Another option for local election coverage

OK, if you're not from the IE, you're going to have to put up with our sob story for a minute.

One of my favorite spectator sports is election night results. And not just the top of the ballot - I want to hear about my entire ballot. I went ahead and votoed for (or against) all of the stuff - why not find out how the rest of the area voted?

So I tune into our local television stations and hear all of the election results - for Los Angeles County.

Thanks a lot.

Well, one year I had another option - our local public television station, channel 24, offered local coverage. This consisted of a guy in a monotone reading election results, coupled with a woman at one of the party headquarters asking inconsequential questions.

However, there's always the Internet. You can visit http://www.sbcounty.gov/rov/current_elections/110210/ElectionResults/default.htm for San Bernardino County results, or http://www.voteinfo.net/currentElection.asp for Riverside County results. And there are all sorts of bloggers everywhere who will voice opinions on...every election except the one that I'm interested in. No, I don't really care about the witch in Delaware; what about the warlocks and witches in my own back yard?

Which is why I was happy to read this news from Matt Munson:

I am planning a live blog on the election and provide coverage throughout the day, even when I head to the voting booth. All thanks to the blackberry I can provide remote coverage.

I look forward to reading Munson's coverage. Check his Inland Utopia blog for updates.

Rick McClure responds

Last Monday, I posted an item entitled Dipping into the local election junk mail which included the following regarding the Ontario-Montclair School District election:

One of the teachers' union mailings was very teamwork-oriented, speaking of teacher-principal-parent teams as well as the "Teachers' Education Team" of Steve Garcia, Elvia Rivas, and Kris Brake. Garcia is the only incumbent who was mentioned in this mailer. The union says that the three will respond to Sacramento's budget cuts by keeping "budget cuts as far away from the classroom as possible." Brake, in her separate mailer, says that she "will work to ensure that taxpayer funds are utilized to directly benefit students."

But the teachers' union sent out a separate mailer - one that lives up to the high "standards" set by the state governor's race....

What follows is a hard-hitting attack on Paul Vincent Avila's stances on the issues affecting the board...well, except for the issues part. The hard-hitting attack is still there....

Perhaps I'm going out on a limb here, but I highly suspect that the teachers' union has objections to Avila other than his language or his electioneering.

My post prompted a reply from Rick McClure, President of the Ontario-Montclair Teachers Association, which I am reproducing here in full:

Well, as the President of the union responsible for that piece I think I'm qualified to speak to this. I suggest you go to www.voteoutavila.com and see and read for yourself about Mr. Avila. If after reading just his emails to me and the other candidates for the school board you think I've got ulterior motives, well OK. But I'm willing to bet my next paycheck that instead you'll be saying, "OMG, this nut's an elected official!"

If you go to the www.voteoutavila.com website, you can see electronic copies of BOTH mailings - the one regarding Avila is at the top of the page, while the one regarding "the education team" of Garcia, Rivas, and Brake is at the bottom of the page. (Since this is the "vote out Avila" website, the order of the ads is reasonable - there is another page in which "the education team" is at the top.) There are also links (some of which have expired) to some of the correspondence from and to Avila.

To my knowledge, Avila does not have a campaign website, but his official school board biography, as well as the biographies of J. Steve Garcia and the other incumbent school board members, can be found here.

Alan Wapner's LAX-ONT conflict of interest claims

As noted previously, Ontario City Councilman Alan Wapner has been a vocal proponent of purchasing Ontario International Airport from its current owner, the city of Los Angeles. In a recent letter in the Los Angeles Times, Wapner argued that the city of Los Angeles has a conflict of interest in running ONT:

Los Angeles has an inherent conflict of interest in controlling both airports. As Los Angeles struggles to regain lost traffic at LAX and to pay for a multibillion-dollar expansion, it views ONT as something of a competitor deserving scant attention.

