monday, monday --

If you're interested in the Mills Act discussion at monday's city council meeting, here is the agenda item as it appears on the web. (Should you not get the document itself, drill down to 4/17/08 -- which is not the date of the meeting but perhaps the posting date.) This information comes courtesy of Our John, not surprisingly.

My private gripe: The dates, time, and place of the city council meetings appear nowhere on the city's website. It's almost as if they don't want us there (ya think?).

grocery notes from all over

Yes, boys and girls, it's time for another installment in the Exciting Shopping Adventures of Meg!

The other day I finally checked out Fresh & Easy on Mountain and Arrow in Montclair. In case you missed the hubbub in the press and the local blogosphere when they opened back in the fall, F&E is a venture by Tesco, the British supermarket chain, aimed at busy people stopping on their way home from work.

After the initial fizz, I've heard a fair amount of grumbling about F&E, so I was pleasantly surprised by certain things, even if my low expectations were met in other ways.

High points: Good prices on some things (hummus -- which was much better than the usual storebought -- broccoli, fancy bread, dried pasta). Oil-roasted tomatoes like the ones that are so popular in the UK. Provenance labeling of all their fish ("line-caught in the North Sea"; "farmed in Chile"). European yogurts (but, sadly, no rhubarb flavor). Various products you'd never expect to see, like Spanish chorizo.

Low points: The same cheeses you'd get at Von's. Wine selection and prices very ehhhh. Underwhelming ready-meals (despite the fact that that's what English supermarkets do so well).

One more thing: The ingredient lists of anything prepared are a breath of fresh air. Not only are they completely lacking in what a friend calls "shampoo ingredients" (synthesized compounds that could just as easily be on a bottle of shampoo, like PGPR), but they also lack the "natural" ingredients we don't have in our homes, like guar gum and carageenan. Everything I looked at only contained the stuff I would use to make the item in my own kitchen. And I didn't find a single F&E product that contained high fructose corn syrup! Not surprising, given the UK's lack of a giant corn industry + subsidy, but it's still a welcome change.

Overall, there's a place for F&E in my shopping adventures, although only if I'm out that way anyhow. A lot of folks were disappointed when F&E opened that it didn't serve up a whole host of British delicacies (and not-so-delicacies), but I'm surprised at the little ways in which the Britishness expresses itself.

Mills Act is NOT a Tax on Historic Districts

I guess we live too far on the edge of Lincoln Park. I received a couple of emails about a flyer that was being passed out in the district (but not on my street) warning residents of a new TAX that was going to be discussed at next Monday's city council meeting. The flyer is attributed to John Mendoza, who has run a series of petition drives for various subjects and was a candidate for School Board in the last election.

His scare flyer is wrong on many of the details, although to his credit he did include the notice for the issue.

Monday's meeting actually does include two items of importance to the residents of Lincoln Park as well as the other two districts, but it's NOT a new tax. The Mills Act was created as the main tool by the state to encourage owners of historic properties to renovate and maintain their property in a historically accurate manner. The Act allows property owners to enter into contracts with the city whereby the property will be taxed, not by the value of the property, but as if it were a rental business. This can result in tax savings of up to 60% depending on the assessed value of the property and the rental rates within the area.

In exchange for the property tax savings, the property owner agrees to use those savings to do an approved (within the contract) number of renovation projects. The idea is that this is a win-win as the property owner can use tax savings to improve the property and the city ensures that their historic properties are maintained in a historically accurate manner.

Pomona has had the Mills Act in place for some time. However, the original city version of the act was so restrictive that we only have three current contracts in the city. Pomona's Mills Act requirements were much more difficult than any of the surrounding cities. Pomona Heritage worked hard with city staff to review and revisit the act and to see how it could be improved to make it a better tool for historic Pomona.

The version of the Act that passed the Historic Preservation Commission will greatly enhance the way that Mills Act contracts are done in Pomona. Monday's meeting does have a twist that had not previously been discussed. Under the current Pomona version of the Act there is no fee. However state law allows cities to charge an application fee to recoup the costs of processing Mills contracts. The City Clerk has determined that cost to be around $2,400. Pomona Heritage is concerned that this upfront cost would be onerous, and hope to argue at Monday's meeting that the fee be more in line with other cities in the area whose fees range from nothing to under $500.

The other issue on Monday's agenda will be the use of alternative materials in the historic districts. This is an issue that was supposed to be discussed in the study sessions that were postponed and then canceled. So this will be the first opportunity that the council will have to hear this issue, and they're planning on voting on a policy.

If you're interested in either of these issues, we hope that you will be at the council meeting on Monday, April 21. Council meetings start at 7:00 pm in the council chambers at city hall.

Uncivilized, Yep!

I'm finding it really hard to hold my head up today. In an attempt to kill a few minutes, I typed 'Pomona' into the DB's search function and up popped a Letter to the Editor from a Claremont resident. I'll digress here, for the moment, and say that it took a few minutes JUST for the Daily Bulletin home page to load up (yeah, I could just pay the 50 cents.....or buy a new computer).

Well, back to my story. In this letter, our city (Pomona, CA not to be confused with Pomona, Kansas) was suggested to be less civilized than La Verne, Claremont, and Chino. I don't know what happened to poor Montclair--perhaps the uncivilized all look the same. From my reading, the writer seems to be genuinely concerned that our crime problem may ooze into the more dignified streets of our neighbors. And just to prove that he is a man of action, he sent a letter to our Police Chief imploring a multi-agency task force be assembled to sweep into those tough, crime-infested Pomona neighborhoods and round up all the derelict, pot-smoking, gun-totting hooligans. (He didn't actually use those words, but what the hell). And here's the real kicker, after going to all the trouble of enlightening our Police Chief on crime enforcement, the Chief didn't even have the courtesy to respond to his letter.

I just feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that at least one of our lofty neighbors to the North is looking down on us from the rarefied air of the foothills.

free thorks

Sunday K & I decided to finally try (disquisition on the bogosity of the split-infinitive rule available upon request) Three Forks. I believe that we are the last human beings in the West Inland Empire to go there.

We ran into friends who live in Village Walk, the condos right next to 3F, as we moseyed to the restaurant. When we told them we were planning on trying the Farmers Market Dinner (a sunday special every week -- three courses for $45), they put on brave smiles and bid us goodbye as if we were heading off to a tax audit or a biopsy. Apparently the Farmers Market Dinner is precisely what NOT to have at 3F (she told me afterward).

Our verdict: Okay. Pretty good for the 909. Ambitious (and it took me three years in college to realize that when a professor wrote that on my paper, it wasn't high praise).

Item by item (fine-dining alert! Food snobbery ahead!):

• The amuse bouche (the little mouthful that starts the meal) was "shrimp toast with paprika aioli." It was perfectly fine, but it was a bit odd, in that it was a little wedge of rustic European baguette that tasted like Chinese shrimp toast. I think they must have infused some olive oil with Chinese dried shrimp... but why? Just for the pun of shrimp toast on toast?

• The starter was a panzanella (bread salad). This one had baby spinach, grape tomatoes, frisée, small chunks of olive bread, shaved parmesan, and a couple of slices of beefsteak tomato. It was tasty, although the beefsteak tomato was an embarrassment (think supermarket tomatoes in winter). I thought the dressing was a bit sweet, but K, who is a carb-based life form, insisted that it was no such thing.

