Dear Readers,

The city council unanimously rejected Verizon’s application to install a cell phone antenna on Carmelo Street near La Playa Hotel. After Tuesday’s meeting, Verizon’s next move may be to sue. Mary Schley reports.

Even as the council was meeting, just a few blocks away four people — at least two of them teenagers — pulled off a smash-and-grab robbery at a downtown jewelry store. They apparently didn’t get much, but they sure scared a lot of people. Mary Schley has that one, too.

County supervisors decided to launch a crackdown on illegal short-term rentals in Carmel Valley, Pebble Beach and Big Sur. Chris Counts has that one.

Efforts by the water management district to take over Cal Am were dealt a major blow this week when the local agency formation commission refused to go along with the idea. The board of supervisors again decided not to impose an indoor mask mandate. A foolish hiker had to be rescued via helicopter from a steep hillside in Big Sur after he decided it would be a good idea to try to climb down to the beach. The family of a man who was killed two years ago when his car rolled over the edge of Highway 1 is suing the county. The city’s garbage rates are going up again. An unexpected surge in revenues is making it possible for the city to create 14 new jobs. Questions are being asked about a Pacific Grove city council member and what she accomplished while attending a conference in Sacramento. A downtown hotel has finally gotten the OK to install a grease trap beneath a public sidewalk. An equipment failure at Los Padres Dam last fall may have killed thousands of steelhead. Great white sharks are being tracked as they move great distances in the Pacific Ocean and a new app will let you follow them, too. Neal Hotelling tells the remarkable story of some of the early owners of Mission Ranch. Dennis Taylor explains why the Stevenson girls basketball team has such high aspirations this year. We have another Holiday Guide full of shopping and event tips for between now and New Year’s. And my editorial ponders what we’d be doing without if the activists and NIMBYs had always been a political force.

Paul Miller, Publisher
paul@carmelpinecone.com

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