Teacher Quality, Free Market Lessons

Education isn't our specialty, but we couldn't help but ruminate on this PSN article from last week. With so many qualified folks competing for teaching jobs, how is it that some critics still complain that we don't have worthy teachers in our classrooms?

One applicant, Jane Yun, 29, said that any teaching job was fine after seeing her expectations lessened after viewing the hundreds of teaching candidates vying for a handful of jobs.

Critics can make what claims they want about teachers' unions or excessive bureaucracy or lack of funding, but it doesn't seem fruitful to argue that we have a fundamental dearth of qualified teachers. Anyone disagree?

More Good in Azusa

We almost missed the comment (it's been hectic around here as of late), but there is good news from Azusa and it's taking place today.

Another good thing in Azusa is the 1st Annual Mariachi Festival being put on by the Azusa Unified School District at Azusa High School on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 6:00 P.M. The groups playing will all be AUSD students. It should be a blast. Come out and support the kids!

No scandals or existential questions about journalism involved. Just a good time with the kids. Remember, people, if you let us know in advance, we're happy to help spread the word on upcoming events (we wish we'd mentioned this one earlier).

Azusa Joins Pot-Busting Party

Not only did Azusa police break up a $4 million marijuana growing operation on Tuesday, they allowed an SGVT photographer to do a slide show of it (the operation, that is, not the take down). For great pictures, check out the impressively named Watchara Phomicinda in the SGVT.

Of course, this means that many latter day teens may go without their pain medication. Ah, the travails of adolescence.

The Good in Azusa

Though you might not know it from recent Azusa covereage here, there is some good news (which shouldn't be a surprise; after all, the city motto is "UBI SALUS POPULI SUPREMA EST LEX").

Private Solutions for Azusa's Problems: AHB, eat your heart out. A Mission-Viejo developer is taking on affordable housing in Azusa...one condo at a time. Just listen to this guy: "When I created Prosperity about five years ago, I saw that a single mother making $60,000 a year had no chance of owning her own home," said Prosperity Homes CEO Stuart Holtzman. "I found that to be untenable for me."

Holtzman has teamed up with Wachovia Bank to help provide down-payment assistance and reduce monthly payments for first-time buyers. The best part? Nowhere in the article is the word "government" even mentioned. This guy is tackling the affordable housing problem head on, by actually providing affordable housing. He's not artifically depressing the cost of an apartment, using other folks' tax dollars to keep low-income people renting. He's providing something that you can't get anywhere else, an entry-level property. Bravo, Stuart. Bravo. -- Rodney Tanaka, SGVT

To Azusa and Beyond!: The Gold Line is cleared to head east. Or at least, the FTA and Gold Line officials have figured out just how many people would ride the extension, if it were completed, so now the FTA can decide whether or not to fund the extension. Soooo...it still might not happen. But judging from how happy Dreier and Schiff sound, methinks it's going to be cleared. -- Alison Hewitt, DB

Phil Drake: A Silly Kid: After several Azusa boys were arrested for prowling around school with toy guns, Mr. Drake recounts all the ridiculous things he did as a kid. And boy, was he quite a kid:

"It was the dumbest thing I have ever seen a kid do," my mom once told me. No doubt, it was she who took me to the hospital. Click through to his column to find out the dumbest thing Mrs. Drake had ever seen a child do. -- Phil Drake, SGVT

Okay, that last one wasn't particularly good news, but hey, Phil survived. If you've got more good news from Azusa, let's hear it in the comments.

Blogging City Managers

Speaking of Pomona, there is some interesting speculation in the comments beneath this post about who the city of Pomona might hire as their next city manager, a novel suggestion as to how Sierra Madre should pick their next city manager, and more.

In that exchange I mention that the current city manager of Ventura, Rick Cole—who should be no stranger to FC readers as the co-founder of the Pasadena Weekly, former Mayor of Pasadena, and former city manager of Azusa—has his own blog as city manager on Ventura's government website.
Can you imagine any of our current FC city manager's blogging? I can't, although this will no doubt be more common in the future. You'd think that maybe in Sierra Madre, at least, they might understand the advantages of starting one. At least Pomona city manager Doug Dunlap did us the courtesy of commenting on ours.

An Azusa Update, Updated

Well, I'm actually hoping one of you can update us. Anyone out there know where that whole bizarro sexual harassment allegation against Mayor Rocha in Azusa stands these days?

Did former planning commissioner and accuser Mark Ades just make this unsubstantiated allegation against the Mayor he didn't like and then skip town?




UPDATE:
Heh. So I've been waiting for another press report on this subject, and as it happens the day I finally get tired of waiting and just ask all of you, the SGVT runs a story by Bethania Palma giving us the latest. All those outside Azusa might want to remember that Rocha filed a complaint against Ades first, as he says Ades was trying to use the accusation as part of a rather ill-conceived extortion plot to keep him from being mayor. Ades didn't actually file a complaint until this Tuesday.

