RC CitizenView

Were Back After A Hiatus Of A Few Years Has Anything Changed In Rancho Cucamonga?

These photos were found in a small town library in Marblehead, Massachusetts in a donated album. The photos were taken in 1889 by visitors to Southern California from Marblehead. These must have wealthy tourists just to have the camera and the photo finishing to produce them. Pacific Electric rail construction is referenced in the photo captions. Note the donkey rail car in action in Ontario.

The complete album is published on Picasa View all the photos click Here

Modern day visitors to Catalina will notice the missing Casino from Avalon harbor photo.

During the past few weeks, multiple offers on homes that sat on the market for months – caused in part by investors pouncing on underpriced bank-owned homes – may have signaled a change in the housing market, perhaps a “bottoming out” of prices. Buyers, especially first-time home buyers, are discovering that rising interest rates offset lower prices and now are intensifying their home search.

Homes Sold: Eleven previously-owned homes closed escrow in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, during the week ending August 9, 2008, and 31 Rancho Cucamonga homes reportedly were listed as pending during the week, according to the Inland Multi-Regional Multiple Listing Service, which shows listings and sales of previously-owned homes reported by real estate professionals in the Inland Empire.
Homes for Sale: The MLS said 42 new Rancho Cucamonga listings were added during the week, for a total inventory of 817 previously-owned homes listed in Rancho Cucamonga on August 10, including 536 single-family homes with no monthly fees and 281 condominiums, town homes and single-family homes in associations. The MLS listings indicated 292 of homes currently on the market were vacant. Of the homes for sale in Rancho Cucamonga, 250 were listed as “short sales” and 117 were being sold by the lender, according the MLS listing information.

Homes for Lease: As of August 10, the MLS reported, 118 Rancho Cucamonga homes were available for leasing. Of those, the median monthly rental price was $2,200.

Please click on http://marketreport.ilajosephs.com to see local sales statistics for June 2008.

Ila prepares weekly market activity reports for her website, http://www.ilajosephs.com, surveying the cities of Chino, Claremont, Fontana, La Verne, Montclair, Ontario, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, San Dimas and Upland.

Whether you are buying or selling real estate in cities along the 210 Freeway from San Dimas to Fontana, or in Ontario, Montclair or Chino, Ila and her team of experienced professionals will be happy to assist you.

Great News for the citizens of Rancho Cucamonga, our serving service men and woman will not longer be asked to pay the bill for our modest effort to honor their service in harms way. The Daily Bulletin bringing attention to the this issue may well have contributed to this attractive solution.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA
Donor to fund banner program

An anonymous donor has offered to contribute to the city’s armed forces banner program, making it no longer necessary for military family members to pay $155 to participate.

The City Council is expected to formally accept the donation Aug. 20.

The banner program began in 2005 as a way to honor current military members who either live in the city or have relatives who do. Currently, the city partially funds the program while family members pay a fee for the banners and their installation. To date, 130 banners have been raised since the program.

wendy.leung@inlandnewspapers.com

A Great Big Thank You for the Donor on behalf of all the citizens of Rancho.

Catherine Shea of Alta Lorna was named to the 2008 spring semester dean’s list at Simmons College in Boston. She is a senior at Simmons, and is a biochemistry major.

To qualify for dean’s list status, undergraduate students must obtain a grade point average of 3.5 or higher, based on 12 or more credit hours of work in classes using the letter grade system.

Student Handbook: Simmons Schools

Dean’s List

The Dean’s List was established to recognize undergraduate students’ academic excellence. To be included on the Dean’s List, which is compiled each semester, a student must have obtained a semester GPA of at least 3.50, have earned at least 12 credits using the letter grade system, and shall not have been found guilty of violating the Honor Code of Responsibility during that semester.

Congratulations Catherine.

Rancho has a chance to show how much it appreciates members of our community serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Honoring Service Men and Woman by placing banners in prominent places in our city should be funded by the community. If we really appreciate their service, we would endeavor to honor every one of them with a program funded by the service clubs of the city. No family members should be asked to foot the bill for our demonstration of appreciation for their service.

Serving members are not inclined to claim their place of honor, but will be thankful it was given. The fact that we don’t know the name of all those serving illustrates this fact.

The program can be a real tribute to all who serve by having the candidates nominated by their neighbors for a banner. The family members can then approve of the honor for their service member, but should never be asked to pay for the honor.

Don’t make this program any different from the other honors given by the city to its citizens. These proclamations of appreciation for service to are community result from nominations by others, and not sold to the recipients.

Many families have paid to have their service member recognized for their service, many will not. When your community recognized your service with some token, like these banners, you are honored. When you’re allowed to purchase the token it diminishes the honor.

How many names on the Vietnam memorial were paid inclusions? If we are honoring these men and woman then let us bestow the honor, not just provide the poles.

Let’s get it right this time.

