WHO’S IN TOWN?
The old real estate adage is, “location, location, location.” A new wave of investors and community organizers are taking that to heart by advocating to keep the location of their investments, well, local. Two months ago the ComCap – short for community capital – Conference came through Monterey. Next up, theBusiness Alliance for Local Living Economies, or BALLE (pronounced “bahl-ee”), is bringing its Leadership Summit to town. The mission of BALLE is to create local and sustainable economies that work for all the people who live there. Summit participants will discuss such topics as fair labor practices, social equity, local investing, philanthropy and building partnerships within communities.
Wed-Fri Nov. 15-17. Asilomar Conference Grounds, 800 Asilomar Ave., Pacific Grove. By invitation only. (510) 587-9417, belocalist.org.
FREE SPEECH
In 2011, Timothy Carpenter was a suspect in a robbery in the Detroit area. Officials – without a probable cause warrant – obtained several months’s worth of records showing cell phone locations. In Carpenter’s case, those records revealed 12,898 location points over 127 days, according to his attorneys at theAmerican Civil Liberties Union. Carpenter was convicted partly based on that cell data evidence – and he is set to become a precedent-maker when the ACLU takes his case to the U.S. Supreme Court this session. At issue is whether the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, applies to cell phone records. “In most states, the law does not require a warrant for [cell company location] information despite the private details the data show about people’s lives,” according to the ACLU. “While new technologies bring enormous conveniences, their ballooning capacities to collect data can be abused by law enforcement agencies.”
GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK
GOOD:
The U.S. Forest Service closed the trails in the northern Los Padres National Forest after the Soberanes Fire ignited in July 2016. The affected area has been closed to the public since, and after the trails sustained further damage from winter rainfall, was set to remain closed until Dec. 4, 2017. So it’s a good week for hikers itching to get back into Big Sur: In a Nov. 7 order, the Forest Service lifted the closure on all trails in the forest except three – Pine Ridge, Terrace Creek and Ventana Camp. Due to rainfall, Pine Ridge washed out about seven miles in from Highway 1 – where the trail used to be has been described as a “cliff” – and the latter two connect to Pine Ridge before that point. The Nov. 7 order, which also extends the closure of the five westernmost campgrounds on Pine Ridge, expires on Nov. 6, 2018. Violators are subject to a $5,000 fine and/or six months in jail.
BAD:
It’s a bad week for the Monterey County Board of Supervisors and developer Mark Kelton, who again find themselves on the receiving end of lawsuits. Just when it looked like a trio of multi-year lawsuits alleging the county illegally approved Ferrini Ranch were wrapping up, two plaintiffs – the nonprofit land-use watchdog LandWatch and neighborhood activist group Highway 68 Coalition – have lodged complaints with the Sixth District Court of Appeal, filed on Nov. 7 and Oct. 31, respectively. The two groups allege the project violates the California Environmental Quality Act, and that required CEQA analysis failed to accurately portray the effects the development will have on traffic, water and other factors. Ferrini Ranch calls for 185 homes on 860 acres along Highway 68, stretching from San Benancio Canyon to River Road.