Monday, April 07, 2008

Our next empty lot?


A reader alerted me to this article in the Daily Bulletin about the redevelopment agency seeking to expand Pomona's YMCA. Today's photo of a nicely-tended vintage home accompanies the online article. Will this become yet another vacant lot in Pomona? It is not like there is a shortage of vacant lots already. One reader is already vowing to chain themselves to the house if need be.

When we moved to Pomona, my husband had high hopes of going to the local YMCA to swim and play ball. He quickly discovered that the place was unhygenic. The swimming area, for instance, had carpet nearby, which was always wet, mildewy and went "squish" when you walked on it. He's hardly the neat freak that I am, so I'm imagining it was pretty gross. I'm thinking that getting some new people in charge at the Y and sprucing the place up inside might be a better solution.

18 comments:

John Clifford said...

AND, the property is to go to a PRIVATE company to build a gym to be "a complement" to the Y, not given to the Y itself. So Mr. Bigger will probably have a nice, hygenic place to work out (with probably a nice price tag) and the Y will get?????

At least that's the way I read the article. BTW, I'll be there with the chains as well. But let's see what Ray Fong comes up with, I know he's aware that we're out here, so . . . .

Anonymous said...

I hope they are not considering demolishing these homes. I am sure Raymond Fong is aware of the great communities you can build with the moving of historical homes. Take for example Anaheim Colony, Santa Ana and Riverside, just to mention a few. These cities acquired great redevelopment land with older homes that sat on them. Rather than bulldozing, they decided to move the homes around a new park that was built and the product was a beautiful neighborhood outside of their downtown areas. They chose to keep these turn of the century homes, which in turn has given the city as a whole an identity. We need this kind of forward thinking in Pomona, we can make this change. I hope our redevelopment Agency will choose this route.

meg said...

Perhaps the Y has cleaned up its act? Our neighborhood block captain is a regular there and says good things about it.

Stew said...

Keeping priorities in order (i.e. schools, housing, hospitals, etc, first)a modern city needs a decent gym. This is even more true of a community in California. There is sometimes talk on this blog about what businesses are missing from downtown and a decent gym is definitely one.

I go to the Y as it is and it is pretty awful. My wife's hometown in Nebraska with a Population of about 20,000 has a rec center to put us to shame, and it's 25 years old.

Either the Daily Bulletin article or the plan itself is pretty poorly envisioned because I can't tell what's going on from reading the article. But a modern workout facility is often on my mind as the A-#1 thing I am missing as a Pomona resident; and it's something I've had everywhere else I have ever lived.

Anonymous said...

I can't find a way to add a comment , is this it? But on a different subject... Is anyone out there sick of being bombarded by the blaring ice cream trucks, especially in Lincoln Park? I'm getting older and my hearing should be going but I swear the trucks are getting louder and louder, an obnoxious piercing sound invading our homes as if we live in an out of control amusement park. Is there any interest out there in quieting that noise pollution?

I can't believe I just recently discovered this very interesting blog about my neighborhood...

me said...

Now John, will you be using the chains to attach yourself to the house, or to threaten anyone who comes near it? Be sure to wear a black leather jacket if it's the latter. :)

Stew - thanks for the update on the state of the Y. Yeah, the article or the vision or both is confusing. Plus the article left out important information.

New reader: The ice cream truck subject has come up from time to time (also on the M-M-M-My POmona blog). I think it's that there are more of them around here than there used to be. There really ought to be a law against playing a warped version of "Dashing Thru the Snow" in the dead of summer. It did make my day when the truck played "Yellow Rose of Texas" as it drove past Margaret Ruecker's old house (she's a Texan ya'll).

In general, ice cream trucks are bad news. In L.A. there has been a problem with their selling drugs and guns alongside the fudgicles.

G of P

Steve said...

One good thing about the city buying this property is that Pomona Unified School District can use the money. $1.3 million will surely save the jobs of a few teacher and or staff.

Anonymous said...

Sure the school district is property rich & cash poor.
They own many, many of the derelict properties that we have to look at all over town.
The worst being the former Bonanza shopping center on Garry Ave all the way to the gas station.
I have asked our city council person how the school district is able to leave such huge parcels of land as eyesores. I was told that they can pretty do what they want & are not beheld to city regulations.
The Bonanza store half burned down a year & a half ago & is still sitting there.
Mark

Andrew said...

