When the nation casts its spotlight on NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s stellar accomplishments, Pasadena triumphantly shares in the glow.
The shadow cast by the pair of local giants seems to obscure the little sign nestled outside of JPL’s campus that reads: “Welcome to the City of La Cañada Flintridge, Home of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.”
Pasadena gets all the credit
Technically, La Cañada won JPL from Pasadena in 1976 when it incorporated as a city, but Pasadena has succeeded in annexing the campus in the court of public opinion.
“We have always considered it to be part of Pasadena and we certainly reap the benefits of their presence, regardless of where most of the territory is,” said Terry Tornek, Pasadena’s Mayor. “We claim it, and we love it.”
Compared with the bedroom community of La Cañada, Pasadena is already world-renowned for the Rose Bowl, the Tournament of Roses Parade and Caltech.
For some, the list includes the prestigious NASA facility known for operating the Mars rovers and, as of last week, for putting a new spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter. During a recent trip to China, Tornek told dignitaries in a sister city of Pasadena about his hometown. Nothing seemed to resonate until he mentioned JPL.
In “The Martian,” the big budget Hollywood movie starring Matt Damon as a stranded astronaut on Mars, China’s space agency partnered with NASA — and JPL — on a rescue mission. The film lovingly recreates the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that JPL’s employees are known for, but when the screen lists the campus’s location, Pasadena again gets the credit.
Pasadena is also the easier target for writers and readers unfamiliar with the area.
The Pasadena Star-News and the Los Angeles Times both try to credit La Cañada in articles, but few other organizations follow suit. Last week, when JPL successfully flew its probe Juno into Jupiter’s orbit, CNN opened its story with the odd dateline of “Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California.” But a little lower, the author places the facility in Pasadena.
The New York Times, The Associated Press and even JPL’s own press releases tend to agree.
When a JPL spokesman introduced a panel of Juno team members recently to the media and thousands of viewers watching at home, the broadcast was live from Pasadena, California. Though, it really wasn’t.
How the mail helped contribute to confusion
It’s not easy being the home of JPL when no one knows you are. That’s why La Cañada put up a sign about 10 years ago, according to City Manager Mark Alexander. Though everyone drives past it to get to JPL, it hasn’t caught on yet.
“Certainly it’s a little frustrating because we’re very proud of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,” Alexander said. “Physically, the lab itself is located in the city of La Cañada Flintridge.”
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory employs thousands of employees and is about the size of a little city by itself. Pasadena’s Caltech manages the facility and most of the employees work for the institute, which probably adds to the confusion.
Founded by Caltech students in 1936, JPL existed for 30 years in unincorporated Los Angeles County before La Cañada incorporated. Both Pasadena and NASA wanted the campus to stay in Pasadena, but efforts to annex the land were thwarted by the Local Agency Formation Commission, which has jurisdiction over local annexations and incorporations. Only 6 percent of JPL was technically in Pasadena at the time.
Pasadena’s border included a leased JPL parking lot.
But here’s where it gets confusing.
The mailing address for JPL is 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, according to JPL’s website. If you’re driving to the campus, the address you want to plug in is 4800 Oak Grove Drive, La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011, according to the exact same page.
“The bottom line is that La Cañada was unincorporated when JPL was founded and the rural post office branch it had couldn’t handle our traffic, so our postal address was Pasadena,” wrote Erik Conway, JPL’s historian. “As far as the lab’s actual land, the original part of the lab (around Building 11) was bought from Pasadena, too. Though most of the current lab property was La Cañada.”
The volume of mail is why the mail continues to go through the postal service in Pasadena today, according to Alexander.
La Cañada continues to fight for its place
Though La Cañada does its part to name drop itself, its not clear if anyone is listening.
“Every time there’s a big media venue like that, in a movie like “The Martian,” it reinforces the mistake and notion that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is in Pasadena,” Alexander said. “This has been going on for a while. As long as it continues, we’re going to continue to try to clarify.”
For Pasadena’s mayor, there’s nothing left to clarify. La Cañada is welcome to share in the glow, he says, but the facility is in Pasadena.
Tornek points to a key scene from the movie “Miracle on 34th Street,” where Santa Claus is exonerated in court when a pile of mail addressed to him shows up.
“I’ll do the sort of Kriss Kringle defense here, and claim if it’s good enough for the U.S. Post Office, it’s good enough for me. La Cañada can say what they like,” Tornek said. “I think between Hollywood and the Post Office, we’ve got it covered.”