• For his main, K had the wild boar and wild mushroom manicotti. It was pretty darn good, although I would have used a different tomato sauce. This one was cooked down too much, so that it had lost all the brightness of the tomato, and again, it was too sweet (and this time K agreed with me).

• For my main, I had the chicken piccata. I would have ordered the manicotti, except that we have a policy of not ordering the same thing. The flavors of the chicken piccata were excellent -- strong enough, which can be a major pitfall for this dish -- but the breading of the chicken had obviously been done hours earlier, so that instead of crusty goodness, the paillard of chicken seemed to be coated in kindergarten paste. They must have flattened that chicken breast with road-building equipment, though, because it was huge -- easily the size of a comic book. I gave a third to K, ate a third, and had the last third for lunch yesterday.

• Dessert was where they really fell down on the job. They promised panna cotta, but what we got was a super-gelatinized Asian-style custard that had no dairy taste whatsoever. It was so rubbery that if you pulled at it with your spoon, it formed rips and tears. My best guess at its construction is that it used about four times as much gelatin as real panna cotta, plus a little milk and perhaps a tablespoon of flour to provide a cloudy appearance. The macerated strawberries and balsamic vinegar reduction (a classic panna cotta combination) could not save this jellied mess.

Service was perfectly fine, although in classic New Mall fashion, it was more friendly than clueful. Frankly, when you're spending $90 on a hunk of meat, serving from the left and removing from the right doesn't seem like too much to ask. Or am I showing my age?

The hostess gets a special mention, because she seemed to have trouble understanding the concept of a reservation when we called up, and once we got there, neither one of us could take our eyes off her comically-large rack whenever she walked past.

Obviously we need to go back for meat (meatmeatmeatmeat) in order to get the true Three Forks experience, but that may be a while: we need to replenish the bank account first.

Update: How could I have forgotten to mention the music? That was one place they scored big with us. It was just loud enough to recognize some of your favorite songs -- early Neil Young for me, the Replacements for K. When was the last time you heard either one of those in a restaurant, I ask you -- much less a restaurant quite pleased with itself for being both hoity and toity.

The frontispiece is of Sacajawea pointing the way to Three Forks for Lewis & Clark. Yes, really.

Taste of the Pomona Valley

A heads up for anyone interested in tasting Pomona Valley cuisine.

The event is tonight from 5-8PM at the Avalon Pavilion in the Fairplex. If you procrastinated buying your tickets it's 35 bucks. It's brought to you by the Pomona Chamber of Commerce.

Can anyone toss me some insight on why it's held on a Monday night? I'm sure there's a good reason, but a Saturday late afternoon event might generate more interest..........maybe as a prelude to the Second Saturday Art Walk. Just sticking my nose into other people's business, so feel free to smack me down.

Visual Clarification Of Foothill Towne

Some more visual clarification (you can click on the images to get a better view) on what’s going on at the corner of Foothill and Towne.

Here is the corner we’re talking about from Google Maps Streetview:

Note that Walgreens is on the Northwest corner, with 7-11 on the Southwest corner. Next to 7-11 is Giovanni’s and just beyond that is Coates. The plan calls for the purchase and demolition of 7-11, Giovanni’s, and Coates, with the added property just beyond Coates which is currently a vacant lot.

Here’s what the site looks like in the MND documentation:

The plan that is presented in the MND shows Walgreens moving to where 7-11 and the nini-car wash are now: (the mini car wash is just to the north on Towne) with only three new stores and lots of parking (this image is also from the MND report):

Does this look like a project we want at that intersection. There are no commitments for the three retail spaces shown at this time. So we’d be replacing three going businesses with three unknowns and moving Walgreens. And for this we need to use eminent domain?

Sylvanus and Pomona

We have a tree that needs to come down (yes, I know all about getting permits, don't worry -- and I'll probably post about the agonies thereof at a later date).

Does anyone have an arborist/tree service to recommend? We've talked to Alpine, and they seem quite good, but we'd like to talk to at least one more before we pull the trigger. I'll just attack the phone book if necessary, but I'd prefer to have recommendations from friends, neighbors, and countrymen.

[Sylvanus, if you'd forgotten all that mythology you learned in grade school, is the Roman god of trees.]

journalism spotlight of the day

First, your orthography less of the day, courtesy of Merriam-Webster:

TROOP, n. 1 a: a group of soldiers b: a cavalry unit corresponding to an infantry company cplural : armed forces, soldiers 2: a collection of people or things : crew 3: a flock of mammals or birds 4: the basic organizational unit of Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts under an adult leader.

TROUPE, n. a group of theatrical performers

TROUP. The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above.


Now for some journalism, courtesy of the Daily Bulletin:
Group of Adult Muslims Learn to Form Troups

I'll forgive them for opting out of definition (4) above -- can you imagine the uproar engendered by a headline that mentioned Muslims forming troops? I prefer the theatrical metaphor for scouting over the military metaphor myself, although given the BSA's atavistic no-queers-and-no-godless-heathens policy, the military metaphor is closer to the truth.

But I'm not letting them off the hook for the spelling mistake. Actually, now that I think of it, perhaps we should see this as a work of brilliance: Who else could cram a spelling mistake AND a subject-verb disagreement into eight short words?

Under ordinary circumstances, at this point I would launch into spittle-flinging invective about the real reasons for the decline of print journalism, punctuated by the example of the Daily Journal sacking its entire copy desk, but I really need to get some work done today, before I get sacked myself.

dining about town

The people I work with really love Los Jarritos II (no one ever talks about LJ-I, although it's not that far from the office). As far as I'm concerned, it's perfectly fine, but nowhere as good as GuaSalMex (on Holt, between Garey and Park) or even Casa Jimenez (I or II).

But I've never had a celebrity spotting at GuaSalMex or C-Jim, as we did the other night when dining at Los Jarritos II with friends from work. Who should walk in but Xavier Alvarez? At first I thought it was just some random Latino guy with a similar 'stache, but when he started glad-handing acquaintances like a politician, I realized he had to be the mustachioed misappropriator and Torres protegé (Torregé?) himself. Wow, a celebrity right here in Pomona! I didn't hear him make any bombastic claims about military service, but he certainly had the swagger.


Another night we went to Vince's Spaghetti Shack with Admiral Seamus and Mrs. Tiki. I've passed it many times (it's on Holt just past Mountain, and there are also branches in Rancho and Torrance) and wanted to try it, and I'm glad we did.

Vince's isn't fine dining (and we are big fans of fine dining), but it's good food and good fun. If you haven't been and if you have no pretensions (or if, like us, you can compartmentalize your pretensions), you should go sometime. For $10, you get a half order of spaghetti (which would be an order and a half anywhere else), beef barley soup, a side salad, and a day's calories' worth of garlic bread. For an extra $12, you can add a liter of decent chianti.

The spaghetti is pretty good, although I would recommend getting a side of cheese -- the sauce is a bit sweet, and the cheese balances it out. But get a smaller side than you think you need; the four of us didn't use up the heaping "cup" (read: 3 c.) of cheese we got for the table.

Foothill / Towne Project

Yesterday, Monday April 7, there was an ad in the legal section of the Daily Bulletin that the city of Pomona had issued a Negative Declaration for the project at Foothill and Towne. This is a project that the Redevelopment Department is working on for the Southwest corner.

First: The project, as proposed is basically a strip center, anchored by Walgreens (currently located across the street in the Staples/CVS center. Walgreens, as a corporate policy, prefers to have their stores located on corner lots and they're somewhat mid-block across the street. The project is to be built by Lewis Homes and the city is in the process of "assembling" the property for this private developer. Please note that this is not a school, a library, a civic building, or a roadway, but a private development.

