1989
This is the year that “Love Shack” by the B-52’s, “Funky Cold Medina” by Tone Loc, and “Patience” by Guns N Roses rule the pop charts, The Simpsons and Seinfeld debut on television, Batman rocks the box office, George H. W. Bush takes over from Ronald Reagan as president, Tiananmen Square massacre occurs in China, The 14th Dalai Lama receives the Nobel Peace Prize, the Berlin Wall falls, and Northern California suffers the Loma Prieta earthquake.
february
Coast Weekly hits the streets. The premiere issue of what had previously been a weekly shopper called Coasting contains more news, and otherwise more of the same: serious arts writing; a complete entertainment guide; and ads for local businesses.
DLI says “nyet” to Afghanistan. The language school discontinues instruction in the Afghan languages of Pashto and Dari, as well as Hungarian, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Norwegian, Indonesian, Malaysian and Cantonese.
The Walt Disney Company’s plans to film Turner and Hootch in the area are welcomed in the Peninsula’s other communities. But some Carmelites protest the disruption the still-cute Tom Hanks would bring to their town.
Local golfers feel abandoned when the Spalding Pro-Am abandons Pebble Beach in favor of some scrubby new courses scratched into the Arizona desert.
march
A citizens group calling itself the Hatton Canyon Coalition launches an effort to block CalTrans’ plans to expand Highway 1 by building a new two-lane highway near the mouth of Carmel Valley.
Retail businesses on Alvarado Street in Old Monterey continue to struggle after a decade of focused redevelopment.
Jake Stock’s Abalone Stompers make their first appearance in the pages of the Weekly prior to an appearance at the River Inn in Big Sur.
The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District votes against recommending a moratorium on new water permits in the face of continuing drought conditions.
april
Poet and philosopher Robert Bly headlines a men’s workshop at the Monterey Conference Center.
A Pacific Grove citizens group forms to oppose the construction of a new road and what will later become the Morse Gate into Pebble Beach along the Holman Highway.
The US Motorcycle Grand Prix comes to Laguna Seca.
The Carmel-based Friends of the Sea Otter launches a nationwide campaign to protect the once-endangered creatures following a huge oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.
US Fish and Wildlife temporarily bans the gill-netting of halibut in most of Monterey Bay following a spate of “incidental takings” of harbor porpoises.
Carmel activist Jim Holliday launches a plan to ban cars on Ocean Avenue.
may
A fire in the Luce-Carmel Meat Company is linked to “terrorists” allied with the Animal Liberation Front.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors puts off a decision on the “Fifth Gate” at Pebble Beach. According to Coast Weekly: “A dazed Supervisor Mark Del Piero, himself a lawyer, wandered off muttering the evening’s only undeniable truth: ‘I think we got a big problem. We didn’t decide anything tonight…’”
Seminal environmentalist Dr. Paul Ehrlich speaks at Santa Catalina School in Monterey.
Hazardous Waste Advisory Committee meets to discuss toxic dumps in Monterey County.
june
Simón Salinas is the first Hispanic-American elected to Salinas City Council. The Latino vote begins to display power in politics.
State budget cuts force severe cutbacks to local social services.
Housing prices begin to skyrocket; Coast Weekly News Editor Gersh Kuntzman finds that the most inexpensive home on the market bears the shockingly outrageous price of $100,000!!
The Weekly publishes an investigative piece titled “Freedom in Flames,” about Reagan-era attacks on personal liberties.
july
Hatton Canyon Freeway stalls. The Carmel City Council urges CalTrans to ditch Plan A for the Highway 1 expansion.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors establishes an Oil Spill Contingency Task Force, which aims to review PG&E’s Moss Landing cleanup preparedness and analyze the threat of an oil spill to the Central Coast.
Bruce Ariss, a long-time Monterey designer, artist, writer and actor, is chosen as the art director for the 400-foot mural to be created on the wall of the abandoned building near the aquarium on Cannery Row.
august
A Pacific Grove man collects and stores rainwater through a tank system he invented at his home. He proposes a plan to install a similar system at Pacific Grove High School, which is met with controversy.
The Weekly’s Arts Editor, Chuck Thurman, explores a nudist resort and reveals that it’s a natural, healthy and vibrant place to relax and enjoy oneself.
The 150 extras who braved the icy cold air during the filming of the Tom Hanks film Turner and Hooch in Pacific Grove crowd into the Lighthouse Cinemas to see the movie in hopes of viewing themselves on the silver screen, only to find out that their scene was cut.
More than 300 citizens fill the Steinbeck Forum to get their last chance at zinging retiring Water Board chairman Nick Lombardo.
september
Dead-serious subjects like the San Clemente Dam project, seawater intrusion, and limits to growth are discussed at the Doubletree Hotel during the happyface-named Discover Monterey County Day, sponsored by the smart-growth-advocating Economic Development Council.
The Sands of Monterey, a hotel proposed for the beach in Sand City, is a point of contention during a meeting of the Monterey City Council.
Three local synchronized swimmers dream of competing in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Dizzy Gillespie, Etta James and Herbie Mann headline the Monterey Jazz Festival.
october
Coast Weekly publishes a two-part series criticizing the war on drugs.
Loma Prieta earthquake inflicts significant damage on Santa Cruz and San Francisco, but almost spares Monterey County.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium celebrates its fifth anniversary.
The safety and necessity of The Monterey Bay Sanctuary is questioned and debated.
november
Measure B—a half-cent sales tax to raise $355 million over 20 years earmarked for transportation, the Natividad Medical Center libraries and other community projects—passes by 11 votes.
Even as the Pentagon trims its budget, the Naval Postgraduate School pulls down $18.7 million for more classrooms, a library, and a child development center. The Weekly approves: “Libraries, school buildings, and children’s centers—not a bad way to spend Pentagon dollars.”
december
Local musician Alligator plays the Monterey Brewing Co. after being named the Best Zydeco Musician of 1989 by the Washington Post.
The Monterey chapter of Amnesty International works to promote global observance of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Big Sur Land Trust tangles with Stefan White, son of Emil White, founder of the Henry Miller Library, over how the literary landmark should be preserved.
1990
Millie Vanilli wins a Best New Artist Grammy that’s later stripped following a lip-synch scandal. Dances With Wolves and Ghost dominate the big screen. MTV bans Madonna’s “Justify My Love,” while Mariah Carey and Pearl Jam begin their careers. Washington, DC mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession. Margaret Thatcher resigns as the UK’s Prime Minister.
january
Marvin Davis sells Pebble Beach Company to Minoru Isutani for $850 million.
César Chávez calls for a grape boycott following an outbreak of childhood cancer cases linked to pesticide residue found in grapes.
In a special report prior to Martin Luther King Day, Coast Weekly News Editor Sue Fishkoff talks to members of the local NAACP, who describe conditions of economic segregation. They point specifically to discriminatory hiring policies at Monterey Peninsula College.
february
Hundreds of oil-slicked birds wash up on Monterey Bay beaches. The source of the oil is mysterious.
The results of the first annual Best of Monterey Readers Poll are released. Sadly, Anything Grows, the winner in the Best Business Name category, has been out of business for more than a year.
march
Seaside activist Helen Rucker is called on the carpet by an MPC screening committee on which she sat, following a January Coast Weekly article in which she questioned the college’s commitment to affirmative action.
County Supervisor Karin Strasser-Kauffman spearheads a fight to prevent the cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy from piping sewage 26 miles along the Pajaro River to pump it into the Monterey Bay.
april
The Monterey Bay Arts Center Committee forms at the behest of Supervisor Sam Karas to investigate the possibility of building a first-rate theater in Monterey County.
Seaside’s Lower Broadway Task Force meets to discuss the possibility of turning vacant storefronts into a thriving downtown.
Salinas activist Juan Martinez organizes the Alisal Betterment Committee to work to reform education in his neighborhood.
may
Utilizing its most clever headline to date (a rare pun), Coast Weekly publishes an article about the new fad of paintball, and calls the piece “Bang Bang, You’re Red.”
South County residents organize to block a US Army proposal to build housing for troops on historically significant land very near Mission San Antonio, west of King City.
june
Peninsula and South County residents grumble that Measure B—which passed last fall and creates a half-cent increase in local sales tax—is funding too many North County projects. $123 million is slated to fund a Prunedale bypass, rerouting 101 traffic around Prunedale.
july
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney recommends closing 35 military installations, including Fort Ord. Congressman Leon Panetta (D-Monterey) organizes a report which predicts that over $1 billion would be lost to local economies.
august
Local Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-Los Banos) puts forth a bill to stop businesses from requiring credit cards from customers attempting to pay bills with checks.
Ten bald eagles are transplanted from British Columbia to Big Sur.
september
Prop 128 threatens to ban potentially harmful pesticides, including methyl bromide, a chemical dangerously similar to nerve gas.
Pillsbury-Green Giant Corporation moves out of the region in search of cheaper labor. Rep. Leon Panetta (D-Monterey) tries to pass a bill that would forbid the federal government’s buying from food firms that move labor to a country where the minimum wage is lower than the USA’s.
october
Penalties and fines are doled out to citizens who use more than their monthly allocation of water.
