Inland Utopia

I just received a notice that the city is going to restrict yard sales. 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 know the city wants to make sure people are not regularly doing garage sales day in and day out or regularly featuring new merchandise or items acquired for the purchase of resale. However there should be a procedure for emergency permits for garage sales for like $30.00. If you are moving to a new residence or you have a family member died where you need to do an estate sale it is not going to offer flexibility with the new policies. I think 1 emergency permit should be allowed per year to prevent the flexibility from being exploited.

The current schedule for yard sale weekends are the following:

August 6,7,8 2010

November 5,6,7 2010

February 4, 5,6 2011

May 6,7,8 2011

I would like to come up with solutions to solve the Wal-Mart versus residents’ fight that is happening in North Western Ontario. It may not be the Israelis versus the Palestinians but it surely feels that way.

One, it is going to take sacrifices from both sides. Wal-Mart may have to give up the idea of a 24/7 supercenter and consider having the same hours as the one in Upland.

Two, Wal-Mart can use green technology to help build positive public relations such as having the store being able to power its own energy and being energy efficient.

Three, the abandoned lot needs to be demolished. It is creating decreased property values. Maybe give the property owner a permit to do the demolition in the next few months, and if Wal-Mart refuses, use the redevelopment agency’s money to pay for it and put a lien on it. It’s like code enforcement going after a residential property owner for bad landscaping.

Four, many of the property owners are worried about “the underclass” such as the homeless hanging around the new shopping center. Maybe team up with Upland who has the same problem so we could make shopping up and down the 10 freeway overpass a good one.

For the last decade the former parcel on Fifth and Mountain in Ontario has been an eyesore since their former tenants left. Ontario residents have been fighting Wal-Mart who bought the property and the city government to prevent a Super Wal-Mart from being built in their neighborhood.

I could understand that the city of Ontario would like to have more sales tax revenue and more jobs flowing thru, but it seems the city only listens to big money flowing thru its leader’s campaign accounts. There should be an amicable compromise between the residents and the property owner to make things happen.

I would suggest solutions on restricting the hours of operation where it would only be 24/7 during the winter season as a start to make an olive branch to the residents who surround the parcel. A regular sized wal-mart with a micro-market such as their Marketside concept or a Wal-Mart neighborhood market a few blocks a way would  have more public support.

I think honestly there should be a referendum with people who live in a 1.5 mile radius in Ontario to decide if the project should be there. If not, Wal-Mart should be refunded the purchase of their land plus 15% and find a new business or residential complex that would be least offensive.

Residents of Ontario are going to get tired of seeing hundred dollar water and trash service bills pretty soon, and we should do our best to alleviate the problem. How about reducing the lawns that lurk in our city. Offer incentives for people to use a non grass based landscaping solution.

I know people do not want to see brown lawns, but in today’s economy and ecology  who can afford the water these days.Maybe we can offer incentives to builders who build water friendly buildings both residential and commercial. We can provide free market friendly environmentalism.

Also since Ontario and Chino is having new sections for housing developments, utilize a grey water system so we can use recycled water if developers do insist on having landscaping on their housing. Since we are building new infrastructure we can make a difference for new population residing in our area.

Water is becoming a scarce commodity like oil and we have to conserve our precious resource as best as we can. We can not rely on just water from the north, we have to do our best in maximizing in what we have. If we want to preserve our standard of living we have to manage our resources so we have enough water for generations.

I understand that times are rough and people need the money, but when you do not have respect for the people you are loitering near then compassion disappears away. This man ended up tipping over the recyclable bin dumping the stuff all over my lawn. I told the guy clean up your mess else I will call the police, and the man still just gathered the stuff without abandon. Unfortunately the police did not come in on time. I guess the glass bottles will be recycled by myself instead since the city does not care about protecting its recyclables they collect from residents.

Does the money from the recycled goods help reduce the cost of trash disposal, does the loss of the recycled goods go from the general fund where city programs are impacted due to the loss of this money?

Should we as residents ask the city council to promote theft resistant trash containers? Or promote strategies to reduce recycling theft. The only people who have a right to take stuff in and out of the container is the resident and the city.

The master plan for remaking Ontario’s downtown believes that a good downtown must remove the original buildings for a made up reality artificially made like Disneyland. Ontario really badly wants to remove the tenants that make up the older downtown along Euclid Avenue such as the Yangtze restaurant so they could make Ontario truly the destination of Southern California. I do feel insulted when I hear people demean my community that I have lived in for the last 27 years when they think of it as a wasteland after they attended an national conference at the Ontario Convention Center

However Ontario does not need to white wash its main thoroughfare by either removing historic buildings or its Latino dominated downtown business sector. If the Planning Commission things they could turn Euclid Avenue into an upscale shopping district then I probaly have some mushrooms to sell them. Latino and non-latino oriented businesses should be integrated together so we can succeed together. The son of the owner of the restaurant Gary Gin said, the redevelopment project is basically failing due to a very cold housing market and why bother demolishing any more buildings. Maybe we should just end the negotiations and just salvage the redevelopment project with the current housing development and keep it as it is.

Unfortunately due to the Supreme Court, property owners have less rights than municipalities. If the city of Ontario wants to demolish the Yangtze they will find a way to do it. Maybe the Ontario Redevelopment Agency will end up replacing the family business with a corporate owned Panda Inn restaurant instead.

Would it be better just to demolish the abandoned Toys R’Us,  Target and Food 4 Less buildings on 5th and Mountain instead of having to burden a small business owner with lawsuits and litigation. Would it be better just to make do with the downtown we have, where in Claremont they adapt older buildings for modern usage? We are living in an economy where people do not want to spend big money like they used to. We need to appreciate our heritage, while becoming fiscally prudent.

My advice  for the people concerned, visit the Yangtze restaurant at least once just in case if the owner surrenders to the city to close it down so they can build their white elephant project. Write to the city council members and the mayor and get involved in your local government.