Opinion
Go ahead, explain non-cisgender … Do you support those who identify as noncis (people whose gender does not match the one usually associated with the sex they were assigned at birth), even if you don’t understand them? Do you hate them and think they are an abomination? Do you even know what I’m talking about?
The story of Cadiz begins in the 1980s, when British investor Keith Brackpool arrived in California after pleading guilty to criminal charges relating to securities trading in Britain. In 1983, Brackpool teamed up with others to locate water sources for development and sale to municipalities. Studying satellite images, he located an aquifer in the Mojave, and proceeded to buy up a patchwork of creosote scrub for the private corporation he founded: Cadiz, Inc. He remains connected to Cadiz today. He was appointed to the board in 1986, served as CEO from 1991 to 2013, and as board chair from 2001 to 2022.
Persnickety readers likely noticed a headline on page 14 of last week’s COURIER: “Casa Colina saltues its outgoing chief.”
It was a less than wonderful feeling to wake up last Friday morning, pop open the paper, and see this. Let’s get this out of the way up front: I’m not fishing for sympathy. I’m just venting, apologizing for the error, and hopefully providing some context. Newspaper editing is clearly a gig that will keep you humble. I’ve made mistakes during my brief tenure, and I’ll make some more. But, just like in the rest of life, we gotta keep keepin’ on, hopefully wiser.
Dear editor: Do the Claremont Colleges really care about water conservation? Every night, at exactly 9 p.m., I can hear the sprinklers start on the walkways near my dorm. Every night, I wonder how, as the City of Claremont is experiencing a level two water shortage, can the Claremont Colleges be watering grass that serves no other purpose other than adding to the “beauty” of the campuses?
I had never heard of a compassionate city until I attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Salt Lake City in 2015. The parliament is like stepping into heaven on earth. People from religious and spiritual traditions from all over the earth gather to learn from one another, to build understanding around similarities, and to learn from their differences. At this parliament, 26 interfaith friends from Claremont, Upland and Pomona presented a program on the many ways to do interfaith work in a community.
We were driving north on Mills Avenue, stopped at the light at Arrow Highway. There was a spiffy little black car ahead of us with an interesting bumper sticker: “Beto for Texas.” Beto? Surely that’s Beto O’Rourke. Now, there’s a bumper sticker I haven’t seen in these parts and someone I haven’t heard about for a minute.
Just to set the record straight. I am not a golfer. Not the miniature kind. The one with 500-yard holes, sand, water, tall grass, and putts that never find this tiny hole. That’s the kind of golf I play. Once a year, my son Matt and I participate in a charity golf tournament at the Red Hill Country Club to raise money for Children’s Foundation of America and Trinity Youth Services. It’s a fun event, with many different things to do and support. Monday’s event included a chance to win $10,000 from a helicopter dropping golf balls into the 18th hole, an In-N-Out Burger truck, great prizes, and reception after. Heck, we were even fed lunch and dinner. And of course, there’s beer.
“It may not even be worth printing, but as I’m a ‘Claremontier,’ and a British subject, and as old Queenie’s popped her clogs last week, I’ve got an old British car, and also I collect memorabilia, and I’ve got a car badge that celebrated her coronation in 1952.” Thus began my conversation with Tony Raynor, a 73-year-old Englishman who’s lived in Claremont for three decades. Along with retaining his rather upscale accent, he’s also clearly held on to his cheeky British sense of humor, or humour, I should say.
In June I got a call from a former neighbor in Mar Vista, where I lived from 1997 to 2008, who told me a package had been delivered to my former address. The voicemail said, “It’s from the Neptune Society, so it must be a relative who’s died.”
I am writing to clarify some misconceptions about the various forms of cannabis that may be preventing an informed and meaningful dialogue. This article is limited to the potential medical benefits for adults. Whereas our body’s nervous and endocrine systems were discovered thousands of years ago, it was only in 1988 that the endocannabinoid system was discovered. According to “The Discovery of the Endocannabinoid System” in the Medical Cannabis Handbook for Healthcare Professionals, it is “the largest receptor system and the master regulator of homeostasis in the human body … acting as a chemical bridge between body and mind. It regulates blood sugar, immune function, muscle and fat tissues, hormones, pain centers, reward centers, and metabolic functions.”
In response to the August 19 COURIER article “State: City broke law in denying Larkin Place easement”: The vote against the Larkin Park easement at the June 28 Claremont City Council meeting did not “equate to the disapproval” of the Larkin Place project, which the California Department of Housing and Community Development is claiming. The original site plan (aka the “ugly box”) was designed by and presented to city planning staff by Jamboree and remained as an alternative site plan that City of Claremont special counsel Tom Clark said could be used to move the project forward. Jamboree also stated at a community outreach meeting that if the easement was denied they would submit the original site plan for their next funding step to the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. It was Jamboree’s choice not to do so.
Open letter to city council: Thank you, councilmembers Calaycay, Stark, Leano, Reese, Medina. I am lawsuit adverse, living in a city where we continue to bear the burden of legal fees from a previously failed lawsuit. I have no desire for a redux. I am thinking that those of you sitting on the dais should be just as lawsuit adverse as me. I consider Larkin Place a very good project — a humane project — that took years of community planning, a once-in-a-lifetime convergence of site, zoning, state, county, and local funding, to address the gaping need to house some of our most vulnerable. I consider it a good fit — surrounded as it is by other facilities, churches, a park, a senior center, with access to transit.
Age has a way of humbling us. Every time I feel righteous — about parenthood, work, life — I learn something new that puts me back where I belong. I tend to obsess, and sometimes that predilection produces meaningful results. But that singlemindedness isn’t always helpful or healthy. And learning how to let go when something is just not working has been a lifelong practice. Last Tuesday, I got obsessed again. This time it was with our neighbor Cash Whiteley, whom I’ve written about over the past several weeks. Cash called me about 9 a.m. to report he was suffering and was at the end of his rope. I found him in front of 21 Choices on First St., and again tried to help him get treatment for the massive open wound on the side of his face.
I’ve always believed education saves. As a gay kid, I felt isolated during much of my youth. Sensing my difference, I stayed more aloof than I wanted during childhood and adolescence.
As I begin my senior year of high school, I experience a series of “lasts”: my last first day, last homecoming dance, and eventually my last week.
Readers’ Comments: October 21, 2022
October 20th, 2022
Dear editor: The implications of the Oct. 14 COURIER renter protection ordinance article are troubling. Using the figures in the article, if a landlord improves a property by investing money equal to or exceeding eight months of current rent, then raises the rent, an eviction would be legal if the current renters don’t want to pay the new rental rate.