Around Town: Community will miss Hannah Tomita

Around Town: Community will miss Hannah Tomita
By Anita S. Brenner



February 27, 2013
5:23 p.m.

Last Saturday, several hundred of us attended a memorial service for Hannah Tomita.

Hannah and her husband, Eiji, opened Eiji's Flowers in 1959. It's one of the oldest businesses in La Cañada.

Others have written about Hannah's talents as a designer, innovator and entrepreneur. (See “From seed to full bloom,” by Megan O'Neil, Valley Sun, Nov. 12, 2009.)

Hannah was also a gracious lady who gave strength and joy to those around her. At her memorial, many spoke of her generosity, “spunk” and sense of adventure.

Her approach to life was unique because she lived through two great tragedies, but had the strength of character to love others and live fully.

Many of you know Hannah's daughter, Lisa, who now runs the shop, but Hannah also had another daughter, Stacy, who died in infancy. I was not aware of this until Hannah made a point of talking with me when our own son died. All I can say is this: She gave me strength.

Hannah also lived through that sordid blot on our nation's history, the internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast.
Hannah was only 12 years old in August 1941, when Rep. John Dingell Sr. (D. Mich.), demanded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt incarcerate at least 10,000 Japanese Americans as hostages to ensure “good behavior” on the part of Japan.

Dingell's parents were immigrants from Poland.

On Feb. 19, 1942, shortly before Hannah's 13th birthday, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, mandating the detentions. Hannah and her family were incarcerated at Gila, Ariz. She was the youngest of eight children.
It's hard to imagine someone as wonderful as Hannah going through all that, but Hannah told me that the camp was much harder on the older people. She said she and the other teenagers were resilient and liked to socialize, even at the camp.
However, according to a federal report, “At Gila, there were 7,700 people crowded into a space designed for 5,000. They were housed in mess halls, recreation halls and even latrines. As many as 25 persons lived in a space intended for four.” (“Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians.”) As time went on, the inmates were allowed to run the camp and the conditions began to improve.
To get out of the camp, one of Hannah's brothers joined the U.S. Army. He was sent to Europe. Toward the end, sponsors stepped up to fund the release of young people. Sounds wonderful, right? Hannah was released to go to Minnesota, where she worked in a sponsor's house as a maid.
It makes me angry to think about what Hannah and others went through, but Hannah was not an angry person. She was part of the greatest generation, the generation of Nisei that began to rebuild. Plus, she was a sensitive and fundamentally giving person. She was a woman of faith.
She embraced life. She embraced others. She lived a full life.

Hannah's memorial service was packed with friends, relatives, customers and former employees. Her three surviving sisters, Miyo, Yoshiko and Jane, sat in the front row. Behind them were generations of nieces, nephews and their children.

In her interview with the Valley Sun in 2009, O'Neil asked Hannah: “You are celebrating 50 years of business this month. What is your secret for such longevity and success?”
Hannah replied, “We liked what we were doing and we liked our customers. I love my customers. My customers, to this day.”
Lisa added, “They are always coming in and asking about her...”

Around Town: An incredible Boddy of work

Around Town: An incredible Boddy of work

By all accounts, Elias Manchester Boddy was a self-made man.

Boddy's early years were difficult. Born in a log cabin in Washington, gassed in Europe inWorld War I, Boddy worked his way through college with a variety of odd jobs, ranging from janitor to ditch digger.

Long before he made his fortune in the newspaper business, Boddy published a book. “Japanese in America,” published in 1921, traced the diplomatic, trade and immigration history of Japanese Americans. Boddy proposed that “the Japanese can be both assimilated and Americanized.”

In 1926, Boddy was hired as editor of a teetering publication called the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News. The newspaper went bankrupt in 1927 and, a few court orders and deals later, Boddy took over as editor and publisher. He began to investigate police corruption in the city of Los Angeles. In response, the police chief had Boddy arrested under an obsolete law that prohibited newspapers from publishing horse-race statistics. The case was dismissed and Boddy continued muckraking. The dollars rolled in.

