Claremont swap meet?

At the last city council meeting, the council voted to allow a Village business owner to place a display just outside his business.

The display from men's clothing store, Tally For Men, consists of a couple mannequins, a table displaying the store's latest products and a clothing rack.

We all know the shop from the massive and disingenuous "Clearance Sale" signs that owner Michael Talaee draped across the store's front windows for months on end. Strange marketing plan if you ask me, but maybe the gimmick got a few extra people to walk into his store.

In any case, it was an unusual item to be on the city council's agenda. These kinds of squabbles will generally be worked out between business owners and city staff well before the council has to step in.

But Talaee insisted on having his outdoor display despited being cited repeatedly by city code enforcement. Then the Planning Commission got involved and voted heavily against the outdoor display. Talaee appealed the decision, which is why the council got involved.

Tally For Men recently moved from a location on Second Street to a spot on the west side of Indian Hill Boulevard. Talaee had been complaining about a lack of foot traffic on Second Street and other problems with the management of the Village Expansion project.

From nearly the beginning, Talaee was threatening a lawsuit against Jonathan Tolkin, developer of the Expansion, in order to weasel out of his lease. We covered the issue back in February 2008.

Threatening his landlord with lawsuits and fighting with the city over the outdoor display, Talaee doesn't seem like the nicest fellow to deal with. Nonetheless, he got 3 out of 5 council members to vote his way.

Perhaps the pressure to appear business friendly in tough economic times got to Mayor Corey Calaycay, and council members Peter Yao and Sam Pedroza.

"Do we prefer seeing an empty building there or do we welcome a business that has proved to be successful in Claremont by surviving 5 years?" asked Yao at the meeting.

But some observers are questioning their decision, calling it "short sighted." It could very well set a precedent in the Village and across the city with outdoor displays popping up everywhere.

We'll see if applications start pouring in for similar outdoor displays from other businesses. Hopefully, Claremont's Village doesn't begin to look like a swap meet instead of its current upscale look.