Claremont Bits and Pieces

As we write this over the weekend, there is no Weekly Update by City Manager Jeff Parker posted on the City website. Guess there are no new businesses to pimp. We suppose he could note, as Saturday's Courier did, that at least one new merchant has broken its lease in the Packing House and left due to lack of customers.

Seems as if the building owner and the Chamber of Commerce ought to get together in an emergency effort to deal with the issues. The City and Redevelopment Agency will have a role to play but don't have the competencies to lead the charge.

The merchants must have a realistic view of things. As someone pointed out talking when talking about restaurants, it's not enough to have a business license in Claremont. You have to put out good food consistently, and with good service. Everyone has to take a look at the fundamentals.

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La Puerta Sports Park and Antenna Farm

A curious agenda item for tomorrow's council meeting, Tuesday, November 13: A group of neighbors are appealing a split planning commission decision to allow cell phone antennas in La Puerta park. We don't know all of the issues, but suspect there are plenty of reasons to hear the appeal. For one thing, the staff report is woefully inadequate: the "Financial Review" section deals only with the chump change of the appeal procedure, and not with the real money on the table from the cell phone operator. Buried deep in the report are allusions to money, and $2,000 per month is mentioned, but no real indication of where it goes.

We'd also like to see one of the appellants, Helaine Goldwater, orchestrate the appeal. It's always a pleasure seeing her work.

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Praise God from whom all blessings flow

The Congregational Church scored in Claremont last week: Beth Bingham, Congregational minister in Pomona, elected to the School Board. Butch Henderson, retired Congressional minister from UCC in Claremont appointed Chair of the Committee on Youth and Families Policies and Procedures.

This seems to be in line with the Congregational doctrine of "advancement of His Kingdom in the world."

We've seen this before, when former-councilmember Lew Miller's campaign was run out of the Louise Roberts room at the Claremont Congregational Church, and when Butch Henderson chaired Peter Yao's campaign Q&A events in 2003.

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Revisiting the Packing House, a reader writes,
"Low foot traffic and poor signage are among the concerns of several business owners in The Packing House who are struggling to stayafloat."

Big raises for the planning and development staff!