Chris Isaak plays at Doc Rickett’s Lab.
november
An exchange program between Monterey County and the Soviet Union allows local teachers and students to learn from and about people once considered enemies.
Coast Weekly reporter Jim Cole goes to Saudi Arabia to report on “Desert Shield,” the USA’s military build-up prior to the first war in Iraq.
december
The Monterey City Council attempts to put a nativity scene on the City Hall lawn, and is rebuked by the ACLU.
Various local students are asked what they think the County and the world will be like in 2010. One replies: “I think that if they close Fort Ord then they should open a CSU campus there.”
1991
Silence of the Lambs scares the hell out of everyone who dares to go to the movies. The last episode of Dallas airs. Britney Spears appears on Star Search. Pete Rose is banned from the Baseball Hall of Fame. Tiger Woods wins his first USGA title. Jack Kevorkian is ordered to stop assisting suicides. A DOS version of American Online and the first Web site are both launched. Serial killer/cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested. Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,500 homes. Journalist Terry Anderson is released after seven years of captivity in Beirut. The Gulf War begins. Dr. Seuss dies. The Soviet Union collapses.
january
A five million year old fossilized walrus skull, found on a local beach, is put on display at the Monterey Peninsula College Library. Scientists declare it a new, previously undiscovered species.
Carmel Valley resident Richard Dunne attempts to set up a conference call between George H.W. Bush and Saddam Hussein as the First Gulf War heats up. While he gets through to Hussein, Bush is not interested.
february
The Monterey County branch of Planned Parenthood loses its only full-time doctor and the only local physician who would perform low-cost abortions when Dr. Tom Grunter is called for reserve duty in the Gulf War.
Local growers deal with the banning of pesticides by experimenting with new, safer methods.
march
The 1990 Census shows African-Americans to be a shrinking demographic in Monterey County’s more affluent towns.
april
In the wake of the Gulf War, people are interested in alternative forms of transportation, and biking experiences a rise in interest. To help foster bike riding, the County manages to win $450,000 of the State’s bike project money.
There is speculation that the County will have its first natural gas station by the end of the year.
may
Fort Ord Community Task Force Speculates on the impact of the future closure of Fort Ord—how to deal with civilian job loss and what 30,000 acres of potentially very profitable real estate.
The increasingly laden Aid to Families with Dependent Children costs the county an extra $256,560.
june
A public dock is added to the end of Wharf #1 in Monterey, allowing people to sail into Monterey for the day.
Seaside City Councilman Don Jordan blocks Planned Parenthood’s attempts to buy a city lot to use as a parking lot for their proposed new office. Jordan dislikes Planned Parenthood’s locating in Seaside because they perform abortions.
july
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney begins campaign to close Fort Ord and other military bases. If he succeeds, the County anticipates losing over $1 billion in direct economic activity.
The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District has a major conference at the Monterey Conference Center to choose a place to build a desalination plant. Construction is supposed to begin in 1992.
Legendary rap artists Run DMC perform at Monterey’s Doc Rickett’s Lab.
After Representative Leon Panetta announces the 12 men for the Fort Ord Task Force, a Weekly editorial criticizes the action, and Panetta almost immediately responds by expanding the size of the board, adding women and minorities. One of the Weekly’s early victories.
august
Canadian Fred Moore rolls a rainbow on wheels along Highway 1 as part of a project called “Walking Rainbow for Service, Healing, Peacemaking and Greening of the Earth.” Even though it is difficult to tell how the project will influence the rest of society, at least the rainbow is easy to move: Moore says he can push it along with only one finger.
Rob Schneider, riding high on the success of his somewhat annoying “copy machine guy” skit on Saturday Night Live, brings his “funny” comedy to Salinas’ Sherwood Hall. Someone should have stopped him back then before he made “comedies” like The Animal and The Hot Chick.
september
An art exhibit with 100 original paintings and drawings by writer Henry Miller opens at the Coast Gallery in Big Sur.
Angry Monterey resident Daniel Donnelly skewers Pacific Grove Mayor Flo Schaefer and the Asilomar Dunes Restoration project with a publication titled Cognitions.
In an outstanding week of live music on the Monterey Peninsula, the Count Basie Orchestra, Dizzie Gillespie and Chick Corea play the 34th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival. Meanwhile Dan Hicks & the Acoustic Warriors perform at the Portofino Café, and guitarist Gregg Allman joins the Alameda All-Stars at The Club in Monterey.
october
Actor Woody Harrelson plays with his 10-piece band, Manly Moondog and The Three Kool Kats, at Doc Rickett’s Lab for two shows on a Sunday.
Local favorite radio station KPIG returns after a seven-month long hiatus as a Top 40 station called The Heat.
The Henry Miller Centennial Celebration occurs at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. Events include a presentation on censorship with Lawrence Ferlinghetti and others.
november
Smoking is banned in all county buildings including the hospital.
Jazz innovator Chick Corea plays two shows at The New Boiler Room.
1992
A Few Good Men and Scent of a Woman dominate theaters. Dr. Dre’s The Chronic becomes the first G-funk album. Johnny Carson retires from The Tonight Show. A big purple dinosaur named Barney makes his debut. President George H. W. Bush vomits on the Japanese Prime Minister. Mike Tyson is convicted of rape. Four LAPD officers accused of beating Rodney King are found not guilty. Amy Fisher is arrested for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco. Benny Hill dies.
january
Japanese tycoon and Pebble Beach owner Minoru Isutani considers selling expensive memberships to cover debts incurred in his $840 million purchase of the golf resort. A round of golf costs $250. Later in the year, Isutani sells Pebble Beach Company to the Lone Cypress Company.
february
Within a month of President George H.W. Bush making official the designation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, environmentalists start asking just how clean the water will be under federal protection.
A Weekly article on safe sex prints, among things, the word “dildo.” The story includes the sidebar “ten commandments for safer sex” including the imperative: “Thou shalt explore the wide world of wonderful intercourse alternatives.”
The Army is accused of cherry-picking for its intention to retain parts of land on Fort Ord including the Silas B. Hayes hospital and the two golf courses. Then Seaside Mayor Lance McClair says, “It’s certainly not a plan that provides Seaside with economic recovery opportunities.”
march
An attempt to raise taxes to fund city services in Salinas fails. The tax would have cost homeowners roughly $1 a week. Former city councilmember Robert Taylor led the charge against the tax.
april
The Weekly ambushes records clerks from Seaside to Carmel and demands they open their books in a test of public records laws. Every city except Pacific Grove responds to the paper’s request for public records within 10 days. At Seaside City Hall a clerk wants to charge the paper $16 an hour to assemble the requested documents.
A piece by the Weekly examines the relationship between builders and the California Coastal Commission. According to the article, of the 75,000 permits requested since 1973, some 95 percent were approved.
may
An “unpopular” verdict in the Rodney King beating case prompts a riot in Los Angeles. 2,500 troops from Fort Ord are dispatched for riot duty. The Weekly sends a reporter and photographer along to check out the action. In one case, an attempt to interview soldiers is thwarted by Army officers.
In a piece about local nude beaches, the Weekly publishes a photo of bare asses. Two of ‘em. Butt naked. Saggy.
june
The marine conservation group Save Our Shores forms a neighborhood watch group of sorts, called Sanctuary Watch to encourage the waterborne public to report violations of Marine Sanctuary rules against pollution and harming animal life.
august
The notion that an office of accountants from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) is en route gets people whipped up thinking that the so-called “Nerd Brigade” will save the area from economic collapse when Fort Ord closes.
september
Reports that trash from outside Monterey County is being dumped in local garbage dumps prompts a “brouhaha.” It turns out that a small percentage of trash comes from elsewhere and it doesn’t get left here for free.
october
Methyl bromide, used as a fumigant on local strawberry crops, gets the attention of the EPA. The campaign to ban the chemical mixture begins.
december
Wouldn’t you know it: baby-boomers get even more introspective with age. A story about approaching middle age actually says that people—men and women both!—can expect to have gray hair. Holy crap; holy crap stop the goddamn presses!!!! Stop!
A teeny-weeny (2,000-acre) development in Carmel Valley called Rancho San Carlos rushes out of the gate with the claim that it will make pantloads of money and save the environment.
Leon Panetta, then a congressman, will move to run the Office of Management and Budget. He had been running the Fort Ord Community Task Force, which was an attempt to soften the blow from the base closure. An article stated prophetically, “…the degree to which he has single-handedly kept reuse plans from becoming hopelessly mired in local politics may become clearest once he’s gone.”
Sixteen young people are murdered in Salinas in what will become a rising tide of gang violence. A police captain is quoted saying it is the most violent of his 30 years of service.
Local movie star Clint Eastwood stars in the Unforgiven, which he also directed. The late county supervisor, Sam Karas, has a small role.
