A view from the bridge

Spanning the Arroyo Seco and leading travelers in and out of Pasadena since 1913, the Colorado Street Bridge — like most Southern California legends — has true stories more interesting than fiction.

While most locals know it as “Suicide Bridge” because of all the people who have jumped from there over the decades, the structure has never been a stranger to death, beginning with its construction.
During those days, one of the workers stumbled over a wall and plummeted headfirst into a tub of wet concrete in the canyon below. Fellow workers, supposedly assuming they couldn’t rescue the guy, left him in the vat of muck to die. Since then, some say, his spirit has cried out from the riverbed, beckoning tormented souls.

Between 1919 and 1937 nearly 100 people threw themselves off the bridge, including a woman who tossed her baby over first — the child survived, the mother died. In 1993, when the bridge was renovated, improvements included, in addition to seismic reinforcement and general sprucing up, suicide prevention rails and spikes.

Yet there remains something dark and tempting about the bridge and the natural gorge 150 feet below, because occasionally another desperate person finds a way to hurl him or herself over the edge.

The bridge is so beautiful, yet it has witnessed much tragedy. It winds across the canyon, nestled among the trees, loosely embraced by the San Gabriel Mountains. The structure arches gracefully over the terrain. The lights, enchanting even in the daytime, glow like magic moons hovering above the rails at night. How could this be a platform for self-destruction, particularly since it delivers us to the lovely, thriving city of Pasadena, where more than 140,000 now live?

The average resident here is about 34.5 years old. The community includes whites, Latinos, African Americans and Asians, almost half of whom have earned at least a bachelor’s degree from a college or university. Pasadena is considered a hub of culture in the Los Angeles region because of her museums, libraries, theaters, colleges, and aesthetic and historical sites of significance.
Who wouldn’t want to live here? But a bigger question is: who can afford to live in Pasadena? For that matter, who can afford to move out?

Well, that depends. What kind of home do you want to live in or sell, how much are you willing to pay for or make off it, and how desperate are you?

California, as we all know, is the poster-state for real estate madness. Admittedly, statistics look grim for the Golden State in general and LA County in particular. Nationwide, foreclosure rates have gone up more than 100 percent in the past year. In Los Angeles and surrounding regions, foreclosures have soared two to three times above the national average, meaning they are up more than 300 percent in some areas.

Lower to mid-price home markets are especially sluggish, while the market in upper price ranges remains fairly snappy. Properties sell faster in San Marino, for example, than they do in Pasadena proper. 

However, there are reasons to feel optimistic about the market. First, consider these observations from award-winning columnist Kenneth R. Harney: “The most comprehensive national index measuring home price movements, covering almost 7,500 zip codes and 662 counties in all 50 states and the District of Columbia — the First American-Corelogic Index — found prices flat or positive in 31 of the 50 states.”

If you think the term “American-Corelogic” is an oxymoron, forget about it. There’s more good news, even for Californians: mortgage interest rates continue to hover just above 40-year lows, and the Federal Reserve has decreased short-term rates at least twice in the last month alone. In some respects, the economy is actually booming.

“In the past two years, more than 4 million new jobs have been created,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). “Wages have been rising and Americans accumulated $4 trillion in wealth through the stock market.”

“Buyers are,” and will be, adds Yun, “able to re-enter the market at a more attractive price and with a much larger selection of inventory … while mortgage rates are still favorable.”

The trick is to remain patient. Get ready to wait, search, partner with knowledgeable professionals and seize opportunities as they arise. Pasadena is a very cool, very magical city, surrounded by other vibrant communities, all of which seem to improve with age.

So you see, even if some might see these as the worst of times, the view from the bridge remains magnificent. 

Joanna Dehn Beresford is a former teacher, nanny, actress, rock star, farm girl, waitress and clerk. She can be reached at truewrite@yahoo.com