Double the hope - Steven's Hope now has two locations

Tony Cappelli commented on my September 2009 post about Steven's Hope in Upland. And it turns out that the last sentence is only half right. Yes, Steven's Hope is in Upland...but it is now also in Rancho Cucamonga, according to the thrift store website: Not only will you save money at the Children's Boutique, you help families that have seriously ill or injured children. Proceeds of the sales go to help the mission of Steven's Hope for Children, a 501c3 organization located in Upland, CA. The Children's Boutique receives donations from the surrounding community and then resells them to the public. Visit our stores. Hear our stories. Help our families. The Children's Boutique 1014 W. Foothill Blvd., Suite C, Upland, CA 91786 Mon-Fri 10AM - 6PM, Sat: 10AM - 4PM (909) 373-3757 (Between Mountain and San Antonio) The Children's Boutique 10730 Foothill Blvd., Suite 170, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 Mon - Sat: 10AM - 6PM, Sun: 12PM - 5PM (909) 256-0100 (Across from the Terra Vista 6 Cinemas) The main Steven's Hope website is here.

Perhaps I'm taking RedFusion's promotion too seriously

The announcement was bold: Inland Empire marketing firm has client featured by Jay Leno on the "Tonight Show." And the article made a point of mentioning the firms involved: The brochure was designed by the marketing firm, RedFusion Media and was printed by Redlands Print Shop, both located in Redlands, California. There's only one minor little problem. Leno MADE FUN of the brochure. Specifically, Leno was amused by the copy that said that Longmont Dairy's milk "is unconditionally guaranteed until you drink it!" There are two ways in which that statement can be interpreted, and Leno chose the interpretation that would get him laughs. However, Longmont Dairy chose to use the lemons to make lemonade (if I may mix my drink references). "We find it amusing that our guarantee is actually so humorous, and we have sent him some samples so he can see how good our product really is." But do you really want your firm to be known for writing confusing copy? If so, I know a blogger who would be more than happy to write all of your copy in a confusing manner.

(empo-tymshft) Remember record stores?

How much things have changed. Based upon a post by David Allen and a subsequent comment by Bruce R Kilgour, there is exactly one place within the Victoria Gardens mall where you can buy compact discs. Hot Topic. Although their selection is Hot Topic-y, understandably. ("Where's the Slim Whitman?") Things were certainly different when I first moved to Southern California. I remember when "there was a place called Licorice Pizza that didn't sell food." But I did most of my shopping at Wherehouse or Music Plus, unless I made the trip to Brea to go to Tower Records. You can still get CDs, of course. Wal-Mart has a few, and you can probably get some at a car wash. I wonder if Rhino Records in Claremont still sells vinyl?

Are we stoopid loosers?

I was surprised by this result: A Brookings Institution study analyzing an area's lack of educated workers relative to the demand for those employees, reveals the Inland region has the fourth worst "education gap" in the country. I was surprised by this because my experience has been the opposite. Although I live in the Inland Empire, all of my full-time jobs since 1991 have been outside of the Inland Empire - primarily because when I was hunting for jobs in 1991 and 1994, the jobs that required my education and experience were all outside of the area. What is your experience? Does it differ?

Revisiting Eastvale

I had a little bit of extra time one morning due to a dental appointment that ended early, so I thought I'd take an alternate route for my morning commute. To get from Ontario to Orange County, I figured that I'd get on Archibald, head south across the bridge over the Santa Ana River, then go through Norco and Corona to get to Orange County. I hadn't taken that route in several years, and my primary intent in taking that route was to see how much of the cow pastures still remained in Ontario. The last time I drove it, the route was pretty much cow country all the way from Riverside Drive to Norco. So anyways, I got on Archibald, and within about a half mile I found myself in cow country. At least on Archibald, the suburbanization of south Ontario hasn't occurred yet. And then I continued driving, until I hit the Eastvale city limit. Yes, the Eastvale city limit. Several years ago, Eastvale wasn't even a city. Back in 2007, I blogged about Eastvale's incorporation efforts. I've blogged about Eastvale a few other times, most recently in 2009 when I wrote about some charity work that Jay Johnstone was performing. Well, I guess they've incorporated now. So I drove along Archibald, and passed housing communities, and more housing communities, and even more housing communities. Presumably the bulk of the businesses are on Hamner. And the housing continued, almost all the way to the bridge over the Santa Ana River. And by the way, Eastvale did capture the area east of Hamner, according to this map, when it incorporated in October 2010.

