20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 5, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com unearthed burial site. When he thinks of the potential curse, he thinks of that. Seaside resident Linda Yamane, who has Indigenous heritage and for a time monitored construction digs around the Peninsula, points out that there have been a lot of remains unearthed around the Peninsula over years, and on properties that are currently prospering. Tim Thomas, a local fisheries historian, has heard it was a Sicilian curse. But Daryl Hawkins, a retired architect who helped design Heritage Harbor not long after he had graduated from Cal Poly, has a more nuanced view of why Heritage Harbor failed, aside from the early financial setbacks. “Part of the problem,” says Hawkins, a Monterey native who says he was told by God to become an architect, “is they’re kind of tucked in out of sight, and not on the main path by Fisherman’s Wharf.” When the Monterey City Council held a study session on Wednesday, March 26 to review a draft economic development strategy, Janine Chicourrat, managing director of the Portola Hotel and Spa, was among the first members of the public to address the council. Assistant City Manager Nat Rojanasathira had just finished a nearly hour-long presentation outlining the draft strategy, which among other things, lists the city’s perceived strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats—the so-called “SWOT analysis.” Chicourrat was there to talk about opportunities. “I got to Monterey about 17 years ago, and to the Portola, which was in disrepair, along with the Monterey Conference Center. And I was told ‘no’ over and over again, that that would never happen and we would never re-create it,” she said. “And lo and behold, we had the momentum, we got it done, and we’re reaping the benefits today.” Chicourrat paused for a beat, looked at the council members, then launched into her pitch. “I want to encourage you all to dream big. And what I mean by that is, you need someone from the outside to come in with vision,” she said, someone with redevelopment experience who knows how to finance it, and how to bring the community together behind it. “I see three big assets here in Monterey that have huge potential,” she continued. “The first is Heritage Harbor…” Chicourrat went on to list the two other big opportunities she saw—converting Alvarado Street into a pedestrian-only promenade, and putting a hotel on Wharf 2—and then Rob O’Keefe, president and CEO of See Monterey, spoke next. Before O’Keefe even got to his microphone, he started echoing Chicourrat’s thoughts about Heritage Harbor, where See Monterey’s office is. “Huge opportunity,” he said. The Monterey Bay Aquarium bought Heritage Harbor in 2009 for $20 million, and currently uses some of it for its own offices and leases out the rest to nonprofits and small businesses. State Sen. John Laird and Assemblymember Dawn Addis rent district offices there. When she spoke to council in March, Chicourrat said she’d had conversations with Aquarium Executive Director Julie Packard about the idea of reimagining the property. Other community leaders have privately raised questions about the potential for housing there. Ann Marie Nemanich, the Aquarium’s chief financial officer, says current leasing arrangements with tenants means “it could be years before viable options for Heritage Harbor are assessed and it enters its next phase.” That said, she adds, “The property’s future is open for several pathways if the time comes that it’s no longer needed for Aquarium staff space.” But anyone who’s interested in redeveloping Heritage Harbor, one would think, would also look around the neighborhood. The Custom House is State Registered Historical Landmark No. 1, registered on June 1, 1932. First constructed by the Mexican government in 1827, it’s where the government used to collect taxes on shipments. Yet on a recent, picture-perfect Saturday afternoon, as dozens stream by on the Rec Trail, both the store and museum are empty, save for the two women working in them. The vast Custom House Plaza, dedicated on Sept. 6, 1969 by State Parks and the City of Monterey, “reflects the atmosphere of the early days, and complements the many historic buildings and sites preserved for the enjoyment of present and future generations,” according to its plaque. In other words, same as it never was. Empty. Inside the Pacific House, first constructed in 1847 for the U.S. Navy, is a museum telling the history of the area. A family of three chat briefly with a State Parks guide before stepping out—otherwise, empty. Behind the Pacific House is the Memory Garden, designed in 1927. According to the State Parks website, it’s the most visited garden in Monterey, and popular for weddings. But on this sunny Saturday afternoon, empty. Just a stone’s throw from the walls of the Memory Garden is the corner of Olivier and Scott streets, where Heritage Harbor begins. Here is where the Patanias owned a home that they lived in while renting the bottom floor for income—gone. Inside Heritage Harbor, walking amid the tinted windows, the only visible soul is a man with a leaf blower. The lovely, and quite out-of-placelooking First Brick House, owned by State Parks, is open on Saturdays but no one is inside. One panel is about urban renewal and how Mama Garcia lost her home, which is now an empty museum. Just next door, the charming Whaling Station, former home of the Dodges and now also owned by State Parks, is locked, the curtains closed. The peaceful garden out back is empty. Peeling around to where the Aquarium has its offices, the view of Fisherman’s Wharf is splendid. The wooden stairs down to the Rec Trail are closed off by caution tape, and the scores of people passing by every minute don’t seem to know Heritage Harbor even exists, as their eyes are drawn to the water or what’s ahead of them, not uphill through the trees. Back down at Custom House Plaza, the Monterey History and Art Association’s Stanton Center, home to a spacious, two-story maritime museum built on land owned by the city, sits mostly empty. Yet within sight, one can see that the promenade on Alvarado Street is alive with people, walking by or dining outside, while Custom House Plaza is desolate. The plaza is part of Monterey State Historic Park—the land was the city’s gift to the state for the tunnel project— and is Heritage Harbor’s cousin, the other waterfront piece of Monterey’s urban renewal. The project achieved its goals in important ways: the Lighthouse Tunnel, a costly infrastructure job that required state and federal funding, helped smooth longstanding traffic woes by the wharf. It also cleaned up the waterfront, made it nicer and ensured the protection of some of the city’s oldest buildings, an important priority for the city’s leaders at the time. But how is it that a place so central to the city is so lacking in life? Because people, and their cars, are passing by underneath and out of sight, precisely as designed. DANIEL DREIFUSS “I WANT TO ENCOURAGE YOU ALL TO DREAM BIG.” A primary access point from the Rec Trail to Heritage Harbor is currently blocked off, and no one seems to notice.
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