Stolen Check Gang Arrested

The illicit activity started in September and happened in places from Salinas to the Peninsula, Uretsky said. Pacific Grove Police started investigating in October after a resident reported her mail, which included courtesy checks from her credit card company, stolen. One check turned up at a Pacific Grove bank and the teller recognized the name, he said.

Edith Gaskins, 39, of Seaside, one of the people arrested, allegedly opened a checking account online with one of the woman’s stolen checks.

Also arrested were Leticia Balajadia, 33, of Seaside, and Marina residents Warkiesha Pettis-Gulley, 33, and Brian Anderson, 40.

I’ve been having my mail sent to a Post Office Box for over 20 years, because of things like this. Always wondered what would happen if one of those ‘instant debt’ checks that come every month got lifted..

Stolen Check Gang Arrested

Letters From The Editor – Bicyclists

If it’s not enough getting assaulted or mugged, now it’s harassment by the bike riders.
Bicycle Crash

Recently, my family and I have taken to the Monterey Rec Trail for some relaxing bike riding. The first outing led to my children getting a quick lesson in profanity from a bicyclist who was going at an excessive speed. The second came with another bicyclist crashing into my daughter, leaving her bleeding. Sure, he turned around but never once came back to ensure she was OK.

I find it despicable that these bikers think that they own this Rec Trail and that they are performing the Tour De France. After summoning a police officer he informed me that this Rec Trail is for walkers, runners, and bikers of all ages.

Letters From The Editor – Bicyclists

Come See Candy Cane Lane

Ccl Soldier

It’s a holiday tradition that has drawn crowds of people to Forest Avenue and Morse Drive in Pacific Grove since the 1940s.

It’s one of the most elaborate holiday displays on the central coast and on Saturday night the lights were turned on.

Hundreds of visitors will flock to Candy Cane Lane, this month to help them get into the holiday spirit.

And it has nothing to do with drawing shoppers to PG. Enjoy, it’s free to visit and no one is trying to sell you anything.

Click for Google Map

Come See Candy Cane Lane

We’ll Have A “Green” Christmas

Wreath
New LED wreaths. Nice change from the boring white ones.

“Well the holiday season in Pacific Grove is very important, especially to the down town merchants, and so the decoration lightning that we do down there is a key integral part of the whole celebratory aspect here, and one of the things we’ve been looking at is energy efficiency, says Pacific Grove public works superintendent Celia Martinez.

Pacific Grove has done just that, with 90 wreaths lining the light poles on Lighthouse and over 6,000 holiday light bulbs shining for 9 hours per night through the holiday season, an electricity bill of over $2,200 from last year, will be cut drastically.

Speaking of boring white lights, the “little Las Vegas” display on the old Grove Theater building is out this year. Merry X-mas!
No lights

We’ll Have A Green Christmas

Holman’s For Sale – Agha Gives Up On Making It A Hotel

Don’t know if he is telling the truth or not.
Holmans For Sale

Saying he’s fed up with nearly 14 years of delays in his attempt to build a luxury hotel in downtown Pacific Grove, developer Nader Agha has put the landmark Holman Building on the market.

The sale price of $17.95 million includes the 84-year-old, 120,000-square-foot Holman Building and the 1.35-acre lot it sits on, as well as four other lots on Fountain Avenue being used for parking and a building across the street at 549 Lighthouse, Agha said.

Nader’s Hotel Proposal, also championed by Losin’ Susan:Holman hotel

Nader blames the changes in city leaders, but other business people have been successful in deals with the city. Old Bathhouse. Lighthouse Cinema. Maybe a big (ugly) hotel is not what we need.

Holman’s For Sale – Agha Gives Up On Making It A Hotel

Trip Advisor Hotel/Motel Reviews, Summer 2008

(Trip Advisor)

People let loose with comments –

The Clement Monterey
Breakfast at C overpriced but very good. Lots of flies in eating area and staff a little slow. Great location.

The Intercontinental has used these plasticized mattress covers – I guess in case you have an accident!? Yuck.

Monterey Bay Inn
The only noise through the night was the Sea Lions honking down the beach, and I’m not going to complain about that.

the flattest pillows I have ever seen.

The manager on duty was unprofessional, as well as argumentative and patronizing

Bed did not seem clean. Smelled like other people. Ew.

Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa
Every bit of noise was audible in the room, from the squawking seagull to the bass of a car. Though we could not hear our next door neighbors you can hear the folks upstairs. I was able to hear someone pee

Fatal flaw is the beds. Like plywood with a thin foam cover.

To reach the heart of Cannery Row, you have to walk by several “scenic” vacant lots, boarded up buildings and cyclone fencing.

Did I mention the service is super polite, even tho the waiter’s tie dangled in the main course and the dessert.

Sunset Inn
Regarding the room, I felt a bit like I was staying in a basement because of the pretty small windows in the room.

I didn’t snore but the guy in the room next to ours did. The walls are extremely thin.

It was the same price as other very dirty properties.

A continental breakfast was offered but the coffee served was so foul it could strip paint.

Asilomar Conference Grounds
Stuff growing in corners of shower.

staff liked to start cleaning rooms before 8am. It’s either sleep with the vacuum cleaner running, or get up.

Rosedale Inn Executive Suite
opening the windows took care of the smell.

Deer Haven Inn & Suites
I also defrosted the refrigerator while I was there so the door would shut

stay away from the back building with the two bedroom suites, very scary!!!

