Last Updated on January 13, 2023 by CCAR Staff
At the Pomona Police Department, they were watching a televised slow-speed pursuit by the CHP through Pomona one recent morning when the suspect suddenly headed west on Mission Boulevard toward the police station, pulling into the parking lot.
Personnel who’d either been watching on TV or through the windows bolted for the lobby. Four officers were waiting there already, guns drawn.
“He ran into the lobby, ran into them and surrendered,” Deputy Chief Mike Olivieri told me later. “I don’t know what he would have done if they hadn’t been there.”
Maybe he’d have politely asked for the officer in charge and taken a seat. But officers arrested him at gunpoint, cuffed him and handed him over to the arriving CHP, who’d chased him from Rancho Cucamonga for speeding.
Once on his own turf, the Pomona man had led the CHP around at a leisurely pace, even stopping at red lights, before making up his mind to turn himself in — to his friendly hometown police. Who says there’s no loyalty anymore?
“We must be a new, kinder, gentler Pomona Police Department,” Olivieri observed, “for the bad guy to run to us.”
Culture Corner
• Two of Upland’s better restaurants have closed. Le Bistro, the valley’s only French restaurant, said au revoir after four years. And Seventh Heaven Cafe closed after a year in business as the valley’s only wood-fired pizzeria, although its owners say they’ll sell desserts and other items through Upland’s Rustic Loaf bakery. (Claremont’s The Spot Cafe has already expanded into the Seventh Heaven space.)
• The producer of “The Martian,” Aditya Sood, is a 1997 alumnus of Pomona College. It’s not the only recent science fiction success to come from a Pomona College product: 2014’s “Interstellar” arrived thanks to producer Lynda Obst, who graduated in 1972.
• “The Armor of Light,” a documentary about a minister who challenges fellow evangelicals on their pro-gun beliefs, is screening at only three theaters in the Greater L.A. area: the Hollywood ArcLight, the Pasadena Laemmle and the Ontario AMC 30.
Running scared
Last weekend I was buying gas in Claremont when I noticed the driver who’d pulled in behind me was pumping gas while his engine was idling. This seemed like a terrible idea, but I wasn’t confident enough about the science to confront him, instead wrapping up quickly, driving away and checking my rearview mirror occasionally for a huge fireball.
I asked on Twitter if the activity was dangerous or not. Follower J.P. Myers replied with a Google image search for the phrase “gas pump fire.” Ulp.
More definitively, Mark Hartwig, who is merely the San Bernardino County fire chief, replied: “It is dangerous. The gas vapors ‘seek’ an ignition source. A running engine provides source of ignition in ideal conditions.”
Who says social media isn’t useful?
Next time I’ll confront the driver — or drive away faster.
Upstart Upland
Regarding my Oct. 4 column about Claremont’s Bridges Hall of Music, reader Marian Nichols brought to my attention that its designer, Myron Hunt — also the architect of the Rose Bowl, Huntington Library, Ambassador Hotel and other famed structures — was responsible for several structures in her town.
Hunt designed a home at 1790 N. Euclid Ave. in 1910, redesigned a stone barn at 16th Street and San Antonio Avenue into a Spanish Colonial Revival house in 1917 and designed San Antonio Hospital in 1924, Nichols related.
“That makes three Myron Hunt beauties for little old Upland, and puts us right up there in a league with Pasadena,” Nichols reported.
I always thought Upland was in a league of its own.
Online only
On my blog last week: 1960s-’70s correspondence from Jack Smith is found tucked inside my used bookstore purchase of his book “The Big Orange”; a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby song from 1947’s “The Road to Rio” contains a line about Cucamonga; photos of the Gateway Arch are presented, including one of yours truly there at age 4; and we nosh and sip at N7 Creamery, a coffeehouse, ice cream shop and more in Rancho Cucamonga. Don’t be L7: Visit insidesocal.com/davidallen.
Strands of fate
At Vince’s Spaghetti in Ontario, celebrating its 70th year in business, people have been dropping tickets into a giant receptacle for weeks, hoping to win one of the grand prizes: a cruise for two along the Mexican Riviera. Two cruises will be awarded.
The prize drawings are scheduled for 6 p.m. Sunday, and yours truly has been tapped to do the honors. Stop by for dinner and watch. (You can also buy my book, if so inclined.)
“We probably have given out 25,000 tickets,” manager Ken Dodge told me Friday. “We’re still taking more, right up until the drawing.”
Just for the record: There’s no chance of my accidentally drawing my own name. I forgot to enter.
David Allen cruises to defeat Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact david.allen@langnews.com or 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.