1993
It’s a female moviegoer’s dream year with the release of The Piano, Philadelphia, and Sleepless in Seattle. For the boys, Beavis and Butthead make their MTV debut. Michael Jordan swaps basketball for baseball. Bill Clinton becomes President. The World Trade Center is bombed. A 51-day standoff begins in Waco, TX between the ATF and Branch Davidians. Lorena Bobbit cuts off her husband’s penis. Thurgood Marshall, Dizzy Gillespie, and Frank Zappa die. Nelson Mandela wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
january
The EW Scripps Company of Cincinatti buys the Monterey County Herald.
february
Once again, the sex-drenched pages of the Weekly dispense advice. A story called “Great Sexpectations” tells readers to “Go make love in a different room in the house. Next time find a different time of day to have sex. Come home for a nooner—a quickie.”
The Weekly examines gang violence in Salinas.
For a 72-page Best of Monterey County issue, the Weekly unveils a new logo. It lasts until 2004, when it get tweaked just a bit.
march
The Defense Language Institute survives the 1992 Base Re-Alignment and Closure process. Part of the reason it does not get shut down is that it would have cost money to move the DLI from the Presidio and the whole purpose of BRAC is to save money.
Brad Hawthorne wins his fifth Big Sur Marathon at 2:20:24, almost four minutes slower than his 1987 record setting pace, when he ran an average per mile of 5 minutes, 14 seconds.
april
“Environmentalists say protections weakened under [Gov.] Wilson.”
NAFTA divides a large slate of candidates for US Congress.
With so many ideas floating around at Fort Ord, the question has to be asked, “Can California Afford CSU-Fort Ord?”
The Sea Otter Classic Mountain Bike Race (formerly known as the Laguna Seca Challenge) rolls into Laguna Seca.
may
Following up on its first annual “What’s with Women?” issue of the previous year, the Weekly asks questions including “What’s the stumbling block to better communication between men and women?” One response: “Our anatomies—simple as that.”
Under a headline “Coffeehouse Culture” the Weekly runs a story about the return of the café. If only we knew then what we know now.
Concerns over DDT in the sludge under Moss Landing Harbor cause harbor commissioners to fret over clean-up costs.
Seaside City Council decides to allow a ballot measure that would allow card-room gambling.
june
Under the headline “Water Wars,” the Weekly examines the debate over the local water shortage that divided options between constructing a dam on the Carmel River or a desalination plant.
Once again, unable to control its most primal urges, the Weekly offers up its second “Men” issue to ask: “Does pornography turn you on?” Well, does it, punk? One reader wrote: “No, because real sex involves warm, tender and affectionate feelings and these are never portrayed.” That sensitive-guy schtick probably helped him score.
july
The City of Monterey buys the real Doc Ricketts laboratory on Cannery Row for $170,000. It was ah, rickety.
Seaside officials and citizens wait patiently for the Embassy Suites hotel to be built. The idea, first hatched in 1985, got snared in a lawsuit by the Sierra Club. The City won the case, but the developer then died in a plane crash, toxic waste was found on site, and then, of course, trouble with financing.
august
Asset forfeiture laws involving drug arrests get highlighted on the Peninsula when a Marina woman loses her purse. It contains a burned-down joint and $11,451. She is charged with no crime, but the cops confiscate her money.
More haggling over how to manage Fort Ord. An idea to set up a joint powers agreement gets the big “No!” from local government and business-types.
september
The City of Seaside and the Army continue to haggle over the Bayonet and Black Horse golf courses. The City wants the courses real bad, but the Army isn’t ready to give them up.
The Weekly continues to insist on calling its locale “MoCo,” reportedly to save ink costs.
Germans and Swiss have begun to ride bikes more than drive cars. That’s Germans and Swiss in Germany and Switzerland, neither of which is in MoCo.
Local fishermen face a “very depressed situation.”
Jimmy Doolittle, the airman who led the B-25 bomber raids over Tokyo in WWII, dies at the age of 96 in Pebble Beach.
october
The Weekly runs photos of very good-looking women to advertise the Personals section. Smokin’ hot, some of ‘em.
november
Whoops! Back up. We forgot UFOs! Spaceships are out there too! Writer Chuck Thurman asks: “Local sightings—logical or psychological?” He finds some Carmel woman who claims to “channel intelligences.” Did we mention pot smoking? Lots, lots of people smoked dope in 1993.
Seaside Mayor Lance McClair poses on the cover in golf mufti, gripping a 3-wood. Wait, he almost got recalled, didn’t he? The news? Oh, yeah, political infighting between the city, the county and the army threaten base re-use plans.
Curt Gandy, gadfly, makes what will become a steady stream of accusations about the toxic hell that is Fort Ord.
december
The year ends with a writing contest. Alan Irwin of Seaside wins with a story about prison.
1994
Forest Gump is released and spawns a restaurant chain. Pulp Fiction garners a cult following. Friends debuts. Ice Princess Nancy Kerrigan is thug-whacked. O.J. Simpson is slow-speed chased and lands a nine-month television career. NAFTA goes into effect. Ronald Reagan reveals he has Alzheimer’s. The Whitewater Investigation begins. John Candy, Kurt Cobain, Richard Nixon, and Jackie Kennedy die.
january
The Salinas Union High School District puts students on notice, just letting ‘em know that their lockers and backpacks can be searched. The ACLU cries foul.
Massage parlor operators decry the get tough tactics of the Monterey Police who start arresting women for prostitution in sting operations. In 1993, the cops shut down three of nine massage parlors in the city.
The state highway department finds that 76 bridges and other structures in Monterey County are in need of seismic retrofit. Concern was prompted in part by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
In Seaside, revelations of intimidation and bad behavior at City Hall surface. Female employees start coming to the Weekly to complain about inappropriate actions on the part of city manager Sam Head.
february
Controversy at Seaside City Hall taints the police chief, Charles Richardson, who asks for a hearing to clear his name. He says he was accused by the mayor of conducting an illegal investigation into city manager Sam Head, and then leaking the information to the local press.
It gets hotter and hotter in Seaside. Former city attorney Elaine Cass—who served for 11 years—alleges verbal and physical harassment by Sam Head.
A break from scandal. The prospect of a college at Fort Ord scares the pants off the moneyed set, who want to protect their “storybook” towns. One Monterey citizen says this at a public hearing: “If you want Alvarado Street infested with dope-crazed hippies, drunks and derelicts, then go for it.”
Carmel city councilmember Barbara Livingston has a different take. She’s worried that CSUMB students will pile into all those affordable rentals in her town, creating situations where students would share housing! She’s quoted saying, “…there’s no legal way to deny groups from living together.”
Students lobby administrators for condom vending machines in the hallways at Carmel High.
The Aquarium starts a program to save orphaned otter pups.
In Hatton Canyon, critics of a plan to divert Highway 1 through there draws fire from critics who say studies on the project are “flawed.”
may
Third time’s the charm. The Weekly asks women a battery of gender-related questions. When asked what they do to protect themselves, one Seaside woman responded that she carries a straight razor. She continues: “I’m a healthy size, so I can sit on them and hurt them.”
Under the headline “Alone at the Gates of Hell,” the Weekly takes a look at the stigma of mental illness.
Blues Traveler plays at Laguna Seca Daze.
The Weekly runs an extensive story and interview with author Tom Robbins, who wrote, among other books, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. His secret; “I read a lot. I think a lot. I take a psychedelic refresher every now and then.”
june
Labor protests by agricultural workers in the Salinas Valley threaten to spin into lettuce boycotts on the order of national grape boycotts in years past. The friction is over contracts.</> <>In 1993, narcotics task forces had confiscated $28 million in marijuana from local growers. The Weekly hikes up into Big Sur to get the story first hand, from a pot monger named “Don.” Innocent, nude sunbathers report that they don’t appreciate getting scoped by cops in low-flying
helicopters.
july
Concerns about unexploded ordnance in the ground at Fort Ord prompt state environmental officials to threaten a boycott of the ceremony transferring 700 acres from the Army to CSU-Monterey Bay.
Cachagua locals decry plans for a dam on the Carmel River. One resident says, “Money and lawsuits are the only thing that will stop the dam.”
Area cops take up bicycles for patrols. “We do a lot of drug busts,” says a PG cop. “We just sneak up behind them and they don’t even know we’re there.”
The US Golf Association proposes moving its golf museum from New Jersey to the Monterey waterfront. City council member Ruth Vreeland resists.
august
County health director Walter Wong, who has been appearing in the paper a lot lately, announces that wells in the Salinas Valley could be contaminated with nitrates. The wells are already in danger from saltwater intrusion. Nitrates are derived from dairy runoff, fertilizers and sewage.
september
North Salinas High varsity football coach Chuck Noroian gets put on the sideline because he refused to enlist players who could not hold up better than a “C” </>average. He is quoted saying, “I am an educator first.”
Pacific Repertory Theatre saves Carmel’s historic Golden Bough Playhouse and creates Monterey County’s only “resident-professional” theater.
Fort Ord officially closes its gates—a year after the 7th Infantry is deactivated.
