Category Archives: Pacific Grove

Business Group Wants To Sell Town’s Soul

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When people near and far imagine Pacific Grove, there isn’t necessarily one image that comes to mind. And that’s a concern to business owners who want to draw more visitors and boost sales in America’s Last Hometown.

Another issue that came up repeatedly was the fact that the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau no longer promotes Pacific Grove.

Nancy Holland, owner of Reincarnation Vintage Clothing in Pacific Grove, said she went to the bureau’s kiosk at El Estero on Sunday to investigate because she hadn’t heard a single foreign accent in her shop this summer.

She asked the person behind the counter whether there were any “cute little antique shops in Pacific Grove.”

“She goes, ‘I’m sorry. They don’t want to participate. I can’t tell you anything. I’ll tell you how to get to the border (of Pacific Grove),'” Holland said, adding, “Talking about these idea are all well and good, but if people don’t come here, we’re going to die.”

It these businesses sold something people wanted in the first place, they would be found.

When I tell business associates that I live in Pacific Grove, the image is one of beaches and hotels, not antique stores or even restaurants. Tourists come to P.G. for a quiet hotel room, and then go to Carmel or Monterey to vacation. Give P.G. back to the locals. Or pimp the town and build a casino or music hall.

Business Group Wants To Sell Town’s Soul

Budget In Downward Spiral, Here Comes Tax Hikes

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Results of the city-commissioned telephone survey, presented at Wednesday’s meeting, found that 35 percent of those polled opposed a tax increase, 47 percent would support a tax increase for essential city services and 13 percent wanted more information.

Under consideration for increases are the city’s transient occupancy tax, business licenses, property transfer fees and sales taxes. The council is considering implementing a parcel tax. Such measures would need a simple majority — or 50 percent of votes cast plus one — to pass.

Someone called this a majority favored a tax increase.

47% for
48% not for

Tell me the pollsters are not current or former city employees in charge of the budget.

Budget In Downward Spiral, Here Comes Tax Hikes

Oceans 18 Mini Golf Owner Arrested for Child Molesting

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UPDATE
Stamm allegedly molested a 14 year old boy. From the Hear-Old on 6/21.

Prosecutors are charging a Pacific Grove youth baseball manager with 10 felony counts involving alleged sexual acts against a 14-year-old boy about seven years ago.

Original story, from the Clownafornian on the 19th.

Police said they arrested David Russell Stamm, 45, who is charged with four counts of lewd acts with a minor, stemming from a recent complaint from an undisclosed person.

Stamm was arrested Monday following a sting operation conducted by Pacific Grove police detectives.

Stamm is the owner of Oceans 18 Mini Golf in the American Tin Cannery building, and Cages in Monterey.

Mini Golf Oceans18

Is this related in any way to another recent PG child molester arrest? See article on Sunny Kavil from 5/25, also arrested for child molesting, he was reported as working “at the American Tin Cannery”.

Also reported in the Hear-Old:

David Russell Stamm, 45, of Pacific Grove was arrested Monday with four counts of lewd acts with a minor that police say took place in 2000 and 2001.

David Stamm

Oceans 18 Mini Golf Owner Arrested for Child Molesting

Mysterious Beings Vandalize Golf Course

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“It’s generally a cart or a truck doing donuts. This is pretty weird because it’s obviously not a vehicle,” police Cmdr. Tom Uretzky said. “It’s just a bunch of holes.”

Golf course Superintendent Mike Leach called it the worst vandalism he’s seen.

“Someone has physically just beaten the heck out of a $30,000 green,” he said. “It was as if someone took a roto-tiller to (it).”

Pacific Grove’s golf course and several others, including the Monterey Peninsula Country Club, were also the target of pranksters six weeks ago, but those capers weren’t nearly as damaging as Monday night’s big dig, Leach said.

Just a bunch of holes? Three words, Punk Mutant Gophers

Punk Gophers

Mysterious Beings Vandalize Golf Course

AOPs Sue Over Occupancy Permits at Forest Hill Manor

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An attorney with Forest Hill Manor said she is preparing to sue the City of Pacific Grove over its refusal to issue a permit that would allow senior residents to move into newly constructed cottages.

The litigation would raise the stakes in Forest Hill’s ongoing battle with the city, which won’t issue an occupancy permit for the cottages at Fountain and Gibson until another project at Forest Hill, which includes new apartments, is completed.

