Safety Stars

SAFETY STARS… Squid has been around the sea for awhile, but besides Squid’s likeness adorning the wall of the Monterey County Weekly’s office building in Seaside, Squid just doesn’t seem to get the recognition Squid thinks Squid deserves. Squid once again nominated Squidself for a Seaside Star – Squid is essentially the city’s mascot at this point – while CSUMB recently unveiled a statue of sea otters, but not of Squid.

Squid felt like Squid got a slap in Squid’s sizable head when the County of Monterey unveiled its three potential mascots to serve as its Safety Ambassador, and asked for the public to vote for their favorite. The three cutesy cartoon characters are Reina the Mitigation Monarch (the name just rolls off the radula, doesn’t it?), Alejo the Safety Seal (is Monterey County big enough to have two cheerleaders named Alejo?) and… Inky the Safety Squid.

Yes, it’s a big sea out there, but Squid has never heard of Inky before, and likely no one else has either. Squid is volunteering Squidself to serve as Safety Ambassador – Squid’s star power is much stronger, despite Seaside’s constant rejection – although Squid’s constant warnings about the erosion of democracy or the lack of housing probably won’t appeal to children.

Squid will be eagerly awaiting the results after voting ends on May 30. Squid hopes Inky wins, so Squid has a cephalopod insider in county government who can feed Squid juicy tidbits to write about.

DISASTER CAPITALISM… Squid doesn’t travel as much as Squid might like, though fortunately, Squid lives in a place that other travelers love to visit. And for Squid, studying the habits of these strangers is like a form of travel in itself.

See Monterey, the region’s destination marketing organization, also studies visitors – and how to attract more of them – which is why Squid tuned in April 30 to watch See Monterey’s CEO Rob O’Keefe deliver an update to Monterey City Council about efforts to bring in more tourist dollars. After he was finished, councilmembers had a chance to chime in, and Squid nearly choked on shrimp-flavored popcorn during an exchange between O’Keefe and Councilmember Jean Rasch, who after praising efforts to get tourists to visit other parts of the county like Pinnacles National Park, said, “And now, you know, you’ll probably get tours of Vistra,” referring to the Jan. 16 fire at one of Vistra’s battery energy storage facilities in Moss Landing. “People will want to be touring Vistra to see what’s going on with that.” O’Keefe responded, “That’ll probably happen. There are Chernobyl visits now, so… ” Nodding, Rasch added, “Ground zero.”

Squid’s no marketing expert, but Squid’s not so sure a toxic waste site is something to highlight in a glossy brochure, but who knows, maybe next year’s will have a heavy metal theme.