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  #1  
Old Posted Jan 26, 2020, 6:53 PM
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Sierra Madre, CA

Yesterday, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, my partner and I decided to walk around Sierra Madre, a town about 22-ish miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, in the San Gabriel Valley, adjacent to Pasadena, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. It's a cute little town. The place has retained its small-town atmosphere, and doesn't even have any traffic lights within its city limits. That author Anaïs Nin lived in Sierra Madre. The 1956 film version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" was filmed here.

I took some photos... here, take a gander:

































A war veteran memorial.








It seems a lot of older communties in SoCal really like to display and glorify war weaponry.


Sierra Madre's old city hall and fire station. I don't know what the building is being used for now. The current Sierra Madre Civic Center is a very 1970s complex down the street from here.


This is a pretty good ice cream place.




View from a Mexican restaurant. The food is pretty good here.


This place makes their own chips fresh and in-house every day.


The restaurant was nearly empty when we first walked in. More customers started arriving as we started eating our food.


Annoying group of cyclists.


A late 1970s or early 1980s Porsche. I like the way these look, and they remind me of being a kid.


A cute house...


... with its garage.




Anaïs Nin's house.




She lived on a corner.


Anaïs Nin's neighbor's house.


She lived in the hills, near a canyon.


Orange trees in the yard.


Whimsical cottages.




A footbridge over a babbling brook.








Mary's Market, a cute little market and cafe.














I wouldn't mind living in this cute little number.
















My partner and I went to Mary's Market and got iced teas, and drank them outside.








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Last edited by sopas ej; Jan 27, 2020 at 4:26 PM.
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  #2  
Old Posted Jan 27, 2020, 3:49 AM
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Neat little town!! Reminds me of a few places in Colorado!!
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  #3  
Old Posted Jan 27, 2020, 6:18 AM
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Very charming and picturesque, I would live here if I could afford it and close to work. Personally I think any of the suburban communities along the 210 Freeway corridor are some of the most beautiful places in the LA metro. I love the small town charm and the quaint downtown each city has. I also like the fact you have options to get into LA via metro rail, and metro link.
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  #4  
Old Posted Jan 27, 2020, 7:07 AM
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Love it. All the foothill communities along the 210 are amazing.
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Old Posted Jan 28, 2020, 4:44 AM
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Nice pictures! This town looks like it could be in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, east of Sacramento.

Are there other little towns along the mountains in the Inland Empire that are like this?
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  #6  
Old Posted Jan 28, 2020, 7:12 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xzmattzx View Post
Nice pictures! This town looks like it could be in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, east of Sacramento.

Are there other little towns along the mountains in the Inland Empire that are like this?
Many small towns in the San Gabriel Valley, along the 210 corridor and even into San Bernardino look like this. Not sure about the inland empire though
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  #7  
Old Posted Jan 28, 2020, 3:36 PM
mrnyc mrnyc is offline
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looks like a great place to live.

maybe ...


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  #8  
Old Posted Jan 28, 2020, 5:22 PM
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I love it out there. Great set of photos.
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  #9  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 4:50 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan View Post
Many small towns in the San Gabriel Valley, along the 210 corridor and even into San Bernardino look like this. Not sure about the inland empire though
Is this not the Inland Empire? I thought the Inland Empire was all those cities and towns east of those little mountains east of Los Angeles.
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  #10  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 6:11 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xzmattzx View Post
Is this not the Inland Empire? I thought the Inland Empire was all those cities and towns east of those little mountains east of Los Angeles.
no, these small towns are just northeast of downtown LA, about 15 miles east, abutting the San Gabriel Mountains / Angeles National Forest. Its the foothills of the mountains you see in the skyline shots and basically start at Pasadena and go east for 30 miles. There are dozens of towns, such as Pasadena, La Canada, South Pasadena, Sierra Madre, Arcadia, Monrovia, Bradbury, Glendora, La Crescenta, Montrose, Claremont, etc. All of these towns have a very walkable downtown, small town feel, similar architecture with Craftsman and Spanish style homes (mostly), tree lined streets, and charm.
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  #11  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 2:31 PM
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Thanks for the comments!

Quote:
Originally Posted by xzmattzx View Post
Is this not the Inland Empire? I thought the Inland Empire was all those cities and towns east of those little mountains east of Los Angeles.
The San Gabriel Valley is not part of the Inland Empire.

