Spring is Here, Don't Forget to Save Your Seeds!

Water lotus seed pod
Originally uploaded by petrichor

All you Pomoniacs out there, as you're planting your vegetables and harvesting fruit and what not, DON'T FORGET to SAVE YOUR SEEDS!

It'd be really nice if we could have a vegetable seed exchange at the end of the Summer and again at the end of Winter.

That way resources won't be spent on shipping seeds around the country. We can just trade.

Also don't forget to share your fruits and vegetables with your neighbors. I've got a bunch of All Reds Potatoes growing I'd love to trade with some others. (I've even got some Lemon Tree seedlings I'm willing to trade)

I will be glad to organize such an event.

Underpass vs. Overpass

Pomona Train Station Pomona, California
Originally uploaded by saimo_mx70

I'm sure everyone recognizes this photo. It's of the Pomona Train station. This is also the location of the Garey Ave. underpass.

See, here in Pomona we have Underpasses. Overpasses aren't as popular. We've got three underpasses that dip down under the rails. A lot of excavation must have taken place to get the road carved down under an existing rail line. Residents used to have to just sit and wait for the train to cross in order to get to the other side of the tracks.

But today, I rode my bike to Montclair. Overpasses are all the rage in that city. Over the same rail the road is lifted up over the train instead of sent under.

I never really paid much attention to the differences when walking or driving. But riding a bike? There is a HUGE difference. While in a car one doesn't use much energy, it's all in the foot and gas pedal. While walking it doesn't really matter what you do first, go down or go up, the same amount of energy is generally used.

But on a BIKE? Pomona? Thank you for those underpasses! With an underpass you could use the bikes momentum going down for most of the energy coming back up. Less energy is used in pedaling in order to get back up the hill.

"But Andrew, don't you gain some of that energy back when going down after an overpass?" Well, sometimes you do but that's only of you're lucky. You're most likely going to hit a traffic light or a stop sign right after that overpass (underpass included) So all that momentum you've gained after the overpass is lost 'cause you've got to stop.

If you're familiar with how roller coasters work it's basically the same concept. But on the streets you have to stop, so would you rather have that momentum before or after going up hill?

Underpasses win, at least when it comes to bicycling.

Unfortunate Events, what's goin' on?

click on the picture to enlarge

It's not often I hear the Police Helicopter in the late afternoon or early evening, but here in south Pomona on Towne between Lexington and Philadelphia a helicopter was circling overhead around 6:00pm.

I noticed it on the way home on my bike, I jokingly thought to myself "the police are following me!" but when I turned onto Towne I noticed what it was. The police wouldn't let me by so I would eventually have to go around. I did get a snapshot with my camera phone. (i swear every i forget my camera i wish i had it with me). Yo can't tell from the photo but there is at least one Ontario PD car, a large armored police vehicle, and even an animal control truck. I saw some armored men with helmets and all enter the home it was at and I also did see a pit bull being put into the animal control truck.

I eventually turned around and went the long way home, does anyone know what was going on? I was considering asking, but not sure if it was my place to or not. It was pretty unusually for this to happen during the day. At least the bike ride was nice, I rode halfway through carbon canyon and back.

CAL POLY POMONA: NCAA FINALS Division II

Cal Poly POMONA is in the NCAA Finals! For the Firs time in History! Is there ANY Place in Pomona (other than my campus) that is going to PLAY this on their TELEVISIONS??

It'll be on Saturday March 28th. at 10am! Channel 2

Cal Poly Pomona: NCAA Final Four Division II

Cal Poly Pomona was the lowest seed in the Elite Eight and the largest school. Now they are in the Final Four of the NCAA Division II Championships.

Too bad there isn't a bar around town that can stream Live Video online or I'd be there watching the game!

If anyone wants to watch the game it'll be on CBS's College Sports network live at 3pm TODAY

Pomona's Radio Station? Hot 92.3 and KDAY 93.5

I am one of those folks that says "I like everything" and I really do mean it. I enjoy all types of music from Broken Beat to Country and Classical to Classic Rock. But, most people don't know this, but I'm partial to "Old School" (more specifically James Brown to Curtis Mayfield type stuff). I grew up listening to KRTH 101.1 so it's only natural that I connect with music a few decades too late. ;)

So when I'm in my car I generally tune in to four stations. That would be 89.1(same as 89.3), 89.9, 92.3 and 93.5(the new KDAY)

The first two are obviously public radio stations and when I'm in the mood for music and it's a weekday I'll tune into KDAY or HOT 92.3

The point here is: I've noticed a LOT of callers to these two stations are from Pomona. It is a guarantee that I'll hear at least one caller per day from Pomona, either requesting or song or trying to win something.

