Tag: Big Sur

Events in MoCo – a way to get involved

Want to be heard on the holding of special events on Highway One? Like the Dream Drive promoted by California, Central Coast and MoCo tourist agencies? Consider coming to as many of these meetings as you can. Once a month, in Salinas. Or let’s set up a rotating crew of Big Sur residents and workers to make sure our voice is hear.

Monterey County Special Events Task Force
Post Car Week Discussion
The August Special Events Task Force Meeting will be held on August 30thin the Cayenne Room. This will allow for post Car Week discussion. The agenda is forthcoming. The Resource Management Agency (RMA) of Monterey County cordially invites you to participate in our Special Events Task Force.

WHAT: Special Event Task Force, a collaborative effort to promote hassle-free special event permitting to ensure safe and successful events in Monterey County.

WHO: Special event organizers and stakeholders (e.g. hospitality industry, tent rental companies, event support companies, etc), Monterey County regulatory agencies, interested members of the public.

WHY: Event organizers will gain valuable insights and feedback on the ins and outs of special event permitting in Monterey County. County regulators will get the opportunity to provide transparency on their processes to organizers and the public. Members of the public will be able to voice their comments, interests and concerns regarding event planning in their community.

WHEN: Every fourth Thursday once a Month from 9:00-10:30 am

WHERE: The Thyme Room, Monterey County Government Center, 1441 Schilling Place, 2nd Floor, Salinas 93901

Big Sur Information

Header photo by bigsurkate

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AS OF 2/16/26 — HIGHWAY ONE IS CLOSED FROM RAGGED POINT TO 1 MILE SOUTH OF DEETJEN’S UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE DUE TO MULTIPLE ROCK AND MUD SLIDES.

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Links for phone users who can’t see the links to the right without scrolling through two years of posts. I’ll start with just a few, but if you have others you wish to see here, let me know.

Big Sur Maps (3) with slide names, locations, etc.: https://bigsurkate.blog/big-sur-interactive-highway-maps-with-slide-names-mile-markers/

Caltrans Interactive Map: https://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/

CHP dispatch: https://cad.chp.ca.gov/Traffic.aspx

 

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Interactive Highway Map with Mile Markers and slide names is to the right, under “Pages” first one *Big Sur Interactive Maps... if the following link doesn’t work. *Big Sur Interactive Slide Maps will answer any questions you may have about where something is in relation to something else.

MY DIRECT EMAIL IS: kwnovoa(AT)mac(dot)com

 

Car Week Public Meeting with Mary Adams on 7/11/18

How come car “week” is 9 days long? Extra days for set up and clean up? Inquiring minds want to know!
Dear Friends,
The upcoming Car Week (August 18 -26) will bring many visitors and activities to Monterey County. As locals, we balance the positive impacts and excitement with the intermittent frustrations caused by a major international event coming to town.
With the majority of activity set to occur in the Fifth District, I thought it appropriate to host a focused community meeting to help you prepare. In addition to outlining the economic impact to our county, our Car Week Community Meeting will:
  • Overview the comprehensive calendar of planned events;
  • Highlight events permitted by the County of Monterey;
  • Demo Monterey County Connect – your tool for reporting issues and requesting services; and
  • Enable you to ask questions and share your concerns.
Please join me on July 11, 2018 from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. for an informative presentation and lively discussion. We will convene in the Laguan Seca Pavilion, located at 1021 Monterey-Salinas Highway. Representatives from the various organizations involved in readying our community for Car Week will be in attendance.
Best,
Mary.
Mary L. Adams
Supervisor
Monterey County Board of Supervisors
District 5
 Monterey County Courthouse
Supervisor Mary Adams | 1200 Aguajito Rd., Ste. 1, Monterey , CA 93940 831-647-7755
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Campfire left unattended…

Brendon shot a video this last weekend. Unfortunately, it is shot sidewise, and there is a black out section when he put the camera down, and lots of f**ks, but he found an unattended campfire.  He was on his way down to the coast, and was down there about 4 hours. When he came back, these campers were just returning, and one of the guys completely denied that they left a burning campfire unattended, but did admit he didn’t touch it. I wish he had gotten a video of them coming back to their campsite.

Look at the smoke coming off that fire as Brendon uses their water to put out their fire. There wasn’t enough water, so he went to another camper to grab more water. Completely unattended for 4 hours. Un-f***ing-real.

Summer unofficially kicks off this Memorial Day weekend. Be extra vigilant. Be polite but firm, unless it involves fire. Then you have permission to get in their face.

