David Allen: The 909 turns 20. High five, dude!

HAPPY 20TH birthday to the 909! Wednesday marks 20 years since the debut of our area code, three digits that have become a nickname for the Inland Empire.

(Next year, the 909 will celebrate its 21st birthday with a kegger in the desert.)

On Nov. 14, 1992, we lost the 714 area code that linked us to Orange County and gained the brand-new 909. Dialing has never been the same.

But is the 909 synonymous with the Inland Empire? Geographically, no. The number includes eastern L.A. County cities that don't consider themselves part of the I.E., while much of Riverside County split away from us in 2004 with the new area code 951.

Still, the 909 is the area code of the L.A. hinterlands, it encompasses the entirety of what we consider the Inland Valley, and as a descriptor, it's less boosterish than the grand "Inland Empire."

The Pomona-based website 909junkie.com sells T-shirts with such slogans as "Jesus Loves the 909," "The Inland Empire Strikes Back" and "Warning: I Live in the 909."

The 909 is changing so rapidly that a lot of the cliches hardly apply anymore, a point the website addresses in its mission statement.

"No longer do residents of the 909 and the Inland Empire consist of dudes and chicks with mullets living in shanty towns," it reads in part, "but the nouveau rich in their raised trucks, $40 screenprint t-shirts, fake Louis Vuitton handbags and platform sandals lovin' their KB Homes."

Eddie Gonzalez, who runs the site and who has asked hundreds of people on camera to sum up the 909 in a word or two, thinks "909," as a phrase, is more useful and more popular than "Inland Empire" among locals.

He said "909" can be "a term of endearment" or "a knock," depending on who says it and the context.

Sort of like "aloha," I guess.

Fun fact: According to the 909's Wikipedia entry, when compared to an area code like New York City's 212, our area code - with all three numbers at the end of the dial - is technically the nation's worst.

I don't know if we're really the worst, if that was an outsider mocking us or if that was a paranoid 909 resident's conspiracy theory. But that's kind of how life goes when you live in the 909, isn't it?



* Replica House, the Pomona College structure whose curious history has been chronicled here, is scheduled to begin its move at 8 a.m. Monday, journeying at an Endeavour-like pace from Fourth to First streets over the course of four hours. In the wee hours Tuesday, the house will start traveling east on First to Claremont Boulevard. Its final destination is the top of Mills Avenue.

* While new Magic Lamp operator Sartaj Singh has a lot of irons in the fire with Antonino's, Aria's and an upcoming sports bar, I'm afraid I added one based on a bum tip. It's not Singh who's taking over the former Harvard Square in Claremont but rather Alain Girard, a founder of Caffe Allegro in Upland and La Verne. He's planning a French restaurant, Bardot.

* In her unsuccessful bid for an Assembly seat, the best campaign slogan may have been that of Claremont resident Donna Lowe. Her signs read: "Aim High. Vote Lowe."



* "Twilight" fans can relive the undead saga in full on Thursday at the AMC 30 Ontario Mills, AMC 12 Victoria Gardens and Harkins 18 in Chino Hills, where marathons include the four previous movies plus the debut of the fifth, "Breaking Dawn Part 2."

* "To Kill a Mockingbird," meanwhile, screens at AMC theaters at 2 and 7 p.m. Thursday only.


IN ADVANCE of my talk to a Rancho Cucamonga service club last week, an email to members described me as "well known to all of us as a man with a twinkle in his eye." One member of the club, Councilwoman Diane Williams, emailed me to send her regrets.

"Sorry to miss your Rotary presentation today, especially now that I know you have a twinkle in your eye," Williams wrote. "I had my second cornea transplant yesterday so am now in L.A. for the unwrapping. Maybe they'll find a twinkle in my eye."

CONFUSION ABOUT Chino and Chino Hills was a topic here Oct. 17. I noted that Best Buy was touting its new store as being in Chino Hills when 1) the store is actually in Chino and 2) the chain closed its existing Chino Hills location to move to Chino.

Best Buy must assume neither city is especially well-known outside the area, because its Sunday advertising circular touted "the NEW Chino Hills Location, 3873 Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA."

These Chino Valley mixups are fairly common. Reader Charles Quinn of Chino commented that the Chase Bank on Central at Philadelphia in Chino prints out "Chino Hills" on ATM receipts.

The Bulletin recently made the same flub and was razzed for it by the Chino Champion newspaper. We wrote correctly about the new Chino police station but a top-of-page-one teaser for the story placed the station in Chino Hills. In our defense, maybe we thought that would sell more papers.

And I got a bit confused myself with my Oct. 17 item, correctly pointing out that Chino Hills Ford is actually in Chino but incorrectly saying it's across the street from the new Best Buy.

As Chino Mayor Dennis Yates himself reminded me, the dealership is on Chino Hills Parkway, several miles south of Grand Avenue.

I was tempted to refer to him as the Chino Hills mayor, but that might be carrying the joke too far.


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