The reason that I mention that it's a private development, is that the reason that the city has prepared environmental documents, before there are any entitlements, is that this project is planning to use eminent domain to force the sale of the property. The properties that we're talking about are a mini-car wash, 7-11 store, Coates Cyclery, and Giovanni's Men's Suits. All of these appear to be thriving businesses and would not be what I would consider "blight" (one of the requirements for using eminent domain for redevelopment), however there are other properties within the site, the vacant motorhome sales site especially, which could be considered blighted and the argument will be made that the project requires the other properties to be viable and eliminate the blighted area.

While the US Supreme Court ruled in the case of Kelo v. City of New London , No. 04-108 on June 24, 2005 that this is legal, as the increase in property taxes is a benefit to the community, I have some serious problems with this particular project.

First, the project will move Walgreens from a location across the street. This would not appear to increase taxes but shift them from one parcel to another. In talking with city staff, it appears that they're working with Giovanni's to see if they can't help them with relocation funds to move them back to Covina, so taxes we're now getting, leaving the city. Then there's Coates Cyclery (there was a lively discussion of this issue on the Goddess of Pomona site back in January), who have been doing business in Pomona since 1934 and at its current location since the mid '50s. They are basically being forced out of their business. They have been offered space in the new center (subject to an agreement with the new owners, Lewis Homes) but it would be at a price approximately 3x what they pay now. Here's a business that has been paying Pomona taxes for over 70 years, and now the city wants to potentially put them out of business.

I know that there are those who oppose the work that I do for historic preservation and will say that I'm a hypocrite for wanting to restrict what people can do with their property on one hand and then say the city can't develop on the other. But really, the issues are similar. I'm not suggesting that the site should be able to devolve and become blighted. I appreciate that Lewis Homes wants to do a project such as this (maybe not this exact one, but something such as this) in our city. But taking away thriving businesses (how thriving is a point of discussion, but they've been in business long enough that I'm sure they're not losing money) is something else.

While I'm not against eminent domain for public usage, I'm VERY against using it to give to a private developer. We need businesses like Giovanni's and Coates in our city. Even the 7-11 serves a useful purpose as it's right on the edge of our residential neighborhoods.

This issue will come before the city council once the 30-day environmental review is completed. If you wish to respond to the environmental impacts on traffic, noise, etc. then you can pick up a copy of the report at the Redevelopment Department and you have 30-days from yesterday.

I plan to write to the council and mayor regarding this subject and to be at the council meeting when it comes up for a vote. I'll post any updates as they become available.

RBOP: Random Bullets of Pomoniana

• Some pals conjectured last night that the four of us would make an unstoppable trivia team -- but they know of nowhere in the West Inland Empire to play trivia. Anybody know of bars that have a trivia night?

(For the record, I think they're fooling themselves -- the only sports we have covered between the four of us are cycling, horse racing, and college football. And sumo, which I hear is a very popular topic at trivia nights.)

• While I was gone, they up and numbered the exits on the 10! What I want to know is, how did Indian Hill get numbered 47?

• Koki's -- the Korean joint in the same shopping center as Pho Ha on Indian Hill -- is now Pittsburgh Chicken & Ribs. It's too bad -- I never even got a chance to try Koki's out. Every time we tried, they were closed, either for repairs after the Hummer smashed into their storefront or for mysterious reasons.

• That said, "Pittsburgh Chicken & Ribs"??? What particular claim to chicken and ribs does Pittsburgh, of all places, have?

The frontispiece is the first hit I got on the word "trivia."

blame it on Rio

I love cafes. I love ordering them, in places where coffee's called "cafe," and I love sitting in them, whether in LaVerne or Laval.

One of my regular stops is Café Rio, next to the Vons at Foothill and White. Truth be told, the coffee was terrible, but it was quiet, comfortable, friendly, and equipped with free and dependable wi-fi. To my dismay, however, Café Rio has closed. I wouldn't argue that it deserved to stay open -- the coffee really, really stank -- but I'm going to miss it.

Can anyone suggest a non-Starbuck's replacement? Yesterday I ended up reading my book in LePainQuot, but they don't pay me enough to visit there regularly, and sometimes a girl wants to avoid Claremont Village. ARE there any other independent cafes around?

The 'H' word

Before we step too far into April, here is the distribution of March homicides for the inland area.

Just to avoid confusion here are a couple of disclosures:

• I don't include vehicular homicides unless an arrest is likely.
• Address locations are often approximations based on block numbers.
• I do included police shootings.

I found the sheer number of blue spots to be overwhelming so I gave March its own map.
March 2008
Jan/Feb 2008

Mills Act to be discussed at HPC

I know that this is quite late in being posted, and I apologize for that. I was SURE that Ed would post with his great maps, but I guess it's up to me this month. (just giving you a hard time Ed.)

Tonight at 6:30 pm in the council chambers will be the monthly meeting of the Pomona Historic Preservation Commission (HPC). There are only two public hearings this evening. The first is the issue of the changes to a home on Preciado Street in the Hacienda Park Historic District, which has been agendized several times in the past. The second is yet another case of a homeowner, this time on Wisconsin in the Wilton Heights Historic District who put in 10 vinyl windows without a permit and now wants the city to allow it, when if they had just gotten a permit, they would have been told what they could and couldn't do.

However, there is a third item, under New Business, which is of major importance to those of us in historic districts and single historic homes. The HPC will be presented with a proposed ordinance for approval (They don't approve it, they recommend it to the city council) which will significantly change the qualifications, requirements, and terms of Mills Act contracts in the city.

This was one of the issues what was SUPPOSED to be discussed at the canceled joint Planning Commission/City Council meeting last month. The Mills Act is used to encourage preservation and maintenance of historic properties. Entering into a Mills Act contract can reduce property taxes by up to about 60%, which funds are then used by the homeowner for preservation and renovation of the subject property.

Again, this meeting potentially may have an impact on the historic districts. If you're interested in this, I encourage you to attend this meeting.

Hope to see you all there.

petitionary politics

Anne raised an interesting question in the comments section of the last post, so I thought I'd spin it off for its own discussion. Namely: Are paid signature collectors a good or bad thing? Is it a nice way of making the underemployed a little less so, or is it a corruption of the democratic process?

I guess you can tell where I fall on that question by the way I phrase it. And I got a ration of shit back in the old homestead when K. read my response to Anne ("I can't believe you didn't even address the issue of paid petition collectors!!!").

Don't get me wrong -- I am all for employing the down-and-out. But if the petition-collector at Target yesterday was wrong about the contents of his petition, as Anne suggests, it is his paid status that made him wrong: A Marsy's Law activist wouldn't have been so mistaken about the gist of the proposal. Heck, that mistake may very well have lost signatures: I might have signed if I had been correctly informed [1].

My larger objection, however, is that paid signature collectors are a corruption of the petition process. Petitions are clearly intended to measure public enthusiasm for a proposal, which strikes me as a useful safeguard on the proposition process (which is itself an end run around representative democracy if you ask me). Without petitions, any crackpot could waste resources (remember, elections cost big buck$) by drafting propositions to make spitwads a vegetable.

With paid signature collectors, however, any crackpot can do just that, as long as s/he's got the money to send out the troops. Instead of measuring how serious people are about the proposed law (serious enough to give up your time and energy to work for its passage?), the petition process now measures the wealth of the crackpot and the gullibility of the chumps when confronted with a minimum-wage worker with a clipboard.