In 1936, Boddy purchased Rancho del Descanso in La Cañada.

In 1942, Boddy purchased the Mission Nursery from Fred and Mikoto Yoshimura. The sale included all the stock, including roses, that would later be planted at Descanso.

The Yoshimura family reports that “[i]mmediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese community leaders were targeted by United States authorities and were considered enemy aliens. Regardless of his good standing with the local community, Mr. Yoshimura was picked up by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was then interrogated and detained for many months. Mrs. Yoshimura did not know where her husband had been taken or when she would see him again.”

A few days later, Mrs. Yoshimura was given notice that she, and the rest of the family, would also be interned. Several people offered to “buy the nursery for only a fraction of its value … Fortunately, the Yoshimuras were acquainted with E. Manchester Boddy, publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News, from his visits to the nursery to find plants for his estate in La Cañada which is now known as Descanso Gardens.” Boddy purchased the nursery at a fair price.

• See Yoshimura family history

After the war, the Yoshimuras started over. They founded the San Gabriel Nursery and Florist, still a thriving business in San Gabriel.

This was the beginning of the Descanso Gardens Rose Garden. Manchester Boddy's original Rose Garden began as an orderly arrangement of row after meticulous row of rose bushes, both ancient and modern. An organized man, Boddy called it the History of the Rose.

Today, the Rose Garden is more diverse. Companion planting allows for year-round blooms.

What would Manchester Boddy think of the garden today?

Boddy was a pragmatist and a newspaperman. The world changed during his lifetime. Airplanes and radios were new inventions in 1900. The first talking motion picture was shown by Thomas Alva Edison in 1910. Scotch tape was patented in 1930. Television came of age in the 1950s.

Would Manchester Boddy like the new Rose Garden? Boddy was an innovator and businessman who saw the great changes of the 20th century. Yes, he would approve.

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Around Town: We are left with the question 'Why?'

Around Town: We are left with the question 'Why?'

Friday, March 1, was a sad day for our town. A teenager died on the campus of La Cañada High School.


Therapist Linda Goldman says, “Most teens have a need to tell and retell their story. They need a safe, nonjudgmental environment to express themselves. They also may choose their own way to express grief, as they are often not willing or able to express feelings to family members and may choose peers instead.” (Goldman, “Responding to Teen Grief” TAPS Magazine, Fall 2011)

The death of a teenager at LCHS on a beautiful March afternoon, confounds us all.

It is important to respond to the needs of the family of this youngster. It is equally important to openly discuss the circumstances while respecting their privacy.

This tragic death of a young teen at LCHS is not a secret. People have been talking. There have been press conferences. There has been news coverage.

LCUSD Superintendent Wendy Sinnette said the student “fell to his death” Friday at about 3:55 p.m., but law enforcement authorities later said he died after jumping from a third-floor walkway of one of the school's buildings. On Monday, authorities concluded that the student had taken his own life.
Because this death was a suicide, we need to carefully discuss this tragedy. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is a public health issue. Even though it is relatively rare, one suicide can trigger others. “The way media covers suicide can influence behavior negatively by contributing to contagion or positively by encouraging help-seeking.”

The experts in the field suggest that reporters acknowledge suicide as a public health issue. They say that reporters should ask the following questions: Does the school system have a program that focused on the development of coping skills? Does it have wellness screening? Peer leadership? Does the community offer a chain of care to those at higher risk?
Was bullying involved?
We live in a small town at the edge of an urban city. We live in a community that has a sense of itself and a sense of community. We have the tools to respond.
In the days that follow, some La Cañadans will turn to their churches and synagogues seeking solace. Others will try to talk with their children. The school district appropriately canceled all activities last weekend and arranged for counselors to come to the campus.

Last Friday was a sad day for La Cañada, but the questions remain: Why?
Why did the youngster jump? What caused this?

