Pasadena Mayor Tornek Gives His Take on the Armenians of the City of Roses

Tornek said that the Armenian population is concentrated in north-central and northeast Pasadena. Pasadena, he said, is unlike Glendale and North Hollywood, which have been the epicenter of Armenian population in the region. In Pasadena, Hispanics are the largest single ethnic group, while Asians are the fastest growing group.

Armenians, Tornek said, are “much more integrated into the Pasadena milieu,” compared to their situation in Glendale. He said, “We are unique because we have world-class institutions here like JPL [NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory], Caltech [California Institute of Technology] and Art Center College of Design, and 1,100 nonprofit organizations, so voluntarism is really a dominant aspect of Pasadena culture….The Armenian presence is not as intense because they are so engaged in the general fabric of civic affairs.” At the same time, he said, “It is a distinctive community and clearly because of the churches and the civic organizations it is an identifiable presence.” He gratefully acknowledged that “they have been supportive of me and very helpful to me,” and said, “I appreciate that.”

There are no dual-language Armenian immersion programs in Pasadena schools, unlike in Glendale. Tornek thought that in part, this was because there were several Armenian schools operating in Pasadena.

Tornek participated in August to September 2017 in an official city delegation trip visiting Pasadena’s sister city of Vanadzor, Armenia, for three days, along with other parts of Armenia. Another Pasadena City Council member, Pasadena Sister Cities Committee members, Pasadena United School District Board of Education President Vruyr Boulghourjian and other local elected officials from Pasadena, Sierra Madre, and Glendale participated along with members of the Pasadena chapter of the Armenian National Committee of America. This was his first trip to Armenia and it was self-funded, Tornek said.

The relationship between Vanadzor and Pasadena was established in 1991, and Vanadzor is one of only five sister cities of Pasadena. Tornek said, “We have a very active sister city committee with Vanadzor. They focus their attention on mostly on the pre-school children, maintaining and improving nurseries in the town. It has been going on for years, with very active, heartwarming activity. I enjoyed the visit very much.”

He said that in addition to Vanadzor, “We spent a fair amount of time in Yerevan and met with lots of local officials. We even toured a winery.” The Velvet Revolution and consequent changes in administration, Tornek related, have slowed things down a bit, but the dust has been settling now.

He explained, “I have been working and trying to promote tourism. I think that is the best opportunity for Armenia in terms of expanding its economic activity and it is something that we can be helpful with.” There is also a project to raise funds to build a replacement pre-school because the largest one in Vanadzor is in terrible shape.

Tornek noted that among the biggest issues in Pasadena is that of rising house prices and rent. At a meeting hosted by the Armenian National Committee of America recently, he received the most questions on this topic. Tornek said that people are being driven out of Pasadena by the rapid increases in costs and parents are concerned that their children cannot afford to live here. Armenians who are renters are being squeezed, Tornek noted.

He said that in response a lot of new housing is being built, which should eventually moderate the price increases, but the demand is still so much greater than the supply. This is a regional problem. He said that many people want to live there, while it is expensive and difficult to build new housing.

Partly as a result, homelessness is a big problem in southern California. Attempts by the Pasadena City Council to deal with it led to a brief conflict with the Armenian community in Pasadena last year when a proposal was made to convert a Ramada Inn diagonally opposite St. Gregory Armenian Church and its Armenian school into permanent supportive housing for the homeless. Armenians and other neighbors came out in large numbers at a community meeting in emotional opposition.

Tornek said that this was an overreaction “in a way that was highly inappropriate and unfair. They killed the project before it even got started. It betrayed a deep mistrust of the city and a lack of understanding of what our objectives there were in terms of homeless and what kind of facility was being discussed.”

He added, “It wasn’t their fault. The process was mismanaged. They were not informed. It was just the beginning of a discussion.” Tornek said, “I was not involved in the process…If I had been managing it, it would have gone differently.”

Crime is fairly low and regionally has been down in recent years. There are some Hispanic and black gangs, but no Armenian gangs or mafia in Pasadena, according to the mayor. The gangs were a generational phenomenon, with 3-4 generations sometimes continuing as members, largely in northwest Pasadena and Altadena. Tornek said that fortunately opioids have not had a big impact in Pasadena, though he did not know why this was so, compared to areas like New England.

One major difference from Glendale is that there is a light rail line, called the Gold Line, with six stations in Pasadena, making it easier to go to downtown Los Angeles. While there is a lot of traffic, Tornek said, “we are not choking with traffic.” Apart from the rush hour period, he said, you can get where you are going in a hurry.

Pasadena’s economy is doing well, according to the mayor. He cited four major areas in which it has a competitive edge in the marketplace: tech innovation, supported through the Innovate Pasadena tax-exempt organization, medical services (aside from employing some 5,000 people, Kaiser Permanente is now building a medical school, while Huntington Memorial Hospital is a regional center), the hospitality industry (though a relatively small city, Pasadena has 650 restaurants, and many hotels, with Old Pasadena a major attraction) and education, with many top level institutions.

Tornek concluded by noting that the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day is one of the best-known aspects of Pasadena, yet when he was recently in China, no one had heard of it. Instead, they all knew about Pasadena through the “Big Bang Theory” television show, as most of the characters work in Caltech. One way or another, Pasadena is known throughout the world, and Armenians, living there since the late 1880s, continue to make their contribution to this vibrant and expanding city.