26 Cool Things We Love About Pasadena

Pasadena is known for many things. Here’s an updated list of the 26 cool things we like about the city.

Disclaimer: It may be possible that some of these things only a Pasadenan will get.

1- It’s a walkable city.

 

2- While a USC or UCLA sticker on the back of a car is a common occurrence, we will rarely find a Caltech sticker because most students, faculty and staff ride a bicycle or walk.

 

3- We may be the only mid-size city to have an entity within an entity (think One Colorado inside Old Pasadena).

 

4- Our office is inside our home.

 

5- Our pets are our furry children and if we happen to work at an actual office, we leave work twice a day to check on them.

 

6- Our romantic endeavors and relationships are measured by parking: “There’s an extra guest spot in her building“ or “he lives on an exempt overnight parking street”.

 

7- We measure distance by time not by mile. “It’s a 7 min. walk to Old Pasadena” or “a 4 min. drive to Altadena”.

 

8- The Gold line is our main transportation to the outside world.*

*Before the pandemic.

9- If and when we drive to Downtown L.A., we feel guilty and we tend to hide it out of shame.

 

10- We consider food trucks a main attraction. “Come to our book drive. There will be 5 ‘gourmet’ Food Trucks on site”.

 

11- Peets Coffee is for intellects, Coffee Bean is for out-of-towners, Starbucks is for screenwriters who are in between jobs. Jone’s Coffee and Jameson Brown Coffee are for hipsters (and hippies), Philz Coffee is for Gen Z, Intelligentsia is for newcomers, Copa Vida is for activists, Rosebud Coffee for dates and casual meets, and Ambrose Cafe is the new place to discover.

All places will always have students from PCC, Caltech and ArtCenter as long as they are open.

12- It’s an enjoyable bubble.

We rarely venture outside Pasadena and nearby cities unless we have to. We have our own shops, bars, restaurants, theatre/movie theaters, hiking/nature, galleries and art events.

13- Our City Hall is friggin’ awesome.

 

14- Old Pasadena, One Colorado, Playhouse District and South Lake District, need to say more?

 

15- We read! Unlike L.A., Pasadenans read and discuss their books at book clubs.

 

16- We support local businesses (think Vroman’s, Century Books, Battery Books, etc. vs. Borders and Barnes and Noble which are both closed).

 

17- We have an obsession with what the city should be 30 years from now. We would sell our little furry children on the black market rather than move to Orange County. Pasadena will NEVER be Irvine.

 

18- While everyone is scrambling for an online rental listing, we tend to WALK around the neighborhood to find a great “deal” on an apartment.

 

19- Pasadena has a reputation for being expensive but we do little to change that reputation. Almost every renter ‘got lucky’. “It’s a quaint 7 unit building and a GREAT deal! We got lucky”.

 

20- We constantly complain on how expensive it is to own property while many can more than afford it.

 

21- While many will travel long distances to sleep on Colorado Boulevard -in the ‘cold’- to get a glimpse of the Rose Parade in the morning, we will wake up late and watch a rerun on T.V.

 

22- It feels like a college town while it is really not.

 

23- It is NOT a suburb!

 

24- Being a Pasadenan is like a religion:

• We move here and convert.
• While most Angelenos would never be caught dead calling themselves Angelenos, we are proud to be Pasadenans and we flaunt it.

25- It’s 1:00 a.m. and we need to get out of the apartment, what is there to do? We take a stroll down Old Pasadena. (We are bound to meet one or two friendly people on the way walking their dogs this late).

 

26- We are in the middle of everything cool in SoCal, we wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

 

[This article has been updated on August 20, 2022.]