GONE SURFING 5 | SEASIDE’S BRIDGE TO NOWHERE 8 | GROW GARDEN GROW 11 | SAUSAGE FEST 34 FIRST PLACE GENERAL EXCELLENCE • 2025 CA JOURNALISM AWARDS • Unsolved SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 MONTEREYCOUNTYNOW.COM LOCAL & INDEPENDENT In Monterey County, the District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force has identified over 600 unsolved homicide cases across the county. Now, DNA technology is helping them get answers. p. 16 By Katie Rodriguez
2 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 • ISSUE #1938 • ESTABLISHED IN 1988 Todd Howerton (Canon Rebel, 55-250mm lens) It’s true, turkeys do fly (but not very aerodynamically). This one tries for a run/flight combo over a fence at Palo Corona Regional Park. MONTEREY COUNTY PHOTO OF THE WEEK Send Etc. submissions to etcphoto@montereycountynow.com; please include caption and camera info. On the cover: Forensic experts can now extract DNA evidence from things such as skin cells, blood, hair and semen, collected from a crime scene to help answer questions of identity with greater precision. Cover image: Shutterstock etc. Copyright © 2025 by Milestone Communications Inc. 668 Williams Ave., Seaside, California 93955 (telephone 831-394-5656). All rights reserved. Monterey County Weekly, the Best of Monterey County and the Best of Monterey Bay are registered trademarks. No person, without prior permission from the publisher, may take more than one copy of each issue. Additional copies and back issues may be purchased for $1, plus postage. Mailed subscriptions: $300 yearly, prepaid. The Weekly is an adjudicated newspaper of Monterey County, court decree M21137. The Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Visit our website at http://www.montereycountynow. com. Audited by CVC. FOUNDER & CEO Bradley Zeve bradley@montereycountynow.com (x103) PUBLISHER Erik Cushman erik@montereycountynow.com (x125) EDITORIAL EDITOR Sara Rubin sara@montereycountynow.com (x120) ASSOCIATE EDITOR Erik Chalhoub ec@montereycountynow.com (x135) FEATURES EDITOR Dave Faries dfaries@montereycountynow.com (x110) STAFF WRITER Celia Jiménez celia@montereycountynow.com (x145) STAFF WRITER Pam Marino pam@montereycountynow.com (x106) STAFF WRITER Agata Pope¸da (x138) aga@montereycountynow.com STAFF WRITER Katie Rodriguez (California Local News Fellow) katie@montereycountynow.com (x102) STAFF WRITER David Schmalz david@montereycountynow.com (x104) STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Daniel Dreifuss daniel@montereycountynow.com (x140) DIGITAL PRODUCER Sloan Campi sloan@montereycountynow.com (x105) CONTRIBUTORS Nik Blaskovich, Rob Brezsny, Robert Daniels, Tonia Eaton, Paul Fried, Jesse Herwitz, Jacqueline Weixel, Paul Wilner CARTOONS Rob Rogers, Tom Tomorrow PRODUCTION ART DIRECTOR/PRODUCTION MANAGER Karen Loutzenheiser karen@montereycountynow.com (x108) GRAPHIC DESIGNER Kevin Jewell kevinj@montereycountynow.com (x114) GRAPHIC DESIGNER Annie Cobb annie@montereycountynow.com (x114) GRAPHIC DESIGNER Lani Headley lani@montereycountynow.com (x114) SALES SENIOR SALES EXECUTIVE Diane Glim diane@montereycountynow.com (x124) SENIOR SALES EXECUTIVE George Kassal george@montereycountynow.com (x122) SENIOR SALES EXECUTIVE Keith Bruecker keith@montereycountynow.com (x118) CLASSIFIEDS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Keely Richter keely@montereycountynow.com (x123) DIGITAL DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MEDIA Kevin Smith kevin@montereycountynow.com (x119) DISTRIBUTION DISTRIBUTION AT Arts Co. atartsco@gmail.com DISTRIBUTION CONTROL Harry Neal BUSINESS/FRONT OFFICE OFFICE MANAGER Linda Maceira linda@montereycountynow.com (x101) BOOKKEEPING Rochelle Trawick 668 Williams Ave., Seaside, CA 93955 831-394-5656, (FAX) 831-394-2909 www.montereycountynow.com We’d love to hear from you. Send us your tips at tipline.montereycountynow.com. Subscribe to the newsletter @ montereycountynow.com/subscribe Go to montereycountynow.com We Deliver… NEWS • ARTS • ENTERTAINMENT FOOD • DRINK • CALENDAR Local news everyday
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4 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com THE BUZZ FREE SPEECH In the days following conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination, many public figures—from reporters to teachers and even a comic book writer—have lost their jobs or been suspended over their comments on the killing that are perceived as offensive. The Sept. 10 killing at a Utah college set off a right-wing campaign targeting those who say or write things they view as celebratory. An anonymous website went up to keep a running list of names and employers. Vice President JD Vance joined in, supporting the doxxing effort. A lecturer at CSU Monterey Bay is among those targeted. Cody Roberts posted, in part: “What about all the kids, the many broken families, from the over 258 school shootings 2020-present?” prompting threatening emails to faculty and calls to fire him. “We honor students’, employees’ and community members’ right to freedom of speech as long as it complies with CSU’s nondiscrimination policy,” a spokesperson says. Good: Many residents could use some advice on how to be more water-efficient. The Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency can do just that. The agency announced that it is expanding a pilot program that offers free home water efficiency assessments for eligible rural properties in North Monterey County. Trained advisers from WaterWise Consulting will look for leaks, review irrigation systems and inspect plumbing fixtures and appliances. Residents will receive a report with recommendations, and, if necessary, even have water-saving devices installed at no cost. “Every drop matters,” said Piret Harmon, general manager of SVBGSA. “By helping rural residents identify practical ways to use water more efficiently, we’re supporting household water savings and the long-term sustainability of our groundwater basin.” Applications are available at svbgsa.org. GREAT: Parenting is a really tough job that doesn’t come with instructions. Enter Dr. Susan Swick, chief mental health officer at Montage Health, founding director of the Ohana Center for Child and Adolescent Behavior and mother of four. She is host of a new 10-episode weekly podcast called Talkaboutable. The series launched on Sept. 9. “As both a child psychiatrist and a mom, I know that parenting is filled with moments that leave you wondering what to say or do next,” Swick said in a press release. “Talkaboutable was created to give parents real, relatable guidance to feel more confident and connected.” The podcast is funded by the Montage Health Foundation and produced with Lemonada Media. Each episode features stories from parents who are facing challenges, with Swick offering thoughts on how to make tough conversations with kids a little less difficult. GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK THE WEEKLY TALLY That’s how many more graduating high school seniors in California completed financial aid applications this year compared to 2024, an 11-percent increase. School districts in Monterey County fared better than the state average, with nearly 13-percent more seniors completing applications— or 67.5 percent overall—for the Class of 2025. Source: California Student Aid Commission 33,342 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “What occurred that night was completely unacceptable.” -Monterey Police Lt. Ethan Andrews, speaking about the seven suspects arrested for their alleged role in a brawl at the Monterey County Fair on Aug. 30 (see story, montereycountynow.com).
