Happy Anniversary, Mr. Allen

Daily Bulletin columnist David Allen recently celebrated his 10th year in Claremont. Allen wrote that for a journalist, 10 years in one place is a long time indeed, and he touched on some of the things about the Claremont Village that he likes.

From my house, a half-mile walk takes me downtown. And Claremont's downtown is the gold standard. It's a functioning neighborhood with a lively street scene.

L.A.'s planning director once said her three criteria for a neighborhood are being able to walk to a coffeehouse, a bookstore and a movie theater. I can do that.

(Although Claremont could really use a better bookstore.)

The colleges are even closer. I count myself lucky to have attended free talks on campus by so many cultural figures: cartoonists Art Spiegelman and Marjane Satrapi, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, humorist David Sedaris, journalist Elizabeth Kolbert and essayist Gore Vidal, among others.

South Claremont doesn't get of a mention in the piece, and Allen says that compared to the Village, the north part of town is pretty much like any other bedroom community, but then those two parts of town don't usually get much attention, unless it's has to do with the Claremont Auto Center or a big project like the Padua Theatre or the Padua Ave. Park. The only time something gets left alone is when it's on a slope, like the Claremont Wilderness Park.

I'd have to agree with Allen that the Village's attraction is its walkability and the intellectual and cultural energy of the Claremont Colleges. There is another kind of community, though, and that one happens at the neighborhood level, and that's happening all over town, not just in the Village.

The Claremont General Plan even makes point of the uniqueness of our neighborhoods as being a hallmark of our city. Outside of the Claremont Village, the uniqueness part sometimes gets forgotten, especially when someone wants to build a big project or expand the Claremont Auto Center. It makes me think of a philosophy professor I used to know who taught a comparative world religions class. He used to say, "I don't want you tell you what a Hindu is or a Muslim is or a Christian is, but I want you to learn to see the cow the Hindu sees, the cow the Muslim sees, the cow the Bhuddist sees."

In Claremont, that's been a big problem. Our friends who make the decisions don't take the time to see the neighborhood the neighbors see. People in the south part of town are looked down on for being from " Baja Claremont" and people in the north part of town are snooty rich folk. But they're really people who are interested in their own immediate community as much as anyone in the Village is.

LWV Lines Up Against Neighborhood - AGAIN

Next week, Claremont's Planning Commission will review the draft 2008-2014 Housing Element of the City's General Plan. The city's website has this information:

A Draft 2008-2014 Housing Element has been completed and will be reviewed by the Planning Commission. The Draft contains goals, policies, and programs to achieve the community's vision of a diverse and sustainable community that increases housing choice for current and future residents.

• When: Tuesday, October 7 [7:00pm - ed.]
  
• Where: Council Chamber, 225 W. Second Street

The public is encouraged to participate in this review process. Copies of the Draft are available for review at the City Hall public counter, 207 Harvard Avenue, and you may click the link below to view the Draft.

For more information, contact the City's Planning Division at (909) 399-5470.

The draft Housing Element did have some useful information. For example, it contained a couple tables that showed how the city's age distribution seems to be changing - something we've written about in the past. One table showed that between the 1990 and 2000 US Censuses, the number of children of preschool age (0-5 years old) declined by 7.1%. Also, the number of adults ages 25-34 declined by 11.4%. And the number of adults 35-44 declined by 9.7%. The last two groups are the ones whom one would expect to be starting families, so those declines feed into the diminishing preschool-age cohort.

In contrast, older adults, the groups ages 45-54, 55-64, and 65 and older, increased by 26.5%, 5.5%, and 23.3%, respectively.

Click on Images to Enlarge

Household sizes, too, declined between 1990 and 2000, also sign of fewer children:



Like almost any city enterprise, the draft Housing Plan is a political document shaped in large part by the League of Women Voters of the Claremont Area. Affordable Housing figures prominently in the plan, and there is every indication that the local LWV has not forgiven the residents who live around the site of the former Base Line Rd. affordable housing site at the southeast corner of Base Line and Towne Ave.

You might recall that the LWV squared off against those residents and lost when they tried to push their affordable housing project at that location. The LWV lost primarily because a Los Angeles County agency decided it would change the rules by which it allocates certain affordable housing funds, ruling that projects within 500 feet of a major highway cannot receive the funds in question.

The LWV hasn't given up, and the Base Line Rd. site with its potential for up to 46 affordable housing units is still mentioned in the list. Also, an adjacent Base Line site 1000 feet east of Towne Ave. is listed in the draft Housing Element as one of the top potential affordable housing locations in Claremont and could hold up to 78 homes.

Of course, that second Base Line site would have the same problems as the first one - it is next to the 210 Freeway and so would not be ideally suited to affordable housing.

Still, the LWV and the city's establishment, including Mayor Ellen Taylor, have had it in for this neighborhood for a long time, going back to when the 210 Freeway was being planned and they wanted to dump the westbound traffic onto Base Line Rd. with hook ramps. The city lost on the 210 Fwy. ramps, and they lost Round One of the affordable housing debate. Out of spite, rather than as a matter of public policy, they're coming back for Round Two.

Should be interesting.