The Inland Empire starts east of the county lines, namely, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Some people in LA proper think places like Diamond Bar and Walnut are part of the Inland Empire because they're in the 909 area code, but they're still in LA County. How Diamond Bar and Walnut are ambiguous is whether they're truly in the San Gabriel Valley, or in the Pomona Valley. My partner and I have had this discussion about Pomona; I could be wrong, but I think of the Pomona Valley as being a smaller sub-valley within the San Gabriel Valley, if that makes sense, but again, I could be wrong.

Even Claremont is ambiguous to some; to me, it's in the San Gabriel Valley, but some people consider Claremont to be Inland Empire, even though it's in Los Angeles County. My partner considers Claremont to be part of the Pomona Valley.

But Sierra Madre is definitely not part of the Inland Empire; it borders Pasadena, which is very San Gabriel Valley, and very LA County---Pasadena even borders the city of Los Angeles.
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Last edited by sopas ej; Jan 29, 2020 at 3:28 PM.
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  #12  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 5:01 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xzmattzx View Post
Is this not the Inland Empire? I thought the Inland Empire was all those cities and towns east of those little mountains east of Los Angeles.
The 909! This is definitely not part of the Inland Empire, which is usually taken to be Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

Why were the cyclists in one of the photos annoying? I bet the there is some incredibly riding in the San Gabriel foothills.

Last edited by 202_Cyclist; Jan 29, 2020 at 5:13 PM.
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  #13  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 5:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej View Post

Even Claremont is ambiguous to some; to me, it's in the San Gabriel Valley, but some people consider Claremont to be Inland Empire, even though it's in Los Angeles County. My partner considers Claremont to be part of the Pomona Valley .
Claremont is definitely not part of the San Gabriel Valley. There is a huge hill that separate the area between Covina and Pomona. I can see the argument some would consider it part of Pomona Valley, but at the same time it’s right next door to Upland and Montclair which is clearly considered part of the Inland Empire. Actually I don’t believe there are any physical barriers that even seperates Pomona from the cities in the Inland Empire. I used to live in both West Covina, Azusa (San Gabriel Valley), and Upland and Fontana (Inland Empire) and culturally Pomona and Claremont feels more connected to the IE.
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Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 5:26 PM
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^ do they have troubles with the brush fires in sierra madre -- or those places you mention?
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  #15  
Old Posted Jan 29, 2020, 5:33 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mrnyc View Post
^ do they have troubles with the brush fires in sierra madre -- or those places you mention?
Absolutely. All of those cities sit at elevations around 1000 to 2000 feet at the base of the mountains so there are fire concerns every year
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  #16  
Old Posted Jan 30, 2020, 2:22 AM
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Very cute downtown!
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  #17  
Old Posted Jan 30, 2020, 3:28 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisLA View Post
Claremont is definitely not part of the San Gabriel Valley. There is a huge hill that separate the area between Covina and Pomona. I can see the argument some would consider it part of Pomona Valley, but at the same time it’s right next door to Upland and Montclair which is clearly considered part of the Inland Empire. Actually I don’t believe there are any physical barriers that even seperates Pomona from the cities in the Inland Empire. I used to live in both West Covina, Azusa (San Gabriel Valley), and Upland and Fontana (Inland Empire) and culturally Pomona and Claremont feels more connected to the IE.
After reading what you said, I will agree with you; Claremont is not part of the San Gabriel Valley physically. And I know what you mean when you say that culturally, Pomona and Claremont are more connected to the IE. La Verne, San Dimas, Claremont... those cities have a very different vibe from the San Gabriel Valley, and even the people seem a little different too.

Though I will stop short of saying that Claremont is part of the Inland Empire, just because it's in LA County, though it does border San Bernardino County.


Quote:
Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist View Post
Why were the cyclists in one of the photos annoying? I bet the there is some incredibly riding in the San Gabriel foothills.
The ones I took a picture of were part of a much larger group of cyclists. They were annoying because they were all very loudly talking; congregating outside, blocking the sidewalk with all of their bikes and well, themselves, totally oblivious to the people around them walking on the sidewalk who wanted to get by.
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  #18  
Old Posted Jan 30, 2020, 8:22 PM
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Beautiful area. I love the winter foliage in the foothills. It seems like a world away from the palm trees and beaches.
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  #19  
Old Posted Jan 30, 2020, 8:37 PM
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Beautiful!
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  #20  
Old Posted Jan 31, 2020, 5:34 PM
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I absolutely love this!
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