Hemming and a hawing over the URM buildings downtown is over
One of our Community Pulse Board members said it very well responding to the question “Do you agree with the City Council's decision Monday to place liens against unreinforced masonry downtown properties that have not been brought up to safety standards?” She wrote, “Yes, the time has come to get this issue resolved. Many of the building owners have been non-responsive and not cooperative. I would like to see a low interest loan option available to those who want to repair their buildings.” In chewing on this issue and watching a downtown stuck in a yukky time warp for 25 years, I have vacillated on the approach. But I’ve come around to Mayor Don Gage’s way of thinking and agree with the Council’s action. If the building owners want to demolish, so be it. Let them cut off their noses to spite their faces. They’d better keep those empty lots pristine, though, or they could be declared a public nuisance and, by the way, perhaps there are additional standards of upkeep for downtown properties that could be developed which include empty lots and the alleys behind them. If an entire rebuild with historical sensibility needs to be the way something gets done, OK. But Gage is right, the pile has to move.
Scrapbook July 15-19, 2013
ENGAGEMENT: Paetz/Mickiewicz: Jenna Paetz and Kyle Mickiewicz are engaged to be married.
SWC brings music, religion to Laguna Seca
It's time for Spirit West Coast, the popular Christian Music Festival that will be held at the Laguna Seca Recreation Area near Monterey Aug. 1-3. This is the 16th year for the event, which typically draws crowds of 20,000 visitors over the three days of its performances, making it “the most successful Christian music event in the (southern) West Coast region.” Besides music by top artists in the field of Christian music, the festival features Bible teachings by gifted speakers and other activities for all ages - supported by more than 900 volunteers who donate their time to provide security, concessions, ministry, traffic control, ushering and many other services required to meet the needs of such a large crowd.
‘Oliver’: Heart-wrenching and sentimental
When Charles Dickens wrote “Oliver Twist,” a heart wrenching/sentimental story about the poor and the mistreatment of children in the early 1800s, I imagine the last thing on his mind was a musical about his hero's journey from orphan to finding his upper class family.
Vaccination can lessen severity of rattler bite
Q: Our neighbor told me that his dog has been vaccinated to protect against the poisonous venom of rattlesnakes. Is there really a vaccine for this?
