Opinion

Keep it safe near schools Dear Editor: Okay, Claremont parents, now that school has started, let’s review some traffic rules for you to keep in mind as you drop off your children in the mornings.  We are fortunate that Claremont is a safe community, which makes people feel safe enough to exercise by running and […]

by John Pixley I wrote last year about a friend from Los Angeles who commented that the stop lights in Claremont seem to take longer. Another friend, who lives in Pomona, says that she knows right away that she has driven into Claremont because the streets are so much smoother. Until recently, when Bonita Avenue […]

by Rev. Jan Chase of Unity Church of Pomona, member of the Claremont Interfaith Council When Linda arrived at the community laundry room of her mobile home park, her friends were standing along the street holding their baskets of dirty clothes. When she asked why they weren’t already in the room, they answered, “You’ll see!” […]

The soundtrack of our lives Dear Editor: I was proud to have been a part of Anne Carlson’s article, “The Soundtrack of Our Lives,” in the new COURIER Almanac, which speaks to the vitality of the music scene here in Claremont. There has been a long tradition of a vibrant and interactive musical family that […]

by John Pixley “Someone in the bowels of the bureaucracy made certain assumptions and decisions—I’m not saying they weren’t made in good faith,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. “The decisions made apparently suggested they did not have the authority….” Or, as Mark Ridley-Thomas, the chairman of the board of supervisors, put it, “We […]

National Recreation Area, good or bad? Dear Editor: Congressmember Judy Chu is traveling the 27th Congressional District in an effort to bring attention to her proposed legislation for the National Recreation Area (NRA). What is the NRA? It’s the expansion of our national recreation area which covers more than 1000 square miles of LA County […]

by Mellissa Martinez In a recent news story, Oprah Winfrey spoke of being slighted in Zurich as she shopped for a purse. According to the much-loved figure, a clerk refused to show her a bag on the grounds that it was too expensive. Not surprisingly, the clerk denies the accusation, saying that she simply described […]

by Mark von Wodtke, FASLA Prolonged heat waves and more intense rainstorms are likely consequences of climate change. Our children and grandchildren will find it strange that, faced with climate change, we not only continue using fossil fuels, but also spend billions on asphaltic pavements that need re-topping or slurry sealing every 7 years. Pavement […]

by John Pixley The vegan BBQ pulled chicken sandwich wasn’t cutting it. With a small pile of sad gray strings, topped with a dab of barbecue sauce, on a hamburger bun and served with a tomato slice and lettuce, it was small and dry—nothing like the killer, juicy vegan BBQ pulled pork sandwich at Doomie’s […]

Voting Rights Act of 1965 Dear Editor: After reading the commentary in the August 2, COURIER, “Congress must act quickly to restore the Voting Rights Act,” I felt compelled to respond.  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was unconstitutional from the beginning, and the Supreme Court recognized this in their writings. The Constitution guarantees voting […]

by Peter Weinberger It’s Almanac time again and the COURIER staff can now give a collective “Phew” after months of planning, researching, writing, shooting (in my case climbing), designing and all the production work that went into the 2013-14 edition. There’s another aspect that makes the publisher of this paper quite happy on a number […]

Bruce Plumb Dear Editor: The Claremont Unified School District family lost a valued member on July 23. Bruce Plumb served the community of Claremont and CUSD for the past 37 years.  Bruce represented his brothers and sisters at CUSD through his many hours of dedicated service with the California School Employees Association (CSEA).  Bruce served […]

by John Pixley Uh-oh. Here he comes! And right when I was really settling down into summer, when I was relaxing into the sprawl of the laziest, care-free days of July and early August. Right when I was getting ready to go on a nice vacation. It was the week after the Fourth of July, […]

by Jan Wheatcroft Many think that a “man’s” home is his castle, but I have just spent a week with a couple that strive to make their home a castle. Susanna and Christer live in a country house outside of the Swedish city of Uppsala, north of Stockholm.  At first they lived in a communal […]

by Mellissa Martinez Recent events have me pondering a very popular word—culture. If you turn on the news, open a paper or listen to the radio, you’re sure to get an earful about gun culture, youth culture, marriage culture, the culture of violence, cultural exchanges, cultural diversity, military culture, wars on culture or multiculturalism. I […]

All kinds of families Dear Editor: Douglas Lyon’s tirade against the Supreme Court’s decisions on marriage equality raised the specter of the “degradation” of “the well-being of our children,” so I thought it worthwhile to toss my hat in the ring. My wife and I have been madly in love for 20 years, co-parents for […]