Good Neighbors

Something there is that doesn't love a wall

That sends a frozen groundswell under it

....
Before I'd built a wall, I'd ask to know

What it is I was walling in and walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.

Robert Frost, Mending Wall

The saga continues. Our story so far: the city with attitude and a serious inferiority complex to compensate for (Claremont) decides it's going to build its new police station at the corner of Towne Ave. and Bonita Ave. on the site of a 10-acre vacant lot owned by the Xerox Corp.

One big problem is the land isn't part of Claremont. It's in Pomona, a much larger city with its own inferiority complex. Another is Claremont forgot to tell the Pomona City Council it was planning on annexing the police station land. Not exactly the best way to start off a friendly negotiation, especially when Claremont and its ruling caste, the Claremont 400, has a reputation for snootiness, snobbery and arrogance.

From the 400's point of view, Pomona should be thankful for ceding that little plot of land to its much superior neighbor. After all, Pomona is to blame for all of Claremont's problems, beginning with crime. The Claremont Police Commission took up the matter last week, as Will Bigham in the Daily Bulletin was kind enough to detail yesterday.

Pomona Mayor Norma Torres didn't seem to happy to hear the news when it originally broke, and she pretty much told Claremont to take a hike. Claremont's elite, used to ignoring its own citizens, applied their same classy charm to this issue. Claremont Police Commissioner Gary Soto in Bigham's article wooed Pomona by calling Mayor Torres "someone who lacks political savvy and professionalism."

Obviously, in Soto's view, professionalism means doing what he says without question. Soto, a former Fontana middle school principal, must still think he's dealing with seventh-graders. We're not sure who needs to grow up here.

It really is hard not to laugh at the situation, something Bulletin columnist and longtime Claremonter David Allen had no trouble doing.

It was also nice of Police Chief Paul Cooper to let us know the cost of acquiring the land and building the station: $29 million. Toss in the $100 million-plus for buying the water company, the $10 million-plus to build the Padua Sports Park, the $11.5 to 12.5 million to buy Johnson's Pasture, and you have quite a pricey agenda for Claremont. Of course, just as it's not their land, it's not their money either. Chief Cooper said in the Bulletin that the city would probably take out bonds to pay for the station.

Maybe Cooper should just ask Pomona to pay for the thing since Claremont is being kind enough to police Pomona's crime problem. Sort of hearkens back to the 1970's, when Claremonsters still called our police "the border patrol"--something former Mayor Judy Wright omitted from her "Claremont: A Pictorial History."

As long as we're shelling out the money, why not build a wall around our town? Something there is that doesn't like a snob.