Food trucks and Neil Derry

Food trucks are usually not discussed at any length, but that has changed in recent months.

As I noted back in April, the IE Food Truck Fest was scheduled (and held) in Ontario back in June. Frankly, I thought that it was silly to buy tickets to get to a food truck, and then to have to pay for the food.

Things were a little different last weekend, when I went to the Inland Empire Auto Show. In this case, I paid money (and parking) to actually see an event, and the food trucks were just an additional benefit. And a delicious love - I tweeted my love for Baconmania.

Well, the publicity surrounding these food truck events in San Bernardino county has had a positive effect:

The [San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors] unanimously agreed to amend a county ordinance to establish a new category of "hot food truck events" that would allow food trucks to operate at sites other than temporary special events such as outdoor festivals, circuses, rodeos, etc.

But rest assured that San Bernardino County is not going to become a lawless bastion of free enterprise like its neighboring counties to the west:

Supervisors Janice Rutherford and Brad Mitzelfelt pushed to allow food trucks to operate anywhere in the county, but they were outnumbered.

Supervisor Neil Derry said his biggest concern was the potential competition food trucks could have on brick and mortar restaurants that are heavily invested in the communities they serve and whose sales tax revenue stays in city and county coffers.

Let me go on record as saying that I oppose Derry's view. Not that Derry will ever see my view - I'm sure that Derry refuses to read blogs (and the ads that appear in them) because they adversely affect the San Bernardino Sun and other community newspapers (not including the Press Enterprise). And Derry presumably isn't an Amazon Associate either.

But Derry is a blogger. If you go to neilderry.com, you can see this post:

This is Neil talking. Sed pulvinar orci eu velit suscipit gravida. Ut pulvinar mattis placerat. Nunc ut sodales nibh. Aenean tincidunt euismod magna adipiscing commodo. Donec facilisis posuere mauris, et scelerisque nulla dignissim non. Suspendisse sagittis urna at tortor sagittis dignissim laoreet nisi varius. Praesent interdum lacus vitae quam viverra ultricies. Phasellus euismod tempus nisi, at molestie libero pretium sed. Pellentesque non elit vitae mi fermentum ultrices. Aliquam tincidunt sodales ullamcorper. Vivamus ac elit odio. Aenean sit amet est mi.

Get the man a pulled pork/bacon slider...

Farrell's, again

Back in the 1980s, there was a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor in Montclair on the northwest corner of the Montclair Plaza property. The place was eventually torn down and paved over (it's part of the Plaza's parking lot today).

That didn't stop us for searching for Farrell's in the area. One night my wife, her brother, and his wife all piled in the car to head out to a Farrell's in the San Gabriel Valley. It was a Saturday night, and since we were all children of the 1970s, we had "Disco Saturday Night" on the radio.

But I digress.

That Farrell's closed down also, which meant that the whole country (not just the IE was Farrell's-less).

Well, Farrell's is about to make a comeback here, and elsewhere. The Press-Enterprise announced that a new Farrell's will be opening in the Terra Vista Town Center, in a spot previously occupied by a Macaroni Grill. (One chain's misfortune provides a pig's trough of opportunity for another chain.)

To learn about the demise and resurrection of Farrell's, go to the history page at Farrell's website. Excerpts:

In 1963, Robert "Bob" Farrell opened the first Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour in Portland, Oregon. It immediately became a huge success and by 1970 the company had grown to 58 restaurants. In 1971, Bob Farrell was approached by the Marriott Corporation who subsequently bought the company. He continued to work with Marriott as the company grew to 130 locations nationwide....

[In 1985] [n]ow under new ownership, the Farrell’s concept was changed from a unique celebration restaurant to a traditional family style restaurant. By 1990 almost all Farrell's locations closed....

In 1996, a new company whose mission was to bring back the heydays of Farrell's past acquired Farrell's Ice Cream Parlours. From this purchase, a few legal tussles from 2003-2008 again stopped Farrell's development.

More here. The legal wranglings of the early 2000s are described here.

Parlour Enterprises...had entered into a development agreement in 2000 with the Kirin Group lead by Herman Chan, to build Farrell’s throughout California. Chan decided to cancel Parlour's rights in 2003 citing that Parlour owed back attorney’s fees to Kirin....

The resulting lawsuit filed by Parlour against Kirin found the two embroiled in a three week-long trial resulting in a $6.6 million jury verdict in favor of Parlour. The verdict was then appealed by Kirin, which resulted in a substantial reduction of the judgment a year later. Parlour then pursued collection of the remaining judgment resulting in Kirin filing for bankruptcy.