www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 5 831 Kelly Sorensen grew up in Fresno in California’s Central Valley, hours from beaches. But as soon as he was old enough to drive, he made the Monterey Bay coast his most frequent destination, surfing as much as he could. And at just 20 years old, he opened On the Beach Surf Shop in 1986, originally located in Carmel. The store, now in Monterey, is still a thriving surf rental and retail shop 40 years later. In a twist, Sorensen has come full circle back to his hometown. His favorite wave to surf these days is in LeMoore, near Fresno, in a concrete pool surrounded by farm fields. Sorensen has become something of a regular at Surf Ranch, riding the wave designed by pro surfer Kelly Slater, using a patented hydrofoil generator to create consistent, barreling waves on demand, traveling over 2,300 feet— nearly half a mile long. He’s been booking stays at Surf Ranch for years, and developed a small community that gathers together for these exclusive trips. For Sorensen’s 60th birthday party celebration on Sept. 7-8, his daughters and grandchildren are there (not surfing), and surf pals from all over—Santa Rosa, San Diego and Hawaii, along with several locals. For Kari Wolff of Los Gatos, who took up surfing in Santa Cruz for the first time four years ago at 59 just before retiring from teaching, trips with Sorensen to Surf Ranch are her version of Disneyland. “I’ve gotten a little bit of an addiction to it,” she says. Mike Turner of Monterey is a firsttime visitor who is wowed by the perfect wave. With a chuckle, he says he’s unlikely to be motivated to suit up and surf when he gets back home: “No, you’re going to go home and want to get a second job so you can come back here,” he says. “The real thing has its own element, but you forget about that when you’re on this barrel.” This is a theme echoed by many of the guests: Surfing in nature is simply incomparable to the wave pool. Major parts of the experience—reading the waves, dealing with changing conditions, essentially being in nature—are removed. The freshwater is less buoyant than ocean water. The propulsion feels different, more of a lift than a push. And it’s a guaranteed experience of surfing a perfect wave, something that cannot be promised anywhere. “It’s totally different. One is exciting because it’s a chase—going to Fiji or Australia—and I like the chase,” says David “Nelly” Nelson, also a surf photographer who’s been joining Sorensen for roughly nine years on Surf Ranch trips and before then, surfed with him in the wild, at Ghost Trees off Pebble Beach. But the chase comes with no guaranteed waves—Surf Ranch does. “This rekindles my stoke for surfing every time,” Nelson adds. Not everyone in the group is a surfer. Jessica Nault of Carmel Valley accompanies her surfer husband, Desmond. Their son splashes around in the shallow end of the wave pool for hours, and Nault—also a non-swimmer—feels safe on the back of a jetski, or getting pushed into small residual waves, belly-riding a foam board. “It’s the most liberating thing ever,” she says. “It’s just total celebration.” There is no beach scene, no saltwater air. But there is a feeling among guests that this is special; surfers pay $5,750 for the full day of surfing (and all-inclusive bar and menu). There are touches of luxury; bouquets of fresh flowers appear on the tables just after 7am as coffee drinks are made to order. There are hot tubs, saunas, hammocks, a bocce court. But most of all, there are the waves themselves. Heat after heat, this group mostly chooses the CT3 (named for Championship Tour), with two openface sections inviting turns, and two barreling sections. For some guests, it’s their only option to surf. Eric Lazar lives in Kauai, but requires particular conditions to surf safely; he was paralyzed from the chest down in a dirt-biking crash over 20 years ago, but still loves getting barreled. At Surf Ranch, a lifeguard on a jetski is ready to dive in after him if he wipes out while belly-riding. “This is better than Disney,” he says. “This is the best experience in life.” He connected with Sorensen through social media in 2019 to make his first trip to Surf Ranch. “I love him and I’m so grateful,” Lazar says. “Not everybody gets to do this.” Party Wave Local surf shop owner Kelly Sorensen celebrates his birthday on the waves—in the Central Valley. By Sara Rubin “It’s the most liberating thing ever.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE DAVID “NELLY” NELSON / @NELLYSMAGCIMOMENTS Kelly Sorensen gets barreled for his 60th birthday trip to Surf Ranch. Many guests liken the wave pool to Disney; he calls it the Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory of surfing. CLAIM YOUR BOOTH! EXHIBITOR REGISTRATION NOW OPEN Connecting businesses throughout Monterey County THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2025 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM DEL MONTE SHOPPING CENTER EXPO BUSINESS monterey bay 2025 PRESENTED BY REGISTER NOW AT MONTEREYCHAMBER.COM
6 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com NEWS The long dormant office building at 245 Washington St. in Monterey, right by the wharf parking lot entrance, has quietly come back to life in the past few weeks. It marks the beginning of something new: a hub for recovery, whether from pain, addiction or both. In May, Pacific Rehabilitation & Pain, which operates clinics in Monterey and Salinas, acquired the building for $2.15 million. In August, it opened its Recovery Center on the waterfront with offices for its own doctors, but also offices for other doctors and nonprofits. One of those nonprofits is Sun Street Centers, which is still moving in. Another is Central Coast Overdose Prevention, which was founded in 2020 and now has its first brick-and-mortar location. Two months ago, CCODP had just two doctors on staff—Casey Grover and Reb Close, the husbandand-wife doctors who