Transit and Salon News

We received a comment on our post about the Gold Line, and the reader had an idea for utilizing the Metrolink for late-night visitors to the downtown Los Angeles scene:

Subject: comment on public transportation
To: claremontbuzzatyahoo.com

I read your piece on the Gold Line. I wanted to write because I have Thought for awhile that it would be very good if the Metrolink would run very late on a Friday or Saturday night so that people out here can get into downtown LA for the nightlife. Like maybe a 2 or 3 o'clock train back into the IE. I think this would be very convenient for those of us who like the nightlife, especially with all the things that are going on in downtown LA right now. Not only would convenience factor on driving be one reason we should do it, but for those who drink it would be an alternative to driving after having a drink. Maybe they could do it just a few times a year. Anyways,that's my idea!

Also--did you ever have time to find out what the 25 salons in the village are? I still am curious whether there really are 25..... and what they are. Thanks.

We're not sure about the salons or how that number 25 was arrived at, but looking for salons, spas, nail and tanning businesses between Foothill Blvd. and Arrow Hwy. to the north and south, and Claremont Blvd. and Mountain Ave. to the east and west, here's what we could find using Google:

1. Aromatique Skin Body Care‎
   319 W 1st St # A, Claremont, CA‎
2. Bliss Salon
   121 Harvard Pl, Claremont, CA‎
3. Cielo Mio Spa & Salon
   101 N Indian Hill Blvd #c2-200, Claremont, CA‎
4. Claremont Hair Plus‎
   268 W 2nd St, Claremont, CA‎
5. Claremont Tanning
   665 E Foothill Blvd Ste L, Claremont, CA
6. Claremont Village Salon
   114 N Indian Hill Blvd # R, Claremont, CA
7. Escape Salon
   250 W 1st St, Ste 146, Claremont, CA‎
8. Forte Salon‎
   280 W 2nd St, Claremont, CA‎
9. Hair After
   232 W Bonita Ave, Claremont, CA
10. Hair By Gilbert Cisko Guerra
    250 W 1st St # 146, Claremont, CA
11. Hair Cottage & Gift Shop‎
    262 W 4th St, Claremont, CA‎
12. Hands Down
    115 Harvard Ave, Claremont, CA
13. Krystyna Hair Tech
    321 Yale Ave, Claremont, CA‎
14. Maax Salon
    206 W Bonita Ave, Claremont, CA
15. Nail Today
    234 Yale Ave, Claremont, CA‎
16. Paulos Coiffures
    143 Harvard Ave # D, Claremont, CA‎
17. Piel Fina‎
    240 W 2nd St, Claremont, CA‎
18. Pilgrim Place Beauty Salon
    721 Harrison Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
19. Renaissance Salon‎
    339 E Arrow Hwy, Claremont, CA
20. Robert Micheal's Salon
    120 Harvard Ave, Claremont, CA‎
21. Skin Care by Betty‎
    319-A W. First Street, Claremont, CA‎
22. Spa Boutique‎
    282 W 2nd St, Claremont, CA‎
23. Tbmt Enterprises
    555 W Foothill Blvd, Claremont, CA
24. Total Look‎
    1260 Harvard Ave, Claremont, CA‎
25. Urban Renewal Salon
    123 Yale Ave, Claremont, CA

By the way, there seemed to be twice that number if you count Claremont's outlying areas. We don't know if the new salon ordinance will have its desired effect, but we did notice the "For Lease" signs seem to be staying up at the former cigar store on 2nd St. across from City Hall and in the Village Expansion. But, maybe given the current economic environment those would have stayed empty anyway.

Belle Newman Hands City Hair Cutters Defeat

At the Claremont City Council meeting two weeks ago, City Planner Belle Newman pushed the Claremont City Council to approve the banning of new personal care establishments at ground-floor locations in the Village. Here is a clip from the March 25, 2008 city council meeting where she gave the staff report. (We found ourselves a little bit distracted during the 3 minute clip)



Following the crazy procedure of general law cities in California, the action two weeks ago by city council, on a 4-0 vote, Taylor recused because of a conflict of interest, was effectively but not formally the last word.

Citizens could be excused for thinking that because it came up Tuesday, April 8, on the consent agenda, there might be some more consideration. There wasn't, but hair salon owner Nancy Lodolo spoke again pleading for council to have some sense. We give you her remarks in full. Which of course got no response from council except for a reiteration by Councilmember Calaycay of his grudging support for this measure (clip is just under 5 minutes).



Ya know what we think? We think this whole thing started a few years ago when Powell's Hardware closed and a beauty salon took over its retail location on Yale Avenue. That got a burr under someone's saddle--a Person of Authority--and what is the result in Claremont? Another regulation.

