Claremont Is: Nuttiness You Can Savor

David Allen has a column today talking about last week's grand opening for the year-old Claremont Village Expansion.

If the timing seems strange, you're not alone. Allen shares your confusion:

PEOPLE CALL it the mall, or the Village Expansion, or Village West.

And now a new name has surfaced for Claremont's expanded downtown: Village Square.

That name was promoted last Friday at the formal opening of the development, which is bordered by Indian Hill Boulevard, Oberlin Avenue and First and Second streets and has a small hotel, restaurants, shops and a movie theater.

If the timing seems puzzling, that's because the first businesses opened in summer 2007. And yet no ribbon-cutting ceremony had taken place. How did we stand the suspense?

And so we gathered in the civic square near the Laemmle theater and Le Pain Quotidien for speeches, a stilt walker and free food.

This is the fourth ceremony I've attended related to the Expansion, my favorite being the one where they unveiled the sidewalks. As I've said before, Claremont will celebrate the opening of an envelope.

This sort of silliness is exactly what Claremont loves to do. Don't forget that we had two centennial celebrations twenty years apart, one in 1987 and another in 2007, so that Judy Wright could preside over her own town 100th birthday back when she was still mayor.

All you have to do to see the absurdity of this self-important town government is go over to the northeast corner of First St. and Oberlin and take a look at the commemorative plaque from September, 2003, that marks the "Village Expansion Infrastructure".

Yes, only in Claremont would officials erect a bronze monument to sewers and underground utilities. The plaque lists the two main architects of this Claremontian nuttiness:

Click to Enlarge

Southard Sightings and Other News

WOULD YOU BUY A USED REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT FROM THIS MAN?

Several readers wrote in to report sightings of Claremont's former city manager, Glenn Southard, about town last Thursday. No doubt our esteemed friend was in the area to survey the wreckage he's wrought - for example, $17.5 million settlement to Palmer Canyon residents for fire damages resulting in part from the city's failure to properly maintain the Claremont Wilderness Park during Southard's administration.

Call it pride of authorship.

Or maybe he just wanted to check out the Village Expansion, where the exodus continues only a year after the opening of the Claremont Packing House.

One reader said:

Wonder what God's gift to Claremont could be stirring up now? Do you think he is here to take credit for the wonderful Village Expansion he gave us of which ersatz Claremont historian Judy Wright now says she is not so enamored ( according to John Pixley's column in Wednesday's Courier)? Only the Shadow knows!

The reader was referring to John Pixley's Observer column in Wednesday's Claremont Courier. Wright, who as mayor of Claremont was one of the persons most responsible for the imposition of Southardism on Claremont, spoke at the Claremont Museum of Art earlier this month and gave her thoughts on the Claremont Village Expansion, according to Pixley:

Regarding the Village Expansion, Ms. Wright is concerned that not enough thought was put into what its streets look like or the views they provide. She also said that the Indian Hill frontage remind her of Orange County. She urged that there be an outcry for public art. (What about the controversial fountain in the courtyard?)

I don’t know if I agree with Ms. Wright’s exact concern and solution, but I do agree that there is something to be concerned about in the Village Expansion. As impressive and exciting as it is, it appears that all is not well with the downtown addition. And it does have to do with views.

There has been noticeable rumbling in recent months, and the rumbling is coming from within. There have been accusations and finger pointing, talk of misleading and broken promises. Some artists have decided not to stay in the artist lofts in The Packing House, complaining that the rent is too high or that the lofts, which are upstairs on the second floor, don’t get enough foot traffic. Tally’s for Men is breaking its lease, with the owner saying that its Second Street location is a dead zone with almost no traffic.

These may well simply be the grumbling that comes with anything new. Almost by definition, there are always kinks to be worked out. But I am wondering if it isn’t something more that is happening.

Wright's concerns are touching, but disingenuous. Wright, her claims to the contrary notwithstanding, has been more than a mere observer or amateur historian with the Village Expansion and other projects in town. As usual, she and some of her fellow former councilpeople and city commissioners just do not want to take credit for their work when it goes bad.

Back in 2003, when the future was still bright, it was a different story. Even though Wright had been off the Claremont City Council for years when the Village Expansion ground-breaking occurred, this plaque was unveiled at the corner of Oberlin Ave. and First St.:


There you go. Dead center, right above Southard: "Judy Wright." In 2003, as ever, plaques represented the dominant form of public self-aggrandizement in the less-than-humble village of Claremont, CA.

Monday Mailbag

We got this in from an occasional reader who likes to frequent the Claremont Wilderness Park:

Buzz,

I walk the Wilderness Park pretty regularly and have noticed a couple plaques at the the park entrance. I took photos of these and am forwarding them to you. Feel free to post them if you want.

What's the deal with Claremont and plaques? There are at least three in the Wilderness Park, if you count the Nick Presecan memorial. I have seen these things all over town and don't think any other city I've lived in has put up plaques as much as Claremont.

Here are the reader's photos, the first from the 1997 Wilderness Park dedication and the second from the 2004 park expansion (click to enlarge):





We've wondered the same thing as the reader. Why so many plaques? Let's parse the two above and try to figure out the meaning behind them.

In most towns, you might see a plaque explaining the creation of the park and perhaps the source of funds if a large grant or donation were involved. Here in Claremont, though, it's all about the self-promotion. It's the same reason we had two centennials, one in 1987 and one in 2007.

Notice the name in the center of both plaques: GLENN SOUTHARD. No information about the park itself. The personalities are the important things. Even in the second plaque from 2004, though the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, the state Wildlife Conservation Board and the Claremont Wildlands Conservancy are all mentioned, they are ranked below former mayor Sandy Baldonado, then-Assistant to the City Manager Jim Lewis (AKA, Mini-Me) and Southard.

Like any narcissist, Southard really considered himself the star at the center of the known universe, and the various sundry councilmembers and city staff surround him on the plaques like planets circling that same star, held in place by the gravitational force of his will and at his sufferance.

Knowing Southard and the great enmity he bore towards Jackie McHenry, it must have killed him and Sandy Baldonado and former councilmember Paul Held to have to put her name on the 2004 plaque. Still, there they all are, if not for all eternity then for a good long while.

Have you seen these plaques around town? City Hall, the Village Expansion, parks and other buildings bear similar monuments to Southard's and the 400's sense of self-importance. Check them out and shoot us a picture, won't you?