founded it—but since then, they’ve hired three more. A few years ago, Grover and Close, who both worked in the emergency room at CHOMP, approached Dr. Salar Deldar, a CHOMP physician who founded Pacific Rehabilitation & Pain, about the logistics of starting a practice. That led Deldar to offer them space in his clinic on Cass Street in Monterey for them to work in. When Deldar saw the building go up for sale earlier this year, a vision began to take shape. “I just thought, ‘We need to make this happen,’” he says. What “this” is, Deldar says, is a “synergistic hub” of specialists who work with a lot of the same patients in different capacities. “It’s the coolest thing, it just kept developing,” he says. He adds that if it’s a feel-good story now, “It’s only going to feel better with time.” Healing Hub A long-vacant building on Monterey’s waterfront has a new owner and a new life. By David Schmalz Under pleasant skies on Saturday, Sept. 13 a group of some 125 people dined around long tables at the Rancho Carmelo vineyards, sipping local wines, returning for second helpings of paella and chatting casually. Among them were several Carmel Valley winemakers, sharing their bottles. “It felt like a hometown [event],” says Walter Georis, who opened one of the village’s first tasting rooms some three decades ago. “It was a lovely day.” The afternoon was also a test. With a group of winemakers preparing to launch an organization dedicated to promoting Carmel Valley Village’s tasting rooms, the questions at hand were what type of event shares the right vibe and could they pull it off. “The purpose is to bring the tasting rooms together, to highlight the tasting rooms and bring people to the valley,” Georis says the next afternoon. “Yesterday gave us a really good sense.” Carmel Valley Uncorked is a response to both the international decline in demand for wine—which has the potential of hitting small producers harder than the corporate brands—as well as the perception that even many local residents tend to overlook Carmel Valley Village. “A lot of times people say, ‘I didn’t know,’” says Kathy Baker of Rombi Wines. “Well, shame on us. We don’t promote as a group. We thought it was about time.” Baker and the Georises, along with six others with tasting rooms in the community, put together the event. And they did so with a balance in mind. Georis recalls after opening his spot near the Bernardus tasting room, event planners began contacting him. He was fine hosting parties, but did not want tour buses idling outside. Plans for Carmel Valley Uncorked are still in the early stages—they own a domain name, but have yet to set up a bank account—but both Baker and Georis foresee no more than three events a year, each with a limited number of guests. “We’re thinking about how to do this and still keep control of the vibe and the sanity,” Georis says. As envisioned, the organization would be hyper-local, promoting only the tasting rooms within village boundaries. Baker anticipates launching activities, which would include advertising in local publications, sometime in 2026. She also hopes that all 20 tasting rooms participate. “We don’t have a chamber of commerce,” she adds. “We want to bring the wine community in the village together.” Baker stresses that the concept is not in response to the demise of the Monterey County Vintners and Growers Association, which provided marketing support and lobbying for wineries across the county before the board voted to end operations in August. Carmel Valley’s small producers simply face different challenges than Carmel or River Road tasting rooms. With an organization that promotes local events while embracing the community vibe, Georis adds that “there is a lot of potential.” The test gathering on Sept. 13 drew an appreciative group. Proceeds benefited the Carmel Valley Improvement Committee. A pleased Baker couldn’t resist the obvious. “I think everybody is in support,” she says. “It takes a village.” From left to right, Salvatore Rombi and Kathy Baker of Rombi Wines with Sylvia and Walter Georis outside the Georis tasting room in Carmel Valley Village. Village People Carmel Valley winemakers look to form an organization to support its wine community. By Dave Faries The waterfront building was a former urgent care clinic. It will now house several groups that work together treating patients with addiction or pain issues, or both. “We want to bring the wine community together.” DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS
www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 7 Insured by NCUA 1The dividend rate and Annual Percentage Yield (APY) accurate as of 08/01/2025. The dividend rate and APY may change at any time. 4.40% APY, 8-month Term Savings Certificate must be opened by phone or in-branch with new money. New money is defined as funds not on deposit at Golden 1 in the 30 days prior to the certificate account opening. There is no minimum balance required to earn the stated APY. The minimum opening deposit for this 8-month certificate is $500. The APY is based on an assumption that dividends will remain in the account until maturity. Any fee, withdrawal or transfer reduces earnings and there may be penalties for early withdrawal. Call 1-877-465-3361 for current rates. We reserve the right to change or discontinue this program at any time. Rates and term are subject to change without notice. 0825-MTW 4.40% APY1 for 8 months Visit a branch, call 1-877-465-3361 or scan to learn more Limited time offer Earn more with a Term Savings Certificate • Yellow Brick Road Benefit Shop • Monterey Peninsula Volunteer Services • Rotary Club of Carmel-by-the-Sea • Amy Lynch and Kevin Sweeney • Greg Phillips • And the many generous individuals and supporters of Al & Friends www.alandfriends.org The Board of Directors of AL & FRIENDS Would like to give a GIANT THANKS to these valued donors who helped purchase our new super-efficient transport van.
