This blog entry is about the city of Claremont. To vote for coverage of other Los Angeles County communities, click here. To vote for Los Angeles neighborhoods, click here. To vote for Orange County neighborhoods, vote here.
Claremont City Hall
INTRO
Claremont is the poshest city in the Pomona Valley. It's bordered by La Verne to the west, Pomona to the southwest, Montclair to the southeast, Upland to the east and the Angeles National Forest to the north. I have even heard of people from nearby Ontario falsely claiming Claremont. On Friday, the CARDIS traveled to La Verne to pick up Paul Vasquez (aka DJ Stingray – formerly DJ Superstar), who’s also an authority on, among many sci-fi things, the culture of Claremont.
Claremont is situated near the former Tongva village of Torojoatngna.
PARKS
Due to its fairly green nature and the existence of seven colleges and universities, Claremont has acquired the nickname "City of Trees and PhDs." In fact, the National Arbor Day Association has honored Claremont as a Tree City USA for the past nineteen years. We tried to visit the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden but a rather snippy harpy squawked at us. We merely asked if she’d mind us checking out the park (since it was still open according to the posted hours) and she shrieked nastily, “As a matter of fact I do!” Since there are fifteen other parks in the city, we decided to check out some of the others. There proved to be no unpleasant beasts guarding the smaller but more welcoming John R. Rodman Arboretum.
Claremont Hills Wilderness Park The Towers (with teens in the grass) The things they carried
Paul also piloted his Saturn to the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. An area informally known as “The Towers,” Paul informed me, is a popular place for teens to drink beer. Indeed, I did find evidence of both teens and several empty cans of "high gravity lager." Memorial Park plays host in the spring to the Claremont Folk Music Festival and, in the summer, the Claremont Monday Night Concert Series. Not held in a park, but rather on the Pitzer campus, is April's Kohoutek Music and Arts Festival.
The Village
CHARACTER
Claremont's population is roughly 64% white, 16% Latino (mostly Mexican) and 12% Asian (mostly Taiwanese), and 5% black. German-Americans and English-Americans are the largest ethnicities. It was very quiet, as green as its reputation promises and, during our visit, full of spring blooms. Claremont’s mostly residential and centered around a shopping area known as “the Village.” In the last few years, the formerly industrial area to the west of the village has been rezoned for commercial use and branded “Village West” (aka the “Village Expansion”). There are also many shops in the Claremont Inn Complex, attached to the Old School House.
EATS
Some of the noted Claremont eateries include Some Crust Bakery, BC Cafe Kick Back Jack's, Inka Trails, Pollos Kikiryki, Patty's Mexican Foods, Viva Madrid, The Back Abbey, La Parolaccia Osteria Italiana, Saca's Mediterranean Cuisine, Bua Thai Cuisine and Walter's Restaurant. A chance encounter with KSPC’s fetching DeeJay Dia (host of Songs for the Whippersnapper Show ) resulted in her giving us a heads up about a relatively new joint, Ali Baba… but we returned from whence we started (for symmetry’s sake) to the Press to conclude our exploration as we’d begun, over some drinks at a venue known for its live music, often featuring local acts like AzBuka and the Baldy Mountain Jazz Band.
MUSIC
Ben Harper is a widely recognized native and his grandparents founded the Folk Music Center in 1958.
Before Rhino became a re-issue label, it was a record store and it was at the Claremont location that I bought the best of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds on VHS about a decade ago.
Outside KSPC Happy Hollows setting up
There’s also the radio station KSPC (88.7), which I can sometimes hear thirty or so miles away. Frank Zappa and the Dust Brothers both had a shows there at one time, as did DJ Superstar. When Paul and I popped in, we ran into Steven Hertz, host of the Videogame Music Show. We crashed the studio to find Happy Hollows setting up for a live performance to precede their gig at No-Chella.
Whilst there, Paul showed me Bridges Auditorium (aka Big Bridges) … and Little Bridges, where he once walked out of a Cat Power show.
THEATER, FILM & TV
Nestled in the the foothills is the Padua Hills Theatre, which was built back in the 1920s. Several films have been shot either in part or in whole in Claremont, including Teenwolf Too, Son of Flubber, Real Genius, Over the Top, The Fear, Dave, Beaches, The Absent Minded Professor, Gilmore Girls and the first shot in the opening credits of The Facts of Life.