I don't know if Wapner's claim is true or not, and considering the moves by LAX's neighbors to limit traffic, you'd think that the opposite would be the case. However, Wapner has evidence from Los Angeles World Airports' own Executive Director:

To avoid this conflict, Los Angeles World Airports, the agency that operates both facilities, must relinquish control of ONT and concentrate on LAX. The need for this was highlighted by LAWA Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey's comments at the July 14 meeting of the L.A. Board of Airport Commissioners:

"Now continuing to pursue a strategy that actively pushes traffic away from the city of Los Angeles and into other jurisdictions could be viewed as a little self-destructive."

Wapner also claims that one reason for ONT's high fees is the 15% administrative fee tacked on by LAWA.

Unfortunately - and Wapner should realize this - he is dealing with bureaucrats. And the last thing that a bureaucrat would want to do is to reduce his/her power.

A little more Mills at Ontario...but more approachable

It's a truism that malls are always expanding and adding new stores. They are never contracting and losing stores. Basically, all this means is that some tenant moved out (not discussed) and some other tenant moved in (discussed ad nauseum).

But sometimes malls do expand. A few years after I moved to California, the Montclair Plaza added a second floor. And now, the Ontario Mills center is expanding...a bit:

Areas that used to serve as loading docks will make way for additional exterior storefront entrances as well as extra parking.

Actually, although the increase square footage apparently isn't that significant, the configuration is. Exterior storefront entrances are vitally important to some retailers.

Sports Authority will occupy more than 50,000 square feet and will be in Neighborhood 3, replacing the Baby Depot.

The sports retailer, Smith said, is actually returning to the Mills.

It used to occupy the space where Forever 21 is located, but one of the reasons it left several years ago was because it didn't have an exterior entrance, Smith said.

And it's not just the Mills. When Barnes & Noble moved down Montclair's Central Avenue to relocate in Montclair Plaza a few years ago, the new Barnes & Noble included an exterior entrance.

Of course, if exterior entrances become more and more important, then you'll end up with...a traditional shopping center, or perhaps something more akin to Victoria Gardens.

Only in California...

TMI - Take the train to Cagle's?

I had to find the phone number for Cagle's Appliances in Ontario, so I went to Google to find it.



Now on the one hand, I appreciate the integration that Google has performed between locations and nearby transportation systems, and I can certainly verify that you can get to Cagle's by walking from the Ontario Amtrak station.

But as much as I admire Cagle's, I don't think that people are going to be taking a long-distance train to get there. However, should you be a Tucson, Arizona resident who is looking for a California appliance store, here's how the Sunset Limited can meet your transportation needs.

• Board the Sunset Limited in Tucson on Tuesday evening. It currently departs at 10:30 pm, but this may change when daylight saving time ends.


• Disembark at Ontario at 6:21 am Wednesday morning.


• Take your time walking east on Holt to Cagle's. Maybe you could stop somewhere for breakfast.


• When Cagle's opens at 8:30, go ahead and head on in. Take your time browsing around. But don't take too much time.


• Be sure you're back at the train station to board the eastbound train on Wednesday at 3:34 pm. (You did stop for lunch on Holt, didn't you?)


• You're back in Tucson at 12:06 am on Thursday, give or take an hour depending upon time changes. But you have some new appliances!

Note, however, that the Sunset Limited only runs three days a week. And since Cagle's is closed on Sundays, which is one of the days that the Sunset Limited is in Ontario, there are only two days a week in which you can take the Sunset Limited for your shopping excursion. So plan carefully.

Or if the train trip doesn't work for you, Cagle's is a short cab ride away from Ontario International Airport.


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Dipping into the local election junk mail

On Saturday morning, I did something that I had been avoiding.

I started looking at the accumulated election-related junk mail.

And it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Of course, there's still a little bit of time before the election, so it can turn really bad really quickly.

For the purposes of the Empoprise-IE Inland Empire blog, I'll ignore the statewide races and just concentrate on the local stuff.

