Angus - the magical name

Use of the correct term can make a big impression, as any "automotive specialist" who "consults" with individuals on the purchase of "pre-owned cars" can tell you.

McDonalds knows a thing or two about marketing, which is why this announcement has appeared.

McDonald's is launching a new Angus Snack Wrap in Southern California stores, including in 111 of its 134 Inland locations.

Using words such as "Angus" allow McDonalds to potentially increase its profit margin by marketing to a more upscale clientele, or at least to those of us who want to pretend to be upscale. Slashfood observed the following during an Angus Snack Wrap taste test:

We attended a product-tasting event yesterday afternoon in a three-story restaurant with wood-paneled walls and modern accents, where people were using the free wifi and enjoying complimentary manicures. Sounds fancy, eh? The restaurant, by the way, was a McDonald's. (And those manicures were exclusive to the event.)

I'm not sure if I want a McManicure in a restaurant, but perhaps I'll try an Angus Snack Wrap if I'm in a snack mood.

Golfers in Hemet will weep

The stereotypical image of a golfer does not necessarily correlate with the stereotypical image of the Inland Empire. Golfers are supposedly urban, rich, and (until what's-his-name became popular) white, and the Inland Empire is generally none of the above.

But despite this, golf is popular outside of the elite circles, and was doing pretty good business in more remote locations.

Well, WAS is the operative word. The Echo Hills golf course in Hemet is closing after nearly fifty years in business:

"The business didn't support the costs," said owner Phil Crockett.

Interestingly enough, Echo Hills is (was) the only course in the area that was a 9 hole course. The others are 18 holes. The Press-Enterprise claims that the 9 holes, as well as the short walking distances, effectively gave Echo Hills a niche that made it popular with children and senior citizens. The fees ($10 to walk the course) certainly helped with popularity, but apparently didn't help with the bottom line.

The yards are still selling

You'll recall that I wrote about Ontario's new limitations on yard sales, after reading Matt Munson's post on the topic.

The first official yard sale weekend was the weekend of August 6-8, as I noted in these two posts.

After that weekend, all yard sale activity in the city of Ontario was supposed to cease until Friday, November 5.

Yeah, right.

Last weekend, I saw several signs in Ontario for yard sales. I should have taken pictures like the blogger/journalist that I am supposed to be, but I didn't.

Don't know if the code enforcement police toured the neighborhoods looking for offenders.

Incidentally, if you want to see the full text of the city ordinance, you can find Ordinance number 2924 here (pdf).

Yeah, but does Frederick Minook tweet?

It's always interesting to see the people who choose to follow you on Twitter. (My Twitter account name, by the way, is @empoprises.) Some people follow you just to increase their follower count, or to hawk their "social media expert" wares. And others follow you because of the things that you talk about, and since some of my tweets involve the Inland Empire (all posts to this blog generate Twitter entries), there are various Inland Empire people who choose to follow me.

And one of my recent followers is @mayorpaulleon. He uses his Twitter account and his website to promote all things Ontario. And, of course, the presence also helps to promote Mayor Leon himself. Nothing wrong with that, because if it were, I'd have to go back to posting under a pseudonym.

It should be noted, however, that this is an election year, and Mayor Leon is running for re-election. So naturally there's an interesting in seeing who, if anyone would choose to run against him.

Liset Marquez has linked to the list of candidates and almost-candidates, the latter being people who pulled papers, but didn't end up officially filing. Or perhaps they filed but didn't have enough signatures.

At the end of the day, only two candidates are running for the position of Mayor - Leon, who qualified for the ballot on August 2, and Frederick J. Minook, who qualified for the ballot back on July 14.

Now I'll admit that I haven't really followed city politics all that closely lately, so maybe those in the know already are familiar with Minook. I, however, am not. So I am depending upon the web to see what I can find out about him. Be cautioned, however, that there is always the possibility of two Frederick J. Minooks in the area, so perhaps I'm a little off here.

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Minook donated to Damien High School.

At one point Minook apparently applied to become a member of the Citizens Redistricting Commission, who solicited comments about him.

San Bernardino County documents for this election (see page 57) list Minook's occupation as "Retired Technical Supervisor."

And that's about all that I found, which may not bode well for Minook in this election. Let me give you an example - a Google search for the quoted phrase Frederick J. Minook only presents 6 results (which will presumably increase to 7 after this blog post appears). By way of contrast, John E. Bredehoft yields over 300,000 results. And we already know that I wouldn't get any significant amount of votes in any election. For one thing, I don't own my own domain name like Mayor Leon does.

Obviously Minook does not have the technical savvy that Suzan DelBene and Dave Reichert have. But then again, the election season is young, and maybe Minook will get a YouTube channel before Leon does.

Then again, perhaps Minook is more savvy than we thought.



And in case I get audited by some election commission, here's some equal time for Paul Leon.



OK, so maybe these videos don't show OUR Minook or Paul Leon. (But there is a Mayor Paul Leon video on YouTube.)

Better ways to reduce the dangers of our stereotype

Contrary to popular belief, every resident of the Inland Empire does not have his or her own personal meth lab. Neither does every resident of West Virginia, but West Virginia University is pursuing ways to improve meth lab cleanup:

[Suzanne] Bell and her research group will investigate if the standard cleaning and purifying procedures used to clean homes and apartments which previously served as meth labs really work.

“It’s important to clean it up properly because so many toxic chemicals are used in the preparation of methamphetamine and demolition of the site is not always possible or appropriate. The danger to future occupants is chronic exposure to residuals of these hazardous compounds,” Bell said.

So how will this research be conducted?

Bell and graduate students, Rona Nishikawa, Lucy Oldfield, Travis Doria, and Holly McCall, will simulate meth labs to gauge the effect of the chemicals used on living environments. They also hope to visit former labs to gather samples. Field sites provide the best research environment because it is impossible to simulate an entire meth lab in the academic laboratory.

I wonder if the simulation will include a mobile home, a picture of dogs playing poker, and a television set tuned to Jerry Springer.

Villaraigosa wants ONT. Why?

Local new agencies printed two stories about Ontario International Airport recently.

This one (from the Press Enterprise) notes that Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa does not believe that his city should give up control of the airport.

This one (from the Daily Bulletin/San Bernardino Sun) notes that it will be a long time before airport traffic returns to previous levels. In fact, consultant Warren Adams won't reach the 2007 level of traffic (7.2 million passengers) until 2040.

Yes, 2040.

Personally I believe that Adams' crystal ball is a little crowded. For one thing, if LAX continues to suffer from overcrowding and pollution and noise and bad policing and a myriad of other issues, Los Angeles city government may become more active in encouraging more people to travel out of ONT than out of LAX.

(empo-tymshft) Let's demolish stuff for healthy living

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a guy.

I am a guy.

These two facts will be key to this post.

But first let us return to a time when Schwarzenegger's native land was the just-defeated enemy in the war of the United States and others against fascist aggression. The great expansion of the California economy that resulted from World War II was followed by an even greater expansion of the California economy that resulted from the Cold War. When I moved to the Inland Empire in the early 1980s, there were military facilities all over the place, and they were supplied by major defense firms that were also all over the place. Southern California wasn't filled with waitresses who wanted to be actresses - Southern California was filled with military officers who wanted to make huge money working for defense subcontractors.

And in a few short years it was over. The Cold War ended, and the buildup of huge military forces was replaced by a rapid reduction in military facilities. Bases were closed, defense contractors laid off thousands, and the region entered a painful new phase.

One of the decommissioned areas was March Air Force Base, way out in the middle of nowhere south of Riverside, and south of the brand-new city of Moreno Valley. March Air Force Base became March Air Reserve Base.

