I blinked in Claremont

So in a blink it seems, the gas station at the corner of Mountain and Foothill (where the new and disappointing Sprouts Farmer's Market is) has been torn down. Funny, I just made a mental note last week of how dangerous the approach to Sprouts was on the east side because of cars coming and going from that gas station. Little did I know that problem was about to be . . . leveled. It seems that while Claremont might be the fifth best city to live in America, it also deserves the award of fifth biggest construction zone in America. The largest construction in the City is of course at the Village Expansion and the Old Schoolhouse on Indian Hill and Foothill.

The nice thing about living in Pomona is that, for the most part, we don't have to endure the inconvenient, messy and noisy disruption of construction zones. Rather than having our mini malls updated every ten years, we have mini malls that have not bothered us Pomonians with any kind of construction or updates for nearly fifty years. How green is that? Once Pomona gas stations close up and desert us, we can be assured that the lot will remain untouched (except by spray paint and weeds) for a good 25 years. And new buildings? Well, Pomona can count those on her green-thumbed hands.

It still makes no sense that with all the empty lots and boarded up buildings, someone wants to level a part of Second Street that is actually working, in it's funky kind of way, as a destination spot. To me, this so clearly smacks of economic gain for the owner and developer of the property, and a huge blow to the City of Pomona. But what do I know, I only happen to love this place called Pomona. Perhaps I am just too biased towards my namesake's best interests.

For those of you on Team Claremont, their Chamber of Commerce building on Yale is selling T-shirts that read: "Claremont: fifth best city in America." I'm taking nominations for the Pomona T-shirt counterpart. And yes, "Pomona: Fifth largest murder rate in America" has already been nominated and rejected.