I heard from two incumbents - Congressman Joe "Food on the Table" Baca and Ontario City Council Member "Fire Chief" Jim Bowman. Because of their incumbency, they didn't have to resort to negative campaigning. Both are creating jobs, and both are tough. Baca didn't mention who was supporting him, but Bowman noted union support (the fire fighters' union and the police union endorse him) and also noted that every member of the current City Council endorses him. The phrase "independent voice" was not found either of the two Bowman mailers that were in the pile.

Another incumbent of sorts mailed me - the city of Ontario itself. While the mailing was about Measure V (an increase in the hotel-motel tax), the mailer was careful not to endorse Measure V. The mailer just provided information...along with a lot of pictures of fire trucks, fire fighers, and police officers. (For some reason, a picture of someone filling a pothole wasn't deemed sexy enough for this brochure.)

Oh, and remember Fred J. Minook? He sent me a mailer also, which talked about dreaming big and being "innovative." Without trashing the current council (again, a refreshing break from negative advertising), Minook listed some of the things that he wants to do, including the redevelopment of Holt, Euclid, and Mountain to increase businesses and tax revenue; attracting more museums and cultural institutions "so our residents do not have to travel to Los Angeles"; and other big plans. One might question the specifics and logic of ideas such as this:

Fred would expand the Convention Center to attract major conventions and stem the losses.

(What if the bigger conventions DON'T come?) but Minook certainly gets credit for raising the issue.

Unfortunately, the apparent civility in the Ontario mayoral election doesn't appear to have extended to the Ontario-Montclair School District board election. The police and fire unions aren't the only unions that are participating in the election; of the three mailings that I had concerning the OMSD election, two were from the local teachers' union, and the third was from a teachers' union-endorsed candidate.

One of the teachers' union mailings was very teamwork-oriented, speaking of teacher-principal-parent teams as well as the "Teachers' Education Team" of Steve Garcia, Elvia Rivas, and Kris Brake. Garcia is the only incumbent who was mentioned in this mailer. The union says that the three will respond to Sacramento's budget cuts by keeping "budget cuts as far away from the classroom as possible." Brake, in her separate mailer, says that she "will work to ensure that taxpayer funds are utilized to directly benefit students."

But the teachers' union sent out a separate mailer - one that lives up to the high "standards" set by the state governor's race. It opens as follows:

It's OK
for Our Children
to Pretend to be Adults...

But It's Not OK
for Our Board Members
to Behave Like Children

What follows is a hard-hitting attack on Paul Vincent Avila's stances on the issues affecting the board...well, except for the issues part. The hard-hitting attack is still there. Examples:

Avila threw a tantrum, using profanity to berate school administrators in front of parents and teachers when his name was left off a middle schools' graduation program....

In his time on the Ontario-Montclair School Board, Avila has lost races for State Assembly 3 times, State Senate 3 times, college board 4 times and city council 6 times.

Perhaps I'm going out on a limb here, but I highly suspect that the teachers' union has objections to Avila other than his language or his electioneering.

Spirit Walk at Bellevue Cemetery on October 30

Bellevue Cemetery in Ontario holds some personal significance for me. Three family members are buried there, a neighbor is buried there, and just recently I heard that a former pastor was going to be buried there.

If I were to name these people, most of you wouldn't know them, but anyone who has studied Ontario history will certainly have heard of some of these people:

George Chaffey, founder of Ontario.
Dr. Orville Ensign, local physician.
E.H. Richardson, inventor of Hotpoint Iron.
Frances Elizabeth Oakley, citrus owner and member of Ontario's Women's Temperance Union.
Kezzie Monroe, one of the early librarians.

The Ontario Heritage Association is holding a "Spirit Walk" at the cemetery on October 30, and actors will portray each of these five people at their gravesites.

Frankly, I was surprised to discover that George Chaffey was buried here. Ontario was just one of the projects in which he was involved during his lifetime. However, I guess that it would be hard to bury him in the town of Salton.

See Liset Marquez's post for more details on the Spirit Walk.

