Alhambra

The city council is doing too much redevelopment and destroying our neighborhoods. Please look into what is being done with City Ventures and the property located at 2400 Freemont (8 acres) of historical Midwick section of the town

Alhambra is an exemplary, diversified city which is well run, has good schools and a friendly coomunity atmosphere. It it known as the gateway city to the San Gabriel Valley.

I administer a Facebook page for Alhambra if you're interested.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alhambra/113247618697618

My father was from Alhambra. He was born in 1922, attended Marshall High School and lived there until World War II.

He and his mother both spoke often of the area.

Alhambra is a pretty good city to live in — my family goes back several generations here if you disregard the corrupt politics and high density (traffic is a nightmare on major streets on weekends). As a child, I remember the friendly neighbors and lots of single-family homes with big yards. But many of those old homes are gone now with ugly apartments in their place.

Interesting to see that the majority of residents in Alhambra are renters, especially given the fact that the property values in my city are ridiculously bloated for many of these tiny two-bedroom, one-bath homes that were built back in the 1930s and 40s when the city had a thriving industrial sector and the Pacific Electric Red Cars were still operating on Huntington Drive. Now property owners try to hock their run-down homes on the basis of the city's relatively good public schools and its proximity to upper crust areas like South Pasadena and San Marino. But other than more affluent, and smaller sized, Asian and Latino families who have the income and means to refurbish these ramshackle old spanish and craftsman homes, nobody can afford a two bedroom for $500,000 (!?!) in this economy. And despite what people think about location (its also very close to downtown LA) even the Echo Park/Los Feliz/Silver Lake gentrifiers aren't feeling it, which is fine with me. As a renter, I'd still like to buy a home here in this relatively peaceful, family-oriented, urbanized suburb so I can raise my 2 year old in a city where I don't have to pay for overrated private schooling. But I guess I'll have to wait until the market and property values balance out to their true value. At least with our modest income level at $50,000 we haven't been totally violated by corporate franchises and gentrification.