And then there's the spectre of massive numbers of invalid signatures, which has doomed at least a couple of propositions. That, though, seems like an equal temptation for the paid crews and the rabid supporters.


[1] In fact, I would not have signed in any case, particularly now that I have read over the text of the bill (a 19.2M download!). The initiative opens with a lament that we have surrendered our "right" to impose punishment, as individuals, on wrongdoers (vigilante justice by any other name would stink as much), and goes on to undermine our judicial system in a variety of ways. All of this is justified by the fact that Marsy's mother ran into the murderer at the grocery store when he was out on bail and also suffered a heart attack shortly after one of his parole hearings (where he was denied parole). Marsy, btw, was killed by her boyfriend; there was no rape-and-re-rape.

Marsy's father, Steve Ipsen, is apparently running for LA County District Attorney. I intend to vote for the other guy.

cultural critique at the five and dime

I know you think I do nothing but roam city streets and buy stuff, which I categorically deny. But some of the most interesting cultural observations can be made while in contact with the maximum tangle of humanity, which in my case means while shopping, since I don't go to ballgames.

Towit:

Scene: exiting the LaVerne Target

Grubby older man: Sign a petition to support victims' rights and keep drug users behind bars?

Meg: No, thanks. I'm for letting 'em out.

G.O.M.: YOU belong behind bars, you crazy bitch!

Meg: (extra perky) Have a nice day!

back in the saddle again

Hidey-ho, neighbor! (as Mr. Hanky would say)

I'm back from my sojourn in the Old World, where I had a great couple of months -- but I'm happy to be home. All hail John and Ed, who kept the lights on here at the blog! (And I hope they'll both agree to continue as co-bloggers.)

The first (blog-relevant) thing I did when I got home was to go grocery shopping. K. on his own has a rather different diet than when I'm here, so the larder needed restocking.

Many stops and forays later, I have two grave observations:

1. The vegetables may be a better deal at our Stater Brothers, but the bread sure ain't. The same loaf of mass-market seven-grain bread costs $4.19 on Garey Ave. and $2.99 (NOT on sale) at the Baseline Von's. That's a 40% poverty tax, unless Mnemosyne has robbed me of my arithmetic micropowers. Harrumph.

2. The carniceria on the corner of Indian Hill and Arrow has closed! Now, there's only one thing I ever bought there, but that was an important thing: BEER. They had a pretty excellent selection of non-clear beers, and the prices were decent as well.

Where are we gonna buy our beer now? The stuff at Trader Joe's is skunked half the time, and at BevMo it's skunked even more often than that (plus BevMo has pissed me off with their wine bait-and-switches a few too many times). Sure, you can get a twelver of Full Sail or Sierra Nevada at the supermarkets, but that's pretty much your choice unless you yearn for yellow.

Where does Lincoln Park buy its beer?

At this point it will be obvious that K. and I -- economic refugees from NorCal -- do not subscribe to the philosophy behind the LA Beer Curse found in local restaurants: twenty lagers and a Guinness.

For the frontispiece, I wanted a photo of someone kneeling in the dirt with a desperate look on his/her face, shaking a fist at the skies, but when an image search for "damn you" returned a fridge full of beer, I took at as a sign from above.

A Conditional Use Permit Please!

Sorry to bump the Torres story from the top of the heap, but the Planning Commission meets yet again.

Here's what awaits the resident volunteers on the Planning Commission: (1) more church buildings on San Antonio, (2) a request to sell wine and beer at a restaurant on Holt, and (3) a new multi-retail development on south Garey. The gurus at the Planning Department are recommending a thumbs up for #1, but thumbs down for #2 and #3. Good luck to the applicants.

My unscientific analysis of the three buildings most likely to be found in Pomona: churches, auto supply stores, and pharmacies.

Here's the map for the 3/26/08 Planning Commission agenda.

Photo from Harrison Hot Springs sand sculpture competition in beautiful British Columbia.

Torres LA Times Puff Piece

There is a story in today's Los Angeles Times about Norma Torres and how important she is as a hero to Guatemalan imigrants. As noted by Edward Barrera, Metro Editor for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune in the Editor's Corner blog, this article reads like a campaign ad. An obvious PR piece in the news business is usually called a "puff" piece and this certainly qualifies. How anyone can spin the mayor's "feud" with chief Romero as a positive, really doesn't understand the outrage of the community.

While noting that she supported the candidacy of Councilman Rodriguez, they failed to mention her support for Xavier Alvarez, which put him on the 3-Valleys Water Board, where he continues to collect and collect and collect for attending meetings, even while facing federal charges for claiming to have a Congressional Medal of Honor when he never even served in the military.

Somehow they made it appear as if her editorials blasting the chief made her a strong leader. Of course the Times also made it appear not to be a campaign piece as they stated that she was "considering" a run for the Assembly, even though she's now a confirmed candidate. I agree with Mr. Barrera in wondering when the Times will include nicestories about the other candidates.

Newspaper! Newspaper! My kingdom for a newspaper!

Meg hasn't posted for awhile so I took liberties with a literary reference.

Anyone catch the DB's regurgitation of a recent Chief Romero news release. The reporter happily let us know that shots were fired on three separate occasions near the intersection of Gibbs and Holt. She even tossed in the 'gang' word for good measure. (Yippee for all of those realtors or landlords trying to sell/rent houses in that neighborhood!) What she failed to mention and what could actually be a wonderful story is that the rental property near Gibbs and Holt where the shooting occurred is owned by a resident from Claremont. Don't we all feel better knowing that residents in other cities are providing affordable housing in Pomona for gang members. Here's a fun idea, maybe the city of Pomona should redirect some of their Section 8 dollars into the purchase of an apartment building in Claremont.

How about that in depth coverage of the recent murder in Covina hills? The location, just off Grand Ave, is minutes from Pomona, but I didn't see a story in the online version of the DB. The story was worthy of the LA Times, CBS2 news, and after a quick google search........the Sun-Sentinel in Florida. Yes, I said a newspaper in Florida, the state of the hanging chad, is more likely to cover a horrific murder minutes from our city than our "local" paper.

And just when I fear Pomona may be forgotten and slip into oblivion, I'm reassured to find that the Pomona PD has conducted a prostitution sting. Although not newsworthy enough to reach Florida, the tidbit did appear in the online versions of the SGVTribune, the Whittier Daily News, and the Pasadena Star News. Could it be that the Los Angeles Newspaper Group is giving a heads up to all the "johns" on the other side of the hill that they should look elsewhere for their quick fix. What a thoughtful public service!!

There's nothing like reports of gangs and prostitutes to stimulate the housing market.

I feel sooooo much better getting that off my chest.

Coming to a Neighborhood Near You 3/12

Nothing really earth-shattering at tonight's Planning Commission meeting. There are a couple of higher density projects (small scale) and two "please let me sell alcohol" projects. The Mission 71 Business Park modification could be interesting, but the online information is insufficient to render much opinion. If any of these interest or affect you, the meeting in the Council Chambers starts at 7PM tonight (3/12).

Here's the map.

Famous Barmaid, I hear you singing -- pour me another song

I don't usually copy over material from Claremont Insider, since I reckon all of y'all read it, but my inner fangirl insisted that I bring your attention to this.

Exene! Coming to Claremont! X in Pomona, sure, but Exene in Claremont? Honey, fetch mama the moonshine before she swoons.

