20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY December 28, 2023-January 3, 2024 www.montereycountyweekly.com that the CSUMB Title IX office under Smith was “broken and nonfunctional.” March March 10 High winds topple a cypress tree along Del Monte Avenue in Monterey, taking down main transmission lines carrying electricity to the Monterey Peninsula. More than 37,000 PG&E customers were without power, many for two days and more. Parts of Pebble Beach were out for at least 12 days. March 11 Just after midnight amid heavy rains, the Pajaro River levee breaches upstream from the 2,900-person community of Pajaro, prompting evacuations in the middle of the night. Thousands of residents—primarily Latino, low-income families, many of them farmworkers—shelter at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville. Hundreds of people gather daily on the Watsonville side of the bridge to Pajaro, awaiting news about their homes; officials allow people to return on March 23. The disaster brings renewed attention to the levee, which has failed five times since it was built in 1949. Congress authorized improvements in 1966, but the project remains undone, largely due to a calculation based on the value of property protected. Because of the low-income composition of the community, the Army Corps of Engineers has continuously tabled the project. County officials later report flooding from the January and March storms caused more than $600 million in damage to the agriculture industry. March 31 Spirits began to flow for the first time at Links Club in Carmel, two days after owner April Montgomery received approval for a full liquor license—Type 47, in California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) nomenclature—allowing for the on-premises sale of distilled spirits. But the license came at a record price for Monterey County bars and restaurants: $160,000. “All of a sudden it’s very expensive—an all-time high,” says Bill Lee of Monterey’s Kona Steak & Seafood, who paid $140,000 a few months earlier. In his four decades as a restaurateur, he has generally paid between $40,000 and $80,000 for a Type 47. “It’s all supply and demand.” The only such licenses available to Monterey County are on the secondary market. ABC has not issued a new license for the county since 2016. April April 28 The local classical music community is shocked when Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, a world-class chamber violinist, resigns as artistic director of Chamber Music Monterey Bay. Wu remains a presence in the local classical music scene, hosting house concerts. May May 11 The Weekly publishes a story about the bullying tactics of a self-proclaimed “First Amendment auditor” who goes by the name Anthony X, who travels to local government buildings with a video camera and provokes public employees into conflict. His conduct has resulted in multiple jurisdictions investing in security upgrades. After the story runs, Anthony X and dozens of his social media followers bombard the Weekly with threatening messages and a doxxing campaign— allegedly in support of their free speech mission. Seven months later, hateful messages continue to trickle in. May 16 Car enthusiasts celebrate a unanimous vote by Salinas City Council to repeal a cruising ban that has been in effect since 1992. “Cruising is not a crime and all we want to do is have a good time,” said Dave Cisneros of the Castroville Midnighters car club. Car clubs organize the first official cruising event 30 days after the ban is lifted. June June 15 Community radio station KSQD, which broadcasts on 90.7 FM in Santa Cruz, is something of a bastion of community radio in an era of media consolidation. Since its creation in 2019 by a group of community radio “refugees,” KSQD had been looking to expand. And this summer it got the chance— nonprofit Natural Bridges Media, which runs KSQD, raised the necessary $400,000 to purchase the frequencies 89.7 FM and 89.5 FM. Altogether, the three frequencies allow KSQD to broadcast beyond Santa Cruz to Prunedale and Watsonville, as well as Salinas, Seaside, Monterey and Carmel in Monterey County. June 20 The Rancho Cielo Construction Academy in Salinas is accepted into the prestigious Orange County Sustainability Decathlon. It is the first time a trade school is included in the competition that in the past has only been open to college teams. Rancho Cielo students, ages 16-24, are usually still working on their high school degrees while learning a trade. With mentoring from local professionals, the students constructed a two-story, 750foot sustainable home on the Rancho Cielo campus. The house had to then be dismantled, trucked to Orange County, and reassembled in time for the competition in October. On Oct. 14, the team won the entire decathlon, besting college teams. They also won first place in five of 10 categories and second place in three. June 22 During Pride Month, the Weekly features the stories of four trans individuals on the cover. Trans rights were highly politicized during 2023, with hundreds of bills introduced across the country to limit rights for trans people. “The same arguments that were once used with the gay people are now being used against trans people,” said Scout Luketish, a trans man from Seaside. He and others shared their stories in hopes of inspiring more allies. June 30 Assemblymember Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, is sworn in as the 71st Speaker of the California Assembly. The ascension is celebrated by leaders from the Central Coast, and also leaders throughout rural California—for decades, the Assembly speaker had come from a major population center. “Robert grew up in and lives in a rural community,” Assemblymember Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, said at Rivas’ swearing-in ceremony. “He brings a lived experience to this job that we haven’t seen in a very long time. There are people in this state who sometimes feel forgotten.” July July 9 History is made at Pebble Beach Golf Links late on a Sunday afternoon as a quietly relentless Allisen Corpuz fends off Charley Hull, Nasa Hataoka, Jiyai Shin and the rest of the field to win the first-ever U.S. Women’s Open held at the iconic course. There was another bit of golf history made on this day: The $2 million payday for the winner became the largest in women’s golf. Salinas couple Lori Long and Mark Contreras at the Cali Roots festival in 2023. They’ve been engaged since 2016, and await a change to Social Security before getting married. Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas was sworn in on June 30, capping a remarkable rise from a farmworker family to the second-most powerful position in California.
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