TREE TAGGERS… Squid once had a neighbor who got his environmental rocks off by slapping “SUVs Heart Terrorist Oil” bumper stickers on parked gas-guzzlers. A sympathetic cause, yes, but Squid doubts any weary working parents were jolted into political awareness by it. There’s a lesson there for whoever has been vandalizing Fort Ord in an apparent effort to protest the planned Eastside Parkway.


Someone painted “Eastside Parkway” on Gigling Road and made construction-style markings (including red X’s on trees) to suggest digging and tree-cutting was imminent, says Stan Cook of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority. In reality, he says, the parkway’s path hasn’t been finalized. And about a month ago, when PG&E’s forester marked trees to be pruned and cut in the easement under a high-power transmission line through Fort Ord, someone marked more trees in matching blue paint, forcing PG&E to start over.


Cook doesn’t know who the culprit is, and he didn’t file a police report. But the thoroughfare has its enemies, as evidenced by the “Say No To Eastside Parkway At Fort Ord” Facebook page.


To whoever hit the trails with a spray can, Squid suggests re-routing that eco-aggression to www.urban75.com/Mag/hopper, where a happy bouncing blob destroys planet-fouling cars. You know, for the times when old civic engagement doesn’t do it.


FAST CARS… Speaking of rides, Squid was feeling pangs of longing after Car Week tapered off. But then the mayoral race in Carmel started revving up (eight months before the election). 


First came other fun fireworks. At the Sept. 13 council meeting, Councilman Jason Burnett tried to stay friends with everyone by abstaining from a vote on a fire department merger and increasingly on-edge Mayor Sue McCloud screeched at her childhood babysitter and former mayoral candidate rival, Barbara Livingston, ordering the Carmel Residents Association prez-turned-heckler to, well, stop heckling. 


Sotheby’s realtor-cum-mayoral-candidate Adam Moniz is confident he’ll ride to victory, which has other would-be candidates – namely restaurateur Rich Pepe – trying to shmooze him. Moniz accepted Pepe’s invitation to coffee, on the condition Pepe offer him a ride in his Ferrari. 


Pepe got into the race at the behest of the Monterey County Republican Party, and is meeting with Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue and Monterey Mayor Chuck Della Sala for advice, and traveling home to Jersey to meet with mayors there. He plans to solicit campaign tips from Moniz. Improbable as that sounds, at least the friendly rivals can ride around Carmel like Thelma and Louise. Only this time, it’s Pepe and Moniz.