News archives for 1997
(Text format) or
1998 (HTML format) Facts
& Trivia about P.G. Our area code is now officially
831.
The 1990
Census for Pacific Grove The
Pacific Grove City Charter & Municipal Codes
Beat that Pacific
Grove Traffic Ticket! 1999
Butterfly Parade Photos
P.G. City Employee Salaries 1999
Read the PG Beacon
newspaper online :Latest Issue: July 28, 2000 How
to get the City to do things for you
Feast
of Lanterns 1999 Photos or 1999
Display Simulation
The best time to see the butterflies is October-March (Oct. is the
month of our annual butterfly parade). Butterfly count as of November '99:
10-15,000. Summer weather until mid-Sept.: 25 days of fog per month, every
month.
Journey
to the "Butterfly Trees" September 2000
Want to know what's happening in Pacific Grove right now? Try the message
board and ask a question or read those already posted. It's a lot
of fun. It's right here.
Results of our recent P.G. Election Year 2000 Survey is here
(From sandykoffman.com). For the story on the P.G. sewer situation, from
1890's to 2000 refer to: Welcome
to Sewageville
Free P.G. & Nation-wide Phone Searches & Reverse Lookup:
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News:
January 20th. Note, we have blackouts here in Pacific Grove just like the rest of California. The business district is energy Block 05 & most of the residents are Block 01. No plan on what to do from the Mayoress, which is no surprise. We plan to remodel the Local News page soon. The Beacon newspaper was sold & should come out again around late spring.
December 30th. It's been sunny & warm but cold nights (30's) & mornings. We haven't seen the P.G. Beacon or the Coast Weekly newspapers for a couple of weeks. We often get some of our news from these papers. Let's hope all is well for them.
December 14th. Try our strange article: P.G. Million Dollar Real Estate: Dollars for Dumps?
December 10th. Strange political turnings in PG. Before the election, the council & mayor approved a sort of blackmarket selling of our natural resource, water. Close to the election most of them changed their minds & voted against it. Now re-elected, they voted to sell it once again by a majority of 6-1. Mr. Davis was the only council person showing integrity by voting against it.
November 26th. I visited Country Club Gate Shopping Center & there were still about 11 vacant store fronts. On a visit to the American Tin Cannery Shopping Center, I saw about ten vacant store fronts, more than ever before. The most likely reason for the slow economy here is that a large percentage (About 80%) of homes sold are vacation homes. On Short street, of the four homes that I have seen recently sold, I have observed that three are vacant. People who buy vacation homes often shop in their own cities & bring the stuff to P.G. There is a benefit planned Nov. 27th at the Tinnery restaurant for the victim of the recent Recreational Trail stabbing. The stabbing occured in front of the Tinnery.
November 14th. Oh my,
spoke too soon, not all the ballots are in yet & won't be until next
week & there could be a hand recount for Pacific Grove. Thus, we aren't
saying Sandy won yet, whew..
A woman got stabbed on the Recreational Trail in
front of the Tinnery restaurant yesterday. She is alive. Number of Stabbings/Shootings
on the Pacific Grove Recreational Trail in ten years: 3. Number solved
by the local police: 0. Number solved by college students: 1 (Okay, this
one did not happen on the Rec. Trail, but near it & the Asilomar Conference
Center. The famous Taxi case was solved by a group of college students,
believe it or not)
November 8th. PACIFIC GROVE ELECTION RESULTS:
(Red=Maybe Winner)
VOTER REGISTRATION
10197
TURNOUT
7637 74.8%
MAYORAL RACE RESULTS:
SANDRA L. KOFFMAN.......
3770
51.7%
SUSAN M. GOLDBECK.......
3518
48.2%
PACIFIC GROVE CITY COUNCIL FULL TERM RESULTS:
Three seats
DON GASPERSON...........
3815
20.2%
MORRIS G. FISHER........
2881
15.2%
JAMES COSTELLO..........
2647
14.0%
ROGER P. PASQUIER.......
2558
13.5%
ROBERT E. DAVIS.........
2386
12.6%
DANIEL MILLER...........
1781
9.4%
BILL CORCORAN...........
JENNIFER J. BEARDSLEY...
