Category Archives: Monterey Herald

Lighthouse Cinema Decision Delayed

Posted on by

Lighthouse Cinema

The old Lighthouse Cinema closed in September, less than two years after a 13-screen theater opened at Del Monte Center in Monterey. That left the 11,000-square-foot downtown spot empty, though it is currently being used on a temporary basis for Sunday services by a church congregation.

Along with two shops, Enea proposes to retain a two-story office space and create three new apartments.

“Come back soon with more details”. That’s what the Pacific Grove City Council told developer Robert Enea on Wednesday. He is talking to at least four potential retailers but said he couldn’t reveal their identities to the council because of confidentiality agreements.

Several council members said they were uncomfortable giving the project a green light without knowing the type of businesses that would fill the space. Without that information, they couldn’t gauge the project’s potential traffic and noise impacts.

Pft. Look at what’s been brought to PG lately. Carmalodorous bistros and art galleries. I’d let Enea put a bowling alley there if it would bring tax revenue to town.

Lighthouse Cinema Decision Delayed

Auditors Find No Fraud, But Trouble None The Less

Posted on by

A routine audit of Pacific Grove’s books found that the city failed to document transactions and reconcile account balances last year which could affect the city’s ability to borrow money and issue bonds, city officials said.

The city’s finances have been in a tangle as a result of poor bookkeeping and overspending since at least 2000, said city officials and members of the city’s ad hoc budget and finance committee.

In December, Colangelo told the council that an inaccurate record keeping had caused the city to work with inflated numbers for six years in planning the budget. As a result, the city had overspent about $500,000 each year since 2000, including $1.9 million of reserve funds. Now, the city is considering putting tax measures on the ballot to bring in revenue to refill the depleted coffers.

Auditors Find No Fraud, But Trouble None The Less

Pacific Grove Good Old Days 2007

Posted on by

It started as a small get-together, tucked between Christmas and summer celebrations, when neighbors exchanged recipes and baked goods. Fifty years later, Pacific Grove’s Good Old Days has grown to a supersized, two-day block party with a parade, carnival rides and enough sweets to rot a kindergarten class of teeth. This year, more than 25,000 people are expected to attend the city’s $60,000 party.

“It was a just a neighborly thing to do,” said former Pacific Grove Fire Chief and City Councilman Don Gasperson, who started the annual Firemen’s Muster Competition and Bucket Brigade in the 1960s.

Pictures from the scene:

Ah – a hint of localism
GOD Locals

Don’t forget this is Earth Day – Appear to be substainable and push to recycle.
GOD Recycle Or Not

But add more car exhaust as you circle the town looking for a place to park. Holmans shows it’s usual non hospitality.
God No Parking

Lighthouse Avenue takes on the look of a carnival midway.
God Tent City

Jurassic Survivor? Let’s vote the raptors off..
God Inflatable

Hungry after that? Time for Meat On A Stick as Snick calls it. There seemed to be too many dogs around the food area.
God Meat On A Stick

A little return to the PG Good Old Days of the past – handicrafts for sale.

Dolphins!!
God Stained Glass

Tie Dye!
God Expensive Tie Dye Dres

But the prices are up there with Carmel Plaza – whoo! a $69 aloha shirt.
God Expensive Shirt

A $75 denim shirt
God 75 Dollar Shirt

I saw these unusual mobile wind thingys
Wind Thing

Just when I was about to declare that the find of the week for it’s distinctive look of craftsmanship and originality, I saw another merchant offering the same thing:
God Windthing 2
The seller at mobile wind thing # 2 was quite rude and declared “NO PICTURES”. Pftft, you are in public, in the middle of a street. You and the other vendor lost any appreciation from my family and declared the weird mobiles just another piece of overpriced Chinese imported junk.

Good Old Days has obviously changed from a townspeople event to another chance to fleece the tourists.

Pacific Grove Good Old Days 2007

Pedestrians Beware In P.G.

Posted on by

Jackie Burns wrote to the Hear-Old:

I walk nearly every day in Pacific Grove. And nearly every day, no matter where I am walking, drivers do not stop for pedestrians in the crosswalks. I can be off the curb into the crosswalk or even in the middle of a wide street and have eye contact with them and they still don’t stop. Please, drivers, respect the pedestrians, speed limits and stop signs!

If there’s no police presence to enforce parking limits, there’s also none to enforce safe driving. Shame.

Pedestrians Beware In P.G.

Print News Is Dead

Posted on by

Herald Hear-old

Internet has finally made newspapers obsolete. The news is old. It’s time to consider why subscribe to the Hear-Old.

The Cost
The bills come every 4 weeks or so and never acknowledge the last payment. What the . . I just paid the bill 2 weeks ago and now I have another? Let’s check and see…
Herald Bill

So, you pay $14.59 every 4 weeks. That’s $3.6475 a week, $189.67 a year, $15.80 a month. You can get DSL Internet for that price.

Bought daily, costs $3.00 Monday to Saturday and $1.75 for Sunday – $4.75. You do save some by subscribing. But let’s get cheap. Monday’s paper is useless. It’s often not even heavy enough to stay put in the gutter it lands in every day. Same for Saturday. That alone brings the savings to .10 a week by not subscribing. And it’s dry. There once was a time when the news carrier would take pride in remembering where each customer wanted the paper, normally on the porch or a few steps from it. It was worth a tip. Good luck with that these days.