8 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com The short story is, the Seaside City Council has already committed to spending more than $500,000 for the design of a bridge to replace the pedestrian bridge over San Pablo Avenue, connecting LincolnCunningham Park and ManzanitaStuart Park. The existing bridge has been closed since early 2023. But whether or not that design ever gets used—or the bridge reopened—is an open question, and may come down to how much more money the council is willing to spend on it. Built in 1960, the San Pablo Pedestrian Bridge is one of a kind in the city, a whimsical piece of park infrastructure. In 2021, Alex Miller, now a city councilmember and then the chair of the Neighborhood Improvement Commission, proposed the idea of painting a mural on the bridge, which was looking the worse for wear. When that project moved to the front of the line, city officials had the bridge inspected in December 2022. (Because the pedestrian bridge doesn’t carry vehicles, it’s not annually inspected by Caltrans.) The engineers found that wooden beams supporting the bridge were at risk of “imminent failure,” and the bridge was subsequently closed. When Seaside City Council was first presented with the issue in April 2023, the city’s contract engineers laid out three options: Repair the bridge for an estimated $340,000; replace just its superstructure for $565,000 (including $115,000 for design); or replace the whole bridge and its abutments and surrounding walking ways to make them ADA compliant at a cost of $2.45 million (including $500,000 for design). Mayor Ian Oglesby said to look at the latter two options when the council proceeded to make its budget. In December 2023, Seaside City Council approved a contract not to exceed $556,000 with Whitson Engineers for option 3, to design the bridge demolition and replacement. On Sept. 4, Public Works Director Thomas Korman, who started the job in November 2024, updated the council on the bridge’s progress, and the news isn’t good. The city was not awarded a $2.7 million state grant it was seeking for the project, and $700,000 of federal grant money it thought could be used toward the bridge cannot be. Meanwhile, the $3 million the city had requested through U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, has been whittled down to $850,000, and remains pending. The bridge, meanwhile, is still standing, but is only good for looking at. At a press conference in July, President Donald Trump responded to an inquiry about congressional districts in Texas, saying, “Just a very simple redrawing, we pick up five seats. But we have a couple of other states where we’ll pick up seats also.” New congressional maps in Texas have since been drawn for partisan gain and were signed into law on Aug. 29 by Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, triggering a response by California Gov. Gavin Newsom alongside Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, and Senate pro Tempore Mike McGuire. Their aim: to give Californians the option to redraw districts before the mid-term elections, or as Newsom called it, an opportunity to “fight fire with fire.” California’s Proposition 50 (named for the 50 states) aims to nullify Texas’ redistricting, which is expected to pick up five additional seats for the Republican Party, by creating the equivalent five seats favoring the Democratic Party in California. On Sept. 16, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0, with Supervisor Glenn Church abstaining, to support Prop. 50 and the special election scheduled for Nov. 4. “This is a position I would never have imagined being in,” Supervisor Wendy Root Askew said. “But watching the harm I’m seeing happen to people, watching democracy be brought to the edge where there’s talk of no more elections happening, watching my colleagues be told that they can’t enter the White House for meetings that we duly are entitled to have as elected leaders—the risks to our democracy have never felt more real.” If passed, the new maps would remain in effect until 2030. Monterey County would receive $3.5 million from the state to administer the election. The supervisors mostly spoke about what is at stake in November. In abstaining, Church said he did not want to influence voters. “When you combine the rhetoric with the action and choose to sit back and do nothing,” Supervisor Kate Daniels said, “that’s a really bad place to be.” Tall Toll The future of Seaside’s San Pablo pedestrian bridge is clouded by climbing costs. By David Schmalz NEWS PARK PARKING Parking spaces in downtown Monterey will be transformed into mini parks in celebration of PARK(ing) Day. The event features various booths staffed by city departments. 10am-2:30pm Friday, Sept. 19. Alvarado Street between Franklin and Pearl streets, Monterey. Free. 6463860, monterey.gov.= HEALTHY RUN Sun Street Centers’ Recovery Run aims to raise awareness about Substance Use Disorder. Live music, resource booths and more family-friendly activities round out the event. 7:30am (registration), 9am (run begins) Saturday, Sept. 20. Veterans Administration, 201 9th St., Marina. Free to attend; $43 for 5K and fun run. 753-5144, sunstreetcenters.org/ RecoveryRun2025. REDUCE AND REUSE Bring in your broken items to be fixed at the Repair Cafe. Items include clothes, furniture, small appliances, toys, bicycles and more. 11am-3pm Saturday, Sept. 20. Del Rey Park, 999 Angelus Way, Del Rey Oaks. Free. montereyrepaircafe@gmail.com, repaircafe.org/en. GO WITH THE FLOW First Flush is an annual stormwater monitoring event to determine what pollutants are flowing into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Volunteers are needed to collect samples before and during the first significant rainstorm of the season. 6-7pm Wednesday, Sept. 24 (in-person training), Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary office, Heritage Harbor, 99 Pacific St., Building 455 conference room, Monterey. 5:306:30pm Thursday, Sept. 25 (online training). 10am Saturday, Sept. 27 (dry run sampling). 647-4201, bit.ly/ FirstFlush2025. RENTER RIGHTS The City of Monterey and ECHO Housing host a workshop on tenant protections, including the Tenant Protection Act from 2019. 6-8pm Thursday, Sept. 25. City Council Chambers, 580 Pacific St., Monterey, and on Zoom at bit.ly/4osfv3d. Free. 646-3995, fernando@echofairhousing. org. STATE OF SALINAS Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue gives the State of the City Address. The event also includes a city services resource fair, food and child care. Spanish interpretation provided. 6-8pm Thursday, Sept. 25. Sherwood Hall, 940 N. Main St., Salinas. Also livestreamed on YouTube, @ TheSalinasChannel. Free. 758-7407, salinas.gov. Map Makers County Supervisors back Prop. 50, a redistricting amendment on California voters’ ballots. By Katie Rodriguez The pedestrian bridge connecting two parks over San Pablo Avenue is unique in Seaside—but has also been closed for use since early 2023. E-MAIL: toolbox@montereycountynow.com TOOLBOX Engineers found the beams were at risk of “imminent failure.” DANIEL DREIFUSS