The room smelled clean but some of the items in the room did not. Those items are the bath tub, door hinges and the kitchen.

The room was like a section 8 apartment.

Lover’s Point Inn
pre-packed pastry where the list of chemical ingredients barely fits on the wrapper.

good hotel to film a cheap B horror film at.

We wondered if it was haunted the motel was so empty.

Butterfly Grove Inn
but $190 for a room we didn’t want and in the end they gave to someone else?

Holiday Inn Express Monterey – Cannery Row
We were woken up at 4am by a naked man talking on his phone outside our room (yes I did say naked!!) When I called reception they just came to the courtyard and asked the guy to ‘keep it down’

Sadly the courtyard set up means that people stand outside their doors smoking along the footways overlooking the courtyard

Best Western Victorian Inn
When we got to our room and unpacked my wife heard a noise coming from the BR.We looked at the tub and the drain started to fill the tub with someone else s soapy, dirty water…yechh.

Elevators smelled strange (possible pet urine?)

It was possible to hear whether the person in the bathroom above us was going #1 or #2 in the middle of the night

The Borg’s Ocean Front Motel
Right now my back feels like I slept on uneven rocks. Taking a pain pill and going to see the chiropractor tomorrow.

we were not told there would be a triathalon taking place on the street in front of the motel (it blocked our view and megaphones were making very loud announcements starting at 5:30 in the morning) at the time we made our reservation. What’s with that?

Sea Breeze Lodge
the guy had to light the gas heat in our room which was really odd and made me paranoid

I noticed the window was unlocked, so I checked all the other ones, which were also unlocked.

The Wilkie’s Inn
“Deceptfully charming on the outside. Nasty on the inside.”

Lighthouse Lodge & Suites
there was a major draft through it and the room itself was strange in terms of decor.

carpet needs to be shampooed-my feet became black when I walked barefoot

The two soaps on the sink area were unwrapped and one had obviously been used. There was a brown stain on a white towel.

view out the balacony was a “grave yard”.

They had no one available to fix the toilet so they sent a plunger over for US to do it ourselves.

sweaty-smelling pillows,

Best Western Monarch Resort:
looks and feels like a college apartment complex.

Trip Advisor Hotel/Motel Reviews, Summer 2008

Moammar Talks Stupid . . again

I’ve little issues with the rehab place (except maybe the resulting fewer residential units as a result . .) But “Neighbors”? Moe Ammar needs to be muzzled. Moe lives nowhere near Central & 2nd. My guess is that the residents are performing work for the COC which the COC collects money for.
Baghdad Moe

At the corner of Pacific Grove’s Central Avenue and Second Street sits a lemon-yellow house.

The people in the house all have troubled pasts. Their histories include run-ins with the law, and problems with cocaine, alcohol, painkillers and more.

Moe Ammar, president of Pacific Grove’s Chamber of Commerce, has strong feelings about these people.

“I cannot think of a better neighbor,” he said. “I wish we had more neighbors like them.”

The yellow Victorian is the new site for the Bridge Restoration Ministry, a Christian-oriented residential drug rehabilitation center for men. The center relocated to Pacific Grove from Seaside in May.

The Bridge offers a rigorous, yearlong treatment program that teaches residents the skills to mend lives that have been shattered by drug addiction.

Moammar Talks Stupid . . again

People Come From Far And Wide To See The World’s Ugliest Xmas Tree

Cannot disappoint the tourists from Fresno, light it up.
Ugly Tree 2006

The Pacific Grove Annual Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony will be Monday, Dec. 1, at 5 p.m. at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, at Forest and Central avenues.

Following the tree lighting, which the chamber says regularly draws people from as far away as Fresno, there will be a reception at Chautauqua Hall

UPDATE – wanted to show the tree in the day time. Do people from Fresno really think this is nice enough to travel to see?
Ugly Tree Daylight

People Come From Far And Wide To See The World’s Ugliest Xmas Tree

Victory For The Chickens

I’m Pro-chicken. And I Vote!
David Polden Picking
David Polden digging for evidence.

The P.G. City Council voted Nov. 19 to permit two homeowners to continue to keep chickens on their property as pets despite neighbor complaints they attract flies, are noisy and could harbor disease.

After the chicken owners received over-the-counter permits to keep the poultry, Polden filed an Oct. 29 appeal, citing several concerns.

“I’m worried about the loss of value of my property,” Polden wrote to the city council, “as well as that of everyone living in the town.”

Ultimately, council members agreed, finding that the chickens would not create a property-value issue, or be a threat to health and safety. Councilman Scott Miller dissented and councilwoman Lisa Bennett was absent.

Victory For The Chickens

Prison Doctors Fraud – One Was From P.G.

Part of what causes insurance rates to go up – and services go down.

Dr. Charles Lee, 69, of Salinas, is charged with approving the false claims.

Also named are doctors Randy Sid, 42, of Pacific Grove; Pedro Eva, 43, of Soledad; David Hoban, 65, of Santa Cruz; Wade Exum, 60, of Las Vegas; and Mark Herbst, 48, of Honolulu.

The indictment accuses Hoban of overbilling the state more than $60,000 between April 2007 and June 2007. Exum is charged with similarly taking $13,570; Sid, $16,750; Eva, almost $30,000; and Herbst, nearly $45,000.

Prison Doctors Fraud – One Was From P.G.