The Weekly Tally 11.24.16

Who’s in Town?

While there’s no data to show the scale of the problem, there are victims of human trafficking in town – all the time. Deborah Pembrook, herself a survivor of childhood sexual exploitation, is now chair of the Coalition to End Human Trafficking in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties and outreach advocate for the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center. She also serves on California Department of Social Services Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Action Team Advisory Panel. She’s in town this week to deliver a presentation called “Human Trafficking 101,” which will cover different types of trafficking (primarily for sex work and labor) and warning signs.

Noon-2pm Tuesday, Nov. 29. Middlebury Institute, McGowan 102, 411 Pacific St., Monterey. Free. 771-0411, www.coalitiontoendhumantrafficking.org.

What’s up with that?

A reader asks how the recently-installed lights work at the new Coast Guard Pier basketball court in Monterey. It’s pretty straightforward: They can be activated by players via a switch next to the parking lot entrance and they shut down automatically at 10pm. In related news, construction starts soon for a guard wall on Foam Street to prevent a rogue car from careening into the court. Just last week, a wayward driver swerved off the street and smashed into a tree just south of the court.

FREE PRESS

Local media outlets have long relied upon local law enforcement agencies to announce significant events like major arrests. But the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office has a new way of communicating to the press: Instead of emails, they’re using social media to announce press conferences. That means repoters might miss major news, but might see posts like this one from Nov. 3: “Farm Day was a huge success.” Cmdr. John Thornburg explains by text message: “We do all media releases on Facebook and Twitter. No more email.”

GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK

GOOD:

It was a good week for solutions to the region’s housing crisis, as Dai-Ichi Village – a 41-unit affordable housing development for seniors – opened Nov. 17 in Salinas’ Japantown. It’s the latest stage of a redevelopment project from nonprofit Monterey County Housing Authority Development Corporation, which is transforming the East Rossi Street property to create 190 apartments on a site that once had 100. The city of Salinas and federal low-income housing tax credits helped fund the project, which was designed by Paul Davis Architects. Housing Authority President Starla Warren said the project is part of “an effort to revitalize the area and provide quality affordable housing for struggling senior citizens who currently have limited housing options in the community.”

BAD:

After a four-alarm fire burned through the East Salinas Indoor Swapmeet in 2008, the city tried to help out by making small loans of $3,000-$5,000 to some affected businesses with funding from the former Redevelopment Agency (which was dissolved in 2012). The loans were payable in five years with a 0-percent interest rate. But three loan recipients –Green Cab, Del Real Video on Market Street and Latin Spices on Front Street – all began defaulting on their payments in 2012, the city claims. That’s according to court documents: The city filed three separate lawsuits on Nov. 4 against each business, aiming to collect their unpaid loans. They’re scheduled to appear in small claims court with Latin Spices on March 7; no hearings have yet been set for Green Cab or Del Real Video.

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