“Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!”
monroviaweekly.com
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19 - NOVEMBER 25, 2009 VOLUME 14, NO. 93
FREE
Ralph Walker - The Man, the Myth the Legend BY JOHN STEPHENS
“Presented to Ralph Walker for your many outstanding contributions and longstanding service to the community through public access television for the betterment of Monrovia.” “Our KGEM studio has been blessed with an announcer, a show host, and a producer who has worked for 15 plus years with KGEM and doing programming [that has been] informing our community about headline news that’s happening here,
headline news that’s happening in our region, information and ideas that are happening in our country,” said Mayor Lutz. Ms. Lutz then asked if Walker would like to say anything to the council in response to the recognition. “Of course you do!” laughed Lutz as Walker took the podium, donned his reading glasses and produced a prepared speech from his coat pocket.
On Tuesday evening the Monrovia City Council honored Ralph Walker for what Mayor Mary Ann Lutz called “not so quiet service to this community for many, many years”, a time span in which Mr. Walker has been enlightening and challenging the citizens of Monrovia and engaging news makers on local issues via his television talk shows “Conversations in Monrovia” and “Beyond the Headlines,” both aired on
Monrovia’s KGEM TV public television network. Mayor Lutz was quick to point out that this recognition had come due at this time not for reasons related to anything other than the fact that “it’s just time” to recognize the service of Mr. Walker, and the Mayor’s introduction was followed by a rousing round of applause from the entire city council and all of those in attendance. The official recognition presented to the television host read:
Kick Off Set for Gold Line Extension to Azusa
Arcadia Historical Museum Honors Japanese Americans
Continued on 12
-Photo by Terry Miller
BY SUSAN MOTANDER
A kick off for the extension of the Metro Gold Line from Pasadena out to Azusa has been set for this Saturday, November 21 at the site of the future Monrovia Gold Line Station in the historic Santa Fe Station at the Northwest corner of Myrtle Avenue and Duarte Road. The family friendly celebration will begin at 10:00 a.m. with the unveiling ceremony scheduled for 10:20 a.m. Work is expected to begin early in 2010 and is expected to create thousands of new jobs, increase economic investment and more public transit options in this area. Funds for this project are coming from the mon-
Gold Line, Gang Injunction to be Discussed in Public Meeting BY SUSAN MOTANDER
1942, which allowed local military commanders to designate “military areas” as “exclusion zones,” from which “any or all persons may be excluded.” This power was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and most of Oregon and Washington, except for those in internment camps. It took a mere 46 years for Congress to pass, and President Ronald Reagan sign, legislation which apolo-
T he Mon rov ia Cit y Council meets annually with Mike Antonovich, the member of the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors in whose district the city exists. The meeting for this year is set for today, November 19 at 8 a.m. in the Community Service Room at the Monrovia Public Library. The supervisor and the council members along with their respective staffs are set to discuss several issues. The Supervisor was instrumental in obtaining funding for the new playground equipment for Library Park. He also worked to obtain another grant to help restore the trails and entrance to Monrovia’s Canyon Park. Updates on the status of both these projects are on the agenda for this meeting. The extension of the Gold Line through Monrovia will also be discussed. There has been extensive discussion with the County and the Metropolitan Transit Authority regarding the establishment of a maintenance yard for the Gold Line is Monrovia in conjunction with the
Continued on 8
Continued on 12
Continued on 12
Monrovia Turns Over Mary Wilcox Youth Center to YMCA The Santa Anita Family YMCA has entered into an agreement with the City of Monrovia to take over operation of the Mary Wilcox Youth Center to provide programming for youth after school and on weekends. Under a three year lease agreement, the SAFYMCA will operate the 10,000 square foot facility located at 843 E. Olive Ave. that includes a gymnasium, three meeting rooms, snack bar, and the KGEM cable access production studio. “This comes as a blessing to the YMCA because
Continued on 12
Monrovia Councilmembers to Meet with Supervisor Antonovich
Taka and Michi Nomura were two of the thousands of Japanese Americans who were forcibly “relocated” from their home in Pasadena in Photos by Terry Miller 1942. The couple now in their 90’s visited the museum Saturday. BY TERRY MILLER
As we approach the 68th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, the curators at a local museum have decided to honor thousands of Japanese Americans who were forced from their homes under an order from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The exhibit, at the Ruth and Charles Gilb Arcadia Historical Museum, explores the temporary assembly center at Santa Anita Race track which was used for the detention of Japanese and Japanese
Americans during World War II. The events that took place nine weeks after Pearl Harbor honors those who were forcibly removed from their homes in the aftermath of the war hysteria and ensuing prejudice. Japanese American internment was the forcible relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese residing in the United States to camps called “War Relocation Camps,” in the wake of Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. The
internment of Japanese Americans was applied unequally throughout the United States. Japanese Americans residing on the West Coast of the United States were all interned, whereas in Hawaii, where more than 150,000 Japanese Americans composed nearly a third of that territory’s population, only 1,200 to 1,800 Japanese Americans were interned. Of those interned, 62 percent were United States citizens. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066 on February 19,