Category Archives: Monterey Herald

Will The Pigeons Sustain On?

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first awakenings

When First Awakenings leaves the ATC and moves up to the old Coco’s Big Boy. Also, they should offer a carry-out that harkens to the past use of the property. It used to be a transfer lot for the garbage trucks and storage for dumpsters. Many of the dumpsters were tagged in spray paint “Rhino Lunch Box”. Would make a great inside joke.

“Contrary to what people may think, we were not pushed out, we chose to move,” said Craig Bell, co-owner of the popular restaurant.

Bell said that both the American Tin Cannery developer Comstock Properties and property owner the Cannery Row Company wanted to keep First Awakenings in its current location at 125 Ocean View Blvd., but “we saw an opportunity and wanted to take it.”

The new location at the well-traversed intersection at Lighthouse and David avenues in Monterey has provided space to create an outdoor dining patio that will be slightly larger than the existing one at their current location.

Will The Pigeons Sustain On?

Tsunami Hotline – Seismologists Are Standing By

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\Cornered Tsunami hot line

Of all the Monterey Peninsula cities, Monterey would suffer the greatest inflow of seawater in the event of a tsunami, although the swells would also inundate areas of Pacific Grove, Carmel, Seaside and Pebble Beach.

The changes from the 2009 maps and the ones just released by the California Geological Survey, part of the state Department of Conservation, aren’t dramatically different, but varied enough to add warnings to new areas of the city.

“They have increased the map area by several blocks in the downtown area, to the west and south,” said Nat Rojanasathira, Monterey’s assistant city manager.
For example, the new maps show warning areas coming all the way up to Pacific Street covering more of the Old Monterey area, passing over the top of Fremont Street at Abrego Street, surrounding the Naval Postgraduate School and now reaching all the way to Highway 1 along Camino Aguajito.

And in Seaside, the area already susceptible to both sea-level rise and tsunami threats along Laguna del Rey has been expanded into neighboring residential areas by a few blocks.

In Pacific Grove, the new maps cover neighborhoods inland of Ocean View Boulevard all the way up to Surf Avenue and then continuing down along Sunset Avenue. In Pebble Beach, the maps show portions of 17-Mile Drive potentially underwater, including Spanish Bay,

Tsunami Hotline – Seismologists Are Standing By

 

Arrivederci, Bank Of Italy

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PG needs more stuff for transients. Banking for the locals is not making it.

PG BofA

Colleen Haggerty, a senior vice president for the bank, said on Wednesday that during the pandemic, one of the steps Bank of America took was to temporarily close some financial centers to help consolidate resources at nearby locations.
“In this case, the Pacific Grove financial center has been closed for nearly a year, at the onset of the pandemic, with services consolidated to the Monterey financial center less than two miles away on Franklin Street and to our Seaside location less than four miles away,” Haggerty said.

Moe Says:

Moe Ammar, president of the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce, said the branch has always been engaged with community events in the downtown. And while he said he understood the reason for the closure, he is concerned about the effects on residents, particularly seniors.

Hah! He is really afraid of losing the use of the bank’s parking lot during his Goodish Days.

Arrivederci, Bank Of Italy

Letters From The Editor: Mega Hotel At ATC Is Not For Us

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Should be replacing the old 50s motels with up to date PG Remodels instead.

ATC

 

Proposed ATC hotel won’t help
It’s always been about a certain quality of life in Pacific Grove. Always. It’s a bit slower, a bit quieter than our neighbors. If we need to see the “bright lights,” Monterey and Carmel are a very short drive away. I always loved the fact the sidewalks would roll up in the evenings and the town would go to sleep for another day. This quality of life is in danger of being taken away from us by people who want to make Pacific Grove into their vision of what Pacific Grove should be, a tourist town, a place for conventions, a place to hang out at night and have drinks.

So why does Pacific Grove need another hotel? Most say we need the revenue. OK, what city doesn’t? The question we need to ask is, with a limited revenue source, what do we want to sacrifice in order to achieve a more sustainable revenue source? Raise taxes? Raise fees? Pacific Grove is not Monterey or Carmel and I’m not sure if we really want to or need to compete with them. These cities already have the infrastructure and are way ahead of us. If we add another hotel what will this do to the quality of life we have come to expect. With traffic, parking and water issues already at the forefront in town, how will another hotel help with these issues? Will these issues be lessened by building another hotel or will they become worse? Yes, a hotel will bring in revenue to the city but at what cost? Are we willing to throw out the baby with the bathwater? Are we going to accept that this is what’s required for Pacific Grove to become more of a tourist destination than it already is? My opinion is that Pacific Grove has always been a quiet little town and should stay this way. We should not sacrifice this quaintness in order to pay our infrastructure bills, pay for the retirement packages to city employees or to try to compete with our neighbors for tourist money.

Some have said that Pacific Grove needs a place for our school kids to have dances, a place for graduation ceremonies or even a place for high school reunions. My question is how many of these places does Pacific Grove require? We already have plenty of sites that can be used for civic events like Asilomar Conference Grounds, PG Performing Arts Center, the Masonic Lodge, Chautauqua Hall and the golf course clubhouse. There is a new boutique hotel going in at Central and Fountain that was presented to City Council as having space for local events so why do we require another hotel with another space for these events that can not seem to be accommodated currently?

