SQUID FRY 04.30.15: White Noise…

WHITE NOISE… Squid doesn’t watch much television these days, but there are certain shows even Squid can’t resist, like BBC Earth, Sharknado or anything with Anthony Bourdain. (Big shrimp fan.)

But over the past few months, one of the best dramas in town has been the Monterey City Council. Squid has been streaming meetings from the lair.

A highlight of the show: Rants from retired attorney Bill McCrone during public comment that past city councils and staff signed off on “sweetheart” leases on city-owned land. Some of those who hold the leases, of course, say McCrone’s views are misguided. (The resulting drama was the subject of a recent cover story.)

But Squid didn’t get to watch that show when City Council met with Surfside Enterprises in closed session April 24. They were negotiating a new lease for the waterfront building Surfside subleases to Sapporo Steakhouse and London Bridge Pub. Surfside’s Mike Zimmerman wrote a letter to the city explaining why his company’s proposed rent – 4 percent of the building’s gross receipts – is a great deal for the city, and higher than the going rate at Fisherman’s Wharf, where restaurants pay 3 percent.

Squid’s not sure Fisherman’s Wharf should be used as a baseline to establish fair rents, but who knows what the council’s going to say. The show will not be televised.

TARGET PRACTICE… Squid sometimes plays an undignified little game with the Squidlets when out for a drive: 5 points for a squirrel, 10 for a raccoon.

Just squidding. Squid tries to avoid killing critters as a general rule.

But County Supervisor Fernando Armenta appears to be a little more ruthless. In an epic rant April 28, he laid it out: Down with the animals, in with economic development. Specifically, in with plans for a River Road wine corridor.

The supervisors were set to approve final amendments to the 2010 General Plan – limiting agriculture on slopes, which mostly affects wine grapes – to settle litigation with watchdog groups Open Monterey Project and LandWatch. Armenta rejected the proposed settlement because he’d had an epiphany while in Napa Valley.

“I was driving, talking to myself,” he said. “I’ve had enough of this. We can’t strangulate this county. I don’t know what it was, driving up Highway 29 – it was like a different world, and everything is green. I didn’t see salamanders or alligators or kit fox. Those are things to be appreciated, but I say, why can’t Monterey County live in peace and prosperity like those folks up there?”

Let Squid help: environmental regulations are some of the last lines of defense for green space, and the critters who live in it. Might Squid suggest Armenta warm up to non-humans with new pet?