Long time tradition with no phony charm. Residents decorate homes with holiday flair. Beaumont, Morse, McFarland and Olmstead are the primary streets, with portions of Forest, Fountain & Fourteenth streets participating.
So THAT’S What P.G. Is Famous For!
Read it and gag.
Some puff piece reports that Pacific Grove is famous for golf and B&Bs. I always thought it was butterfly migrations and schoolkids in parades.
Guess the transformation into a Carmel stepchild is complete. Calling all newlyweds and nearlydeads!
Article mentions “affordable” $30 bottles of wine and the $140 purses made from junk car parts.
As for the markups, Walter said the philosophy is simple.
“We want people to try new wine,” she said. “They can come here and get something for $30 that they’d only look at another restaurant.
In addition to woman’s clothing, Johnson sells old California license plates that have been fashioned into purses, CD holders and address book covers. Her store occupies an old pharmacy with a lovely tin ceiling that dates to 1888.
Back in Pacific Grove, you can hire bikes or take a sea kayak tour. Or try your luck with a skim board at Lovers Point Park, which has a protected, small swimming beach of silky, pale blond sand.
(don’t mention the high fecal content of that sand )
Speaking of Passionfish
So THAT’S What P.G. Is Famous For!
Oh, Where Does The Axe Fall?
Closing the city’s library and museum, trimming office hours and cutting police, fire and public works positions are among the hard financial choices before the Pacific Grove City Council.
The council will meet Wednesday to begin discussing how to balance its budget in the coming year.
“Now we’re at crunch time,” said Mayor Dan Cort.
· Eliminating general fund support for the city library and Museum of Natural History, which would save $250,000 for the remainder of this fiscal year and $1.2 million in fiscal 2008-09. Museum donations have fallen to an estimated $5,000, down from a projected $60,000. Library programs brought in about $39,000 in fees, purchases, fines and other revenue.
· Closing City Hall on alternate Fridays, with a 10 percent employee pay cut, saving $85,000 this fiscal year and $350,000 next fiscal year.
· Reducing fire service, with three options ranging from annual cutbacks of $95,000 to $245,000.
· Reducing police service, with three options ranging from annual cutbacks of $97,000 to $353,000.
· Reducing the public works staff, with three options ranging from annual cutbacks of $122,000 to $410,000.
· Continuing to defer maintenance of city streets and facilities, responding only to immediately needed repairs; and reducing the frequency of parks mowing, trimming and similar work.
· Eliminating salaries for City Council members, saving $10,000 this fiscal year and $39,000 next year.
· Cutting managerial and staff positions in other departments.
Making all the cuts would reduce the city’s costs by $3.1 million.
Here’s a few ideas:
The city can sell bumper stickers “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted Yes”.
Axe funding for the Chamber’Ocommerce. Make them earn their funding and see if they work harder. Last TV pitch I heard from them was for a travel agency and a web advertising firm. Like that REALLY draws commerce to PG.
That tourist center $100K? Forget it.
Go back and re-visit the property transfer tax – hit the very turkeys that have helped ruin the family setting of the town.
Charge for ‘sign permits’ – $100 a month for open houses and other sidewalk graffiti.
Charge businesses that use the sidewalks as extensions of the store. That’s public property they are serving meals on . . .
Farm out parking enforcement to Monterey. They take no prisoners (or abandoned VWs).
Trim the brass at the PD and FD. Put more in uniform and on the street. Or think about joining forces with the peninsula.
Sewers? Charge the businesses that burden in the system more than the residents.
P.G. Seniors Continue To Be Easy Marks
Might also explain why they vote Democrat . .
One 62-year-old Pacific Grove man, convinced he was paying fees to claim large sums of prize money from sweepstakes, forked over money for about a year, totaling more than $10,000, Uretsky said.
But the sweepstakes notices the man received in the mail, as many as 10 a day, were a sham. There never was a prize. “We’re flabbergasted when we see people fall for these things,” he said. “If it’s too good to be true, it is.”
In the past year, (Pacific Grove police commander Tom)Uretsky said, he’s seen three such cases, where people were conned.
No Car Shows On The Golf Course
A vote to let negotiations start was defeated 3-2, with council members Scott Miller, Lisa Bennett and Susan Nilmeier opposed.
Council members Vicki Stilwell and Alan Cohen were in favor of looking at bringing the Concorso to Pacific Grove. Mayor Dan Cort and Councilman Daniel Davis recused themselves from the discussion because they live next to the golf course.
Wadsworth said he was looking for a more scenic setting for the Concorso, and the ongoing construction at the show site at the Bayonet and Blackhorse golf courses in Seaside was a problem.
About time to put a stop to the selling out of the town. The tourists, weekenders and business owners don’t have to put up with off-topic events like this.
CheckMate Makes People Ill – Even When Spraying Was Canceled
That’s powerful stuff.
In Santa Cruz County’s Environmental Health Department, program manager Jerry Lemoine said his office received a number of health complaints after the spraying. However, he said, they also received a number of complaints on an evening that the planned spraying had been canceled.
“There were a significant number of calls on one evening and the next morning of people reporting they were ill from the spraying, and the spraying didn’t happen that night,” Lemoine said.
CheckMate Makes People Ill – Even When Spraying Was Canceled
DUI Wrecks. Closes Lighthouse Avenue
At least it was at 1 AM and not in the middle of the day.
A 19-year-old Seaside man was arrested on suspicion of felony drunken driving following an accident on Lighthouse curve in Monterey early this morning.
The driver of the Mercedes sedan, identified as Rajiv Pahalad, suffered injuries that required hospitalization, but was arrested by police after his release from the hospital.
Party On! Golf Clubhouse Open For Events
The City Council on Wednesday voted 4-2 to uphold last month’s city Planning Commission decision to allow the clubhouse to expand its operating hours and meal service and add live entertainment.
In addition, the amendment allows the facility to use its tournament room and grill for wedding receptions, service club meetings and other events and provide “non-amplified” music and entertainment.
The tournament room has a capacity of 45, and the restaurant can handle 74 customers, according to City Manager Jim Colangelo.
P.G. Caves To The Tourist ‘Organization’
“You’ve got to pay to play,” said bureau president John McMahon, who added that the bureau has been holding up printing the 2008 tour guide and map to include Pacific Grove if the city joins.
Nancy Grech, owner of the Borg’s Motel at Lovers Point, was the sole protester on forming the Hospitality Improvement District, under which lodging owners would pay an assessment of $1 per occupied paid room per night for full-service lodging and 50 cents per night for limited-service lodging businesses. The money goes to pay for marketing and promotional activities.
“You gotta pay to play, eh?”
Monterey Has $15,000 For A ‘Dog Park’
Monterey’s Dog Park is open for business, thanks to a $15,000 Neighborhood Improvement Program grant and 18 months of lobbying by dog lover and pet boarder Roni Rubinstein.
“Parks and Recreation had it on the books for three years,” Rubinstein said. “There was no opposition — it just needed a site and someone to champion the cause.”
Rubinstein and her rescued cocker spaniel Tara — “she was abandoned at El Estero Park” — started attending Neighborhood Improvement Committee and city Park and Recreation Commission meetings, and toured “a dozen possible sites” for a park where dogs could be allowed to run free and frolic.
Crazy place for a “dog park”. Careful what you dig up there Fido.