And recently my governor watched as the remaining buildings at March were destroyed. And it sounds like it was pretty cool:

The first step is the removal of some 40 older buildings, a process that began with a ceremony presided over by Schwarzenegger near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Cactus Avenue. Two pieces of heavy equipment demolished the old Air Force child care center that most recently housed the Somerset Academy for special education students.

If you go to the Press-Enterprise article, you will see pictures of the two pieces of heavy equipment.

So what's happening out there? A hospital center is being built:

The governor said the efforts could turn the former base property into what he called "The Mayo Clinic of the West."

"We're celebrating something no one has ever done in the world. We're building the first health and wellness city," said Schwarzenegger, who flew in to March Air Reserve Base.

Oh well, California has always been a land of dreamers.

Ontario lawn owners set up safe and attractive garage sales

Follow-up to my earlier post.

While driving down south Euclid Avenue at about 7:15 this morning, I saw two garage sales being set up between Mission and Philadelphia.


View Larger Map

Now I normally don't take that route, so I don't know if Friday morning setups of garage sales are usual at that time on a Friday. But it's possible that this is an indicator of a LOT of lawn activity this weekend.

I checked the Daily Bulletin's garage sale ads, and at the time I checked it there were 37 ads. Only 13 of the ads were for Ontario, which seems rather low to me.

Reminder to Ontario, California lawn owners - today is a garage sale day

As Matt Munson posted on July 24, and as I posted on July 29, this is one of the only four weekends within the next twelve months that Ontario, California residents will be allowed to have a garage sale.

Here's the notice from the city, in case you missed it.

YARD SALE REGULATIONS

Garage Sale Rules Have Changed

A City Permit is no longer needed for a garage sale. As of June 17, 2010, an ordiance amendment went into effect to allow garage or yard sales only on fixed dates, four weekends per year. Ontario residents may now have four garage sales per year, instead of two sales per year. The dates for 2010 are August 6, 7, and 8th and November 5, 6, and 7th. The dates for 2011 will be posted on the City web site later this year. The new ordiance will help to reduce parking and traffic problems, and will help to keep the City a safe and attractive place to live.

So if you're so inclined, skip work today, throw a bunch of stuff on the front lawn, and sell it.

Or do it tomorrow.

Let's see how "safe and attractive" Ontario looks over the next three days.

Better yet, let's see how many people hold garage sales next weekend, when it's illegal to do so.

[7:55 AM - FOLLOW-UP.]

Ontario, California tweeters

Back in May, I wrote about the "My Local Pledge" people. They still have their @OntarioCA Twitter account, with local content such as the following:

It's Legal Drinking Age Day! To those 21+ what is your favorite adult beverage & where do you go to get it?

For some strange reason, no one has been moved to respond to @OntarioCA's tweets lately. To be fair, however, Twitter only keeps about four seconds of tweets online in its search engine, so older tweets to @OntarioCA such as this one can't be called up on Twitter any more.

I poked around and found @OntarioCAAlerts, a service that posts hourly weather reports. Not exactly interactive, however. (@OntarioCAJobs is similar, sort of.)

Now Wefollow has an entire directory of Ontario, California Twitter users. However, until recently I was not part of that directory - when I joined Wefollow, I was restricted to using three tags, so I chose business, music, and inlandempire. I've since added the Ontario, California location (and an ntnbuzztime tag).

Regarding Ontario, California Twitter users, be sure to check out Etsy lover @lanakinbuddys; the auto tweeters @SavageBMWParts, @EconixUSA, and @BoshartEngineer; and @DaveyDESTRUCT.

Who are the business champions for the Inland Empire?

If a product or a philosophy is going to take off, it needs one or more people to champion it. But this not only applies to products (iPhone) or philosophies (the Tea Party movement), but also locales.

I moved to the Inland Empire over twenty-five years ago, but I have not worked in the Inland Empire in nearly twenty years, having had jobs near downtown Los Angeles and in various locations in Orange County. During that period, the Inland Empire has been poised to take off, only to ebb back again due to September 11 or a housing crisis or some other cause.

I look at other areas, and I find Joan Koerber-Walker championing Phoenix, and Jesse Stay championing Salt Lake City.

So who are the business champions in our area?

You certainly have the organizations, such as the Inland Empire Business Journal, the Business Press, Inland Empire Magazine, and Yahoo's directory for the Inland Empire. There's The Bizz (associated with the Los Angeles Newspaper Group), but it hasn't posted a new article since February 22. (Oh yeah, there's My Local Pledge.)

But who are the PEOPLE who are championing the area? Jack Brown? Jack Dangermond? (Hmm, should I start using the nickname "Jack" when writing about the area?)

So who do YOU look to as a champion out here?

How to sell personal items in Ontario the OTHER 48 weeks of the year

Matt Munson first tipped me off to this. But before I look at Munson's comments, let's get the word directly from the city of Ontario:

A City Permit is no longer needed for a garage sale.

All right! Those municipal paper-pushers have found better things to do with their time than to require people to get permits to sell used baby clothes!

Oh...but there's more.

As of June 17, 2010, an ordiance (sic) amendment went into effect to allow garage or yard sales only on fixed dates, four weekends per year. Ontario residents may now have four garage sales per year, instead of two sales per year. The dates for 2010 are August 6, 7, and 8th and November 5, 6, and 7th. The dates for 2011 will be posted on the City web site later this year.

Matt has the first two 2011 dates; I'll get to those in a minute. But why did our city clamp down on this?

The new ordiance (sic) will help to reduce parking and traffic problems, and will help to keep the City a safe and attractive place to live.

Yes, as I drive around town on Saturday, August 14, I'm sure that I'll be thinking, "Boy my city is certainly a safe and attractive place to live! And there are wonderful parking opportunities in residential areas!"

Well, Matt Munson saw some problems with Ontario's plan:

Four weekends per year is sort of inflexible when you have people moving or having estate sales. With the economy still not as exceptional, people are still foreclosing from their homes.

I mean, let's say that someone gets a wonderful job offer on August 16 that requires him/her to move out of state by October. According to current Ontario law, they can't hold a garage sale pre-move to get rid of their stuff.

Munson's proposal is to allow one emergency permit per year, with a payment of $30, to hold a garage sale on an alternate day.

Of course, there are other options.

First, you could befriend someone in Upland or Chino or Montclair. Let's face it, residents of those cities with a lot of junk are probably salivating right now, because they can hold their yard sales on most weekends per year and won't have to worry about competition from Ontario yard sales. In fact, perhaps someone in Upland could offer a wider selection of junk if those of us in Ontario cart our junk across the border and sell it at an Upland residence.

Second, you could go the professional swap meet route. Maclin's Ontario location (7407 Riverside Drive) will happily sell you space to allow you to sell your junk:

Rates: Tuesday...New Merchandise $20.00 Used Merchandise $10.00
Saturday...New Merchandise $25.00 Used Merchandise $15.00
Sunday...New Merchandise $30.00 Used Merchandise $15.00
Visa, MC or Cash ONLY no checks
Enclosed spaces are $5.00 more.

And if you don't have a lot of stuff to sell, there's always the third option - direct advertising. Craigslist, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin...heck, post a "for sale" notice in the comments to this post if you're so inclined.

Or you can wait and see if the possibly-powerful garage sale lobby is able to oust all the incumbents in this November's election, in which case the prohibition may simply go away.

If it doesn't, Munson reports that the early 2011 Ontario garage sale dates are February 4-6 and May 6-8.

E-Verify - voluntary?

If you go to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security page for the U.S. government E-Verify program, you will read the following:

E-Verify is an Internet-based system that allows an employer, using information reported on an employee's Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to determine the eligibility of that employee to work in the United States. For most employers, the use of E-Verify is voluntary and limited to determining the employment eligibility of new hires only. There is no charge to employers to use E-Verify. The E-Verify system is operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration.

