Opinion

“There are certain jobs you think you understand — until you actually do them. Last weekend, I added ‘parking lot attendant’ to my resume while helping my son Matthew manage the Claremont Club Championships, a two-day pickleball tournament. I’ve covered events for decades. I’ve photographed them, written about them, flown drones over them, but I’ve never stood in front of moving traffic wearing a bright yellow vest and hoped for the best. That was my job.”

Claremont’s long-running music series Friday Nights Live returns May 1 with a great lineup: Claremont Voodoo Society at the new Depot stage, Arrow Highway at Shelton Park, and Pride of Cucamonga at Village plaza.

“All eyes will be on Claremont April 28 when Pomona College hosts a new kind of event: a California gubernatorial debate that CBS News will stream and broadcast live. The debate, one of several in the lead-up to the June 2 primary election, was always going to be a big deal — and a nice bit of publicity — for Claremont, Pomona College, and its gem, Bridges Auditorium. But with frontrunner Rep. Eric Swalwell dropping out of the race and resigning from the House this week, California’s governor’s race has suddenly become a major national story.”

“If the United States produces more oil than it uses, why are drivers in Claremont still paying more than $5.50 a gallon? That’s the question a lot of people are asking right now — and the answer comes down to one simple reality: Oil is not local. It’s global.”

by John Pixley I attended the local No Kings protest last month. For about 15 minutes. That was about all I could take. It wasn’t that I didn’t agree with the protesters and wanted nothing to do with the two-hour afternoon protest, one of thousands that day across the nation. God, no! I was right […]

“If someone wants to know what’s happening with Claremont schools, a housing project, or a local crime story, they go to Google and type a few words. The Claremont Courier is taking a major step by stretching our reach to make sure our journalism is part of those searches. It’s a move so dynamic I believe it will even impact the City of Claremont’s Search Engine Optimization.”

“Another ‘No Kings’ rally is in the books and with it has come another joy hangover. As hangovers go, this is the good one. I joined more than 3,000 like-minded folks here in Claremont last Saturday, proving once again that righteous anger displayed on a mass scale doesn’t have to end in violent insurrection. The vibes were joyous, despite the seriousness of the moment. It gave me, and I suspect thousands of others, a much-needed dose of hope.” Photo/by Jessie Cadenas

Local sustainability dialogs have contributed significantly to our public conversations about creating a healthier, greener, and more resilient community. This ambition characterizes each of the estimated 100 dialogs that have occurred since 2009 under the aegis of the host organization, Sustainable Claremont. Launched in March 2009, the first three dialogs set an ambitious agenda. Join us at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 9 in Pomona College’s Hahn Auditorium, 420 Harvard Ave., as we begin yet another compelling series of free and open to the public sustainability dialogs. Courier file photo

“Mom lived to see Trump elected the first time. She had been sick, and refused treatment at the end, preferring to die at home. Before she left us though she was clear about one thing: she loathed that man. I miss her every single day, but there’s one thing about her death I’m grateful for: that she didn’t live to see what he has wrought.”

“The American political elite of this country have a worldview shaped by our position in the world that was caused by the aberration of World War II, where the U.S. had 50% of the global gross domestic product and the other powerful nations of the world had been weakened. Today, our share of the global GDP is around 17% and shrinking, and other nations — notably the People’s Republic of China —  have eschewed wars and concentrated on real economic growth, not financial gimmicks that in the words of convicted Goldman Sachs derivatives trader Fabrice Toure, are ‘mental masturbation.'” Image/courtesy of MIT News

“My wife Lisa and I are certainly different in many ways, but we are 100% aligned in our enthusiasm for old weird stuff. (One could argue I’m living proof of her enthusiasm for old weird stuff.) There’s just something cool about holding, wearing, reading, or admiring something someone else has owned and hopefully loved. But not all old weird stuff is innocent.”

“When we recently added up the true cost of producing and delivering the print edition (we did not count reporters, editors, or business employees), the result was eye-opening: the Courier spends $109 a year per print subscription. Subscriptions have never been a major profit center. But historically, they have at least covered the basic cost of getting the newspaper to your doorstep. That is no longer the case.”

“This week marks 10 years for me here at the Claremont Courier. Over that time I’ve written hundreds of columns, hundreds more stories and obituaries, edited more than 10,000 individual bits of writing, and consumed a metric ton of coffee. I was 52, sweaty, and a little nervous when I wrote my first Courier story about the Webb Schools’ Alf Museum in March 2016. I’d been away from journalism for 22 years, but muscle memory kicked in and I managed a passable if overly verbose bit of fluff. It was far from memorable, but it was a start.”