LA -- I loved the easy access to Little Tokyo.
posted by Rash at 11:47 AM on May 30