“Construction of the entire project, and compliance with the use permit and all conditions of approval must be completed before the project can be deemed final and occupancy granted,” wrote assistant city attorney Heidi Quinn in an April 30 letter to Forest Hill’s attorney.

Allowing the cottages to be occupied before the rest of the project is finished would violate terms of the city’s use permit, Quinn contends.

Forest Hill Manor

Well, if they read the fine print as detailed as they write the claims for damages, the problem is obvious. Or is there some big love-in over at apartment B11?

We got 6 people here suing to live in apartment B11. (pointed out by Scott Miller)

Claim 2E

Forest Hill Manor 2e

Claim 2F

Forest Hill Manor 2f

Claim 2G

Forest Hill Manor 2g

Claim 2H

Forest Hill Manor 2h

Claim 2I

Forest Hill Manor 2i

Claim 2J

Forest Hill Manor 2j

They have 2 homes and cannot move into one, and it is causing mental stress. Oh how my heart bleeds (NOT).

AOPs Sue Over Occupancy Permits at Forest Hill Manor

Pet Chickens In P.G?

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I’m pro-chicken and I VOTE.

Put it to the test, I asked several candidates where they stood on chickens, after a teen’s pet chickens were suspiciously killed after an AOP (angry old person) protested the kid’s pets.

The Pacific Grove City Council is scheduled to decide at its 6 p.m. meeting today whether to allow a resident to keep two chickens in his yard.

Retired biologist John Pearse of 183 Ocean View Blvd. would like to have the chickens for their eggs and their ability to produce fertilizer, recycle kitchen scraps and eliminate insects from his garden, he wrote in a letter to the city.

Update – The chickens were approved.

Pet Chickens In P.G?

Fire Department Merger Being Considered

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PGfd 6414

Three cities on the Monterey Peninsula are one step closer to a merger that could save them a collective $1.3 million a year.

The cities of Pacific Grove, Carmel and Monterey are all considering consolidating their fire departments into one.

The cities combined currently spend more than $3.5 million each year on firefighting. But if the three departments merged, the cost for fire protection would drop to around $2.2 million total, the company reviewing the plan said.

About time. Just put more resource at the worker level and eliminate some administration.

Fire Department Merger Being Considered

Farmers Market? With All These Empty Storefronts?

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Short Bus Route

Letter From The Editor in the Hear-Old:

Why would Pacific Grove want to have a farmers market when it has Grove Market?

In an easy walk around a few blocks, shoppers can find fresh produce, a butcher shop, farmer’s bread, clothing shops, antiques, art galleries, card shops, stationery, cleaners, paints, banks, health food and the best hardware store and post office on the Central Coast.

I bet Monterey residents would love to take a short bus ride with their shopping bags to shop in a town that provides the basic necessities for locals.

It’s obvious that Barbara bAss Evans rides the short bus. None of those businesses are open in the early evening when working people shop.

Farmers Market? With All These Empty Storefronts?

The Dilworth Phenomenon

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Dapper Dilworth

The San Francisco Chronicle printed side-by-side pictures this week of two prominent Monterey Peninsula residents.

On the right was Clint Eastwood, an international movie star, Oscar-winning director, conservationist, philanthropist, former Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, land owner, developer, partner in the Pebble Beach Co., and one of the driving forces behind that company’s plan to eliminate potential homesites in Del Monte Forest while building a new golf course and hotel rooms.

On the left was David Dilworth, a high school graduate whose personal accomplishments wouldn’t fill a postage stamp.

Last weekend, the Herald even bestowed an advanced education on Dilworth, calling him an “environmental biologist.” Never mind that he doesn’t actually have so much as a bachelor’s degree in any scientific field.

What Dilworth does have is a lot of opinions and a lot of free time on his hands.

Attention Whore.

The Dilworth Phenomenon

P.G. Making Plans For A Farmers Market

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Before the City Council proceeds, a June 21 meeting will be held to hash out details, including the location and schedule for a market, said City Manager Jim Colangelo.

Colangelo said if merchants’ concerns can be resolved, a farmers market would be a positive note for downtown, where sales tax revenues have been flat in recent months.

“It’s not a crisis situation,” Colangelo said. “But we’re just concerned that we’re not seeing the type of business that we used to.”

You hit the nail on the head, Jimmy. Locals have quit shopping in downtown P.G. ever since the Carmel crowd moved in. Farmer’s Markets tend to be local centric. And none of the shops that oppose one are ever open when they take place anyway.

P.G. Making Plans For A Farmers Market