City Council members expressed support for Rocha and said the matter will not interfere with city business.

"I find it very difficult to believe any of the allegations against Mr. Rocha," said Azusa City Councilman Uriel Macias. "Those allegations are way far-fetched."

Councilman Robert Gonzales agreed.

"The city is already moving on and moving forward," he said.

Next time I'll check the paper before posting my question, but we still invite emails and comments on the matter.

Snippets from the Planet of the Glendorans

It appears this blogger would disagree with my assessment (not to mention that of the District Attorney's) of the whole Glendoran Planet debate regarding the teenage girl vandals gone wild.

Good ole N.ot I.n M.y B.ack Y.ard -ism rules the day in Glendora, as reported by Allison Hewitt of the SGVT: "...the City Council refused to grant a time extension that would have allowed construction to begin on an assisted-living facility opposed by prospective neighbors."

Sounds like some members of the Council took the easy way out and voted down the senior housing because the developers were late in filing their TPS reports. Councilman Clifford "said the developer's excuses 'remind me of a student who had a term paper' but missed the deadline." However, if the rest of the article is right the hound of bureaucracy ate up their homework—the developers were bogged down by waiting for govmint plan approvals and permits while responding to a change in the Regional Water Quality Control Board rules and regs. But hey, if the neighborhood doesn't want the thang in their neighborhood, what are you gonna do, ignore them? These situations can be tough calls for city councils.

Oh yes, and check out the eternal commentating beneath this Chowhound post on the Donut Man. By the way folks, this is off Foothill, not that far away from Azusa Pacific College (in, yes, Azusa) in case you were wondering. The Donut Man gets so much good press it's almost as if we should start a separate category for him.

Your Friends and Neighbors...

Ouch:
Last year I did not renew my subscription to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, and this year I will end my delivery of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, I have opted to subscribe to an online news source instead.

My subscription to the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly will continue, with no plans of stopping delivery this year.

I wonder if this guy found the place he wanted:
I got off on Azusa Ave./SR-39 and went up to take a peek at Azusa, one of the more working class suburbs in the area. It wasn't too bad, actually. A little more ethnic, but no different than Riverside. I cruised East on Foothill through Glendora, also a pretty city. The eastern edge of Azusa (closer to Glendora) was pretty nice...Initially I considered as far West as Pasadena...

What kind of shows?
We have shows in San Dimas, Pomona, San Gabriel, Norwalk, Glendora, and Covina.

They finally open up Glendora Mt. Road, and look what happens:
...got stuck offroading today in the mountains. Mr. Wilson and I decided to try to take a walking trail that was located about halfway thru Glendora Mt. Road; it was gated off...

He don't like Glendora:
I Don't think I want my kids living here.
:-/
Too much .... "Glendoraness"
Those of you that live here know what I'm talking about. There's too much hate, racism, and drama here. I would give anything to move out of this city.

Is he talking about Glendora, CA?

Mines Ain't Dark as a Dungeon No More

Although we wouldn't mind if Vulcan Materials was leaving us unmarked packages of cold, rock-hard cash in a Swiss bank account (made of fine construction aggregate) on a regular basis, they're not.Even so, we can't help but notice some of the great press they've been getting lately, especially as they are often considered the enemy in some of the FC (notably Azusa and Claremont). Patrick Seitz of Investor's Business Daily just wrote an article explaining how well the construction aggregate industry is doing these days, buoyed by strong commercial and government building. Vulcan is planning to buy a competitor for $4.6-billion. This ain't a small company, folks, and growing public works projects in, say, California, are going to increase the need for its services.

Obviously, our cities shouldn't be kowtowing to mining interests over the good of their residents [Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard with his wine / A man will have lust for the lure of the mine], but the IBD article has some interesting quotations from the "other side" of the usually told story:

Mines can have economic lives of 25 or 30 years, so they need to be excavated efficiently and with an eye toward use of the land once mining is completed, [Vulcan CEO Donald] James says.

"We are large landowners, and our land is largely in metropolitan areas — and we are very cognizant of the fact that mining is an interim use of the land,"James said. "Our land will likely end up as either residential or commercial development around a beautiful turquoise quarry lake. So we are using technology to help us maximize both the efficiency of our production and the value of our residual real estate."

Club Rumors: "He-Said, He-Said" in Azusa

Despite the fact that by the middle of February, Azusa Mayor Diane Chagnon had raised more than all 7 of the other city council candidates combined—$32,123 was the figure Alison Hewitt of the SGV Trib reported on Feb. 15th—she still lost, in a race in which her accusations of turkey stealing against eventual winner Joe Rocha, as well as campaign contributions from Athens Services trash company, the developers of the massive Rosedale (you've-seen-the-signs-on-the-210) project, and her ties to Vulcan Mining all became issues during public debates.

