Sam Pedroza is Claremont's new mayor

Claremont has a new Mayor.

Sam Pedroza was selected to head the city council over the next year at last night's council meeting. After serving 4 years on the council, Pedroza was next in line to take over the leadership position.

"I'm very much looking forward to working together because that's the only way we're going to make things happen," Pedroza said of the new council.

Outgoing mayor Linda Elderkin gave a teary farewell speech before stepping off the dias for the final time.

"I have come to understand through wonderful experience what is meant by the often used phrase: 'It has been an honor and a privilege'," she said.

New city council members Opanyi Nasiali and Joe Lyons were also sworn into office last night. The new-look council will get down to business next Tuesday, beginning with a closed session discussion on salary negotiations with the city's labor unions.

The council will also discuss a contract on the Claremont Safe Routes to School program and hear a report card and background report on Claremont Sustainability.

Freeway pollution flip flop

One of the biggest issues in Claremont in recent years was the affordable housing project on Base Line Road.

Dozens upon dozens of residents came out against the project, mostly citing studies that say children living near freeways can develop serious health problems from the air pollution.

But when the city council on Tuesday night approved the sale of that land to a private residential developer, there was one lone voice in the audience who addressed the council.

Former city council candidate Opanyi Nasiali said, "I still want to be on the record as saying that the city should not be allowing any new residential developments adjacent to the freeway."

And what about the other residents and groups who came out so fiercely against the affordable housing project being built in their neighborhood? The ones who denied being NIMBYs (not in my backyard) and were only concerned about the welfare of children who would end up living there?

At the March 23 council meeting, Joseph O'Toole chimed in. His group, Citizens for the American Dream, strongly opposed the affordable housing project and relied upon the freeway pollution argument.

"I agree to the market-priced housing on the area next to the strawberry patch," O'Toole said. "We went through many years of fighting [the affordable housing project] and we're very happy with market-based housing."

I guess his argument goes that poor people don't have a choice on where to live and would be stuck living by the freeway. But people with money are free to live where they want and can choose to buy a home by the freeway at their own risk.

But the truth is that all children, rich or poor, do not have a choice on where they live. Their parents are the ones who ultimately make those decisions. And those studies cited by Citizens for the American Dream and others show that children up to the age of 18 and the elderly are the ones most likely to be harmed by freeway pollution.

So if O'Toole and other former opponents of the affordable housing project were genuinely concerned about children's health, they would not support any residential development along freeways in Claremont.

The fact that O'Toole and other former opponents are now supporting "market-based housing" just screams of hypocrisy to me.