Mayor Don Kurth of Rancho Cucamonga has published a new website DonKurth.com.

The websites stated purpose looks to be a vehicle improved communication and be more responsive to the citizens of Rancho Cucamonga. The new website will also raise the mayors profile is a bid for the 63^rd assembly seat. If mayor Kurth is to run for the seat, we should see signs here at his new website.

Over the next few months, I will be creating a portal that will build a communication conduit between the citizens of Rancho Cucamonga, and myself.

You will be able to obtain access to vital information for all things “Rancho Cucamonga,” as well as communicate with me regarding issues and concerns that are important to you – the Citizens of Rancho Cucamonga.

For something to look forward to, please revisit my site a few days before the next City Council Meeting. Click on the Rancho Cucamonga link above to find the upcoming City Council Meeting Agendas and to view streaming video of past and current City Council meetings. If there are issues of concern to you, please give me your feedback.

Please be my guest and preview the pages I have set up for you. I strongly feel this website is just as much yours as it is mine. In fact, I feel more comfortable in calling it “our” website.

Please enjoy your stay.

Don Kurth, Mayor, Rancho Cucamonga.

One item I would like to see published on the Don Kurth site are the 640 form reporting campaign contributions and expenditures. I submitted a couple of questions a few days ago without any response from the Mayer, well see if he really intends to respond to questions submitted.

Jeffrey Kaye reports on how one California community, Rancho Cucamonga, is feeling the impact of problems in the national economy.

If you missed the program last night on the plight of the economy in Rancho Cucamonga click on the image to play a streaming video of the program.

Rancho locals featured in the program are; JOHN VLASIC RON VANDENBROEKE MARIO VALDOVINES KAREN DEAL PAUL BIANE and “JIM HASTON” who real name is Jim Hampton.

For a complete transcript of the program, along with additional links including an audio download Click Here.

AB 2076 Opposed by Sen. Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga. Prohibiting the use of the only verification system available to employers to check for fraudulent documentation.

This is hard to believe that on the one hand we want to hold employers responsible for only hiring document workers and at the same time prohibit them from using the only verification system available.

From the Redlands Dally Facts:

Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, is asking his fellow legislators to oppose AB 2076, a bill that is now before the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee.

“At a time when the California economy is in a down-turn and many citizens are looking for work, the Legislature is in the process of passing a bill that would remove a method of verifying the legal status of potential workers, making it easier for illegal immigrants to obtain those jobs,” he said.

AB 2076 would prohibit state agencies and local governments from using the federal “E-Verify” system to determine if potential job applicants are legally eligible for employment. The bill would also discourage private sector companies from using the system.

AB 2076 has passed the Assembly and is now under consideration by the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee, with the hearing set for today.

E-Verify is a free and voluntary, Internet-based program used nationwide. The system uses information from databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration, which allows employers to check the validity of information provided by the job applicant.

“With the state budget facing a huge deficit and with us looking for more ways to save taxpayer dollars, why should we prohibit using a system that is free and easily available? Not only does it save time and dollars, but it helps to protect jobs for those citizens who are here legally,” Dutton said.

How does a bill like this pass the assembly? Rex Gutierrez stated that he would like to move on to something bigger. He would be moving on to a bigger mess than he imagined given this sort of legislation passing the body. Let’s hope that the Senate can apply some sanity to the process.

Campaign contributions and expenditures for political campaigns are public record, reported regularly in California on Form 460. The financial reporting requirement for political campaigns is detailed on the California Form 460 found here:

Reports state the preceding six months activity.

Mayor Don Kurth June 2007

Mayor Don Kurth (1)June 2007

Mayor Don Kurth December 2007

Mayor Don Kurth (1)December 2007

Diane Williams June 2007

Diane Williams December 2007

Dennis Michael June 2007

Dennis Michael December 2007

Sam Spagnolo June 2007

Sam Spagnolo December 2007

Rex Gutierrez June 2007

Rex Gutierrez December 2007

Many of the 460 reports are posted on the office related websites, however Rancho Cucamonga has not yet made these reports available online. A request to the city clerks office is still required to obtain them. The first half of 2008 reports will be posted once they are available in July. Return for an update. If the reports become available on the Rancho Cucamonga City web site a link will be made to the reports.

Rancho Cucamonga Record’s Coordinator Carrie Pincott has been very responsive in providing the public record of campaign contributions Form 460s for our Mayor and City Council members.

I have posted the last two reposts made available here on this site. I hope that the candidates will post these reports on their own websites, or have the city make them available online. The more transparent the campaigns are the more confidence there is in the process. Mayor Kurth has published a new website promising to provide more information to the citizens of Rancho, I expect that he would include the 460 reports. For now, the reports will be here at CitizenView.

There are many reasons for prompting individuals to make campaign contributions to political campaigns. There is no question that at the least the contributors will have access to the candidates. Stay informed to make sound decisions.