Churn and Burn

CHURN AND BURN… Maybe it’s the ink-producing powers of cephalopods that gives Squid a bias for good, old-fashioned print newspapers. Maybe it’s Squid’s dedicated column here in the Weekly that gives Squid a bias for this particular paper. But Squid tends to think: The more the merrier – there are simply too many stories for any local outlet to keep up with, with a dozen cities, 24 school districts, an agriculture industry worth over $8 billion and so on.

So even though it’s a competitor, Squid was happy to see The Salinas Californian had rehired at least one local staffer after a period of its Salinas office going totally dark. Manasa Gogineni debuted with a Sept. 24 listicle titled, “Fall is here! Here are 10 ways to embrace the season in Salinas.”

The fall season isn’t even over, and Gogineni is already gone. (Folks at Gannett, the paper’s corporate overlord, assure Squid’s colleague they plan to hire a replacement and “our commitment to The Californian and the Salinas community is unwavering.”)

According to LinkedIn, Gogineni is now an associate investment analyst at GQG Partners, which describes itself as a “boutique” equity firm. It’s no secret that private equity has a track record of wrecking the American newspaper business, but swallowing up journalists whole? Gulp.

FEE LUNCH… Squid’s never been to the moon, but Squid’s been to East Garrison. On the surface, they may not seem to have much in common – the moon is in space, and is barren, lifeless and cratered and whatnot – but the housing development in the northeast of the former Fort Ord has a distinctly lunar vibe. That’s in large part because it’s in the middle of nowhere – it has no “If you lived here, you’d be home” signs, because the only people who would see them are already home.

Recently, residents have been asking questions about all the fees tacked on to their property tax bills that come as a result of the development being financed by bonds that gave the developer upfront capital to build out the nascent community’s infrastructure (see story, p. 10). There’s an art park with pedestals for sculptures, but no sculptures. There’s a snack bar that’s been used once in eight years, and there are dozens of striped parking spaces along Ord Avenue that will someday be used for… something?

And in the documents for a recent residents’ meeting discussing the fees in the development – which is managed by a turducken of public and private bureaucracies – Squid noted that one project that was recently completed, replacing the American flag, included this note at the end of the line item: “Due to the East Garrison high winds the flag will continuously need replacing.”

So maybe there were once “If you lived here” signs, but they blew off to find a more hospitable home.