‘To view models’

Walking through the tunnel in L.A.’s Union Station on Sunday night, I saw a poster-like advertisement for a downtown condo project. Alongside photos and text was the above phrase, paired with a phone number, which was enticing for all the wrong reasons.

Who doesn’t secretly wish to view models?

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A gala day

On Saturday afternoon, I went to Pomona to bear mute witness to the swearing in of the new mayor, Elliott Rothman. The Council Chambers were packed, with more people spilling into the lobby and outside. Afterward there was cake and the chance to catch up with people I hadn’t seen in a while. More on the ceremony in Wednesday’s column.

After a late lunch downtown, I went to the Circuit City on South Garey that’s closing. I snagged two Christmas presents on the cheap and several CDs for myself at 40 percent off.

Like I said, a gala day.

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Restaurant of the Week: Dickey’s Barbecue Pit

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Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, 9670 Haven Ave. (at Trademark), Rancho Cucamonga

Dickey’s opened recently in one of the new buildings just north of the aloft hotel at Haven and Fourth. It’s in the same modern-minimalist style as the hotel with steel and big windows. The interior is done in orange, burgundy and chocolate; you order at the counter and everything looks clean and shiny.

Of course, a purist will argue that barbecue should only be consumed in a shack with a corrugated tin roof and a smoker out back that looks like a piece of a steam locomotive. I can empathize, and you are hereby directed to Red Hill BBQ, across town but a world away in ambience.

But back to Dickey’s, which if it has a barbecue pit, as the name indicates, it’s probably tasteful and scrubbed clean twice daily. They have six meats — brisket, Polish sausage, pork ribs and the like — and prices are for a sandwich with zero, one or two sides or for a plate with two sides and one, two or three meats.

I got the pulled pork sandwich with two sides ($8.59): cole slaw and mac and cheese. The meal arrived switfly. Some would say the pulled park was too fine in texture, and perhaps that a 4-oz. portion was too small. But I enjoyed it, and with the two sides, it made for a filling meal. It’s convenient to our office and I would go back. *

Drinks come in one size only, in a yellow plastic 32-oz. cup, for $1.99.

Free with each meal are pickles — serve yourself from a giant jar — and soft-serve ice cream, a nice touch. And kids eat free on Sundays.

Dickey’s is a family-run chain started in Dallas in 1941, according to its website. The original Mr. Dickey probably never guessed his descendants would one day have a restaurant in Cucamonga.

* Update: I’ve gone back repeatedly, largely due to the convenience factor. The restaurant’s gas oven did a terrible job on the rib plate the one time I made the mistake of ordering something more ambitious. Go to a real BBQ joint (i.e., an actual barbecue pit) if you want ribs. Stick to the sandwiches, which are pretty good.

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Friday column preview

The Ontario City Council is no Ontario-Montclair School Board in the excitement department, but Tuesday’s council meeting showed that the traditional honeymoon period after an election lasted minutes, not months.

The swearing-in of one new member, Debra Dorst-Porada, seems to have emboldened councilmen Jim Bowman and Alan Wapner, who have been in the minority the past few months. They made moves that night to assert themselves and turn the tables on Mayor Paul Leon and Councilwoman Sheila Mautz, who suddenly seem to be standing on shaky ground.

Toward meeting’s end, Dorst-Porada declared cheerfully, “I think we’re going to have a really great four years.”

Leon and Mautz were probably thinking of that Lone Ranger joke that ends: “What do you mean ‘we,’ kemosabe?”

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Another vacancy in Village West

Cold Stone Creamery in Claremont’s westside-of-Indian-Hill development (the name for which nobody can agree on) closed Sunday, the latest in a string of failures there that includes children’s clothing store Chloe and Hunter and women’s clothier Peyton Grey.

(Tally for Men, meanwhile, has had a “going out of business” sale since last spring. It’s like a hammy death scene that goes on and on.)

