Category Archives: Coast Weakly

Mayor’s Agenda – Redevelop Apartments Into Weekender Condos

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Every politician seems to have an agenda that is not revealed when campaigning. Better name is 7 Morons.
Tic Ommons Moron Manor

It’s called Oceans 7 and gives an impressive presentation from the sidewalk through its broad, open-ended, open-to-the-sky walkway separating the two parts of the two-story building (one side numbered 2-6, the other, 1-7) that are united by patterns made by the mid-century-modern stairway railings. Their clean lines criss-cross as they curve around the landings, recalling the optical rhythms of 1950s functional sculpture. A subdued little square of a garden atop a platform on the far side of the courtyard has a small, glazed spherical fountain with water lazily covering its whole shape.

Mayor’s Agenda – Redevelop Apartments Into Weekender Condos

City Manager Takes Heat Over Hiring

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In a trend that has raised some eyebrows, Colangelo has hired at least seven women who once worked for Monterey County, where he worked as an assistant administrative officer between 1999 and 2005.

“We don’t look at it as a coincidence,” says PG resident Pat Herrgott. “Jim Colangelo says it’s hard to find qualified people, so he brings over everybody he worked with before. That’s not fair employment.”

Former PG mayor Jeanne Byrne, for one, isn’t cutting Colangelo any slack. “It‘s inappropriate to create jobs that never existed and fill them with your friends,” she says. “Certainly not all of them are the best qualified. There’s nobody there to get them up to speed.”

Ahh. Jeanne Byrne. Single term PG mayor. Sandwiched between Dingbat Flo and Socialist Sandy. Accomplished nothing really.

City Manager Takes Heat Over Hiring

Council Picks Iris Peppard As Farmers Market Organizer

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Also up for the job was Joe Aliotti of Community Help Around Monterey Peninsula, who runs two farmers markets in Salinas. His proposals to involve local schools and stakeholders earned him the staff recommendation. “We interviewed both parties and he seemed to be farther along,” says City Manager Jim Colangelo.

Though impressed by both proposals, Councilmember Lisa Bennett made the successful motion to go for Everyone’s Harvest. “The flavor of her market seemed to match my values a little more,” she says. “A little more organic, a little more focused on being local.”

Council Picks Iris Peppard As Farmers Market Organizer

Clarify This Or I’ll . . .

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Marie Favaloro writes to the Coast Weakly:
Favaloros Closing Reason

Rocky Coast stays in business with no restroom.
Ice Cream Shoppe No Public Restroom

And Marie closed the the first Favaloro’s saying she wanted to spend more time with the children. For the children. GOD WHAT DID SHE DO WITH HER CHILDREN?

“We have sold the Restaurant to spend more time with our two beautiful children” (PG Hometown Bulletin, November 2nd and 16th 2005).

One of the strangest business owners in P.G.

Assault At Favaloro’s
Favaloro’s Closes
Another Assault At Favaloro’s
Ambulance Seen Loading Up At Favaloro’s

America’s Lost Hometown – Is Moe Without A Clue?

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The Weakly takes a look at the perceived state of the city’s business. Mentions this website and the bulletin board at pacificgrove.com! But only talks about the sleepy downtown and it’s struggling storefronts. Does anyone acknowledge the existence of all the businesses that are on Forest Hill or Sunset Drive? They are the ones that are there for the residents or other businesses, tourists don’t matter there. The parking lots are filled. The stores for the most part have been there for more than a year. How do they all stay in business with no Chamber Of Commerce ads or traffic shaping signs?

Push for a business that locals will like, and visitors will want to be a part of it. Focus on tourists and the locals will avoid you.

But while the mayor dreams of using that water for affordable housing, Ammar is gung-ho for new hotels. Twice a week, he and his staff call each of PG’s 30 inns and log their occupancy rates. The state-run Asilomar Conference Center, with a third of the city’s rooms, keeps about 83 percent of them filled. The rest average a respectable 61 percent occupancy, Ammar says. As a whole, PG’s hotels sell out 42 weekends per year.

