The Ring of Dance

The news that Meg Worley and Kevin Lahey, the Pomona couple that started a blog called M-M-M-My Pomona (they lost one "M-" early on), have moved from the area left us feeling a little glum, as if we'd lost a friend.  Worley and Lahey have moved on to bigger and better things up in San Jose.  We wish them the best in their new endeavors, but we'll sorely miss the fresh voice and crisp writing Meg brought to the table.

We read of this departure in David Allen's Daily Bulletin column and in Allen's own blog, where Allen touched on the evanescence of life in the digital age:

M-M-M-My Pomona offered a window into the Lincoln Park neighborhood and the wider world of Pomona, especially in the blog's earlier days. Many of the community of blogs in Pomona have gone dormant; the form seems to have peaked in 2009 or 2010.

It's a little strange to think of something as new as blogging as having already fallen out of favor, but that's the way the changing media landscape bounces. The form still seems to have a lot of untapped potential locally.

In his column, Allen wrote that Pomona has a fairly lively blogging world compared to surrounding areas:

In 2010, the Pomona bloggers had their own float in the Christmas Parade, riding together on a flatbed truck, carrying laptops and waving to children. Now that's influence. (Which I can say, as a former grand marshal.)

Contrary to Pomona's reputation as a backwards, disconnected place, the city has been a hotbed of blogging, with up to a dozen active blogs commenting on local affairs from personal perspectives and linking to each other.

To my knowledge Claremont has only one community blog, and if Upland, Rancho Cucamonga or Chino have any, they're certainly quiet about it.

Actually, besides the Insider, Claremont does have Life in Claremont, which is the domain of Charlotte Van Ryswyk, a violin and viola teacher and the music specialist at Vista del Valle Elementary School.  Life in Claremont is extremely well-written, has a unique voice, and offers a little of everything: books, music, food, and, as the title promises, day-to-day life in our humble burg.  And a few new Claremont-oriented blogs pop up now and again and then pass away quicker than mayflies.

Still, compared to Pomona, our blogging scene is pretty barren.  Allen's article nailed the difference between Claremont and Pomona, and it may account for the lack of blogs here.  The blog form is a pretty egalitarian one, and Claremont tends more towards elitism.  Here's what Allen wrote in his M-M-M-My Pomona article:

"I think it's significant and telling that Pomona has a lot more community blogs than Claremont," Worley told me. "It's not just population. It's a different style of community engagement."

In Claremont, there's a social and political hierarchy. How long you've lived there and who you know matters.

Pomona, by contrast, has an improvisatory nature. With a thin layer of government, and civic competence sometimes in short supply, people have to find their own solutions. It's like "The Little House on the Prairie," but with Mexican food.

Perhaps it's that very egalitarianism inherent in a blog that appealed to us Insiders in the first place.  So much of one's experience of Claremont's high society is exclusionary, and a blog bypasses that quite neatly.  We can all have a voice, not just a select few.

* * * * *

Allen, by the way, had a couple columns, one in June and a follow-up in July, that discussed how Claremonters view themselves compared to how people from our neigboring cities often see us, as this from Allen's July 14 column shows: 

"I can give you a great example of the `friendly' people of Claremont," said Bob Terry, proceeding to relate an anecdote about a mixer in Claremont some three years ago for several area chambers of commerce.

Terry said one of his fellow Rancho Cucamonga Chamber officials briefly placed fliers on the Claremont Chamber's table while looking for a chair. The women at the Claremont table picked up the offending papers and dropped them on the floor like they were toxic waste.

Nope, we can't allow any mixing at a mixer.

"That is just one of many `friendly' encounters we have had over the years with the Claremont Chamber," Terry added.

Allen's June 25 column indicated that at least one Chamber representative seemed surprised to hear of a lack of unanimity concerning the town's general wonderfulness:

"Do you think Claremont is snooty?" [Claremont Chamber member Susan] Brunasso asked me, honestly curious.

"Of course," I replied.

As Claremont's ambassador, Brunasso should try asking that question in Montclair or Pomona - and brace herself for the response.

Claremonters' sense of superiority rubs people the wrong way, I explained.

There's a thin line between thinking your town is a great place to live and thinking it's the only place to live, we agreed.

"There's a pride here that can be taken for arrogance," Brunasso acknowledged.

It's really more than arrogance, though.  It's a profound lack of awareness, a lack of empathy, that blinds certain people, the ones termed the Claremont 400 (a phrase we co-opted long ago), to the perception of Claremont through the eyes of outsiders.  It's an unawareness that underlies a certain willingness to bend the truth, sometimes beyond all recognition.

Back in the Claremont 400's heyday, an issue would come up, and the 400 would spin it however they wished.  If you were on the other side of an issue, it took a huge effort to counter the spin because few people bothered to look deeper into what the 400 were saying.  Think of the City Council election this past March.  In the past, the 400 candidates could get up at a forum and spout whatever foolishness they wanted and not get called on it.  A blog makes it much easier to point out the deeper truths.

In days gone by, every election, every hot-button issue, would bring to light some little lie here, some untruth there, that would go uncorrected and, with the Claremont Courier or Daily Bulletin as unwitting conduits, become incorporated into the city's accepted wisdom.  A blog makes for the perfect place to shine a little light on precisely those things our town fathers and mothers would prefer remain hidden.

More than anything else, a blog levels the playing field.  It's a great tool for democratizing the information stream.  No one person or group should get to serve as the Great Information Filter, deciding what gets released and what truth is too inconvenient to be heard.  As Kevin Costner's Crash Davis says to Susan Sarandon's Annie at early on in the movie Bull Durham, "Why do you get to choose?  Why don't I get to choose?"