Safariland's corporate history

I haven't really followed the Ontario firm Safariland lately, even though I have a natural interest in the company. Since I've worked in public safety software for the last 15 years, I'm always interested in Inland Empire companies like ESRI and Safariland that also play in that sector.

But when I last checked into Safariland some time ago, they were a stand-alone independent company in Ontario. A September Press-Enterprise story on Safariland's Scott O'Brien updates that history somewhat.

In 1999 O'Brien and Perkins sold their ownership in Safariland and planned on retiring. But the buyer, Armor Holdings, was unable to coordinate the operations of Safariland and 18 other manufacturers of law enforcement products it had acquired, and in 2005 O'Brien agreed to return as president and meld the separate companies into one organization....

Then in 2007 the United States unit of BAE Systems plc, a British global conglomerate, bought Armor Holdings. O'Brien continued as president. Today he is navigating Safariland, which has 1,763 employees and manufacturing plants in Inland Southern California, Florida, Wyoming and Tijuana, through a severe economic downturn.

A word on that downturn - you'd think that public safety would be pretty much recession-proof, but when governments are short on cash, they'll often try to make do with existing equipment and software for just one more year. So I can see O'Brien's challenges.

Be sure to read the interview of O'Brien in the Press-Enterprise.

Oh, and by the way, I can identify with O'Brien in another way, since he sells products that are subject to export controls. O'Brien:

Our biggest market is the Untied States. The international arena has more growth opportunity but the problem now is that BAE is very stringent about how they want business done internationally. You have to do a lot of careful vetting of whom you sell to, to make certain they are not going to take the stuff and sell it to some corrupt government.

And you thought that only auto racers came to the IE

The Citizens Business Bank Arena is bringing new people here who otherwise wouldn't come. Case in point: Elton John and Leon Russell will appear there on November 5. They've also worked on an album together, which will be released in October before their appearance.

Maybe David Allen will run for office too

I never got around to this, but Gino Filippi is running for Upland City Council this November. While his claim to fame is with the Filippi Winery, I actually know him best as a columnist for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, where he wrote about...Gatorade. Just kidding, he had a wine column.

This is what Gino Filippi said:

The Upland City Council needs revitalizing. My passion is driven by people and their contributions. I'm considered open-minded, ethical and organized. While this is my first opportunity to serve the people of Upland in an official capacity, I have served as a community volunteer for multiple organizations for over 20 years. I will work to establish term limits, maintain public safety including sidewalk and street repairs, restore library services and support local business. I have no agenda for personal gain or favors and my objective is to restore Upland to the "City of Gracious Living" as intended by its founders.

So does this mean that David Allen will run for the city council in Claremont or Pomona or wherever he lives?

Somehow this drop in the jobless rate is not encouraging

Again, a statistic that can be spun multiple ways.

On the one hand, the jobless rate in the Inland Empire has dropped!

Yeah...it's dropped to 14.8%.

But wait...it gets better:

Unemployment, which had reached an all-time high of 15.1 percent in the Inland area in July, declined to 14.8 percent. The jobless rate declined because more than 9,000 people left the work force last month.

In an odd twist, net employment gains were registered by construction and shipping firms (or what John Husing called "the meat-and-potato sectors" for our region), while net employment losses were registered by government agencies.

Well, at least that's a good sign. If the net gains were being registered in the public sector rather than the private sector, I'd be more worried.

Well, one regional airport is thriving

Sometimes it seems that the stories emanating from Ontario International Airport alternate between bad news and worse news. But there is a bright spot in the (sort of) local airport conversation.

Palm Springs International Airport has added a direct flight from Toronto starting Feb. 2 on West Jet.

Wow. Ontario doesn't have a direct flight to Canada, to my knowledge.

Oh, and the number of air travelers at Palm Springs is increasing.

Ontario International Airport without the "LA"?