www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 9 One voice can be the di erence for a child or youth in foster care. Be that voice. Over 50 local children are waiting. Become a CASA volunteer. casaofmo 831.222.3965 nterey.org DO YOU WANT TO GO INSIDE PRISON AND LEARN WITH THE INCARCERATED? Members from the public engage in weekly discussions with inmates, sharing life stories related to empathy-building topics. Anyone over 18 is welcome to join! Come by the Transformative Justice Center! 439 Tyler Street, Monterey Offered Mondays from 4pm-6pm over 8-week cycles at CTF Soledad Prison - a voluntary commitment is required. Contact Program Director – Megan McDrew for more information and to sign up. Space is very limited! mmcdrew@transformativejusticecenter.org TransformativeJusticeCenter.org MONTEREY PENINSULA MANAGEMENT DISTRICT Take control of Smart flow meters can monitor both indoor and outdoor water use. They measure water down to a fraction of a gallon and can send usage data to a cell phone app. Some can also alert you through text or a web portal to leaks or plumbing malfunctions. Most smart flow meters can be installed with no modification to existing plumbing. Some models can be easily clamped to your home’s incoming water pipe next to the shut off valve. Smart flow meters can be purchased online or from your local hardware store. To receive a Smart Flow Meter Rebate, purchase a qualifying device and submit the receipt and rebate application to MPWMD, P.O. Box 85, Monterey CA, 93940 or email the documents to conserve@mpwmd.net. See montereywaterinfo.org for details and application form. LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE TOP BRANDS: Bluebot: bluebot.com Flume: flumewater.com Phyn: phyn.com Flo by Moen: moen.com/flo Alert Labs: alertlabs.com SimpleSUB Water: simplesubwater.com Get a $200 Rebate* your water use. *Rebate up to $200 or actual cost if less. Available only to customers of the Cal-Am Monterey District and MPWMD.
10 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Starting this school year, K-2 students are taking an additional test designed to find out if they are having difficulty reading. Assembly Bill 130 calls for an annual, mandatory reading test, the first time the state is requiring universal literacy screening. Parents will receive the results within 45 days, including suggestions on how to support students at school and at home to improve their reading skills. Ron Dillender, associate superintendent of education services at Salinas City Elementary School District, notes literacy testing isn’t new. “The assessment that they’re asking us to give is an assessment we haven’t given before, but the content of it is very similar to other assessments we’ve used in the past,” Dillender says. The focus is on K-2 students because third grade is a key point for students. It’s the time when they transition from learning to read to reading to learn. During the 20232024 school year, only 42.8 percent of California’s third-graders were reading at grade level, and only 28.1 percent in Monterey County. The state designated four screeners districts can choose from for the test including Multitudes, a free state-funded assessment tool developed by the UC San Francisco Dyslexia Center; mCLASS with DIBELS Edition 8 and mCLASS Lectura by Amplify Education; Amira by Amira Learning; and Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR), created by Stanford University’s Brain Development and Education Lab. The first three offer testing in English and Spanish. Students from Salinas City Elementary were part of a Multitudes pilot program. Educators provided feedback to diversify the vocabulary included, especially for the Spanish test, with recommendations of adding words to reflect the local lingo such as using “durazno” instead of “melocotón” for peach, or “computadora” instead of “ordenador” for computer. Experts hope that across-the-board testing will propel data-driven instruction to close the literacy gap. In the short term, the reading tests may help teachers tailor their instruction. They may also use it to refer a student for additional support or testing to find out why the student is struggling, such as reading disorders like dyslexia or a visual impairment. Dillender notes the testing itself won’t diagnose disorders, “but could definitely be used with a number of other observations and other exams to help a doctor make that determination,” he adds. SCESD students will be tested in either English or Spanish based on their primary language or the educational program they are enrolled in. (Students in the dual-immersion program will take the test in Spanish.) Dillender says the district will wait a few months before testing students, especially for those who are in kindergarten. “We want to be able to give students enough knowledge of letters, sounds, phonics and phonemic awareness to be able to actually take the assessment,” he says. The ABCs Younger students in California will have additional testing to address the literacy gap. By Celia Jiménez A Los Padres Elementary School student gets absorbed in a book at a Kiwanis Literacy Club book giveaway in 2022. Several nonprofits support literacy efforts; universal testing is new. NEWS Only 42.8 percent of third-graders were reading at grade level. CELIA JIMÉNEZ Voted Monterey County’s Best Antique Shop ’24 ♦ 3 Card Poker ♠ Century 21st No Bust Black Jack ♣ Texas Hold’em ♥ FULL BAR! BLACKJACK BONUS POINTS PAYS UP TO $20,000 SMALL TOWN BIG PAYOUTS! 1-800-Gambler • GEAR-000383, GEAR-000376, GEAR-000375 The Marina Club Casino ensures the safety and security of all guests and team members at all times, while providing exceptional service. 204 Carmel Ave. Marina 831-384-0925 casinomonterey.com ♠ ♣ ♥ ♦ Just minutes from Downtown Monterey Where Monterey Comes To Play