Planners begin trying to predict traffic patterns on Fort Ord in 2015. Preliminary drawings call for connecting Highway 101 to the coast through Fort Ord with four lanes of traffic and a train.
The battle over Prop. 187 begins. Known as the “Save our State” initiative, it would require local cops to cooperate with immigration officials when arrestees are not citizens.
october
Homosexuals come out in the pages of the Weekly. A staff writer speaks openly about her own bisexuality.
Congressman Michael Huffington of Santa Barbara antes up his own fortune to run for senator against Dianne Feinstein. He does not win. Here’s a gem: “My great-uncle was a rancher. I’ve got boots. I’ve got a cowboy hat. I’ve been there.”
The Weekly publishes its first Bars, Clubs and Cafés guide. Old stand-by Alfredo’s Cantina gets high marks for its jukebox. A gay bar called After Dark wins points for being the “groovin’est, butt-shakin’est place” around.
november
The Weekly fills page after page with candidate information in preparation for Election Day. Some names are still around and some of the paper’s endorsements stick.
The debate over medical marijuana lights up. Santa Cruz voters pass a measure that discourages prosecution.
december
Even though the Sanctuary has federal authority, local officials claim to be “helpless” to stop small oil spills.
The Weekly devotes a cover story to cats and dogs under the headline “What’s with pets?” The newspaper’s mascot, the late Gyro, appears in full color.
Nineteen ninety-four ends with a short story contest. Entries are limited to 94 words. The winner is a piece about two boys escaping Guatemala and making it through Mexico to the United States.
1995
Alanis Morissette makes her US debut, and Sheryl Crow wins her Best New Artist Grammy. Hugh Grant scores with Divine Brown. MP3 files flood the Internet. A criminal jury finds O.J. Simpson not guilty. Christopher Reeve falls off of his horse and is paralyzed. The Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is bombed. Jacques Chirac becomes president of France. Clinton signs a bill that puts an end to the federal 55-mile-per-hour speed limit law. Mickey Mantle and Eva Gabor die.
january
MusselWatch, the Sanctuary program to monitor water quality by examining mussels, gets cut. The idea behind the program was to use mussels as indicators of contaminants in the water because the poisons accumulate inside the creatures.
The Weekly recognizes local heroes, a handful of folks who have made commitments to the community through action and art.
A Vermont politician named Peter Smith takes the reins as CSUMB’s president.
A few Pacific Grove High School students claim to be members of the Ku Klux Klan. A local police chief calls the claims “nonsense.”
february
Here we go again. Under the headline “Better Love,” readers are advised how to love themselves first then how to love their partners even more.
Plans to build the Steinbeck Center in Salinas emerge. The foundation behind it decides they need to raise $5 million to build a 37,000-square-foot center that would draw 200,000 people a year.
march
Land use politics in the Salinas Valley heat up with the recognition that valuable agricultural land is being gobbled up by development as it was around Los Angeles and San Jose. A county planning director says, “I don’t think anyone goes out and says they want to do away with ag, but they find it convenient to change for an applicant at a time, a project at a time.”
More than 1,000 homes, $223 million worth of highway, and 20,000 acres of farmland get wrecked by the Flood of ’95. The Carmel River threatens Carmel Valley and the Pajaro jumps its banks, flooding the town of Pajaro.
Fresh from the flood disaster, the Weekly learns that some 200 buildings in “MoCo” have not undergone seismic retrofits. One of the most historic structures in the state, Colton Hall in Monterey, “could come tumbling down during a major quake.”
California ranks just behind China and the entire US for having the largest penal system in the world. It spawns growth in prison construction around the state to hold a record 125,842 prisoners.
april
Plans to improve Highway 68 between Monterey and Salinas take a back seat to other budget priorities. The plan was to widen the road. But, “People forget this is a scenic highway.”
Many of the grand designs on Fort Ord re-use fall by the wayside when confronted by reality. Everything gets scaled back, from the number of new jobs to the number of students at CSUMB. One thing that doesn’t get scaled back is the bureaucratic and political static and backbiting.
When homegrown terrorists blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, there is a meek flirtation with militia by a group calling itself the Sons of Liberty. The Sons don’t return phone calls from the Weekly.
may
Jimmy Connors—in town to play a Pebble Beach tournament with John McEnroe, Björn Borg and Guillermo Vilas—says in an interview, “The desire to play for oneself has to be there, to want to be in the best possible shape, and to do what it takes to bring that out.”</>
A music festival called Laguna Seca Daze brings the Black Crowes, Bob Dylan, the Indigo Girls, and Widespread Panic to the Peninsula.
june
More evidence of the decline of Western civilization: the Weekly reveals that “Local surgeons say plastic surgery is a permanent slice of American life.”
Now men get to answer those tough gender questions. When asked if sexuality affects masculinity, men are downright confused. When asked what they fear, the answers range from loneliness to terrorists to chainsaws.
july
In yet another prophecy, the question is asked: “Is the colorless, genderless world of the Internet the ultimate in democracy or a dehumanizing demon?”
august
As CSUMB opens its doors, the student population in “MoCo” rises to more than 16,000. When asked what a student should learn about MoCo upon coming here for school, one student replies “If you want to have fun, go to Santa Cruz.”
september
Ah yes! The moment we’ve all been waiting for. In a comparison of living in four different communities, the Weekly asks, “Are we paying the price for living in paradise?”
Only weeks later, the question is asked, “Paradise Lost?” Will the Carmel Valley General Plan jeopardize the area with overdevelopment? Again, more prophecy: “Carmel Valley faces an uncertain future as a community for working families.”
october
On its 20th birthday of the founding of the City of Marina, a water district commissioner says: “Some of what has happened in the city has been driven by developers.”
The Weekly covers the important information our readers crave, like: what bars to frequent. Along with the addresses and sketches of each watering hole, drinking wisdom is shared, such as, “It’s more humiliating to ride in a cop car than it is in a taxi.”
november
In one of the biggests local controversies in years, voters are urged to cast a ballot on Measure C, the proposal to build the Los Padres Dam. A nearly full page of opinion pieces cautions against the measure.
Marina gets everybody fired up with a proposal to allow another card room beyond the two it already has. It gets messy when FORA tries to step in, but Marina says it’s Marina’s business.
december
Arts writer Rick Deragon looks to local churches for “hidden gems of art.”
Various local entities vie for control of the East Garrison section of Fort Ord. Mixing some strange bedfellows, the Sheriff’s Office, Native Americans, and local artists all want a piece.
The Weekly rolls out it’s second annual pet survey asking the hard questions—or not—about “that look of adoration in a dog’s eyes and the funny growling sound that cats make when they’re happy.”
The year ends with a short story contest limited to entries of 95 words. In past years, stories about prison and immigration won. In 1995, it was about being 95 years old.
1996
Everyone’s doing the Macarena. Tickle Me Elmo takes the holidays by storm. Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is arrested. The Prince and Princess of Wales officially divorce. JonBenet Ramsey is killed. The English Patient is the film to watch. Dolly The Cloned Sheep is born. Rapper Tupac Shakur is killed. Phil Collins goes solo from Genesis. Linkin Park and Jay-Z make career beginnings. After 12 years, Murder She Wrote ends. ValuJet Flight 592 crashes in the Florida Everglades. TWA flight 800 explodes over Long Island.
february
District 1 Supervisor Simón Salinas is arrested on suspicion of driving drunk: according to Salinas police reports, Salinas hit a light pole, a fire hydrant, sheared off a telephone pole, and then ran his car off the road, suffering minor injuries. His blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.
Parents debate drug education in schools.
Sam Farr takes heat for changing his vote on NAFTA—from no to yes. “This man is a brie-eating, Chablis-sipping, professional politician from Carmel,” says Congressional challenger Robert Wigod of Capitola.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium debuts the Outer Bay wing. “We’re not looking to enlarge growth, we’re looking to maintain growth,” executive director Julie Packard says.
march
Zan Henson, Dave Potter and Jeff Davi are competing in the District 5 Supervisors race. “There is a perception that my supporters are wealthy developers and business people,” Davi says, “but I feel my support is a lot broader.” Potter wins.
MPC’s drama department brings in professional actors.
Highway 68 has too much traffic but there’s no money for road improvements.
KSBW anchor Dina Ruiz is engaged to Clint Eastwood.
april
Local activist group charges that the county District Attorney’s office is not enforcing federal child support laws.
Dudley Moore comes to Pacific Grove to perform a jazz concert.
A meeting of business people, scientists and concerned citizens is held at Wharf #2 to discuss the management of the Bay’s kelp forests: accusations of rape and mismanagement proliferate.
Big Sur celebrates its first jazz festival with Charlie Hunter, Mingus Amungus, and more.
Local bookstores brace for the opening of a chain superstore, Borders, in Sand City.
may
Christmas in April—a 24-year-old program that provides free home repairs for elderly, disabled, and low-income people—comes to Monterey County.
Hartnell College turns 75.
