Nice Kitty… Oh, Darryl, when will you ever learn! Seaside voters ousted the long-time city councilman last year, perhaps because they were tired of Darryl Choates’ bluster and bullying antics – like threatening future pay and benefits of two Seaside cops because they did not endorse his reelection. So despite the fact that Seaside voters didn’t want him, Choates seems determined to ride his dead cousin’s coattails into office. (Choates, cousin of the late Monterey County supervisor Jerry Smith, recently announced he would apply for the vacancy on the Board of Supervisors.) Being related to a politician does not a good politician make, and Squid finds Choates’ constant cousin-of-Jerry-Smith namedropping distasteful, not to mention his choice words describing the two candidates already in the running for the seat, Marina Mayor Ila Mettee-McCutchon and Jane Parker, who narrowly lost the seat to Smith in 2004. “I don’t want this to turn into a catfight,” Choates told The Herald.

Squid can imagine the internal dialogue leading up to Choates’ decision: “Two women running for office? The claws are going to come out, for sure! Good thing they’ve both got short hair.” Because, obviously, if females are silly enough to seek the District 4 seat, a catfight will ensue.

Squid hopes the real campaigning for the June 2008 District 4 election is as exciting. Mee-ow!

Unaffordable By Design… Squid doesn’t understand the logic of offering affordable housing that most people can’t afford. The Design Center in Sand City charges $1,337 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,505 for two bedrooms for people who fall into the so-called “moderate” income category. The apartments, technically, are affordable. Yet, this cephalopod could find a two-bedroom flat in Marina for two-thirds as much as the Sand City one-bedroom apartment.

Marina resident Sarah Schupbach calls the affordable housing a scam. Schupbach had hoped to rent one of the apartments. But since she makes too much to qualify for the lower-income rate, she says she’d have to pay 40 percent of her paycheck to live there. “Being a single person with no one to live with, I am essentially shut out of this program,” Schupbach says.

The Design Center’s rents don’t violate its housing agreement with Sand City, but the developer is charging the most it can for the moderate-income units. According to the agreement, household size is equal to the total number of bedrooms, plus one. So although Squid is one penny-earning sea creature, Squid counts for two incomes when renting from the Design Center. So Squid will have to find a mate to afford the apartment. A view of a cement plant and the Costco parking lot is not worth it.