Wednesday’s column is my latest report from an Upland City Council meeting. The theme this time is mistakes, including fixing one of my own. As an addendum, the city manager phoned the newsroom today to say he’d misspoken during the meeting and next week’s special meeting is March 5, not March 6. No one is immune, apparently.
You could call it counterprogramming, but writing about an Upland council meeting instead of the Big Bear shootout was what you do when your deadline is 2 p.m. I might tackle that topic for Friday’s column. In the meantime, it was an interesting council meeting. You can read my column here.
What happened to the two statues that stood at the roofline of Hoyt Lumber in Upland before its demolition? They’re now in the yard of Bob Koranda, who bought them days before the lumber yard was demolished. Read more in my Friday column.
The Colonies gets all the major retailers (Target, Toys R Us, Nordstrom Rack, etc.), but the humble corner of Monte Vista Avenue and Arrow Route has a few smaller-scale businesses coming. It might seem like Montclair or Claremont, but it’s Upland.
There’s a small irony that a 7-Eleven will be located a block or so east of Claremont’s border; a planned 7-Eleven on Foothill Boulevard in Claremont was blocked by neighbors a couple of years ago. Now there will be a 7-Eleven close to the colleges anyway, but Claremont won’t get any money from it.
…and yet its Monday council meeting wasn’t bad at all. Read about it in my Friday column.
It’s now known as Upland Feed and Groom, but the store at 164 N. 2nd Ave. in downtown Upland is closing any day now. Signs outside say everything is half off and a peek inside on Tuesday showed there wasn’t a lot left.
The store opened in 1896 and I believe it’s been in continuous operation ever since. Ray Stump was involved with the store for 50 years, working his way up from employee to owner, before selling it in 2008. The store sold pets as well as feed for horses, rabbits, chickens and birds, a function that was more important in a more rural era; ditto with the fuel, presumably firewood, that was part of the original name but fell by the wayside long ago.
Owner/landlord Mike Cobb, who took over the ailing store in 2010, hasn’t returned calls from our Upland reporter, but it seems evident the store has had trouble repurposing itself despite adding pet grooming and altering the name in 2011. Too bad. In the age of Petco, it’s tough to make it as an independent pet store, especially in a sleepy downtown.
Feel free to share any memories or history of the store by leaving a comment.
A stretch of West Foothill Boulevard in Upland is being widened and reconstructed, impeding access to some businesses during construction. Thus, even a certain naughty business gets a free, official-from-City-Hall sign in the median directing motorists where they are supposed to turn during the chaos. If you turn left, shield your face from construction workers. If you continue east, there’s a Christian bookstore a few blocks farther east.
Friday’s column begins with an item about an Upland cafe where the staff is wearing pajamas for the holidays. Some customers are too. Also, there’s the sad news that Claremont fixture Ray Collins, founding member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, is hospitalized after a major heart attack. And we have other news items from around the valley.
Wednesday’s column has all the latest (and all the greatest) about our friends on the Upland City Council.
Wednesday’s column (read it here) is a recap of Monday’s Upland City Council meeting. Rather than an editorial comment, the headline is actually apt. But you’ll have to read the column to get it.