This Week on the Central Coast
Ranch Cielo students learn construction while helping the community
The construction academy at Rancho Cielo in Salinas is teaching young adults all the skills needed to build homes. The nonprofit uses its curriculum to build micro homes for seasonal workers in Salinas while providing a high school diploma program. The academy started with a 200-square-foot home and “are now building two units, 400 square feet each, to become part of a micro-home village, where about 300 seasonal workers are living near Hollister.” In addition to teaching carpentry and basic construction skills, the academy brings in other professionals to educate students on solar and electric installation as well as plumbing.
Carmel-by-the-Sea leaning towards keeping parklets for outdoor dining.
The city sent out surveys to businesses, residents, and non-residents which asked for their opinion on outdoor dining. The responses were heavily tilted in favor of keeping outdoor dining in Carmel-by-the-Sea. One group that was interviewed for the article said they loved the option of being able to sit outside or move inside if they wanted. They also believed restaurants appreciated the extra space for tables.
On the other side, some business owners argued that the parklets take up too much parking space. Most parklets take about two spaces, but it quickly adds up when each restaurant uses them.
Overall, the decision seems to be to keep the parklets. The city is reviewing plans in order to decide which would work best with the city’s sidewalks and streets.
NPS students hope to be chosen for national summit
Each year, an organization known as NavalX plans a summit that is meant to spur creativity among military students in order to solve current issues. This year, the organization focused mostly on unmanned aircraft.
NPS students Nikolaos Vidalis, Antonios Varvasoudis, and Georgios Andrianopoulos are together working on improving the A.I. of the aircraft so that they can adjust to different skill levels and backgrounds of people operating them. This would allow the technology to continually improve while not increasing the amount of training needed to operate it.
Vidalis says that even making it to the summit will help bring notoriety to the NPS. If the group’s project is selected, it could bring funding to the NPS and other private companies that assist in developing the project. Vidalis said “Actions like this could bring in funding or motivate students at NPS and other people in Monterey Bay.”