Don't we all have some valuable bit of information to contribute to the civic conversation?  It's just a matter of speaking up.

This line of thinking brought to mind Denise Levertov's poem "Caedmon," which tells the story of the first English poet.  Caedmon was an illiterate herdsman at a monastery who hid one night because, inarticulate and uneducated, he was ashamed that he wasn't able to join in singing with the learned monks. Then, in a dream, a figure appeared and commanded Caedmon to sing of the Creation:

All others talked as if

talk were a dance.

Clodhopper I, with clumsy feet

would break the gliding ring.

.....

....Until

the sudden angel affrighted me—light effacing

my feeble beam,

a forest of torches, feathers of flame, sparks upflying:   

but the cows as before

were calm, and nothing was burning,

             nothing but I, as that hand of fire   

touched my lips and scorched my tongue   

and pulled my voice
                     into the ring of the dance.

* * * * *

Here in Claremont a certain segment of the population takes pride in our civic participation; yet, in reality a small number of people - not 400, more like 40 or 50 - get an idea (think Claremont Trolley) and the idea propagates out into the community through our various volunteer organizations, through letters to the local newspapers, and through City Hall until we forget what silly notion propelled the system into motion in the first place. 

There's no reason why these few and no one else should get to choose what course we take on any matter.  Why do they get to choose?  We just need more people to get involved instead of sitting at home and complaining when they disagree with some local policy or project after the fact.

So, whomever you are, whichever angel or muse moves you, stop your texting, put that remote or that game controller down, and step up.  Add your voice to the dissonant chorus that democracy is supposed to be.  Otherwise, you cede the decision-making to bullies from all parts of the political spectrum.  And then you have to live with the consequences.

Their Fair Share - UPDATED*

 

Last Tuesday, the Claremont City Council voted 3-2 to impose a new, one-year contract on the Claremont Police Officers Association and the Claremont Police Management Association.  The vote came after the City was unable to reach any agreements with the two police organizations in recent contract negotiations.
 
The CPOA, which represents Claremont's rank-and-file public safety workers, was extremely vocal in the days leading up to last week's vote.  As we previously noted, the CPOA's attorney, Dieter Dammeier, deployed his political action committeee, COPFIRE, to issue a threat to Claremont City Councilman Corey Calaycay, warning him that they would target him in future elections if he didn't vote the CPOA's way.

You can review the video of the council meeting here.  The Daily Bulletin's Wes Woods II also had a write up of the meeting.

The City had been asking for the police to start paying their own retirement contributions with a three-year, phased-in system.  The City also offered a 1.5% cost of living adjustment.  The police associations didn't want to accept the City's terms unless they got a 3% COLA, twice what the City was offering.  The council then proposed imposing the new contract with its requirement that the police start paying two-thirds of their 9% salary contribution to their CalPERS retirement accounts.  (Currently, the City is picking up the entire 9%.)

Of the many arguments made by the CPOA at last Tuesday's council meeting, the one that really caught our interest went like this:  If you don't pay us what we want, your community's safety will suffer.  Underlying this sentiment is the idea that Claremont would lose good police officers to surrounding communities that are willing to pay their police higher salaries and better benefits.  The CPOA's justification for police deserving better compensation than other municipal employees is that police have a more dangerous job.  They put their lives on the line every night.

To this line of thinking, we say our police are already paid higher salaries commensurate with their greater responsibilities.   While we appreciate their good work, we also think they are already adequately compensated.  Further, the danger they place themselves in is relative.  The CPD and their negotiator Dieter Dammeier make it sound as if they're patrolling the streets of Kabul every night.   Let's face it, in terms of threat levels, Claremont is pretty light duty.   The Claremont Courier's Saturday Police Blotter is invariably filled with stories about domestic disputes and drunk-and-disorderly arrests, not gang shootouts.

Let's be honest, folks, Watts we ain't.

The CPOA claims its members would leave for other Dammeier cities, like La Verne or Azusa, because the compensation is better there.  We thought about this and then realized that in his remarks to the City Council, Dieter Dammeier let slip a factor we hadn't thought about before.  Dammeier told the council that he represents all of the police associations within 20 miles of Claremont.  He then said that the contract the council was considering would make it difficult for Claremont to compete for qualified police officer applicants.   This struck us as an admission by Dammeier that he controls what amounts to a labor cartel.  He gets to set prices in the form of salaries and benefits, and there really is no competition as long as Dammeier and his clients get their way.

What Dammeier really fears is a city such as a Claremont going against the grain and breaking Dammeier's hold on the local public safety labor market. That monopoly, though, really could use some busting.   In his remarks to the Claremont City Council last week, Dammeier mentioned Pomona's police, another department Dammeier represents.  The Bulletin covered Pomona's budget problems in an article yesterday, noting that the single biggest annual expense was personnel costs, of which the Pomona PD accounted for the lion's share:

When it comes to expenditures by category the largest was personnel which took up 48 percent of the general fund, followed by the city's fire contract which took up another 28 percent.

If the expenses are broken up by department the highest cost is the Police Department which had about $38 million in expenses and fire costs totaled about $24 million.

It's the sort of financial problems Pomona is contending with that Claremont seeks to avoid.  You'd like to think that CPD officers would want to help with that effort, but getting people to give up something to which they think they're entitled, like having the City pay the employees' share of their retirement contributions, is never easy.  

