MR. PARTY…Party invitations are cool. Squid’s gotten quite a few for the holiday season. And Squid will even make brief, albeit meaningful, appearances at a few holiday parties. Sadly, though, one invitation is notably absent. Squid has yet to be invited by the Salinas City Council to sit in on any of the community meetings that city leaders, pre-election, promised would take place, so that residents could collectively decide how to spend the $11 million that will be raised over the next 10 years by Measure V.

Squid isn’t a complete tangled mess over it just yet. The promised meetings are proposed to begin in a coupla months, and the city won’t see a blessed cent until bathing-suit season. But Squid can’t help but get a little knotted up when it looks like some fellow Squidizens seem to already know how the money is going to be spent. Already, organizations like the Friends of the Salinas Public Library (FOSPL) are running to the mic during council meetings saying things like: “Make no mistake: the Library saved the City. And it’s time for the Library to start getting the funding it deserves and has earned…”

Squid hears from reliable tipsters that behind-the-scenes decisions have already been made for splitting the money up among pet programs and services.

Squid wants to trust that city leaders meant it when they promised Salinas residents would get to pick to whom/what/where the Measure V money would go. Besides, Squid’s got ideas of Squid’s own about how the money should be spent—beginning with some new street signs honoring one of the first and best champions of the Measure V wars: Squid Row.

MR. GRINCH…Squid’s got Squid’s beady eyes on a new camera (underwater, or course) for Christmas, so Squid’s trying really, really hard to be good…But it’s not working out. Snarkiness comes so much easier to Squid than kindness.

So Squid’s going to spew a little ink, over in the direction of 2030 North Fremont St., and Monterey Bay Travelodge owner Kilsoo Seo. Ah, why not, and the North Fremont Business District while Squid’s at it.

Last year, after Seo froze hotel housekeepers’ wages and axed their health insurance, the Biz District named Seo and the Travelodge as the winner of the third annual North Fremont Business District holiday decorating contest. And now, a year later, the Travelodge has won the annual contest yet again. Ebenezer Scrooge would be so proud.

“On their way to the new fairgrounds ice rink, Squid’s readers may be wondering why those loud picketers are still marching and chanting in front of the Monterey Bay Travelodge 17 months after they first appeared,” snipes a similarly sarcastic FOS (friend of Squid). “Turns out paying housekeepers only $8.84 per hour and eliminating their health insurance saves money for a much higher purpose: pretty holiday lights and a shiny new award. It’s certainly sweet of him [Seo] to sacrifice his employees’ livelihoods, so that down here on the Monterey Peninsula we might enjoy the true meaning—err—seeing of Christmas.”

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