Sierra Madre

It's a fantastic article, written by a very smart woman who is obviously as fed up with certain trends as I am. It made me laugh and it made me realize: I am not alone in my utter amazement at hot trends in this country--how they become hot, where they go and why it all happened to begin with. Thank goodness! Keep writing! We happy few are grateful. LINA PATEL Los Angeles Valdes-Rodriguez needs to channel her energy into some issues that really matter. NANCY THEROUX Tarzana

A former Sierra Madre police union official whose pay raise was delayed after he led a no-confidence vote against the police chief may sue for retaliation in violation of his free speech rights, a federal appeals court decided Friday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit by Officer John Ellins, who headed the Sierra Madre Police Assn. from 2006 to 2010, against former Police Chief Marilyn Diaz. The police chief should have known that "depriving Ellins of salary in retaliation for his protected speech was unconstitutional," Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for the court.

Western Waste will begin collecting recyclables at apartments in Sierra Madre in July, the City Council voted Tuesday. The program will cost property owners or their tenants $1.50 per month per unit. Tenants of apartments or condominium complexes with eight or fewer units will each receive a 14-gallon orange recycling container, as do single-family homes. Recycling stations will be established at complexes with nine or more units.

The summer before Kenna Castillo started sixth grade at Sierra Madre Middle School, education officials ordered demolition of the aging campus to make way for a brand-new school. More than 2 1/2 years later, construction has yet to start, and Kenna is wrapping up eighth grade in a hodgepodge of trailers on a dirt lot. On Tuesday, Pasadena Unified school board members ordered yet another delay for the rebirth of Sierra Madre Middle School after bids for the $22.5-million project came in nearly $9 million over budget.

A proposal to begin collecting recyclables at apartment houses will be considered by the City Council on May 26. Western Waste Industries has proposed to serve apartments, beginning in July, for a fee of $1.50 per dwelling unit per month, the same price that single-family residents pay for collection. The charge would be added to trash bills for the apartment complexes.

LOTS OF towns like to compare themselves with the fictional Mayberry, but few can justify the claim as well as Sierra Madre. Sandwiched between Arcadia and Pasadena at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, this hamlet of about 11,000 takes great pride in its time-warp atmosphere, which has made it a popular filming location. Its quaint downtown area boasts a community playhouse as well as numerous mom-and-pop shops and sidewalk cafes, but almost no chain stores and not a single traffic light.

Nov. 10, 1907: Sierra Madre held Cleaning-Up Day, "and it proved to be the greatest day in the history of the town," The Times reported.

Travelers in need of tender loving care will find plenty of pampering at the Hotel Spa Ixtapan in the dramatic Sierra Madre Mountains. Ixtapan de la Sal, Mexico, is 65 miles south of Mexico City and 6,500 feet above sea level, where year-round temperatures average 75 degrees. The spa offers four- and seven-day plans with three programs to choose from--diet, relaxation or sport.

A former Sierra Madre police union official whose pay raise was delayed after he led a “no-confidence” vote against the police chief may sue for retaliation in violation of his free speech rights, a federal appeals court decided Friday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of  Appeals unanimously overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit by Officer John Ellins, who headed the Sierra Madre Police Assn. from 2006 to 2010. “Depriving Ellins of salary in retaliation for his protected speech was unconstitutional,” Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for the court.

Transferring Sierra Madre from the jurisdiction of the Pasadena Municipal Court to the Santa Anita Municipal Court will save the city $8,805 annually, according to a report prepared by a Sierra Madre attorney. John Sommer, a judge pro tem in East Los Angeles Municipal Court, spent three weeks researching the switch, proposed by Mayor George Maurer. The savings amount to nearly the equivalent of eight weeks of full-time service by one Sierra Madre police officer, Sommer said.

It's medlar season. Which means Mother Moo Creamery in Sierra Madre is making medlar ice cream again -- a rare ice cream from a rare fruit, available for a limited time.   The medlar's a special fruit, related to apples and pears, but most closely to hawthorns. It's hard, dry and astringent when immature, but after a ripening process (called bletting) its pulp turns custardy and tastes like sweet-tart winy apple butter -- with a little cinnamon, even.  Mother Moo owner Karen Klemens this year got her hands on some directly from Ruff House Ranch -- late this season because there wasn't a frost on the ranch until early December.

CULIACAN, Mexico - For generations, the extended Hernandez family tended fields of marijuana high in Sinaloa's western Sierra Madre highlands. They sold their crops to representatives of the Sinaloa cartel for a fraction of what the drug would bring at the U.S. border and eked out a pittance. Barefoot children never went to school; they just helped their dads with the planting and harvest. Women washed clothes in the river. They burned pine sap for light at night because there was no electricity.

The Pinney House was built in the late 1800s as a hotel where visitors from the East could stay while making land purchases. The structure's three-story tower offered a view of the railway station, a mile away, so the proprietor would know when the train had arrived. Later a sanatorium, a boarding house, apartments and a filming location, the property is now a single-family house restored in keeping with the period ambience. Location: 225 N. Lima St., Sierra Madre 91024 Asking price: $2.795 million Previously sold: In 2002 for $1.3 million Years built: 1887-88 Architects: Samuel and Joseph Cather Newsom House size: 10 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, 10,000 square feet Lot size: Nearly half an acre Features: Living room, dining room and parlor fireplaces, library, sun room, first floor studio, loft-like attic living quarters, front veranda, English-style garden.

Fifteen feet beneath his home, in a dirt cavern bolstered by wood beams and concrete, Jeff Hildreth sees his dream. Here in this shadowy hole, light will one day filter through stained-glass windows. There will be a baby grand piano and a wall for storing vintage clarets and sauvignons. Patrons will come for the roar of the stone fireplace, the whisper of water gliding down a wall of polished rock ? and everyone will marvel over the Sierra Madre wine bar and art gallery built by the owner into a pocket of earth.

Detectives have identified at least 282 victims of credit card fraud at a Sierra Madre gas station and are working to find the business' owner and a man photographed allegedly using a cloned card at a Montebello bank. With losses now topping $82,000 and the investigation extending to a second gas station in the city, Sierra Madre Mayor Joe Mosca said the U.S. Secret Service, which specializes in card fraud scams, is joining the probe. "The nature of this crime and the number of people it has affected is highly unusual in Sierra Madre," Mosca said.

Gertrude Stein may have felt that a "rose is a rose is a rose," but not Jacob Maarse. Maarse, the venerable Pasadena florist, knew the particular pleasures of thousands of roses, from the innocently pink Bride's Dream to the flamboyantly red Dolly Parton. His favorite was Yves Piaget, a frilly, hot-pink number with a powerful scent. "It's a rose that wants to be a peony," he once told The Times, speaking with the familiarity that came from decades of nurturing two huge beds of the variety in his three-acre Sierra Madre garden.

The cost of switching Sierra Madre from the Pasadena Municipal Court District to the Santa Anita Court District will be examined by the city manager and the police department. The change was proposed by City Councilman George Maurer, who believes the Pasadena system is too congested.

A cold storm belted Southern California with rain and snow Tuesday, flooding streets and leaving residents in foothill neighborhoods wondering whether saturated hillsides would withstand the latest onslaught of wet weather. In Sierra Madre, officials ordered mandatory evacuations Tuesday afternoon for about 300 homes in the city's canyon areas, but allowed residents to return in the evening. The alert followed a similar order issued for more than 500 homes Monday night in burn areas in La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Acton.