The content
OK the local news is the only thing unique to the paper. The rest of the fill comes from wire services. Any state and national news is the same stuff the TV stations get, the radio stations get and the internet provides. Too much of what passes as news is BS fluff from advertisers. This “How To Guide” covers a wide range of interesting subjects. Each one of them has a full page ad opposite the advice from an advertiser. What a coincidence

How To

Looks innocent enough, lets see.
How to buy a futon. Yep, an ad for futons after the “article”
How To Futon

How to Choose a Laser Eyeball Surgeon.
How To Lasik

If that don’t work out, wear glasses
How To Glasses

The Other Ads. At least they state the obvious that it is an ad. The advertisements are becoming an insult to readers’ intelligence. Fake viagra. Fake weight loss pills. Ads to buy money. Really. Ordinary US currency sold at a profit under the guise of being collectible.
$12 face value of dollars for $20
Dollars For Sale

Can’t afford it? What about $10.25 worth of quarters for $16? This is better than running a casino in Vegas. And this is legal in Pacific Grove.
Quarters For Sale

Dubious ads for ‘supplement’ pills that belong in the back of a supermarket tabloid.
Pills for fingernail fungus
Nails

Pills for prostate
Fad Prostate Cure

Pills for diets
Fad Diet

Pills for colon cleansing
Fad Colon Cleansing

The Waste. Hauling away the read and soggy unread Hear-olds is not free. The same ad inserts that come in the mail get sent straight to the trash with the Hear-old’s ads.

The employment practice. What?? Twice a year one’s schedule of paying the Hear-old gets out of sync with that every four week bill. No one else does this, not Cal Am, not PG&E not Comcast. So the paper has it’s friendly staff call you at all hours of the day reminding to to pay. Think you are talking to someone out at Ryan Ranch? Not even close.
C Muhammed called me from central Mississippi to remind me once.

Herald Muhammed

D Leonard also called me all the way from Dallas, Texas.
Herald Leonard

Calls “from the Hear-old” on phones from contractors residences? That’s real unprofessional. Time to end this unneeded expense?

Print News Is Dead

Naked Woman Escapes With Police Car

Posted on by

Watsonville police officers responded about 6:30 a.m. to a complaint of a man and woman arguing in their home on Miles Lane. While an officer was talking to the person who called to complain, Lisa Isidro fled from the house without any clothes, police said.

Another officer tried to detain Isidro, using chemical spray to subdue her. Instead, she jumped into a police car and tried to run over the officer, police said.

Naked Woman Escapes With Police Car

Aquarium’s Landlord Wants To Raise The Rent

Posted on by

Money Calculator

Pacific Grove thinks the Monterey Bay Aquarium should pay more than $1 a year to lease the slice of city land the world-class facility occupies, drawing more than a million visitors annually.

Cash-strapped Pacific Grove wants the aquarium to pay more rent or help the city improve its services, including running the Museum of Natural History or fixing its storm water problems, said City Manager Jim Colangelo.

“Given our financial situation, we think we need to get more from that kind of an asset,” Colangelo said.

An aquarium representative said that while the nonprofit is sympathetic to the city’s financial situation, its money is better spent reinvesting in the exhibits and programs that draw tourists to its facility and to Pacific Grove’s hotels and shops.

Aquarium’s Landlord Wants To Raise The Rent

Robbery Suspect Arrested In P.G.

Posted on by

A man suspected of being involved in a robbery at Del Monte Center on Monday was arrested late Thursday while sitting in a car in Pacific Grove, Monterey police reported.

John Vandenham, 28, one of three men who allegedly robbed the Monterey Bay Silver Co. at the shopping center, was sitting in a car at David and Forest avenues when a Pacific Grove police officer questioned him, police said.

Attract the tourists, and their predators follow . ..

Robbery Suspect Arrested In P.G.

P.G. Manhunt Locks Down Schools

Posted on by

At least eight law enforcement officials from the Salinas, Monterey and Carmel police departments, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, the California Highway Patrol, and California State Parks established a perimeter as Pacific Grove police searched for Gastelum, police said.

At 1 p.m., police took Gastelum into custody near Cedar and Maple streets. He was charged with suspicion of vehicle theft and suspicion of residential burglary. He is being held at the Monterey County Jail on $50,0000 and is on a no-bail probation hold, police said.

KSBW reports that the suspect got away, and brings up the pay issue.

More than a dozen officers went door to door looking for a man who they said stole a sport utility vehicle and then crashed it, officials said..

Schools in the area were locked down and additional officers were called in from other cities.

Police said they did not catch the man, but the incident is raising bigger questions about budget cuts and the staffing at local police departments.

Pacific Grove police said they had to call for backup because they only had three officers on duty at the time of the crime.

How many patrol cops does PG really need?

P.G. Manhunt Locks Down Schools

P.G.’s Mountain Lion Lunches At Bleachers

Posted on by

Lion Bleachers

Mountain lion warnings have been posted at Pacific Grove High School and nearby Forest Grove Elementary School after the carcass of a deer apparently killed by a big cat was discovered on campus last week.

The slain deer was found under the visitors’ bleachers at Breaker Stadium at 4 p.m. Thursday, said high school principal Stan Dodd.

No lion was seen, he said, but an animal control officer and state Department of Fish and Game warden confirmed that the carcass was likely a mountain lion kill.

“We’ve alerted everyone,” he said. “We’ve informed everyone to take precautions at the school at night and before dawn. Luckily, the time they’re active is when the kids aren’t here.”

The deer was removed by the Department of Fish and Game to prevent the lion from returning to finish its meal, said Police Chief Darius Engles.

OK, so let’s tick off the lion and steal it’s food. Will it leave or just look for something else to eat?

P.G.’s Mountain Lion Lunches At Bleachers