Half-full or Half-empty

This post is just a continuation of the "Students shine ......in Pomona?"

Anonymous offered a view of my post that I hadn't fully expected, so I wanted to elaborate on my intent behind that type of a post. The critique if I understand it correctly was that students are succeeding at Pomona schools without a puff piece, so is there really any value to that type of a story. I guess I always see someone's accomplishments as a story. Whether that story rises above dinner conversation to reach the level of a Pomona schools news release is the school district's choice, but I fundamentally don't think PUSD is wrong in their effort at self-promotion. My rationale for the post reflects my view that the biggest hurdle facing this city is misperception: whether it's an overexaggerated concern about crime or a fear about the public schools.

The "feel good" stories, however annoying, are key to changing perception of PUSD. We live in a world of marketing and with a crop of parents who no longer feel an obligation to use their neighborhood schools, school districts need to "sell" their schools. Do I like it? No, but I'm not blind either. Successful schools actively cultivate their image by plastering these "feel good" stories into our psyche so we accept them as the norm. Would Anonymous have said "Look honey, those gangbangers and teenage mothers at Claremont really can do something!" if the post was about Claremont schools? Or would we just roll our eyes and say what do you expect, it's Claremont schools. I'm guessing these types of stories show up all the time in the Claremont Courier, so why not give these Pomona students and Pomona schools some credit.

If I could convince at least one of the "some of us" that aren't attending Pomona schools to take the chance, then maybe a school has a new classroom parent volunteer or a new student who can work independently. Perhaps the entire classroom will benefit if we can steal back these students that are fleeing to Claremont. Just in financial terms, how much revenue is PUSD losing because of the "perceived" superiority of the Claremont schools?

I don't know if others have noticed the couple of "feel good" stories that have trickled out of the Daily Bulletin in the last month or two. Is that an effort on PUSD's part to shape its image? I hope so. PUSD's negative image has taken years to evolve, so I doubt a handful of puff pieces will suddenly alter people's perceptions, but at least it's a start. I see the same hurdles facing the city. How do we convince residents both in this city and in adjacent cities to shop in Pomona? to spend time in metro Pomona? to dine in Pomona? I'm suggesting we need to control the message and focus on the positive.......like PUSD is doing with these bits of news. We need to pummel the doubters with the reality that Pomona schools are succeeding through innovation, committed parents and students, and excellent teachers. We need the city employees and elected officials to show more restraint when playing the crime card and restrict their depictions to a city that is a safe place to live, shop, and eat.

Was there a story? Hell, yes and expect me to relentlessly applaud any students' accomplishments when they come to my attention.

If Anon wants to share their experience in PUSD and how it prepared them for college, feel free.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Homicide map for January-February 2008.

I read about crime being Pomona's number one problem, but then I take a quick look at this map and wonder who really has blinders on. Crime prevention sure looks like a regional problem, along with affordable housing, homelessness and services for the needy. Come on, are the police in Claremont really better than Pomona's finest? Should San Bernardino hire the Sheriff Department, since Rancho has far less homicides? Did all the police in San Gabriel Valley suddenly go on vacation? Anyone think the problem may lie elsewhere? Here's an idea: how about a per resident minimum that each city must provide for affordable housing/homeless assistance? How about a minimum number of parolees for each city? Let's spread the wealth, so to speak.


photo is from Hang'em High not really from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Students Shine.........in Pomona?

OK, OK, here I'll go, and admit that I am a parent of PUSD students. I know what you might be thinking...........Are you a lunatic, naive, or just an irresponsible parent? I forgot economically-challenged (PC for being too poor to pay for private schools). Since apparently, participants in blogosphere shouldn't disclose too much personal information, let's just say I might be all four, or I might not. **And please don't go asking my kids!**

But enough about me. Really I just wanted to pass along a couple of "news" stories I read on the PUSD website.

Garey High: Jesus Cueva, Arlene Cortes, Claudia Serrano, Marlen Mendoza, and Alexis Armendariz volunteered their time and artistic ability to paint a ballwall at Mendoza Elementary. And to you pundits out there, no, they didn't get arrested for graffiti. Who would guess such civic-minded young people call Garey High School.....their high school.

Garey High and Ganesha High: For you soccer fans, Garey High School boys soccer team won the Baseline League title, while Ganesha High School won the Valle Vista title. All three, Pomona, Ganesha, and Garey made it to the postseason play in boys soccer.

Ganesha and Diamond Ranch: Not to be outdone, almost 30 students from these two high schools volunteered their time at "Storybook night" which was put on by the Ranch Hills Elementary PTA. My hats off to the individual(s) that came up with this idea and to the teenagers that participated.

Diamond Ranch and Village Academy: US News and World Report has selected these two high schools in its list of outstanding schools. Can you imagine that?

Emerson Middle School: This one might be my personal favorite. A group of students from Michael Konick's class "edged 300 other California middle schools to reach the regional finals of the Future Cities Project competition with a positive -- and positively exciting! -- vision of Pomona's future." You can find an article on these students in the Daily Bulletin. And just think, this accomplishment from students a local realtor recently described to me as looking "rowdy".

Marshall Middle School: 47 students recently moved from the category "English Learners" to "Fluent English Proficient". Wow, I wish could brag about being fluent in two languages. Now I almost feel like contacting my old Spanish teachers just to apologize.

I guess you can't always tell what's on the inside when you're only looking from the outside.

City Clerk Updates Web Site

For those of you who might regularly try and navigate the city's web site, I'm sure you're as frustrated as I am at times. As someone whose been writing HTML code since the late 1980s and has been webmaster for over a dozen sites and helped to create oscars.org, I have a pretty good understanding of what it take to do a web site. And Pomona's has been just plain bad.

However, I saw a notice today on the Foothill Cities blog that the city had joined the ranks of those who posted council minutes. I immediately had to check it out for myself. What I found was that the City Clerk page has been completely reworked and will be including a lot of great additions. Among those are: Minutes, Agendas, Legal notices (no longer have to pour over them in the classified section of the DB to find the few regarding Pomona), winners of bids, election information, city codes (which have been there but hidden), public records, campaign statements, statement of economic interest filings, city claims forms, and information on the city's commissions, along with the form for applying for a commission seat.

I immediately contacted Maria Macias, our very professional city clerk (I had wanted to let her know what a great idea I thought it was that she had to have high school students working at the polls on election day) and let her know that I thought the changes to the web site were terrific and hoped that it might have an effect on other departments web offerings. She indicated that in addition to the agendas, that it is her intent to also post complete meeting packets as well (this will be a boon to those of us who try and read them 15 minutes before the meeting in the lobby).

She also apologized that the agenda for tonight's meeting didn't get posted, but it is a victim of the migration to her new page. She then forwarded the agenda to me via email (Thank you!).

This is a great start. I had been asked by Publius of The Foothill Cities blog to write up a critique of Pomona's web site which I'm still planning to do (don't worry Publius, it's coming). Again, kudos to Marie Macias for making communication with our city a little easier.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Just wanted to take the briefest of moments to wish Pomona's very own John Clifford a HAPPY Birthday. Rather than say which birthday this might be, let's just say, in true Pomona Heritage fashion, that he's at least younger than his house.

Or aren't you?

Around Pomona 2/29-3/6

Saturday 3/1:

• Pomona Valley Farmer's Market in parking lot north of Pomona First Baptist 7:30-11:30AM Benefits Inland Valley Hope Partners.
  