1026
PACIFIC GROVE CITY COUNCIL SHORT TERM RESULTS:
DAN DAVIS...............
4658
100.0%
October 25th. There was another sewage spill (That is two in one week), this time at the Scotch Bakery on Lighthouse. which was flooded with about 200 gallons of raw sewage. It appeared to affect the natural food store next door as both were closed. The raw sewage flooded the store and then drained down Lighthouse to the bay, closing Lover's Point once again.
October 22nd. I saw a live sewage spill yesterday, Saturday at Lover's Point, at the bottom of Forest avenue, near the Grand View Inn. It was quite a sight with the Coast Guard, a few local police officers & a few citizens discussing the situation. A couple hours later the beach was posted with red signs that inform people to stay out of the water. Red Signs indicate that you can be arrested if you go in the water. The local kayak & bike store at the Point closed, skin divers got out of the water & the beach was more or less vacant except for a lone woman reading her book.
The local elections are the hot item. The mayor's seat & three City Council seats are available. We do not endorse Sandy for mayor (To see why, visit: sandykoffman.com) or Fisher for Council (We do not want to black market our water supply ever again!). We need new leadership!
September 26th. Try our new short photo essay: Journey
to the "Butterfly Trees" September 2000
 |
PG gets a new style patrol car. It appears to be a hybrid between a regular PG police car and a Highway Patrol car. Frankly, it appears unnecessary and a waste of the city moneys to get another patrol car. We spend almost one fifth of the budget on the police force. I recall reading the budget a couple years back where they bought a few new patrol cars. No word yet if it has a much needed video camera in it. |
| Construction on the new PG Civic Center begins. There was no
party.
The general consensus seems to be that the citizens wanted a new Civic Center; but that we could not afford it at this time. And that the money should go for the sewer system, senior housing & other infrastructure items. Cost of the Civic Center is around $3M; but may indeed cost more than that if they find a rock formation underneath. |
 |
 |
The new basketball court remodel at Caledonia Park [On Caledonia street [There are two Caledonia streets, one on each side of the park]] is planned. This is going to be a full scale court & must be handicap accessible. Perhaps the National Wheelchair Basketball Assn. can have a tournament there. Cost of this project: about $25,000. |
Remember this 100 year old house from August, '99? It sold and on the right is a picture of it today. The cost of this remodel project is approx. $125,000 |
|
Sept. 18th. A Monarch Butterfly was spotted September
17th at Lover's Point.
From CoastWeekly. com: "This weekend,
1,500 athletes from across the country and the world will plunge into the
frigid ocean off Lovers Point to compete in a 1.5-kilometer swim, the first
leg of the Seagate Triathlon in Pacific Grove. The swimmers will brave
58-degree water, a fierce current, a tangle of kelp, and quite possibly
a swell of waves threatening to crash them against the craggy shoreline.
But that may be the least of their worries. They may also have to battle
an
onslaught of microscopic assailants--fecal coliform
bacteria. ......This year's two big sewer spills off Lovers Point prompted
the Monterey County Health Department to close the beach. Five more times
this year, including last week, the health department posted signs at Lovers
Point warning swimmers of a high bacteria count in the water." Athletes
who swam in Lover's Point may write us Email [Completely private] with
any symtoms they came down with after swimming at Lover's Point.
Write to:
triathlon@pacificgrove.com We'll try to include it in a future
article.
Sept.4th. Summer is here! Nice, warm sunny days. July-August have about 25 days of fog per month; but September is almost all sunshine! 25 of 42 P.G. restaurants (Not all are tested yet) don't meet the grease trap regulations set forth in our city ordnance many years ago. Most have about two weeks to comply. A few alleged examples: Little Red House Cafe, Cypress Grill, Chili Great Chili, Rocky Coast Ice Cream & Allegros Pizza. If the city dumps anymore sewer into the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, they could face still fines, $1M or more. Large clogs in the sewer pipes have been checked & the clog often contain a lot of grease, resulting in the grease trap enforcement by the County of Monterey! It's about time. e.g. We have seen four sewer backups, not for the squeamish, (These occurred on Saturdays, following heavy friday night restaurant traffic) in one house & yard, right next to a restaurant.