Is this Pomona's radio station? Might it be a good idea to promote community events through these radio stations? I think I will look into that in the future. Anyone else who is trying to reach out to Pomoniacs out there I would suggest these two radio stations. Hot 92.3 and 93.5 KDAY(aka the beat)

Just remember to always Make it Funky.

SAVE THE DATE: APRIL 4th! (FREE event in Pomona)

Come one come ALL to the Sustainability Seminar in Pomona at 341 Kingsley Ave. on April 4th FREE

Here's a schedule of Events (it's hard to read so just click on the link above.)



I'll definitely be attending the beginners beekeeping, edible mushroom cultivation and transition towns

I hope to see many of the other bloggers there and other community members. You'll get to meet some interesting some eccentric and just some plain old normal members of the community that have some skills and ideas to share.

Private Vegetables

Private vegetables
Originally uploaded by xiaming

When I talk about major changes is a result of our global economy and global warming what I'm actually talking about is the change in our daily lives.

And this is what I'm talking about most. "Ten Winners in the Recession - #1"

While we are used to having a supermarket around the corner, it is only a matter of time until most people on the street are growing their own vegetables and even their own meats.

Our neighbors have chickens and a pair of roosters that sometimes escape into our yard. Does anyone remember victory gardens? Growing your own vegetables is fun, it's easy and it's only a tiny piece of what is coming to be known as urban homesteading. Instead of buying complete products at the market we can do the processes ourselves.

We would no longer have food that is grown for its ability to ship well, we'll have food grown for the quality of the taste and nutrition. (remember quality over quantity?) That can only happen with homegrown food.

It's just unfortunate that some cities don't even allow chickens. You can own a dog that barks all night (not to mention it might kill a baby) but a chicken that clicks and gives you food is illegal? Laws like that NEED to change.

It doesn't stop at vegetables and chickens. it goes beyond that. Try brewing your own beer. Try mending your own clothes. Instead of flushing all that water out of your washing machine, use a safe cleaner and reuse that water to water your garden. Why not? it's such a waste and you'll save a couple of bucks.

If you don't know where to start, the folks at the Homegrown Evolution blog can help you out, they even have a book out called "The Urban Homestead" which I had mentioned in a previous post

If there's one thing I am more than an environmentalist it's that I'm cheap(though that may be a result of circumstances). If it doesn't save me money I probably won't do it. That's why I only hit Trader Joe's and the like when there are sales. (It's a different story for specialty shops because they ARE cheap).

So get some private vegetables and share your seeds and chicken eggs.

adaptability

like water that molds itself to any environment, adaptability under nature rather than the mastery of her, allows for the ability to integrate into a globally affected environment rather than to assimilate.

Change is Good

Moon Eclipse
Originally uploaded by toptoolpro

One thing I've noticed that is obvious in speaking with some of my artistic friends is their desire for change. Many of them are trying to break this invisible barrier of creating something new, something that hasn't been seen before. Some of them want to see a dramatic shift happen while others want to be a part of that.

With the last election, all the political promises were about "Change" Obama's slogan "Change we can believe in"

I think this desire for change and something different is something that is deeply seeded within the human psyche.

The problem comes in when our surroundings and our world is designed to be static. Our cities and buildings are meant to be in a permanent state, never changing. The basis of our government is meant to be the end all be all solution that should never change. When sidewalks are paved it is meant to keep that space it is paved over in the same state for as long as possible. Corporations design their businesses to constantly be bringing in money a consistent state of profit.

BUT, our world shifts and changes around us and we must adapt to those changes. Let's start at the smallest scale of time. the Day, There is night and day, and Night and day are never the same one day to the next. in the Summer days are longer. That brings me to the seasons. In a year the seasons change Spring Summer Fall Winter.

Then there's the BIG one (not the most recent one but a big one). GLOBAL WARMING. Our entire planet is shifting in a direction that we all never expected it to. Why didn't we expect it to change? because we expect everything to stay the same. But what do we do? We Adapt, we embrace this change, shift the crops that we grow, prepare for more el ninos and flash floods, stop growing plants that don't grow in our changing climate and change the foods we eat to something that is more adaptable.

