Old Pasadena’s Act Two

As a teenager, Ingrid Peña saw a struggling part of Pasadena morph into the poster child for the revival of historic business districts in Southern California. Little did she know that years later, she’d revisit this period for her USC master’s thesis, Saving Old Pasadena: Where Locals Took on City Hall and Won. The story of Old Pasadena is the story of the early days of the SoCal preservation movement, the extraordinary effort it takes to breathe new life into an entire commercial district, and how the work never really ends. Hear all this and more from Ingrid, from her firsthand experience to the many details she uncovered in her research.