August 28th. The Beacon newspaper has been late getting to us for the last few weeks so we have been unable to post it. The Pacific Grove Triathlon (Sold Out: Relay Team, Olympic Distance & Sprint Distance Races. Cash prizes: 1st= $2,000, 2nd=$1,500, 3rd=$1,000, 4th= $800, 5th= $600, 6th= $500,7th= $400, 8th= $300, 9th= $200, 10th=$200) is coming up September 16th at the same time that large storms often arrive which create huge waves (Water Temp: 54 deg) for Lover's Point. See our Surfing page for more examples of how big some of these waves are! This year Lover's Point, where the swimming part of the triathlon is completed, has a lot of seaweed! Plus, there is the possibility of another sewage spill at the Point.
 |
On our Welcome
to Sewageville web site you can see that the sewer/gutter
water pours into Lover's Point only a hundred feet from where the triathlon
swimmers are going to be swimming. The State of California &
the County of Monterey Environmental department may test the water &
declare it unsafe. This has occurred about 7 times already this year.
(Left) 1999, Lover's Point waves are often quite large from Sept.
to May.
|
August 3rd. The Feast [Festival] of Lanterns went as planned. The fireworks display was fogged out & barely visible. The finale was quite small, consisting mostly of 2" flash salutes. Yesterday, Lover's Point was closed due to a 200 gallon sewage spill. This pales in comparison to the recent 70,000 gallon spill. How do they measure the size of a spill? Who knows. It looks like a guess. What city employee would want to stand in front of the drain pipe with a measuring cup to catch the raw sewage to measure the flow rate? P.G.'s new budget allocates less than $70,000 for sewer system repairs, so expect many more spills this fall, winter & spring when the rains come.
July 25th. It's cold (50's-60's) & foggy &
it should be this way through August, expect 25 days of fog per month.
There won't be any more local news updates until after the Feast
(Festival) of Lanterns as it's this dot com staff's favorite day
of summer. The firework show is July 29th at 9pm (Sometimes 8:45pm) but
the pageant is about 8pm depending on if the kids are ready or not, at
the bottom of Forest Avenue. Expect large crowds.
Few parking spaces are available after 7pm, so expect
to walk farther if you come after then. Lighted Lanterns are sold at Lover's
Point in back of the Old Bathhouse restaurant all day. There is a lunch
BBQ on the side of the Old Bathhouse on saturday. It's is going to
be really COLD! Dress warmly. If the fog comes in, as it often does, they
still have the firework show, which is hand lit by the pyrotechnists. Often,
the fireworks explode on the ground so try not to get too close to where
they are launched, which is the bottom of Fountain, next to the sewer pumping
plant.
We still have some hilarious Super 8 film of Captain
Brown in the 70's having a BBQ right next to the fireworks & some flame
from the BBQ hit them & the fireworks were going off & he was jumping
around stepping on them trying to put them out.
July 15th. Last Rocky Coast Shores private lot sells for $4M. City transfers water credits to Tickel property, which is a big dirt lot at the bottom of 19th street. Price of Tickel property to the city of P.G. goes up $125,000 because it now has water rights. Doesn't this sound a bit dumb? Feast of Lanterns is July 29th but there are many events from Friday July 28th to Sunday July 30th. Free. Expect the number of people in P.G. to double. Pageant with fireworks usually starts around 8pm at the bottom of Forest. Fireworks are set for 9pm but they may be as early as 8:45pm or as late as 9:15pm. No candles can be used in lanterns. Tiny flashlights seem to be the new idea this year. Cost of lanterns & flashlight & pole, about $7.00. Or save money & buy from Hallmark on Forest & wood poles from PG Hardware.
July 2nd. Read the PG Beacon newspaper color edition online now!
June 30th. Lover's Point is closed due to high bacterial counts. It should be closed to children year round because of the raccoon roundworm eggs which flow into the point by the millions through the storm gutters.
June 20th, 2000. The new estimated year 2000 P.G. city budget is 18.6 Million dollars with expected revenues of 14.6 Million Dollars. Where is the other $4 Million going to come from?
June 14th. Hot! 8am: 70 deg, 12pm: 90 deg, 5pm: 78deg. Try pgviews.com & 93950.com for interesting PG perspectives.