Tuesday 3/4:

• Pomona Public Library has Story Time 10:15AM for children 2-5 years old.
  

• Homework Assistance Center @ Pomona Public Library. Cal Poly Students will be on hand to offer help to elementary students in grades 3 to 6 with their homework. Hours: Tuesday & Thursday: 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Wed: 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. For more info, contact Charlene Wyatt from Americorps Promise Fellow Center for Community Service Learning - Cal Poly Pomona @ (909) 869-3129

Wednesday 3/5:

• Historic Preservation Commission meets @ 6:30PM in City Council Chambers. Here is a map with the items on the agenda

• Farmer's Market in Metro Pomona (4-8PM) @ Garey and 2nd Street.

• dba256 is offering a Wednesday Wine Tasting Event Syrah Vs. Shiraz 6-9pm

• Pomona Public Library offers Grandparents & Books
  3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Grandparents read aloud to children of all ages

Thursday 3/6:

• Police Community Engagement Meeting @ PUSD Village @ Indian Hill 1460 East Holt Ave., Ste #14 From 4:30 to 6:30 PM
• Pomona School District's Community Meeting @Garey High School 6:30-8PM Student Achievement, Educational Programs, District Facilities, School Safety and Security will be discussed. Please RVSP: 909-397-4800, ext. 3758

If I missed anything, even if it's not in this city, please comment.

fits in a suitcase

Apparently you can take it with you -- earthquakes, I mean. Last night at 12:57am, I awoke to feel that oh-so-familiar swaying. I didn't feel the P-wave, but I imagine that's what woke me up. Awww... a little touch of CA in the UK!

Pomona Paints

The Daily Bulletin has a nice photo gallery from the Darfur tent painting which took place in Metro Pomona on Sunday Feb. 24th . I love the term Metro Pomona (it also plugs the website www.metropomona.com). According to the DB, the art event was the brainchild of Cherie Savoie, owner of Savoie Hair salon in ..........Metro Pomona, of course.

Thanks also to Monica Rodriguez for reporting on the event.

Image from Sally Egan. Check out her photos at www.sallyegan.com.

Meeting CANCELLED

Due to a number of councilmembers not being able to attend tonight's meeting, the meeting has been Cancelled for lack of a quorum.

Thanks to councilmember Paula Lantz for letting me know so I could let you know.

I just checked the city's official web site, and of course, there's no mention of the meeting being cancelled either on the main page or on the page with the agenda.

double trouble

I get an email notification every time someone posts a comment here, and lately I've noticed a lot of comments showing up twice. Before I complain to Blogger, I want to make sure this isn't happening by accident -- doubleclicking when a single click'll do ya, etc. Also, I can't tell whether it's happening with all comments or just some. Any data points folks want to add, about things working either wrong or right?

dilemma

Today's DB says that Nell Soto, despite her long absence from Sacramento, has pulled the paperwork to run for reelection.

Who'm I gonna vote for if it's between Nell and Norma?

In The Community (2/23- 2/28)

It appears John and I had a similar thought (that's a little scary). ;-)

Upcoming Events:
Saturday (23rd):

• E-waste collection in Diamond Bar. Open to Pomona Residents
• Last chance to see the 20th Annual Simply Red Show (dA Center for the Arts) Regular hours are Noon to 5Pm. There is a reception from 6-9PM, but I don't know if it's open to the public.
  
• Puppet show (2PM) @ The Sturges Center for the Fine Arts, 780 N. E Street, San Bernardino. Check Goddess of Pomona blog. Looks very cool!
  

Sunday (24th):

• A group of Pomona artists @ 2PM will be painting a tent destined for a family in Darfur. If it rains, the tent can be found at dA Center for the Arts, 252-D S. Main St, otherwise you can see it in front of the Cal Poly Pomona Downtown Center ( 300 block W 2nd street).
  
• Tour of California finishes in Pasadena.
  

Monday (25th):

• Planning Commission/Council Meeting (see John's post below)

Tuesday (26th):

• PUSD Board of Education meeting @ 7:30PM Education Center Board Room

Wednesday (27th):

• Planning Commission @ 7PM in Council Chambers. Here's a map of the projects.
  

Thursday (28th):

• PUSD Community Meeting 6:30-8:00 PM at Pomona High School. To be discussed: Student Achievement, Educational Programs, District Facilities, School Safety and Security

Special Meeting on Monday

There will be a special joint Planning Commission / Council meeting on Monday, Feb. 25 at 7:00 pm. It is being held at the Ganesha Park community center. This is the remaining items from the meeting that was held at Ganesha on Feb. 11.

I have posted additional information on the Pomona Heritage Web Site.
If you have any interest in the Mills Act (tax breaks for historic homes), Fences in the historic districts, or alternative window materials in historic districts, please come to this meeting and let the council know how you feel.

2 Meetings

There were two important meetings last night.

First is the previously mentioned meeting to discuss the possible closure of Monroe Street at Orange Grove. This meeting was held with the city public works department at the Ebell Museum and saw approximately 20 residents of the 2-block long Monroe Street in attendance.

The city showed three possible alternatives for consideration. The problem on Monroe is that it is a short street that does not go directly through the neighborhood. It goes a block and curves back onto McKinley Avenue and is used as a high-speed short cut for a lot of folks, many of whom also run the stop sight at Bradford.

The first alternative was to create a "traffic diversion" at the intersection of Monroe and Bradford. This would force any car, coming from any direction, to make a right turn when they came to that corner. My own take on this was that it would probably stop the cut-through traffic, but would also cause difficulty for those who were trying to get around in the neighborhood.

The second alternative was to close Monroe to traffic coming off of Orange Grove traveling east, but allow traffic to exit the neighborhood when travelling west onto Orange Grove. This would certainly stop the cut-through traffic, as most of it is coming off of Orange Grove, not going onto Orange Grove, which is difficult to make turns onto at that point.

The third alternative was to completely close off Monroe and create Lincoln Park's only cul-de-sac. This would completely eliminate traffic in the 100 block of Monroe, except for residents.

The residents offered other alternatives such as enhanced signage with flashing lights, or creating an "island" at the very wide entrance to Monroe from Orange Grove to slow traffic down as it enters the neighborhood.

This now goes for further study with the input from the residents and city staff has promised another meeting to further discuss these issues, expanding the notification to other surrounding streets that might be impacted.

The other meeting of the night was a special study session of the Pomona Historic Preservation Commission. This meeting, which was not very well noticed (Pomona Heritage received information on it in Tuesday's mail), was called to discuss three items, 1) Possible changes to the Mills Act, 2) Fencing in the historic districts, and 3) Alternative materials for windows in the historic districts.

Mills Act. The Mills Act allows citizens in historic buildings to have their property taxes recalculated so that they might have significant savings, up to 40%, to apply toward preservation and maintenance of the historic nature of the property. This is used by many cities to encourage residents to keep their properties in good shape and conform to historic standards. The citizen enters into a contract with the city that they will do certain things with their tax savings which are put directly into the structure. Pomona's version of the Mills Act was so onerous that to qualify you had to spend 10 years worth of savings within the first five years, making it a financial burden rather than a saving, and projects were very restricted. The city is looking to bring Pomona's Mills Act to be more like other cities who have successfully used it as a tool for preservation of their historic neighborhoods.

