City of La Canada
La Canada Flintridge is also located in the foothills north of Pasadena. The city is known for its excellent schools and strong sense of community. The main drag through town is Foothill Boulevard, which features many great stores, restaurants and businesses. The popularity of La Canada Flintridge focuses around their outstanding schools, rated the number two school district in all of California (behind San Marino Unified). Strong community support for the school system through an educational foundation helps to keep the schools operating at a high level, thus keeping property values high. Residents also run a very successful youth community athletic association. These youth programs have been very successful in training young athletes to be successful at the high school level. La Canada attracts committed, successful people who have pride and respect for their community.
La Canada is a very high-end city, with real estate values that stay strong through good times and bad. There are fantastic, huge estates on enormous properties, primarily in the Flintridge area, but also smaller, simpler homes on smaller lots. You cannot expect a deal in La Canada, and you do have a few obstacles to work around, like proximity to the freeway and a large string of Edison power lines. One of the most beautiful and well-kept estates I have ever seen was on Flintridge Avenue, but I also really like the streets above Foothill Boulevard like Indianola Way, Gould Avenue and Vineta Avenue. These streets provide a very family-oriented, safe and friendly environment where kids ride their bikes to school and people walk their dogs after work. Fabulous!
La Canada Flintridge spans the 210 freeway. The original Flintridge portion is on the west side of the freeway and has many woodsy, hillside properties. A central fixture of this side of the freeway is the beautiful, Descanso Gardens, a fantastic public garden. One of my kid's favorite childhood experiences was riding the kid-sized train that travels through the lush grounds of the garden. The Enchanted Railroad runs Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Tickets, $3, can be purchased at the train station near the Center Circle. La Canada Flintridge also boasts their own Country Club, with 18-hole golf course and the Flintridge Riding Club, a fantastic horse stable and riding facility. In fact, some of the homes in this community have riding trails behind the property, to account for the population of horseback riders.
Established by Caltech and funded by NASA, La Canada is well-known for the space research facility known as, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. JPL employs many area residents and works on cutting edge space exploration projects. Once a year they sponsor a very interesting open house, which provides kids and adults alike the opportunity to view what these "rocket scientists" are up to. This is a great family outing!
Carrie Benuska
626.840.9149