And, later on the same page:

E-Verify is a voluntary program for employers, with limited exceptions. Companies can access E-Verify online and compare an employee's Form I-9 information with over 455 million records in the Social Security Administration database, and more than 80 million records in Department of Homeland Security immigration databases. E-Verify is an essential tool for employers committed to maintaining a legal workforce, and the number of registered employers is growing by approximately 1,400 per week.

Why do employers sign up for E-Verify? To stay out of jail:

In fiscal year 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement made more than 1,100 criminal arrests associated with workplace investigations, according to its website. Of those arrests, more than 100 were business owners, managers or supervisors.

Another reason to use it - even though it's voluntary, it's not voluntary for some.

Temecula businesses will have to make sure their employees can legally work in the United States after the City Council unanimously passed an employment verification law Tuesday night.

Mayor Jeff Comerchero said the E-Verify ordinance is no different than the city enforcing speeding laws that are already on the books.

"We're obligated to enforce the law, and this is the law," he said.

Temecula's ordinance, modeled after a law in the city of Lancaster, will require holders of business licenses granted by the city to use E-Verify....

And there's a move to make E-Verify mandatory in another Inland Empire city:

Several residents have asked that the city [of Ontario] look into requiring businesses to use the government operated employment verification system, E-Verify....

Ontario resident, Susan Terry, who is unemployed, said she has a personal interest in seeing the system integrated in the city.

"It would open up a lot of jobs for myself," she said.

Councilman Alan Wapner asked city staff to study the matter, but I'm personally not certain that Ontario is likely to require E-Verify.

Incidentally, David Allen's Friday column in the Daily Bulletin included a good line regarding one E-Verify supporter.

From his seat in the audience, one of the activists continually waved a small Arizona flag. Outrageous. Does he want us to be Arizona? This is California, pal. You need to assimilate, pronto.

Afternoon delight at @my_delight

Yes, I know that I've been talking about My Delight Cupcakery in a couple of my blogs over the last few months. Here's a February post here in the Empoprise-IE Inland Empire blog, and here's a December post in my Empoprise-BI business blog.

But until today I never actually HAD a My Delight Cupcake.

You see, as a small business, My Delight isn't exactly open 24/7. And since I don't work in Ontario, I'm normally not around on weekdays when they ARE open, except at dinnertime. And you know the rule - thou shalt not spoil thy dinner. (Once I left for work late, but not late enough).

And on weekends, I'm usually running around doing other things.

But today, just before 5:00 pm, I found myself in the area of My Delight, and figured that this would be my chance. So I checked in:

finally... (@ My Delight Cupcakery) http://4sq.com/crteBI

I ended up having a mint chip cupcake that was filled with ice cream. Definitely an indulgence, and definitely recommended.

Oh, and if you happen to see this post on Saturday, July 24, check out one of their rare Sunday openings on Sunday, July 25 (Facebook event page).

(And for you young whippersnappers who don't know where I got the title of this post - read this. And yes, if I eat too many My Delight Cupcakes, I'll end up living in Fat City. And no, Fat City is not a place where I belong.)

The story of John Rains (in the Carbon Canyon Chronicle)

Just a pointer this morning to a post in the Carbon Canyon Chronicle about John Rains, who co-owned the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino and later owner the Rancho Cucamonga (the rancho, not the city).

In case you're wondering why the Carbon Canyon Chronicle is interested in the Rancho Santa Ana del Chino, read this post from April.

Identify a speedway's target audience (hint: some wear makeup)

I've never been to the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, but even non-racing fans have to admit that it's a major part of the Inland Empire. However, when I wanted to find out a simple question - how many seats does the Speedway have? - I had to dig through some other information to find it. The "Track Facts" page started with some structural information:

Structures

Buildings
230,000 concrete blocks

Fence
17 miles

Concrete
51,000 cubic yards

Steel and Rebar
370 tons

Grandstand Foundations
1,600 ea. (enough concrete to cover 10 football fields 1 foot thick)

Perhaps I'm going out on a limb here, but I get the sneaking suspicion that the Auto Club Speedway caters to guys. But luckily for me, the next item in the list is "Seating."

Seating
280,000 lbs. of aluminum

Uh, that doesn't exactly tell me what I was looking for. But dude, that's pretty cool.

After scrolling through some other structural facts, as well as some communications and facilities information (hey ladies, there's an infant care center!), I eventually got to an entire section on seating information.

Seating Information

Grandstand
Upper Level 36,030

Grandstand
Lower Level 42,490

Auto Club Speedway Club
12,530

Total Number of Disabled Seating
1,050 w/Companion

Total Grandstand Seating
92,100

Pit Lane Deluxe Corporate W/Handicapped Access
63

Skyboxes
28

So I got my answer - 92,100 not counting the special facilities. (I didn't know that racetracks had skyboxes; I guess everyone does now.)

And those 92,100 seats aren't used for just racing. The oddly named EPICENTER Twenty Ten (odd because there is a much smaller facility in Rancho Cucamonga that happens to be called the Epicenter) may not have a lot of cars, other than some sound effects in "Detroit Rock City." Featured artists include KISS, Eminem, Bush, Blink 182, Bad Religion, and Suicidal Tendencies. Not sure how well KISS' makeup will hold up in September, but the crowd will still like it.

Game theory in airline promotion

Now note that I'm not talking about gaming theory - I'm talking about game theory, which is somewhat different. At least in my mind.

Companies offer incentives to employees and other companies all the time, but incentives need to be carefully designed. For example, some incentives can have detrimental side effects - if you promise to offer bonuses to people who stay at work the longest, sooner or later you're going to have cots in cubicles, wet towels in shower stalls, and probably a satellite TV subscription buried in the accounting records.

San Bernardino International Airport, despite its grand name, is still trying to...um...get off the ground. Because of this, it decided to offer incentives to the first four airlines who initiated regular passenger service at the airport. I alluded to these incentives in a post I wrote last October. (I've also written about the airport at other times, including a detailed post in May 2010 and an "Empoprise-IE" rooster mention in June 2008.)

Unfortunately, the risks of starting business at a brand new airport had an unintended consequence regarding the incentive:

When San Bernardino International Airport offered incentives to the first four airlines that brought a schedule of flights with them, none wanted to be the first when they could be the third or fourth instead....

Yeah, let two other airlines take the risks, then march in and pocket the millions that the airport offers with minimized risk to yourself.

So the airport modified the offer:

Officials will now reward up to $2 million annually for two years and $1 million in startup and marketing costs to just the first two airlines to offer at least 12 flights a week.

Cause, effect, and airport policies

If I wanted to, I could spin a really really good cause and effect story regarding the policies that airports follow.

In the past I've commented on the high fees that Ontario International Airport is charging to the airlines that use the airport. But two recent stories indicate a possible change in the trend.

Fees lowered at ONT

Passenger traffic rises slightly at Ontario Airport

"Well, duh," you may be saying. "Of course if you lower the fees, then the airlines will be more apt to use the airport, and passenger traffic will start to grow again."

Only one problem - I listed the stories out of order.

The story about the rise in passenger traffic is the FIRST of the two stories, and talks about a one percent increase in May 2010 over May 2009.

The story about the lowering of the fees is the SECOND of the two stories, and those reductions are just now taking effect. Plus, as the article notes, even if this results in a significant cost savings for the airlines, it could take some time for this to be reflected in lower ticket prices.

Still, any good news about Ontario airport is good - provided that you live in Ontario.

Ontario Music closing - what will the competitors do?

On Wednesday, David Allen blogged about the closing of Ontario Music later this month. He said that he'll have more information in Friday's column, so go to http://www.dailybulletin.com/ to check for his column when it comes out.

Two comments:

First, as I suspected, David Allen himself was the source of my information regarding Zappa's association with Ontario Music. (See my post).

Second, I want to call your attention to a comment from Richard Firman:

This is a sad story! As a private instructor I used to send kids there all the time! Now, as a competitor, we sent people there all the time for things we ran out of because they always had it!

