South Pasadena, part II

Source: Speak Up
Language level: Advanced
Speaker: Chuck Rolando
Standard: American Accent

South Pasadena, part II

Hurray for Hollywood!

When you wander through the streets of South Pasadena, in southern California, it’s easy to believe you’re on a film set. So it’s no surprise that the city is a popular movie location: examples include The terminator, Gone with the Wind, Hallowen, American Pie and Legally Blonde. We asked City Manager John Davidson  why South Pasadena was such a favorite with Hollywood producers:

John Davidson

(Standard American accent):

I think it’s popular for a couple of reasons. One, you know, we go back to the homes, the trees, some of the wide streets that you might see. On top of that, it is, from a filming standpoint, it’s rather close to Hollywood. So you can get over to Hollywood pretty quickly from here, to the west side. And it makes economic sense for them, as opposed to…having to travel for days, or extended trips. We’re relatively close to the downtown area, but you don’t feel it.

We’re 10 minutes away, but you’d never know it.

Another striking characteristic of South Pasadena is the relative absence of traffic. As John Davidson explains, residents have managed to defend their community from the horrors of urban development:

John Davidson:

The people in South Pasadena had a vision. And they recognised that we’re…not going to fall, in the way that so many other communities have, to where they were going to allow developers to drive what the community looks like, versus the community will drive what the developers are going to be allowed to do. So I’m going to say it’s been a combination of citizen involvement, good government and selective projects being, you know, processed and the ability to say yes, but also the ability to say no. It’s a community that recognized a long time ago that our schools are important, and we have wonderful schools here, they’re just incredible, but they’re also recognized that, no, it’s not going to happen here in South Pas, where they’re preserving the past and, you know, and they’re also proactive to looking at the future.