Fencing. With the city adopting the "picket fence" program and updating fence codes citywide, there is a move to amend to the historic ordinance to ensure that fencing within the historic districts is not out of character with the historic nature of the districts. It would, like the rest of the city, restrict the use of chain link and "garbage materials," as well as suggesting that more modern materials such as vinyl would be out of place in the historic setting.

Windows. This is a major issue for the city council. The historic ordinance says that repairs to historic buildings should use similar materials to the original. However, the current "fad" is for vinyl windows which are not similar in any way to the materials on our historic homes. Use of such materials would take structures from contributing status to non-contributing status under state and federal historic guidelines. The problem is that all over the city, people are putting in new windows without getting permits. In non-historic areas, when this is caught, the homeowner has only to pull a permit retroactively and they're done, but in historic districts, because of the requirements for maintaining the historic integrity of the buildings, thy need to come into conformance with the rules of the ordinance. So a large number of these cases, where unpermitted work was done, come before the commission and ultimately before the city council. Residents moan and cry about the cost of coming into compliance and it is a bad situation all 'round. So, the city council asked if alternative materials could be considered. However, it is Pomona Heritage's stance that the ordinance and the Secretary of the Interior's guidelines are clear and that alternative materials would have a significant effect on the historic character of the districts.

All of these issues will now be discussed at a special City Council workshop scheduled for next Monday, Feb. 25. I certainly hope that those interested will attend and add their voices to the debate (on either side fo the issues).

Who stole the press releases?

Lost: 48 City of Pomona Press Releases from city website.
Reward: Civic Pride? Job with the city's IT department?
Description of perpetrator: Appears to be an inside job. Last seen running to Claremont, holding the press release titled "Pomona named Tree City, USA".

For more info, please click the following: "I could swear I put them right here"

Say "Cheeeeez"

The recent snafu of the Pomona PD made it all the way to the LA Times. In case you boycott the Times, the Daily Bulletin and the SGV Tribune, the body of a 23 year old Covina woman was discovered in an abandoned van illegally parked at the Pomona Civic Center. Even more bizarre, it was reported that the driver parked the van in a space reserved for the Pomona police. Rather than laying out all of the details, lets just say the Pomona PD handed over the van to the family without fully checking out the interior. You can probably guess what the family found under a blanket and some clothes in the back of the van.

I'm not here to harp on the police (hopefully, our mayor will take a similar high road). Instead I sit wondering why the Civic Center and its immediate surroundings aren't blanketed with security cameras. Or are they? In a city where the residents have littered the streets with speed humps to provide 24/7 relief from speeders, why not strategically-place security cameras to offer 24/7 police presence. If there was ever a city that needed to do more with less, it's M-M-M-My Pomona.

This photo (c. 1969) was taken from the Pomona Public Library Digital Collections and in no part is related to the ongoing criminal investigation. However, it does illustrate the evidentiary value in an opportune photo.

"You Gotta Be Cruel To Be Kind," my foot

In case you don't read Foothill Cities Blog or Curbed LA, Pomona flunked its Clean Air Exam -- the only city in Southern California to get a dunce cap.

Turns out that the invigilator, the American Lung Association, isn't grading us on particulate matter, or heavy metals, or anything like that, but the city's anti-smoking efforts. I guess the ALA only cares about tar and nicotine, not sulfur dioxide or airborne cadmium.

Too often, smoking is a class issue. I don't know enough about the revenue sources of other LA County municipalities, but I note that Baldwin Park -- which I think of as a "working" class city (lord, I hate that term -- like the middle class doesn't work?) -- got an A on the test.

Nonetheless, I just don't see a big campaign to get our citizens to quit smoking as a good use of our very limited city resources, and that goes double for passing (and, more importantly, enforcing) a law preventing people from having a smoke in their usual venues.

Our Fair City has a lot of down-on-their-luck denizens. They know as well as anyone that they shouldn't smoke; they know it's killing them (and that cigs are expensive). Spending city dollars to keep them from smoking seems just plain mean.

General Plan Meeting

Well, last night was the special joint planning/council workshop session on planning issues, including an update on the general plan. As noted in the agenda in my previous post, there were several issues that were actually being presented.

The meeting was a little over half an hour late because the council had a closed session meeting (at City Hall, which meant they had to drive to Ganesha Park afterward) to discuss the city manager situation (nothing to report). By the time the meeting began the room was full with standing room only. It appears that the mayor sent out 5,000 letters inviting the community to this meeting. Interestingly, no one from Lincoln Park that I've talked to received any of these invitations. I asked a staff member about them and he said that he understood that they all went to Phillips Ranch and Ganesha Hills (although I found out that a lot of them were received in the Yorba area as well. Hmmmm, Districts 5 & 6. Norma's old district (now Stephen Atcheley's) and Elliott Rothman's district. So people in districts 1, 2, 3, & 4 (or most of the city) are less interested in public safety than those North of the 10 or South of the 60. Seems like a whole lot of city who might have benefited from notification. I guess the message is that Councilmembers Hunter, Lantz, Carrizosa, and Rodriguez aren't as important (my I'm awfully catty for one who posts under their own name).

It appears that they were chosen because of the first issue, neighborhood safety (which was actually about group homes and sexual predators/Jessica's Law). This was especially evident when the majority of them left after the first item was discussed. Even the mayor had more important things to do as she left after item 4 was presented (the general plan) but before public comment. So much for wanting to LEARN and get public input (the purpose of a study session) . But then with the extremely small crowd that was still there at 9:00 pm I guess she figured that staff would fill her in if anything important happened.

Enough of the politics, onto the issues.:

The first two items discussed were, as noted, regarding neighborhood safety. The city attorney is finally looking at extreme measures to control the exceedingly large number of sober living and parolee homes in the city. It was noted that Pomona has a larger number of these, as a percentage of population, than any of our neighboring cities. I must say that I was impressed with the hard-line that the city attorney's office is looking at in regards to what they can legally do. They displayed a map (which they've promised would be posted on the city web site) which showed the areas where sexual predators would be restricted from living. Almost the entire map was restricted as they had overlapping areas where children might gather such as schools, parks, daycare centers, fast food places with "kiddie playgounds," bus stops, etc.

There was a lot of public comment on these two issues (they separated sexual predators from others). Most of it was, of course, in favor of the highest level of restriction on these types of homes possible.

The next issue up was Downtown liquor licenses. The report discussed the problem with "grandfathered" licensees. Newer licenses have to go through a CUP (Conditional Use Permit) process which sets up restrictions on the business. However, licenses that were given without CUPs or with lax CUPs can't be forced to comply with newer regulations. Things like security cameras, security plans, etc. are normal for newer projects. As an example, the Fox Theater, in order to get its license had to submit a security plan to the Police Department and is required to adhere to that plan or risk losing their license. Older liquor stores in the area, particularly, don't have any such CUP protections for the community. A method for controlling these older licensees was implemented in Oakland and the city attorney is drafting an ordinance for Pomona based on the Oakland model.

There was a lot of discussion between the planning commission and the council on where trouble spots are (especially along Holt--not as much downtown) and the kinds of things that they'd like to see enforced. The planning commission is on record as making a lot of CUP requirements for new licenses which go all the way to insisting on upkeep of building AND landscaping as well as security cameras and other requirements.

Finally, the staff gave a report on the General Plan. Basically, they've met with all of the councilmembers individually and asked them for input on what they felt that they wanted for development in their districts. Staff has come up with a modified map which will serve as a starting point for general plan discussion. Gone are the "corridors" which the council had so reviled last June. As Councilman Hunter noted, unfortunately, this looks more like a map of the past and not a map of where we want to go" (quote paraphrased). The council appeared to have good ideas, but staff tended to want to "play it safe," so things really didn't look that much changed.

