Coachella founder revitalizing his own little town

If you want to see what Coachella has done for a city, go to Pomona.
I met Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett last night at the Fox Theatre in Pomona, where I was seeing Morrissey in concert, and he not only gave me a tour of the theater, he showed me around downtown Pomona.
On the Southern California snobbery scale, in which Beverly Hills is a 10, Pomona used to rank about 3. Just a decade ago, it had severe gang problems.
But Tollett, who founded Coachella with his Goldenvoice partners, grew up near Pomona and began booking bands with Goldenvoice in Pomona. Now he’s helping to revitalize the city.
Goldenvoice took over the operation of the Fox two years ago after the property was purchased by Paul’s brother, Perry, and Jerry and Ed Tessier, a pair of investors who created the Pomona Arts Colony and re-developed many downtown Pomona buildings.
Perry is a welder. Actually, I’d call him a structural artist, but he makes the fences and barricades used for the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals, and he makes them in a Pomona warehouse.
He also owns a bar next to the all-ages Glasshouse called Acerogami (Spanish and Japanese for Folded Metal). He built and designed most of the furniture and even the walls with folded metal. The place reminds me of a club in the South of Market in San Francisco — industrial, but way cool.
He and Paul also own an all-vinyl record store called Glasshouse Records. Paul is personally overseeing its inventory, so, like Coachella, it will attract aficionados of good music.
The Pomona plaza was hopping with young people strolling peacefully through the abundance of free parking and next to another neighborhood called Antiques Row. Paul said the downtown gang problem disappeared when they lit up the area and gave the youths some things to do.
I couldn’t help but compare what’s happened in Pomona to downtown Palm Springs and Indio. The Tessiers have reportedly spent millions on downtown restoration, but Paul said he and his brother have been operating on a shoestring — as opposed to the $25 million Palm Springs is raising for Desert Fashion Plaza from new taxes.
Paul says he loves downtown Indio, and Goldenvoice gave the Indio Performing Arts Center $10,000 this summer. But that just compensated for the $10,000 the city of Indio cut from its allocation.
Goldenvoice also is operating a warehouse in Indio and it has added a service fee to the Coachella and Stagecoach tickets to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the city of Indio. But Indio must still convince some wealthy residents south of Highway 111 to become as civic-minded as the Tessiers to make Indio blossom around the IPAC the way Pomona has developed around the Fox.
Granted, the Fox has a 2,200 capacity while the IPAC holds about 800 people in its three little theaters and main concert space. But programming is as integral to a venue’s success as structure and Tollett’s ability to incorporate the Fox Theatre and the Glasshouse into its farm system of Southern California venues is essential to making Pomona an important concert destination.
I never would have dreamed 10 years ago that I’d see Morrissey — one of England’s most important artists — in Pomona. He gave an exciting concert including a cover of the Lou Reed classic, “Satellite of Love” and a smattering of tunes by his old band, the Smiths, most notably “Meat Is Murder” with a disturbing video to accompany it.
Maybe the IPAC will never be able to afford Morrissey, who often fills the Hollywood Bowl, but Tollett’s support of the IPAC programming to make it an extension of Coachella would rank right up there with the addition of hotels as the most important thing that could happen to Indio.
By the way, Morrissey said he’ll sing “People Are the Same Everywhere” on television tonight “If by fate I’m still alive.”
Tune in to “Conan” to see if he makes it.