SQUIDFRY 12.28.17: New Suit

NEW SUIT… As Squid looks forward to the New Year and beyond (barring the apocalypse), Squid can already see future court battles forming on the horizon.

One is litigation surrounding California American Water’s proposed desal plant in Marina, and another is an appeal of whatever decision Monterey County Superior Court Judge Thomas Willsmakes about whether Measure Z – a ban on fracking in Monterey County, among other things – can become the law of the land.

Just as likely, there will another lawsuit about Eastside Parkway, a proposed road through Fort Ord. The activist group Keep Fort Ord Wild won a lawsuit against the Fort Ord Reuse Authority earlier this year for not following the law in planning the road, and the two parties met in court again Dec. 20 over how FORA is moving forward with the process. KFOW attorneyMolly Erickson argued FORA was still giving undue (and illegal) preference to the same proposed location for the road, despite losing in court. FORA attorney Jon Giffen argued his client is not violating the law – and that if they are, they’ll have to wait for a judge to decide. “The next lawsuit is the time to evaluate if FORA moved forward improperly,” Giffen said.

Judge Lydia Villarreal sided with Giffen on this one, but added a message that she asked him to relay to FORA’s board: “The court’s preference is to not see you again.”

Squid’s preference, for what it’s worth, is that unicorns were real.

BALL DROP… Squid’s seen the online calculators projecting what Squid’s tax return will be with the new GOP bill, and Squid will be delighted to get another $512 in Squid’s pocket, even if it’s peanuts compared to the wealthiest 5 percent. It means that maybe, someday, Squid will be able to afford a swank New Year’s Eve bash, like the festivities at The Inn at Spanish Bay, where the well-heeled set will be celebrating at a roaring 1920s-themed party, “Puttin’ on the Ritz” – for a cool $395 a head. Squid can’t help but note the irony: During the actual 1920s the government gave the wealthiest Americans a massive tax cut (sound familiar?), and the gap between rich and poor further widened. The stock market crash came in 1929, followed by the Great Depression.

Squid wonders if partying like it’s the 1920s again isn’t some sort of portent. Squid thinks the less-ritzy party at the Portola Inn and Spa, with a 1960s theme and hippie attire encouraged, is a groovy idea, even if the $150 ticket is still a stretch for Squid’s budget.

To be honest, Squid and Squid’s faithful canine companion, Rosco P. Coltrane, are most likely to ring in 2018 on the couch, munching on a plentiful amount of shrimp-flavored popcorn and thinking: good riddance, 2017.