OPEN THREAD: What first brought you to Monrovia?
I first discovered Monrovia shortly before I started househunting, and I was so happy to find it. The city appealed to me on so many levels. I loved being near L.A., and yet got the small town feeling I craved.
Also, the locals were helpful and friendly, and hanging on out Myrtle on a weekend night was fun, and reminded me of Mayberry, or some other such mythical small town place.
I love walking and felt it would be easy to walk from many of the homes I saw for sale to shopping and movies. All in all I've been happy with my choice.
What first brought you to Monrovia? What makes you stay?
posted by aw
8 Comments:
We came to Monrovia because it's a real town where people don't pretend to be something they're not. A town where people walk their own dogs.
A town with a VFW post (Post 2070 at Chestnut and Magnolia!). You should link to our Web site... vfwpost2070.com
3:10 PM
Robert,
I'd be happy to put a link to VFW on the sidebar. And I certainly agree...the lack of pretension here is very appealing.
Amanda
3:14 PM
We came here by accident. Our place got trashed in Northridge and the housing stock was pretty battered. We stumbled across the town and the house when we decided to buy instead of rent.
We found this cute little 50's house in foreclosure at the company wife worked for. She drove up first saw Old Towne then drove up the street with her boss and foreclosure manager. She fell in love with the trees and the view as she drove up the street.
Our intent was to fix it up and flip it in 6 months being able to then get a house South of the Boulevard that we had wanted.
We were wrong. We fell in love with the quiet. Our neighbors were wonderful. Old town was starting to roll, Gayman's Family Festival was the cincher.
14 years later we're still here. Among the best communities in the SGV even though we are going through some odd growing pains right now.
8:26 PM
We were looking to buy our second home in 1979,
having profited nicely from the sale of a home in
Alhambra. I disliked Alhambra very much, wanting
to return closer to the foothills (I was raised in Glendale) and first thought of going back to Sierra Madre where we first lived as a married couple.
One smart realtor, knowing our love for small towns and volunteering, showed us a house in Monrovia ... at night! Came back the next day for
coffee and cookies with the owner and to meet the
neighbors she invited in. Result ... easy sale.
I was disinclined to come here in the first place,
having heard about the racial divides, the riots at the high school in the 70s, the blighted look of
Huntington Dr., but the people gathered in this house over coffee and cookies convinced us that
we could build a life here. And so we have.
10:40 PM
It's funny, having grown up in the area, close to Pasadena, I would have never thought I'd be living in Monrovia. The reputation was not good - even just 15-20 years ago. However, when we were looking for our first home, my husband (who was not from here) really wanted me to consider it. So, while we looked in Pasadena as well as Monrovia, we found my dream starter home here. And the rest is history. I fell in love with the whole package; the non-pretentious feel, the cute factor downtown and the fact that I could walk to anything I could possibly need or want (ice cream, coffee, mexican food, chinese food, etc., etc.) as well as walk to the family festival. It has that small community feel that I desired to raise my kids in. A place where everybody knows your name, but big enough that plenty of people don't.
We are now on our 3rd home here, with no plans to leave. We LOVE Monrovia!
10:56 PM
The 70's riots were blown out of proportion and there were a lot of outside agitators. The city has always had a homey feel to it, even back then. I moved here in 64 and loved it from the atart.
What's happening now in town politically is no different then many other cities in Southern California. People are apt to question things more nowadays,the internet has changed our perspective and where some change is needed upsetting the apple cart completely is not wise.
The problem is that many people want to make change without hurting feelings because of this very silly PC time we live in. That will get people nowhere fast.
Local Boy
9:57 AM
We wanted to move to Pasadena, but housing prices were out of control. Monrovia was a cheaper alternative, and closer to my husband's job in Duarte. But, lucky for us, we got a lot more than we had hoped for -- a nice town with nice neighbors, a real downtown that's not an outdoor mall, and a bear in our backyard now and then.
And we walk our own dogs!
Chantal
12:42 AM
When my husband and I first got engaged, we decided to split the difference, geographically speaking. I lived in West LA and he lived in Ontario, so we started looking the the SGV area in places like Sierra Madre and Pasadena.
One Sunday morning, we stopped for donuts at Fosters in Glendora and drove to Monrovia. Coming up Myrtle, with the foothills looming before us, I was enchanted. Then we drove through Old Town and I immediately fell in love and declared, "We're moving here!" The rest is history. We rented for a few years and now we own. I'm a Realtor and it took forever for us to find the exact house we wanted (within walking distance of Old Town, Craftsman, big enough etc.), but it was definitely worth the wait. Even though a lot of my business is in Pasadena, I have no desire to move there. Monrovia is where my heart is.
9:07 PM
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