Herding Up Pomona's Lil' White Elephants

Today's photo is of a motorhome which is parked on upper Towne Avenue every time I drive by. And I typically drive by several times a day. If you zoom in on the photograph, you'll see that "Our Lil' White Elephant" is handwritten on the tire holder and the personalized license plate reads "Eellee." I have singled out this particular "Sunrader" because it is always careful to park on the Pomona side of the sign, not the Claremont side of the sign. The fact is that there are motorhomes stored all over the streets of Pomona, yet in Claremont they are noticeable absent. I've already told the story of the people who live in surrounding cities, yet store their motor homes on the streets of Pomona. The reason being that legitimate storage is expensive and Pomona appears to give motorhomes a free pass.

Today, I finally sat down to compare the two cities rules on motorhome parking. According to the City of Claremont's website:

"Recreational vehicles such as boats, campers, trailers, and motorhomes must be parked in a garage or interior side or rear yard behind a minimum five-foot high solid fence or wall. Temporary RV parking permits which are good for a maximum of 14 days per calendar year, may be obtained by calling the Community Improvement office at 909/399-5467 or by stopping by the Community Development counter at City Hall. Permits are required for at home RV maintenance and trip preparation/return."

I tried to get similar information off of the City of Pomona's website, but I finally had to resort to getting on the horn. A call to the Pomona City Manager's office, led to a referral to Code Compliance, which led to a referral to the police department's dispatch center. Dispatcher Robin told me that according to Parking Officer Mundy, the rule for motorhome parking in Pomona is simply that motorhomes must be moved every 72 hours and, unlike Claremont, there is no limit to the amount of days per year that they can be left out on Pomona streets.

Given the crime challenges, traffic problems and beautification issues that rampant motor home parking has created, why doesn't Pomona stop getting taken advantage of, and simply limit the amount of days in a year that a particular motor home can park on the streets?

Curious what others think about this issue. It sounds like one of those easy fixes, which could bring visible change. It would likely even bring added revenue to the City at the expense of motorhome owners who continue to use our streets to store their "lil' white elephants."

THE END

Thinking Positive in Pomona

I'm sure I'm not the only Pomonian feeling black and blue from the beating we've been taking in the press for the past week.

I don't have the time, energy, much less the heart, to do links to the various news stories. The basic run down for those of you who have been out of the country is that Pomona has been determined to be the least likely place to find love, the best place to develop smoker's lung and the worst place to conduct a thorough search of a van containing a dead body. We also ended our month long murderless streak with a bang: three separate murders in one day. This is not to even mention the recent stabbing on Alvarado and Palomares that hasn't hit the newswires, but has certainly hit home with Lincoln Park block clubs.

We've seen better news days. Hence today's feeling-the-love photographs of Pomona lovebirds, courtesy of wedding photographer Bumatay Studio and photographer Louis Palos. Check out the whole spread here and here, proving once again that not all that happens in Pomona's alleys and fire escapes is bad. Of course, I can not say the same about the vans and motorhomes.

Yesterday, while I was driving down Garey, I saw two other love birds making out on the wall in front of Juan Pollo. It is often hard to reconcile the Pomona I experience each day with the one I read about in the paper.



THE END

Great News

Guerrilla Gardeners
Originally uploaded by Grant Neufeld

Turns out Covenant United Methodist Church is the owner of the dirt parkway that houses the "Welcome to Pomona" sign. I spoke with Pastor Jae Lew tonight. Pastor Jae was immediately receptive to the idea of members of his church working alongside community volunteers to landscape the area.

Pastor Jae said that his church has been looking for ways to reach out to the community. He mentioned, for instance, their recently setting up scholarships for youth living in Pomona.

Pastor Jae and I exchanged emails so that we can start planning the logistics, both admitting that we would need input from more experienced gardeners. He does not think there are sprinklers there btw. Pastor Jae said his church council meets on Saturday, so he will tell them about the idea at that time.

In the meantime, here's some inspiration.

THE END

Is it safe there?

The San Francisco Chronicle used to march out Gertrude Stein's famous quote "there's no there there" in reference to Oakland on an almost weekly basis. The comment was taken out of context, since she made the comment in reference to her coming back to her home town of Oakland and finding many of the landmarks from her childhood gone. But to San Franciscans it was a way of driving home the point that there was nothing worthwhile in Oakland.

As a citizen of Pomona, I have repeatedly been asked, "Is it safe there?" AS a mom, this can come up in terms of making a playdate with a mom and kid you met in Claremont.

