12 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY april 13-19, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com Dozens of women wear helmets, knee pads and skates, training for their next game. These members of Monterey Bay Roller Derby spend two nights a week at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. The MBRD (previously named Monterey Bay Derby Dames) is a local roller derby league, started in 2010, and is a member of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. For years, the organization trained and played at the Water City rink in Marina, which closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, while Water City was preparing to reopen, Marina city officials found a series of code violations including accessibility shortcomings and problems with ventilation, electrical and heating. The building was redtagged. Dozens of people protested on May 22, 2021 demanding officials keep the building open for roller sports, to no avail. With Water City closed, MBRD members had to look for alternatives to keep its league alive. “We no longer have a home base where we can host games or scrimmages,” says Amber Dodd, a player who has been in the league for 10 seasons. At the fairgrounds, they don’t have enough space for a derby track, so they can train there but not compete. Instead, home games (known in roller derby parlance as “bouts”) take place in locations like Sacramento or Angels Camp. “It was really hard to make the commitment to go to games that are three hours away,” Dodd adds. The junior team, the Dread Ponies, dismantled due to lack of a home venue. MBRD is currently paying $450 a month for space to practice at the Fairgrounds, and is looking for alternatives on the Monterey Peninsula, Salinas or Castroville. The space has to be flat and at least 120-by-78 feet, or about 10,000 square feet. “The fairgrounds is just a little too small for a regulation track, and they hold a lot of events there so it’s difficult to have consistent practice during more popular months,” league President Ali Hough says. Water City’s home, the Marina Sports Center, will eventually be upgraded. On March 21, Marina City Council approved the Dunes City Park Project concept, which includes transforming the building into a multi-sport facility, including a pavilion for outdoor sports like roller derby. “We’d love to have a permanent home,” Hough says. But she notes an outdoor space won’t be ideal because Marina has unique weather conditions—fog and relatively lower temperatures—and they practice at night. On April 6, the same day three lawmakers were threatened with expulsion from Tennessee’s state legislature for their comments on the House floor denouncing gun violence, which followed a mass shooting in a Nashville elementary school, Seaside City Council considered whether to censure Councilmember Alex Miller regarding comments he made on social media regarding the vibrancy of Seaside’s downtown—or lack thereof. At the center of both disputes was the constitutional right to free speech, and Miller’s post was far from incendiary. Miller posted a story about Maligne, a fine dining restaurant on Broadway that shut down but has since reopened with a more affordable menu. With the story, Miller wrote, in part: “It’s unfortunate the City Council is unwilling to hire a professional to allow one of our city commissions help with the revitalization. It appears our council is OK with businesses leaving, vacant buildings sitting and allowing boarded up buildings to sit untouched.” Had it not been brought to the attention of the public, outside of Miller’s Facebook audience, it may have gone largely unnoticed. But instead, Seaside Mayor Ian Oglesby put on the agenda a discussion to potentially censure Miller—a formal reprimand, essentially, with no penalty. “If we allow ourselves to keep talking about each other, where does it end?” Oglesby said. “I’m talking about going forward,” he later continued. “Somebody could say something that’s really offensive, and then the wheels are off the bus, and I don’t want us to get there.” And after two hours of discussion, where it quickly became clear a censure had no support, there was no motion made to censure Miller, so no vote was ever taken. Miller says the whole thing was a waste of time, but is glad that during the back and forth, he was able to extract a promise from Oglesby to put a discussion about downtown on the next agenda. Roll Out Roller derby players are on the lookout for a new home to host local games. By Celia Jiménez news Read and Relax The Monterey Public Library invites young children to Paws to Read, where they can spend time reading to a certified therapy dog. Participants can sign up for 10-minute sessions and read a selection of their choice to a new furry friend. 3:30pm Thursday, April 13. Monterey Public Library, 625 Pacific St., Monterey. Free. 646-3933, montereypl. libcal.com/event/9907194. Community Restoration Join a community cleanup and mudout effort to help Pajaro get back into top shape. Help pick up debris and trash left over from the winter storms. Volunteers are encouraged to bring their own pressure washers, shovels and wheelbarrows to help in the cleanup efforts. 9am Saturday, April 15. Hope City Command Center Trailer at Pajaro Middle School, 250 Salinas Road, Pajaro. Free. 796-3094, info@hcrn.info. Labor Ready Salinas Valley Health will start a virtual, two-session childbirth preparation series for expecting mothers, run by a certified Lamaze educator. The class is open to the general public, and there are discounts for those in the military or receiving Medi-Cal benefits. 9am-4pm Saturday, April 15 and April 22. $60/general public; $35/ Medi-Cal; $30/active military, $25/ MCSIG members; free/SVH staff. bit.ly/ LaborLearning. Ultimate Fun An art extravaganza and introduction to disc golf for kids is coming to Marina in the third annual Junior Jellies Disc Golf Day event. Come learn how to play disc golf, play games with others or join in the competitions. There’s also truck painting and other arts and crafts activities. 11am Sunday, April 16. Los Arboles Sports Complex, 327 Reindollar Ave., Marina. Free. 884-1278, bit.ly/ ArtandDiscGolf. House Training Pacific Grove is partnering with ECHO Housing to hold two fair housing training workshops for the community. Attendees will get insight into an overview of federal and state housing laws, learn about new housing protections, and get information about the halt on evictions and foreclosures put in place by Monterey County and additional state protections. The first event will be tenant-focused, and the second will be landlord-focused. 6pm Tuesdays, April 18 and April 25. Register at tinyurl.com/dyty6v7p. Free. 566-0824, bit.ly/PGFairHousing. Silent Treatment A Seaside councilmember spoke up on social media, and the mayor didn’t like it. By David Schmalz Members of Monterey Bay Roller Derby practice twice a week inside the King City and Salinas rooms of the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey. e-mail: publiccitizen@mcweekly.com TOOLBOX “We no longer have a home base.” Daniel Dreifuss
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