After the election, in which she had been strongly endorsed by the SGV Trib, she hinted that she would be interested in taking the open seat on the council left because of Rocha's win ["Of course, there is an open seat, and if the council wants to appoint someone with 13 years of experience, that's their option"], but the council (just recently) appointed the third place candidate, Robert Gonzales to the seat vacated by Azusa's new mayor, Joe Rocha.

In any event, Chagnon appointed one Mark Ades to the planning commission after he served as her campaign manager in the 2005 election. (People argued about this on a local website forum here, some disparaging Ades' political style.)

Ades made the papers recently when the D-Club and Restaurant tried to start a weekly gay themed "Club Rumors" night. The Alison Hewitt SGV Trib article is posted on the forums at Azusa Pride, a website that says Azusa is "the gay friendliest city in the valley." [And here you always thought the evangelical Azusa Pacific University was defining of Azusa.] City officials said that the D-Club actually didn't even have the right permits to be a club in the first place, and "was also the site of underage drinking, large fights and lax security." Ades, "who said he had attended the club in the past," was cited defending the club, which appears to have weathered the storm.
All of which brings us to the current situation. The day after Joe Rocha won the mayoral election, Mark Ades resigned and sent out a letter to the city council and the city manager alleging that Joe had always wanted to get a little gay friendly with Mark. And so, as Bethania Palma and Frank C. Girardot have it in the SGV Trib: "Mayor Joe Rocha has filed a complaint with the Los Angeles County District Attorney alleging a former city planning commissioner [Mark Ades] used threats to try to force him out of office."

The threat [(s)?], according to mayor Rocha, was going public with claims that he "aggressively initiated a 'disturbing sexual encounter' during an unannounced visit to Ades' home on North San Gabriel Avenue. The incident occurred in 'early 2005,' according to [Ades' PR person, Brenda] McGann.

McGann declined to elaborate on the nature of the alleged contact.

Rocha's supporters expressed outrage at the allegation..."

(See also the CBS2 report here.)

Ades says he didn't threaten anything, but simply resigned and provided his reasons: a sordid history of "unwanted advances." Rocha supporters might chalk it all up to a particularly acute case of sore loser syndrome. But both guys have some explaining to do. Whoever is in the right, I'm guessing the rumors are flying at Club Rumors...

Monrovia Wakes in Quake

In case you slept through it, in the wee hours of the morning a tremblor weighing in at 3.4 on the Richter scale shook up our region last night, striking some five miles north of Monrovia.

Happily, the Associated Press says no one was hurt.

Battle of the Schools

Good news out of Glendora (though that fair wind could shift in a hurry): the cities public schools are dominating the East San Gabriel Valley. Even better, nearby Azusa brought up the rear, reports Caroline An at the SGVT.

Most of the schools in the 17 East San Gabriel Valley districts maintained or improved their state performance rankings, according to data released Tuesday by the California Department of Education.

Leading the way were Glendora Unified and Walnut Valley Unified school districts. At the bottom end, schools in Azusa, Baldwin Park, Bassett Unified, Covina-Valley, El Monte City, El Monte Union, Mountain View and Rowland Unified scored in the lowest 10 percent statewide.

Ouch. No doubt Robert Gonzales will be on the case.

Vulcan Nerve Pinching

Centinel noted last week that "Vulcan Materials Company was dubbed the most-admired building materials company in America by Fortune, in part for the company's 'social responsibility.'" Vulcan Materials, most recently in the Azusa and Claremont elections, is often publicly decried as the enemy by politicians in the foothill cities because, well, no one wants a mine in their town—especially if we are talking about an upper-middle class (and beyond) town that is trying to maintain that pristine sheen of green so essential to foothill city politics. [For one example of how all this works, check out the Claremonters Against Strip Mining website and then read the Claremont Insider's commentary on the subject.]

Reality being what it is, however, as Allison Hewitt recently reported in the SGV Trib (archived here), the demand for building material is growing fast while supply is shrinking and, says Hewitt, according to a recent report from the California Department of Conservation: "Over the next 50 years, the San Gabriel Valley will produce less than one-third of the sand and gravel that it needs for construction purposes." (A similar report and map said much the same thing last year).

The price of NIMBY-ism in this case is sharply increasing construction costs as you import the heavy material from further and further away. The result is increased costs to tax-payers when it comes to building roads and other local public projects as well as the further exacerbation of the already high cost of housing endemic to our area (to say nothing of increased exhaust from the trucks). You may be willing to pay these costs, but let's not pretend the issue is as simple as being "against" those intrinsically eeevuhl mines, or that environmental issues are somehow above the ambiguity and messiness of plain old politics.