Readers of this blog know the story. Ontario International Airport launched a big expansion, just before 9/11 hit and rendered its terminal configuration meaningless (all of the shops and restaurants ended up behind security barriers, meaning that only passengers could get to them), decreased the number of passengers because people didn't want to fly, resulted in increased rates to the airlines who flew into the airport...thus meaning that airlines began to pull out of the airport.

I guess it helps to write a 25 page study to say that, but the study apparently also calls for an action plan. inlandempire.us:

City leaders in Los Angeles, which currently operates the facility, must act now to prevent further loss of flights at ONT, where unusually high operating costs contributed to a decision by Southwest Airlines alone to cut its daily departures by a third in the last decade, the report said.

If you've never been to the airport, Southwest pretty much IS the airport. Yes, other airlines fly here, but Southwest is clearly the dominant carrier.

There are actions that can be taken, and a suggestion of who can best perform those actions. The Press-Enterprise:

Reviving ailing Ontario International Airport will require slashing costs and increasing marketing, two things the city of Ontario thinks it can do better than the city of Los Angeles....

So how do you cut costs?

The plan focuses instead on the airport's high cost to airlines -- a result due in large part to a bloated work force of city employees and millions of dollars in administrative costs collected by Los Angeles International Airport annually, according to the report.

But the Press-Enterprise cites one economist, Alan Bender, who says that operational cost-cutting won't help much.

"You go where the business is," he said. In an area where the recession has left an even deeper wound than other regions, the business climate has waned, he said. "That's more important than lowering the costs."

But you have to admit that the costs are huge.

It costs airlines an estimated $14.50 per enplaned passenger at Ontario airport. At LAX it costs $11, at John Wayne Airport in Orange County it costs $9.93 and in Long Beach Airport it's $5.34.

Hmm...maybe Los Angeles could sell the airport to Long Beach.

Why the Ag Preserve needs to be shut down

This story is from Australia, but it bears great relevance to the Inland Empire, and illustrates why the Ag Preserve needs to be shut down.

When a crowd of about 50 Aussies started pawing at their suddenly burning, aching eyes, panic set in.

Did somebody release poison gas? (But why would terrorists strike the dairy pavilion at the Royal Adelaide agricultural show?)

No, it’s so, so much worse.

Austrialian health officials were called in CSI-like to investigate the outbreak, Reuters Life! reports. The culprit: Stagnant cow urine.

More here.

Follow-up to my Royal Tahitian post

On March 3, 2009, I photoblogged a poster that I saw in the Applebee's in Ontario International Airport. Because the poster listed musicians, I posted it to my Empoprise-MU music blog. However, it talked about a local place - the Royal Tahitian. The post, entitled "At the Royal Tahitian, circa 1966," mentioned that I knew nothing about the establishment, other than the fact that Pearl Bailey, Sarah Vaughan, and Louis Armstrong had apparently performed there in 1966.

Leave it to David Allen, in a September 4 post in his blog, to fill in some of the gaps.

The Royal Tahitian operated in Ontario from 1960 to 1967 at Whispering Lakes Golf Course.


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Afterward the building became the clubhouse for the golf course (at 2525 E Riverside Drive, Ontario CA 91761), but Allen reports that the clubhouse was closed in April, and the building is slated to be demolished.

Be sure to visit Allen's post for some before and after pictures, including some handbills from the heyday of the Royal Tahitian. Some of the other performers included the Four Tops, James Brown, and Ray Charles. Also see the Sunday article that Allen wrote in his paying gig, the Daily Bulletin.

But it wasn't just about the music, according to Critiki:

The Royal Tahitian claimed to be the world's largest Polynesian restaurant, with 250 acres of tropical landscaping and "lagoons" -- however, this was simply a reference to the Ontario National Golf Course nextdoor. The main floor was the restaurant, with a bar downstairs, and a show area outside. It featured a dramatic asymmetrical swooping A-frame entrance.

