WHO’S IN TOWN?
Death is a notoriously taboo subject, but conversations about death come to town this week with The Dinner Party, a community of mostly 20 – and 30-somethings who have experienced significant loss. The organization launched when five young women met in 2010 and discovered they’d each lost a parent and craved a space to talk openly about their grief. Since then, a network of 300-plus dinner party hosts across the country evolved. “We will abstain from bullshit,” The Dinner Party’s mission says. “No whitewashing loss. No standing on platitudes. No pitying.”
A dinner for millennials takes place Wed Oct. 19 at Gardner Ranch in Carmel Valley. Free; RSVP required. Dinner Party founders speak at an invitation-only luncheon Thurs Oct. 20 in Monterey. Clinicians and end-of-life professionals gather for a workshop on creating spaces for young people who have experienced loss 9am-4pm Fri Oct. 21 at CHOMP. Free; RSVP required. 333-9023, www.thedinnerparty.org.
WHAT’S UP WITH THAT
A reader asks what’s up with the ongoing construction on the Highway 68 bridge that crosses the Salinas River, between Spreckels Boulevard and River Road. Caltrans is widening the median by 5 feet and shoulders by 10 feet, as well as doing a seismic retrofit. It’s an $18 million project expected to be completed by winter of 2018.
OVERHEARD
“I was having a hard day that night.”
- Young woman to her companion at Farmers Union Pour House in Salinas.
GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK
Good:
It’s a good week for free throws and pickup basketball games thanks to the city of Monterey’s Parks and Recreation Division’s brand-new basketball court along the Rec Trail, near San Carlos Beach at the foot of the Coast Guard Pier. It’s on a spot that was previously an underutilized patch of grass. The new court comes fully equipped with lights, making evening games a safe and breezy possibility. The court officially opened on Saturday, Oct. 8 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, complete with a free-throw contest and a visit from the Santa Cruz Mavericks’ mascot. The $300,000 project was funded with $105,000 from the city’s Neighborhood Improvement Program.Bad:
It was a bad week for many workers, both locally and nationally, as the Monterey-based human resources and payroll service firm Pinnacle Workforce Solutions collapsed. Employees of companies that used Pinnacle’s services found their checks bounced – just in time for rent to be due. Employers still paid workers for the botched payroll, but this created hundreds of thousands of dollars of unexpected costs for Pinnacle’s former clients, as the week’s payroll had to be paid twice. Former employees of Pinnacle weren’t so lucky. The entire local staff of roughly 25 were let go Oct. 7 and stiffed their final week of pay. North Carolina-based MPAY, Inc. acquired Pinnacle’s account list, but did not guarantee employment for its former employees. Before closing, Pinnacle made good on some of its $1.3 million in unpaid wages, but not all. The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office is investigating.
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