www.montereycountynow.com MARCH 13-19, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 15 When U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, hosted a town hall meeting at Monterey Peninsula College on Friday, March 7, he wanted to focus on cuts to Medicaid (in California, Medi-Cal). He invited three physicians to the stage to talk about how important the government-provided insurance is for people who cannot afford commercial insurance. More than 163,000 people in his District 19 are on Medi-Cal. But when it came time for audience questions, people in the room had other issues on their minds. The first person to get the mic wanted to know: If President Donald Trump defies court rulings, who is going to arrest him? Panetta responded with his belief that checks and balances will work, and that voters play a role in the next elections. The question-asker piped up: “Do you really think there’s going to be another election?” Panetta absolutely thinks so. He is an institutionalist—a bipartisan Democrat who believes reaching across the aisle is still an option. He also knows his party is losing. But he continues to deliver a long-game, optimistic take in town hall conversations with constituents. “When it comes to our courts, we are winning,” he said. I also attended a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, March 5 when Panetta spoke to 50-plus members of Indivisible, a progressive group that formed in response to Trump’s first term. Members were in agreement with Panetta about the substance of the issues—protecting the federal workforce, expressing solidarity with Ukraine, preserving Medi-Cal and Medicare. But some members wanted something less tangible—a bolder, more vocal leader. “We are looking to you to be more visible,” Angela Marshall from Santa Cruz said. “We want you to be getting on Rachel Maddow, we want you to be loud, we want you to speak up and speak out. We can’t wait for the next election.” Another constituent from San Jose expressed her disappointment that the night before, as Rep. Al Green of Texas was removed from the congressional chambers during Trump’s speech, nobody protested. “This just is not a time for silence,” she said. “This is a time for action.” Panetta heard the feedback, and he urged patience. “We’re not going to win tomorrow,” he said. “I understand the concern with Project 2025. My focus is on Project 2026.” He also promised to keep delivering constituent services, helping people who are stuck in the bureaucracy of processing immigration paperwork, veterans’ benefits and the like. “I’m not a performer, I’m a public servant that does the work,” Panetta said. “To me, good governing is good politics, and that’s exactly what I’ll continue to do.” Of course, the majority party appears utterly disinterested in good governing, and Republicans continue to enjoy political support (thanks partly to the part of politics that is performative). That makes good governing for Democrats difficult to impossible—the idea of negotiating across the aisle is anachronistic. Consider the potential impending government shutdown on March 14. (There was a negotiation underway to extend that timeline, but Trump and his righthand man Elon Musk last year urged Republican lawmakers to sink that deal. They did.) “I will not vote for a government shutdown, but I will not vote for a partisan budget,” Panetta said at MPC. Given the current climate, it seems unlikely he will have an alternative to vote for. Beyond the immediate shutdown deadline, budget negotiations look similarly bleak. Republicans have put $880 billion in cuts on the table from the Energy and Commerce Committee, which means cuts from Medicaid; they are asking for a $230 billion cut from agriculture, $10 billion from infrastructure, and so on. At MPC, Panetta invoked a Thomas Jefferson quote: “The government you elect is the government you deserve.” Then he added: “We do not deserve this chaos. The question we have to answer going forward is, will our democracy withstand this chaos?” Panetta believes old-school good governance will see us through. An increasingly vocal group of constituents are rightly worried that it won’t. We don’t deserve chaos; we do deserve bold, outspoken leaders. Sara Rubin is the editor of the Weekly. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com. Leaning Left Constituents press U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta to be bolder. By Sara Rubin HALF-BAKED…Every now and then on Squid’s morning swims, Squid pops Squid’s head above the water along Monterey’s waterfront to check in on the derelict property at 484 Cannery Row, which still sits vacant despite at least 30 years of effort trying to develop it. The process has seen multiple lawsuits and continued resistance by the California Coastal Commission, but developer Bob Faulis, who’s been trying to push the project forward for the past seven years, believes the remaining issues with the agency will be settled come summer. Meanwhile, Faulis is hoping to make the property an asset, not an eyesore, while the litigation settles and funds are sought to build. To that end, he’s hoping to launch a flame-cooked pizza business on the property—not a brick-and-mortar joint, just an oven trailer and a wooden platform on the property with tables and chairs to sit. He’s even got a website—getfiredup.co—that claims the joint will be open in March 2025, despite most of the words on the site being written in Greek (as a placeholder). It promises “exceptional flavors” and 50-percent off of “Nulla fermentum lorem non magna accumsan.” And the pictures of food are mostly…not pizza. So Squid’s colleague caught up with Faulis to see what’s what. He says he hasn’t yet approached the city or the Coastal Commission with the project, but maintains the pies will be slinging by June. Good thing for Squid—being a cephalopod and all—is Squid won’t have to hold Squid’s breath. PLAY ON WORK…Even though cephalopods have no need for public parks—there are no fences in the sea—Squid can appreciate why they’re important to humans. So Squid always gets excited when new parks and trails get built. That’s why Squid’s long been a backer of the Fort Ord Regional Trail and Greenway, aka FORTAG, the first segment of which is now being built in Del Rey Oaks. And part of that segment cuts through Work Memorial Park, a slice of land behind the Safeway that stretches all the way to Rosita Road that was given to the city in 1953 by developer T.A. Work to be used as a park or for some other public benefit. Yet the land sat unused, except to be partially leased for a time to a driving range and now, to a landscaping business. It turns out the park is far bigger than Squid had known. Starting in mid-September, Cal Fire crews cleared over 20 acres of overgrown vegetation on the southern hillside of the park, stretching all the way to Monterey Regional Airport’s property. It’s like a whole new park opened up that residents didn’t even know they had. Now it just needs some trails and TLC. Hopefully this time around, it won’t take more than 70 years to get started. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. “I’m not a performer, I’m a public servant.” SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
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