On Tap Tonight: City Council

Yes, folks, it's time for another edition of the biweekly tragicomedy, The Claremont City Council. In tonight's episode: Behind Closed Doors - secret talk about our men in blue. More specifically, our costly men in blue.

As this is being written, the regular session has begun, and you can watch it all here.

Among the hot topics tonight are:

• New paratransit vehicles - four at a cost of $305,261.64 from the city's transit funds.
  
  
• Trash contracts - two, one for recyclable material processing and one for solid waste transfer.
  
  
• Funding for community-based organizations and for homeless programs.

The council is also considering a ban on smoking in outdoor public places in Claremont. We're not sure where this one came from.

Smoking used to have a friend in the film industry, but that's no longer the case. Bogart's Rick in Casablanca would have a hard time taking a drag in or out of his Café Américain nowadays. AMC's Mad Men gets away with a good deal of smoking, though it isn't necessarily romanticized, and Jim Jarmusch would have to retitle Cigarettes and Coffee. Come to think of it, if China Forbes comes to Claremont, she would need to think twice before launching into "Sympathique" (....Je veux seulement l'oublier/Et puis je fume.)

We haven't a clue as to how Wim Wenders would recast the Peter Falk's cigarette and coffee scene in Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin, 1987). For those of you don't know the film, Falk explains some of the life's pleasures to the unseen angel Damiel, played by Bruno Ganz:



(If the film seems familiar, it was made into the really awful Nicholas Cage-Meg Ryan vehicle City of Angels in 1998.)

UPDATE, 8:20PM: The council just rejected the outdoor smoking ban, thanks in no small part to the Tessier brothers, Ed and Jerry, whose Arteco Partners refurbished and rebuilt the Packing House and the Padua Hills Theatre. The Tessiers reminded the council that restaurants like Casablanca with its hookahs and Nancy Tessier's Hip Kitty rely on customers who like to step outside for a smoke. Ed Tessier also mentioned the fact that wedding goers at the Padua Theatre often step out onto the patio for a cigar (not in fire season, we hope).

Councilmember Yao seemed a bit perturbed at the Community Services Commission, which approved of the ban and forwarded the issue to the council. Yao was bothered that none of the commissioners consulted with the council before referring the matter to the council. Yao and councilmember Corey Calaycay were also bothered by what they felt was an attempt to legislate behavior.

Mayor Linda Elderkin and Mayor Pro Tem Sam Pedroza were torn between not wanting to appear anti-business and the risk of displeasing their left-leaning supporters, many of whom were in favor of the outdoor smoking ban. Pedroza seemed particularly uncomfortable, giving his long, tongue-tied Sammy explanation for his vote. Councilmember Larry Schroeder was the only one who seemed to be in favor of the proposed ordinance.

Communitarian and Fourth of July Committee member Ed Reece, by the way, spoke in favor of of the ban, saying he was a cancer survivor. Frankly, Reece being for anything is usually enough evidence for us to vote against it.

Downtown Pomona Happenings

David Allen had a column in Wednesday's Daily Bulletin about the ongoing restoration at the Fox Theater. Allen took a tour of the restoration work and reported back, saying that the original Art Deco look is being lovingly resurrected, down to the carpets and chandeliers, the original color schemes, architectural flourishes, old murals, and even the exit signs. We love it that the old revolving neon sign at top the Fox's tower will actually turn again.

Allen likened the work to an archeological dig and gave some insight into the people behind the project:

Credit for the Fox's rescue goes to the band of brothers: developers Ed and Jerry Tessier and concert promoters Paul and Perry Tollett. They bought the Fox in 2007 and are spending more than $10 million to ready the theater for the 21st century, while keeping many 20th century details.

Preservationists watching the Fox's revival say they couldn't be happier. They're happy not only because of the theater's impending return but because of the amount of restoration.

At first, the Tessiers, who are handling the renovation, had planned to put off most of the historic touches for a later time, when they would be paid for by community fundraising events.

The Tessiers mostly concerned themselves with restoring the Fox to operation after three decades of disuse and misuse.

Instead, rather than doing 20 percent of the restoration as planned, the Tessiers ended up doing more like 80 percent, digging deeper to recreate the murals and most of the chandeliers ahead of schedule.

The Pomona Fox Theater is scheduled to have its first event, a fundraiser called Fox First Night, on April 18th. It's not cheap. Tickets for the event are $135 or $1,080 for a table of eight. You can get more info here on the Friends of the Pomona Fox Theater site.

The Fox Theater itself has a separate site with photo albums of the restoration work, along with historical photos of the theater. You can find the photos here.

The Tessiers, incidentally, have pretty strong Claremont connections. Their company Arteco Partners restored the Claremont Packing House and is in the process of doing the same for the Padua Hills Theatre. Ed Tessier is a Pomona alum, Jerry graduated from CMC, and Jerry's wife Nancy owns the Hip Kitty Jazz Club in the Packing House, one of the few new downtown businesses that seems to be doing well.

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The blog for Claremont Colleges radio station, KSPC 88.7fm (who knew they had a blog?), has a post announcing a free hip-hop concert tonight in downtown Pomona's dA Center for the Arts. LA act Bambu is appearing, along with two from Pitzer: Pepe and Jerms.

The dA Center is located at 282 S. Main St. in Pomona. Doors open at 7pm, and the bands start at 9.

The KSPC blog says there's free transportation to the event for 5C students, but you have to reserve a seat in advance:

If you are a 5C student in need of transportation, The Sagecoach bus will leave from the intersection of 6th St. & College Way (between the Rains Center and Smith Campus Center) at 8:30 PM. Be prepared to leave when the show finishes, around 12 AM. To guarantee yourself a spot on The Sagecoach, please e-mail erica.tyron@pomona.edu ASAP.