Title IX, a women’s sports bar, opens on Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey. “Yes, we have a large contingent of lesbians,” says owner Kathy de Maria. “They’re just people, like everybody else.”
june
Caller ID goes into effect, at a cost of $6.50 a month.
The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, inspired by the movie Forrest Gump, is founded, and its first chain restaurant opens on Cannery Row.
july
CSUMB’s Black Box Cabaret/Coffeehouse opens.
august
Tattoos and piercings are declared mainstream. “Tattoos are everywhere,” says Steve Hendricks, owner of Gold Coast Tattoos in Marina and Monterey. “Everyone’s getting them—doctors, lawyers, police and firemen, everyone.”
september
The TELLUS report is released—the most comprehensive report ever done in the County. It proves what everyone already knew: many Latinos struggle with poverty, racism, high drop-out rates, crime, and poor health care.
october
7,200 acres in the southeastern section of Fort Ord are transfered to the Bureau of Land Management.
november
Natividad Hospital is in its fifth lawsuit with former employees in the past 15 months; employees charge CEO Howard Classen with discrimination, cronyism, and overall mismanagement.
december
Economic indicators show that the Monterey Bay area is having a banner year in business. “We had to double and triple check the numbers because they were so good they didn’t seem right,” one analyst says.
1997
Good Will Hunting reigns. Counting Crows and The Wallflowers rule the charts. Ally McBeal begins, while Married With Children ends. Mike Tyson nibbles on Evander Holyfield’s ear. Bill Clinton is inaugurated for a second term. Princess Diana and Mother Theresa die, as do 39 Heaven’s Gate cultists who commit suicide when Comet Hale-Bopp does a flyby with their spaceship in its wake. Amazon.com goes public. NASA’s Pathfinder lands on Mars. John Denver’s plane crashes off the coast in Monterey. Couture King Gianni Versace is killed.
january
Monterey County Emergency Services Coordinator and County Administrator Ernest Morishita declares a state of local emergency for flood damage in Salinas and other parts of the County.
California Condors are released into the Big Sur Ventana Wilderness, after a $20 million project to bring them back from the brink of extinction. It is the big birds’ first time back in the County in 100 years.
february
Tiger Woods plays the AT&T Golf Tournament.
Local coffee house owners are upset that Starbucks is coming to downtown Monterey next month.
Moss Landing Marine Labs shows that banned pesticides—like PCBs—are still affecting wildlife in the Elkhorn Slough.
march
After 20 years of noncompliance, Monterey County meets federal guidelines for ozone levels.
The Carmel Pine Cone is sold to husband and wife Paul Miller and Kirstie Wilde. The previous month, the Pine Cone’s sister publication, the Monterey Times, shut down.
april
The National Steinbeck Center breaks ground in Oldtown Salinas.
Sand City’s sales tax revenues are expected to go from $1 million to $1,800,000 this year with the completion of the Edgewater Shopping Center, which houses Target, Circuit City and Borders. There are 200 residents in the city.
15-year-old Michael Butler is the victim of a drive-by shooting outside his Seaside home on April 28 by possible gang members.
may
Monterey is ranked as having some of the worst cable service from TCI of any area that the provider serves. Monterey residents pay more money for fewer channels.
KAZU 90.3 FM goes off the air following a fire that destroyed the studio in Pacific Grove.
CSUMB has its first graduating class.
Clint Eastwood orders that the Coast Weekly no longer be distributed at Mission Ranch.
A recycling conference at the DoubleTree Hotel in Monterey looks towards a future of zero waste.
june
Monterey County Superior Court Judge Richard Silver grants an injunction against Clint Eastwood’s Canada Woods North development project.
County Supes fail to reach a unanimous vote to declare “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride Weekend,” an idea championed by Supervisor Dave Potter.
SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local 817 wins an 8 percent wage increase over the next two years for health care employees of the County.
US Dept of Fish and Wildlife Service charges that pumping from the Carmel River is endangering the California red-legged frog and pumping must be curtailed or stopped.
Salinas creates a Tourism Task Force.
july
$8.5 million Salinas Sports Complex christened at the California Rodeo.
KAZU 90.3 FM moves to new digs at 167 Central Avenue after two months of being off the air following a fire.
Texaco and South County landowners sue Monterey County for rights to Salinas Valley water.
Miami-based Knight Ridder announces that it will acquire the Monterey County Herald.
A local citizen’s organization, Landwatch Monterey County, is formed to preserve the community’s economic vitality, high agricultural productivity, and environmental health by encouraging greater public participation in planning.
august
Whole Foods Market of Austin, Texas merges with the Granary Market on Lighthouse Avenue, and will open at the Del Monte Shopping Center next year.
The Dream Theater is purchased by Theater Services and planned for remodel.
Union employees of the Monterey County Herald receive notice that they are fired, but they can reapply for their jobs with the newspaper’s new owner, Knight Ridder.
Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announce that they will begin the third search in less than a year for a manger to oversee the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Last month NOAA dumped manager-elect Carol Fairfield.
Scientists predict the wettest winter in 50 years, due to El Nino conditions, which cause heavy winter rains from California to Peru and droughts in Indonesia, Africa and Australia.
Watsonville strawberry pickers struggle with UFW membership.
Dennis Hopper brings a photo exhibit to the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel.
Two men, Jason Soboleski, 20, and Jonathon Maxon, 20, from Monterey, allegedly attack another man on Lighthouse Avenue because he is gay.
The ruling stalling the Hatton Canyon Freeway project is reversed by a federal appeals court.
Pato Banton and Bob Marley’s Wailers come to the third Monterey Bay Reggaefest at the Fairgrounds.
september
County residents question the reason the controlled burn on Fort Ord last week burned an additional 300 acres.
PG&E announces it will auction off Moss Landing Power Plant.
The city of Monterey announces it is working out a Public Access Television deal with TCI.
Squid Fry debuts in the Coast Weekly.
Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) ends seven months of negotiations with the Pebble Beach Company.
MCAP (Monterey County AIDS Project) uses teenagers to distribute free condoms at the Tuesday Farmers’ Market in downtown Monterey.
Jazz pianist David Brubeck joins the Monterey County Symphony Cabaret Pops concert at Sherwood Hall.
october
County health officials truck drinking water into Chualar because of nitrate contamination in the water supply. The Board of Supervisors declares a state of emergency in Chualar because the water is undrinkable.
Plans for the Lodge at Pebble Beach expansion to include a new spa and inn, Casa Palmero, upset neighbors.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors votes to make campaign finance statements more available to voters.
Coast Weekly hosts a panel to debate development in Monterey, including issues such as a Burger King on Alvarado Street, and the development of a four-story shopping plaza on Cannery Row.
John Denver’s plane crashes off the coast of Pacific Grove.
A Monterey County Civil Grand Jury report determines that more than $856 million is needed for county road construction and improvements for Fort Ord development.
Vampire: The Masquerade (VTM), a role-playing vampire fantasy game, is played at night on the streets of downtown Monterey, Salinas, and Pacific Grove.
Monterey’s Medical Marijuana Care Center is raided by police.
november
24-year-old Sierra Club President Adam Werbach comes to Monterey.
december
Salinas city officials speculate that the arrival of Wal-Mart is responsible for the increase in city sales tax revenue.
“Hip martini bar” Lallapalooza opens on Alvarado Street, featuring olive-inspired art by local artist Daniel Koffman.
1998
Titanic scores 11 Oscars. John Glenn returns to space. There’s water on the Moon. FDA approves Viagra and the Morning After Pill. Mark McGuire wins a homerun race against Sammy Sosa. Ken Starr, Paula Jones, and Monica Lewinsky become household names. A Dallas, Texas, Catholic Diocese is ordered to pay millions in a sex scandal. Smoking is banned in California bars and restaurants, and speaking Spanish is banned in California schools. Frank Sinatra, Gene Autry, Sonny Bono and Dr. Spock die.
january
A proposed development called Rancho Chular II has the 1,000 citizens of Chular looking nervously into the town’s future. The development would double the city’s population and take up a substantial chunk of usable farm land, with only a meager percentage of units made available to low income buyers.
Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Al Gore speak at the National Ocean Conference at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, regarding the future of the oceans.
The Hearst Ranch Resort development, which would have been built on open land around Hearst Castle and further north toward Big Sur, is unanimously slapped down by the California Coastal Commission.
february
The El Niño floods cut off the Monterey Peninsula as the Carmel River bridge is taken to sea, the Pajaro Bridge is closed and Highway 68 is flooded. Residents of Big Sur are helicoptered out.
The 1997 Grand Jury report on Monterey County infrastructure details glaring negligence in the maintenance of roads and bridges.
march
While a substantial number of local senior citizens are living below the poverty line, Marriott is attempting to build an upscale (and very expensive) senior living community in Monterey.
Prompted in part by an article in Coast Weekly, which criticized Mayor Dan Albert for hosting a $15-a-plate breakfast meeting, the mayor and city manager hold a free public forum to address a wide array of local issues.
april
Even on the local level, the Clinton sex scandal has opened the lives of public figures to political attack. Hartnell College President Ed Valeau is accused of sexual harassment and racism.
may
Around 350 girls between the ages of 14 and 18 will give birth in Monterey County this year.
