Fish Out of Water
Cal Am admits it’ll miss the state’s deadline on Carmel River cutbacks.
We’re not gonna make it. That’s the message of a January letter from the president of California American Water Co. to the chair of the State Water Resources Control Board. Even in the rosiest of ...
Cooking for Solutions 2013 – Fish are Jumping
Seafood Watch updates keep eco-savvy consumers, chefs on their toes.
I never really thought of myself as the sea-snail-eating type. But the Monterey Bay red abalone appetizer at the C Restaurant & Bar is tender and perfectly chewy, its ocean essence counterbalanced by earthy black ...
When Zombies Attack
Big Sur survivalist Tyson Curtis will be ready.
To prevent zombies from devouring his flesh, Tyson Curtis eats things that can’t taste much better, like fox meat, foraged thistle and acorn flour. To survive in a world where the undead can smell humans ...
Study of P.G.’s CalPERS initiative returns to the council this week.
Pacific Grove officials are hoping for a legal escape hatch from a citizens’ ballot initiative they fear could cost the city millions. The initiative seeks to void a 2002 City Council decision approving “3-percent-at-50” pension ...
Tunnel Vision
Proposed pipeline between two South County reservoirs could supply the Peninsula.
Lake Nacimiento, nicknamed “the dragon” because of its shape, isn’t deep enough to hold all the water that flows into it. Water officials are now beginning to see that as an opportunity. Nacimiento fills up ...
San Clemente Dam removal keeps to schedule, despite route change.
Construction traffic for the San Clemente Dam removal is now re-routed to completely avoid Cachagua roads. Despite earlier concerns that the change would delay the long-planned project, officials say it’s still on schedule to begin ...
Make It Rain
Water district offers DeepWater Desal $1 million to move forward.
Public gifts to private seawater desalination proposals seem to be a spring trend. Even as it backs the Peninsula mayors’ proposal to give $100 million to California American Water’s desal proposal, the Monterey Peninsula Water ...
Starting Gun
Enviro petition challenges Fort Ord’s biggest proposed development
Carlos Ramos kicked off public comment at the Aug. 4 Seaside City Council meeting with a jolt. “I have in my hands a declaration of war,” he said. “And it’s entitled, ‘Petition to Protect Fort ...
Reef Madness
Elkhorn Slough researchers experiment with oyster condos to restore native species.
The gaper and butter clam shells discarded by feasting sea otters could be considered raw material for boho jewelry. But the clam-shell necklaces strung up around the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve aren’t for ...
Free Drinks
Peninsula mayors offer $100 million toward desal project; Cal Am resists.
Before posting videos of his toddler son, Sebastian, at the Giants game, Carmel Mayor Jason Burnett tweeted about the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) hearing in San Francisco last week. “CalAm tying itself in knots ...
HOME AND GARDEN 2013 - Living Small
Creative storage ideas helps maximize even the most modest square footage.
Jenny McAdams answers the door to her Seaside home with her 5-month-old, Max, strapped to her chest. The baby is as mellow and cheerful as his mom; the Ergo carrier even matches her sweater. They ...
HOME AND GARDEN 2013 - The Smother Effect
Sheet mulching is a cheap and easy method of eco-friendly weed murder.
The vision: a sweet little plot of drought-tolerant lawn for my kid to play on. The reality: 320 square feet of stinging nettle dominating what was supposed to be a carpet of freshly seeded blue ...
Supply and Demand
Low real-estate inventory, booming demand push Monterey County home prices up.
Meghan Springer put her Seaside home on the market just to see what it would fetch. She and her husband had owned the Vallejo Street house for only two years, and in that time they’d ...
Pharm Runoff
Carmel River Watershed Conservancy revives drug take-back program.
Michael Waxer was literally left holding the bag: dozens of pharmaceuticals left behind after his mother passed away last year. “The amount of medications a person is on – it was just a realization,” he ...
Tough Crowd
Pacific Grove leaders face crotchety reception to public-safety reform.
It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t when it comes to the city of Pacific Grove’s efforts at pension reform. In the latest chapter, officials are looking to outsource police services while brokering ...
Big Sur nonprofit looks to cut big chunks of change from fallen redwood.
Mike Scutari was making breakfast on Dec. 2 when he heard a loud crack. He discovered the old leaning redwood tree on Henry Miller Memorial Library’s front lawn – the one they call “Henry’s Erection” ...
Green and Platinum
The Weekly’s intrepid pursuit of top LEED certification.
We knew something was up right around the time Weekly Founder and CEO Bradley Zeve had the building painted periwinkle, red and yellow. (Weekly staff described that yellow as “duck-egg yolk,” “spicy mustard” and “subcutaneous ...