The Bulletin, by the way, also had an editorial last week that said that the sort of strong-arm tactics Dammeier has used in Claremont are wrong and that Claremont is correct in seeking to get the police employees to fund their own retirements.  The Bulletin pointed out that by all rights, these payments are something our public safety workers should have been making in the first place:

It's called the "employee contribution" for a reason - it's the part each employee is supposed to contribute toward his or her own pension. But back in headier economic days, most government bodies in California started paying not only the employer's contribution but the employee's as well. In some cases it was a matter of courting union political support, in some it came in lieu of a raise or a bigger raise.

Trouble is, the economy has tanked and tax revenues along with it. Cities are finding their pension contributions unsustainable, diverting money that might have gone to employee salaries and services for residents. Hence, prudent city councils are looking for employees to kick in the employee's contribution once again. It doesn't reduce pensions in any way, it just means employees contribute to their own eventual retirement while they're working in good jobs and can afford it.

* * * * *

That 3-2 council vote on the police contract was a peculiar one.  The two fiscal conservatives, Corey Calaycay and Opanyi Nasiali, voted against imposing the contract on the public safety employees, which on the face of it would seem to be a vote in support of Dammeier and the CPOA. 

The other three council members, Mayor Sam Pedroza, Mayor Pro Tem Larry Schroeder, and Joe Lyons, are all left-leaning and are generally supporters of public employee unions but all voted in favor of the imposition of the contract. 

We suppose this could be seen as a validation of Dammeier's intimidation tactic, but Calaycay and Nasiali both said they couldn't support the contract because it included that 1.5% COLA, something they were against. 

*UPDATED, 11/1/11, 7:20PM:  As the Claremont Courier's Beth Hartnett reports in today's paper, Calaycay's and Nasiali's main objection to the one-year police contract was that they felt the 9% CalPERS contribution should have been instituted all at once, rather than phased in.   

Additionally, Hartnett notes that the one of the things the CPD officers object to is having the 6% contribution instituted immediately as opposed to having the 9% phased in over three years, as was done with the City's other employee associations. (At 8%, the City's non-public safety employees' CalPERS contribution is slightly less than the police.)

The City's response is that because of timing of the imposed contract, splitting the 6% into two 3% increments would have meant that the next 3% increase would have been in nine months when the next fiscal year begins in July, 2012.  Hartnett reports that the City's negotiator, Richard Kreisler, argued that they accelerated the public safety employees' CalPERS phase-in because of the uncertainty the City faces with the CPD employee associations.  

* * * * *

Incidentally, we received an email from another reader who got one of those robocalls from the Claremont Police Officers Association made prior to last Tuesday night's council vote.  Our reader questioned whether or not the CPOA used CPD call data to get phone numbers for their robocalls:

DATE: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 4:47 PM

TO: Claremont Buzz

SUBJECT: Claremont Police Officers Association robocalls

Hello all,

Like another of your readers, I also got a robocall from the Claremont Police Officers Association. It was a voicemail message left on my cell phone on Monday, two days ago, urging me to show up at Tuesday's city council meeting to support the police department against further budget cuts.

Here's the odd thing: few people have my cell phone number. And it has a 541 area code. So I'm wondering how did the Claremont Police Officers Association get my number?

Could it be because on 14 October 2011, I used my cell phone to call the police department (to report a coyote citing)? And if so, who at the police department is passing on incoming telephone numbers to the Claremont Police Officers Association. And -- if that is what happened -- was it legal?

Best,

x

Claremont CA

Xavier, Back in the News

Someone forgot to tell Xavier Alvarez (image, left) that his 15 minutes of fame expired long ago. The former Three Valleys Municipal Water District board member from Pomona made the LA Times last week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District upheld an August 2010 ruling that the federal Stolen Valor Act, under which Alvarez was convicted for lying about being a Medal of Honor recipient, is unconstitutional.

According to the Times article, the court agreed that lying, however abhorrent, is protected under the First Amendment. The Times piece described the appellate court's reasoning:

It wasn't the only time Alvarez had traded in lies. According to an earlier decision in his case, he claimed to have rescued the U.S. ambassador during the Iranian hostage crisis (the reason for his fictitious Medal of Honor) and to have played hockey for the Detroit Red Wings. If Congress could punish misstatements about a military decoration, there would be no constitutional obstacle to criminalizing those other lies.

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski made the point more pithily: "If false factual statements are unprotected, then the government can prosecute not only the man who tells tall tales of winning the congressional Medal of Honor, but also the JDater who falsely claims he's Jewish or the dentist who assures you it won't hurt a bit. Phrases such as 'I'm working late tonight, hunny,' 'I got stuck in traffic' and 'I didn't inhale' could all be made into crimes."

Although Alvarez's misdemeanor conviction under the Stolen Valor Act is in question, his LA County felony convictions for misappropriation of public funds, grand theft, and insurance fraud still stand. Alvarez received a five-year prison sentence for falsely claiming he was still married to his ex-wife in order to qualify her for his Three Valleys healthcare plan.

* * * * *

Here is the appellate decision in the federal case:

3-21-11 appellate decision


The U.S. Attorney's office isn't letting the matter rest there, however. On Friday, they filed a motion to stay the appellate decision for 90 days pending a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking to have the Supreme Court to review the case. The government's motion questioned the court's decision to annul a law enacted by Congress:

A circuit court decision holding an Act of Congress unconstitutional inherently presents "an important question of federal law," Sup. Ct. R. 10(c), in a petition for a writ of certiorari.

