NO “URBAN GHETTO”

Contrary to its opponents’ “city” claims, Measure G is all about subdivisions in Carmel Valley. The Board of Supervisors majority long ago traded responsible planning decisions for political favors. In the last 15 years, every CV subdivision application has been approved, in spite of all the regulatory restrictions already on the books. By default, Measure G is a referendum on the Rancho Cañada Village subdivision. To vote Yes on G is to halt Rancho Cañada; to vote No (as the “No City” proponents hope) is to approve and build Rancho Cañada. Simultaneously, a No vote green-lights a slew of new urban-sprawl subdivisions waiting in line for the CV subdivision moratorium to be lifted, which, like Rancho Cañada itself, is explicit/implicit in the county’s GPU5 update that the other supervisors are drooling for. Developer Alan Williams persuaded Clint Eastwood to bankroll his plan to subdivide 10 lots of record – of typical CV size – into a 300-residence, low-income urban ghetto on the flood plain next to Carmel Middle School. Those who want the county to continue approving urban sprawl in Carmel Valley will join Bob Sinotte and his followers in voting No on G. Otherwise, the only alternative, and one-time opportunity, is Yes on G.

WHY NOT THE BEST?

While watching Ken Burns’ splendid TV series, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, I thought of Carmel’s parks – they WERE Carmel’s Best Idea – now, sadly, deteriorating.

Carmel beach’s sparkling white sand, once Carmel’s glory, is now tattletale gray.The very wellworn beachwalk needs a drastic makeover – fast. But their worst “beach management” was the hatchet job on those magnificent Monterey cypresses. They now look like embarrassed palms. Then, there’s Rio Park by the Carmel River – a perfect spot for birding, picnics, tot lot, community vegetable garden. The city’s Best Idea was to turn it into a gritty construction/corporation yard.

The 35 acres of Mission Trail Nature Preserve, originally typical of Carmel’s early greenwoods, are now smothered in aggressive non-native plants. Some grow 30 feet up the poor gasping trees. Trails are eroded. Except for a few benches, amenities are nonexistent. The city now wants to sell Flanders Mansion, including 1.25 acres of parkland; that would create a private in-holding completely surrounded by parkland. Bad idea.

Ken Burns!Can you help?He’s kinda busy, but Carmel voters can help by voting “NO” on Measure I. That would be a step towards preserving Carmel’s precious parklands.

GOOSE COOKED?

After dropping my son off at Monterey Sports Center, I took a walk around Lake Estero. My son and I have been very proud of the habitat for local and migrating wildlife. I was very upset to discover that the city pays for a dog to chase and harass the birds at Lake Estero. I noticed that almost all birds, Canadian Geese, other geese, ducks, coots, great blue herons, egrets and cormorants, were missing from the lake. I wish my fellow species was as noble as the Canada goose, who endures long migrations, great hardships, mates for life and will not leave an injured partner, even though its own life is endangered.