LETTERS to the EDITOR 01.04.18

Chain Reaction

Thank you so much for not including the national franchise restaurants in the Marina Dunes food court in your 2017 Edible rankings (“Part one of the definitive rankings of 2017’s new restaurants in Monterey County,” Dec. 21-27; “A tour through an epic top 10 new restaurants in Monterey County for 2017,” Dec. 28-Jan. 3). It serves the community better to promote local, original family-owned eateries in this local newspaper.

I thought it was disgusting how your paper pandered to the slick Fresno developer earlier this year who built the Marina Dunes drive-through shopping mall as if he was saving the deprived city of Marina with his franchise restaurants when there were already 40 local eateries serving the city and surrounding areas. Glad to see you included a few local Marina restaurants in your definitive rankings. We need to develop a vibrant downtown Marina, not more national brand shopping malls. Tom Ward | Pebble Beach

Former 1833 employees are no longer employed by 1833, some of us worked one private party out of desperation (“One of the most buzzed-about restaurants in a generation is selling, creating more buzz,” Nov. 30-Dec. 6). The restaurant is absolutely closed, while Coastal Luxury Management continues to bounce employees paychecks and leave vendors unpaid. We only hear the same BS that comes out of [CEO] Dave [Bernahl]’s mouth here after being offered many different perspectives of former employees. Poor excuse for journalism. Christopher Snyder | Seaside

#CarmelToo

Good for her for speaking out (“Wine industry leader claims Carmel mayor has serially sexually harassed her,” posted Dec. 28). Janet Reilly | via Facebook

I met him at an event a few months ago and I thought it was a joke when a friend said he was the mayor of Carmel. The way Kim and other women are describing their interactions with this man is exactly how I felt after meeting him. #Slimy. Stephanie Shonley | via Facebook

Any possibility he will step down? Jan Shriner | via Facebook

The city of Carmel best not cover for this guy. Karen O’Neal | via Facebook

Well, guess who’s going to join Al Franken in retirement. Lou Richards | via Facebook

What a sleazeball. Frustrating that her insistence of not publicizing the complaint was ignored, though. They didn’t even get back to her before doing so – not OK. Mary Zoller | via Facebook

Lighting a Fire

David Schmalz’s description of the current state of activism in Monterey County is somewhat misleading (“Local protest planned if President Trump fires Robert Mueller,” posted Dec. 18). In the first few months after the 2016 election, local activists did begin to coalesce. The effort to form a broad-based, diverse, effective and organized local movement to resist the reactionary policies of the Trump administration showed great promise. But, by the spring, that movement had splintered and effectively collapsed. The umpteen local Indivisible groups that began springing up in January 2017 played a key role in dividing and weakening what could have been an effective mass movement. The local “resistance” is now a disorganized hodge-podge of small groups without any coherent strategy or realistic prospect of producing meaningful change. Phillip Crawford | Monterey

Lighting Up

To all my pot-indulging friends, congratulations (“Cannabis is now legal in California. Here’s what that means today,” posted Jan. 1). Safer than alcohol, although I’ll stick to my libations. Linda Rangel | via Facebook

I don’t really care that it is legal, but it’s legal in your home not out in public and driving. I swear just in the last two weeks it seems everywhere we have gone someone’s smoking a joint and you know what, that shit stinks! Kat Deering | via Facebook

Because potheads can now smoke marijuana, they are going to force the smoke on to everyone else. Some people get anxiety from marijuana and smoke; people have asthma. But what do potheads care? Of course they don’t because they are self-absorbed and lazy. David Hernandez | via Facebook

I’m with you. Not only do I not want to smell it, I don’t want my son inhaling it. But (for whatever it’s worth) the law states that it can’t be smoked in public. Basically the same rules that apply for alcohol apply to marijuana. CJ Howard | via Facebook

Zapping Z

The great compromise; no one wins, there’s no change (“Court decision upholds fracking ban, but invalidates most of Measure Z,” posted Dec. 28). Rob Eaton | via Facebook

Unacceptable. Evan Hauge | via Facebook

Appeal, and then vote this judge out of office. Chris Caffrey | via Facebook

Cop Gun

Sounds like he’ll fit right into to this community just fine (“Seaside selects Abdul Pridgen of Texas to become police chief,” posted Dec. 20). Welcome, Chief Pridgen! John Norman | via Facebook