Here is the U.S. Attorney's motion to stay:

3-25-11 motion to stay mandate

Smogdance Film Fest at the Fox

We almost forgot, but the Smogdance Film Society is holding their annual film festival today at the Pomona Fox Theatre beginning at noon. Tickets are $5.

The Smogdance fest returns to the Fox after using the Claremont Laemmle for last year's event. You may recall there was a bit of power struggle connected to Smogdance. Pomona's dA Center for the Arts accused former festival director Charlotte Cousins of hijacking the event.

Cousins is out of the picture now, and the dA is back in charge.

Around Town (and Pomona, too)

COUNCIL MEET-AND-GREET


The Claremont City Council will hold another neighborhood forum Tuesday night in the Claremont Public Library. We're not quite sure which two members will represent the council. Since it's the Village, we'll go out on a limb and guess Linda Elderkin and Sam Pedroza.

Here's the info listed on the City's website:

City Council Neighborhood Forum - Claremont Public Library

6:30 - 8:00 PM
208 Harvard Avenue
Claremont
(909) 399-5460

Council Members are also hosting a series of Neighborhood Forums. Neighborhood Forums give residents from different neighborhoods the opportunity to talk with City Council Members in a relaxed and informal setting. Neighborhoods can discuss issues that are important to them, air concerns, share ideas, ask questions and get the latest information about topics and projects that are specific to each neighborhood. Although forums are scheduled for specific neighborhoods, you do not have to live in that immediate area to attend.

PARKS RULES CHANGES

The Parks and Facilities Committee of the City's Community Services Commission will meet 6:00pm Wednesday, February 15, for a special meeting at the Community Services Department at 1616 N. Monte Vista Ave.

According to the agenda The committee will discuss a recommendation to the Community Services Commission to amend the City's Municipal Code to allow police to enforce park closures and to allow on-lease dog walking on the Padua Park trail.

Let's hope this doesn't lead to the sort of brouhaha at Padua Park that has happened in the past at the Pooch Park off College Ave.


AFTERNOON AT THE OPERA

If you're an opera buff, you can catch Pomona's Repertory Opera Company this afternoon at the First Christian Church at 1751 N. Park Ave., where they are staging a production of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. Admission is $30.

Click here for more information.




POMONA ART WALK TONIGHT

Also, don't forget that it's the second Saturday of the month, which means it's time for the Pomona Art Walk from 6:00pm to 9:00pm in the Pomona Arts Colony.

Pomona Channels Claremont Unified

The Pomona City Council has approved selling $9.3 million in recovery zone facilities bonds to build a proposed business center at Fairplex along White Ave.. The bonds, according to an article in the Daily Bulletin, come courtesy of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Among other things, the center will contain a self-storage facility.

The Bulletin article, by reporter Monica Rodriguez, indicated that Pomona council members Paula Lantz and Cristina Carrizosa both had concerns that the project wouldn't generate very many jobs, which is what the federal money is supposed to do. Lantz also had reservations about the lack of much tax revenue from the proposed project.

Rodriguez also quoted Fair Association CFO Mike Seder (photo, right):

Fairplex representatives said the self-storage facility is one-half of the proposed project.

Fairplex has about 1,500 horse stalls, a large number of which are not used, said Mike Seder, vice president of finance and chief financial officer of the Los Angeles County Fair Association.

Creating a self-storage facility would allow Fairplex to take some of the excess stalls and turn them into an income-producing facility, Seder said.

"These are opportunities for us," he said, but added, "I hear your concerns about the type of project."

We're wondering if the self-storage idea was pushed by Bill Fox, one of the people behind the Claremont Unified School District's $95 million Measure CL bond. Fox owns Route 66 Self-Storage and, along with several other prominent Claremonters, is a member of the Los Angeles County Fair Association.

Fox, Seder, and Lee Jackman formed the CUSD Bond/Parcel Tax Survey Committee, which has morphed into the Measure CL bond election committee. As we've noted before, both committees have worked closely with CUSD's poll and campaign consultant, Jared Boigon.

You might recall that a couple years ago, CUSD had also agreed to convert its old district office location at Base Line Rd. and Mountain into an RV storage lot. The word on the street is that Fox, with his expertise in storage facilities, had pushed the RV idea.

(Incidentally, this all is beginning to remind us of the HBO series "The Wire," in which the same people - contractors, politicians, teachers, police, journalists, gangsters - all swirl around a dystopic Baltimore, crossing paths and pursuing their ambitions over the course of five years, while their city decays around them.)

Anyway, according to the Insider's school district moles, Fox convinced CUSD that they could make a lot of money with an RV storage facility. The RV storage idea apparently failed, because there is now a "For Lease" sign on the district's Base Line Rd. property. The sign advertises a rate of a $1 a square-foot.

This is just one more in an endless series of reasons to not trust CUSD with $95 million in bonds. Ask yourself, how much money would the school district have saved if they had left their offices at the old Base Line Rd. site instead of relocating to San Jose Ave.?

FISCAL VISION, CUSD-STYLE

Weekend in Pomona

The Daily Bulletin tells us that the Pomona PD will conduct a DUI checkpoint from 9pm tonight to 3pm Sunday morning, as well as a "city-wide saturation patrol." So watch your drinking and driving if you're passing through Pomona tonight.

Besides making for safer streets, these checkpoints must be a money maker for cities. They're underwritten by federal grants, and they generate revenue from the citations the police hand out.