At the proposed ATC hotel, there will be 304 valet served parking spaces for the 225 rooms but this number does not take into account the minimum of 75-100 employee parking spaces, plus vendor parking and all the parking spaces needed for special events will pretty much put the proposed allotted parking at more than capacity on most days.

It’s simple. It’s about our quality of life.

— Vicki Illgner, Pacific Grove

Letters From The Editor: Mega Hotel At ATC Is Not For Us

Asilomar Conference Grounds Is Open To Non Infected Visitors

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Asilomar Tent Rooms

Hope they double disinfected it. Could be bad for business knowing that a collection of coronavirus victims were sequestered there.

“Asilomar was the first facility to shut down in March of 2020 when the governor decided to house the passengers of the Princess Cruise Ship Discovery at the grounds,” said Moe Ammar, the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce president.

The conference grounds reopened twice since the beginning of the disruption to business due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asilomar Conference Grounds Is Open To Non Infected Visitors

Great White Sharks Increasing

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Warmer sea temperatures, more tasty seal pups. All add up

Mister Jaws

Lowe said he is working with officials from the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to try to establish a similar system from Seacliff State Beach to New Brighton State Beach, an area locals increasingly call “Shark Park.”

After they are born, great white sharks stay in warm waters near the shore to feed on fish, rays and squid, said Sal Jorgensen, a marine researcher with UC Santa Cruz and co-author of the study, which was published in Scientific Reports, a peer-reviewed journal from the publishers of Nature.

After two or three years, they grow larger than 10 feet long and swim out to deeper, colder waters. Their teeth widen and become more serrated. They reach sizes of 17 to 19 feet long and eat sea lions and other marine mammals, often in colder waters in places such as the Farallon Islands.

Great White Sharks Increasing

Seal Posse Opposes Hotel At ATC

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And did you know that a Fakebook Page about seals has fewer followers than subscribers to the Hear-old?

Pacific Grove’s shoreline is also a place where thousands of tourists flock to in order to observe wildlife, including the popular seals around Hopkins Marine Station. Thom Akeman, a docent with Bay Net, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s volunteer naturalist program, said he’s seen more than 1,000 newborn pups over the past 17 years he’s been a docent.

He’s talked about seals with more than 50,000 visitors and has trained other docents to help tourists and visitors understand the seal colonies. His wife, Kim Akeman, maintains a Facebook page called “Harbor Seals of Pacific Grove” that has in excess of 12,000 followers.

“We have seen how little it takes sometimes to disturb the harbor seals and drive them off the beaches,” Thom Akeman said about the estimated two years worth of construction that includes removing an estimated 70,000 tons of granite bedrock — enough to fill 6,000 dump trucks.

The environmental report states that no blasting will occur at the site, but it also notes in a geotechnical report that removing that much granite “will probably not be possible with conventional construction equipment.” It does not reference what alternative means of excavation would be used.

Seal Posse Opposes Hotel At ATC

Mayor Peak Stoned Deaf Of Harvey’s Dealings

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Maybe the mayor needs to be in the city managers real hometown to know what’s going on.

“I was not aware that Ben Harvey was contacting cannabis companies in July,” Peake said. “I was surprised because there was no interest in a cannabis store shown by the council.”

Harvey said Monday there was absolutely nothing inappropriate about his conversations and meetings with Apothecarium, and that to do so is part of his job as a type of ombudsman between elected officials and business projects.

“Part of my job is to deal with prospective businesses,” Harvey said. “I routinely meet with people interested in starting a business here, whether it’s a retailer, restaurant, brewpub or a cannabis dispensary.”

Another criticism of Harvey is that he allowed the one company, Apothecarium, to help draft the ordinance that would then be presented to the council on Sept. 2. Harvey argued there is nothing out of the ordinary in doing this. And he is right in that industry helps draft legislation in Sacramento regularly.

 

Mayor Peak Stone Deaf Of Harvey’s Dealings

Sunset Sinsemilla? Grove Ganja? Caledonia Cannabis? Butterfly Bhang?

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Pot store coming to P.G.

Got some useless school administrators all excited. Take it from a PG student from the 70s – weed is easy for kids to get. And cheaper on the street.

Butterfly Weed

Ralph Porras, the superintendent of the school district, in an email Thursday elaborated on his and the board’s fears of the’s city decision. His first concern is a cannabis store will increase the availability of marijuana.

“Access to drugs and the deleterious effects they already have on students throughout the nation, and especially in the Peninsula, is well documented and has had the attention of educators for many years,” he wrote. “The challenges to address these current problems are already very great and have a tremendous impact on the school community.”

Sunset Sinsemilla? Grove Ganja? Caledonia Cannabis? Butterfly Bhang?

Why Put A Traffic Signal At Skyline & 68?

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Are you too timid to stand on the gas and go? Are you driving a weak little car? There is a resting space to make the left from Skyline.

Ed Cavallini, one of the neighbors living near the crash site, said there is a stoplight at the intersection of the entrance into Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula and then not another one until the entrance into Pebble Beach at Morse Drive. That allows cars to accelerate from the CHOMP stoplight to Skyline Forest, a distance of about 0.7 miles.

Why Put A Traffic Signal At Skyline & 68?