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Highway Closure Update, 5/21/18

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Photos 1 and 2 of Mud Creek (PM 8.9) from Friday, May 18 and photo 3 of the repair at Hermitage (PM 22.42) last Monday, May 14 requiring Paul’s Slide area to be closed.

HIGHWAY 1 UPDATE – Monday, May 21

State Route 1 in Monterey County remains closed from north of Salmon Creek, just south of the Ranger Station (PM 3) to just south of Gorda (PM 10) due to the Mud Creek slide. State Route 1 south of Salmon Creek is accessible via State Route 1 in San Luis Obispo County near Ragged Point.

REMINDER: Travelers still CANNOT access the entire length of Highway 1 from Carmel to Cambria but local businesses are open on both sides of Mud Creek.

Mud Creek (PM 8.9)

Mud Creek had a major slide on Saturday, May 20, 2017, losing over 5 million cubic yards of material. Caltrans continues with its plan to realign the existing terrain. The Department has announced a new target of mid-September to get lanes re-opened to traffic. Caltrans will continuously evaluate the opening date as work progresses so we anticipate providing an update in July. It’s expected that even after the highway is re-open, intermittent lane closures and roadwork may continue. The updated current cost is at $54 million.

There is currently no public/local access through the Mud Creek area since this remains an active, emergency construction zone.

This week: Work continues with the north fill, north cut and north berm with hilfiker retaining wall.

Paul’s Slide (PM 21.6)*

Paul’s Slide is still active but the 24/7 traffic signal remains in place and temporary guardrail (k-rail) in the centerline. A full, daytime closure took place at Paul’s last Monday, May 14, 2018 to make repairs to the Hermitage Tieback Wall. (See attached photo).

ADDITIONAL WORK—CALPORTLAND PAVING BETWEEN LUCIA (PM 23) AND JUST SOUTH OF PCB (45.52)

Final items continue taking place. Metal Beam Guardrail (MBGR) end treatment work at Castro Canyon (PM 43.12) and slope work at the Coastlands (PM 44.41) continues taking place. However, no work is scheduled for this week north of Lucia.

The next update will be on Tuesday, May 29.

Tourist Tuesday, 5/15/18

“Sustainable Moments” is the current mantra of the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau. (https://www.seemonterey.com/regions/big-sur/big-sur-sustainable/) and it has become the newest “buzz” word world-wide for tourism that is threatening some of our most beautiful and pristine places on the planet. What does it really mean?

SUSTAINABLE – ADJECTIVE

  • Able to be maintained at a certain rate or level.

  • Able to be upheld or defended.

MOMENT – NOUN
     •. A very brief period of time
     •  (formal) importance.

So, by this catchy phrase, do they mean, maintain at at certain rate or level for a short period of time, which would be giving the terms their common or ordinary definition? Or do the mean to uphold or defend an important or significant interest? Do the MCCVB and the Big Sur community mean different things under this marketing lingo?

What about “sustainable tourism?” How is that defined?

Sustainable tourism is an industry committed to making a low impact on the environment and local culture, while helping to generate future employment for local people.The positive of sustainable tourism is to ensure that development is a positive experience for local people; tourism companies; and tourists themselves.
 https://www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/sustour-define.html

 

Management of Sustainable Tourism (Wikipedia)

“There has been the promotion of sustainable tourism practices surrounding the management of tourist locations by locals or the community. This form of tourism is based on the premise that the people living next to a resource are the ones best suited to protecting it. This means that the tourism activities (including marketing) and businesses are developed and operated by local community members, and certainly with their consent and support. Sustainable tourism typically involves the conservation of resources that are capitalized upon for tourism purposes. Locals run the businesses and are responsible for promoting the conservation messages to protect their environment….

The use of local knowledge also means an easier entry level into a tourism industry for locals whose jobs or livelihoods are affected by the use of their environment as tourism locations. Environmentally sustainable development crucially depends on the presence of local support for a project. It has also been noted that in order for success projects must provide direct benefits for the local community….

[P]artnerships between governments and tourism agencies with smaller communities is not particularly effective because of the disparity in aims between the two groups, i.e. true sustainability versus mass tourism for maximum profit. In Honduras such a divergence can be demonstrated where consultants from the World Bank and officials from the Institute of tourism wanted to set up a selection of 5-star hotels near various ecotourism destinations. But another operating approach in the region by USAID and APROECOH (an ecotourism association) promotes community-based efforts which has trained many local Hondurans. Mader[42] concluded that the grassroot organisations were more successful in Honduras.”