However, Critiki also claims that the building was demolished in 2003. Frankly, I trust David Allen on this one - unless the golf course happened to have TWO buildings with dramatic asymmetrical swooping A-frames. Perhaps there are multiple Royal Tahitians, just like there are multiple Doyle Owls. (And no, I don't think Reed College's Doyle Owl has ever appeared at the Whispering Lakes Golf Course.)

On Pacific Island music (now - Pacific Island Dancers of Chino Hills)

As I mentioned in a post in my Empoprise-MU music blog, I first encountered Pacific Island music when I needed to select a theme song for my college radio show. Eventually I used M.K. Moke's "Moana Chimes" (after a period of using Roy Smeck's "Indiana March"), but I really hadn't run across much Pacific Island music since that time until I was invited to a Saturday evening luau.

At a senior citizen assisted living center.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but I figured that the center would serve some pineapple, and I figured that perhaps some of the 80-year old women could still hula, so I went there with an open mind.

As it turned out, they did serve pineapple, and a variety of other foods (no roasted pig with an apple in its mouth, though). And the dancing was NOT done by the residents. Instead, the entertainment was provided by three dancers (two female, one male) and one drummer from Pacific Island Dancers, a group based on the "island" of Chino Hills, California.

Their show (presented in the parking lot of the complex) was billed as a tour of the islands, starting and ending in Tahiti, with stops in Hawaii, Samoa, and New Zealand. Much of the dancing was done to pre-recorded music (with the drummer augmenting things on some songs), but the final dances were accompanied by the drummer alone.



They also had an audience participation segment. No, none of the residents participated, but they did get five family members to go up front and shake around a bit.

A fun time was had by all. In addition to performing at corporate events, Pacific Island Dancers also offers instruction for all age groups.

Finding the local blogs

While searching for the slightest mention of a particular Ontario, California mayoral candidate, I made a discovery about the Original Skrip blog. I normally read it via Google Reader, so I just see the RSS version of the posts and don't see the entire blog in all of its goodness.

It turns out that if you actually visit the blog, you'll find a list of local blogs in the upper right corner, including this very Empoprise-IE blog. I was familiar with some of the listed blogs, but hadn't heard of some of the others. In particular, the Goddess of Garey Avenue was new to me. How many goddesses can a single city have? And yes, "GOGA" was inspired by the similarly-named Goddess of Pomona.

The Goddess of Pomona has been trying to get me to start a blog for quite some time now, so I’m finally having at it.

I have been mentioned on several other Pomona blogs over the past couple of years and was first mentioned on the the Goddess of Pomona’s blog several years ago when I was really into sungazing while on Garey Avenue. And that’s where I got my name The Goddess of Garey Avenue.

Now I'm wondering if there are any other emperors in Ontario.

Why social media political campaigning is rapidly becoming a necessity

NOTE: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS POST ARE NOT INTENDED AS AN ENDORSEMENT OR AN OPPOSITION OF ANY CANDIDATE IN THE FORTHCOMING ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA MAYORAL ELECTION.

I have previously noted that current Ontario Mayor and mayoral candidate Paul Leon has an online presence, while mayoral candidate Frederick Minook does not.

Why is this important?

Because, as of this evening (August 24, 2010), if someone were to search Google to find out who the heck Frederick Minook is, my previous blog post on Frederick Minook would be the first search result that they would encounter.



In my blogging, I've tried to corner the market on obscure topics before, but I've never had the (theoretical) potential to affect the future of our great city.

Of course, I'll grant that most people don't make political decisions based on Google. But it's still scary to think that if someone isn't promoting their own cause, an interloper could come by and do it for them.

(empo-tymshft) An Inland Empire BBS...in 2010!

You may recall that I wrote a post a couple of years ago that talked about bulletin board systems (BBS'es) in the 20th century Inland Empire.

But that isn't the only time that I wrote about BBS systems. Matt Munson (who was mentioned in my 2008 post) apparently found a reference to my BBS'ing days while perusing the August 2004 archive of the Ontario Empoblog, and Munson ended up writing a post about his own BBS'ing days. Excerpt:

[B]ack on July 1995, I had plans for my first bbs where I wrote my plans for a message base lineup, but I only had 60 megs to run a bbs and I decided to run a part time bbs, but that was kind of not cool because people did not know the difference not to call at the daytime when they were supposed to call at night.