* * * * *

If you're looking for a family activity this weekend, John Clifford at M-M-M-My Pomona writes that there will be a screening of the original "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (the one with Gene Wilder) at the Fox Theatre in downtown Pomona tomorrow at 2pm. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for kids under 12. Doors open at 1pm.

Also, Clifford says that they'll be a whole lotta shakin' going on at the Fox on September 25 when Jerry Lee Lewis comes to the Fox for a concert. Tickets start at $30, and you get all the info here.

Saturday in Pomona

Today is the second Saturday of the month, and that means Artwalk time in Pomona's Arts Colony in downtown Pomona. The 2nd Saturday Artwalk starts at 6pm tonight. You can find a map and more information here.

* * * * *

If you're thinking of taking the 71 Freeway any time soon, you may want to find an alternate route. The Daily Bulletin tells us that the city of Pomona's Public Works Department has begun a $44 million construction project that will remake the intersection of the 71 and Mission Blvd.

The main portion of the project will be a bridge to carry traffic on Mission over the 71, eliminating the traffic light there. If you've ever tried to get through there during the morning or afternoon commute, you know that remove a major bottleneck. The construction area has been a mess for quite a while with Pomona having to construct bypass roads before the bridge work could begin.

The 71 and Ninth St. intersection is another bottleneck that has been reconfigured. You'll no longer be able to turn left from either direction on Ninth, and you can't get onto Ninth from the 71. The Bulletin article said it's unclear as to whether or not that's a permanent change. Residents off Ninth St. on either side of the 71 are no doubt unhappy about that part of the transit makeover.

It's equally uncertain what economic benefit, if any, the area will derive from the project. According to the article:

An economic study of the impact the improvements will have on the area has not been done recently, but will be done as part of the update of the city's general plan, said Raymond Fong, director of the city's redevelopment agency.

"We're still a year away from the the Mission-71 being completed and in an economy that is not indicating a boom" is close by, he said.

After the general plan is updated, the city can go forward with an economic strategy for the city. As part of that strategy, special attention will be given to the prominent city corridors including areas such as Mission and the 71 area, he said.

The area around the 71-Mission intersection has been overlooked for quite a while, though at one time certain politicians apparently thought it was a great backdrop for campaign photos.

Weekend Fires: La Verne, Upland, Pomona - UPDATED

A brushfire burned about 10 acres in La Verne's Marshall Canyon this afternoon. The wind was from the west and, judging from the direction the smoke was carried, the fire seemed to be about in line with the Padua Theatre, where Claremont's open house started at 5pm.

The fire department got things under control pretty quickly. According to the Daily Bulletin, the fire started around 4pm near the Marshall Canyon Golf Course. As of 9pm Sunday, there was no word on how the fire started.

UPDATED, SUNDAY, 10:00PM: The Daily Bulletin is now reporting the Marshall Canyon fire ended up burning about 100 acres and was the result of arson. Thankfully, the winds abated as the sun went down, and firefighters had a handle on the situation before things could turn ugly.

* * * * *

Other local cities had to deal with fires this weekend. A home on 23rd St. in Upland caught fire Saturday.

Also Saturday, a fire in Pomona that started in a shed near Kingsley Ave. and Gordon St. destroyed two homes on Garey Ave. and damaged two other houses and an apartment complex. Meg at M-M-M-My Pomona had a lot of information about what happened and the families who lost homes.

Meg also pointed us to the rejuvenated Goddess of Pomona site, which has added a new blogger, 15-year-old Juan Cabrera. Cabrera posted a dramatic video of the fire on his My Space page.

Here's a link to Juan's video. You can see Dawn and Fred Van Allen's home and nursery, The Garden, in flames. Claremont's own experience with the 2003 Padua Fire is still fresh in all our minds, and our thoughts go out to the Van Allens and to the others that suffered lost or damaged homes.

If you are interested in helping out victims of the fire, keep checking the Pomona blogs. We'll also pass on any information we can.

Bunny Gunner's 2nd Anniversary

Click to enlarge

Pomona's Bunny Gunner Gallery will be celebrating its 2nd anniversary with the opening reception of its Summertime show tomorrow, July 11th, from 6pm to 11pm. There will be plenty of works of local artists featured, plus snacks and drinks.

Bunny Gunner is located at 266 W. 2nd St. in the Pomona Arts Colony. The Summertime show runs through August 4th. Call (909) 868-2808 for more information.

Tomorrow night is also Pomona's 2nd Saturday Art Walk, so there should be lots going on.

Local Blogger Locks Down, For Now

David Allen writes that the Goddess of Pomona has restricted access to her blog, at least temporarily:

I e-mailed the Goddess to inquire and she said she'd shut the blog down of her own volition due to "anonymous attacks in the comments section of late. Especially after learning the source of the latest comments." She didn't elaborate, but said the attacks have made blogging "not so fun."

"So until I decide what to do, I've put a lock on the blog," she said.

That seems to be the major headache that comes with comments. Who really has the time to monitor them? And who wants to be responsible for someone else's speech? It's difficult enough policing one's self on one of these things. We go back and forth on the matter of comments. For now, though, we are open to your emails, so keep those electronic cards and letters coming.

Pomona Lives

Pomona Public Library Image
We were in downtown Pomona last night, grabbing a bite to eat at El Merendero #2 and picking up some panes dulces for breakfast, and we noticed the Fox Theatre sign up and running in blue and red revolving neon. The marquee, too, was lit up and announced that the theater was having its sneak preview fundraiser tonight. It looked like the work wasn't quite complete, but, with all the shiny new neon, you couldn't help but feel transported back 60 or 70 years.