Loraine Ong, the high school student in the Cold Stone ice cream flavor contest, alerted me to the store’s closing. It certainly puts a crimp in her strategy, but she’s shifted her “home store” to the location by the Edwards 14 theaters on Ontario’s Mountain Avenue.

To help her out, I had gone to Cold Stone on Sunday for a Heath Wave. There was no indication it was the store’s last day.

The bright side of this is that Bert and Rocky’s won. That’s the locally owned ice cream shop that’s a fixture at Yale and Bonita just two blocks from Cold Stone. I prefer Bert and Rocky’s anyway so I’m glad if only one store could survive, it’s that one.

Some businesses in Village West/Village Square/Village Expansion appear to be thriving, by the way. Jamba Juice, Coffee Bean and La Parolaccia seem perpetually busy, Le Pain and Kazama are never empty and around 4 p.m. Sunday there was, hearteningly, a line of 20 people outside the Laemmle theater ticket window.

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Gold Line meetings

Meetings are planned tonight in Upland (5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Carnegie Library, 123 D St.) and Thursday in Rancho Cucamonga (5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Brulte Senior Center, 11200 Base Line Road) to show off the two possible routes — here’s a map — for the light-rail train from Montclair to Ontario airport.

Meanwhile, of course, the train line is nowhere near Montclair. Here’s the current, post-Measure R timeline for getting the train from Pasadena to Azusa.

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Not so exciting economic development

Hot on the heels of a new car wash on Towne Avenue, Pomona city officials recently celebrated the opening of another mega-development: a new 7-Eleven. It’s on Temple Avenue near the Shiloh Inn.

(The PR firm for 7-Eleven sent us an announcement locating the store in Whittier, but 3111 W. Temple is in Pomona, sorry.)

The freeway-close convenience store opened Nov. 20. I imagine that right after the ribbon-cutting, it was declared blighted.

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An elevating tale

A reader who asks not to be identified sent me a funny anecdote after a recent column in which a reader mentioned her “elevator” ride to the top of the St. Louis Arch. It’s not strictly an elevator, this second reader says, since going up in an arch isn’t a vertical ride. True. He continues:

“Which brings me to the story of my family’s visit years ago when our children were still kids. My wife is claustrophobic. I knew that, but didn’t realize the extent of her claustrophobia until that day. I purchased five tickets for the ride without consulting her, then, unwisely, insisted we had paid for the ride and had to ride to the top.

“So she, the three kids and I squeezed into this tiny little cage. In order to stay horizontal as the shaft curved, the cage ratcheted every few seconds. My wife hung on for dear life. Unfortunately, I was on one side of her, and the only thing she had to hang onto on that side was my thigh. Every time the cage ratcheted to stay level, she squeezed my thigh. Forty years later, I still have bruises on that thigh.

“But that’s not the end of the story. When we got to the top, she announced that there was no way she would get back in that contraption to ride back down. So I convinced a security guard that she needed to take the steps down. He opened a door and showed us the steps.”

Let me interrupt to note that the Arch is 630 feet tall at its highest point.

“She took one look at the steps, and decided that her acrophobia was worse than her claustrophobia, so she would ride back down.

“I have been married for a half century, and would like to continue to be. So, if you can print this story anonymously, I would really appreciate it. Otherwise, I hope you have a spare bedroom, because I am going to need a place to sleep.”

Since I don’t have a spare bedroom, you can see why I’m leaving him anonymous.

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Wednesday column preview

Deciding to see the whole Paul Vincent Avila saga through, I attended Monday’s special Ontario-Montclair School Board meeting, at which censuring him would be discussed, and was glad I did: It was crazy. You can read the results on Wednesday. I think they’re planning to run the column on Page 1.

After the meeting, David Campio, the newly appointed member, quipped: “This is the best show in town. My uncles don’t believe it. I tell people, you have to just come and see it.”

You do. But perhaps my column will be an acceptable substitute.

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