The City of Salinas prepares for the opening of the National Steinbeck Center. There is hope that displaying the author’s life and work, which embodies slow pastoral culture and financial hardship in the 1930s, will invigorate the currently non-existent Salinas nightlife.
june
The National Trust for Historic Preservation places Cannery Row on a list of the country’s endangered historic sites.</>
july
Eric Lauritzen, the newly appointed agricultural commissioner, is now in charge of a $2.2 billion industry.
25,000 music-goers descend on Laguna Seca for the Spirit West Christian Rock Festival.
The first American in space and Pebble Beach resident Alan Shepard dies at age 74.
august
The Rural Latino Farm Worker Outreach Program, also called “La Raza Campesina Monterey,” is created to help spread information on AIDS.
september
A coalition of local non-profits pool resources to create an outreach program to educate farmworkers about the danger of toxic pesticides.
october
The Palo Alto-based Cannery Row Marketplace, LLC has started rebuilding the historical site into a shopping mall.
200 more acres of Salinas area farmland are being considered for a large residential subdivision in the Mountain Valley development project.
november
In the past decade, Monterey County law enforcement officers have discharged their firearms at people 25 times, and only three of these cases cast law enforcement in questionable light.
december
CalTrans is pushing to start building the Hatton Canyon Freeway by the summer.
Two transitional housing developments have been added to former Fort Ord. The project will create 52 units of transitional housing to aid local homeless people.
1999
Star Wars Episode I dominates the box office. Christina Aguilera, The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Ricky Martin top album sales while Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and The Sopranos hook TV audiences. Clinton is acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial. Slobodan Milosevic is indicted for war crimes. Two teenagers kill 15 and wound 23 others at Columbine High School before killing themselves. JFK, Jr. dies off of Martha’s Vineyard. Decades of restoration work is completed on Da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
january
The Monterey City Council forces two strong preservationists off the Planning Commission two weeks after kicking two other preservationists off the Historic Preservation Commission.
february
South Salinas, long considered the “safe neighborhood” in town, is the site of two brutal murders in a short period. Two men, both over the age of 70, are robbed and murdered in the area.
With the preservationists out of the way, Cannery Row Marketplace LLC appears poised to begin building its new shopping center, over what is currently the 1940s Stohan’s building.
march
Monterey County prepares for the Y2K bug, which could potentially destroy all computer records. Locals prepare to conduct business and banking by hand, and worry that records of their bank accounts will vanish.</>
Due to environmental changes and human interference, the marine life in Pacific Grove’s tide pools is disappearing.
april
Traveling jewelry salesmen are being attacked and robbed in Carmel by roaming Colombian gangsters.
Chuck Thurman reports that Fort Ord is to reopen. April Fools!
may
In the wake of the Columbine shootings, local schools are overwhelmed by bomb threats and paranoia.
Local radio stations are forced to evaluate their future now that radio stations are deregulated by the FCC. DJ’s are concerned that they will lose individuality and freedom of expression.
june
1,400 local strawberry pickers vote to change unions, from the UFW to the Coastal Berry Farm Workers Committee. Hints of corporate intimidation stain the election.
John Lee Hooker and Gladys Knight play the Monterey Blues Festival.
july
To protest the Pebble Beach Company’s rule that artists cannot create images of their trademarked Lone Cypress tree, Morgan’s Coffee and Tea puts on an exhibit with 40 local artists depicting the landmark in their works.
Sam Farr introduces the Pinnacles National Monument Adjustment Act of 1999, a plan to transfer 3,000 acres from the Bureau of Land Management to the National Parks Service.
Carmel Valley’s Magic Circle Theater opens its doors with a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Developer Dan Sumners’ Cannery Row Marketplace gets a thumbs-down from the Monterey Planning Commission.
august
The Monterey Planning Commission approves a permit for a 48,000-square-foot IMAX theater complex next to the Monterey Plaza Hotel.
The inaugural Seaside Summer Festival kicks off a two-day show featuring Taylor P. Collins, Chris Cain and Shana Morrison.
september
The proposed Thomas Kinkade Cultural Arts Center in Monterey’s Casa Gutierrez Adobe riles up folks like the Monterey Museum of Art’s director, Richard Gadd.
Latin jazz musicians like Los Van Van, Pancho Sanchez and Chucho Valdés headline the 42nd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival.
National Book Award winner Adrienne Rich reads her poetry at CSUMB to support the release of jailed journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.
New CSUMB President Peter Smith, a blond and blue-eyed liberal Republican from New England, raises concerns on campus over whether or not he will adapt to the school’s multiculturalism and liberalism.
october
Monterey Peninsula College pulls the plug on providing showers for the homeless, sparking disgust from the employees of I-HELP, a homeless service organization.
november
The chickens from Bird-Brain, the live-action chicken tic-tac-toe game at the Edgewater Packing Company on Cannery Row, retire into the watchful care of businessman Peter Casas.
Farm workers of Pajaro Valley’s Las Tres Palmas achieve freedom after buying their homes from a neglectful landlord following a seven-year struggle.
Ex-Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra comes alive at CSUMB, speaking on, among other things, his “soft spot for pranks and creative crime.”
The water board leaves Cal-Am’s proposal for a Carmel dam in the lurch.
november
Solutions sought to problem of pipelines sending toxic waste into Monterey Bay.
december
The First Amendment wins out as the Monterey City Council votes to allow free speech activities at the Tuesday evening Old Monterey Marketplace on Alvarado Street. Citizens will be allowed to collect signatures, hand out leaflets, and engage in oral speech.
2000
The much-hyped Y2K bug fizzles into oblivion without a remarkable bite. CBS scores big-time with the creation of Survivor and kicks off a plethora of reality TV shows. Napster goes to a jury. After the presidential election lands at the US Supreme Court, George W. Bush emerges the winner. The dot-com industry implodes. The “I Love You” virus infiltrates computers worldwide, including the Pentagon and the CIA. Charles Schulz dies. Elian Gonzalez is at the heart of an international tug-of-war. Former First Lady Hillary Clinton is elected to the Senate. Abortion Pill RU-486 receives FDA approval.
january
Pacific Grove starts off the year with 70,000 gallons of raw sewage pouring into Monterey Bay. The state Water Quality Control Board fines PG $70,000 and orders the city to clean up its act.
february
Pebble Beach Company is sold to Clint Eastwood, Arnold Palmer, Peter Ueberroth, and United Airlines CEO Richard Ferris for $820 million.
april
Spalding Gray presents Morning, Noon and Night at the Sunset Center in Carmel.
may
Gangsta rapper-cum-youth role model Ice Cube is scheduled to hold a special secret rally at the Monterey County Youth Center. The incarcerated youngsters wait giddily for two hours before getting the word that they’ve been stone cold dissed by the Cube.
Rock icon Grace Slick brings her portraits to Monterey’s Doubletree Hotel.
june
After 48 years, the Hatton Canyon Freeway project is finally dead. Gov. Gray Davis purchases Carmel’s Hatton Canyon from CalTrans and gives it to the California Coastal Conservancy.
august
In the wake of the Tony Lombardo ghost-writing scandal, Judge Silver passes down a temporary order requiring all outside documents be stamped as such and forbidding the use of the county seal by non-government types.
october
Salinas City Council votes to bring a first-class hotel and condo project to Oldtown.
november
Marina voters approve Measure E, an urban growth boundary around the city’s limits.
Two-thirds of Monterey County voters approve Measure A, a Pebble Beach Company-sponsored initiative to build hotel rooms and golf courses, cut down more than 15,000 trees, and put the majority of the Del Monte Forest into permanent protection.
The city of Salinas sues the city of San Jose to stop computer networking giant Cisco Systems from building its planned Coyote Valley research park.
december
A group of Peninsula citizens, organized by ringleader Bob McKenzie, want to dissolve the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District and the mantra, “Twenty-two years and $34 million later” is born.</>
2001
NSYNC and Creed land in the top-ten for album sales. The ultra-funky Moulin Rouge opens in theaters. Terrorism strikes US soil in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, killing thousands. Nostradamus, Osama Bin Laden, and Eminem are Google.com’s top male searches. Beauty couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announce their separation. Dale Earnhardt dies during the Daytona 500. Chandra Levy is killed. Timothy McVeigh is executed. US begins bombing runs in Afghanistan. Anthrax is discovered in mail in Florida. Enron files bankruptcy.
january
US Congressman Sam Farr lashes out against “environmental terrorism” along the Big Sur Coast. It works like this: Speculators purchase the most scenic properties from estate sales, research to find historical lots in the most scenic viewsheds, then threaten to develop the property unless they are bought out.
february
Salinas attorney Miguel Angel Hernandez goes to bat—and to court—to overturn Prop. 21, the initiative that makes it easier to try juveniles as adults. He says it’s unconstitutional and an “evil thing.”
april
John “Broadway” Tucker, whose musical life began at Fort Ord in the ‘60s, performs at Sly McFly’s 20th anniversary of the Broadway Band.