Here's what I can assure people of in terms of safety:

1. Rest assured, Pomona is safe from being taken over by corporate America. AS it is, we should be in the Guiness Book of World Records for having only *2* Starbucks in town.

2. Oh, and if your car breaks down in Pomona, or you run out of gas, or you ring a bell for Jesus in front of Stater Bros., safe to say that someone will help you out. I've seen it happen time and time again. If you're looking for someone who cares, you'll find them in Pomona.

3. Another safe assumption is that rain or shine, the hearty citizens of Pomona will be out in droves for garage sale day. Today's photos are proof of our town's drive to wheel, deal and downsize, despite the rain drops.

Garage sale day runs today through Sunday. It's a great event and one of the reasons we all get to know one another around here.

THE END

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home
Originally uploaded by eecue

What would you say to someone torn between wanting to buy a home in Lincoln Park and being told by friends and professional associates not to? I recently received an email from someone who happened upon the blog and is facing this dilemma. So I'm wondering what all of you would tell this tentative buyer?



Thanks to Dave Bullock/eecue for today's photo. You can see his other work at http://www.eecue.com.

THE END.

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.

A Pomona Drive-By

We all read about the drive-bys IN Pomona, but what about the drive bys ON Pomona? No one keeps statistics on the number of pot shots we take from the local, regional, national and, for all I know, international press. My sense is that the incidence of drive bys ON Pomona, is much higher than the number of drive bys IN Pomona.

So it should be no suprise that Pomona has been hit with a full frontal assault by a blogger. The "King of Bash" recently spent a day in Pomona and lived to blog about it. He posted this photo essay of his Wednesday visit to Pomona. It's aptly entitled Pomona Hit Job. I'll warn you Pomonians ahead of time that it's pretty brutal. But we're tough, we can take it; half of us have been to prison after all.

Bash made me laugh and I was suprised by the insight he had into some aspects of our city. No hard feelings,Bash, but as a lover of my underdog city, I'm still licking my wounds.

There are some hauntingly good photographs of Pomona on Flickr by local photographers *Mike and XyLe. I guess I expected a few similar images of "urban blight as high art" from Bash. It would appear that Bash also missed seeing Pomona's Lincoln Park Historic District completely. I think he would have run out of film or batteries if he had, given that it is the largest collection of vintage homes on the National Historic Registry with 745 contributing structures.

Unfortunately, Bash has vowed to never return to Pomona. And I suppose that means he won't be purchasing one of these either. So long, Bash. We hardly knew 'ye. And vice versa (which is my main point).

A Bad Sign

DSC00134
Originally uploaded by plutoisnotaplanet

Pictured from behind my car's dirty windshield is a Welcome to Pomona/Directory sign that has just been put up on Towne Street, south of the 10 freeway exit. Am I the only one that thinks this sign lacks any sense of design or style? To me, the sign is downright tacky-looking. I am going to start making a point of taking Garey instead, just to avoid remding me of "the powers that shouldn't be" in Pomona who actually thought this sign would look good. The sign is so....El Monte 1974. It's bland, boring and cheap looking. Athough the sign has a slight art deco thing going on, when coupled with the formica-like finish, it's cheesy. Given that the sign is just outside of the Lincoln Park Historic District, why was it not done in a craftsman style? Or alternatively, in the style of the signage announcing the artist colony and antique row on 2nd Street?

If anyone knows who is responsible for this sign, drop me a line at goddessofpomona@mail.com.

The only thing worse than the sign itself is the lack of any landscaping around it. If you look closely, someone has even used the sign as a cup holder. I like it as a cup holder! Our freeway exits are the public's first look at Pomona. Is there any way to get anything green on that dirt besides menthol cigarette boxes?


Speaking of smokes, the Smoke Shop at the southeast corner of Palomares and East Holt (in the old Mel's Diner building) has been closed down by the City for "criminal and negligent activities," including the sale of crack pipes. This is going to make my drives up Palomares Street from downtown so much less interesting. But, not to worry, the Smoke Shop will reopen on WEST Holt.

Anywhere but Here

Too much of the time, Pomona is Pomona's worst enemy. A neighbor told me that when she got a job at one of the colleges in the city of Pomona, she was specifically told by officials at the university that whatever she did, she should not, under any circumstance, live in Pomona. Well, luckily, she did some looking around for herself and found a wonderful home in Pomona, where she lives quite happily.

While doing a google search, I happened upon this dialogue from 1999. Seems to confirm the same sentiment. I know I have said this about a zillion times, but is Pomona that bad?