www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 11 Right now, it looks like a patch of woodchips. But in five to 10 years, this 2,000-squarefoot plot adjacent to the play yard and portables at Del Rey Woods Elementary school in Seaside will be a dense, tiny forest teeming with life. The forest is called a Miyawaki Forest—a biodiverse, fast-growing ecosystem developed by a Japanese botanist named Akira Miyawaki. Using the Miyawaki method, a variety of native plants and tree species are planted in close proximity, usually 3 to 4 plants per square meter. Through competition, a multi-layered, mature forest forms, growing 10 times faster than a conventional forest, with potential for offering big environmental benefits. While there are Miyawaki Forests all over the world, this will be the first of its kind on California’s Central Coast. “I thought it was a bit of an exaggeration, like when people say, ‘100 times more biodiversity,’” says Janette Leonidou, president of Communities for Sustainable Monterey County. “But when I went to Japan and saw all these presentations, [scientists had] measured the biodiversity before and after, and it was like 500 times, 1,000 times. They showed the species before—and the butterflies, the spiders, the birds— after. It was just like, ‘Oh my gosh.’” After raising money for the project, CSMC began pitching the idea at school board meetings to find a site in October 2024. They quickly gained support from Monterey Peninsula Unified School District Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh, who chose the school as a great opportunity to integrate environmental stewardship in the Del Rey Woods curriculum—part of a broader effort to bring native ecosystems into urban and school environments. While this will be the region’s first forest built using strict Miyawaki principles, Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado has created a food forest inspired by the method, using similar close-planting techniques. In April, a smaller test plot was created to experiment with different soil types, plants and compost materials to gather data about plant survival before their main planting takes place Oct. 20. As Leonidou walks alongside community schools coordinator Gwynn Cropsey and CSMC’s vice president Laurie Eavey, they point out the trials and errors that come with developing a blueprint for something new. The pH of the soil was a bit off. Cypress trees, they learned, will take over when planted closely with other plants. They’ve worked with local horticulturists and soil scientists, State Parks personnel and local stables and nurseries (for wood chips and manure). Additionally, they brought in a consultant from Berkeley, who has worked on Miyawaki Forests there. In the last few months they have been working to turn the patch of dead dirt into nutritious soil to get ready to plant. Students at the elementary school have helped apply cardboard to the manure, then mulch, then weave in the wood chips. “All of the younger grades will see it in their time here at school,” Cropsey says. “Even the older kids, if they come back, they’ll be like, ‘Whoa.’” Big Little Forest A microforest is underway at Seaside’s Del Rey Woods Elementary School. By Katie Rodriguez Using the Miyawaki method, a variety of native plants and tree species are planted in close proximity, usually 3 to 4 plants per square meter, to encourage competition. NEWS “All of the younger grades will see it in their time here.” KATIE RODRIGUEZ
12 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com BUILT OUT This is developing into a Netflixworthy saga (“A small version of Carmel City Council sends a Pastor project back to the Planning Commission,” Sept. 11-17). The scenery! The personalities! The palaces! The money! The knockdown-dragout of Carmel politics might need to be condensed a bit for dramatic purposes, as they say, but there would certainly be no need to invent dramatic characters. Using the local scenery would actually be quite cheap. Carmel charges $590 for the filming permit, $110 for nonprofits or students, with two weeks’ notice. Filming in the Principality of Monaco could be trickier. There’s no fee for the permit, but “there may be an ‘occupancy fee’ for using specific public areas. The process is highly regulated, and the government must approve all projects at least 15 days in advance,” according to Google. Lord only knows what “highly regulated” means in Monaco, never mind the occupancy fee, but maybe it would be cheaper to build a soundstage and use local palaces and our own very photogenic ocean. Arnold Seibel | Pacific Grove As one of the appellants, I’m writing to say that we don’t oppose the project; we simply want it to comply with Carmel-by-the-Sea’s municipal code and general plan. These exist in part to protect the intimate human-scale nature of our village and to promote responsible planning decisions. The 11 appellants include two former city council members, three former planning commissioners, long-time business owners, and residents who grew up here. We’ve been studying our municipal code and general plan for a long time. These laws aren’t as byzantine as some believe. For example, it was obvious that this project never qualified for the in-lieu parking fee program. Parking is a serious issue in our village. New buildings need to accommodate the parking demand they will create. Why the law in this regard wasn’t followed from the start is certainly worth a discussion, but our insistence that it be followed isn’t a delay tactic. More and more people are visiting our little world-famous village. Taylor Swift was here recently. So were the Obamas. Carmel is an internationally-known treasure, one that needs and deserves responsible stewardship. That means planning for new developments, especially large ones, needs to follow the law. Ian Martin | Carmel I grew up in Carmel in the ’60s and ’70s when it actually was a village with community spirit. I remember being chastised for my errant frisbees and baseballs landing in neighbors’ yards, usually with a smile. I would not choose to live in Carmel today—it’s just impacted. Please face reality and consider what Carmel really is today: a holiday and luxury party destination. At least let Mr. Pastor make it beautiful. Figure out how to provide year-around shuttles. Quit living in the fantasy that Carmel is a bohemian enclave. Fewer people actually live in Carmel now than 100 years ago. Kevin Gilman | Carmel Valley BUS STATION Incredible that bus road planners could take this long to realize the Fort Ord Dunes State Park has its own vehicle circulation plan for their new campground (“State Parks complicates plans for MontereySalinas Transit’s ever-evolving SURF! busway,” Sept. 11-17). Meanwhile, in Marina tree removals and other preliminary work commence even though the revised bus road plan has not even been finalized and has received no final approvals. And what is the real