The Los Angeles Neighborhood Project: January 2016

First, some facts:

*In 2012, Arcadia was ranked 7th in the nation on CNN Money magazine's list of cities with the highest median home costs. The city is sometimes referred to as “the Chinese Beverly Hills.”

*According to the 2010 census, Arcadia has a population of 56,364 people, 60% of whom are of Asian descent. (In 1980, only 3% of Arcadia's population was of Asian descent.) 80% of these residents are East Asian, most originating from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and increasingly, mainland China

And some background:

Arcadia was originally part of the Mission San Gabriel, California's fourth mission, founded in 1771. In 1845, Mexican governor Pio Pico took the land from the Catholic Church and sold it to Hugo Reid as Rancho Santa Anita, a 13,319 acre parcel that spanned most of the present-day cities of Arcadia, Monrovia, Sierra Madre, Pasadena, Temple City, and San Marino,

The rancho changed hands several times before being sold in 1880 to Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin (1828-1909), after whom Baldwin Hills is named. Baldwin was a real estate speculator, developer, and passionate horse racing enthusiast who founded the Santa Anita Race Track. He was also the wealthiest landowner in Southern California. He narrowly escaped dying twice on his wagon train trip from Indiana to California: the first time, he was rescued by a group of Native Americans; the second time, almost murdered by a different group of Native Americans. His catch phrase was, "By Gad, I'm not licked yet.” His estate is now maintained by the Los Angeles County Arboretum, where Baldwin's ghost is often seen.

But why was he called “Lucky”?

I'm glad you asked! Baldwin left for a trip across Asia where, among other things, he hunted elephants in India and formed a group of Japanese entertainers into a traveling vaudeville troupe. But before he left, he instructed his broker to sell off all his silver stocks if they fell below a certain price. While Baldwin was away, silver stocks did indeed fall below this specified price, but his broker was unable to sell them because Baldwin had accidentally taken the key to the safe holding the stock certificates with him to Asia. By the time Baldwin returned with the key, silver prices had rebounded and Baldwin more than quadrupled his initial investment.

Was Baldwin a cad?

Why yes he was! He was married four times, and four times sued by other women for seduction and breach of promise of marriage. Twice – twice – he was shot by women he had wronged, though he escaped with only minor injuries both times.

Then later:

During World War I, Arcadia was home to the Ross Field Balloon School, where U.S. Army observers were trained to use hot air balloons for reconnaissance missions.

So they definitely had hot air balloons, right?

Not necessarily! When the school was first founded, they had difficulties obtaining enough hydrogen to fill the balloons so the trainees would instead climb Mt. Wilson and survey the land below, pretending they were in a balloon. One doggedly optimistic military history site explains, “This method of instruction was very successful, as many students could learn the fundamentals without being distracted by the motions of the balloon basket.”

Later trainees practiced by going aloft in balloons that were still tethered to the ground.

After the war, the site briefly served as a rehabilitation and breeding ground for retired carrier pigeons who had served their country.

Meanwhile the Santa Anita Race Track was responsible for many innovations in the sport of horse racing, including the use of starting gates and photo finishes. Wikipedia notes without citation, “It is interesting to note that the implementation of photo finishes at Santa Anita actually recorded an increase in dead heats.”

The Santa Anita Race Track served as the nation's largest assembly center for Japanese-Americans on their way to internment camps. From March to October, 1942, as many as 18,000 Japanese-Americans lived on the track grounds in stables turned barracks, awaiting permanent assignments to internment camps. A small factory was set up on-site and the inmates were required to make camouflage netting. Actor George Takei was among those interned at this site.

Then later:

In 1947, Baldwin's former rancho was jointly acquired by the State of California and the County of Los Angeles and formed the basis of the present-day Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.

The Arboretum's own website boldly and repeatedly claims that people refer to it as “the fairy spot of the Valley.”

The Arboretum is home to more than 200 peafowl, descendants of the original birds Baldwin imported from India. The birds also wander about the neighborhood and get into the yards of private homes in the vicinity of the gardens.

What does that lake water taste like?