Now Firman didn't say where he works today, but it's clear that his employer is one who is focused on helping the customer (rather than just helping themselves). I know it sounds all Miracle on 34th Streety, but isn't it nice when Company X will send customers to Company Y in an attempt to help them?

But after Ontario Music is closed, where will Firman send his customers?

One David Allen reader has lived in the IE a REALLY long time

On Tuesday, David Allen requested participation via a blog post entitled "How to know you've lived here a long time."

Based upon my 1983 arrival in California, I added a few items. My personal favorite:

...there was a place called Licorice Pizza that didn't sell food.

I also mentioned the time when the area code changed to 909, but several other people not only mentioned this change, but also mentioned the change from phone numbers that started with two letters (e.g. "YU" for Yukon).

But it's not necessary for you to have lived here forever to contribute. Kristen McConnell arrived in the area in 1997, but even she has noticed changes in the last few years. Two examples:

--when there were open, thriving antique stores in B Street in Ontario

--The Ontario police WERE in downtown Ontario.

I don't know if the changes in the Inland Empire have been accelerated because of our suburban/exurban location, but the comments to Allen's post document a variety of changes in the area - some recent, some not so recent.

In the "not so recent" category, you have to include Bob House's contribution:

Tectonic forces along the San Andreas Fault created Mt. Baldy.

Well, that one's certainly before my time.

I encourage you to read all of the contributions here.

Does your sign spin around, revisited

I was checking my analytics and noticed that this 2008 post was getting a lot of traffic, so I figured I'd revisit the topic of sign spinning (a/k/a "human directional services") and Tryden Staffing in particular.

It turns out that Jobster has posted details on the secret to getting hired at Tryden Staffing. (Hint: there is no secret.)

Tryden Staffing has its own website, but it's for employees only. (westher.msn.com is a recommended resource for employees.)

Another firm, Builders Marketing Group, does have a public-facing website that speaks of their human directional services in detail.

BMG provides the best Human Directional Service available anywhere. We consistently achieve 98-100% attendance across the board, and have many quality control systems in place to ensure that you are getting the highest level of service available from anyone....

With a pool of over 7500 employees in California alone, BMG is large enough
to handle any and all of your Human Directional needs, yet small enough to
care about always doing whatever it takes to keep your business.

But, in an interesting turn of events, Tryden Staffing and Builders Marketing Group are actually the same firm.

Tryden Staffing is California’s Premier Marketing, Advertising and Promotional Staffing Agency. We are the inhouse recruiting firm for Builders Marketing Group.

A WHOIS search of buildersmarketinginc.com (plus one of trydenstaffing.com) reveals an underlying firm, JL Enterprises of Temecula (third-party info here and here). But they do seem to conceal their identity a bit.

Unless, of course, there's a sign spinner in front of 43218 Business Park Dr # 105.

Why John Adams wouldn't be mad about Ontario's July 3 celebration

Decades ago, when I was in the Boy Scouts, my friend and I went to play flute and drum at a Veterans Day event for a service organization. I can't remember if it was the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars or who, but whoever it was, they were pretty traditional.

You see, they celebrated Veterans Day ON VETERANS DAY. And they made a point of saying so. Even back long ago when I was a Boy Scout, Monday holidays were the rage, but not for everyone.

Of course, there are other reasons to move a holiday. In a nation where a good number of people self-identify as Christian, there is often a reluctance to celebrate on Sunday. This affects my home city of Ontario, California:

Residents will start celebrating Independence Day on July 3 with a Fourth of July parade. The celebration will begin at 9 a.m. and feature community floats and equestrian teams. Following the parade there will be a "bring your own picnic," gathering along the Euclid Avenue median.

Yes, my city is celebrating July 4 on July 3. (Although for some odd reason, the fireworks will still take place on the 4th. The fireworks take place in the newer part of Ontario, though - perhaps they're a bunch of Satan worshippers or something.)

Now I'm sure that some people are horrified about celebrating July 4 on July 3, but I imagine that John Adams wouldn't be one of them. (And not just because of his Unitarian leanings.) Because, you see, the U.S. didn't declare independence on July 4.

We declared independence on July 2 - an act that caused Adams to state:

"The second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival."

Adams was wrong on his celebration date, because we ended up celebrating on July 4, the date that the final approval, with edits, was given.

By 12 of the 13 colonies. New York waited a few days to approve.

Oh, and the document wasn't signed until August 2.

By 53 of the people who approved it. Three signed later.

So if you want to choose a day to celebrate American independence, take your pick.

Trigger to be sold? Say it isn't so!

For some reason Roy Rogers entered my mind this evening, and I idly searched my FriendFeed friends to see how much they talked about Roy. After seeing the paltry response, I wrote:

Only three of my FriendFeed friends have mentioned Roy Rogers in calendar year 2010. I need new friends.

So I searched outside my friend circle to see what people were saying about Roy.

I wish I hadn't.

You see, I ran across this article, which mentioned:

...a weekend clear-out at the former Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum, which closed last year.

Last I heard the museum had relocated from Victorville to Branson in 2003. The former Victorville site is now an auto mall. Apparently the museum didn't succeed in Branson either. Here's part of what Roy Rogers Jr. said:

The decision to close the Museum has come after two years of steady decline in visitors to the Museum. A lot of factors have made our decision for us. The economy for one, people are just not traveling as much. Dad's fans are getting older, and concerned about their retirement funds. Everyone is concerned about their future in this present economy. Secondly, with our high fiscal obligations we cannot continue to accumulate debt to keep the doors open.This situation is one I have not wanted to happen. Dad always said- “If the museum starts costing you money, then liquidate everything and move on.” Myself and my family have tried to hold together the Museum and collection for over 15 years, so it is very difficult to think that it will all be gone soon.

But the article was not about the museum closure. It was about something even more shocking.

One of Hollywood's most beloved animal stars is to be sold off at auction -- even though it's dead.

Country cowboy and singer Roy Rogers had his trusty equine sidekick Trigger stuffed when the animal died in 1965.

A taxidermist was commissioned to mount the animal in a rearing position.

Now, the creature is to be sold off next month....

Yes, they're auctioning off Trigger.

And you know how the joke goes...there's a likely buyer.

Avoiding the three letter "t" word in Ontario hotels

Cities that market themselves as travel destinations have to maintain a fine balancing act. The purpose of the marketing is to make money, but at the same time you want the destination to be attractive.

Of course, when you make money, you have to determine whether it's more important for city businesses to make money, or the city government to make money. The cities themselves can make a case for the latter, saying that the income is not only needed to continue to promote the city, but is also needed to maintain all of the services that the visitors and the residents require.

And when you're in a recession, everybody loses. In the case of Ontario, the city lost 27% of the revenue that it gets from its transient occupancy t - wait, I'd better not say that three letter "t" word.

As a result, the city of Ontario has increased its transient occupancy...you know...rate from 11.75% to 12.75%. It is expected that this will result in a $680,000 revenue increase.

As for my reluctance to use the t-word, I'm taking this from Councilman Alan Wapner:

"I don't see the TOT as a tax as much as a user fee, and, right now, we don't have as much users as we use to," Councilman Alan Wapner said.

However, this isn't a case in which you'll have to pay the tax, whether you like it or not. No, this will have to be voted upon by the people on November 2. Unfortunately, according to Liset Marquez, the vote itself will add $125,000 to election costs.

Riverside and Upland Footy Fun

LiveSoccerTV.com includes a list of soccer-friendly pubs in North America. Two local pubs are listed:

Auld Dubliner in Riverside

The Black Watch Pub in Upland

But will either place be open early for the 7am (in our time zone) World Cup games?

How local can you get?