The non-profit Friends of the Fox Theater website tells the event is sold out, but the public will have plenty of opportunities to check out the new old Fox, beginning with the Smogdance Film Festival, which runs April 24-26.

The Daily Bulletin has plenty of coverage, including an an article by David Allen, who details the restoration work, including the job done by Pasadena-based ForSight Creations:

A crane with a 90-foot boom was used last August to haul down the sign, which was taken by the contractor to Pasadena for refurbishment.

ForSight Creations stripped, sandblasted and repainted the red sign. Workers also replaced all the neon, returning its original colors: red on one side, blue on the other.

They also rebuilt the motor that spins the sign, then used a crane to reinstall the sign in November.

ForSight, which in 2001 replicated historic signs at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, also restored the Fox marquee, which dates to 1947.

"It has over 1,100 pieces of new neon in it," ForSight president Rob Jobson said. "It's definitely the old-school theater marquee brought back to life."

John Clifford has more information over at M-M-M-My Pomona, and a comment from Meg says us that Gogol Bordello will be playing at the Fox come May.

Friday Foto Shop

Friday Foto: Schwarzenegger Passes Obama in Pomona

If the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin can have one First Amendment Friday every couple of years, we figured we could inaugurate an irregular feature--the Friday Foto Shop.

Through technical means available only here, we are able to present a Foto somehow missed by the other media.

We know that President Obama was in Pomona and, well, very, very close to Claremont late last month. And you may recall the fundraiser for Assemblyman Anthony Adams last week in Glendora that was attended by Governor Schwarzenegger. What was somehow missed by everyone (but us) is this apparent and nearly irrefutable fotographic evidence that these two worthies (the Pres. and the Gov.) actually passed each other in their repsective beefy, masculine, heavily-armored and authority-oozing black-vehicle convoys while driving on a Pomona street.

Now there might be some people who maintain this never happened. Who are you going to believe?--them or your lying eyes?

Sunday Mail

Catching up on our enormous mailbag backlog we found an email from a reader who commented on post about the Candlelight Pavilion's loan arrangement with the City of Claremont.

The reader offered up a possible win-win solution to help guarantee the city's loan - one that doesn't require an orchestral swell and breaking into song:

DATE: Monday, March 16, 2009 12:57 PM
SUBJECT: Candlelight Pavillion Theater City Loan
TO: Claremont Buzz

Dear Buzz,

The city has two options regarding the loan it has given to the Candlelight Pavillion Theater: one, it can forgive the loan completely or two, it can ask the Theater to repay the loan in full immediately.

In 2000 when the city approved the loan and a grant ($160,000 loan and $15,000 grant) there was a feeling that the Theater was a valued asset to the community, hence deserving of public support. The city approved the loan with a clear understanding of the risk, as stated in the staff report: "The nature of the loan and the current state of the property ownership and theater lease represent a repayment risk because of possible third-party actions."

The approved loan agreement stated that "If the theater closes due to the action of third parties the second ($80,000 ten-year repayment) component is forgiven."

Later the first $80,000 five year repayment plan, which was due in 2006, was amended (at the Theater's request) to amortize $55,000 over ten years after the Theater had paid $25,000. So the city could just forgive the loan voluntarily, or third party conditions at the site might lead the Theater to request forgiveness under the approved loan agreement.

Or, the city could initiate its own amendment to the loan agreement and ask the Theater to repay the full loan amount immediately. How will the Theater raise the money for the balloon payment? By obtaining a new private loan through the Small Business Administration (SBA). The city loan was granted at 6% and 10% interest rates. It is conceivable that under the Obama Administration's plan (announced on March 16, 2009) to help small businesses, the Theater could obtain a loan with more favorable conditions than the city's loan.

Under the plan, the Small Business Administration will increase loan guarantees to 90% from the current 85% on a loan up to $150,000 or 75% for a loan more than $150,000. The 90% SBA loan guarantee reduces lender risk, and the administration will temporarily eliminate upfront fees up to 3.75% or as much as $75,000 that are paid by borrowers.

This plan looks attractive. If the Theater takes advantage of the SBA plan, it can obtain a cheaper loan and be able to pay off the city loan. The Theater can offer a private bank the "20 theater production sets" as security. The city will in turn get its money back sooner to put in the budget at a time of pressing need.

* * * * *

We also received this note from a reader who saw our post about the job fair Congressman David Dreier is hosting April 8th. The reader wanted to offer an additional job resource:

DATE: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 3:28 PM
SUBJECT: Job News
TO: Claremont Buzz

One resource you forget to mention is the highly successful"community-based" project of Pitzer College professor Jose Calderon and his students, The Pomona Economic Opportunity Center. I'm sure our neighbors would be glad to assist any Claremont residents who wish to sign up at The Pomona Day Labor Center. This facility was started with $50,000 of Pomona citizens' tax money and currently Pomona "provides just over half the $330,000 budget" plus many other services. I also suspect that since Norma Torres is such a strong supporter of this type of solution to our economic problems, that her influence on President Obama may bring many more benefits to the patrons of the Day Labor Center.

• Article by Professor Calderon posted on the Pitzer College website
  
• Pomona Day Labor Center website
  

Obama in Claremont?

We took note earlier of the visit of President Barack Obama to Pomona on Thursday. From what we hear, it's lucky we were not trying to drive on the "eerily empty freeways" between Beverly Hills and the Pomona Valley. Pomona Neighborhood Watch posted a picture of the presidential limousine driving in Pomona to the electric car battery factory on East End:

No Potemkin Village in Pomona.
Houses have garbage cans; deal with it.

