Monthly Archives: June 2014

Favaloro Fences In The Tables So You Can Be Under The Table

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Favaloros Fence

So is is a Cafe or is it a bar? The drama goes on about the loss of the sidewalk in front of Cafe Ariana.

In order to serve alcohol, some type of enclosure is required by the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control. The owners at Cafe Ariana feel the rug is being pulled out from underneath them.

“I think its kind of sad that there’s opposition to this because Pacific Grove has always been a sleepy town and I know we’ve been here for almost 21 years and it hasn’t been getting easier,” Favaloro said.

Favaloro Fences In The Tables So You Can Be Under The Table

No Drones Over Hopkins

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Says the S.S. even though their own graphic shows that the P.G. shoreline is not in the restricted zone.

Drone Flights-over-monterey-bay-sanctuary-draw-warning

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent Paul Michel, who yesterday issued a press release warning that unmanned aircraft systems—aka quadcopters or aerial drones—are regulated, and in some places banned, above sanctuary waters.
Low-flying planes over the beaches and ocean, piloted or not, can scare marine wildlife such as seals, sea otters, seabirds and shorebirds, Michel writes.

Even outside those areas, he adds, it’s illegal to harass marine animals, turtles and birds. In various direct and indirect ways, the presence of drones can stress and even kill wildlife.

Would Thom Akemans’s presence frighten the mammals? Will they ban him too?

No Drones Over Hopkins

No Laws Against Living In Cars?

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Transients are OK in P.G. as long as they have money to spend at the motels.

Last week, a 31-year-old Los Angeles city law aimed at preventing homeless persons from using parked vehicles as living quarters was ruled unconstitutional by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Pacific Grove City Council last August voted 4-3 to prohibit living or sleeping in vehicles parked on public property. The decision came over protests by advocates for the homeless, but Police Chief Vicki Myers said it would give officers more latitude in contacting people in need of services.

Laredo said Pacific Grove’s law is different in several ways from the L.A. law, and the appeals court ruling “may strike it down or it may not.”

Monterey City Attorney Christine Davi said she was looking at the appeals court ruling to see if it would affect Monterey’s ban on overnight parking in certain areas. The city last year, amid a debate over homeless in the community, considered expanding the parking ban to other commercial areas.

No Laws Against Living In Cars?

Monterey To Hawaii In A Rowboat

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Not a repeat of last weeks story of paddling to Pupukea, this trip was successful.

Sami Inkinen, the co-founder of real estate search and information site Trulia, and his wife, Meredith Loring, left from Monterey early Wednesday morning, according to Iniken’s post on Twitter.

They’re planning to row the 2,400 miles across the Pacific Ocean to Oahu, in a 20-foot long, 5-foot wood carbon fiber boat named Roosevelt.

They’re hoping their journey helps raise awareness about the risks of sugar consumption and healthy eating. Donations made to their campaign — which they call Fat Chance Row — will go to the nonprofit Institute for Responsible Nutrition at UC San Francisco.

Monterey To Hawaii In A Rowboat

Pipe Bomb On Recreation Trail

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First it was just rouge bicyclists, murderous attackers, robbers and stabbings, now we have pipe bombs to contend with,

Rec Trail Open2

The Monterey County sheriff’s bomb squad detonated a suspected pipe bomb Tuesday night after the device was found at the side of a popular trail, police said.

The bomb squad was alerted after officers went to the bike trail along Ocean View Boulevard near 10th Street and Berwick Park about 7 p.m. to check out the device.

The bomb squad used a remote control robot to secure the device and to fire an explosive charge that destroyed it. There was explosive material in the device, McSorley said.

Pipe Bomb On Recreation Trail

Cannery Row Square Goes To The Fish Jail

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More old buildings get torn down and replaced with fake charm.

Cannery Row Square

Julie Packard announced Tuesday that the aquarium has purchased adjoining buildings — both within walking distance of the aquarium — one of which will be transformed into a 13,000-square-foot Ocean Education and Leadership Center for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The buildings at 585 and 625 Cannery Row were purchased for $12.4 million. The building at 625 Cannery http://www.montereyherald.com/localnews/ci_25982512/monterey-bay-aquarium-plans-ocean-education-center-students?source=rssRow will be used for the Ocean Education Center, while the purpose for the other building has yet to be determined. The purchase includes the parking lots adjacent to the buildings to provide a drop-off and pick-up area for school groups.

Cannery Row Square Goes To The Fish Jail

Plaza Bocce Ball Courts To Be Torn Out

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And replaced with something that can get more use. Like another Maritime Museum?

Bocce ball enthusiasts on the other hand, want to improve the courts so they can get more use and even attract events.
Bikini Bocce

Our plan? We take out the existing courts, shorten the length of courts 1 and 2 to conform to the 86 foot length of court 3, and install the court surfaces that made the Colleoni Sports Facility business the premier artificial court installer in the world. All at our expense.

We tried to accommodate the desires of State Parks, presenting updated requests addressing new questions after answering old ones. To no avail. It was almost as if they already had their answer all along, but gave us hope by allowing us yet another audience with them. Then came their final “no.” Our hopes of having world class bocce courts at the Custom House Plaza are gone.

Footnote: Monterey Mayor Chuck Della Sala told Bob Enea that State Parks Ranger Eric Abma informed him that within 10 years, the existing courts will be torn out and the land put to other use because the courts as they currently are don’t receive the use State Parks would like to see. Quite ironic, I’d say. Arrivederci Custom House Plaza Bocce Courts.

Plaza Bocce Ball Courts To Be Torn Out

Next Time Take The Train

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err, a bigger boat?

The U.S. Coast Guard said a man is lucky to be alive after he was rescued 11 days into an attempted kayak voyage from Monterey to Hawaii.

The 57-year-old man was attempting to paddle all the way to Hawaii alone.

A helicopter spotted the man, who had turned back to California, in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday about 60 miles southwest of Santa Barbara’s Point Conception after he sent a distress call, the Coast Guard said.

A friend of the man said he had left Monterey on May 30 attempting to make the voyage of nearly 2,400 miles to Honolulu in a kayak with a solar panel that charged all his electronic equipment.

Next Time Take The Train

City Modifies Trash Cans To Stop Gull Gluttons

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From this:
Old Downtown Trash Can

To This:
New Downtown Trash Can
Still got some human modifications to do there, like empty the cans more often.

“Those cans are working to perfection,” said Moe Ammar, president of the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce. One can is on the corner across from his office at Central and Forest avenues. Ammar said he hasn’t seen a gull diving into it.

Residents and employees in the area also notice fewer gull contributions to their windshields and tops of their vehicles, he said.

It’s not a complete solution, Ammar said. There are still private dumpsters where hungry gulls forage, and, “We still have people who think it’s cute to feed the sea gulls.”

The custom-lid cans, so far, have been placed on Central Avenue near the city entrance, along the Recreation Trail, and by the library, museum and post office.

City Modifies Trash Cans To Stop Gull Gluttons

Dumpsters Of Commerce June 2014

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Gulls need lots of food to produce the bird poo they leave.

Atop the noodle house
Thai Roof Gull Poop

Sidewalk N/E Corner Lighthouse and Forest
Bratty Corner pooThanks to fine businesses downtown the gulls get free access to yummy sustenance.

Juice & Java never fails to leave the garbage open
Dumpster JuicenJava 2014 0608

And Nader Agha’s Holman Building welcomes the birds too. Is that an antique clock in there?
Dumpster Nader Holmans 20140608

Remember to wash your hands after visiting