I've had the day off of work today, and I've taken care of a few tasks here at home, built some Apollos and Poseidons in Starfleet Commander, and sent this tweet:

@OntarioCA did howard snider stop by YOUR house?

Now @OntarioCA didn't answer my previous tweet (see this post for the story behind that), so I'm not holding out hope that this one will be answered either.

But while @OntarioCA may not know who Howard Snider is, long-time readers of Empoprise-IE certainly know. Snider is the former mayor of Ontario and an active member of Kiwanis, and he has come door-to-door in 2009 and 2008 to promote an early June Kiwanis breakfast event.

A few weeks ago he made his annual visit to our door, and we bought tickets for this year's event, which will take place on Euclid Avenue tomorrow. He happened to visit just after the L.A. City Council announced its intent to study selling Ontario International Airport back to Ontario. Sadly, Snider had no special knowledge of the L.A. City Council's actions.

Is the original Vince's Spaghetti not the original Vince's Spaghetti?

In the process of writing my Monday post about the @OntarioCA Twitter account, I performed a Google search for "vince's spaghetti." When I did, the first search result was Vince's Spaghetti...in Torrance, California.

The first part of the Vince's Torrance story sounds familiar to a lot of us:

It has been over 55 years since Vincent Cuccia and his two brothers first opened Vince's Restaurant in Ontario, California.

Built on Holt Boulevard near the corner of Mountain Avenue, the original Vince's was a six-stool, open-air roadside stand which put to good use the acres and acres of orange groves that comprised Ontario in the middle 1940's. Along with orange juice, Vince's originally served a French Dip Sandwich, based on an Au Jus recipe created by Vince's mother, to the many movie stars as they traveled along the highway to Palm Springs, and to the members of the Armed Forces stationed at Edwards Air Force Base.

But ever the visionary, and frustrated by an inability to find spaghetti and meat sauce comparable to that in his native Chicago, Vince convinced his mother to help him develop the meat sauce recipe that is still used today. After almost two years of trial and error and taste tests, to which the family would add their opinions: "add some more of this," or "it's got a little too much of that"—Vince and his mother created exactly what they—and apparently a lot of other people—were looking for.

At the same time, the menu was not the only thing marked for expansion. As word of Vince's fabulous spaghetti sauce spread, people would line up to get take-out of the same generous portions that are still served today. Before long, the original idea of orange juice and fresh fruit was absorbed by the almost 600 plates of spaghetti served daily—a total of almost 11 tons of spaghetti served per week.


But fast forward a few decades after 1945, and the story...um...forks:

After 25 years of working with the family, Vince and his brothers agreed to go their separate ways; Vince sold his interest in the Ontario location and moved with his wife Louise, daughter Rosemary (affectionately known as DeeDee), and her husband Bill, to the South Bay.

Hawthorne Boulevard looked attractive to Vince, so he settled on the corner at 23609, and in April, 1973, Vince's Spaghetti Restaurant of Torrance was opened.

So if Vince himself (who has since passed away) moved to Torrance, then is the Torrance location the original Vince's?

Interestingly enough, the Ontario version of this story seems to be lacking one particular word. See if you can spot it.

The Cuccias arrived from Chicago as WWII was ending.

Once in California, the Cuccia's opened a family sandwich stand in late Summer 1945. Frank Cuccia's father John was still in Europe in the Army when Cuccia's uncles and aunt opened the stand. Two months later Cuccia says, one of those uncles happened to be eating a plate of his mother's spaghetti when a customer spied it and asked if the plate of pasta and meatballs was on the menu. It wasn't, but anything for a good customer and a plate of spaghetti was brought in from the family's home. The rest is history.

Yes - if you scan the entire history, you will never see any of Frank's uncles mentioned by name. And, needless to say, the Ontario website says nothing about the Torrance location.

I don't know if this apparent schism is accidental, if there's a simmering feud, or if the two branches of the family are lobbing meatballs at each other.

Have any of my readers been out to Torrance? Can you offer a comparison?

Pretending to be local?

If you choose to do so, you can use the Internet to target a very small vertical cross-section of the total Internet audience, allowing you to focus on just those things that are of interest to you. Therefore, since the Inland Empire of California is one of four chosen Empoprises focus areas, I was very pleased when my Twitter account was followed by @OntarioCA. But as I read the tweets, I noticed something. See if you can notice it also.

We love Ontario's unique local businesses & they need all of us. Make your Local Pledge now! http://ow.ly/1DQU6

Donate to a local charity? Love a local restaurant? Shop the farmers market? Make a My Local Pledge now & tell friends! http://ow.ly/1EgZT

If you read these and other tweets, you will note that these tweets are devoid of specific local content. The tweeter (or tweet committee) doesn't make explicit mention of Chaffey High School or Vince's or anything that is actually in Ontario.

The reason becomes apparent when you go to the linked website, My Local Pledge. On the one hand, the website strongly urges people to buy in their local communities. On the other hand, it covers a lot of local communities.

Agoura Hills
Anaheim
Bakersfield
Bellflower
Berkeley
Beverly Hills
Brentwood
Burbank
Calabasas
Carlsbad
Carson
Chatsworth
Chico
Chula Vista
Claremont
Clovis
Concord
Corona
Costa Mesa
Culver City
Daly City
Eagle Rock
El Cajon
Encino
Fremont
Fresno
Glendale
Glendora
Hermosa Beach
Huntington Beach
Irvine
Long Beach
Los Angeles
Los Feliz
Malibu
Manhattan Beach
Marina Del Rey
Newport Beach
North Hollywood
Northridge
Oakland
Oceanside
Ontario
Oxnard
Palm Springs
Palmdale
Pasadena
Pleasanton
Pomona
Redondo Beach
Reseda
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
Santa Barbara
Santa Clara
Santa Clarita
Santa Monica
Sherman Oaks
Silver Lake
Stockton
Studio City
Tarzana
Thousand Oaks
Torrance
Van Nuys
Venice
Ventura
West Hollywood
Woodland Hills

This got me wondering - where is My Local Pledge itself based? If I support My Local Pledge, am I contributing to Ontario? Well, according to a whois search, I'm not:

Registrant Info: (FAST-14284098)
City Sites LLC
Katherine Higgins
1011 East Olive Ave
Burbank, California 91501
United States
Phone: +1.8185667660
Fax..:
Email: kate@citysitesinc.com
Last modified: 2010-04-01 00:36:29 GMT

Well, let's see if I get a response to this tweet:

@OntarioCA Is Vince's open today?

Of course, if I were really smart, I'd tweet that on a Wednesday...

P.S. I just belatedly discovered Vince's Spaghetti's Facebook page.

In praise of San Bernardino International Airport...eventually

When Norton Air Force Base was closed, it converted to an entity with the grandiose name of San Bernardino International Airport. If it hadn't been for September 11, this airport could very well have become a passenger-carrying concern. However, the airport can't serve passenger traffic yet, and may not for some time:

The cost to make San Bernardino International Airport passenger ready for airlines has risen to $92.4 million and will likely rise again....

[T]he Inland Valley Development Agency overseeing the redevelopment of the former Norton Air Force Base approved spending another $5.93 million to finish the airport....

[T]he $5.9 million would mainly be used to secure the airport according to TSA standards.

Of course you can build an airport, but will the airlines come? The recent rocky history of Ontario International Airport, where airlines have departed because of low passenger traffic and high airport fees, suggest that there may be challenges. However, the airport is apparently offering incentives to airlines, and the Inland Valley Development Agency will continue to subsidize the airport.

But will that be enough?

In praise of Ontario International Airport

There are certain things that I will avoid saying if at all possible. For example, I try my hardest to refrain from using the name "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim." (That is literally the first time that I have used this phrase in years.) In fact, I went so far as to rename Arte Moreno to emphasize my dissatisfaction with the name.

