Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Good things Sprouting Up




This July, Sprouts Farmers Market will be opening up inside the old Ralph's on Foothill in Claremont. Sprouts is a grocery store which emphasizes locally grown produce and healthy/alternative foods. Sprouts is supposed to be much cheaper than Whole Foods (a.k.a. whole paycheck). Their website is here. If you are out there Joy, what do you think? I myself am quite excited.

Also in July, the Laemelle Movie Theater will open in the Claremont Village annex. The theater will show independent and foreign movies, and is the only such movie house east of Pasadena. Pomona's own Tessier family are the developers on the project. While I won't be taking Mr. Big to French movies any time soon, it's comforting to see some acknoledgement of culture east of the 605 freeway.

While I wish that both of these businesses had of landed in Pomona, I am still appreciative that they are going in at all.

Meanwhile in Pomona, a developer wants to level two blocks of the north side of Second Street, which is in the heart of the ARtist Colony, to make way for a generic building project that will include artist lofts. I am told that all the developer is being asked to do by the local historic organizations is to utilize the historic storefronts into his plans, but he seeks to demolish everything. Seems the developer thought he could tromp all over Pomona's history because we were desperate just to get someone to develop here. Generic Irvine-like developments in our downtown core are not the answer to Pomona's woes. I sure hope the City Council can see that and that they will Save Second Street.

Thanks to KellySims at Creative Commons for the photos of the inside and outside of a Sprouts Farmer's Market.

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