THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD… Sitting among the admirably civic-minded codgers at the PG BUDGET MEETING last week, Squid noticed a peculiar pattern: A series of PowerPoint graphs repeatedly showed Carmel ranking above Monterey, Monterey outranking Pacific Grove, and PG topping Seaside. That same pattern held for the per-capita number of cops and city staffers, city spending and tax revenue per resident, even the hotel tax per resident.

Squid sensed a certain degree of snootiness. The implication seemed to be that if the city budget slides any deeper into its fiscal quicksand, PG could end up looking less like its wealthy neighbors and (horrors!) more like Seaside.

Squid even overheard a lady tell a companion: “If you want to live here, you’ve got to have money.”

But then, some Pagrovians are less worried about looking like Seaside than looking like Carmel.

As City Manager JIM COLANGELO suggested, cash-strapped PG could make loads of money—without raising taxes or cutting services—if it would just pimp itself out to tourists more, then tax the hell out of ‘em. While chi-chi Carmel rakes in nearly a thousand bucks per resident on hotel taxes, Monterey takes just $380, and lil’ PG gets only $214.

But Colangelo’s not sure that Pagrovians want to go the way of their tourist-courting neighbors. “Those places have lost a lot of their charm,” he said later, “but they made that decision in order to fund their services.”

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT… The upside of GLOBAL WARMING: Squid’s own Monterey Bay gets more like the cushy South Pacific all the time.

The downside: Well, AL GORE did a pretty good job explaining it, so Squid’s not going to waste any precious ink on these pages. But, if Squid’s readers missed the film in theaters, they may be able to catch it on campus before the week’s out.

Between Jan. 29 and Feb. 2, students from some 575 colleges and high schools all over the US and Canada have scheduled screenings of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, organized rallies and educational forums, and urged campus administrators to enact clean energy policies. The weeklong events are part of the CAMPUS CLIMATE CHALLENGE, which bills itself as the largest youth mobilization on global warming.  

According to the climatechallenge.org, CSUMB’S ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE planned an event for sometime between Jan. 29 and Feb. 2—a happy sight that made Squid’s tentacles curl with joy. But there are no further details online, other than the fact that TRISTAN is the organizer. Now Squid’s bubbling hot Squidself. But it may not be too late to attend some type of event. E-mail Tristan at Tristan_Mansson-Perrone@csumb.edu.