Justin’s Newsletter: October 2023
Vol. 3, Issue 10
If you’re not already subscribed to my free monthly email newsletter, you can sign up here. Or if you know someone who might enjoy this, feel free to share it with them.
Happy Halloween!
What’s Up With Me
Read my latest story in Pasadena Now, about Wrexham AFC, the Welsh football (soccer) team owned by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (Mac from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” perhaps the best show on television, not to mention the longest-running live-action sitcom in history). The team came to town to face off against LA Galaxy II (Wrexham won 4-0), and the second season of an excellent and moving documentary series about how the team has revitalized the working-class town of Wrexham, Wales, "Welcome to Wrexham," is airing now on FX/Hulu.
Watch the latest episode of “Pasadena Monthly with Justin Chapman,” featuring Dr. Richard Rosenthal, Pasadena’s Independent Police Auditor.
I recently traveled to Sacramento, Oroville Dam/Feather River Fish Hatchery, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, San Luis Reservoir, and Del Bosque Farms in the Central Valley to learn about California’s fragile water supply and delivery systems. Read a write-up about what we learned on the trip here.
Around Town
Stories to Keep an Eye On
International: I just hope this doesn’t spiral out of control into a much broader conflict involving many more countries, which could happen very easily. These things have a way of escalating, even if unintentionally.
National: So now we have a Christian nationalist Speaker of the House who believes in some pretty abhorrent things. What could go wrong?
California: Maybe I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised California’s new senator, Laphonza Butler, announced that she won’t be running for the seat after being appointed to serve the remainder of the late Dianne Feinstein’s term. It’d be hard for anyone to turn down that kind of power when given the opportunity. Selfless move from a class act.
Local: Pasadena City Council has hired a historian with a $200,000 contract to produce a report about the communities that were displaced as a result of Caltrans building the 710 freeway stub in west Pasadena. According to Pasadena Now, “at least 4,000 residents were displaced and 1,500 homes and commercial buildings were demolished,” and “a majority of the homes were owned or rented by low-income residents and people of color.” The historian, Allegra Consulting, will produce a report and conduct oral and video interviews with displaced individuals and their descendants. Two other firms, Architectural Resources Group and Regents of UCLA, will work on two other aspects of the project, “Historical Data/Setting” and “Impacts of Freeways on Segregation in Pasadena,” respectively.
Great Reads
Here are some recommendations for interesting books I’ve read recently:
Brooklyn Crime Novel—Jonathan Lethem
Lethem is one of my favorite authors, and I’ll read every book that he puts out. His latest is a sort of follow-up to one of my favorites of his, The Fortress of Solitude, which came out 20 years ago. Brooklyn Crime Novel is less a novel and more a creative non-fiction exploration of gentrification in the Brooklyn neighborhood where Lethem grew up. No one pierces as deeply into whatever subject he’s writing about than Lethem. I also happen to have known him for many years, and I can say from experience that he’s brilliant. If you don’t know his work, check it out right now, and watch an interview I did with him a few years ago here.
The Making of a Soviet Scientist: My Adventures in Nuclear Fusion and Space from Stalin to Star Wars—Roald Sagdeev
I love reading books that give you a behind-the-scenes look at the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. This one comes from a nuclear scientist who came up during the end of the Stalin era and later became the director of the Space Research Institute who reveals the inner-workings of the Soviet Union’s military-industrial complex. He was also key in building trust and cooperation between Russia and the United States regarding space exploration, played a major political role during Gorbachev’s perestroika era, and later became the Distinguished Professor of Physics and director of the East-West Center for Space Science at the University of Maryland.
Spotlight on My Past Stories
Last week, a formerly homeless woman turned advocate for the unhoused in Pasadena, Dorothy Edwards, passed away from cancer. I interviewed her in 2019 for this Pasadena Weekly story, which was mentioned in a Pasadena Now story about her today. Hers is a truly inspirational story, in which she overcame serious drug addiction and homelessness and was able to turn her life around and help others, and it was a pleasure to have known her and tell her story. Rest in peace, Dorothy.
And read all of my journalism here.