Monterey Mayor Dan Albert organizes a committee addressing housing issues throughout the county and forgets to invite any tenants groups. At the behest of other mayors, Albert does reserve party hats for business people. Shortly thereafter, a new housing coalition—made up of local unions, minority organizations and tenant groups, is formed.
An INS raid in Greenfield sends 39 undocumented immigrants’ back to Mexico. An outcry by immigrants’ rights organizations and local residents ensues, and the City Council passes a resolution requesting the INS to refrain from deporting illegal immigrants without probable cause.
may
Citizens sue the US Army, the Department of Defense, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for eradicating a group formed to oversee the cleanup of toxics on Fort Ord.
Nick Lombardo, lord of the links at Rancho Cañada, says he’s planning to build 200-300 affordable housing units on 120 acres he owns at the mouth of Carmel Valley adjacent to Rancho Cañada.
june
James Brown plays the Monterey Blues Festival.
july
The Monterey County General Plan Update receives a green light from County Supes, who vote to begin drafting the blueprint for all future growth. It’s slated for approval next spring—2002. No joke.
august
For the third year in a row, fewer students show up for the first day of classes throughout the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District. Meanwhile Salinas’ Alisal Unified School District continues to grow.
The Monterey City Council votes unanimously to have the mayor and staff “work with local property owners and tenants to develop and bring back voluntary rent guidelines for council review.”
september
Tellus/Díganos report shows that a huge percentage of Monterey County kids are living in poverty—more than 50 percent of school-age children.
The State Assembly votes to support a new Senate district map that splits Monterey County in half, and cuts rising-star Assemblyman Fred Keeley out of a shoe-in seat.
According to the new rules issued from the Pentagon, The Presidio closes its gates to non-military personnel. DLI students say they feel vulnerable to terrorists.
The World Trade Center crumbles, and 3,000 miles away from the terrorist attacks, Monterey County residents—from foreign policy experts to high school freshmen—watch the destruction on their TVs, wait in line for hours at local hospitals trying to donate blood, and attempt to come to grips with the horror that has befallen our nation.
october
Local Peace Coalition begins regular vigils when the US starts bombing Afghanistan.
november
Judi Lehman wins election to the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District Board, giving a solid majority to the voting bloc which opposes a Carmel River dam and favors water conservation strategies. This is the first anti-dam majority in the board’s history.
Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, speaks to Salinas city leaders at the ninth-annual Summit for Raising Peace in the Community. Later the same day, 18-year-old Juan Gallo is shot twice in East Salinas. In just the first six months of this year, the number of crimes committed in this neighborhood—East Salinas’ Census Tract 7—number 714 misdemeanors and felonies, a dramatic increase from the previous year’s total number of 337.
NPS grad Navy Capt. Daniel Bursch goes where no other Naval Postgraduate School alumnus has gone before: to live on the International Space Station for the next six months.
december
Former local congressman and Clinton administration Chief of Staff Leon Panetta hosts a world-class panel for a forum on war and terrorism at the World Theater at CSU-Monterey Bay.
On the high-rent Monterey Peninsula, low-paid service workers in the hospitality industry continue to reel from the shock waves of 9/11. Union officials estimate 10 percent of the members have lost their jobs. Forty percent have been working reduced hours.
2002
M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs scares the bejeezus out of moviegoers. The Osbournes catapults demon rocker Ozzy Osbourne back into the spotlight. Beyonce Knowles’ solo career kicks off, as does Maroon 5. Eminem and Nelly score the year’s top album sales. Kmart files for Chapter 11 protection. George W. chokes on a pretzel and faints. Daniel Pearl, Dudley Moore, Rosemary Clooney, and John Gotti die. Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
january
Monterey County planners distribute the highly anticipated General Plan Update. Enviros like the plan. Would-be developers, however, say the plan doesn’t allow for reasonable growth.
Monterey receives the dubious distinction of being named as the third least affordable place to live in the nation (after Santa Cruz and San Francisco) by the National Association of Home Builders.
february
State Sen. Bruce McPherson and Assemblyman Fred Keeley stand behind a “Sunshine Amendment” that would open government records to the public. It fails in legislative darkness by summer’s end.
A national campaign is launched to designate parts of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary off-limits to fishing. This move ignites local fishing interests and jams the Sanctuary office with thousands of letters and e-mails.
march
Voters defeat Measure A, a $158 million bond to repair the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District’s shamefully derelict classrooms.
Once-defeated developers unveil new plans for a mall complex on Cannery Row called Ocean View Plaza, a grand design of condos, retail, and parking meant to resemble cannery buildings of old. A private desalination plant is also drawn in. The project is rejected by the Monterey Planning Commission because of its size and increased traffic, but the City Council eventually approves it.
Pacific Grove City Council approves a dramatic revision to a 1991 plan for Forest Hill Manor. Neighbors protest both the size of the new project and the legitimacy of the approval process.
Clear Channel Communications purchases the media group that owns KION and controls a local Fox affiliate.
april
Following the vote by Monterey Peninsula Water Management District Board of Directors to completely eliminate the sale of all water credit transfers, the Monterey City Council approves a November ballot measure urging the state to flush the water board down the drain.
A new group called the Líderes Comunitarios de Salinas (Community Leaders of Salinas) starts collecting signatures asking the Salinas city council to include explicit affordable housing policies in the General Plan, including one that would require 50 percent of all new homes be built for low-income Salinans. They ultimately collect more than 10,000 signatures.
Gov. Gray Davis gives approval to the transfer of hundreds of acres of land and other government assets on the former Fort Ord. “With this transfer I expect FORA to work with local officials to ensure that at least 50 percent of housing rented or sold should be affordable, and should be destined for local job-holders,” says Rep. Sam Farr following the governor’s move.
Planned Parenthood in Salinas becomes the first public health clinic in Monterey County to prescribe RU-486, the controversial abortion pill.
may
The antique wooden carousel at Cannery Row is auctioned off by Mrs. Eleanor O’Kane, widow of the late Cannery Row impresario Dick O’Kane.
What budget crisis? The City of Monterey gears up to spend $16 million for a new city hall: A 57,624 square-foot office complex, set to be built in the parking lot behind Colton Hall.
The first of three scheduled cruise ships visits the Monterey Bay. The Star Princess arrives, but cannot disgorge its passengers because of rough seas.
june
Rep. Sam Farr threatens to halt transfer of Fort Ord land to the Fort Ord Reuse Authority unless FORA agrees to make 50 percent of all houses built there affordable for ordinary families. Over the next three weeks he amends that number to 37 percent.
july
Yugoslavian-born pianist Aleksandar Serdar’s Bach Festival performance is cancelled due to stepped-up security by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS demanded proof of Serdar’s identity, but when presented with newspaper reviews, still refused to grant him entry to the US.
FORA presents Rep. Sam Farr with a plan for affordable housing on Fort Ord. The plan announces FORA’s intention to aim for 20 percent affordable housing, but stops short of committing to a hard and fast percentage.
august
The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) releases “Plan B,” a highly-anticipated report on a new water supply for the Monterey Peninsula. The alternative to the controversial proposed Carmel River dam (Plan A) would build a seawater desalination plant at Moss Landing and a groundwater storage and recovery facility near Seaside. According to state Assemblyman Fred Keeley, “the dam is dead.” Again.
County supervisors unanimously approve a measure that will require the sheriff’s department and county agencies to accept ID cards issued by the Mexican consulate and other foreign governments.
september
Housing Authority reps, along with Congressman Sam Farr, present a groundbreaking housing-affordability study to FORA. The comparative study reveals that it is possible to build housing in Monterey County that would sell for as little as $145,000.
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary celebrates its 10th birthday. The Sanctuary holds a conference on ocean health with Leon Panetta hosting Aquarium head Julie Packard and aquanaut Jean-Michel Cousteau.
Local activists mourn 9/11 and organize Monterey’s Peace Jubilee 2002, a peace fair of sorts.
october
Liberal Texas journalist Molly Ivins, who has known President George W. Bush since high school, visits Monterey as the keynote speaker for a California Women Lawyers’ confab at the Doubletree Hotel. When talking about her high school years and George W., she says, “in those days I thought he was shallow, spoiled, and of mediocre intelligence. And I have had no reason to change my mind on that.”
november
County Supervisors are slated to make tough decisions on some weighty parts of the county’s 20-year blueprint for growth. They stall, ensuring the new Board of Supervisors will finalize the General Plan Update in 2003. (Or so we thought.)
A federal wildlife agency begins investigating who—or what—is responsible for killing endangered steelhead trout in the Carmel River. For years, scientists and environmentalists have accused Rancho San Carlos development and its new golf course of stealing water from Garzas Creek, a tributary to the Carmel River and an important habitat for the federally-listed fish.
