Once upon a time the big Arcadian issue was "There is nothing to do in Arcadia, we have 2 bowling alleys, one pizza joint and a sticky floored theater hidden in the mall."

Then, the hot button issue was "Should Denny's take off the windmill blades from the building it is in - the one that used to be Tiny Naylor’s and Van de camps?" (my people have been stuck up Arcadians for a really long time and our memory goes back a century.)

The racetrack has been rebuilt 2 and relocated, used as an internment camp, and the city itself felt like a prison to it's youth who used to have to escape ti neighboring towns to have a good time. We are a community of homes, nice, stable, homes - and the occasional McMansion. (Here is my shout out to Gary Kovasic for knocking that blight out!)

Now we have 1 bowling ally, 1 theater, a batch of pizza joints and possible 2 malls side by side on Huntington Drive.

I always loved that the mall and racetrack sat side by side like some very stereotypical staunch couple - shopping for the women in the mall to the left and a really cool racetrack off to the right for the men.  The racetrack has a WONDERFUL parking lot - if you are all about parking lots - it goes on seemingly forever. The mall has parking like a clogged toilet - often I just walk across Baldwin and Huntington to the movies and make it inside the building 10 minutes faster than if I drove. You can NOT park there. You may WANT to park there, need to park there, have fantasies of parking there – but you simply can not do it. - and by the way, the little numbers that tell you how many spaces are left???? They LIE!!!!!!


The Santa Anita Mall jumped the shark when they added on the new AMC (which I patronize like a film addict because, 1. it is less than a mile from my home, 2. the customer service ROCKS my Socks!, 3. You can bring in your own food and escape the wallet-raping of most concession counters, and 4. it always has a good selection of flicks) and Dave and Buster’s (which I avoid because of the drunkenness and gang activities and the number of patrons I have seen escorted out of the mall from there). These simple additions were poorly planned because they took up parking that was often full before and increased crime and traffic without so much as an “oops, did I do that?!?!?” ala Urkle.

When Caruso came over and started sniffing around, he offered a lot of good perks.

1. Free parking to Arcadia residents and paid parking for everyone else – guess what – that is sales tax in my city’s coffers!
2.  a shuttle buss from his shops to the Santa Anita mall and back . – you mean I can park ONCE and shop EVERYWHERE without having to hunt my car down until I am totally done?
3. A theater for the school distinct.  – we have world class musicians in this city (and ego maniac as I am, I like to think I am one of them and have been trained by the best that Public schools can offer (Art Farr, Tom Forbs, Tom Landis, Mr. Davis, Diane Lucas, and Roland Maxon) and growing up we always had to go to another city to perform.
4. Offices for the School District – wow – no more creepy trailer like building
5. Apartments attached to the building – um, like in New Yorkl and San Francisco?!?!? Loft style- keeping the land in constant use- - I want to live there!!!!
6. High priced but also high quality shops (the mall SERIOUSLY entertained bringing Wal*Mart into the mall – horror of horros!), so I can have a variety of windows to shop in and restraints to eat at – and ALL of it is SALES TAX for the city.

Growing up in Arcadia means you know a couple of things about traffic – it is scary in race track season, drivers are either too elated to focus on the road or too sad to care if they hit you and you see rent-a-Cops on every scorner like Salvation Army Bell ringers at Christmas. The other thing you learn is that the residents here literally cannot drive. I have seen cars drive on the sidewalk, wedged into shop windows (That one was my little brother’s doing!) and using the bike lane as a fast lane and the Middle of the avenue turning lane as a drop off point for school kids. I already walk to the mall – don’t think your increased traffic scare tactics will work on me.

I am mad because Westfield is lying to me and my people. They are saying things like “The Shops at Santa Anita will have a casino and gambling” . . . say WHAT?!?!? There will be no casino or slit machines. There will be the same boring betting mechanisms the race track has had for a while now. As for gambling??!  Well, I highly doubt they will be handing out poker chips at the coffee spots –I imaging gambling in arcadia will be EXACTLY as it has been for years – in the race track (You did know people bet on those horses didn’t you?!?! What, you never saw The Black Stallion or Sea Biscuit?!?!?) and no where else.

I totally get that Westfield has been competing with Caruso for years and many other venues, but I abhor a liar… and dang it, I WANT the race track to have something fancy schmancy for me to hang out at.