Nuclear Tuna
Traces of Fukushima radiation help scientists track Pacific bluefin migration.
Pacific bluefin tuna that swam off the Japanese coast after the 2011 nuclear meltdown carry radioactive memorabilia of the Fukushima disaster. That’s the splashy news out of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove. ...
Get Your Goat
The globally popular meat is most easily found at local taquerias, in a peppery Jaliscan stew called birria.
Goat is a starring meat in all sorts of colorful and spice-loving cuisines, including Indian, Middle Eastern, North African, Mediterranean, Korean, South American, Mexican and Caribbean. So why is it so hard to find on ...
Sun Harvest
Major solar farm proposed for southeast county ag land.
The eastern rim of the Chalome Valley may be more familiar to cattle than to humans. The flat expanse of dry grassland – right at the desolate nexus of Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Kings and ...
Reusable Law
Pacific Grove prepares to follow Monterey and Carmel with plastic-bag ban.
The city of Monterey’s plastic-bag ban kicked in last July, and Carmel-by-the-Sea’s followed Feb. 3. Now the city of Pacific Grove is considering a move away from single-use plastic grocery bags, too. An introduction of ...
Parking Motion
After eight years in limbo, Palo Corona Regional Park may finally get its parking lot.
Palo Corona Regional Park contains 4,526 of the most scenic public acres in coastal Monterey County. But they’re also among the least visited. A group making the 2.6-mile round trip from Highway 1 to Inspiration ...
Dune Buggin’
Developer’s request for no-trespassing signs raises question of public beach access.
Ed Ghandour’s 39-acre, beachfront Sand City property consists mostly of the pitted remnants of an old sand mine. It also includes the dune known to locals as “Scribble Hill” – a de facto billboard facing ...
The Big Gamble
Racetrack developers hope economic gains override environmental losses.
A fresh-faced CSU-Monterey Bay student takes a flight from Monterey to Los Angeles, then a train to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club near San Diego, where he’s dazzled by a horse-racing wonderland. We see a ...
Cinematic Drama
Developers hold Marina projects hostage to obscure Fort Ord fee language.
B reak out the popcorn, but don’t expect Oscar-worthy entertainment. This drama won’t play out at the planned 10-screen movie theater in The Dunes shopping center in Marina, but rather before the Fort Ord Reuse ...
Stop and Go
With federal funding in limbo, Monterey-Salinas Transit remaps its route into a bumpy future.
A lit-up arrow directs traffic around a trench in the concrete in front of Turtle Bay Taqueria on Seaside’s Fremont Boulevard. The construction is for Monterey-Salinas Transit’s “Jazz” line to Cannery Row, but it was ...
Law-Enforcement Boundaries Blur
Seaside, Pacific Grove consider more shared police services.
They’ve got to hop across Monterey to reach one another, but the cities of Pacific Grove and Seaside are looking to further merge their public safety departments. The cities already share a police chief, and ...
Hole in the Bucket
Cal Am doesn’t squeeze all it could out of aquifer storage and recovery.
De-salting seawater is one of the most expensive ways to supply the Monterey Peninsula. According to California American Water estimates, its proposed regional desal plant would produce water at more than $5,000 per acre-foot. The ...
Winning Wager
Monterey Downs developer had a hand in approving new Salinas off-track betting bar.
Horse gamblers may soon have a new hang in Salinas. The Triple Crown OTB & Sports Bar – short for off-track betting – is poised to open in a former card room at the Bankers ...
HEALTH & FITNESS 2013 - Going with the Gut
Local naturopath promotes a GAPS diet based on fermented vegetables, homemade yogurt and gobs of animal fat.
The severed turkey feet, with their thick toenails and mud-caked pads, are the stuff of an amateur horror flick – especially for a recovering vegetarian. But I’m determined to make my first homemade foot broth ...
Monumental Asset
Activists push Seaside to start marketing Fort Ord National Monument to tourists.
The most likely access point from the city of Seaside to the newly minted Fort Ord National Monument is a dead-end road. There’s no visitor center, no parking, no bathrooms – not even any signs, ...
Monterey County Gives! raises more than $750,000 for local nonprofits.
Ninety-six local nonprofits planted the seeds of their charitable projects, and Monterey County residents dug deep to help them grow. The 2012 Monterey County Gives! campaign raised $750,669, according to the latest available count. (More ...
Plastic Loopholes
Even after citywide ban, plastic bags are trashed at the Monterey mall.
At the Del Monte Center mall in Monterey, reusable bags seem to be the latest fashion trend. A look around during the height of holiday season reveals more cloth and woven totes, and far fewer ...
Nader Nah-gua
P.G. developer nails eight-figure payout for stake in desal proposal, commercial park.