In any event, also in the "what does Claremont think of that" category, I notice that Richard McLean of FoothillPages.com recently announced that the Irwindale Chamber of Commerce gave Vulcan Materials an award, as the company "sponsors Irwindale Educational Foundation scholarships every year and has been a recent benefactor to students at Lee Elementary School in Azusa, donating to students there and holding barbecues at the school."

Azusa is not Boston (thankfully)

Just to remove any lingering doubts, one need only compare the responses to perceived bomb threats. A thoughtless geochacher caused some alarm recently in the closer city, reports Brian Day for the SGVT:

An In-N-Out employee called the Sheriff's Department after seeing a car drive up to the location, leave the metal canister on the ground and drive away, said Gurbada.

After evacuating the restaurant and nearby houses as a precaution, officials from the Los Angeles County Sheriff Arson and Explosives Detail announced the the 2-inch-long cylinder was harmless, and was merely a part of a game known as "geocaching," Gurbada said.

Okay, so they called the bomb squad, which may have been slight overkill. But consider what Boston did faced with the dire threat of viral marketing. Despite the fact that the ad campaign in question hadn't caused a reaction in any other major city, in Boston it "provoked the closure of major roadways and part of the Charles River, and mobilized local and federal law enforcement."

In Boston, snarls on the Charles. In Azusa, "the incident lasted about two hours." Bravo, Azusa.

Of course, if this had happened in Glendora, one can only imagine how many juvenile females would be arrested.

Video of latest Azusa Election Forum

By the way, the last Azusa city council forum (see my Azusa archive) is also up on YouTube (sort through here) for your viewing pleasure. I'll start you off with the first clip:



Thanks to Azusa resident Art Ramirez for this public service.

Foothill Pages

Azusa, Duarte, Glendora, Monrovia, are [were?] all covered by Foothill Pages, yet another attempt at a local website.

Azusa Stuff

Azusa Pacific University gets screwed via eminent domain, although they may have deserved it (I'm unsure of the details on this one).

More within our focus, Alison Hewitt reports in the SGV Trib on another candidate forum in Azusa:

Council candidate Andrea Cruz came out swinging, repeatedly steering questions back to the problems she sees in the council's redevelopment plans. She promised to end the threat of eminent domain hanging over dozens of local businesses.

Three people weren't there: candidate John Dierking didn't show up (again), and this time Joe Rocha and Robert Gonzales couldn't make it either. If you want see 'em all (except Dierking), just go to YouTube here and check out the last forum. The SGV Trib somehow found out that this was on YouTube and ran a bit explaining that "Azusa resident Art Ramirez" taped the forum and put it online:

"This is a great way to get the word out," Ramirez said. He originally planned to put his tapes on the local cable channel, but ran into difficulties.

"So I thought, I have YouTube available to me - I can put it up there," he said. "Then people can look at it any time they want, even run it back and review it.

Finally, it warms my heart that somewhere in the mountains above Azusa, men like this are still mining gold. Thanks to Bethania Palma of the SGV Trib for a great local character article. Wonder if old Bernie McGrath has any opinions on the Azusa city council race.

Picture from SGV Trib article

Again, the Pasadena Star News offers its recommendations on the race here.

My Girlfriend's Kitchen and Azusa Love-History

Anissa V. Rivera dishes out some Azusa history (of love, ranches, and Linda Rondstadt relatives) and the scoop on an interesting new business in Glendora.

Azusa: the canyoncity

While Claremonsters worry about how unimportant this blog, YouTube, and the internets is (while guessing, wrongly, that I am secretly working for Jackie McHenry or even the Claremont Institute), a YouTube user known only as "canyoncity" is still tirelessly uploading a recent candidate forum involving all but one of the current candidates for Azusa city council. We salute your efforts canyoncity; you have done your civic duty for the week.

Alison Hewitt's SGV Trib article outlining how much money the candidate's have, and who they got it from (Athens Services trash company!, Azusa Land Partners!, The Bates Co.!, developers!, La Flor de Mexico!, a father!, a sister!, a former councilman!) makes for good reading as you watch the forum.

Azusa Candidate Forum Video [Updatedx2]

Someone is posting a recent candidate forum for the upcoming city elections in Azusa on YouTube in [21 and counting] parts here.

Here's the first clip:



Joe Rocha, Diane Chagnon, Andrea Cruz, Uriel Macias, Angel Carrillo, Robert Gonzales, and Edward Alveraz were all at this debate, which I believe is the same one that I referred to here, although I haven't had time to check.

Speaking of the Azusa elections, the Pasadena Star has now given the world its opinion on the subject.