Our challenge is that the “sustainable tourism” experience is no longer. It is NOT a positive experience for the Big Sur environment nor for the Big Sur community and is therefore an oxymoron and a mere marketing tool with no real value. The entire Monterey Peninsula capitalizes on the lure and attraction of the Big Sur coast, BUT it does not include the Big Sur Community at large in the decisions and management practices that it employs. I am not implying that the MCCVB does not have a role in promoting the entire Monterey County, including Big Sur, as a tourist destination, and I do feel we can work together, but I am saying this MUST be Big Sur community based endeavor, NOT just a token consult with the community, or this is not sustainable tourism for Big Sur. The community is in the best position to be able to determine what is sustainable, and regardless of catchy phrases, we have long passed beyond the limits of sustainability. As I pointed out at the last Forum of the MCCVB on their “Sustainable Moments” campaign, they have it backwards. Infrastructure must be developed to serve the tourist industry BEFORE we strive to increase the level of tourism. We, the Big Sur community, and We, the Big Sur environment, cannot create a positive tourist experience if we don’t have the means to make it positive. In sum, it is time to organize the Big Sur Community – all its diverse parts into a whole that can best address all the various issues pertaining to visitors. That is the next step, and that is what we currently need to work on.  What sustainable ideas might you have for creating a balance between quality of environment, community quality of life, and tourists’s quality of experience?
Here is a great 3 minute video worth watching. (I tried to download and embed and ran into technical difficulties.) Make sure you watch both parts. It appears finished after part 1 due to blank screen and a seemingly long pause in this instant society, but it is not. There is a part 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN12mLY0Z0E&feature=share

Highway One Closure Update, 5/14/18

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SPECIAL NOTE: The full, daytime closure at Paul’s today, May 14, 2018 from 7 AM to 5 PM and is required due to equipment blocking the lane to make repairs to the Hermitage Tieback Wall. Paul’s should reopen by 5 PM on the same day, today, Monday, May 14.

HIGHWAY 1 UPDATE – Monday, May 14

State Route 1 in Monterey County remains closed from north of Salmon Creek, just south of the Ranger Station (PM 3) to just south of Gorda (PM 10) due to the Mud Creek slide. State Route 1 south of Salmon Creek is accessible via State Route 1 in San Luis Obispo County near Ragged Point.

REMINDER: Travelers still CANNOT access the entire length of Highway 1 from Carmel to Cambria but local businesses are open on both sides of Mud Creek.

 Mud Creek (PM 8.9)

Mud Creek had a major slide on Saturday, May 20, 2017, losing over 5 million cubic yards of material. Caltrans continues with its plan to realign the existing terrain. The Department has announced a new target of mid-September to get lanes re-opened to traffic. Caltrans will continuously evaluate the opening date as work progresses so we anticipate providing an update in July. It’s expected that even after the highway is re-open, intermittent lane closures and roadwork may continue. The updated current cost is at $54 million.

There is currently no public/local access through the Mud Creek area since this remains an active, emergency construction zone.

This week: Work continues with constructing the north fill and continue the north cut.

Paul’s Slide (PM 21.6)*

Paul’s Slide is still active but the 24/7 traffic signal remains in place and temporary guardrail (k-rail) in the centerline. A full, daytime closure at Paul’s is taking place today, Monday, May 14, 2018 from 7 AM to 5 PM and is required due to equipment blocking the lane to make repairs to the Hermitage Tieback Wall. Paul’s should reopen by 5pm on the same day, today, Monday, May 14.

Mud Creek article

In the San Jose Mercury News is a very detailed and comprehensive report on the state of the slide and the current work on it, with a series of photos taken by Vern Fischer of the Herald.

You can view it here: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/05/09/big-sur-nearly-a-year-after-massive-mud-creek-slide-project-intensifies/

Here are a couple of the photos showing current cracks:

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(Photo by Vern Fischer)

I have highlighted some new cracks. It is impossible to tell if this is of any significance from a photo, but it would appear the project manager is checking them out, and doesn’t seem to be worried about any imminent threat.

Here is the entrance from the north:

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(Photo by Vern Fischer) (Note, this appears to be an earlier shot as the containers are in this photo and they have since been removed)

And here is the arial view. The red line marks where the road will probably go (my guess), if it doesn’t already, but it could be dropped down to the lower bench, if needed, it looks like.

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