Author Archives: admin

Motels Against Public Safety

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Pacific Grove’s innkeepers are crying foul over a signature-gathering campaign by the Pacific Grove Police Officers Association to put an increase in the city’s transient occupancy tax — or room tax — on the ballot.

The city supported an economic advisory committee with an annual $107,000 contribution to the Chamber of Commerce for various city activities and events. With the formation of the Hospitality Improvement District, the city now uses that money to pay part of the Convention and Visitor Bureau dues.

Pacific Grove entered a contract to pay the Convention and Visitors Bureau through 2012, said Chamber of Commerce president Moe Ammar. He and innkeepers met with police association members Monday and emerged with “an understanding that they will consider our request not to pursue a room tax.”

There’s Moammar In The Middle again.

Motels Against Public Safety

Winos Attract Crime?

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At least it stays in Carmel. Guess there are no paintings or wine worth stealing in P.G.

Carmel police are trying to solve what they are calling a bizarre robbery at a cheese shop in Carmel Plaza.

Police said thieves cut a hole in the drywall to enter the shop. Once inside, they went after specific targets that included rare, collectible wines

Pacific Grove Artwalk did say that paintings and wine go together.

Carmel’s art galleries attract crime, now the wine boutiques join the victim list.

Winos Attract Crime?

John Cerney Art Comes To Cannery Row

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Mac And The Boys MuralMention of the name may not jog your memory, but if you’ve traveled the highways you have no doubt seen his work. The farmworkers and ranchers on highway 68 outside of Salinas, the baseball game on US 101 or the 55 Chevy with the baseball in the window on Del Monte – now you know who.

This real nice looking piece depicts Mack and the other ‘Row legends that Steinbeck wrote about. A small bit of reality in a seashore of phony creations. Check it out – it’s at the foot of Bruce Ariss way, near the preserved cannery workers homes. Right about where the flophouse would be. Too bad it’s on the notorious rec trail – hope the gang members keep their distance with the persistent taggings.

Mack and the boys, the notorious slackers from John Steinbeck’s classic novel, “Cannery Row,” are lounging on the hood and bumper of a Ford Model A truck, grinning sleepily, with any problems clearly relegated to the back burners of their minds.

the full-color mural by Salinas artist John Cerney that is now on permanent display on the back wall of Mackerel Jack’s Trading Co., along the Recreation Trail between Prescott and Irving streets in Monterey.

That was the location of the Del Mar Canning Co. — and Dora’s Bear Flag Restaurant, Doc Ricketts’ lab, Lee Chong’s Grocery and La Ida’s Cafe were just up the street.

A little explanation for Steve Jobs and others who never read:
Mac And The Boys Mural 1

The scary rec trail. Don’t go there at night.
Mac And The Boys Mural 2

John Cerney Art Comes To Cannery Row

Who Runs Pacific Grove? Part II

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The city leaders or the labor unions? Looking for day to day representation or benefits and unions are slow to respond. But threaten them with loss of dues and they bump the performance up to “meets expectations”.

Laborers Local 270 in Santa Cruz filed the complaint after the City Council’s adoption on Oct. 3 of a city reorganization plan developed by City Manager Jim Colangelo.

The charges contend that Colangelo’s plan deleted 21 full-time and two part-time employee positions while adding 23 lower-paying full-time and two half-time positions.

The changes were made without prior notice to the union or offering an opportunity for union members to meet and confer with management over the changes. A settlement conference has been set Feb. 26 in Oakland.

Union Facts

Who Runs Pacific Grove? Part II

Suicidal P.G. Contractor Runs From CHP

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A Pacific Grove contractor wanted on outstanding warrants slashed his throat with a box cutter after a lengthy police pursuit Thursday morning, the California Highway Patrol said.

Michael T. Kelly, 57, was seriously injured in the apparent suicide attempt and was taken by helicopter to Regional Medical Center in Fresno.

Kelly immediately sped up, the officers said, before losing control and veering off the south side of the road. After traveling some 30 feet, the car came to a stop against a barbed-wire fence, Hall said.

At that point, officers said, Kelly took a box cutter and “began to slash his throat in an apparent suicide attempt.”

Public records show Kelly is a licensed general contractor in good standing with the state and the proprietor of Kelly Home Inspection Services in Pacific Grove.