June 7th. Welcome US Open fans.
P.G. is usually very quiet during golf tournaments. Come on in. Take Highway
1 to Del Monte to P.G. If you take Highway 68 [PG] there may be a lot of
traffic. Lots of restaurants to eat at. Walk on the Recreational Trail
at the bottom of Forest. Keep children out of Lover's Point if you
can. This is because the raccoons have latrines in our sewer pipes which
flush their droppings into the bay, especially at the bottom of Forest,
where most children play. From the newschannel, KSBW: "A new study is fuelling
concerns over
raccoons on the monterey peninsula. Action news has
learned that researchers at San Jose State university found that about
half of all households in carmel and Pacific Grove have raccoon roundworm
eggs in their backyards. The eggs are found in racoon faeces and can be
deadly to humans if ingested you may recall back in 1998 a toddler in pacific
grove was infected by the parasite. And was left with permanent eye and
brain damage. His tragic story highlighted the risk of raccoon roundworm."
May 28th. 48% of the yards & parks tested in P.G. were infected with raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris Procyonis), according to San Jose State University researchers, The American Society of Microbiologists & the Carmel Pine Cone. While the raccoons seem to suffer little or no ill effects of this parasite, the consequences for humans when infected can range from nothing to blindness to death. P.G. council adopts tide pool protection but isn't sure what it means, according to the Carmel Pine Cone.
May 12th. Beaches were posted closed yesterday due to high bacteria counts. Average home prices in Monterey County are 30% higher than 1999; but then they are probably 30% larger sized homes.
May 4th. P.G. is fined $75,000 for one sewer spill.
The city is going to pay from that, $35,000 for a study of how storm gutter
water [Called 'Non-point source pollution'] effects sea otters in Monterey
Bay. The rest of the money is due to be spent for other sewer related projects.
Almost all restaurants in P.G. are going to be required to put in Grease
Traps. The city is also doing a daily cleaning of the sewer pipes at a
reported cost of $1000 per day. Senior Housing is ping-ponging
between the city lot on Laurel (Which has lots of rock bed) & the lot
at the bottom of 19th street (Cost $1.1M, which should or could be paid
for by Cisco if they put in their new facility in San Jose). The
city has decided to let people on the water waiting list buy (For about
$55,000) the commercial water credits from Pebble Beach. This has been
reportedly called 'black marketing' of our precious water supply by a few
people & may be illegal. The State Water Board hasn't issued
us an opinion on this. The PGFD has put in a very nice access ramp.
The Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce building, which is owned by the city,
is still is not handicap accessible. It is a two step rise. Discussion
with COC representatives in 1996 was futile & much anger came from
them at us, but we hope, in our opinion, that the city can work on an access
solution so that the COC can be an Equal Opportunity Employer, allowing
access for all types of workers & the public. Real Estate
is being sold much too rapidly for a real estate web site & our
most active real estate period is this summer! We still have real estate
for sale & it's very pricey compared to our usual market at this time.
It should be more reasonable later this year or if we get a big earthquake
like we did in 1989. If Cisco puts in a training facility in Coyote it
could have a strong effect here & our local city managers would do
well to ask Cisco for money for affordable housing concessions. A lot of
real estate is still being sold as vacation property or to commuters in
the SF Bay area.
April 7th. Another beach in P.B. was closed this week because of high bacteria counts. Old Days begins today, through Sunday, Lighthouse & Forest in P.G. Old Days is the annual migration of street vendors selling mostly kitsch & of course, food at the booths, music & contests. Pine avenue [At Forest] has police motorcycle contests, parades, Etc. It's a great time to vacation if you live in P.G. We are still pressuring the city to get the Fire Department & the Chamber of Commerce buildings, both owned by the city, to be mobility handicap accessible. We believe that people high up in the Chamber of Commerce & the Fire Department shut down this whole web site in 1996 because we talked about this issue & other handicap access issues, on this web site. Let's hope that such oppression doesn't continue.
