10 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY OCTOBER 9-15, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com NEWS The nonprofit National Steinbeck Center has gone without an executive director position since the pandemic began in 2020. About nine months ago, the board brought on John Holland on an interim basis—first for 90 days, extended twice—only to realize maybe they had been too optimistic. “Financially we are not quite there yet,” says Steve Emerson, board president. Holland’s last day was Sept. 30, and he is already diving into a new effort. He is planning to launch a nonprofit called The Steinbeck Experience centered on Cannery Row in Monterey, hoping to draw tourists in larger numbers than visit the Steinbeck Center in Salinas. “Everyone would say to me: The Steinbeck Center really needs to be in Monterey,” he says. As a docent at Pacific Biological Laboratories (where Steinbeck hung out with Ed Ricketts, among others), Holland sees the volume of tourists who show up for a tour. Even during peak tourist season, a Saturday at the venue now named One Main Street in Salinas might draw just two dozen visitors. He hopes to launch walking tours in Monterey as early as late October. He’s looking for a space to lease from Cannery Row Co. starting in 2026, with aspirations to grow and to include digital components, including virtual reality. He expects all offerings to be free. The concept is a “huband-spoke” model, in which institutions like the Steinbeck Center in Salinas (also home to Steinbeck’s archives) and the Western Flyer Foundation, among others, would be engaged as “spokes,” focused on experiences instead of exhibits. “The ultimate vision is to be the un-museum,” Holland says. Plot Points National Steinbeck Center’s former interim director strikes out to start a new nonprofit. By Sara Rubin On Tuesday, Sept. 30, the Marina City Council held a special meeting to review its 2010 policy on rents in Preston Park and Abrams Park, two former military housing developments the city inherited from the closure of Fort Ord. The issue: annual rent increases for long-term residents since then have been capped at 3 percent or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower, creating an increasing disparity with newer residents. The City Council has been discussing closing that gap for more than two years. Hanging over it all is the desire to find the money to build a proper City Hall and a new fire and police station, estimates of which have run over $50 million, but there is no real plan yet proposed. (In November 2024, Marina voters rejected Measure U, a $50 million bond measure to fund facilities for police, fire and the city.) The meeting also included an update on the loan coming due for Preston Park—the city was initially only given a 50-percent share of Preston Park in 1998, and the other 50 percent was held by the Fort Ord Reuse Authority. The City of Marina bought out FORA’s share in 2015 for $35 million, the loan for which is coming due next February. The meeting got off to an unusual start when City Manager Layne Long announced that, because he is a tenant at Abrams Park, he would be stepping out of the meeting. Mayor Bruce Delgado then introduced Finance Director Tori Hannah (who started with the city in June 2024 after coming over from Pacific Grove) and said she was acting city manager when Long was “out of town.” Hannah then delivered a 20-plus-minute presentation, mostly about the granular details of rental rates, the delta between long-time tenants and newer ones, and how much revenue the city could potentially capture. Toward the end, she got into the refinancing options for the $35 million Preston Park loan based on information she had gotten from consultants, and explained the options, which she had laid out in a table. The takeaway was that the city has been setting aside money for years to repay the loan, and has $13 million in the coffers for it. In three scenarios Hannah laid out for repaying the loan, the city could own Preston Park in 30 years, free and clear, while keeping the same debt payments and rent structure. Those scenarios include using the previously earmarked $13 million and instead putting it toward city facilities. Currently, Preston Park is feeding about $2 million annually into the city’s general fund, and there’s nearly $2 million more coming in above expenses. Former councilmember Gail Morton, who also served on the FORA board and has institutional knowledge of the properties, pointed this out to the council—she thought the council was “piggybacking” the refinancing issue with the rent stabilization, when in fact they aren’t related except in that they involve Preston Park. Public comment, all opposed to rent increases, lasted nearly an hour, and the council deliberated for nearly another two. Toward the end, Delgado asked, “Staff, how are you sensing our direction?” Hannah said some of it was “a little unclear.” Ultimately, nothing was decided. Preston Park (above) and Abrams Park provide a combined 548 city-owned housing units in Marina. City Council is now questioning a 2010 rent stabilization policy. All Talk Seeking revenue, Marina City Council discusses rent increases at Preston and Abrams developments. By David Schmalz “We have the bronze, but where’s the experience?” John Holland says of the John Steinbeck monument on Cannery Row. He hopes to bring the experience to the busy tourist area. The city could own Preston Park in 30 years, free and clear. DANIEL DREIFUSS STEVE SOUZA
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