Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Beautifying Pomona

Pomona Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring another Pomona Beatification Day. It's set for May 10. You can sign up for a variety of volunteer options, ranging from donations to physical labor. I can't really understand why this event isn't being better advertised. The Chamber's website has a signup form which references school involvement, but I haven't heard anything from Lincoln or Cortez. Furthermore, I haven't seen any flyers, banners, etc. promoting the event. Even on the Chamber's website, the event qualifies for only a two-line reference, in black print. To find it, you'd have to avoid being transfixed by the rather large "State of the City" link AND its picture of Norma Torres.

Anyone seen any effort to promote this event?

Other tidbits in the city:

While looking over the Chamber's newsletter, I noticed Reyna Hernandez from the Watt Companies is also the Treasurer of the Pomona Chamber of Commerce. I'm curious if she's been active in the Pomona's Chamber prior to this year or is this an effort by the Watt Company to show its commitment to the city. If she has time, maybe the Goddess of Pomona can sleuth this one out for us.

I've been looking at the 'For Sale' sign at the former location of the Brasserie Astuce restaurant, with increasing wonderment over what the Raymond Fong and his Redevelopment Team might bring in to generate much needed sales tax revenue for the city of Pomona. After all, this retail corridor is important enough to justify an eminent domain threat against several business not far from this location. I would think buying the land outright from a willing seller would make sense. So what revenue-generating business are we going to see........a church. The former site of a viable business on one of our major commercial streets is becoming a church. A couple of years back, the large building at 275 Foothill, west of the Brasserie Astuce location, was a revenue-generating fitness club. Now it's also a church.

If you recall in a past post, I listed the three most common buildings you'll find in the city of Pomona are pharmacies, churches, and auto supply stores. Any chance I can hit a trifecta, by the city suggesting a future tenant of the proposed redevelopment at Towne and Foothill will be an auto supply store.



17 comments:

meg said...

Dang, I'm going to be out of town for Beauty Parlor Day! Otherwise I'd be there for sure. Pity it isn't better publicized -- thanks for posting this, Ed.

As for the Brass Ass, I've been wondering what the hell happened there, both to the business and to the site.

Anonymous said...

"Pomona Beatification Day"? Great typo. Can Canonization Day be far off?

Anonymous said...

FYI...Brasserie Astuce is also converting into a church.

John Clifford said...

Love "Brass Ass."

We used to go there fairly often (I've had to resort to making the grilled hearts of romaine on my BBQ, but it's just not the same) and were unhappy that it was closing, but happy that they were going to open in the Claremont Village Expansion (they had drawings of their new location but I can't remember exactly where it was supposed to be).

Anyone know what happened?

meg said...

My memory is that the Brass Ass was supposed to move to where the brewpub is going in now.

I never tried the grilled hearts of romaine there. Recipe?

Anonymous said...

This event has never been anything more than a photo opportunity for Norma. The actual clean-up between photos is minimal.

Rich said...

30 years in this city and still waiting on the beauty and a city government who cares.
Thank you goddess for this blog.
PS. Any body want a nice little black kitten?

Ed said...

Didn't quite catch that typo. The IV of java ran out.

If a politician wants to use it as a photo-op, so be it. I think it's pretty cool getting 3000 volunteers to help clean a city. Each year I would expect the organization and productivity to improve. The biggest hurdle may be identifying which projects can be accomplished with the given number of volunteers.

No one commented about the correlation between the lack of publicity for this event and the lack of retail success in this city. Just a coincidence?!

me said...

Well, Ed, we're advertising here on the blogs, so hopefully a few more people than might have will take part. I already know straight where i'm heading to beautify. Richard did a psa on this awhile back, which I'll post very very soon.

Just another Goddess in Pomona

John Clifford said...

Hmmm Ed,

Are you correlating that both are functions of the Chamber of Commerce? While I really like Frank Garcia and find him to be an affable ambassador for business in the city, I'm not sure about the organization itself. Pomona Heritage noted that there was the "Piece of Pomona" campaign and decided to participate. We called the chamber (who has never contacted us on any of their "community" programs and got permission to use the logo. But is there actually anything expected of us? If there is we never got the word.

We also never got any information (other than the Chamber Newsletter) about the cleanup. By the time the info was here and in the DB, we didn't have enough time to rally the troops as it was the day of the deadline.

The chamber is, rightly, a business centered organization. I'm not sure that they are the best ones to do community-based projects such as these as their focus is, or should be, on businesses and not as much on volunteer or community-based organizations. And, as much as it hurts, the majority of businesses are "absentee." They want us to spend our money here, but many of them are only nominally part of the community.

John Clifford said...

Meg,

Split a heart of romaine (at TJ you can get a package of 3) lengthwise. Drizzle the cut side with olive oil (Deb is allergic to olives so we use grapeseed oil which may be why mine aren't quite as good). Fwap it on the grill, cut side down for a couple of minutes just so that the cut side gets a nice sear and the lettuce starts to wilt while maintaining some crunch (not as hard as it sounds, but that's where you can mess it up).

Take the heart off the grill. Put it on the plate cut side up. sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese. Hopefully the heat will start to melt the cheese.

Ed said...

Thanks, John....now I'm getting hungry.

I'm glad the Chamber is stepping up to do the Clean-up day, but I was expressing some doubt in their ability to promote and publicize the event and to the same extent, the businesses in Pomona. I don't want to harp on them, since the bea(u)tification day is a great idea and I feel it represents the aspect of Pomona that resonates the most with me.

Just between you and me, I'd like to see a volunteer coordinator position created in the city. Community groups can make an amazing contribution if they have some direction. The position may just pay for itself, if you can find the right person.

Why isn't the Beautification Day handled by one of the city commissions? Community Life perhaps? Then again, we'd still need a cheerleader at the city to rally the troops........After a few minutes of pondering, I've concluded that I'm just glad the Chamber is willing to do it.

John Clifford said...

Actually I am too, it just seems strange that that's where it's coming from and not somewhere else. I agree that community life commission would be ideal.

Anonymous said...

we all have to do our part in the clean up,even if just on your block or walking down Holt picking up trash. every lil bit helps in making Pomona shine and it also shows that we care about our city and its not just talk.for those you go out and help on this day the goddess and i like to thank you all and lets make it a cleaner and greener Pomona.

Anonymous said...

It seems that the Chamber of Commerce is able to promote and publicize the event. As of today they have 1,800 volunteers signed-up and they are sure that they'll surpass the 3000 volunteers from last year.

-TS

Ed said...

TS, achieving 1800 with the level of advertising that I've seen, is the reason that I'm glad the Chamber of Commerce is doing it. I'm just a dreamer and think that with a more organized advertising campaign, the numbers of participants would be even greater.

Anonymous said...

With a well advertised campaign they can easily reach 4-5 thousand volunteers!!!