Pasadena, San Marino

Neighborhoods

Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and the Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home of many leading scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (the leading robotics and spacecraft design and manufacturing NASA center), Art Center College of Design, the Pasadena Playhouse, California School of Culinary Arts Pasadena and the Norton Simon Museum of Art. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 133,936. As of 2007, the estimated population is 146,518, making it the 160th largest city in the United States[1]. Pasadena is the 6th largest city in Los Angeles County, and the main cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley.

Old Pasadena is the revitalized old downtown that spans 3 city blocks and provides both locals and tourists a genuinely urban mix for living, shopping, dining, and entertainment. It boasts upscale retail shops like Diesel, J Crew, Guess, Kenneth Cole, Juicy Couture, and Tiffany's. A wide variety of restaurants, nightclubs, posh outdoor cafés, pubs, and comedy clubs keep this vibrant part of the city alive seven days a week. Locals refer to it as "Old Town".

The Rose Bowl, a National Historic Landmark, is host of the oldest and most famous college football postseason bowl game, the Tournament of Roses Rose Bowl Game, every New Year's Day. It is the home field for the UCLA Bruins football team and has hosted five Super Bowls. Important soccer matches include the 1984 Summer Olympics, the final of the FIFA World Cup 1994 hosted in USA, and the final in FIFA Women's World Cup 1999.

San Marino is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California, USA. Its ZIP code of 91108 ranks the city as the 47th most expensive place to live in the United States, with the median home sale price in 2008 of $1.55 million. [1][2] The city was named after the Republic of San Marino, which is also present in the city's seal, with the Three Towers of San Marino.

The small community of San Marino is populated largely by well-educated, wealthy professionals and their families. The city is primarily known for its immaculately preserved housing stock, its strict zoning laws and its distinguished public school system.

To Southern Californians, San Marino was once known as one of the oldest of old-money wealth and a bastion of Southern California's WASP gentility. The community prides itself on maintaining a high quality residential community. San Marino may be recognizable to many Americans for the prevalence of filming in the city. Many television shows, such as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and movies, such as "Father of the Bride" have been filmed in San Marino and Pasadena. Location scouts also turn to San Marino when they wish to film a series in Southern California that takes place elsewhere, like the East Coast. Certain neighborhoods resemble the East Coast because of the atypical housing stock in the city, including Georgian and faux antebellum mansions.

San Marino is also regarded as having one of the best-performing schools in the Greater Los Angeles area. Its high school consistently ranks as the one of the highest API score among public high schools in California. All of its public schools are honored as a California Distinguished School and a United States National Blue Ribbon School.

The city includes the estate of Henry E. Huntington, who made a fortune in the development of Southern California and opened the library and art collections in his large neo-Palladian mansion to the public in 1919, best known as the Huntington Library. At the time, San Marino was some twelve miles from Los Angeles. Huntington Drive and Sierra Madre Boulevard serve as the main thoroughfares, leading to Pasadena, Alhambra and San Gabriel.

In the middle of San Marino lies Lacy Park, a huge 30 acre expanse of lush grass and trees rare for urban areas. Originally Wilson Lake in 1875, the land was purchased by the City in 1925 and dedicated as a park. Families in San Marino have enjoyed the park for years, and it remains one of San Marino's best kept secrets. The park includes six championship tennis courts and pro shop, administered by the San Marino Tennis Foundation. At the west entrance of the park is the Rose Arbor, which is of special significance for the people of San Marino. It is 60 years old and has long been a source of beauty and tranquility to many residents. In recent years the care and upkeep of the Rose Arbor itself has been augmented by private donations from dedicated residents who have chosen to sponsor individual posts.

The Edwin Hubble House, residence of astronomer Edwin Hubble, is a National Historic Landmark.

Another landmark is the Michael White Adobe House, located on the high school campus.

There are four public schools in San Marino: Valentine Elementary School, Carver Elementary School, Huntington Middle School and San Marino High School. Stoneman Elementary School (named for the Governor who lived in San Marino) is no longer used for instruction by San Marino School District. Southwestern Academy, a private college preparatory school, is also located in San Marino. There is also a private Roman Catholic grammar school, SS. Felicitas and Perpetua. The city took the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to the Supreme Court to block the opening of this school.

The two elementary schools offer instruction for grades K-5, the middle school for grades 6-8 and the high school for grades 9-12.
In 2005 and 2006, the San Marino Unified School District ranked first among all 328 California unified school districts based on the California Academic Performance Index. San Marino High School is considered one of the best-performing public schools on Standardized Achievement Tests (as of 2004) in Southern California. It was also named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2006.