How can we help? What should we do?


March 7, 2013

Around Town: Just crazy about tomatoes

Around Town: Just crazy about tomatoes

The seed catalogs arrived last month. The daffodils are blooming and there are tiny pomegranates on the pomegranate tree.

It must be time to plant the garden.

Last month, I was eager to get started. This week, I'm not so sure, but the time has come.

This weekend, “Tomatomania” arrives at Descanso Gardens.

Tomatomania is an annual festival and tomato sale described as “the world's largest (and most fun) heirloom tomato seedling sale!”

Any way you slice it, tomatoes are fun. Tomatoes are the most rewarding and easy-to-grow garden vegetable.

For most tomatomaniacs, this festival marks the beginning of the spring gardening season. Armstrong in La Cañada and Orchard Supply Hardware in La Crescenta begin to stock the non-heirloom varieties of the essentials, tomatoes and zucchini. Trader Joe's sells potted basil. Coincidentally these, along with corn, are the main ingredients of our favorite summer soup.

But corn can be a jealous mistress. It blocks the sun, takes up space and requires frequent fertilization.

Basil is prone to bolting. Unless snipped weekly, the blossoms turn into tiny basil flowers, which suck energy from the plant and flavor from the leaves.

Zucchini can be wonderful, when the fates allow. Last summer, the zucchini union must have called a strike because the only squash that grew were the yellow crooknecks. The summer before, the zucchinis were happy and the crooknecks were dismal. Go figure.

Tomatoes, on the other hand, are easy to grow and have inspired writers and poets for generations.

Pablo Neruda, the great Chilean poet and politician, began his “Ode to Tomatoes” with these words:


The street

filled with tomatoes,

midday, 

summer,

light is

halved

like a tomato,

its juice

runs

through the streets....”


The advantage of growing any kind of tomato, whether heirloom or garden variety, is the marked difference in taste compared to store-bought. The farmers market tomatoes cannot compare to a home-grown tomato that's been fresh-picked from the vine.

Tomatomania at Descanso will include tomato tastings, the sale of more than 300 varieties of tomato plants, and tomato accouterments. Need a pot? Stakes? Tomato food? You can find those items at Tomatomania this weekend.

There will be free classes both days on “How to grow perfect tomatoes in your own backyard.”

Let the juice run through the streets!

Thoughts on Kevin Krigger, Goldencents, Clocker's Corner...

Santa Anita Park is one of the region's secret treasures. Early each morning,
there's coffee, oatmeal, pancakes etc. at Clocker's Corner. The grooms and trainers
exercise the thoroughbreds. Here's links to my thoughts about Kevin Krigger,
a young jockey who will ride Goldencents in the 2013 Kentucky Derby.  My thoughts:

The morning haze had lifted. Before us stretched the verdant slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains. Thoroughbred race horses exercised a few yards away from us. The customers were a mix of trainers, owners, jockeys and hangers-on like me. There were a couple of dogs, happy to accompany their owners. The surroundings were stunning.
Kevin pointed to the east. “At 6:30 a.m., the sun comes up right over there. If you come here every morning, even if you stay for five minutes, just for a cup of coffee, the rest of your day will be beautiful.”

My two recent columns are: Around Town: A great way to start a morning and Around Town: Winning at the racetrack with Kevin Krigger

And, here's a quote from Men's Journal about the significance of Krigger's run:

Black jockeys once dominated the Kentucky Derby, winning 15 of the first 28 titles between 1875 and 1902. They were former slaves and their sons – a vestige of colonial times, when planters owned both horses and riders. Post–Civil War, they were the country's best riders, but the narrow window opened by Reconstruction was slammed shut by Jim Crow. Even in Northern cities, white jockeys and officials ran black riders off the track, whitewashing their legacy. Churchill Downs was completely segregated throughout the 1950s.
On May 4, 29-year-old jockey Kevin Krigger looks to reverse that history at Churchill Downs, riding Goldencents, an early top-10 favorite trained by Doug O'Neill (who trained last year's winner). Krigger is just the second black jockey to compete in the Derby since 1921, and the first from the U.S. Virgin Islands. More at:  http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/kevin-krigger-is-racing-for-history-20130410#ixzz2Qr87O5pm 

Around Town: The Korean paradigm shift

The paradigm has shifted. Our town is now officially cross-cultural.