There were only two speakers on this issue from the public (which represented about 1/4 of the remaining audience). I spoke to the fact that last June the council had reacted badly to the increases in density which were based on projected population growth. I suggested that the council might want to revise the growth figures so that we weren't adding additional population without corresponding infrastructure. As Planning Commissioner Arturo Jimenez pointed out, there have been a lot of apartments and condos built in south Pomona without a single new policeman, fireman, or repairs to roads.

The other speaker was John Mendoza who basically asked that the council think about the citizens and not create a future slum.

The staff promised to update the map with the information that the had received and will be bringing it back for more discussion in the next few months. Planning Commissioner Tim Saunders noted such a meeting needed to be held when the public could participate as he knew of several people had left who wanted to give input on the general plan.

Commissioner Saunders had also suggested that the rest of the agenda be postponed as the public had left and it was getting late (about 9:30 pm). Vice Mayor Hunter agreed to postpone the rest of the items.

It was a long night with most of the audience who was in attendance early, leaving very confused as to what was going on.

Also, in answer to Hank Fung's comment on my previous post: Yes, the problems seem to revolve around a toxic planning department. However I am somewhat impressed with Interim Community Development Director Mark Lazaretto and hope that he and Planning Manager Brad Johnson can turn things around. This Appeared to be a good start. But we will need to be vigilant as it's likely that this general plan will end up lasting 30 or more years as well.

General Plan to Go Before Council Monday

There will be a special joint meeting of the City Council and the Planning commission tomorrow, Monday, Feb. 11 at Ganesha Park Community Center, 1575 N. White Avenue, to discuss the city's general plan update. The actual agenda is:

A. ENHANCING PROTECTIONS FOR NEIGHBORHOODS AND RESIDENTIAL USES
B. ADDRESSING DOWNTOWN ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LICENSES
C. UPDATING THE GENERAL PLAN
D. REFORMULATING THE DRAFT DEVELOPMENT CODE (Zoning Ordinance)
E. REVISING THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION PROGRAM
F. ESTABLISHING AN ART IN PUBLIC PLACES PROGRAM
G. ESTABLISHING A DOWNTOWN SIGNAGE PROGRAM
H. ESTABLISHING A NEW DESIGN REVIEW PROCESS

Public participation will be allowed for each of these items with a 3 minute time limit.

This is a second attempt to come up with a plan. The last time that the council met on this the former city management was unable to please any of the council with their proposal. It will be interesting to see what they come up with this time.

Of special interest to those of us in the historic preservation community are the revising of the Historic Preservation program, Downtown Signage program, and Design Review process, although all the issues are significant to all citizens of Pomona.

I think it would be great if we saw a large number of interested folks come out for this. This is the document that will be governing Pomona's development for at least the next 10-15 years.

Will we get what we saw last time with high density housing along all of our major corridors, and be told that Pomona has a surplus of commercial development? Or will there be a better sense that Pomona is a city that cannot support growth at an increased rate and needs to get itself together before building for a population growth that it can't support with the current infrastucture?

I should be posting a report on the meeting on Tuesday.

the return of the Writ of Assistance?

This morning's DB fills us in on the results of friday's DUI checkpoint: 106 vehicles seized, 19 suspended-license violations, and 111 vehicle code violations in all. No mention whatsoever of actual drunks arrested; after we were pulled over one night on utterly cocked-up grounds (supposedly 50 in a 40 zone, which was not the case), I have to wonder. You'd think that if they had gotten a number of dangerous drunkards off the roads, they would have boasted about it plenty.

Our getting pulled over that night has changed my view of these things somewhat. It was clear from the moment the CHiP walked up to the car that he intended to arrest K., and only when K. agreed to take the "optional" breathalyzer test (0.00, thank you very much) did the guy ease off. I'm proud to report that K. only took the breathalyzer test after hemming and hawing out loud for awhile about so-called optional searches and the general erosion of our privacy rights (K. wants me to point out that the coppers were polite through it all, including during his rousing speech).

As far as I can tell, these ridiculous DUI checkpoints are another example of the problem. I have deep suspicions that random searches are far more about "Let's see if you've broken a law!" than about "Hey, you're too drunk to drive." If it's all about catching drunks, why does the checkpoint run from 4pm to 11pm? I'd bet anything there's a greater average blood-alcohol level after 11pm.

Note, BTW, that these things are run by the CHP, not the PPD. The latter are more interested in serving and protecting than in searching and seizing.

ed's brilliant map

For further conversation, here's the map that Ed mentioned in the comments of the last post, tracking 2008 murders. Look at us, surrounded by an ocean of blue flags! Let's build a wall to keep those undesirables out.

View Larger Map

notes from a broad

I haven't forgotten you, chaps. After an incredibly fancy business dinner, begun with a gong -- I kid you not -- and ended with a 1972 cognac, I arise this morning, like every morning, to read the Daily Bulletin online.

And I must say, it's a sad day for us when a month without homicides is front-page material in the papers.

Is it my imagination, or does Norma Torres sound positively disappointed? She seems to be muttering under her breath, "Dang, there goes the only grounds I have for giving Joe the heave-ho."

2 Events For Pomonans

First off, thanks to Meg for allowing me to post on this blog. I hope that it turns out to have been a good decision on her part.

The month of February will see two events for those interested in history, preservation, and living in Pomona.

First on tap is the Annual Meeting of the Historical Society of Pomona Valley, which will be held on Sunday, February 10. Always an interesting evening, this year will have the appropriate theme of Love In Pomona. Speakers will share their experiences of finding love in Pomona, or of places in Pomona that they love or that inspire love. In addition, there will be a silent auction of romantic items, a display of antique valentines and costumes, and the opportunity to have a romantic picture taken in a Victorian setting.

The evening kicks off at 6:00 pm at the Ebell Museum of Pomona History, with a wine reception and an opportunity to visit the museum and bid on silent auction items. Dinner will be served at 6:00 pm, with the program "love of People Places, and Things in Pomona" beginning at 7:30. Thsi will be followed by the Installation of officers at 8:00 pm and the announcement of Silent Auction winners at 8:30 pm.

The cost of the event is $25 for adults, and $20 for Children 10 and under. This is always a great, family friendly evening, and helps to support the Historical Society.

Pomona Heritage Installation Dinner

Pomona Heritage will hold their installation dinner the following Sunday, Feb. 17, at El Molcajete restaurant (formerly Osunas at Holt and Palomares). This event will be a sit-down dinner and will include a talk by Mickey Gallivan, President of Historical Society of Pomona valley and author of Images of America: Early Pomona.

No host cocktails begin at 5:30 pm with dinner at 6:30 and our special speaker at 7:30pm. There will also be a silent auction with many items of interest to those interested in Pomona history.

In addition to these two meetings, there will also be a meeting of the Monroe St. neighbors who will be getting a presentation by the city regarding their petition to close off Monroe at Orange Grove/Garey. The neighborhood petition notes that Monroe has become a shortcut for speeding into the neighborhood and that there are serious safety issues, especially with cars making left turns at that intersection. The meeting will begin at 7:00 pm at the Ebell Museum of Pomona History on Wednesday, February 13. The Monroe neighbors thank Mickey Gallivan and the Historical Society for allowing us to use their facility for this meeting.