Claremont City Hall
INTRO
Claremont is the poshest city in the Pomona Valley. It's bordered by La Verne to the west, Pomona to the southwest, Montclair to the southeast, Upland to the east and the Angeles National Forest to the north. I have even heard of people from nearby Ontario falsely claiming Claremont. On Friday, the CARDIS traveled to La Verne to pick up Paul Vasquez (aka DJ Stingray – formerly DJ Superstar), who’s also an authority on, among many sci-fi things, the culture of Claremont.
Claremont is situated near the former Tongva village of Torojoatngna.
John R. Rodman Arboretum
PARKS
Due to its fairly green nature and the existence of seven colleges and universities, Claremont has acquired the nickname "City of Trees and PhDs." In fact, the National Arbor Day Association has honored Claremont as a Tree City USA for the past nineteen years. We tried to visit the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden but a rather snippy harpy squawked at us. We merely asked if she’d mind us checking out the park (since it was still open according to the posted hours) and she shrieked nastily, “As a matter of fact I do!” Since there are fifteen other parks in the city, we decided to check out some of the others. There proved to be no unpleasant beasts guarding the smaller but more welcoming John R. Rodman Arboretum.
Claremont Hills Wilderness Park The Towers (with teens in the grass) The things they carried
Paul also piloted his Saturn to the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. An area informally known as “The Towers,” Paul informed me, is a popular place for teens to drink beer. Indeed, I did find evidence of both teens and several empty cans of "high gravity lager." Memorial Park plays host in the spring to the Claremont Folk Music Festival and, in the summer, the Claremont Monday Night Concert Series. Not held in a park, but rather on the Pitzer campus, is April's Kohoutek Music and Arts Festival.
The Village
CHARACTER
Claremont's population is roughly 64% white, 16% Latino (mostly Mexican) and 12% Asian (mostly Taiwanese), and 5% black. German-Americans and English-Americans are the largest ethnicities. It was very quiet, as green as its reputation promises and, during our visit, full of spring blooms. Claremont’s mostly residential and centered around a shopping area known as “the Village.” In the last few years, the formerly industrial area to the west of the village has been rezoned for commercial use and branded “Village West” (aka the “Village Expansion”). There are also many shops in the Claremont Inn Complex, attached to the Old School House.
The Press
EATS
Some of the noted Claremont eateries include Some Crust Bakery, BC Cafe Kick Back Jack's, Inka Trails, Pollos Kikiryki, Patty's Mexican Foods, Viva Madrid, The Back Abbey, La Parolaccia Osteria Italiana, Saca's Mediterranean Cuisine, Bua Thai Cuisine and Walter's Restaurant. A chance encounter with KSPC’s fetching DeeJay Dia (host of Songs for the Whippersnapper Show ) resulted in her giving us a heads up about a relatively new joint, Ali Baba… but we returned from whence we started (for symmetry’s sake) to the Press to conclude our exploration as we’d begun, over some drinks at a venue known for its live music, often featuring local acts like AzBuka and the Baldy Mountain Jazz Band.
MUSIC
Ben Harper is a widely recognized native and his grandparents founded the Folk Music Center in 1958.
Before Rhino became a re-issue label, it was a record store and it was at the Claremont location that I bought the best of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds on VHS about a decade ago.
Outside KSPC Happy Hollows setting up
There’s also the radio station KSPC (88.7), which I can sometimes hear thirty or so miles away. Frank Zappa and the Dust Brothers both had a shows there at one time, as did DJ Superstar. When Paul and I popped in, we ran into Steven Hertz, host of the Videogame Music Show. We crashed the studio to find Happy Hollows setting up for a live performance to precede their gig at No-Chella.
Whilst there, Paul showed me Bridges Auditorium (aka Big Bridges) … and Little Bridges, where he once walked out of a Cat Power show.
THEATER, FILM & TV
Nestled in the the foothills is the Padua Hills Theatre, which was built back in the 1920s. Several films have been shot either in part or in whole in Claremont, including Teenwolf Too, Son of Flubber, Real Genius, Over the Top, The Fear, Dave, Beaches, The Absent Minded Professor, Gilmore Girls and the first shot in the opening credits of The Facts of Life.