What cross-culture? Obviously, it's Korean.

The Korean wave has really arrived in La Cañada Flintridge, and not a moment too soon.

Some point to the billion downloads of the music video “Gangnam Style” as the turning point. Others say it was the Korean automotive industry. Neither answer is true. The turning point for South Korean culture occurred when local channel 18 started to air the popular evening soap opera, “My Love, Madame Butterfly.”

“My Love, Madame Butterfly” is an example of the genre of televised Korean miniseries drama called Korean drama, or K-drama. The show features Yeom Jung-ah as the character Nam Nabi, a young but washed-up actress who is betrayed by her husband. Nabi means butterfly, hence the reference in the title.

The husband tricks Nam Nabi into marriage by pretending to be in love with her. His goal is to secure the deed to his family's land. As the cards stack up against him, the husband fakes his own death, a betrayal of his bride and his own parents.

Nam Nabi is devastated. Her reputation is destroyed. She is caught up in a scandal. She loses all her money. Public opinion turns against her.

She is forced to move in with her in-laws. At first, Nam Nabi is conceited and self-centered, but after a while, family life begins to change her. Nam Nabi becomes selfless and giving. She helps the family succeed in their ventures. At this point, the supposedly dead husband returns and the plot thickens.

We were all afraid that Nam Nabi would wallow in her victimhood, but no! The plot thickened and revenge is in the air.

Unlike American and Spanish language daily soap operas, K-dramas air on two consecutive nights. Some air on Monday and Tuesday. Others on Wednesday and Thursday. “My Love, Madame Butterfly” has a 9 p.m. slot on Saturday and Sunday nights, with subtitles.

The subtitled version lags a few months behind the all-Korean episodes, which are available on YouTube and other online sites. As of this week, channel 18 has shown 32 of the projected 50 episodes.

Unlike the rags-to-riches themes of Spanish-language dramas, K-dramas stress entrepreneurship and family values. Spanish language dramas generally feature an impoverished young woman with a heart of gold who finally marries a rich man, with a supporting cast of twins separated at birth (one evil and one nice), one older evil rich woman and a cloying, doll-like little girl.

“My Love, Madame Butterfly” takes a different approach. There are rags-to-riches characters, but they are entrepreneurs, male and female. There are impoverished craftsmen who hit it big with hard work and a sense of high fashion. There are gleaming shots of Hyundais and Kias, racks of couture in high-end department stores, modernistic apartments and fancy cafes. The characters sport cutting-edge cell phones, pink digital cameras, designer ski duds and designer shoes. Except for the hospital episodes when Nam Nabi got hit by a car, most episodes have great shoes and designer clothes.

How will K-drama influence La Cañada Flintridge? According to Mapping L.A., by the 2010 census, La Cañada was 25.8 percent Asian. La Cañada is now home to the Seoul BBQ, with table-grilled meats and fresh fish. Nearby, the Lotte Market sells some of the best produce in town, along with three kinds of Miso salad dressing. Even La Cañada High School offers four full years of Korean.

The street scenes from Seoul in “My Love, Madame Butterfly” don't look much different than La Cañada. The cars look the same, but the tech gear looks better. There are a lot of cool phones and cameras.

The other day, I saw a young woman at Starbucks dressed just like Nam Nabi. She looked awesome.

The Korean wave has truly arrived in La Cañada. The paradigm has already shifted. The best is yet to come.

