The Buzz 05.06.21

FREE SPEECH

Anti-protest bills are making the rounds in state legislatures nationwide. Pending legislation includes four bills each in Alabama, Iowa and Missouri, three in Minnesota and New Jersey, two in New York, and one each in Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York and Oklahoma. This slate of bills comes on the heels of widespread 2020 protests against police brutality, which were largely nonviolent. Things lawmakers want to change include expanding the definition of “riot”; increasing fines and prison time for blocking roads and traffic; curtailing the ability to organize and protest near oil and gas pipelines; expanding the definition of who can be arrested for inciting a riot; and, in the case of Oklahoma and Iowa, create immunity for drivers who injure protesters. Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union have been fighting to kill the surge of anti-protest bills since 2017 – the year protester Heather Heyer was run over and killed by white nationalist James Fields Jr. in Charlottesville, Virginia. Since then, the ACLU has been tracking anti-protest bills in an interactive map at bit.ly/ACLUantiprotest.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I’m not making weird wines that I have to convince people to like.” -Greg Freeman, the new winemaker at Chalone Vineyard in Soledad (see Chill article).

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

This week’s issue is devoted largely to bikes, and the SE Bikes craze has taken hold here in Monterey County. You might see a troupe of 50 to 100 riders, of all ages and all skill levels, cruising through Monterey or Pacific Grove. A lot of them are on SE bikes, a playful brand modeled after BMX bikes designed for tricks and wheelies, but riders on any bike are welcome to join in ride-outs. The tradition, which has long been associated with bigger urban hubs like Los Angeles, made its way to the Central Coast in 2017 when Tom Laughron started a group in Santa Cruz for regular Wednesday night rides – the first ride-out had four riders, and now hundreds regularly join in. “It just strikes a certain nerve with people – men, women, old, young – everyone comes out and enjoys being outside and enjoys each other’s company,” Laughron says. “It has just exploded.”

GREAT:

More great news on the transportation front comes this week for Monterey-Salinas Transit riders. On Tuesday, May 11, MST will launch a contactless payment system, becoming the first public transit agency in California to do so, in a six-month demonstration by a Caltrans initiative, the California Integrated Travel Project. Riders will be able to tap a Visa, Mastercard or mobile wallet on a device as they enter and exit a bus, getting billed based on distance traveled. Square is joining in this summer to serve riders without credit cards. In addition, fares will be capped at $10 per day, even if you ride more than $10 worth of routes (as long as riders use the same contacless form of payment). MST General Manager/CEO Carl Sedoryk says, “It will make our services more attractive, safer and provide new opportunities for low-income and under-banked members of the communities we serve.”