Although it surprisingly went unnoticed in the press, the President's peregrinations took him through Claremont as well. Herewith a photographic record--another Insider exclusive:

No Potemkin Village here, either;
roadwork in front of Claremont High School goes on.

Councilmember and Democrat Larry Schroeder
looks for a little love from the Pres.

A quick run by the Mayor's house; he's not home.
"Driver, let's cruise La Verne!"

Obama in Pomona - Updated

UPDATED 8:20PM

David Allen has all the information on President Obama's mid-morning visit to Pomona. Obama will be touring the Edison International Vehicle Electrics Plant today at 10:30am and will be in Burbank later to tape an appearance on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Allen also notes that some special Pomona students will get to meet the President, which elicited a cheer in the form of a comment from Ms. Lois at the Pomona Library.

The Pomona event is for the presidential press pool only, so like anyone else who wants to catch a glimpse of Obama, Allen plans on being on the outside looking in.

* * * * *

In his column today, Allen also pointed out that, contrary to what State Assemblywoman Norma Torres has stated, Obama's visit was not unprecedented. In fact, with the help of a couple researchers, Allen found at four prior presidential visits to Pomona:

Those visits: Benjamin Harrison, 1891; William McKinley, 1901; William Howard Taft, 1911; and Herbert Hoover, 1932.

My thanks to Bruce Guter and Allan Lagumbay of the Pomona Public Library for rounding up the details for me Tuesday.

It wouldn't surprise me if there were more. Could 1933 to 2008 really have been devoid of presidential visits to P-town?

You'd think LBJ would have toured General Dynamics, or Nixon would've visited the L.A. County Fair. Or Clinton would've gone to Donut & Burger for one of each.

* * * * *

The Original Skrip, meanwhile, saw the president motoring over Pomona and also referred us to some photos and video of the motorcade over at Pomona Neighborhood Watch.

* * * * *

Plenty of area politicians got presidential shout-outs today, including Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, State Senator Gloria Negrete-McLeod, Assemblywoman Torres and Pomona Mayor Elliot Rothman.

As the LAist blog noted, while speaking in Pomona the President also announced a new federal $2.4 billion electric vehicle development program.

You can see the speech here, if you missed it and are interested.

Obama also time to meet with high school students from Pomona's Village Academy High School. The Daily Bulletin's Politics Now blog had a post on what on.

Obama Coming to the IE

President Barack Obama will be visiting Southern California Wednesday and Thursday, and his itinerary includes a trip to Pomona. The president will fly into Long Beach Wednesday afternoon and then hold a town hall meeting at the Orange County Fair Event Center at 88 Fair Dr. in Costa Mesa at 4pm. Parking is $10.

Free tickets to the event are being given out beginning today at 10am, but seating is limited and people began lining up last night for the tickets.

On Thursday, Obama will come to Pomona to tour Southern California Edison's Electric Vehicle Technical Center. The Pomona visit is not open to the public. The President will end his trip by going to Burbank to tape an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

You might recall that Assemblywoman Norma Torres (D-Pomona) campaigned for Obama last year during his run for the presidency. Torres' support might be one reason for the Pomona trip.

The Daily Bulletin's Wes Woods II reports on the trip and on Torres' appearance with Obama at the Edison facility Thursday:

This is the second time in less than a month that the city of Pomona has been tied to Obama.

In a nationally televised speech on March 10, Obama mentioned Pomona's Village Academy and a DVD put together by Michael Steinman's Advanced Placement English.

In the video, which is titled "Is Anybody Listening? - A Message from Village Academy High School Students," the class discussed how the economic crisis is affecting today's teenagers.

Torres said she did not know if Obama would visit Village Academy.

Torres, who will join Obama at the plant, plans to speak with him about unemployment, transportation and homelessness in Pomona as well as the region.

One thing you can bet on is the fact that, even more so than with other recent administrations, the President's trip will be very well-chronicled. Some critics on the right have accused the press and a good portion of the public of having an almost cult-like obsession with Obama. We don't know much about that, other than what we read in The Onion.

Pomona Art Walk

Original Skrip reminds us that the Pomona Art Walk is scheduled for tonight.

Metro Pomona Images
(Click to Enlarge)

The Art Walk happens the 2nd and last Saturday of every month in the downtown Pomona Arts Colony and begins at 6pm. Skrip made an Art Walk visit last month and came away impressed:

We walked thru the little plaza area where a reggae band was playing and checked it out. Also checked out the small farmers market in the plaza. We saw police on segways, and the crowd looked relaxed and happy. I'll cut this short, we basically saw most of the galleries on 2nd st, Main st, 3rd and up Thomas. Through those galleries, some owners came out directly to me and my wife and offered wine, martinis or food. Some galleries like the Bunny Gunner were impossible to get into due to the large crowd in & outside of it! I was amazed at how cool the scene was. There was a concert at the Glass House as well. We had a quick drink at the Glass House bar (very cool little bar) and ended our night at Joey's. That's where I discovered 'Pomona Queen' beer. I ended up having about 4 or 5, yacking with the bartender and a couple from Riverside at the bar all night. We spent about 3+ hours at the artwalk that night, met a few new people and went home relaxed. We talked about how cool and kickback the experience was not knowing anyone, being armed with nothing but a little map.

