The Buzz 07.26.18

WHO’S IN TOWN?

For the uninitiated, the name Shake Shack might elicit a mere shrug. But to anyone who has tasted the pure beef goodness of its burgers or experienced the creaminess of the shakes, the restaurant triggers an almost spiritual response. Even the vegetarian ’Shroom Burger is worship-worthy. The famed restaurant that launched in New York City in 2004 may not have made it to the Central Coast – there are locations in Southern California and this fall one is coming to Palo Alto – but Shake Shack’s revered founder, Danny Meyer, is in town this week to speak at the Produce Marketing Association’s Foodservice Conference & Expo. The theme is “Growing Appetites for Bold Ideas,” and Meyer is expected to talk about taking risks, embracing change and welcoming disruption to succeed in the food business.

Sat-Sun July 28-29. Monterey Conference Center, 1 Portola Plaza, Monterey. $295-$1,475. pma.com.

FREE SPEECH

Journalists like data. In an era when the industry is struggling, it can’t hurt to have data that shows whether or not journalism has cold, hard value. Finance faculty from Notre Dame and the University of Illinois at Chicago set out to investigate, and they found that local papers do more than make readers feel warm and fuzzy: They save government money. “Following a newspaper closure, we find municipal borrowing costs increase by 5 to 11 basis points in the long run,” they wrote in a 47-page paper, titled “Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper Closures on Public Finance,” first published on May 8. Increased accountability and transparency lead to savings, according to the findings, and the effects are more pronounced in communities with fewer newspapers: “A local newspaper closure represents a negative coverage shock that could affect public borrowing costs because potential lenders have greater difficulty evaluating the quality of public projects and the government officials in charge of these projects.”

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

GOOD:

It’s a good week for fire protection in Marina. On July 17, Marina City Council approved spending up to $607,000 to purchase a new fire engine for theMarina Fire Department. The new engine is desperately needed: According to a city report, the department’s primary engine is 11 years old and is no longer reliable, and has been out of service almost two of the last three years. The reserve engine – which has been put to use when the primary is out of service – is 20 years old and also unreliable. “When one engine comes back into service, the other engine is going out of service,” the report reads. The third engine is 24 years old, and irreparable due to the lack of available parts to fix it. The new engine will be manufactured by Rosenbauer America, and is expected to be delivered within a year.

BAD:

Six months ago, District Attorney Dean Flippo and Assistant District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni – who takes over as DA come January – announced their office would start enforcing rules for businesses to post rescue information for victims of human trafficking. State law requires that places like rail and bus stations, airports, truck stops, emergency rooms, farms and job recruitment centers prominently post the information about how to escape and seek help (see story, p. 16.) The DA provided local businesses with free posters that have the phone number for the National Human Trafficking Resource Center(888-373-7888). On July 12, officials from the DA’s Office, plus 30 volunteers, fanned out through Monterey County, visiting nearly 100 businesses. A third were found to be non-compliant; they’ve been advised to expect a 30-day corrections notice. If the locations fail to heed the notice, they could be liable for a $500 penalty for a first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.