Category Archives: Pacific Grove

Beware Of The (Tar) Blob

Posted on by

Black Blob

Or there’s oil under all that kelp, when do we begin drilling?

Large clumps of tar are washing up at Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove, above, and several other beaches stretching north into San Mateo County. The source of the sticky tar is yet to be determined.

Tar balls are washing ashore on Central Coast beaches, and while scientists are not sure why, they have a pretty good idea.

From Asilomar State Beach in the south to Moss Beach in San Mateo County, the tar deposits are believed to be naturally occurring, said Dana Michaels, spokeswoman for the Department of Fish and Game.

Before anyone gets all evrio-mental, they were naturally occurring. KION Reports:

02/26/07
State officials believe that the tar balls that have washed up on beaches stretching from San Francisco to Monterey County are naturally occurring and not the result of an offshore oil spill, a California Department of Fish and Game spokesman said Friday.

Beware Of The (Tar) Blob

Explosion At Patisserie Bechler

Posted on by

Bechler

The blast blew out the shop’s windows and pushed an external wall six inches out of line, he said.

The fire crew shut down everything within 1,000 feet of the shop, bringing surrounding businesses and traffic to a halt, Miller said. After determining that the explosion was caused by a gas leak, the crew closed off natural gas lines and informed Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the health department.

 

Explosion At Patisserie Bechler

The Fleecing Of The Golf Fans

Posted on by

The Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce will likewise host shuttle services to bring visitors into town and encourage them to linger. Last year, it transported more than 2,500.

Of the 1,110 guest rooms in Pacific Grove, all but 102 had been sold as of Friday afternoon, which is about the same as the past two years, Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce President Moe Ammar said.

Ammar said the impact of the AT&T goes beyond the event itself, as fans who enjoyed their time on the Peninsula later return to the area with family and friends.

Tell me, does this look like Last Home Town Hospitality?
Att Chamber Shuttle Checkpoint

Don’t you dare park in the often empty lot behind Holmans.
Holmans No Att

And please leave your valuables back in your parked car where it will sit on the street  for eight hours.
Att Shuttle Items Not Allowed

The rudeness does not stop in PG, here’s a bit from a letter in the Hear-old

2/15/07
Limiting snacks
We can understand the security reasons for limiting the size of bag people were allowed to bring to the AT&T golf tournament. However, we were turned away at the bus in Fort Ord for having snacks and water inside our bag that was smaller than the size limitation….

I guess last year was our last visit to the AT&T.

The Fleecing Of The Golf Fans

When The Weather Is Fine PG&E Goes Offline

Posted on by

For the second time in a weekend, parts of Monterey and Pacific Grove were plunged into darkness Sunday night.

“It just happened to have affected a lot of the same people,” a PG&E spokeswoman said.

The latest outage was caused by fallen wires at David Avenue and Fillmore Street at the Monterey-Pacific Grove border, and was apparently unrelated to a power loss Saturday.

At 7:30 p.m. Sunday, more than 4,000 Monterey residents and most businesses on Cannery Row were again left without power after a similar outage the night before.

When Saturday’s outage first occurred, there was some speculation that a car that had struck a power pole on Asilomar Avenue might have been the cause, the PG&E spokeswoman said, but that scenario was quickly ruled out.

Repair crews determined, she said, that a below-ground equipment failure caused a transformer to explode near Fremont Street and Ramona Avenue in Monterey.

When The Weather Is Fine PG&E Goes Offline

Science Prevails Over Doubt In Round Up Controversy

Posted on by

Tidepool Nazis favor erosion instead?

Dead Ice Plant

Pacific Grove has halted spraying invasive iceplant with a well known herbicide because of concerns by environmentalists the chemical could harm endangered species and the coastal environment.

P.G. City Council requested Rana Creek, the Carmel Valley environmental planning company hired to restore the dunes, provide a report that includes the effects of Roundup, a commercial herbicide, on the environment.

“To kill this much iceplant,” said Lee Willoughby, one of several Pacific Grove residents concerned with the use of Roundup, “there has to be some runoff, and it goes right into the tidepools. I think it’s a major concern.”

Former Pacific Grove City Councilwoman Susan Goldbeck wrote a letter to the city requesting more information about the use of the herbicide.“Of particular interest is,” Goldbeck wrote, “who is doing the Roundup and when are the planned applications?”

Rana Creek is currently preparing the report, which will be presented to council members March 7.

Bruce Cowan explains in great detail in a letter from the Carmel Pine Cone

What does glyphosphate do? It is an enzyme inhibitor in the photosynthetic pathway (shikimic acid pathway) that prevents the formation of lignins. Plants normally convert sugars (simple carbohydrates made in photosynthesis) to complex chains of carbohydrates (cellulose, lignin). Animals do not make cellulose or have cellulose in their tissue structure; it is only found in plants, fungi and bacteria. Without cellulose or lignins, plants collapse and die. Animals don’t have cellulose or that photosynthetic pathway, so glyphosphate is without effect.

