Northwest Commission to Set Yearlong Priorities With an Eye on the 2028 Olympics

Northwest Pasadena’s stake in the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games is a formal, yearlong priority under the Northwest Commission’s strategic plan, which returns to the panel’s agenda Tuesday, July 14. 

The plan sets three priorities for the advisory panel’s work through mid-2027 — economic development, health and safety, and the 2028 Games — and assigns a group of commissioners to each. 

Under the plan, an ad hoc committee is charged with ensuring the district is “prepared to participate in and benefit from the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” according to the document. 

Its single listed action item is narrow: to draft requests and questions to the City Council seeking to have the city‘s LA28 committee representative report to the commission. Members are scheduled to hear more in August, when, according to the commission’s presentation calendar, the City Manager’s Office is set to brief the commission on “LA28 Impacts, Preparation, and Opportunities for Northwest Pasadena,” presented by Deputy City Manager Alexander Souto. 

The plan’s economic development priorities are more immediate for the district’s businesses. Commissioners would track the Commercial District Needs Assessment, weigh in on specific plans for North Lake Avenue, Lincoln Avenue and the Fair Oaks/Orange Grove area, and support forming a Lincoln Avenue Business Association, with the stated goal of advancing “equitable economic investment and opportunity within Northwest Pasadena.” 

Under the same objective, commissioners would also recommend Community Development Block Grant and Capital Improvement Plan projects and receive a Northwest Area Development Projects Report. 

At the commission’s June 9 annual meeting, Commissioner Suzanne Madison tied the two priorities together, saying, according to the meeting minutes, that activation events “could help bring economic development into Northwest Pasadena as the Commission plans for LA 28.” 

The plan’s health and safety priority would have commissioners work with health and safety departments and community organizations to improve the district’s quality of life, according to the document, including outreach to local nonprofits serving vulnerable populations. 

Commissioners voted to establish the strategic plan at that same June 9 meeting, the minutes show. Item 7 nonetheless returns to the July 14 agenda for “discussion and approval,” and the agenda does not specify whether Tuesday’s action is a formal ratification or a set of updates. The same agenda item also covers presentation calendar updates for July. 

The meeting’s public-safety business comes early on the agenda, when Sergeant Panfilo de la Cruz is scheduled to present Pasadena Police Department violation statistics and a Community Brief for Community Service Area 2. The review is a recurring item; the commission routes commissioner questions through staff for follow-up with the Pasadena Police Department. 

As an information item, Chair Christian Jones is scheduled to appoint a parliamentarian for Fiscal Year 2026–2027. Commissioners re-elected Jones as chair and Randy McKenzie as vice chair on June 9. 

Commissioners are also set to deliver reports on Tuesday. McKenzie is scheduled to deliver a Hahamongna Committee update he deferred from an earlier meeting so he could give a fuller report, and Leon Doell is scheduled to report on pedestrian safety and corridor activation. Chair Jones has said speed tables installed on Mountain Street between Lake Avenue and Los Robles Avenue appear to be slowing traffic. 

The commission will also take up minutes from its May 12 and June 9 meetings and hear public comment. Its presentation calendar lists no outside presentation for July. Three of the commission’s seats — the mayoral appointment and the District 3 and District 7 seats — are vacant, leaving the body advising on Northwest issues below full strength. 

The Northwest Commission is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 14, at the Jackie Robinson Community Center,

1020 North Fair Oaks Avenue, in Pasadena. For more information call (626) 744-7311 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/.