The House and the Senate approve bills by Rep. Sam Farr and Sen. Barbara Boxer that place 57,000 acres of the Los Padres National Forest under Wilderness protection.
december
The Monterey Bay Labor Council passes a resolution opposing war in Iraq.
Of the 25 homicides that happened Monterey County in 2002, twenty occurred in Salinas.
2003
Nickelback, No Doubt and the Foo Fighters headline at the Grammy’s. The O.C. premiers, while Buffy The Vampire Slayer says goodbye. Camera phone sales surge. The US invades Iraq. Again. The Department of Homeland Security Opens for business. Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon re-entry. Martha Stewart is indicted, Michael Jackson is arrested, and Hummers take to the streets en masse. Gov. Gray Davis is recalled. The Concorde makes its final flight. Mister Rogers and John Ritter die. Saddam Hussein is captured.
january
In the first program of its kind, Monterey’s Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) now offers a master’s degree in Homeland Defense.
Rep. Sam Farr gets nowhere with FORA Board—again. Although Farr has been demanding affordable housing be built—and threatening to halt federal funds if he doesn’t see results—only 85 of Marina Height’s 1,050 homes will be priced under $301,000.
The Queen of Cannery Row, Kalisa Moore—who, along with her La Ida Café is one of the authentic survivors of the old Cannery Row—turns 77.
february
Jello Biafra speaks at CSUMB.
Monterey Countyites join almost 200,000 peace activists in one of the largest antiwar demonstrations ever held in the city of San Francisco.
Science Nobel Laureates infilitrate Monterey when Time magazine hosts three-day “The Future of Life” colloquium on DNA and genetics at the Monterey Conference Center. The registration fee is $1,950.
march
Attorney Susan Sutton asks the City of Salinas to adopt a resolution to “affirm its strong support for fundamental constitutional rights and its opposition to the provisions of the USA Patriot Act that infringe on important civil liberties.
As the county-subsidized hospital continues hemorrhaging money—about $1 million a month—County Supervisors consider shutting down Natividad Medical Center’s satellite clinics.
april
A federal security screener at the Monterey Peninsula Airport files a complaint charging that US Congressman Harold Rogers (R-Kentucky) threw a fit when he was asked to turn over a bag to be weighed. Rogers is the chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, which has authority over airport screeners.
The City of Carmel completes the $21 million dollar restoration of the Sunset Theater.
may
A new law proposed by state Sen. Bruce McPherson would dump the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s board of directors and replace it with mayors, city councilmembers, and a county supervisor.
june
In the ongoing “Sex and the County” column, the Weekly’s girl reporter bears witness as the process to write a General Plan is hijacked, kidnapped, starved, choked, beaten to within an inch of its life, and hung out to dry. Happily, government insiders begin to dress better.
Chair of the Pew Oceans Commission, Leon Panetta goes to DC to ask the Bush Administration for leadership.
july
Despite promises to build affordable housing on Fort Ord’s Seaside Highlands, there are zero homes priced below $525,000. Seaside Mayor Jerry Smith does nothing.
Pacific Grove Library and Monterey Public Library cut hours—and jobs—in response to cities’ budget deficits.
august
Rampant labor unrest rocks the county as two of the area’s biggest unions—one representing County government workers and the other representing hotel employees—threaten to strike. They eventually reach contract agreements.
september
Bill Clinton comes to Monterey.
october
Following the US Episcopal Church’s election of its first openly homosexual Bishop, St. John’s Chapel in Monterey considers separating from the American Episcopal Church.
The US Army lights a fire to clear unexploded ordnance at Fort Ord. It burns 1,000 acres beyond the 500 targeted. A small core of local activists insist that prescribed burns are not the way to clear brush from the old army base.
november
United Farmworkers co-founder Dolores Huerta rallies immigrants to fight for legal status at the third annual Labor-Neighbor awards dinner, presented by the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
Greedheads—primarily anti-tax groups and the Farm Bureau—defeat Measure Q, the proposed half-cent sales tax to save the cash-strapped Natividad Medical Center.
december
At the National Steinbeck Center’s first-ever congressional hearing, Salinas Valley industry leaders endorse a bill before Congress, HR 3242, aimed at providing assistance to the County’s $59 billion specialty crop industry. Rep. Sam Farr is one of 52 co-sponsors.
The Weekly’s Andrew Scutro spends Christmas in Baghdad, reporting from the war zone for a three-part series.
2004
Britney Spears marries, has it annulled, then marries again. San Francisco issues marriage licenses to same-sex couples. An era of television ends with finales of Friends, Frasier, Sex and the City, The Practice, and Rugrats. Justin Timberlake accidentally purposely rocks Janet Jackson’s body during Superbowl XXXVIII’s halftime show. Barry Bonds smacks homer 700. South Korea announces the cloning of 30 human embryos. Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum becomes president of Iraq. Ronald Reagan dies. The Statue of Liberty reopens. Iraqi prisoner abuse is uncovered. The 1,000th American soldier dies in “post-conflict” Iraq.
january
Facing a $3.6 million budget gap, the Salinas City Council drastically cuts funding to the city’s three libraries.
Despite strong opposition from the local Sierra Club and the United Farm Workers, the county Board of Supervisors approves a plan by E&J Gallo to more than double its Soledad-area vineyard.
Salinas peace activist MacGregor Eddy is arrested for the second time at Vandenberg Air Force Base, where she and a group from the Peace Coalition of Monterey County had gone to join an antiwar vigil outside the front gates.
february
Coast Weekly celebrates its 16th anniversary and changes its name to Monterey County Weekly.
march
The chief administrator of the National Marine Sanctuary program, based in Washington, DC, lops off the top half of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) and puts it under the control of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine sanctuary.
The 2004 Sea of Cortez Expedition leaves Monterey on a two-month voyage retracing a 1940 expedition by author John Steinbeck and his best friend, marine biologist Ed “Doc” Ricketts.
april
Disney Buys Del Rey Oaks, and renames the tiny city Happiness. Disney Company chairman Michael Eisner says it will be redeveloped as an adult fantasy gated community. April Fools!
Salinas city officials don’t want Monterey County to build the Rancho San Juan development, a sprawling mini-city of 4,000 homes on 2,581 acres between Salinas and Prunedale. And, to that end, they’re willing to ask a judge—or the voters—to stop the huge project.
Starbucks takes over the county with one store in Sand City, one in Del Rey Oaks, one in Seaside, one in Prunedale, three in Monterey, and four in Salinas. Disclaimer: Additional Starbucks may have sprouted up during the writing of this timeline.
A citizens’ group files a lawsuit in Superior Court to stop the controversial Marina Heights development.
A new citizens’ initiative designed to limit the size of a proposed $3.5 million expansion to Pacific Grove’s golf clubhouse makes its way onto the November ballot. Measure O would “prohibit the construction of all new buildings in [open space] ‘O’ zones and limit enlargement of existing buildings in ‘O’ zones,” according to organizer Lee Willoughby.
may
Choreographer Fran Spector Atkins’ new 13-minute piece called Border Crossing blends music, text, visual imagery and movement as it stages farmworkers’ battles.
Two citizens’ groups file a lawsuit against Monterey County and Granite Construction in a final attempt to force the county to produce new environmental studies for the huge planned pit mine and rock quarry to be built in the Gabilan foothills, between Chualar and Gonzales.
Supes cave to big-money interests and kill the General Plan Update process, after $5 million and five years.
Salinas elected officials call for an ordinance to effectively ban big-box stores like Wal-mart Supercenters.
june
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton visits Seaside and chats with Leon Panetta about “Women in Leadership,” in the third installment of this season’s Panetta Institute lecture series.
july
Responding to increasing INS raids in border towns and immigrant communities of California, the United Farm Workers union spearheads a campaign to organize some 50,000 immigrants working in the fields and packing sheds of the Central Coast to march from Greenfield through Gonzales to Salinas.
The FCC Localism Task Force brings a national roadshow to Monterey to ask: are the TV and radio giants serving the public?
Warren Dewey, who runs a post-production studio in Santa Monica, buys the historic State Theater on Alvarado Street in Monterey but refuses to talk about the sale.
august
Patti Smith and her band come to Carmel’s Sunset Center in a benefit for the Henry Miller Library.</>
The Alisal Union School District enacts a no-junk-food policy.
For the first time since 1992, the Democratic Party sets up office in Oldtown Salinas.
september
US Sen. Barbara Boxer tours the streets of Salinas and works to secure $3.3 million in federal money to fund a local joint taskforce to combat gang violence.
In a victory for a Salinas group resolute in saving the old Monterey County Jail from demolition, the state Court of Appeals ruled this week that the County cannot raze the old building without first preparing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). United Farm Workers Founder César Chávez was incarcerated in the jail for three weeks in 1970.
Milton Fletcher, Jr. comes home to kick off the 2004 Monterey Jazz Festival.
A report by the US Army Corps of Engineers says Rippling River, a home for disabled and elderly residents in Carmel Valley, can be renovated for $2.7 million, and can serve for 20 more years. Good news for the mostly wheelchair-bound residents: their homes won’t be razed after all.
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