Venturing into the Village

 The annual Village Venture is the Claremont Village's biggest event of the year, drawing people in from all around the region; hang out among the booths of creative nicnacks, hand-crafted items, civic and other organizations, etc, that fill the suddenly open spaces between buildings (streets), and you are likely to run into most everyone you haven't seen in months, or maybe even years. A case in point, former city councilman Sam Pedroza had stopped by the Aundre Johnson campaign booth when I happened by. If you recall Sam, while on the city council, was heavily involved with the Metro Gold Line extension out to our area, as well as various of the bicycle transportation improvements that we enjoy around town. These days he is working in the City of Industry promoting - you guessed it, infrastructure for active transportation. Feet dragging on project funding by the county, has prompted the City of Industry to seek out alternate funding sources on their own. A bicycle route along the San Jose Creek Corridor, and passing through a portion of Diamond Bar as well as the City of Industry has been talked about for years, and would provide an invaluable link to the San Gabriel River Trail. With Sam's background, connections and expertise, we may actually see this project built out.

Village Venture, brings out the kids in costumes, parents in costumes, dogs in costumes, heck there was even a cat walking around in an R2D2 costume, this years' city council candidates, including Johnson, Jennifer Stark and Ed Reece (there may have been others I didn't see) were out meeting and greeting, families converged on Shelton Park where parents were happy to let their tykes run around the turf oval while musicians performed up on the stage. The Audubon Society with their owls and other birds of prey, was as popular as always, and Priceless Pets was drawing a great crowd throughout the day - people checking out their pups looking to be adopted. I can only wonder at the numbers of people who got a jump on their holiday shopping.

It is always a sure bet that some people will see the wisdom in riding in for the event, and it was great to see the wide range of riders, everyone from young folks, students, older residents, and entire families. For every photo of one that I took, I estimate there were another two at least, that I missed (including that cat).