At the Dec. 19 P.G. City Council meeting, Don Lew announced his private-equity investment firm, Concord-based JDL Development, is taking immediate control of Agha’s desalination plant proposal and other assets at Agha’s Moss Landing Commercial ...
Sour Milk
Former teacher alleges school district didn’t provide breast-pumping privacy.
A local woman’s lawsuit against the Carmel Unified School District is getting national attention as it explores working mothers’ rights. Sarah Boyle sued the district on Oct. 30, alleging administrators didn’t provide the accommodations she ...
Coast Control
Seaside finally takes charge of its own near-shore development.
Seaside’s coastal zone is pretty spindly, as they come, and without many parcels that can be developed. But city officials are proud to finally be wrapping up a modernized blueprint of how that land will ...
Buyback Blowup
Whole Foods shuts down Del Monte Center recycling station; city cries foul.
The recycling buyback station behind the Whole Foods in Monterey’s Del Monte Center is gone, to the delight of mall execs and dismay of city staff. Before the closure, people could weigh their recyclables at ...
Surf’s Uppity
Ventana tourist package pisses off Big Sur waveriders.
In Big Sur’s surfing culture, respect is earned by time on the water. So one hotel’s effort to attract surfing tourism has the tight-knit community snapping. Ventana Inn & Spa in Big Sur has partnered ...
Payback Time
Obscure Seaside Watermaster board vote makes desal plant bigger
Monterey County already has enough water agencies to drown in. Each one is neck-deep in legal and technical issues few can understand, but many pay for. Last week, the most under-the-radar water agency of all ...
Overtaking the Cake
Parker-Lusseau yule logs are an indulgent holiday tradition.
Yann Lusseau plunges a lean forearm into a 40-quart stainless-steel bowl and whirls a thick pool of fresh custard, melted chocolate and whipped cream. The motion is as artistic as it is athletic: Decadent brown ...
Sharing the Road
TAMC pedals forward with Peninsula bike-sharing service; bike shops balk.
You may have heard of “carsharing”: a service like Zipcar that lets members pick up a vehicle from an automated station, use it for a few hours, then return it. It’s a short-term, self-service rental. ...
Chemical Cooties
Study finds high formaldehyde levels in Monterey County child-care facilities.
Kids in daycare use their imaginations to come up with all sorts of dangerous things. They might draw pictures of monsters or pretend the floor is hot lava. But one real danger in child-care facilities ...
Party with Pluck
A community turkey slaughter brings us nose-to-snood with Thanksgiving dinner.
On the last morning of their last day on Earth, the turkeys Jamie Collins raised from poults to fat adults gather under the low-hanging branches of a towering Mexicali avocado tree. They coo and warble, ...
On the Hunt
Controversial wildlife photographer tracks potential archaeological treasures.
The rocks at Carmel River State Beach are a bit like cumulus clouds: Lighting, angle and imagination can reveal different pictures in their shapes. But Pacific Grove-based wildlife photographer Ivan Eberle thinks one particular hunk ...
Gas Gaming
Power plants, natural-gas extraction ops prep for California’s new carbon market.
Despite the groaning from big polluters, California’s first carbon auction kicked off Nov. 14, launching a cap-and-trade program second in scale only to the European Union’s. The auction, open to major greenhouse gas emitters such ...
Taxing Times
Salinas, Carmel pass sales tax measures, while Pagrovians just say no to Measure F.
The Texas developer who proposed a seven-story hotel on Pacific Grove’s Holman Block will have to rethink his plans. Measure F, which would have raised the building height cap to accommodate the proposal, took a ...
Sweeps, Stakes
Monterey Peninsula races create dramatic new city council dynamics.
The aisle was so crowded with Marina liberals, the servers at Mountain Mike’s had a hard time muscling through pizzas. When Councilman David Brown stood up with a poster board of election results, he could ...
Liquid Borders
Lawyers tussle over the role of the Peninsula mayors’ authority in the desal mess.
The fledgling Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority further crowded the alphabet soup of water agencies in Monterey County when it signed a joint powers agreement in February. Now, one lawyer is suggesting there are too ...
Danglers in the Dark
Pinnacles National Monument has a Day of the Dead message: Don’t spook the bats.
I’ve mostly known Pinnacles National Monument in the dry-sauna daylight of spring, with the sun glowing fuchsia and tangerine on the spires while I sweat up the High Peaks Trail. I once saw a condor ...
Backup Plans
Central Coast Veterans’ Cemetery is likely to be funded without Monterey Downs.
Fort Ord conservationists and veterans are publicly sparring over the proposed sale of a tree-studded Fort Ord parcel to fund a long-awaited Central Coast Veterans Cemetery. But that debate may be a red herring. Most ...
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