transit necessity of connecting the bus road to the east side of Highway 1 anyway? Tina Walsh | Marina OUT OF TUNE Lame! (“Nonprofit Guitars Not Guns disbands four regional chapters, including Monterey County’s,” Sept. 4-10.) Glad to hear a new organization will be created for our local students. The red tape gets too sticky. Haven Brearton | Marina Interesting how the national organization can just drain the coffers. That does not send a very good message regarding the overall solvency of the parent organization. Greg Hamer | Salinas Bringing these important, inspiring classes back to kids in our communities is of utmost importance! Kids need this musical opportunity so much. Suzanne E. Gravelle | via social media FLIGHT PATH I enjoyed your piece on Marina Airport, formerly Fritzsche Airfield (“From war training to a center for aviation innovation, we have witnessed a swords-to-plowshares moment at Marina’s airport,” posted Sept. 10). Interestingly enough, no one ever discusses the bombing on Oct. 31, 1975 and how the story was controlled with journalists stating minor damage. The blast was heard eight miles away. Bradley Higgins | via email TRAIN TRAVEL Rail opened our West and it needs to get back to being part of our lives and solving some gridlock. Great news and good work! (“A passenger train is close to stopping in King City after decades of rolling through,” posted Sept. 9.) Leslie Rice | Garden Grove, Calif. VAMPIRE WEEK Well written article about the bats and cats (“A dead bat and a rabies freakout are a reminder: Vaccinations save lives,” posted Sept. 12). Not preachy, but logical and responsible. And a reminder that vaccines save lives. Sue Ortenburger | Denver, Colo. About a year ago we had bats get into our house. Our 1-year-old son had a scratch we couldn’t identify so were told by the doctors to start the vaccine process immediately. Off we went to get the first dose. It’s a series of four shots over a week or two; the only place to get the vaccine is at the ER, so four hospital visits for a family of four. The total billed amount by the hospital was $500,000. Luckily, we had insurance—we hit our deductible right away—but the whole situation has bothered me ever since. It just doesn’t seem right. Philip Barrientos | Salinas LETTERS • COMMENTSOPINION Submit letters to the editor to letters@montereycountynow.com. Please keep your letter to 150 words or less; subject to editing for space. Please include your full name, contact information and city you live in.
www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 13 America has a long, painful history of political violence. Again and again, people have been attacked or assassinated not simply for what they did, but for what they said—their speeches, their advocacy, their artistic expression, their willingness to use words to challenge power. And again and again, the nation has looked to its leaders to set a tone in the aftermath. At these moments we need to calm, to unify, to remind everyone that democracy thrives on debate, not blood. Free speech is a cornerstone of our country. We’ve been a beacon to the rest of the world for our commitment to ensuring freedom of expression. Larry Flynt, the controversial publisher of Hustler magazine, was paralyzed in a 1978 assassination attempt by a white supremacist who objected to the magazine’s depiction of interracial couples. A decade later, Flynt was sued for libel in a landmark case. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in his favor, reinforcing the First Amendment, even if speech is offensive. Flynt said, “If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, it will protect all of you.” Yet the list of Americans attacked for their political speech is sobering. Elijah Lovejoy, an abolitionist editor, murdered in 1837 for printing anti-slavery editorials. Congressman James Hinds of Arkansas shot and killed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1868 for speaking out for Black suffrage. Frank Little, a labor organizer, lynched in 1917 for anti-war speeches. The 1960s were scarred by politically motivated killings: Medgar Evers of the NAACP, President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy. In the 1970s, Dan Bolles, an investigative journalist in Arizona, killed after reporting on corruption; Harvey Milk, a San Francisco county supervisor, assassinated for his advocacy of gay rights. More recently, in the 2000s, Chauncey Bailey, editor of the Oakland Post, murdered for his investigative reporting. Dr. George Tiller, a physician and outspoken defender of abortion rights, murdered in Kansas. Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and 18 others shot at a constituent meeting in Tucson in 2011; Republican Congressman Scott Scalise, one of four people shot at a congressional baseball game in Virginia in 2017. In June of this year, Democratic Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband shot and killed in their home. The throughline is clear: No matter your political persuasion, words make people targets. There is a bright side of this history: how presidents have responded. After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson urged “calm and order.” After Kennedy was shot, Lyndon Johnson reassured the country: “Let us continue.” After the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168, Bill Clinton brought the temperature down. After a mass shooting killed nine parishioners in Charleston, Barack Obama literally brought grace—singing “Amazing Grace.” Sadly, Donald Trump is the dark outlier of American history. After the Sept. 10 assassination of 31-year-old Charlie Kirk, a controversial conservative organizer, any hope that the president would use the bully pulpit to lower the temperature rather than raise it was blown to smithereens. Trump chose not to unite. Instead, he used the moment to inflame. He really did say: “We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them.” He spoke not of healing but revenge. He implied that violence is a natural consequence of political rivalry. Words matter. And while presidential words cannot stop violence, they can amplify the very violence they should defuse. Trump’s angry response is unprecedented. It’s dangerous. Political violence in America is not a relic of the past—it is a clear and present danger. Kirk was provocative, spreading what many considered vile, white supremacist ideology. Despite that, he did not deserve to be killed. No one does. The essence of democracy is that we agree to disagree—without resorting to force. Since “The Liberty Song” was written in 1768, we’ve been taught to recognize the power