Things That Are Good for You for $200, Alex

We didn't get out to last weekend's Irish Fair & Music Festival at the Fairplex in Pomona. Digital existence does have its drawbacks. Consequently, our forays into the analog world are mostly hypothetical. It's awful hard to get around when all you have are zeros and ones for limbs. And don't get us started on opposable thumbs.

Anyway, Meg at M-M-M-My Pomona didn't get out to the event either. But her hairstylist did, and reported back, via Meg:

Appalling fact no. 1: $16 entry plus $9 parking makes for a hefty pricetag.

Appalling fact no. 2: NO IRISH BEER! They only served Budweiser products. Well, apparently they sold Michelob too -- for the appearance of the fancy. But ferchrissakes, Anheuser-Busch owns Bass -- how hard would it be to sell a little Irish beer? And don't say it's the Fairplex contract, because you can get non-Budelob beers when the LA County Fair is on.

That's always the disappointing part about venturing out into the world. There's a certain chance, however small, of the Araby effect occurring. The bazaar is never quite so splendid as the imagination makes it out to be, and it's often overpriced to boot. But if you go next year, do bring us back something from the fair.

* * * * *

Speaking of product placement....

We received an email regarding 66-year-old Claremonter Jim Hickey, who likes to skydive and who plugs vegetable juice beverages in his spare time. Wow, he coulda had a....

* * * * *

And then we heard this bit of non-commercial news from Claremont Graduate University, where the School of Information Systems and Technology (SISAT) has developed a pilot program to create health information kiosks that work like ATMs. According to CGU's information:

These interactive stations will allow people without healthcare to get a health card and have access to their records, order prescriptions, and set up appointments. The program is as easy to use as an ATM, and is a novel way to address how to help those without healthcare coverage. If the program goes well, it may be a turning point in healthcare for 50 million Americans.

SISAT and CGU are understandably excited about their system because of all the talk about converting healthcare records and information into digital forms, as well as the money the Obama administration wants to devote to that endeavor. CGU's received an $80,000 grant to fund a nine-month pilot program aimed at low-income clinic patients in the Los Angeles area.

The concept makes sense. Take the confusing mess of personal health care information and consolidate it all in a form that most people are familiar with: the ATM machine. The idea is to give people who don't have Internet access the ability to find information they need in an easy-to-use form.

Here's a short video with an explanation of how this all works:
















CGU's website has more information on the new system.

The Xavier Alvarez Saga Continues

Our favorite local water official, Xavier Alvarez, has returned to the headlines the past couple weeks. Alvarez, South Pomona's representative to the Three Valleys Municipal Water District board, was back in Pomona Superior Court for a February preliminary hearing on felony insurance fraud, grand theft, and public corruption charges.

Alvarez pleaded guilty last year to a federal misdemeanor for falsely claiming to be a Medal of Honor recipient.

The current local charges stem from Alvarez's use of his Three Valleys health care benefits to cover his ex-wife, Juanita Ruiz, whom Alvarez falsely listed as spouse. The benefits to Ruiz amount to about $4,000, which put it at grand theft level.

The Claremont Courier's Tony Krickl blogged about Alvarez's defense at the February preliminary hearing. According to Krickl, Alvarez's public defender claimed that Alvarez was ignorant of what the health benefits application's definition of "spouse" is. If this line of thinking sounds familiar, you may recall that Alvarez's defense in last year's federal case was that lying was a form of speech protected under the first amendment.

Krickl wrote that Alvarez's defense did not sit well with the judge:

Despite the alleged confusion, Alvarez never bothered to ask the staff at Three Valleys Municipal Water District if Ruiz was a legal spouse or not, according to Three Valleys staffer Kirk Howie, who testified in court. According to testimony from Michael Holguin, a DA investigator working the case, Alvarez no longer lives with his ex-wife but maintains "a friendly relationship" with her, seeing her once or twice a month.

Judge Charles Horan didn't buy into the defense's ignorance argument. "You don't need a legal definition or a bylaw dictionary handed to you to know what a spouse is," he said.

Alvarez doesn't seem to be in any hurry to strike a deal in the current charges. It may be because a felony conviction would result in his automatic removal from the Three Valleys board, a seat he seems to covet above all else. We're not sure what Alvarez has against Three Valleys, but he sure seems intent on showing up his fellow boardmembers.

Another factor in Alvarez's thinking may be the five years in state prison he faces, though dragging the public and the court through the spectacle of a trial in a matter that he's pretty much stipulated to doesn't really set him up for leniency should he be convicted at trial.

Alvarez certainly makes an easy target. He might as well be wearing a "Hit Me" sign on his back. The Courier's publisher, Peter Weinberger, even got into the act, chiming in recently with an opinion piece last Saturday titled, "I don't know why they don't get it."

Weinberger compared Alvarez's refusal to step down from the Three Valleys board to Illinois' ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich hanging on to his office after public sentiment turned against him. Weinberger called on Alvarez to spare himself and everyone else by stepping down from the water board:

We understand people are innocent until proven guilty, but with the case of Water Board Member Xavier Alvarez, his actions not only reflect on him, but the Water Board in general. Unfortunately, all the Board members can do is let this play out before they get rid of him.

Mr. Alvarez, you need to resign. Do taxpayers a favor. You rarely say anything at the board meetings, which makes us think you’re simply there to collect $200. Pay the fine, cut a deal and begin the rest of your life. You’d be surprised at how things can turn around over time.

Alvarez was back in court yesterday for an arraignment hearing, as the Daily Bulletin reported. A trial was set for 8:30am on April 29th.

LA County Superior Court Image

(Click to Enlarge)