Pasadena picks firms to produce 710 freeway displacement historical report

Decades after the damage was done, Pasadena will soon have a historical accounting of the effects of the failed 710 North freeway expansion project.

On Monday, Oct. 30, the Pasadena City Council approved a $200,000 contract with Allegra Consulting Inc., to prepare an oral history on the impacts of the 710 freeway “stub” that was officially nixed a few years ago following decades of community opposition in the east San Gabriel Valley.

In the 1960s, the California Highway Commission slated the final five miles of the project to go through parts of  El Sereno, South Pasadena, and Pasadena, putting thousands of residents and their homes on the path of demolition. In Pasadena, that meant bisecting the city’s Black and low-income neighborhoods in the northwest, which academic research now shows was racially motivated.

The city’s contract with Allegra, spanning three years, is one of two other components that will make up a broad historical accounting of the freeway’s displacement of mostly Black and low-income residents in the northwest of Pasadena.

According to the city, Allegra’s proposal came in at a cost well above other firms, at just under $700,000. The next highest-cost bidder was Weathers Wilcher, LLC at $323,155, the next highest scoring bids were under $100,000 each, and the average bid cost was less than $200,000.

However, the firm assured staff that they could still provide all required services at their much lower price. Allegra representatives said the cost was the result of their proposal to videotape the interviews and turn them into a documentary.

“We’re looking for their descendants and we know that it’s not going to be an easy task,” said Allegra CEO Suzanne Madison.

“So our plan is to cast a broad net, put up an online survey, capture responses, and then just sift through the responses and narrow them down to I think 275 responses, interview 100. narrow that 100 down to 25 oral history interviews.”

Overall, the report will document the demographics of those displaced; the buildings destroyed; the eminent domain process; any laws, practices, cultural environment or other influences that contributed to racial discrimination; efforts to stop the freeway expansion; and any related city action taken at the time.

In separate tasks, the report will also include an oral history taken from resident interviews and evaluate how freeway expansion and other institutional practices led to Pasadena’s makeup today.

The “Historical Data/Setting” portion will be completed by Architectural Resources Group for $66,990 and the “Impacts of Freeways on Segregation in Pasadena” will be completed by the Regents of the University of California (UCLA) at a cost of $57,622, according to the city.

Unlike the oral history portion, those contracts did not require a specific vote from the city council since their prices were each under the $75,000 threshold that would necessitate council approval.

Allegra is also contracted with the city’s rental housing board to provide public relations services.

In September, the city council approved a three-year, $540,000 contract with PointC for consulting services to help steer the reconnecting communities project vision and hired senior project manager Wendy Macias to oversee the several-year effort.