of the principle “united we stand, divided we fall.” That is something we can all rally around, and we must—especially if the president isn’t up to the job. Bradley Zeve is founder & CEO of Monterey County Weekly and Monterey County Now. Words Matter Trump fails in uniting the country, instead politicizing an assassination. By Bradley Zeve ARCH SUPPORT…Squid loves natural arches, the dramatic result of erosion. They’re fun to ooze through is reason enough. But things are a little different in the landlubbing realm, where building an arch over a street costs a cool $100,000. County Supervisor Luis Alejo, who represents Salinas’ District 1, is advocating for a new arch in East Salinas to complement an arch built in 2021 over Main Street in downtown Salinas. Besides referring the matter to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, Alejo has presented the concept to the board of Salinas United Business Association and Santa Lucia Rotary. “The construction of an iconic Alisal Arch will serve as a lasting tribute to the hardworking people, families, organizations and small businesses that form the heart of East Salinas,” Alejo wrote in his pitch to the Board of Supes. But in the arc of this arch story, there’s a battle playing out between Alejo and Salinas City Councilmember Andrew Sandoval, who are both quick on the social media draw. “As a city we have to make choices about where our resources go,” Sandoval wrote on Instagram. He included a list of projects constituents would prefer $100,000 go toward, including fixing potholes and sidewalks and adding streetlights. Alejo responded: “The idea for a future Alisal Arch didn’t come from me, it came directly from the residents themselves.” That’s the inconvenient thing about democracy. Whether or not you build a shiny arch over it, the people will still disagree. TRADING SPACES…One of the nice things about September is that, with Car Month being over, we can get on talking about other things besides how much traffic there is or isn’t. It was just as that craziness was winding down when the Transportation Agency for Monterey County board met on Aug. 27, and the subject of the proposed Sand City Multiuse Trail came up. It would fill in a missing link of the Rec Trail as it passes through Seaside and Sand City along the old rail line, which is owned by TAMC. Sand City was awarded two grants in 2024 totaling over $2 million to design the trail, and just as those designs are starting to take shape, there’s already pushback. Attorney Jason Retterer said his client Monterey Motors—which operates the Jaguar and Land Rover dealership in Seaside—has long leased part of the easement to store about 100 cars, and that parking spaces associated with the proposed trail will take away vital storage parking from the business. Based on those comments, County Supervisor and TAMC board member Luis Alejo asked to revisit the trail, making sure it didn’t impact the auto businesses. The trail is proposed to have parking spaces along parts of it, areas currently parked with cars. So the conflict, for a rec trail, is about parking. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. Democracy thrives on debate, not blood. SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
14 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Red Tape In a last-minute scramble, California lawmakers fail to deliver promised environmental reform. By Yue Stella Yu and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde FORUM In June, California Democrats rushed to significantly roll back the state’s landmark environmental law to clear the path for land development. Environmental justice advocates weren’t happy. Because of changes signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, certain developments now are exempt from environmental reviews, which advocates fear will cut out tribal community feedback, threaten endangered species and lead to more pollution for some of the state’s most at-risk residents. Facing backlash, Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire promised a fix. “That is an issue that we’re going to need to continue to focus on in the weeks and months to come before we leave this session in September,” McGuire told his fellow senators in June. He’s now run out of time. Newsom, McGuire and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, did not agree on how to meaningfully address those environmental concerns before the legislative session ended on Sept. 12, punting the discussion to the fall. “This is a complex policy issue and we must get [it] right for Californians,” said Nick Miller, a spokesperson for Rivas. “Our assessment is it needs to go through a public process with input and discussion.” The differences laid bare the growing rift between the pro-development Assembly, which has pushed to cut red tape to build housing faster, and the Senate, which has been skeptical about private development without labor and environmental protections. “To say that the trust has broken is, I think, a little bit of an understatement,” said Assemblymember Liz Ortega, a Hayward Democrat who was among 35 lawmakers to urge legislative leaders to fix the law in August. “Several of us have asked to have this fixed, and we were told that it was going to get fixed, and now we’re here and we’re told that it’s not.” In a symbolic move, Senate leaders announced Wednesday a last-minute measure to reinstate environmental review requirements for some high-polluting manufacturing plants within 300 feet of homes and schools, despite knowing it did not have time to pass this year. “We thought it was really important for the public to see that when we made that commitment, we meant it. That we were not just talking about it,” said Senate Budget Committee Chair Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. The stifled effort contrasts how quickly California’s top Democrats scaled back the environmental rules in June. The governor at the time threatened to reject the state budget if the deal did not come through. The rollback was tucked into budget trailer bills—a tool leaders have used to rush major policies through. The rushed nature of the June deal, critics say, is why a “cleanup” is necessary. “It was rammed down everyone’s throats,” says State Sen. Ben Allen, D-El Segundo. “It’s probably why we feel the need to push back.” Yue Stella Yu covers politics and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde covers environmental justice for CalMatters, where this story first appeared. OPINION “To say the trust has broken is an understatement.”
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