Around Town: The Korean paradigm shift Chicago Tribune

Around Town: The Korean paradigm shift La Canada Valley Sun

By Anita S. Brenner

March 14, 2013 | 10:49 a.m

Around Town: The future could be L.A.'s legacy of light rail

Around Town: The future could be L.A.'s legacy of light rail

If you’ve driven around Los Angeles lately, you’ve probably noticed the poor condition of the streets and highways. La Cañada Flintridge has better roads than L.A., but the local freeways — the 210 and the 2 — are just as battered and worn.

Ever since the 210 connected with the I-15, LCF has suffered through increased commercial truck traffic. The “truck lanes” are damaged and bumpy and we’ve seen some whopper collisions involving big rigs.

Headed to Pasadena? Some folks choose the “back way” through Woodbury, or along Linda Vista, especially during rush hour. Noise pollution? Freeway noise hits most of LCF.

Those are just a couple of reasons why many locals are opposed to an underground tunnel connecting the 4.5-mile gap between the 710 and the 210.

In a letter to the MTA last September, Rep. Adam Schiff expressed his concerns. “While the project was originally estimated to cost approximately $1.5 billion, a 2011 study estimated it would cost $2.8 billion and now the Measure R extension expenditure plan believes it will cost $5.6 billion. How costly will it be in another year? Or two? Or 10?”

By some accounts, the tunnel connection would not be completed for at least a decade. Existing traffic congestion would not resolve with the tunnel proposal. Schiff proposed that we take the long view.

“I urge Metro to give full and serious consideration as to how funds for a tunnel project could be better spent. I suspect that for less than the actual cost of a tunnel, Metro would have the funds necessary to undertake all of the remaining options under consideration — combined. These options, transportation system management, bus rapid transit and light-rail would help move people in an environmentally friendly manner without disrupting our long-established neighborhoods.”

In December, MTA issued a report, “State Route 710 Study, Alternatives Analysis Report.” It lists five alternatives to close the 4.5-mile gap between the 710 and the 210: “no build,” traffic-management technology, bus, an underground freeway tunnel and several light rail alternatives.

The “no-build” would mean no additional building or infrastructure between Valley Boulevard and the 210. The traffic management technology would include incentives for ride sharing, such as HOV lanes. The bus option would include rapid bus lines between Montebello and Pasadena. The tunnel option would be the multibillion-dollar 10-year construction project to create an underground tunnel under South Pasadena and Pasadena.

The main argument in favor of closing the gap with the tunnel is that it will relieve traffic congestion. The arguments presented in opposition include earthquake risks, air pollution, disruption of local communities, increased truck traffic and initial cost estimates in the billions.

The most exciting alternative proposed in the MTA report are a group of light rail options — several light rail routes that would connect the Gold Line directly with either Cal State Los Angeles or East Los Angeles College.

We should adopt those light rail routes, and more.

Consider this: The planned Foothill Extension to the Gold Line will connect Claremont to East Pasadena.

Imagine this: It is January 2023. Your kids (or grandkids) grab a light rail at the entrance to the 2 Freeway on Foothill Boulevard, or take the escalator down to the light rail stop on the 210 at Memorial Park. From there, they go to the Claremont Colleges, Caltech, Cal State Los Angeles, UCLA, USC or the local airports, Burbank and LAX.

The light rail route would use the center dividers of existing freeways.

Want to grab a bite at L.A. Live? You could take the light rail.

Want to go to the beach? No more LCF beach bus, your kids grab the light rail from La Cañada to the beaches of their choice.

Flying to London? Take the Gold line to the airport.

Cocktails? Connect with the light rail to Musso & Frank Grill.

Our City Council issued a resolution opposing the tunnel plan. It’s a good position for our council to take, but we need more. We don’t maintain the freeways that we already have. Why spend billions on a system that does not include light rail connections between airports, high schools, colleges, and entertainment centers? Bring back L.A.'s once-glorious mass transit system.

Let's begin right here in La Cañada Flintridge with an all-freeway, center divider, light-rail proposal.