Day: June 4, 2019

Emergency one way traffic contol – Highway 1 Wed 6/5 in Highlands 9-3

Today’s Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2019

District:           05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa       

                         Cruz Counties                                                  

Contact:          Susana Z Cruz (bilingual) or Colin Jones

Phone:            (805) 549-3138 or (805) 549-3189

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT ON STATE ROUTE 1 BETWEEN CORONA ROAD AND HIGHLAND DRIVE REQUIRES EMERGENCY DRAINAGE PUMPING TOMORROW

BIG SUR – An ongoing construction project to replace a failed corrugated metal pipe culvert, repair sinkhole damage and restore the roadway’s drainage facilities on State Route 1 between Corona Rd. and Highland Dr. in Carmel Highlands that began in February, will require an emergency closure from 9 am to 3 pm for drainage pumping, Caltrans officials announced today. 

NOTE: Roadwork consists of one-way reversing traffic control and motorists can expect delays not to exceed 15 minutes. Regular roadwork hours for the project are Monday through Thursday from 9 am to 3 pm and Friday from 9 am to Noon. Electronic message signs will be posted alerting the traveling public of this project. The emergency drainage pumping should complete by 1 pm tomorrow, Wednesday, June 5.

The contractor for this $750,000 construction project is Granite

Tourist Tuesday – Letters to the Board of Supervisors, 6/4/19

The Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce sent the following letter to our Board of Supervisors asking them to not cut funding to Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau (MCCVB) in the 2019-2020 budget. The majority of the money that goes to MCCVB, that does not go for salaries, goes toward advertising to attract tourists and/or conventions to the area, capitalizing on the selling power of Big Sur.

Big Sur sells itself and, of course, so does Big Little Lies (tongue in cheek here). The expenditure of money for advertising to bring in more tourists, when there is no money for the infrastructure to support increased visitation, is irresponsible and reckless. Given the budget constraints the County of Monterey has, cutting the funding of MCCVB is a wise choice.

MCCVB just spearheaded through the City of Monterey, rather than through the County of Monterey, a Tourist Improvement District (TID) tax last year which resulted in an increased revenue for MCCVB. This TID now comprises 57% of MCCVB’s budget. (I wrote about this last year, see for example: https://bigsurkate.blog/2018/09/12/public-hearing-re-tid-to-fund-mccvb/) Further, I provided a copy of the bureau’s budget for 2018-2019 here: https://Bigsurkate.blog/2018/09/11/tourism-in-moco/ While the TOT collected has been increasing, how can it be determined that this is due to the efforts of MCCVB rather than the popularity of Big Little Lies? Even MCCVB capitalizes on this trend by promoting a “Big Little Moments” Campaign (see: https://www.seemonterey.com/big-little-lies/) which I covered on 5/30/19 here: https://bigsurkate.blog/2019/05/30/tourist-thursday-5-30-19-big-little-moments-campaign/

Consider contacting our Board of Supervisors representative, Mary Adams’s office, and making your voice heard if you have an opinion on this issue. Continuing to push a goal of increased visitation is no longer sustaining nor is it a model to follow. Some things — like the beauty of Big Sur — are more precious than money. Here is the letter in jpg format.

Also, if you are interested, MCCVB and the Monterey Chamber of Commerce asked the City of Monterey to increase its funding to MCCVB at the May 29th meeting. Monterey video tapes all the City Council meetings and has them available here: https://www.monterey.org/City-Hall/The-Monterey-Channel/Council-Meetings-Video-on-Demand 5/29 Council mtg, afternoon session, starting at 1:17:15 (Clyde’s intro to public comments, then the public comments) (Thanks to Mari Lynch of Bicycle Monterey for alerting me to this event.)