A year ago this week La Cañada was humming along pretty much as usual. Daytime temperatures were in the upper 90s. Some of the private schools had already opened their doors for the new school year and the public schools were poised to reopen the following Monday.
It was relatively quiet, just as it is at the tail end of summer every year.
Nonetheless there was some activity to report in late August 2009. Ground was broken for the new site of Flintridge Bookstore. It was a bright moment for the owners of the shop that had been heavily damaged the previous April when a runaway big rig crashed into it — after killing two people and injuring many others. That tragedy was in the back of everyone's minds as the ground-breaking ceremony took place. "This is a giant leap toward restoring a beloved business," said a state official's field rep.