The Buzz 02.27.21

FREE SPEECH

When a wildfire breaks out on a weekend, as it did on Jan. 21 in the case of the Colorado Fire, local media outlets might do two things at once to get fast-moving information out: Report on the ground, and contact a public information officer (PIO) at a fire agency for basics on facts like acreage burned, suspected start time and relevant weather conditions. But it turns out the PIO for Cal Fire’s San Benito Monterey Unit (BEU) left long ago and has not been replaced. (Covid threw a wrench in training a new PIO, according to a Cal Fire BEU staffer who is not authorized to speak to the media; there is no apparent timeline to fill the role.) Their best suggestion for getting fire information outside of business hours is to email a generic PIO address that goes to a group – something the Weekly did on Jan. 22, only to receive a bounceback response that the PIO account “only accepts messages from people in its organization.” In years past, Cal Fire BEU officials also encouraged local media outlets to follow along for updates on acreage and containment on the agency’s Twitter account, @calfireBEU, but that account has not posted since Jan. 19, 2021 – over one year ago.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Stuff in nature is squishy.” - Kakani Katija, principal engineer in the Bioinspiration Lab at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, where she is focused on biomimicry, or ways in which humans might learn from animal features and behaviors (read Face to Face article).

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

Young baseball and softball players will start this season with four renovated fields in Marina – two at Preston Park, one at Marina Vista Elementary School and one at Los Arboles Middle School. About a dozen volunteers and $20,000 in funds from several sources made the improvements possible, a collaboration between Marina Public Works, Marina Rotary Club, Monterey Peninsula Engineering and Friends of Marina Parks. The infields were laser-leveled and graded, and new scoreboards are on the way. Elisa Smith, a coach for the Marina Youth Baseball/Softball League, says it was important to get this work done: “It’s been needed at these locations for several years.” The new fields will benefit dozens of players ages 4 to 18 who play either in high school or the youth league. “We want to make it a great season for them,” Smith adds. Practices will begin in February.

GREAT:

There’s a glimmer of hope for much-needed low-income housing on the Monterey Peninsula. The Pacific Grove City Council on Jan. 19 gave the green light to the city’s housing manager, Anastacia Wyatt, to apply for state Homekey funds to purchase the Monarch Resort. Homekey is the pandemic-born initiative to purchase lodging properties and convert them into affordable housing. While working for the county, Wyatt helped guide Salinas to successfully receive Homekey funds in 2020 so that up to 100 formerly unhoused people could move into their own apartments. The Monarch Resort will cost $15 million, and any additional funds not provided by the state would come from developer Shangri-La Construction, which also refurbished Salinas’ Homekey site. Services would be provided by the same nonprofit as in Salinas, Step Up. The early application deadline is Jan. 31.