Claremont Conservative Covers Council Meeting

Charles Johnson at the Claremont Conservative attended last night's Claremont City Council meeting after interviewing Nancy Lodolo, the owner of The Hair After, a salon Lodolo has owned in Claremont for over 20 years.

The Council passed an ordinance last night placing strict limits on new beauty salons in the Claremont Village. The ordinance places an outright ban on salons in first floor storefronts. The ordinance also bans existing salons from expanding into those same areas. Salons would still be allowed on second floors or in storefronts facing alleys - both limits that mean new salons wouldn't benefit from high foot traffic.

Johnson has a post on his interview with Lodolo and the Council action on the beauty shop ordinance:

Pomona's The Student Life have called Hair After's prices "unbeatable" and CGU's School of Religion describes it as "close to campus, a good price, and a good quality."

Nancy loves catering to students and senior citizens. She keeps her prices low -- $15 for a woman's cut compared to upwards of 35 and higher at some of the other places -- and treats her employees well. Some of them have worked with Nancy for about as long as she's had the shop!

"Claremont," she says in her cozy shop, "is a college town and college students don't always have a lot of money. You might think that this is an affluent town, but not everyone who lives here is. We want all this youth running and around and we don't cater to it. How many shops here could you afford to shop in?"

Nancy's right. Some of the high end clothing and restaurants offer services well beyond my means. Whenever I want to buy something on the cheap, I have to take a bus or borrow a ride from a friend.

If you happened to catch the streaming video of the meeting last night, Lodolo addressed the Council on the subject and raised the same points. [Update: We have posted video of Lodolo's remarks in a link HERE.]

The council went forward with the ban, so if you start seeing empty storefronts with "For Lease" signs in the windows, you'll know that by cherry picking businesses it wants, the City Council and the Claremont Chamber of Commerce, which had lobbied for the ordinance, picked the wrong businesses to allow in their pool of possible tenants. For whatever reason, beauty salons seem to survive in town. Maybe it's all that inner ugliness we've seen on display from time-to-time at Council meetings in want of a makeover.

With the City in search of new sources of tax revenue in a time of either economic stagnation or contraction, does it really make a lot of sense to limit who can open a business in town? If there isn't a market in Claremont for other types of businesses, they either will fail or won't come here in the first place, and the result will be empty storefronts.

Besides being the City of Trees and Ph.D's, Claremont is also the city of unintended consequences, and we suspect that there will be plenty of those to come out of the sort of central planning the current council has embarked on.

A tip of the Insider hat to Johnson for taking the time to interview a local business person and for actually covering the council meeting, which we know can be a painful experience. Over the years, the local government reporting at the colleges has been spotty at best. Unless it's been something that grabs the students' passing interest - the proposal to put a trash transfer station in at the old gravel pit, the Landrum shooting, the purchase of Johnson's Pasture - student life and Claremont's civic life have rarely been seen to intersect.

Students' interest in town affairs has been notoriously fickle in the past and typically lasts about as long as a mayfly. So, it's great to see a student looking at something as seemingly arcane as a municipal business ordinance and trying to explain how that relates to students. We hope we see more of that in future at the colleges.

In the Eye of the Beholder

We received this email last Tuesday about a KCBS-2 news crew in the Claremont village last Tuesday:

My daughter and I noticed the CBS van on First street, and this evening's news ch 2 said Claremont was going to Planning commission to ban salons from the downtown village... interviewed an older couple and an owner... A city official on camera too....

Thanks for all you do to keep us up to date!

The beauty salon story got some coverage from reporter Will Bigham in the Daily Bulletin:

CLAREMONT - There are as many as 25 beauty salons in the Village, and city leaders say enough is enough.

With the blessing of the Chamber of Commerce, city officials have begun crafting a new law that would prohibit new beauty salons from opening in street-level, storefront Village locations.

In the city's downtown Village, there are many types of beauty businesses - hair salons, nail salons, barbers and day spas. On some blocks, there are three or four different salons.

City officials worry that the increasing number of salons is disrupting the balance between retail and service shops in the Village. And more new salons are seeking space in the Village, officials say.

"We have a few vacant spots right now, and we're getting inquiries about additional (salons) coming in," said Tony Witt, director of community development.

The Planning Commission is expected to consider an ordinance to regulate salons at its meeting March 4, said Belle Newman, principal planner.

We kept an eye out for a link to the KCBS news clip and finally found one. Tony Witt got his Warholian 15 minutes with a little face time in an interview with the KCBS reporter.