Another name that I try to avoid is "LA/Ontario International Airport." However, the airport name can be justified in a way that the baseball team name cannot - the city of Los Angeles actually owns the airport in Ontario.

But if Ontario City Council member Alan Wapner has its way, that might change.

ONT lost nearly 26 percent of its air traffic volume in the past year and also had to deal with a $7 million shortfall to its 2009-10 budget.

In recent years, Wapner said he has noticed a lack of communication when it comes to ONT between LAWA and the city of Los Angeles.

Wapner has also said LAWA has not done enough to lower operating costs and drive more air traffic to ONT.

As a result, Wapner made a request of the Los Angeles City Council.

The city of Los Angeles will study what it would require and what it would stand to lose or gain to return control of Ontario International Airport to the city of Ontario, according to a motion approved 12-3 Monday by the city council.

During a three-minute discussion toward the end of an 11-hour special Los Angeles City Council meeting Monday to talk about the city’s budget crisis, councilmembers Greig Smith and Bill Rosendahl introduced the motion. It requires the city administrative officer, chief legislative analyst and Los Angeles World Airports which owns and operates LAX and Ontario Airport, to research the feasibility of transferring control of the airport to the city of Ontario and report back before Sept. 1.

But does this study truly mean anything?

Rosendahl downplayed the motion as a “courtesy” to the city of Ontario. He said he had received a call from Ontario Councilman and Vice Mayor Alan Wapner.

“They’ve called me, the vice mayor of that, the other day, and he said blah, blah, blah,” Rosendahl said during the meeting, referring to the call from Wapner.

As the city spends a hefty sum to modernize LAX, Rosendahl inferred that traffic would naturally pick up at Ontario airport and, in that case, transferring the airport to the Inland city wouldn’t be necessary.

@YogurtimeUpland - I am eating my words

At one point I held over a dozen mayorships in Foursquare, but as the service has become more popular, I have lost every one of my mayorships except for one - the mayorship for Yogurtime, a frozen yogurt place at 110 South Mountain in Upland, California.

I've only written about Yogurtime once in my Empoprise-IE Inland Empire blog - in a December 2009 post that looked at the brouhaha between certain customers of Yogurtime and the Upland High Gay-Straight Alliance.

But I did write about Yogurtime at length in my Empoprise-BI business blog - in a post (also from December 2009) that noted that Yogurtime didn't really control the online marketing of their business. Search results for Yogurtime were dominated by results from Yelp and other sources - and by a Yogurtime Twitter page. Just one problem:

Yogurtime's Twitter account ranks very highly in Google search results. Only problem is that this @yogurtime Twitter account is for a Yogurtime in Hong Kong.

So, because I know how to spell SEO, I made a humble suggestion:

So all the folks in Upland need to do is to establish a @yogurtimeupland Twitter account, and hopefully all the third-party content on Yogurtime will be pushed down the search queue....

I'd email Yogurtime with these suggestions...but their email is not listed. Perhaps they'll find this post and at least set up a Twitter account to communicate with their customers online.

And maybe they'll implement privileges for FourSquare mayors. :) One can only hope...

Well, it's now several months later, and I spent a little bit of time on Sunday afternoon in Yogurtime (maintaining my mayorship, of course). While there, I noticed that Yogurtime HAS set up a @YogurtimeUpland Twitter account. While I seriously doubt that my post prompted them to do this - I don't even know if they ever saw my post - I'm glad to see that Yogurtime has joined its Hong Kong brethren in the Twitter world.

The first @YogurtimeUpland tweet was on April 10, and by April 20 they were already offering online specials:

Today only: whisper 3Free to the cashier to receive 3 ounces of yogurt for free!

Unfortunately, not many people know about the Twitter account yet. When I began following the account this afternoon, there were only two other followers. But even though there are only three followers, the Twitter presence is already yielding positive results. While a Google search of "Yogurtime" still results in the Yelp listing being the first entry, the @YogurtimeUpland Twitter account has climbed up to third (after the Foursquare entry). My December 2009 Empoprise-BI blog post has fallen to 19th.

Imagine what will happen when more people find out about the Twitter account. Yogurtime will have more control over their online presence and reputation. And that can be a good thing.

Claremont High School's Kori Carter featured in Saturday's Los Angeles Times

I was reading the paper today, and ran across this article on Kori Carter, a hurdler at Claremont High School.

Now I have never been to a Claremont High track meet, but I was talking to someone who happens to know Carter, and apparently the paper describes her fairly accurately.

Here's how Melissa Rohlin started her article:

Before Kori Carter annihilates her high school competitors with her speed, she disarms them with a hug.

The Claremont High senior, one of the top young hurdlers in the nation, approaches each of her adversaries before races, throws her arms around them and says a prayer. Her family said that some people find it endearing, and others find it mystifying.

"I'm just a hugger," Carter said. "It's just how I say hello. It's not that big of a deal to be nice to people."

More here.

#followfriday why @thevixy @EvelynErives @darknight247

I'm...um...following in the tradition of my Friday April 9 post in my Empoprise-MU music blog and, semi-following a suggestions from Chris Brogan, using a blog post to provide additional "follow Friday" information on the people that I'm following.

The three people mentioned in this post are in some way connected with the Inland Empire.

Let's start with Caroline. I knew that I was going to include @thevixy in this Inland Empire list. Caroline is a student, a tweeter, a blogger, a FriendFeeder, and probably a few dozen other things. Definitely a multi-faceted individual. Plus, she likes my stuff on FriendFeed.

While social media types know Caroline, Inland Empire radio types know Evelyn - Evelyn Erives of KGGI. She tweets as @EvelynErives when she isn't trading barbs with Jeff Pope in the morning. Erives blogs at the KGGI web site.

Now the next person isn't famous on radio, and I'm not sure how famous he is in the social media world, but Foursquare users in the area certainly know him. Salvador tweets as @darknight247, and of course can also be found on Foursquare. And he gets around a lot, so he could oust you as mayor of a location - he ousted me.

And yes, I do have a Twitter list associated with the Empoprise-IE blog: http://twitter.com/empoprises/empoprise-ie.

We demand more sloshing pools!

I haven't mentioned anything about the Easter earthquake in this blog, but I did add a comment to David Allen's blog post about the earthquake. Allen described his impressions of the earthquake, which in a sense paralleled most of us in southern California - Is this an earthquake? How big is it? Where is it centered?

Note that I said MOST of us. I didn't personally feel the quake myself, as I noted:

I was in Ontario, walking across the room, and didn't feel anything, but the people that were sitting commented on how long the earthquake was. Then I saw the pool in the backyard and noticed that the water in the pool was in mini-tsunami mode.

A little later in the afternoon I turned on the radio and listened to KNX's coverage of the quake. This is when I learned that the epicenter was far away from us, south of Mexicali.

When you live in southern California, you learn how different media outlets cover a quake. In the case of KNX radio, they tend to take a lot of phone calls, some of which in retrospect have minimal news value. I didn't call KNX with my impressions, but obviously mine would fall into the "minimal news value" category. KNX did, however, take a call from someone who was in contact with relatives in Mexico.

But not all of us tuned into the radio. Blog commenter John Clifford noted:

Spent the next 3 hours watching SPECIAL REPORTS on the quake and the conversation turned to the sorry state of the media that showed images of sloshing pools over and over and over again.

This prompted Allen to reply:

[Hey, John Bredehoft (see above) might have found those images fascinating. -- DA]

Frankly, our local television news is often subject to ridicule for its coverage. In my mind, the most infamous occurrence was when Channel 4 had a reporter on scene in Santa Barbara, reporting LIVE, to state that Linda McCartney did NOT die in Santa Barbara, but in Arizona. (For those who don't recall the intentional confusion surrounding the death of McCartney, see here.)

