This Week on the Central Coast
Hackathon, Flavored Tobacco, Free Dump Day, Rumored Amazon Warehouse, and Parklet Drama
“Hackathon” Introduces Seaside Students to Programming
On Wednesday, Seaside High School held its fifth annual Hackathon, a competition where teams of four try to build an app from the ground up, inspired by a theme. This year’s theme was “Glow Up” and awards were given for “most innovative”, “most downloadable”, and “exemplary use of the theme”.
Eighteen teams from MPUSD competed, ranging from middle school to high school. Many students had never tried programming before, but were able to quickly learn during the event using the AppLab program at Code.org.
According to the site, “only 51% of all high schools offer computer science.” Seaside High has been a role-model for computer sciences in our local area, making it a required class. “Earlier this year, Seaside High was named one of 760 schools in the country to earn the College Board’s AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for Expanding Young Women’s Access to AP Computer Science Principles.”
Monterey is asking for input on a proposed sales ban on flavored tobacco
The proposal would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products and single use e-cigarettes. It would not ban the use of these products. If a person had purchased one of the banned products from another city, or was already in possession of it, they would still be able to use it. The ban is meant to reduce access to flavored tobacco and e-cigarettes by youth in Monterey while also reducing the amount of waste and chemical pollution caused by the disposables and their batteries.
According to the CDC, about 2.06 million middle school and high schoolers used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. From February 2020 to June 2021, e-cigarette sales increased by 50%.
The city is seeking input from locals via two town halls, which you can sign up for here:
The first is on Monday, April 25, at 7 PM.
The second is on Tuesday, April 26 at 11 AM.
Make sure you make your voice heard if you have an opinion on this.
Most of this summary is a direct quote from the article. I just wanted to get the word out about this. Make sure you visit the article for more specific information on what will and won’t be accepted.
A free dump day will be offered in celebration of Earth Day on Sunday, April 23. The dump at “Sherwood Park at 920 North Main Street in Salinas will take non-hazardous, unwanted items for free from 9 AM to 12 PM.”
“No construction materials, hazardous waste, e-waste, treated wood waste, or asbestos of any type will be accepted.”
A quick update on the rumored Salinas Amazon Warehouse
Salinas council member Steve McShane has said that the developer for the building site has cancelled the project due to the increase in costs of construction.
“That area has a specific plan that has been selected since 2010 and has always projected to have industrial development,” said Megan Hunter of Community Development. She says they hope the city revisits its plans to build at that location.
Carmel-by-the-Sea Parklet Drama Continues
Carmel City Council voted to remove all parklets by 5 PM on April 20, arguing that they we are no longer in an emergency situation. In contrast, the city surveyed residents, businesses, and visitors a couple months ago, asking if the current “dining type” was consistent with the character of Carmel-by-the-Sea. The survey offered a scale of 1-5 and 47% of respondents voted 5 (most in agreement).
Some restaurant owners believe the parklets should stay until “we really get out of the COVID era”, citing the recent renewal of China’s lockdowns. Another good argument made by business owners is the amount of money they have spent on the parklets themselves. Each restaurant was given two parking spots to use, but were charged $800 per spot. The city reassured them that the charges helped pay for enforcement, but businesses were quick to point out that they had only seen one person checking up on them. “I’m pretty sure that 42 restaurants who are paying $7,500 each every month more than pays for his salary,” said the General Manager of Pangaea Grill.
Restaurants also had to meet specific guidelines for their parklet designs, but had to pay for the construction themselves. Many added amenities as well, such as landscaping and roofs. One owner spent about $60,000 across his three restaurants. Now businesses will have to spend more time and labor to break it all down.
Mayor Dave Potter responded: “They've been there for quite a while honestly. Some of them are looking a little dilapidated. There seems to be major interest now in inside dining. We are going to bring it back to council for further deliberations for what the future of dining is. It's not as if it's going to go away permanently. We're going to refer it to the planning commission. In 30 days we're going to have a recommendation from the council what the process is going to look like when we refer it to the planning commission. In 90 days we want recommendation from the planning commission.”