March 27th. Our new city manager, due in a couple of months comes from Moraga. What is the city of Moraga like? From http://www.ci.moraga.ca.us: "The Town of Moraga is located in Contra Costa County in Northern California, about 18 miles east of San Francisco. We are a semi-rural community of 16,000 residents. Known for excellent schools, rolling hills, great weather and being one of the safest communities in the State, Moraga is the most enjoyable community in which to live in the San Francisco Bay Area. 1999 is the 25th Anniversary of incorporation of the Town..........The Town of Moraga operates under the Council/Manager form of government. The elected Town Council employs the Town Manager who is the chief executive officer. The Town staff is organized into six departments which provide all of the Town services. Organized as a minimum service government, many services are supplied by public utilities, private business, or by contract through the Town.........At this point, the Town of Moraga does not have business licenses. Business licenses are a way for a city or town to obtain revenue. Currently, the Town does not require or issue them. You are permitted to operate a business from your home. However, you should not be able to tell there is a business being operated from the residence. You cannot have clients come to your home or display a sign advertising the business..........Construction -- and its associated noises may take place in Moraga from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. I>
March 25th. More raw sewage spills. One at Spanish Bay (Pebble Beach), which effects Asilomar beach in P.G. and one at the Carmel Lagoon. P.G. is deciding on a City Council member and our new City Manager, coming in a couple of months, is Ross G. Hubbard, who was the City Manager of Moraga. Congratulations Ron! Susan Goldbeck annouces that she is running for Mayor of P.G. in the Beacon newspaper this week.
March 16th. From yahoo.com, Newschannel 46, March 16, 2000:
"Warning signs have once again been posted at Lovers Point beach
in
Pacific Grove this morning. The county health department said samples
taken
from the water showed high levels of bacteria. The beach has been
contaminated in recent months by sewage spills. As well as by bacteria
brought through the storm drains
when it rained. Although the source is not known this time. Swimmers,
Divers and
surfers are being told to avoid going in the water. The contamination
may cause intestinal illness, Ear infections, Etc."
March 11th. P.G. has got about 25 days of rain in 6 weeks. Pushing
the yearly rainfall above 25" [Normal =22"]. This has not effected Phase
three water rationing. M. Knight has resigned from the city council.
It is against policy for the city council to make decisions which financially
benefit their members. The Knights have been involved in trying to get
a water permit for their property on Sunset. There are about 30 people
on the water waiting list and they are about number 26. The idea is to
buy left over water from commercial property owners and give this to people
on the waiting list. This leaves less water for businesses and more for
people on the water waiting list, who may all eventually buy a share of
this water. It all sounds nice on paper but has not been actually implemented
yet. Frankly, I think the Knights already have their share of water
from the cities of P.G. & Monterey with their business, Adventures
by the Sea & their house on Ocean View. But there is no telling how
much water a person can buy if they are persistent enough.
How would you like to make $9,000 per month + big benefits, for
only 8 to 10 days a month at the office? That's about how much money the
Fire Chief's in P.G. make. There may even be an opening soon.
March 7th. The City of Pacific Grove has once again opened a city
web site (Or most of one). This is the third one. The previous ones were
pacificgroveca.com & cityofpg.com
We
refuse to give the URL of the new site, in our opinion, because the
only Business and Tourist link on the
site promotes a business (The Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce) which
is
located in a building which is owned by the City of Pacific Grove (584
Central), in our opinion, which is not handicap accessible (No ramp, no
stair markings, no reply to our letter about having sign language interpreters
for the deaf). We believe that someone high up there has refused to make
it accessible to the handicapped since we asked them to in 1996. Their
idea is it qualifies as mobility accessible because mobility handicapped
people can use the outside information booth in the pouring rain is absurd.
You can write the City of Pacific Grove and ask for the URL. When doing
so, remind them of their duty to make the businesses the city promotes
to be accessible for everyone. The city web site email address is: awlobay@ci.pacific-grove.ca.us
March 2nd. (View the Pacific Grove BEACON newspaper online!) We were just experimenting with this. One version let visually-impaired people read the Beacon online (Text only) & another version was a 100% copy of the Beacon that could be read online (Text & pictures).
February 29th. Extensive documentation on the complete history of P.G. and it's sewage spills & sewer system can be found in our new Welcome to Sewageville web page.
