Folding tables, event tents and a line of mounted police horses filled Jefferson Park on Tuesday evening, while Pasadena’s own Van Halen blared from the PA as the city joined thousands of communities across the country for National Night Out.
The tradition began in 1984, when Mark Peskin, a resident of western Pennsylvania, looked for a simple way to bring neighbors together. His idea was modest. Families would turn on their porch lights, then sit outside and visit with the people next door. He set the date for the first Tuesday in August. Four decades later, the observance is marked in every state in the country, and organizers estimate millions of residents have taken part over the years.
In Pasadena, that spirit translated into a park full of activity. City agencies set up resource tables across the grass, including the Pasadena Public Health Department’s Social and Mental Health Division, Pasadena Police recruiting, and food trucks offered burgers and tacos.
Pasadena Police Department Senior Communications Coordinator Susana Porras noted the evening’s impact, explaining that her own neighborhood was experiencing crime issues years ago.
“One of the first things that the Police Department asked me to do was to throw a block party,” she said. “This was back in 2009, and it worked out so well that I ended up doing a block party with my neighbors for the next ten years.”
Nearby, a Home Depot booth drew a steady crowd of children building small wooden kits, among them miniature rocket launchers and tabletop football fields, complete with painted end zones and goalposts assembled by hand.
Fire engines sat parked along the field, doors open for families to explore. Four Pasadena police officers rode through on horseback, their horses drawing a mix of stares and delighted exclamations from younger visitors, many of whom had never seen mounted officers up close before.
And it wasn’t just about police.
Fire Chief Chad Augustin said, “This is where we get to engage with the community in a non-emergency fashion, when stakes aren’t high. So often we’re responding to emergencies, someone has called 911, and we’re there to help them in their time of need. Here, we just get to have fun, talk and get to know each other and that makes this community great.”
Under the park’s oak canopy, the scene echoed Peskin’s original premise, even if the format has grown considerably since those first porch-light gatherings. Pasadena’s turnout on Tuesday suggested the idea has lost none of its spirit four decades on.
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