Editor's Note
By Irene Lacher 08/01/2010
Okay, I admit it. This is really just a mash note.
The entire issue is — it’s one long love letter to one of the coolest small cities I know. When I was a young pup, I used to fantasize about working in what I considered the three loveliest towns in America — San Francisco, New Orleans and Boston (except it has those damn blizzards, so scratch that one). With age comes wisdom, and now I know that there’s a fourth — Pasadena.
As Arroyo’s editor in chief, I’ve been fortunate enough to consider the Pasadena area my beat for the past three years. During that time, the magazine has explored the remarkable array of offerings here in the arts, sciences, sports, food, architecture and design — we’ve even investigated a cryptic meme or two along the way. Here at Southland, we’re celebrating Arroyo’s fifth anniversary, so we thought this would be the perfect time to honor five cultural visionaries we’ve met in our travels, people who are changing the game and improving life for people in Pasadena and beyond. We call them the Arroyo 5, and we’re delighted to introduce them to you on page 10.
Arroyoland, as I like to call our territory, seems to incubate big thinkers — and its smart population pledges its fealty in return. When I was looking for terrific writers who are longtime residents to share the experiences that have made them fervent fans of their hometown, they weren’t hard to find. I really hope you enjoy seeing Pasadena anew through the eyes of authors Léon Bing, Colleen Dunn Bates and Miles Corwin.
Certainly Pasadena photographer Gareth Seigel’s black-and-white portfolio of signs in this issue will give you a fresh perspective on your own backyard. Which only goes to show that the more things stay the same, the more they change.
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