February 9th. Pacific Grove was fined $703,000 ($10 per gallon) by Monterey County for sewage spills into Monterey Bay. Pacific Grove enters Phase Three water rationing. This means you can only use your allocated water amount. Over that you are fined. No word yet from Cal-Am on what our water allocations are.
February 5th. 'Pagrovians eat too many sausages,'
claims one of the public works employees, trying to explain why there
have been four raw sewage spills into Monterey bay from P.G. in as many
months. It appears the grease clogs up the pipes, but this is
under debate. 18 spills was the record for one year, however neither
the city nor the county seem to have any record of this. If you find a
newspaper article testifying to this, back around 1990, let us know. The
city is deciding to now build the new Civic Center over protests of
many of the citizens, who claim it is unnecessary & should be on the
ballot.
January 15th. Pacific Grove has another sewer spill into Lover's
Point. This one topping 70,000 gallons of raw sewage. This is the third
(Possibly more) spill since October '99. The record is 18 spills in one
year, just a few years ago.
 |
The location of this spill (And most of the others on record.) came
from the sewage pumping plant at the bottom of Fountain avenue, next to
the 7 Gables Inn.
(Left) This is a view of Lover's Point from the front door of the 7 Gables Inn (1998). |
If you can read this, Pacific Grove has made it to the year 2000! The City mailed residents plans for Y2K just a couple of days before Jan 1st. But so far, we are here. Anyone, anywhere can take our P.G. Election Year survey. Clink that link above & vote on the survey questions. Only a few of the questions are specific to Pacific Grove.
December 17th. MERRY CHRISTMAS
& HAPPY NEW YEAR ! From Pacific Grove.
Air temperatures 20's to 60's. Frosty.
Next News Update: January 2000.
December 10th. In our opinion, Pacific Grove is not ready for Year 2000. There is no major source of information for the citizens on what to do. Where do we get food, water & money Jan 1st, 2000? What if there is no water, no phone, no gas, no electricity? What if the City gets tons of negligence lawsuits because of their un-readiness? The city employees (Less than 1 % of the people in P.G.) seem to be the major beneficiary of the money for Year 2000 readiness. What about the other 99% of us? In other news, Lover's Point is closed this week due to another sewage spill. E. Coli bacteria has been found in extreme high concentrations in the ocean water. It's also very cold at this time of the year for a few weeks. Nights in the 30's & days in the 60's (After 11 am) are common.
November 14th. pacificgrove.com is still doing very well. As of today, our yearly average is 816,870 hits. The outside temperature varies from sunny 70's to nightly 40's. The Lover's Point Master Task Force redesign is now a $4.5M project. The City of Pacific Grove is still NOT ready for Year 2000. Residents were mailed a 'Letter From the Mayor,' with extensive ads for the American Tin Cannery. There is no mention of which Mayor but it seems to be a paid endorsement by the Koffman's (Mayor) for the American Tin Cannery (Next to the Aquarium). The coupons offer small discounts, 5-20% to selective stores and some special holiday treats. The American Tin Cannery (A large group of name-stores) already offers extensive 20-75% discounts without these coupons.
October 30th. Lover's Point was closed the previous week due to a
large sewage spill that seemed to be coming from a pipe near Caledonia
Park. Large waves, reported by many news organizations to be
around 18-27 feet, but actually about 10-17 feet, hit Pacific Grove this
week, sweeping a 23 year old newlywed bride off the rocks at Lover's Point.
The Pacific Grove Police Department and the Pacific Grove Fire and
Rescue were at the Point to tell people to stay off the rocks but left
for some unknown reason just 1.5 hours before the woman was swept from
the rocks. She was pronounced DOA at the hospital.
October 17th. According to our server logs, of yesterday, pacificgrove.com is approaching 1 million hits per year [959,950]! Many thanks to all those who visit. Today is the tenth anniversary of the Loma Prieta quake hitting Pacific Grove at 5:04pm. It was a real shaker. Note: January 1st, 2000 is a holiday. Make sure you check that any stores are open that day.
October16th. Surfing Lover's Point yesterday, I spotted Monarch butterfly
coming in over the ocean. Therefore, to answer the many inquiries, yes,
the butterflies are here now.