But for people like me who missed the spectacular TV coverage, there's always YouTube. Temecula:



Temple City:



West Los Angeles:



Now by way of comparison, take a look at this earthquake pool coverage from Hawaii:



If you find this fascinating, I could find more videos.

Von Trapp Fact and Fiction, This Time at Chaffey High School

Chaffey High School will be presenting a production of "The Sound of Music." This play (and the more-famous movie) is a semi-accurate telling of the story of the singing von Trapp family. Some of the differences between the musical and the real story are documented in other places on the web.

"The Sound of Music" ends with the von Trapp family leaving Austria, but does not tell about their subsequent emigration to the United States. Chaffey High School provides these helpful details:

[T]he show will be produced by Billman/Masterson productions and a cast of 80 at the majestic Gardiner W Spring Auditorium on the campus of Chaffey High School.

The true story of Maria, Captain von Trapp and their seven children will be rightly told in GWS as it was here that the family made their first American concert appearance on February 5, 1942.

A wonderful coincidence, but unfortunately the National Archives can't confirm the historic nature of the Chaffey appearance:

The family, along with their musical conductor, Rev. Franz Wasner, and secretary, Martha Zochbauer, left Austria for Italy in June 1938. They entered the United States at New York in the fall of 1938 under six month visitors' visas and almost immediately began a concert tour in Pennsylvania. Son Johannes was born in January 1939 in Philadelphia.

I have not found an accurate listing of von Trapp concert appearances, but mathematics seems to suggest that a concert in Pennsylvania in late 1938 would have occurred well before any appearance in California in February 1942.

Incidentally, the National Archives itself documents the differences between the real and fictionalized von Trapp family. Here are some of them:

Maria came to the von Trapp family in 1926 as a tutor for one of the children, Maria, who was recovering from scarlet fever, not as governess to all the children.

Maria and Georg married in 1927, 11 years before the family left Austria, not right before the Nazi takeover of Austria.

Maria did not marry Georg von Trapp because she was in love with him. As she said in her autobiography Maria, she fell in love with the children at first sight, not their father. When he asked her to marry him, she was not sure if she should abandon her religious calling but was advised by the nuns to do God's will and marry Georg. "I really and truly was not in love. I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children, so in a way I really married the children. . . . [B]y and by I learned to love him more than I have ever loved before or after."

There were 10, not 7 von Trapp children.

The names, ages, and sexes of the children were changed.

The family was musically inclined before Maria arrived, but she did teach them to sing madrigals.

Georg, far from being the detached, cold-blooded patriarch of the family who disapproved of music, as portrayed in the first half of The Sound of Music, was actually a gentle, warmhearted parent who enjoyed musical activities with his family. While this change in his character might have made for a better story in emphasizing Maria's healing effect on the von Trapps, it distressed his family greatly.

The family did not secretly escape over the Alps to freedom in Switzerland, carrying their suitcases and musical instruments. As daughter Maria said in a 2003 interview printed in Opera News, "We did tell people that we were going to America to sing. And we did not climb over mountains with all our heavy suitcases and instruments. We left by train, pretending nothing."

The inaccuracy that hurt the family the most was the portrayal of Georg the father, but I would assume that they accepted this as part of God's will. But I don't know if Georg or Maria could have conceived of a day in which their establishment, the Trapp Family Lodge, would eventually have Twitter and Facebook accounts. I saw the following on the latter:

This April, the hills are alive with the sounds of...beer. Join us for the Trapp Lodge brewery grand opening celebration Apr 16-18

Hey, the von Trapps were Austrian Catholics. They weren't Methodists or anything like that. If you want to say "So long, farewell" and head to the brewery, read this.

Off with their heads! Or did two local YMCAs shoot themselves in the feet?

Whatever you call it - firings, layoffs, downsizing, rightsizing - the idea is that you can reduce an organization's costs without taking a major hit in revenue. Which is why the CEO of a company is never laid off, because the CEO is essential to a company's operations.

A board of directors, however, is another matter. Or at least that's how two local YMCAs look at it, according to Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino:

The governing boards at two Inland Valley YMCAs have been dissolved and their executive directors laid off.

The changes, prompted by the challenging economic environment, were implemented late last week for the Ontario/Montclair as well as the Rancho Cucamonga & Fontana Valley YMCAs.

Needless to say, there are two sides (at least) to this story. DiMartino talked to the president/CEO of the West End YMCA, which oversees the two YMCAs in question (plus two others). President Debra Anderson took pains to emphasize that no programs would be affected. And that probably makes sense; it's probably not a board of directors person who tosses out the basketballs.

So what did the boards of directors do?

According to some understandably angry former board members, they did...fundraising.

"They don't understand the complexity of YMCA," [former Ontario/Montclair executive director Larry Enriquez] said. "It has a huge impact on the community. This was supposed to be a good year. We had a number of funders committed."...

[Olivia] Sevilla [former chairwoman of the Ontario-Montclair board of managers] ... said several grant opportunities totalling close to $400,000 may be in jeopardy.

Sevilla also made a point of noting that the board members were entrenched in the community, which is another way of saying that they have clout, and know people who have clout.

Case in point - Sevilla's predecessor in the position was Sue Ovitt (who didn't like the changes either), who is now on the Chaffey Joint Union High School District board.

And Sue Ovitt is married to a former teacher at Chaffey High.

Who later became mayor of Ontario.

Who is now on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.

Debra Anderson would probably be better off standing in front of a unionized grocery store in northwest Ontario with an "I Love Wal-Mart" sign. The local YMCAs may run into a bit of trouble if the political establishment is mad at them.

The proximity seems like a lose-lose-lose for everyone involved.

Chino Hills, California (Chino Hills Parkway west of Pipeline).

Klatch Coffee and Starbucks - an interesting turn of events

You have Starbucks, you have the other big chains...and you have the smaller chains.

Klatch Coffee has locations in San Dimas and Rancho Cucamonga, and now they're getting ready to open a new one. Liset Marquez...um...spills the beans:

The Klatch is now expanding, moving into a former Starbucks location in Ontario...

Specifically, the location in 951 North Haven Avenue.

It turns out that I'm familiar with this location - it's near a Kohl's, and right across the street from Ontario Mills. I've been to this Starbucks before and liked it, but I was unaware that this particular Starbucks had closed.

Klatch Coffee's own page on the new location is here.

And to put a little historical perspective on this, it was about two years ago that Starbucks had its famous store closure to teach its baristas how to make coffee. Klatch Coffee took the attitude "Our people ALREADY know how to make coffee," and took advantage of Starbucks' closure. I wrote about it at the time.

I'm sure the management at Klatch Coffee is really enjoying this.

The advantage of Facebook-friending Robeks Claremont

Some time ago, I discovered that the Robeks smoothie place in Claremont had its own Facebook page, and I went ahead and joined it. Which ended up paying off.

The page itself is private, so I can't really show it to you, but last weekend they announced that they were going to have a "Free Coffee Smoothies" special on Tuesday between 6pm and 7pm. Customers could sample three of their new smoothies - coffee, mocha, and hazelnut - and the first fifteen people who signed up on Facebook would then be eligible to get a free 12 oz coffee smoothie. However, you had to give Robeks the right to make a Facebook/MySpace commercial of your experience.

By the time I saw the announcement, more than 15 people had already signed up, so I knew that I wouldn't get the free smoothie, but I figured that I'd try the samples.

Unfortunately for Robeks, the hour of their special happened to be the exact same hour that a fierce rainstorm was pelting Claremont. Therefore, by the time I arrived at Robeks at around 6:20 pm, there were fewer than 15 people in the store.

Way fewer.

As in, five people - if you count the two employees.

So the best laid plans of mice and smoothie shops are at the mercy of freak Southern California weather.

They did ask my ratings of the three smoothies on a 1-10 scale, and I gave the coffee smoothie a 7.5-8, the hazelnut smoothie a 6 (I'm not a hazelnut fan), and the mocha a 9.

