Oral History Consultant Presents Preliminary 710 Report

City officials and consultants are confronted with ongoing difficulties in obtaining complete data on properties condemned decades ago for the now-abandoned 710 freeway extension project, hindering efforts to gain fuller insights into the “way it was” in that Pasadena neighborhood before swaths of homes and businesses were torn down.

At a meeting of Pasadena’s Reconnecting Communities Advisory Group on Monday, September 18, members expressed frustration over the lack of comprehensive information about homes taken through eminent domain for the State Route 710 and 210 freeway extensions.

“Without the data, a lot of the decisions that deal with restorative justice without data, it all becomes personal and a little biased based on what we all value,” said Advisory Group member Joel Bryant.

The abandoned 710 freeway project has left a 50-acre corridor of vacant land through Pasadena, known as the “stub” or “ditch.” City officials and Commissioners are now working to develop plans for the area.

Bryant emphasized the importance of obtaining precise data on condemned properties, including the number of parcels, ownership details, and amounts paid to owners. He said this information is crucial for making principled decisions about restorative justice measures.

“To make a good public policy decision on the topic of restorative justice, I don’t know what’s going to come out of that,” Bryant said. “I just would like to know if we’re going to ever get that data.”

City staff assured the Advisory Group that efforts are ongoing to gather as much information as possible about the community that existed in the freeway corridor before condemnation.

“We are working with them to go beyond what their initial scope was to continue to research and locate as much of that information as possible,” said Wendy Macias, the City’s Senior Project Manager overseeing 710 Freeway stub redevelopment.

Some Advisory Group members suggested potential sources of information, including records from neighboring South Pasadena, partial lists obtained from California Department of Transportation, city archives, and collaborative efforts between consultants.

The meeting also featured a presentation by Allegra Consulting, which has been conducting oral history interviews. The firm has identified 43 people who reported being displaced by the 710 freeway project, resulting in 40 displaced addresses, including five renters.