Personal Dork Assistant

Life in the Southland

This lady (LA Times registration req.) is the perfect blend of ernest grass-roots activism and ruthless paternal NIMBY-ism that makes LA populism so strange.

She and her associates at Pasadena Heritage, a preservation group that would inspire the launch of other such groups nationwide, have defeated plans to bulldoze many of the buildings in Old Pasadena. They saved the grand Colorado Street Bridge from the wrecking ball. Their power might help determine whether an NFL team plays in the Rose Bowl.

More than a few developers have left town sputtering mad, complaining about "hysterical preservationists."

Others seek Bogaard's counsel, occasionally stopping for coffee at her stately Victorian home off South Orange Grove Boulevard, a street where Pasadena's elite have lived since the 1890s. Bogaard, a willowy blond with a preppy, proper air, listens politely as her callers lay out their plans. She gives advice, tips and, if they're lucky, her blessing.

Hey, I liked Old Pasadena when I had the time to get out there, and Pasadena actually has some history worth preserving, by SoCal standards anyway.