Science Prevails Over Doubt In Round Up Controversy

Union Pickets Leave Without Making A Difference

Posted on by

Dan McAweeney of DMC Construction, a company that’s been the focus of intense picketing by the local carpenters union for nearly two years, is calling for an end to the protest.

Since July 2005, Carpenters Union Local 605 has been involved in a picketing campaign against DMC, because DMC pays its employees based on merit and skill, as opposed to a “prevailing wage,” something the union objects to.

“We want it to stop,” said Dan McAweeney, president of DMC Construction Inc. “It’s obnoxious and embarrassing, and it’s gone on long enough.”

The picketers, mostly immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries, are not union members and are paid solely to picket.

They are gone. Thankfully.

Union Pickets Leave Without Making A Difference

Tough Times Equal Tough Decisions

Posted on by

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

Divers Find Torpedo Off Point Pinos

Posted on by

The circa 1945 torpedo was not packed with explosives and was likely left behind from training exercises in Monterey Bay during World War II, said Tim Thomas, Monterey Maritime and History Museum historian.

During that era, the U.S. Navy conducted war games, shooting nonexplosive torpedoes in the water and practicing beach landings. The Navy chose Monterey Bay in particular, Thomas said, because the conditions were similar to those farther out in the Pacific Ocean.

What’s more hazardous, fuel from dud torpedoes or Round Up

Divers Find Torpedo Off Point Pinos

Snick Farkas’ Colossus Of Gold

Posted on by

Snick Farkas couldn’t take the kind of heat he throws around Pacific Grove.
For 12 years, the hardware store employee has lampooned the politics of Butterflyland in his comic strip, “Colossus of Gold.” In his black and white drawings, he chronicles the happenings of a small seaside town called Specific Groove. Here, a faux-gold statue of John Steinbeck, our colossus, has been struck by lightning and expanded to massive size — and is raising a ruckus.

The havoc in Specific Groove is familiar to anyone following Pacific Grove: rampant raccoons, budget problems and former mayors trying to play free golf.

Familiar, too, are the faces of Specific Groove’s movers and shakers, who are much like the City Council members, mayors, department heads and shopkeepers of Pacific Grove.

The Colossus Of Gold comic strip can be seen at http://www.93950.com/cog and the biweekly live renditions are often posted on Youtube.

Snick Finds Pen

Snick Farkas ‘ Colossus of Gold

Beautification Committee Solution: Less Ugly News Racks

Posted on by

If the city council agrees, the current newspaper and magazine racks would likely be replaced by holders manufactured by Sho-Rack, Martinez said. The same types of racks, currently used in Cannery Row, will be more compact, provide uniformity and will have curved tops to prevent people from leaving items on top of the racks. “We will pay for a maintenance program if they become damaged or have graffiti,” she said. “The maintenance fee for each site is about $500 per year.”

The Cannery Row Racks. Doesn’t that look just like Jersey Bus Station Style.
Newsrack Aquarium

Yes the racks on the ‘Row show uniformity and legitimize all the tabloids, tourist ad books and other wastes of paper. So it will cut down on the unsightly collections of vinyl racks, right? This grafitti laden County Weekly rack is across the street from the other County Weakly rack in front of the Aquarium.
News Rack Cr Weakly

The PG Post office looks like some kind of recycle center for wayward news racks. If it’s in print, you can get it here.
News Rack Old Post Office
If that is not enough, a select few can be found catty-corner from the PO. Yep, blocking the handicap access to the sidewalk.
News Rack P Fish

More vinyl racks make getting out of a car over by the PG Police Substation difficult:
News Rack Gaspars

First, they really should not have any of these impeding the passage from street to sidewalk. This building just had it’s facade restored and repainted. That rack there sure keeps it ghetto looking. Open up the view, don’t block it.
News Rack PG Business

Does Lighthouse Avenue really need more of this? No. What about a real news stand? Actually hire someone to sell newspapers and distribute the other items. The motels already hand out those tourist sheets. Make the businesses with racks on their sidewalks keep them clean. What? They may not want to do that? Then why not sell papers in the store?

Rack outside of a liquor store:
News Rack Old Rons Liquor

The Grove Theater used to have a Greyhound Depot with the best selection of periodicals. Even the Rexall drug store had the papers neatly stacked inside. Pick up a pack of Juicy Fruit when you got the Sunday Comical. That same place today is a rug store with, yes a monster rack out on the sidewalk.
News Rack Hazaras

There is NOTHING the committee can do to make this beautiful.

Beautification Committee Solution: Less Ugly News Racks