Now the most recent one. The global ECONOMIC climate. It is foolish to assume that everything is going to be ok and everything is going to return to the way things were. I'm not saying that this is NOT going to happen. Been our world has proven time and time again that it is NOT static, it changes and it shifts no matter what we TRY to make it do. While we can remain hopeful, we need to keep in mind what we might do if things do NOT get better in our lifetimes. If it's not our generation that experiences something so terrible it will be one in the future. Don't ignore your intuitive senses that are bracing for change and adaption.

Change is good. one example is the explosion of Pomona blogs. With our voices reaching a broader "audience" maybe our city will shift in the garden of eden it once was.

Graffiti in Pomona, Fighting Fire with Fire?

From the Street
Originally uploaded by andrewkanzler

Along Holt, west of Hamilton, on the north side of the street, I ran into what looked like a Bar-B-Q and a large group of Graffiti artists.
I recognized one of them, it was "Worm" I mentioned him in a previous post about graffiti

Worm invited me into the fenced off area to come check out the activity, (the figure next to his tag was by a friend of his, I forget his name, but he gave me his real name anyways which I am reluctant to publish for safety reasons) there were a LOT of people, quite a bit in fact, and a lot of faces I hadn't seen before.


This guy even came out from the San Fernando Valley (if I remember correctly)


There was even some semi professional filming going on of the artist Neko.
Many of these artists are extremely talented, and if you go back to my previously mentioned old post on Graffiti, and take a look at the photos and then go and visit the location you will notice that the graffiti looks almost exactly as it was back in October. It was not written over or tagged over with the type of Graffiti(or tagging) I might find on my sidewalk (which lacks artistic talent) And as you can see by these photos Graffiti has it's own kind of community, much like us bloggers who all have blogging and a sense of community activism in common, or maybe those involved in neighborhood watch programs, or even book clubs as a community. The only difference is these people belong to an "underground" community. What happens is at some point is that many people how do graffiti develop a level of respect for those that write graffiti with a certain amount of artistic value.
What's interesting, and I sort of follow this, is that Southern California Graffiti has always lacked in artistic value. San Francisco has long been a hub for great Graffiti artists and as we all know New York as well as it is the birthplace (See: Style Wars)

What would you rather have? This? or

This?
I'm not exactly sure where this is going, but if the greater community recognizes the talent of these people and encourages the "quality" type of graffiti over the other there is a chance that the bad stuff may become less. Pomona may also become a well known mecca for street artists. With our Artist's colony how can we pick and choose and exclude those that "commit" art because it is different? It may in fact be a solution to making the city clean.

Did anyone notice the new Mural at Dynamic Grafx at 1192 N. Garey? That was done by a Graffiti artist, unfortunately I didn't get a shot of him working on at as I was in a hurry and driving. (maybe I'll get a shot of the finished product) But take a look at the work on Garey it might be something more relevant than what we take it for

Public Art in Pomona

tomorrow (March 9th) morning around 8 am an anonymous underground artist is putting up an installation on Ridgeway and Valley(Holt) in Pomona on the southeast corner (it's a bus stop.)

Tonight I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak of what is going there.



What is it? I'm not allowed to say, you'll just have to take the bus and see for yourself.

Tire Chair by Andrew Kanzler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

How Does Your City Emerge?

A City Emerges
Originally uploaded by ZenPhoria

I have just one (maybe 2) question(s). One question especially for those involved in the design and creation of cities. "How does your city emerge?"

Cities crystallize like halite into buildings and infrastructure. Just like crystals growing from the earth. Our network of roadways is like a complex series of ant farms (though a bit less complex as our paths are mostly flat). Cities grow from something.

But what do they grow from? Do they grow from the earth which they are located on? Are the ideas native to the landscape with which they are in? Or are these emerging cities masking over the language that exists? Are they paving over a system that could be beneficial and utilizable?

Whose idea was it to build Los Angeles or Pomona the way it is built? Why is it built that way? is it an imported idea and process? Is it not invasive but impossible to sustain? CAN it sustain itself?

I don't think that the modern design of cities and urban arenas are thought of as something that grows from where it is. I think cities are designed to pave over a "hostile" environment. But, unfortunately, the environments that we have paved over, aren't actually hostile. They are actually pieces of this complex system which help sustain us HUMANS, PEOPLE.

So how should we design our cities? I'm never quite sure. But we cannot pave over it. This is America, we aren't supposed to assimilate the landscape, we are supposed to integrate with it. Somehow a city needs to emerge from what is already there. Not just the materials but also the language of the place, the existing systems and environments should be the framework for our cities. A concrete sidewalk in New York should NOT be the same as a sidewalk in L.A. (it can be argued that there shouldn't even be concrete sidewalks at all)

So. How does OUR city emerge?