Attracted by the town’s quaint beauty and slow pace, King moved her business to PG a decade ago. But in recent years she’s found city planners to be “difficult” and the Chamber of Commerce too focused on tourism – a sentiment she says her neighboring business owners share. “I think they all have the same concerns and are disgruntled by the same issues,” she says. “We don’t feel supported by the city or the chamber at all.”

Critics are assailing city leaders for proposing new taxes, discussing parking meters, laying off staff, thinning the library and museum budgets, and moving to consolidate the public safety departments. (For a sampling of emotions, check out PG blogs lighthouseavenue.com and pacificgrove.com.)

America’s Lost Hometown – Is Moe Without A Clue?

Central Ave – Bakery Or Restaurant?

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Central Ave Bakery Final Week

In mid-September, a letter from the MRWPCA informed the bakery that it had been in the wrong billing category throughout the two and a half years of its operation. Under the assumption that it was preparing food off-site, its bimonthly water fee had been about $44. But because the bakery makes food in-house and serves meals on glassware, its new bimonthly bill would be $485. The letter also noted an unpaid sewer capacity fee of more than $19,000.

“I felt like I’ve been hit in the solar plexus,” says co-owner Tina Thompson, sitting at one of the bakery’s tables in a knitted red beret, munching on homemade hummus. “I would have never opened this place if they had been upfront about this.”

Central Ave – Bakery Or Restaurant?

Two White Shark Attacks In Four Days

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What’s Scarier? The sharks in the water or the sharks on the rec trail?

Great White Shark

Most mammals—and all local marine mammals—heard about the WHITE SHARK who attacked the man surfline.com identified as 24-year-old TODD ENDRISS at MARINA STATE BEACH Tuesday morning. But fewer heard about the attack last Saturday in OTTER COVE just past LOVERS POINT. Squid’s allies in the dive community tell Squid that a pair of divers saw a smaller white circle them, then disappear—only to make a charge at them. Luckily, they were carrying spearguns, which they reportedly used to fend off the shark before surfacing and successfully screaming for help from a nearby dive skiff.

Two White Shark Attacks In Four Days

Is The Feast Of Lanterns Racist?

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Coast Weakly

… other traditions remained, such as the Royal Court’s enactment of “The Legend of the Blue Willow,” a romance involving a princess who drowns herself when her father forbids her from marrying her poor lover. Layne describes the story, based on a famous ceramic pattern, as an ancient Chinese myth.

In fact, according to Williams’ research, the story is not a Chinese legend at all: Both the blue willow pattern, and the story to explain it, were fabricated in the UK.

Another festival tradition puts the mayor in stereotypical Asian attire. This year Mayor Dan Cort plans to don a Chinese robe – and if he can’t find it, he says, he’ll wear a Japanese one – to kick off the July 27 street dance. “There was an uncomfortable history with our Chinese immigrants,” he admits. “We hope that celebrations like the Feast of Lanterns honor the contributions of the Chinese to Pacific Grove.”

Doctoral student Williams views the dynamic in psychological terms. “It’s an interesting juxtaposition to have this celebration of the Chinese at the same time that a legal mechanism was taken to burn them out,” he says. “There are various possibilities for why any group of people will celebrate the aesthetics of what they’re in the process of destroying.”

Is The Feast Of Lanterns Racist?

Tough Times Equal Tough Decisions

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Eighteen people in the mostly silver-haired audience of about 100 offered their thoughts after the Jan. 24 presentation. Suggestions ranged from hiking golf fees to shopping locally to keep profits close to home. Several speakers preferred cutting city staff to raising taxes; others said they’d gladly pay higher taxes to improve city services. Many agreed that the property transfer tax—a fee of $10 per $1,000 of value on homes sold—may be the best option. It would raise about $2.5 million per year and only affect homeowners who sell on the open market.

Bike permits.
Pet Licensing.
Garage Sale Licensing.
Parking meters.

Tough Times Equal Tough Decisions