Just after Parlour got its judgment, Chan sold the rights to the Farrell’s trademarks for Hawaii to the E Noa Corporation and its president, Maki Kuroda. The sale resulted in Parlour’s lawsuit against E Noa, and E Noa’s countersuit to claim those rights.

In the end, Parlour Enterprises and E Noa Corporation decided to share the rights giving E Noa Corporation rights to Farrell’s in Hawaii and Asia, and Farrell’s International securing the continental U.S. and the remaining countries throughout the world.

So a sticky situation was averted.

My geographic ignorance

I pride myself on my unequalled geographic knowledge, but that pride is a false pride. There are a lot of places in the Inland Empire that I could not find on a map.

Recently I met someone who was from Wildomar. I thought that meant that she lived up in the mountains. It turns out that I was getting Wildomar confused with Idyllwild, which is in the mountains. Wildomar is between Lake Elsinore and Temecula.

But Wildomar shouldn't feel so bad. Sedco Hills is in the same area, and I've never even heard of Sedco Hills before.

I'll grant that since I live in Ontario, and since I rarely head toward Temecula (I think I've been through the Temecula area three times in the last ten years), perhaps my ignorance can be excused. But I ought to know where Glen Avon is, and I don't. (It's off the 60 between the 15 and 91, west of Rubidoux and northeast of Mira Loma.)

Here are some other places that appear on Google Maps that I probably couldn't find independently if my life depended on it:

Declezville
Del Rosa
Home Gardens
Masson Grove (didn't Orson Welles live there?)
Northgate
Smiley Heights
Sierra Lakes

Oh well, at least I know where Guasti is. It's south of downtown Chino.

Skate America in Ontario, California this October

This was announced last March, and I missed it. I shouldn't have.

For those who do not follow the world of figure skating, there are a number of important competitions in the fall at which the leading figure skaters compete for an opportunity to advance to the Worlds competition the following spring.

One of these competitions, Skate America, is held in the United States. And this year, it will be held at the (relatively) new Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, on October 21-23.

So what is Skate America?

Skate America is an Olympic-style international figure skating event featuring three days of competition in ladies, men's, pairs and ice dancing. The event, which is one of six annual events in the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix Series, annually attracts approximately 60 world-class figure skaters. Past champions include five-time World champion Michelle Kwan and Olympic champions Kristi Yamaguchi, Scott Hamilton and Evan Lysacek.

Skate America doesn't just attract American figure skaters, but also skaters from other countries. For example, the ladies' competition will include many European figure skaters, including Carolina Kostner and Laura Lepistö, both of whom appeared at the Worlds in Los Angeles in 2009.

One day in June

So anyways, I was at Country Cuts in Ontario this morning, getting my hair cut.

While sitting in the barber chair, I flashed back to an episode in a story in which the (fictional) President of the United States was getting his hair trimmed, right in the midst of a national crisis. I believe that the episode occurred in Seven Days in May, which I read decades ago. Since the Ontario Library is just down the street from Country Cuts, I thought I'd go there and check out the book.

The Ontario Library has no book with the title Seven Days in May.

I logged into one of the online computers, found the names of the co-authors (Fletcher Knebel and Charles W Bailey II), and then did an author search. No such luck.

You know that you're old when you look for a book that is so old that even the library doesn't have it.

P.S. The aforementioned Country Cuts now has its own Facebook page.

[11:20 POSTSCRIPT] The link above goes to a generic page. Country Cuts' own page is here.

Join the Wal-Mart conversation at Inland Utopia

For some unknown reason, a 2008 Matt Munson post about Wal-Mart has suddenly attracted a number of comments.

Naturally, I had to join in, and it was just then that I realized how long this whole Wal-Mart thing has dragged out.

Heck, I was writing about City Rentals' pollution record back in 2005. (And if you don't know what City Rentals has to do with Wal-Mart, perhaps this post from the same period may offer a clue.)

And perhaps it's appropriate to repeat part of what I wrote in 2010:

You see, Briggs hasn't only opposed the Walmart in Ontario. At around the same time that the Ontario Mountain Village Association started its battle, there was a battle that was being waged in another city....

On January 2, Cory Briggs of Upland registered an organization called the "Murrietans for Smart Growth." (He also registered an organization called "Blythe Citizens for Smart Growth" on the same day.) One day later, the Murrietans for Smart Growth filed a suit to block a SuperTarget in Murrieta.

Now the city of Murrieta hadn't run into a lot of Murrietans who were demanding smart growth, and people began to wonder if the only one demanding this was non-Murrietan Cory Briggs.