Court and police records show he has had numerous scrapes with the law, including several warrants in recent years for probation violations.

In one of those cases, in June 2006, Monterey police reported that Kelly’s car had smashed into a residence in the 1300 block of David Avenue. Kelly was arrested for driving under the influence of cocaine, cocaine possession and driving under a suspended license, police records show.

Suicidal P.G. Contractor Runs From CHP

Lighthouse Cinema – Open This Summer?

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Lighthouse Cinema

No real new news, but this sentence brings back memories:

Enea was challenged before he built the Lighthouse Cinema in 1986 by a group opposed to the movie house project, and it was the subject of a citywide ballot referendum, which drew a large majority of votes in its favor.

Mayor Dingbat Flo was an opponent. Said that the theater would bring undesirable people from Seaside to PG.

Moe chimes in

“I am really excited,” said Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce president Moe Ammar. “I believe the cinema will do great, since it will be the most modern movie site on the Peninsula with the latest technology in the safest town.”

Pfft. The Imax in the old Edgewater Packing Company is the most modern. Moe just wants to suck more money from the business community and city. The dude is clueless.

Lighthouse Cinema – Open This Summer?

U.S. Magistrate Stops U.S. Navy, Whales And Enemies Can Invade

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For the second time in less than a week, a federal court has found that a Navy anti-submarine training program threatens to subject whales and other sea creatures to harmful blasts of sonar and ordered protective measures in several sensitive zones, including one near Monterey Bay.

The latest ruling, issued Wednesday by U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte of San Francisco, applies to the Navy’s use of low-frequency sonar in submarine detection exercises conducted in large areas of the world’s oceans. Navy officials agreed to restrictions after Laporte issued a similar ruling in 2002, but she said they failed to take adequate precautions when seeking a five-year renewal of the program last year.

U.S. Magistrate Stops U.S. Navy, Whales And Enemies Can Invade

Good Old Days Police Motorcycle Competition Canceled

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Now there’s nothing to do at Good Old Days except buy overpriced schwag.

God Motors

The city’s police chief, Darius Engles, announced today that the Pacific Grove Motorcycle Competition has been canceled this year. Engles cited “the lack of private donations and the city budget restraints.

The competition has been running in Pacific Grove for 20 years in conjunction with the city’s Good Old Days in April. Engles said the event was, when it started in 1987, “the first of its kind” and attracted participants from throughout the western states.

Good Old Days Police Motorcycle Competition Canceled

Who Runs Pacific Grove?

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In Letters From The Editor

Have other people noticed whenever there is a significant controversy, including this latest episode, the P.G .Chamber of Commerce is right in the middle, its president quoted in the newspaper. Frankly, I wonder who is running this city, the chamber or our elected representatives.
Ron Sanchez
Pacific Grove

Well, the one who thinks he does is Moammar. Clueless Moe.

Moe Ammar

The Pacific Grove year is marked by seasonal celebrations. The Feast of Lanterns celebrates the culture of the Chinese fishermen who used to live along the water’s edge.

Moe refers to Pacific Grove by the words, “It’s a Small-town Thing.” He himself moved here 20 years ago. After graduating with a Hospitality degree from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, Moe honeymooned at Pacific Grove’s Bid-a-Wee Motel. The contrast between Pacific Grove and Las Vegas captured Moe’s heart. He couldn’t wait to get back. He returned in 1986 with the intention of never leaving.

“We’re about the same as we were 50 years ago,” Moe says. “And we’re going to be the same 50 years from now, if we can help it.”

“We’re keeping something alive that shouldn’t vanish forever from our world,” Moe says. Pacific Grove is filled with residents who would agree with him.

I was here about 50 years ago and it is nowhere near the same. Once Moe moved in and said the answer lies in tourism did the small town family atmosphere cease to be. P.G. once had service stations, several grocery stores, pharmacies, a department store, a dime store, a municipal pool, multiple schools, things that served residents and families. Now we have bistros, art galleries and boutiques that change owners with the seasons, all there to fleece the vagrants. Families have moved out – there’s little for them to do in a town full of tourist attractions.

And Feast of Lanterns had nothing to do with the the Chinese fishermen, it was to celebrate the end of the Methodists’ Chautauqua Assembly. Moe is just trying to be politically correct – the Chinese fishing village was burnt down, presumably by intolerant residents.

Who Runs Pacific Grove?