What a strange thing to ask. Lucky Baldwin owned the rights to all the natural lakes and other water sources within Rancho Santa Anita, as well as water rights to the Big and Little Santa Anita Canyons to the north. Baldwin Ranch was irrigated by a mixture of these artesian and canyon waters, which were stored in Baldwin Lake. This water was apparently so excellent that one Los Angeles Herald reporter said, “Why, if this God-given fluid were piped to Los Angeles and distributed to the city, the saloons would lose half their customers, and water drinking would become fashionable.”

Still later:

Starting in the 1970s, an influx in immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong began bypassing the crowded Chinatown area and settling in the San Gabriel Valley, which was still relatively close to Chinatown but offered more room for new real estate developments. The proportion of Asians grew rapidly, and today of the ten cities in the United States with the highest proportions of Chinese-Americans, the top eight are all located within the San Gabriel Valley.

Demographers are very interested in this “suburbs first” migration pattern because it doesn't fit into the standard migration model whereby immigrants first settle in dense urban ethnic enclaves and only later move into suburbs.
From CityLab:“The uniqueness of this pattern of suburbanization cannot be overemphasized.”

Majority-Asian cities and towns are also extremely rare in the United States. Again, from CityLab:

“In 2010, of the 29,514 geographic areas across the country defined as “places” by the United States Census Bureau - which typically correspond to recognized cities, towns, suburbs, and other, mostly unincorporated, areas - only 37, or 0.1 percent, were majority-Asian. If one considers places where the percentage of Asian households is 25 percent or higher, still only 183 places—0.6 percent of the total—meet the cutoff. All 183 places are in about a dozen states, most of which contain only a handful of them, and the vast majority are small places with fewer than 10,000 households. California is the enormous exception: the state alone has almost forty places with more than 10,000 households and an Asian household percentage of at least 25 percent. Hawaii, the only other state with multiple places meeting these criteria, has just five.”

So can I buy a house in Arcadia?

Probably not! The median home price in Arcadia is $1.32 million. Though at around $650 per square foot, that's still much cheaper than the $2,000 per square foot you might expect to pay in Shanghai or Beijing.

Okay, but I'm super rich and I love foyers.

Then you're in luck! Several major architectural firms now cater specifically to Chinese buyers looking to purchase homes in Arcadia. Popular draws for these buyers included large, circular front driveways; wine cellars; home theaters; and double-height formal entry foyers. Most of these high-end homes have two kitchens: a luxurious Western-style “show kitchen,” and a smaller, second “wok kitchen” where most of the real cooking is done. The principles of feng shui strongly favor south-facing homes and those in the middle of the block. Many new homes are built in accordance with feng shui principles regarding, for example, the placement of appliances, staircases, doorways, and windows.

And also:

Arcadia is haunted! (Of course.) By the ghost of Lucky Baldwin (of course) but also by the ghost of Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance (né Sylvester Clark Long, 1890-1932). Chief Buffalo was a famous Native American activist, journalist, writer, and actor, until it was discovered that he was not as Native American as he claimed to be. (He was, in fact, of mixed white, black, and Native American heritage, but his specific tribal claims were untrue. By the standards of his native North Carolina at that time, he would have been classified as black and he claimed to be Native American in part to avoid that designation.) His evasions and exaggerations came to light, and publicly shamed, Chief Buffalo committed suicide at the home of his friend and sometime employer, Anita Baldwin, daughter of Lucky Baldwin, in her home in what is now the Los Angeles Arboretum. Many claim to have seen his ghost haunt the Arboretum, where it joins the spectral remains of Lucky and his wives and daughters.

My only interest in local history lies in its passing connection to middling pop culture ephemera.

Fair enough. Parts of Tarzan, Fantasy Island, and Jurassic Park were filmed at the Arboretum, as was the music video for Katy Perry's “Roar.” At the Santa Anita Race Track, they filmed the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races and a few other things involving race horses.

You don't have to act so superior.

Okay, fine, here's a great film history “fact”: Johnny Weissmuller, the actor who played Tarzan, supposedly set an unrecorded world swimming record while fleeing across the Arboretum's Baldwin Lake, pursued by crocodiles who had been accidentally released on set.

Bonus: This video.

The Los Angeles Neighborhood Project

Thursday, January 28, 2016

An Abbreviated History of Arcadia

A Day in Arcadia