Read the rest here.

Since I wrote that post, the Target in Montclair has expanded to include a full grocery section. Yes, that's the Target in Montclair, California - the Target that used to be in Ontario, California way back before Mountain and 5th became the Cory Briggs Ghetto Vandalism Park. (Anthony Muñoz must be so proud.)

The Spot - a belated update to my post about Robeks Claremont

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post entitled "The advantage of Facebook-friending Robeks Claremont." That post concluded as follows:

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

But if you're a driver, searching for Robeks Claremont, you won't find it.

A few days ago, I was in Chino Hills and was unable to locate another Robeks that I had visited a couple of years ago.

It turns out that Robeks is still going strong. I don't know what happened in Chino Hills, but Claremont declared its independence:

On a December 2010 evening, the Owner and Staff voted to cut its corporate ties from a smoothie franchise to become an independent, family-owned, student-powered establishment.

The Staff voted to renew the store “The Spot”, while the logo was co-created by CHS Alumni Kevin Coduto ‘10 & Matt Arias ‘09. Arias and Courtney Kessler ’12 added panini recipes.

The smoothies now have more fruit and less sugar/dairy, and the establishment has instituted touches that are very Claremont-like:

New relationships were formed to better serve the 909 Community by buying 100% Organic Wheatgrass from local farmers Cal Grass of Pomona, Organic Oranges for freshly squeezed OJ from King Ranch of Alta Loma, & world class roasted coffee beans from Coffee Klatch in Upland.

And yes, I stand corrected - Coffee Klatch's headquarters are in Upland.

Free book offer for pastors of local churches

Jim Ulvog is offering free copies of his book Once Upon Internal Control to local church pastors.

Read the details here.

Update on the University of LaVerne Law School Accreditation

I haven't written a lot here lately. In fact, my last post was on May 24, and discussed the possibility that the American Bar Association may revoke its provisional accreditation of the University of LaVerne Law School.

Guess what the ABA did? Tiffany Ray of the Press-Enterprise reports that the ABA did deny accreditation, but that the college had other options.

[Dean Allen] Easley said he intends to quickly reapply for provisional ABA approval, and to apply for accreditation from the California Bar.

From my previous post, you'll recall that even if the University of LaVerne lacks state accreditation, its students could still sit for the California bar exam - they'd just have to go through an additional step - the First Year Law Students' Examination. (Students at accredited schools are exempt from this requirement.)

The full list of California bar requirements can be found here. Note that the legal education requirements do NOT require graduation from an accredited school:

LEGAL EDUCATION

•J. D. degree from a law school accredited by the State Bar of California or approved by the ABA;
•Four years of study at a fixed-facility law school registered with the Committee;
•Four years of study, with a minimum of 864 hours of preparation and study per year, at an unaccredited distance-learning or correspondence law school registered with the Committee;
•Four years of study in the law office/judge’s chambers study program; or
•A combination of these methods.

The latest on the University of La Verne Law School in Ontario

Back on May 6, the Press-Enterprise reported that the University of La Verne Law School, which happens to be located in Ontario (kinda like how Pomona College isn't in Pomona), might lose its accreditation. It currently is "provisionally approved" by the American Bar Association, but at the time it did not appear that the ABA would recommend full accreditation.

Last Friday, the Press-Enterprise updated the story, after the ABA sent a 14 page letter to the University:

According to ABA accreditation standards, there are two batches of statistics that the group uses to judge schools: For at least three out of the past five years, the number of graduates to pass the bar exam must be 75 percent or higher or the percentage of first-time exam takers must be within 15 percentage points of the ABA average.

[Dean Allen] Easley acknowledged that his school doesn't qualify on the latter standard, but it does pass the first.

So if the University is unsuccessful in appealing the ABA's decision, what could happen? The experience of the University of West Los Angeles School of Law in 2006 may prove illustrative. Here's what was reported in March 2006:

The University of West Los Angeles School of Law has lost one key accreditation, which will affect students' ability to get federal financial aid.

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges voted in November to terminate its accreditation of the school....WASC reviewed the law school's appeal, but decided two weeks ago to terminate the school's accreditation....

State accreditation is critical because students who attend a nonstate-accredited law school are ineligible to sit for the bar exam without first passing the First-Year Law Students' Examination, or "Baby Bar," according to the State Bar.