But Munson's time in BBS-land hasn't ended. The post includes a link to a BBS that Munson started in 2002, and is still going strong today.

Yes, a link. The BBS world has changed since the time that I'd dial in to a BBS via a modem. These days, there are new ways to access such systems.

There are three choices for interactivity, you can visit with a web browser to read the message forums, and download files (such as the telnet client and offline message reader program), flash based terminal program where you can do most things on my bbs except for downloading and uploading files, and the telnet connection where you can visit my bbs like if you were dialing with a modem.

But once you get to the BBS via the newfangled methods, it's just like you were interacting with a BBS in the 20th century.

Well, with one exception. This post includes a signature block which would have mystified me if I had seen it on the Grotto back in the day:

~ I am on twitter: @thinktank79 on Twitter ~

I can see the 20th century version of me asking, "What's a twitter?"

Now, I could conceivably join the BBS just to answer that question, and even though I'm reluctant to add yet another login (BBS systems don't support Facebook Connect or Twitter OAuth), I just might do it in this instance. But if I do, what should I use as my handle? Wasp the Houseboy? Ontario Emperor? 20th Century Modem Man?

London, Redlands, and trees

Back in July, the Financial Times of London ran a story on ESRI's Jack Dangermond. But perhaps the readers of that esteemed paper didn't get some of the implied local references. For example:

He does have an indulgence, however – trees. A keen conservationist, he buys thousands of acres of “junk” land in southern California in order to reforest it.

Considering that Dangermond works in Redlands, his appreciation for trees is understandable.

More here, including Dangermond's thought on his technology and the virtues of running a private company.

Why the Echo Hills Golf Course won't be replaced by a Hilton any time soon

Someone who worked for a Hilton call center in Hemet two years ago has made some allegations about some bad timing on Hilton's part.

Employees of a Hemet reservation call center for Hilton Worldwide were sent to the Philippines to train agents at a new call center there only two months before Hilton announced that it was closing the Hemet office....

[A]t a 2 p.m. meeting on Aug. 4, Hilton told its Hemet employees what had been rumored for months: that the center on Florida Avenue would close, on Oct. 6. Documents say 295 people will lose their jobs.

Hilton has been somewhat tight-lipped about the matter.

[A]lthough office staff handed out the phone number of a public relations executive, he did not return calls seeking comment. Four hours after the layoff was announced, that executive, David Trumble, Hilton's director of corporate communications for the western United States, e-mailed a three-paragraph statement....

Trumble took seven days to respond to e-mailed questions about Hilton's operations, including whether Hilton had call centers in the Philippines, whether Hemet employees were sent there as trainers and whether Hemet employees would receive relocation assistance.

He did not answer the latter two questions. [Former employee] Stroud said Hemet employees were offered relocation help.

This isn't the first time that Hilton has sent employees to the Philippines to train their replacements, according to this 2009 article:

Some of the 176 soon-to-be laid-off employees of the Hilton Reservations & Customer Care call center in Humboldt Industrial Park traveled to the Philippines to train workers for a new facility, according to several sources at the center.

The local call center is scheduled to close Dec. 8, a company spokesman confirmed earlier this week.

About a dozen workers, who requested anonymity because they remain employed at Hilton, claim multiple contingents of workers from the local call center have traveled to the island nation to train workers.

A spokesman for Hilton Reservation Worldwide did not return calls seeking comment on the claims.

Interestingly enough, the same article from 2009 stated that the center in Hemet was "scheduled to close." Presumably if out of town newspapers were reporting this, the employees in Hemet already knew it; they just didn't know when it would happen.

Note to Hilton employees - if you're sent on a business trip to the Philippines, polish up your resume before you go.

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?