The Bloom is Off the City of Roses

Pasadena, California was once paradise within a paradise. Now it's a graveyard for the California dream.

Downtown Pasadena is a dumpster fire.

A few weeks ago, when we were all in bed, an ear-splitting roar woke up my daughter. It kept getting louder and louder—a jet engine somehow outside our window. We ran to the yard and looked up: there were three news helicopters that looked like they were hovering directly over our bedroom. “The Feds finally got me,” …