Stinkadena (Pasadena nickname)

The city of Pasadena (near Houston, from a Chippewa Indian word meaning “Crown of the Valley”) was a small, strawberry-growing community until the 1920s, when petrochemical plants began locating in the area. By the 1980s, residents began referring to Pasadena as “Stinkadena.” A sewage treatment plant and a Simpson Paper plant are said to further justify the “Stinkadena” nickname.
 
The official Pasadena nickname is still “Strawberry Capital.”
     
     
Wikipedia: Pasadena, Texas
Pasadena is a city southeast of Houston in Harris County, Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. It is the second largest city in the county, 15th largest in the state and 159th largest in the United States, next to its namesake city, Pasadena, California, the 160th largest. The area was founded in 1893 by John H. Burnett of Galveston. At the time of its founding, the land’s lush, flowering vegetation inspired Burnett to name the city after Pasadena, California.
 
As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city’s population was 141,674. It boasts the largest all volunteer municipal fire department in the United States, the Pasadena Volunteer Fire Department. The city’s economy is closely linked to the nearby Houston Ship Channel and its related industrial districts, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in the bordering Clear Lake area. 
(...)
Culture
The city has several museums, including the Pasadena Historical Museum, the Bay Area Museum and Armand Bayou Nature Center. Pasadena also has a community theater (Pasadena Little Theatre), a large rodeo each year (Pasadena Livestock Show & Rodeo) and orchestra (the Pasadena Philharmonic). The city’s newspaper is the Pasadena Citizen.
   
Because of its location near the enormous amount of refineries that dot the ship channel (which help to make Houston’s petrochemical complex the largest in the nation), Pasadena has been dubbed by locals with the nickname “Stinkadena.” Another reason for the name may be the large sewage treatment plant located along State Highway 225 that links Houston to Pasadena. Another nickname, “Pasa-get-down-dena”, was coined in the mid-1980s by a Houston morning radio DJ named Moby on his show Moby in the Morning on the long gone station, 97 Rock. At least two country music songs have been recorded with “Pasa-get-down-dena” as the title: one by Kenefick on their album “Hard Road,” and John Evans on his album “Biggest Fool in Town.”
 
Urban Dictionary
1. Stinkadena
A suburb east of Houston, officially known as Pasadena. Name is derived from the air quality.
You can say what you want about Stinkadena, but at least the air is greener.
by Jose Pendejo May 7, 2003
 
2. Stinkadena
1.) Originally Pasadena, a suburb southeast of Houston, TX; name dirived from the air that floats in from Houston, but lingers over our poor town.
2.) home to many drug addicts and pushers, as well as drunken high school students
3.) not much to do there on weekends except drink or do drugs, which is why there are so many druggies and drunks.
I live in Stinkadena and all we ever do is get drunk, high, or race our cars down East Ave.
by Andira Nov 24, 2003
 
25 June 1989, Austin (TX) American-Statesman, pg. E1:
“Why do you think they call it Stinkadena?”
 
26 October 1989, Washington (DC) Post:
Diana Haskell, 39, grew up in the shadow of those plants in Pasadena, which residents call “Stinkadena” because of the sharp chemical odors that waft from ...
 
8 July 1990, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “The View from Pasadena: City of factories wants piece of action” by Bobbie Miller:
“Stinkadena’ is the nickname that pays tribute to Pasadena’s wealth of industry. The big names are all here: Shell Oil, Phillips Chemical, Exxon, Marathon.
     
Google Groups: houston.music
Newsgroups: houston.music
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Chuck You, Dude)
Date: 28 Jul 92 20:00:13 GMT
Local: Tues, Jul 28 1992 3:00 pm
Subject: Bad Religion Show? 
 
Does anyone out there in Whostoned care about the upcoming BR show at the Vatcian?  Are they going?  Do the live in S-E Hou, or Stinkadena? 
 
Google Groups: alt.fashion
Newsgroups: alt.fashion
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Charles Perrin)
Date: 1998/02/27
Subject: Re: What *I* bought today
 
I thought about proposing a quick trip to “Pick and Yank” in the nearby city of Stinkadena.
 
(According to the government offices that keep track of place names, Stinkadena is legally known as PASADENA.) Although, if you’ve been there, STINKADENA is a much better name with all the petrochemical plants and Simpson Paper, which makes the petrochemical plants smell downright fragrant… ready for Parfums du Citgo? 
 
Houston Press
Under The Volcano
Crown Central Petroleum spews, sputters and flares up. Neighbors of the plant view it uneasily, never quite sure when it’s going to blow.
By John Suval
Published: February 14, 2002
(...)
Crown Oil & Refining Company opened shop along the Houston Ship Channel at a time when oil was fast becoming the region’s defining industry. The year was 1920, and Pasadena was a farming community dominated by a handful of founding families. The new plant sat amid the vast fields of strawberries that had been the community’s lifeblood up till then.
(...)
Those residing near Crown have learned to live with the smell of sulfur dioxide wafting from the refinery, a distinct burned-match odor that leads some to tag their hometown “Stinkadena.” Individuals like Javier Castillo believe their health has been affected. Sitting in the Mexican restaurant he owns on Pasadena Boulevard following the lunch-hour mayhem, the friendly 38-year-old says he is plagued by allergies that disappear whenever he leaves town for an extended period. His two-year-old has asthma.
 
Google Books
Dubya: The Toxic Texan
George W. Bush and Environmental Degradation
by Donald C. Lord
iUniverse
2005
pg. 39:
When Anderson was young, her family began to smell the odors from Pasadena, Texas, which she laughingly referred to as “Stinkadena.”
   
Nick Anderson - Houston Chronicle Blog
Posted by: Stan at February 23, 2006 08:12 PM
 
I remember when Ted Ishler called Pasadena “Stinkadena” on air as a joke. 
 
Nissan Titan Forum
Mr. B
09-21-2006, 07:25 AM
 
Here’s a little history lesson on why Pasadena is called Stinkadena ..... way back in the 40’s, a papermill was built on the Houston Ship Channel ... and that papermill stunk up to high Heaven .... all the way into the 60’s, the only way in and out of Pasadena was HWY 225 which run’s the length of the Ship Channel ....this was before HWY 45 was built .... any time you where going into Pasadena, you’d smell the stench and hence, Stinkadena was coined…...fortunatly for my health while growing up, the wind blows from the Gulf of Mexico to the northeast and blows all the pollution from all the petro/chemical industries along the channel north….into Channelview, Texas…...except on the rare northern wind days when Stinkadena earns it’s nickname.     
 
Google Books
Revolution!
A New Plan for Selecting Representatives
by Tim Cox
Phenix Literary
2007
Austin, TX: Bridgeway Books
2008
Pg. 42:
Eighteen and breathing, and as a college-bound kid anxious to get out of “Stinkadena” and on to my new life in Austin, I never looked back.