Community Corner
What if Altadena Were a Fictional Television Town?
Altadena, like many on old TV programs, is a bedroom community. So what do we do besides sleep and get ready to return to work in the nearby big city the next day? I'll never tell...
Perhaps you have often heard of this term, but do you really know what it implies? What is a bedroom community? As I Googled this term I found it very interesting and perhaps as close to a description of Altadena as any relatively small American town. The Urban Dictionary defines it as follows:
A suburban community/town with little to no major employment center(s) to call its own: People only seem to sleep there when they're not working (40+ Hrs./wk) closer in to the city where the jobs are located. The only commercial space is retail & services for the residents (banks, groceries, etc.) Residents often choose bedroom communities because of affordability relative to living closer to the city, lower perceived crime, and schools with students that look just like their kids.
We really don’t have a major employment center to call our own except for our few commercial entities, banks, hair salons, food joints, and small storefronts. Most of our working class residents are employed in larger cities nearby.
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According to the crime statistics we were perceived to be lower in crime than most nearby towns. We have more affordable home prices and a great place to raise a family while surrounding them with most of the modern conveniences, questionable schools; along with family entertainment such as parks, senior and child care facilities, and the like.
When many of us grew up there were numerous television shows featuring towns such as Altadena. Even though it was make-believe you got to see an image of a place where most of the people were sort of familiar with each other and they were relatively friendly with the rare exception of an occasional "black sheep."
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There was nearly always a dark character in town written in the TV scripts in order to keep the shows interesting.
In the town of Mayberry the local sheriff was the star of the show so everything was written around the activities happening at the Sheriff’s office. Not too much different from our relationship with our local Sheriff’s Department, where our new police Captain, Steve McLean has begun to show up at Little League games, parades, and just about every other local event.
Since we don’t have a local mayor I guess the Sheriff is the big fish around here, with the possible exception of the technical mayor of Altadena, County Supervisor Michael Antonovich. He might as well be from D.C. or somewhere foreign because rarely is he seen in town.
We do have a couple of local pubs where regulars can go, and everybody knows each other by name, such as in the series, Cheers. There is a local bakery and several barber shops where locals hang out and shoot the breeze. I suppose you would have to write in the liquor stores where the community bums (on the west side) hang out and beg for spare change.
Unfortunately not much would be written in the script about the local schools (Happy Days) because unless you are raising a young family the schools around here don't seem to get very much notice or notoriety. The news we hear about the schools usually is not good news: , , and other negative impressions are most often the vibes about our local public schools.
There are quite a few great characters that could be written into the script. We've got amazing volunteers who help keep the public informed, several very active and colorful librarians and local park supervisors who help keep the Town Council meeting lively, and our own local news blogger over at the Altadenablog.
We've got some very active local business owners, some traditional institutions like the Altadena Town and Country Club, and now with Altadena Patch, a new young news editor around town.
While I’m at it I might as well mention that we also have some other very vocal local residents who are not shy about voicing their opinions on this site, the Altadenablog, or out and around town.
Although there are a few other interesting characters, since this is a bedroom community you really never know what goes on behind closed doors or in the bedrooms. There’s no one else that really stands out as main characters. Most of us just quietly go about our business doing what we do in a bedroom community, rest, and get ready to return to the big city for work.
However, on the weekends we do like to get out and about (let our hair down) doing things with our families. We have a few equestrian sites where people ride their horses, great mountain hiking trails, little league soft- and baseball, and once a month the exciting . During the summer we also have the .
In a television show about the town of Altadena, what or who else did I leave out of the script? If you were the director what would you write into the script?