On The 2007 Downtown Pomona Owner's Association (DPOA) Annual Meeting...

by Lisa Cabrera

On Tuesday, June 26th, Lucien Van Oosten and I attended the Downtown Pomona Owner's Association Annual Meeting, which took place at the Japanese restaurant Sakura Ichi. A wonderful spread of food was served by the restaurant and the evening went pleasantly. It was a well laid out agenda that covered many valuable topics, particularly of interest to those situated here in downtown Pomona. This includes a stepped-up security program and the beginning of new marketing and maintenance strategies.

Corporal Glenn Sugiki of the Pomona Police Department spoke about the security of the downtown Pomona area. The Pomona Police Department and the Downtown Pomona Owner's Association (DPOA) are in a public-private partnership that provides near 24 hour security here and there are three full-time Pomona Police Department officers that exclusively patrol Downtown Pomona. That s the reason that crime s way down and there s not so much pan-handling going on or homeless around here as there used to be. Nicely done!

The DPOA Marketing Committee has been very busy as well. While touching upon the many things (can't list them all - there are so many) that went on this past year, including the revamping and updating of the website www.metropomona.com, the promotional booth at last year s L.A. County Fair, the 100th Second Saturday event, the advertising in Art Scene Magazine, Antique Magazine, the Inland Empire Weekly, Living Here Magazine and the Daily Bulletin Hospitality Guide, the Metro Pomona Visitor's Guide made it's debut at the meeting. You might have already seen it - it's gorgeous, complete with a map of the downtown area, directions, a list of shops, the galleries and museums, the restauants and local entertainment. These guides will be distributed to hotels, chambers of commerce, airports and visitors centers from San Francisco to San Diego. It s written that this guide is to be distributed to over 300 locations. Promotion, promotion, promotion - the name of the game!

The DPOA has also hired one full-time maintenance person to power-wash the sidewalks and plazas in the area and take care of various maintenance duties. I coordinate with him every month for the delivery and pick-up of Art Walk A-frames. His name is Craig Biewener, so next time you see him around, say hi!

Overall, the meeting was well-done. Those in attendence were able to voice out opinions and hear what others thought. Lucien brought up the fact that the Zocalo event blocked off too many streets, which caused quite a parking problem and left out many artists that weren't within the street barrier perimeter. Hopefully, the artists, galleries and businesses in the downtown area will be able to have a bit more of a say in future endeavors that are brought about by DPOA, the city and the School of Arts and Enterprises so that we ALL can really participate and promote the heck out of this area. It s a gem here in the Inland Empire, after all!