Disabled people in P.G. are planning a big protest at the Grove
Homescapes Night for Honoring Local Artists this month. The protest is
over lack of access for the disabled at the Grove Homescapes. The Grove
Homescapes has not made their building accessible and they claim they don't
have to, but several independent evaluators have inspected the Grove Homescapes
and they are all of the conclusion that it must be made accessible. Someone,
it's still not known who, told the Grove that they did not need to make
it accessible in 1996 when they first opened. Alleged claims that it was
a certain Tony L..... have yet to be proven. That person was given another
position in the city recently. Our local citizen Lisa, along with
her friend Pat, are attempting to get a simple curb cut done in order to
gain simple access to a local bus stop. As usual, the city is complicating
the matter. $1,400 buys a new curb accessible for the disabled, but
even something like that is bogged down in paperwork. Council person Steven
Honegger allegedly snickered at one of these handicapped persons, asking
for the curb cut, during a city council meeting. Tsk, Steven, I thought
much better of you. Ironically, multiple pay raises for severly-able city
employees are rapidly put through & approved.
October 15th. The City of Pacific Grove is not ready
for the year 2000! In a letter we obtained from Tony Lobay,
P.G. Special Projects Director, the following facts are clear:
1. Computer hardware [Which & where is not clear] that is not Year
2000 ready has been changed. 2. The software for these computers is not
Y2K ready & it is not known how much the correct software would cost.
3. The new electrical generator to power the city services is not going
to be in until mid-December. 4. The two page report does not mention things
like: phone services, water, gas & electricity, being able to get food
from Lucky's or Safeway, banks, money, city employee payments, handicap
assistance or what to do & where to go to get city services.
Further information may be at the new city web site [Not to be confused
with this site] when it is completed, but even that web site costs has
not been estimated nor approved of .
The Pacific Grove Butterfly Parade pictures are HERE!
29 beautiful images by our local photographer David Palmer. Includes
a thumbnail index & easy to view database.
The parade was October 2nd, from/to Robert Down School on Pine Street
in Pacific Grove.
There was a large fun bazaar afterwards.
The Pacific Grove Year 2000 portrait at Lover's Point took place
on Saturday, September 25. An expected crowd of 4000 of PG's 16,500 citizens
was expected. We noted about
1000-1500. Anyone from ANY city could be in the photograph so it is
not known just
how many were really from PG. Some photos of the crowd are HERE.
We may be
able to post future photos as they come in. Note, the photo took place
at high tide, which caught many people unexpectedly. For some reason the
city incorrectly called this the new millennium portrait. Perhaps
the new Special Projects Director, who's job it is to make PG Year 2000
ready, did not inform them about the right words to use?
September 20th. The Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce changes their web site. For about two years we saw on their web page, a sign, 'Under Construction,' but it has been completely redesigned and now displays, for some very odd reason, many Monterey businesses, the old PG area code for PG businesses and for some pages, a message of: "Due to malformed syntax, the request could not be understood by the server. The client should not repeat the request without modifications." We wish them much luck with their web site in the future.
The 1999 P.G. Triathlon entry & results list is here: http://www.tricalifornia.com/pgtri/99/index.htm
August 31st. Did you know as of August 29th that this web site has
an 'Average successful requests per day of 1,969' as per our server
report? Summer is just about out. This is the best time to come
visit, the tourists have left, the sun comes out, the price of real estate
drops quite a bit & there are more rentals. As for real estate, about
6 houses sold from July 11th to August 11th. Priced about $244,000
to $580,000. From early July to late August seemed to be pretty dismal
for the business section with these businesses closing:
Front Row Center Antiques, Season's [Bed & Bath], Pacific Rim
Cycling [Bicycle],
R. Purdy Studio, and the In-Line Skate shop. The
Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce seems to be pretty quiet on this. The
Chamber web site has been 'Currently Under Construction,' and the
information on it is very out-of-date for several years now, so we hesitate
to mention the URL for it until they can get there act together and start
promoting Pacific Grove business on the web properly.
The only funny thing is the constant salary raises given to P.G.
City employees. The way the raises appear to work is that one low level
employee gets a raise in one department and then the higher-ups decide
that they must make so much more money than those lower than them so they
vote themselves a salary raise. Each employee gets about $610.00 a month,
plus 10% of the base salary in cash for medical benefits.
