SQUID FRY: Northern Exposure

NORTHERN EXPOSURE… There are few things Squid loves more than seeing residents participate in public meetings, and on March 2, so many residents came to Seaside City Hall that Squid was smiling all night. There were even times when Squid’s beady eyes started welling up.

The big subject of the evening was a discussion as to whether Seaside should become a “sanctuary city” – broadly speaking, a city that doesn’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities – and whether that might impact the $1.4 million in federal funds that flow to the city annually. City Hall was so packed that dozens of residents stood in the hallways, with some watching and listening to the meeting on a big-screen TV. Impassioned public comment went on for hours, then things got a little weird toward the end, when Seaside Mayor Ralph Rubio had the chance to speak his mind. Rubio expressed dismay at how much trouble President Donald Trump is causing so many people, but was concerned about losing federal funding. He also felt like Trump’s focus has wrongly been on the Hispanic community and The Wall, when the border of Canada was more “porous.” On that border, he said, “There’s Chechens, Russians, Irish, Chinese and many other illegals coming through every day without any check… there’s a real need to have immigration reform that looks at all borders.”

Wait… so two walls?

CONFUSING MENU… Squid admits to procrastination when it comes to opening the mail delivered to the lair. Maybe it’s a holdover from the days when Squid’s mailbox was bursting with junk mail. But earlier this week a copy of The Voice, the bimonthly newsletter of the Carmel Residents Association, showed up in the box and Squid opened it. Two things caught Squid’s eye. First, columnist David Armstrong opined about what’s “hot and cold” in downtown Carmel. He declared empty art gallery spaces as “Cold,” and offered up this proposal to boost business: “Should Carmel limit the number of art galleries?” He then goes after another business category: “Downtown may well have too many restaurants.”

Another section of the newsletter, “Cheers and Chides,” had this poetic note: “CHEERS for the mud, the wet, the cold, the thunder and lightning, the wind, the power outages, the floods, the flood warnings, the hail… AND THE RAIN.” Cheers for power outages and floods? So says the privileged unnamed author (or authors – the newsletter is produced by an editorial board led by CRA President Barbara Livingston) in Carmel, where the power was back on pretty much the same day – unlike in Prunedale, where power and water systems were out for days, and unlike Salinas, Carmel Valley and Big Sur, where residents were flooded out of their homes.