As of today, the school still lacks WASC accreditation. It also lacks ABA accreditation - the accreditation that the University of La Verne is in danger of losing - but UWLA considers that a plus:

The School of Law has made a decision not to seek ABA approval because we believe that meeting the standards for ABA approval would be in conflict with the University’s Mission to offer affordable, quality legal education to the non-traditional student (one who must work, attend to family issues, and so on). We also believe that adoption of ABA criteria would impose increased financial burdens on students while severely limiting admission opportunities to the students we want to reach.

Back to La Verne. Even if it loses its ABA accreditation, it still maintains a WASC accreditation. More will be known next month.

San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society

When I began BBS'ing 20 years ago, I met a man who worked for the (then) Santa Fe railroad. We still keep in touch a bit via Facebook, and his wife is a fellow Gardens of Time player. I couldn't help but notice that she has a train in her garden.

One night I was scanning through YouTube videos of the Inland Empire, and I found several videos of Santa Fe 3751. I figured there had to be some significance to that particular train...and there is.

[T]he San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society (SBRHS) ... is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization founded in 1981 and dedicated to the preservation of Santa Fe Railroad operating and mechanical documentation and the maintenance and operation of former Santa Fe steam locomotive 3751.

Past contributions and volunteer power have helped transform steam locomotive 3751 from a rusting display in a park into one of the country's premier passenger steam locomotives.

The website is http://www.sbrhs.org/. And here's one of the videos. Spot the train enthusiasts.

To the Michaels' employee who told my wife about reading my blog

I hope you don't think that my blog is 40% worse than other blogs.

In case you wine - I mean whine - about Upland's personnel delays

This is a little bit dated, but I figure that there are people like me who haven't really been keeping up with the scandal in Upland. (I doubt I'm the only clueless one out there.) This has engulfed a number of people, including the mayor and the city manager. The mayor has already resigned, and the city manager was fired - but not until early May.

Why did the Upland City Council take so long to act? You see, there's a law:

A statute in the city's municipal code prohibited the council from terminating Quincey within 180 days of an election if a new council member was elected. Councilman Gino L. Filippi was elected on Nov. 2.

The presumed reason for this was to make sure that the Council didn't take advantage of a new Council member. For the record, Filippi joined the other Council members in unanimously voting to terminate Robb Quincey.

Wow, that sounds appealing - duties but no power

Years ago, I served as an alternate on a jury. It was the worst possible situation - I had to sit through the entire trial, but I wasn't allowed to go in the jury room and shoot my mouth off regarding whether the accused should be punished or not. (The bailiff was kind enough to phone me and tell me of the jury's decision afterwards.)

I was reminded of this when I read this call for a volunteer:

City officials [in Ontario] are seeking a non-voting student representative to the Recreation and Parks Commission.

What a way to begin. Even before you're told what the job is, you're told that you'll have no power. But you will have responsibilities:

The duties will include attending regular and special meetings of the Recreation and Parks Commission. The regular meetings are held every fourth Monday of every month at 6 p.m.

The student shall express opinions and participate in discussions regarding matters that affect recreation and park programs and facilities in Ontario.

But the student, like an alternate juror, won't have any say in what the Commission does.

Now arguments can be made that this is a wonderful experience, and maybe the student can get some school credit or something like that.

But it doesn't sound all that enticing.

Food trucks without the wheels...and with the fees

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

In Los Angeles and Orange Counties, it's easy to find food trucks in any industrial park. Right around break time, the trucks will drive into the parking lot, and employees will swarm around the food trucks to buy stuff.

It's a different situation in San Bernardino County. Liset Marquez:

As you may know, San Bernardino County has an ordinance which prohibits food trucks from roaming the streets.

But there's a solution - sort of. Liset Marquez:

Ordering a Korean barbecue taco or a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich from a food truck in San Bernardino County will soon be possible - at least for a day.

I.E. Food Truck Fest has been organized for June 18 in the parking lot of Citizens Business Bank Arena. At least 50 food trucks will participate.

Now this is on a Saturday, so you won't have a lot of employees lining up to get stuff.

Oh, and there's one other difference between getting to a San Bernardino County food truck and one in another county. In San Bernardino County, you have to pay to get in.

Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.com - a fee will apply - or at the arena's box office, 4000 E. Ontario Center Parkway.

VIP tickets are being sold for $25, and allow the ticket holder to enter the festival an hour before it opens to the public.

General-admission tickets are $10, and tickets purchased before June 15 are $8.

The website and Facebook page don't say, but I would assume that the food itself costs extra.

I never thought that I'd have to pay a Ticketmaster fee to buy a taco. Presumably Pearl Jam won't have a food truck there.