A privately owned gym would be nice, but only if they plan to make a killing by being the best in hygiene and service, but what is really going to happen? Anyone else have trouble getting internet service from verizon in pomona?

Andrew said...

Goddess, I don't know if you saw the Fliers when you were at the Regenerative Studies Center at Cal Poly, but there is an event being held at REGEN a co-op in Pomona of three houses on the twelfth. I don't have real internet access so i can't send you the file. but I'll look up the address and post another comment of it.

micaelm said...

Well OK, more about the noisy ice cream trucks, what about the danger to pedestrians with them cruising and pulling over to stop with people [mostly children ] chasing them? And the added air pollution as well as the noise pollution. Yes, they have definitely gotten louder lately.
Who are the powers that be to address this issue to? I've heard of an alleged Paula something that lives near the Lincoln Park...

me said...

Let's not forget that Pomona did have a privately-operated gym, Safari - but the school district kicked out the tenants and years later it still sits empty and ugly on So. Garey. Mark is right about the school district. Let's email Thelma to let her know we are all shaking our heads. That will be the subject of a future post.

Anduhrew-
Will you send me email, because I wanted to write you about something else and I misplaced your addy. Yes, I will publicize that event. Yes, we had trouble getting verizon DSL if that's what you mean. We could only get it out of one jack in the end and it took a visit out to the house from Verizon to accomplish that.

Michael - That would be Paul Lantz and she is our council person. her email is :

paula_lantz@ci.pomona.ca.us

It is my experience that Paula will respond to emails.

Why not email the mayor too, although I have never gotten a response from her to letters or emails that I have sent as my alter ego or my real self. But she is making a run for higher office.

norma_torres@ci.pomona.ca.us

Also, if you email me about it, I will forward your email tp the block club. They recently sent letters to the various delivery trucks that haul a** thru the area, and I have noticed a big improvement.

G of P

John Clifford said...

Yesterday afternoon I had business at city hall and stopped in to get a copy of the Mitigated Negative Declaration documents for the Towne/Foothill project (more on that later as I've got major issues with it).

When I was in redevelopment I ran into Ray Fong and we had a chance to talk about the property behind the Y. He explained that there is currently NO project planned for that space, but that the city is looking at a recreation center. They are only in preliminary discussions on a private company (as noted in the DB article) and it may or may not yield anything. His estimate is that nothing will probably happen on that site for 6-7 years.

I specifically asked about the homes on Center Street and was assured that there was no current plan for demolition and that if the historic community could find a place in a historic area to move them to that the city would be willing to look at purchasing the land and moving the houses.

So it looks like Mr. Big will be ready to join Mr. Bigger for trips to the gym by the time one gets built. Oh, what they're looking at with the private company would be a complete sports "complex" which the private company would lease to teams and organizations but would have "some community access" as well.

Anonymous said...

well on the corner of the 71 fwy. and mission the old general dynamics building on the west side of the 71 it would go alone great with the new soccer field there putting in.

Anonymous said...

anonymous i can see your point about the homeless,thats why they filled the ponds at city hall with dirt.homeless were taking there baths in it.

Anonymous said...

I agree the ice cream trucks are loud, but I get a warm fuzzy inside whenever I hear them drive by. They come by our neighborhood park frequently. In my mind, there presence is serves as a nice reminder of the life of the neighborhood. That said, I would object to vendors selling drugs and guns in addition to astropops! The trucks are licensed vendors, correct? In contrast, the individuals who sell roasted corn and shaved ice out of shopping carts are not licensed -- but I think _their_ presence ads some nice texture to our town (though I dislike the incessant honking of the clown horns!!).

Andrew said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Andrew said...

I agree with Anonymous. When i hear ice cream trucks it reminds me of my childhood and i quite enjoy them. outlawing ice cream truck music sounds like something claremont would do. Maybe there could be an ordinance to make sure the music is at a certain decibel and speakers are not broken. Goddess Sent you an E-mail and I also have the flier for the Sustainability Seminar in Pomona Posted on my site as well.