And because of the low crowds, Robeks gave me one of the coupons anyway - which I then proceeded to give to my daughter later in the evening. (She's the one who introduced me to Robeks anyway, so I owed her something.)

Oh, and they didn't feature me in a Facebook or MySpace commercial - but I am admittedly way outside of their target market...

Incidentally, if you're an Inland Empire Facebook user, just search for "Robeks Claremont" and you'll find their page.

Wal-Mart, Snobbery, and Food Choices?

I recently wrote about fast food in my business blog, and fast food plays a part in a theory about Wal-Mart.

But first, let's provide an update. And I'll try to keep calm.

The Ontario Mountain Village Association, as part of their repeated and continued attempts to preserve a graffiti-ridden empty lot in northwest Ontario - I guess they want to lower their property values by having decaying vacant space next to their homes - have filed an appeal of the City of Ontario's decision to finally allow the Wal-Mart to be constructed in northwest Ontario.

However, as I write this, the Ontario Mountain Village Association has apparently not discovered the blog post that covers their lawsuit, because of the four comments on the post, exactly zero of them support the OMVA's position. Matt has (so far) written the longest comment, and while he doesn't support the move to keep the Wal-Mart out of Ontario, he's hoping that Wal-Mart will do more than put a big box at Mountain & 5th.

Target sucks and is no better than Walmart. These stores should both stop wasting our open space on these one story box stores with oceans of parking. They should consider a two level approach with a parking structure, leaving room for a plaza, a parkway, and a restaurant.

This would make these shopping centers interesting for pedestrian shoppers instead of dangerous and uninviting. The big box approach to retail will fizzle out and die like a 1960's shopping mall, even in the burbs.

Build a Super Walmart but build it right. Come on Ontario, I know you can force them to design a more urban walmart plaza or court, a Super Walmart that would make the Chaffey brothers proud...LOL.

I've seen the more urban walmarts. They are much better than a crappy old one story Walmart. They don't waste land! (under-utilization).

But then Matt shared a theory which may be of interest.

The Rancho Cucamonga Walmart is no different from many walmarts I've seen except instead of having Mc Donalds fast food in the parking lot there is a Claim Jumper Restaurant. This is a better restaurant choice which draws larger more diverse crowds to the center while also attracting more affluent shoppers.

Rancho Walmart w/ Claim Jumper
More Affluent ($$ / $$$$$)

instead of

Upland Walmart w/ Mc Donalds
Less Affluent ($ / $$$$$).

Personally, I think that Matt is oversimplifying the causes - I think that the problems in the Upland Wal-Mart are due to bad management rather than food choices, and most people don't base their shopping destination choices on the available food. But it is an interesting idea, and if you believe Matt's model, then what will happen to the Ontario Wal-Mart when Cory Briggs' last appeal is denied and a non-union - oh, did I say "non-union"? I'm sure that doesn't enter into Briggs' plans - when Cory Briggs' last appeal is denied and a store replaces the three empty stores on the vacant lot?

On the one hand, you have a Carl's Jr next to the store site. Score one for Matt's Upland model.

On the other hand, you have a Starbucks, a My Delight Cupcakery, a wings place, a sushi grill, and some other non-fast food restaurants just down the street.

We'll follow this continuing saga.

A hub of an idea

People are really really trying to make Ontario an interconnected transportation hub. On January 6, I wrote about efforts to bring rail to Ontario International Airport. But there's another idea floating around, according to Liset Marquez:

A report released by the Urban Land Institute on Tuesday affirmed the city's vision for the 250-acre site known as the Meredith property.

The city has long envisioned creating a core development centered on a transit plaza on the vacant land just north of the 10 Freeway and east of Vineyard Avenue.

It is one of the few remaining large undeveloped sites in the city.

And, luckily for planners, it's not too far away from the airport. But one part of the plan raises an interesting question.

The recommendations are in line with the city's vision to develop the Meredith property as a lifestyle center with high-density buildings while creating a new urban downtown, said Greg Devereaux, Ontario city manager.

(Sharp-eyed readers will notice that this is a dated story. It's from January 21.)

The one interesting part of this is that the city has spent the last few years sinking lots of money into the EXISTING downtown - and now we're looking at creating a new downtown?

How do animals in a forest play bingo?

My grandmother in law died recently, which meant that a family tradition has come to and end. When my wife and I would visit her, we would go to her apartment, take her out to dinner, and then my wife and grandmother (and sometimes I) would play bingo at the Sunset Station casino. Always the 7:00 pm game, because they had a triple-whatever reward. Not that we ever won, but it was something that we did. (Incidentally, I briefly mentioned this in my business blog once.)

In addition to the family issues, the game itself has an interesting appeal, which means that I have occasionally mulled over the idea of playing bingo at other locations. (And yes, I am middle aged. You probably didn't have to ask.)

Well, one potential place to play bingo is at Ontario Elks Lodge 1419. Liset Marquez posted the details:

Ontario Elks Lodge #1419 has Bingo every Wednesday Night.
Doors open at 4 p.m. and the games begin at 6:30 p.m.. There is food
service and a large open room to play in. K.D Ische is the caller.

Now this is not like cow chip bingo, and presumably is a little different than woman's club bingo.

But there's one thing I can't figure out - how does an elk hold the bingo card?

(Picture source, license)

Depending upon your position, rail to ONT is or isn't a win-win

It's often fascinating to study how people and groups form opinions on various positions, and WHY these positions are formed. More often than not the explanation lies in the old saying "follow the money."

Take this story:

A new position at Los Angeles World Airports, the owner and operator of Los Angeles International Airport and Ontario International Airport, will focus on a long-discussed plan to link Los Angeles to Ontario via the Metro Gold Line light rail system.

Before proceeding, it's important to note that Ontario International Airport is owned by the city of Los Angeles, based upon a deal that happened years and years ago. That's why you'll hear some people referring to "LA/Ontario International Airport" - a term that I refuse to use. (I also refuse to refer to the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim." So sue me.)

Now why would Los Angeles want to own an airport way out here, when they control a huge airport within their own city limits? Because the city's own airport is being hampered by huge growth restrictions. Between environmentalist pressures and the sheer lack of space, LAX just plain can't grow at an acceptable rate to support potential additional air traffic. Hence Los Angeles has a vested interest in redirecting traffic out to their other airport property, the one out here in Ontario.

Needless to say, people here in Ontario support the idea.

Jess Romo, Ontario airport's manager, said a direct rail link between the airport and downtown Los Angeles would be vital.

"There's no doubt it would increase the passenger traffic here," he said.

That's important, because as the article notes, and as has been noted previously on this blog, Ontario International Airport has suffered some major passenger declines - partially because of September 11, and partially because of the high fees that airlines are charged to use the airport.

Yes, the same group that wants to increase use of Ontario airport also sets fees that are so high that airlines are pulling out of the airport.

Meanwhile, the people who want a rail line to Ontario airport have to compete against people who want rail lines to other places...and people who want more cops on the streets...and people who want to keep teachers from being fired.

Because while we're talking about rail systems, California's in a budget crisis. And while the rail discussions are a long-term...um...proposition, frankly I'm not certain that California's budget problems will be solved, even in the long-term.

So any talk about a rail connection to the airport may be a dream.

However, there technically IS a light rail connection between downtown Los Angeles and Ontario airport. Only problem is that the rail connection is on the wrong side of Ontario airport.



You see, Metrolink's East Ontario station (3330 E Francis St, Ontario CA 91761) is on the south side of Ontario airport. Only problem is, the terminals are on the north side of the airport.

Perhaps a shuttle service could connect the two...but that wouldn't help on the weekends, because the Riverside line doesn't run on weekends.

And again, budgetary pressures probably mean that Metrolink service won't be expanded in the near future.