Downtown Burglars Strike Again

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In Letters To The Editor, Jane Roland Writes

I manage the Animal Friends Rescue Project Treasure Shop in Pacific Grove on 17th Street. On May 8, I went into the store as usual shortly before 10 a.m. After the preliminaries involved with preparing for the day, a customer arrived. I removed the cover from the cash register and discovered the drawer open and the money gone. The machine was broken and the keys taken. Everyone was alerted, the police were called and business resumed. The next day the same thing occurred. While it is considered a break-in, all of the locks were changed and further precautions were taken.

Not a new MO. There was a gang of teens burglarizing businesses at one time.

Downtown Burglars Strike Again,

Gay P.G. Police Officer Suing City

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A gay Pacific Grove police officer – who claims he was subjected to jokes and ridicule and was turned down for promotions because of his lifestyle – has filed a lawsuit in federal court.

In the April 3 lawsuit filed against the police department, former police chief Scott Miller and current chief Darius Engles, Sgt. Darrin Smolinski claims for about 10 years he was the target of harassment and discrimination, and that little was done by supervisors to stop it.

“Smolinski was told that there is disapproval of his lifestyle within the department” and colleagues “have made remarks relating to Smolinski’s anatomy in relation to his sexual orientation,” according to his suit.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, parallels a claim Smolinski filed with the city in August 2007, in which he said he endured a hostile work environment. The officer was hired by the department in 1997

Gay P.G. Police Officer Suing City

Is This Why Teachers Need More Money?

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To support cocaine habits? The next time you get a letter from skool asking for permission to drug test your children, say “only if the faculty goes first…”

Raul Herrera Arteaga

Greenfield police and officials from the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office raided the north Salinas home of Raul Herrera-Arteaga on Tuesday morning, removing computers, animals and other items. When he returned to his home Tuesday afternoon, police said they found two bags of cocaine in his right sock and arrested him on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance.

Herrera was lodged at Monterey County Jail with bail set at $10,000.

Is This Why Teachers Need More Money?

Why Do They Call It The Green Spot?

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Looks real brown to me.

Green Spot Dump 2

Substainable P.G. cannot get enough gray water to sustain a few weeds. It’s been there a month, and there never seems to be anyone there. There really is not much interest in this sustainable stuff beyond the small cult of Agenda 21 followers.

For the past several months, three groups have been working to render the neglected little spot green. The one-room building’s 650 square feet are rather drab at first glance, but it’s a work in progress. Applied Solar employees have hung photos of local photovoltaic installations along one wall. Sustainable PG’s Joy Colangelo painted waves, stars and a jellyfish over the bullet holes in the window.

Ultimately, the G-Spot’s enthusiasts envision the space as a magnet for eco-oriented meetings, potlucks and live music – a place for the community to experiment in shades of green.

Why Do They Call It The Green Spot?

Hear-Old Says Yes On “U”

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Herald Hear-old

Public safety salaries and pensions have lost touch with private sector wages and benefits partly because city councils and boards of supervisors were not as frugal as they should have been, but even more so because cities and counties are competing from a shrinking pool of candidates. Fixing the too-costly pension system in California will require a systematic, statewide approach, not anything city by city.

Measure U on the June 3 ballot would raise sales tax from 7.25 percent to 8.25 percent. It doesn’t apply to groceries or other major expenses such as rent. It would provide the city about $1.3 million each year, much of it paid by tourists and visitors. On average, the additional tax is expected to cost each resident less than $5 per month.

It would provide the city about $1.3 million each year, much of it paid by tourists and visitors.

Tax the Tourists!!

Hear-Old Says Yes On “U”

That Take-Out Will Get You A Ticket In P.G.

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Styrofoam & plastic ware is banned from restaurants.

Any way you spin it, whatever take-out is packaged in will still be overflowing from hotel dumpsters.
Sea-Breeze Motel:
Dumpster Sea Breeze Motel 071216a

..or spilling out of restaurant’s trash cans
Holly’s Lighthouse Cafe

Dumpster Hollys Cafe 080622

The ban applies to city contractors and special-event promoters using disposable food-service ware. Foods prepared or packaged outside Pacific Grove are exempt, as are ice chests, coolers, other containers meant to be reused, and shipping containers.

Ryan Kenny of the American Chemistry Council told the council that supporters of the ban did not provide scientific evidence that it does more harm to the environment than other packaging or food service containers, and that switching to alternatives “will replace one type of litter with another.” Organic containers buried in landfills, he said, produce methane gas that can harm the environment.

That Take-Out Will Get You A Ticket In P.G.

Lighthouse Cinema Open For Business

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Glad to have a movie house back in town. Now let’s see some creative movie marketing – not just the same Hollywood dreck.

the new theater owner of Lighthouse Cinema has negotiated running new Hollywood blockbusters, and has spent roughly half a million dollars on renovations to draw more people, including new seats, tiling, and digital sound system.

Maybe better sanitation, too.

Dumpster Lh Cinema 080720b

Lighthouse Cinema Open For Business

City Attorney Warns Council About Illegal Rentals

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Rooms For Rent

The city cites water, parking & building permits as reasons why some of the landlords were refused to go legit. No one needs a permit to rent a room of a house, wouldn’t that situation would add the same real burdens as a rental unit? Yesterday’s “basement apartment” becomes today’s “room for rent”, life goes on.

If Pacific Grove moves to crack down on illegal residential rentals, it had better move carefully, City Attorney David Laredo warned the City Council on Wednesday.

Laredo said state and federal housing laws could require the city to pay for finding a new home for evictees if it initiates shutting down the illegal rentals.

“Relocation is a complex process,” he said. “A public agency may be liable if it undertakes a project or program that requires relocations.”

Laredo said the city needs to have a written relocation policy and should hire an enforcement officer. The council unanimously instructed him to draw up the policy.

 

City Attorney Warns Council About Illegal Rentals