Add this to their already large salaries and you get about 84% of the city
funds going to pay just for employee salaries [Carmel on the other hand,
pays about 52%]. Pacific Grove knows very well that the City is way
behind in ADA [Americans with Disability Act] access. Look for a possible
lawsuit to appear soon attempting to change this.
August 16th. Visit www.montereycountyfair.com for details on the county fair, it's August 17th-22. The City decides not to auction two houses and instead sells them for $1000 each along with water permits. This happened because only one person qualified to buy them. However, this seems unfair as there seemed to be no public notice of qualification. Yet another city employee salary raise goes through. Plans for the new Civic Center in back of the police station are coming along.Local Americans with Disability enforcement appears to be getting more strict as plans to possibly revoke the operating permit for the Media Room for no ADA access loom on the horizon. Cypress Restaurant at 663 Lighthouse adds a 'Sports Bar.' This is about ten seats on a bar with a satellite equipped television for sports. For some reason, the owners did not make the bar handicap accessible, but easily could have. In our opinion, this stinks; but we hope to ask them why they did not make the bar accessible. Seasons, a bed and bath shop is about to close. Pacific Rim Cycling is also about to close. Big sales are going on at these two stores.
August 8th. We present an example of the frightening price of P.G.
real estate.
380 sqft., 1 bedroom, 1 bath, mudsill foundation, just listed at
$325,000:
July 27th. 55 beautiful images of the Feast (Festival) of Lanterns
'99 are right here for
your enjoyment. Photos thanks to David Palmer.
July 23rd. The Feast [Festival]
of Lanterns begins! Including a
pageant Saturday 8pm at Lover's Point. Including a pyrotechnic display
around 8:45pm-9:15pm at Lover's Point [The time depends on whether
the play goes on time. In 1998, the princess was a bit late getting picked
up by her suitor because he forgot to come around to get her]. Candles
are NOT allowed this year.
Visit our new World-Wide Java chat room at www.pacificgrove.com/chat
It's connected to cities around the world. Log in with any name you
like, if n>
July 3rd. Happy 4th >
June 14th. We have major winds & major fog & major cold. Now and then a bit of sunshine shows through. The City is attempting to grant $25,000 for low income housing assistance. A remodeling of Lover's Point is in the planning stages with public input welcome, but no funding yet. Suggestions are a children's play area on the lawn>
May 25th. A list of some of the City Employee hourly salaries is posted here. Pardon the weird formatting of our OCR program.
May 23rd. P.G. gets an incubator business at 222 Forest Ave. An incubator
business is a business with several offices but a common secretary. Healing
Collaborative is the name of the business and it's a group of 'naturalistic'
style treatments [Massages, Etc].
Adventures By The Sea at Lover's Point, fiscal year rent to P.G.
[10% of the yearly rentals]:
1996/97
$4,907
1997/98
$4,847
1998/99 to date $3,936
This business has a year round sign in front that always says, 'OPEN.'
Yet they seem to be open less than 150 days of the year. The rent they
pay is based on a portion of their rentals.
Thus, there is not much incentive to stay open. The Grill
at Lover's Point, right next to ABTS, is open all year round, except for
the most rainiest days. ABTS makes around $50,000 per year using
that location.
The Mansionization of Pacific Grove is still happening. What is
it? It's when people buy a house in Pacific Grove and 'remodel' it into
huge 2000sqft. + houses without regard for the environment or city character.
Quite a few can be found on Asilomar blvd. One of the city council members,
who is also involved with Adventures By The Sea, may be 'remodeling' in
order to construct such an enourmous house. 'Remodeling' isn't well defined
in Pacific Grove.
The Pacific Grove Inn decided they don't want the MST bus stop in
front of their Inn. However, the MST people said there were 30 public meetings
on this issue and they don't feel that the Inn has any recourse for modification.
The MST bus is rerouting. Why don't they reroute it to Crocker [The
mayor's street] and up Pico [A city council/bus executive residence location]
instead?
April 29th. Country Inn Cookies, how do they taste? Green Gables Inn, of Pacific Grove has recently advertised on television their cookies, Country Inns Cookies. How do they taste? We can't find any in the local stores just yet, but everyone