Mr. Toy's Mental Notes

Over the years the Monterey Herald , our daily newspaper, has been bought and sold several times. After a few months of settling in, each new owner starts shaving away at the good stuff. One previous owner didn't wait, and fired the entire reporting staff and asked them to reapply. The excuse given this time is internet competetion. They have to stay ahead of the game, they say, to remain competetive. Someone please explain to me how cutting back on content and reducing the quality of your product makes you more competitive. A few months ago the Sunday Herald dropped Parade magazine and replaced it with the inferior USA Weekend, a product of USA Today. No more Mayilyn Vos Savant, no more Howard Huge, no more articles by famous scientists. USA is just a trite imitation with no content of any value. I flip through it every Sunday hoping to find something interesting, but I barely read a word. Next came a formatting change for the Sunday leisure section. No problem there. The cont...

I've been so busy I haven't had time to publicly thank the Monterey City Council for doing the right thing with the Catellus Property near Wharf #2. Until now. For the uninitiated, here's the background story. The Catellus property once belonged to the Southern Pacific railroad, which leased two buildings to two local businesses. One was Adventures by the Sea, which uses the facility for indoor/outdoor beach parties. Monterey Bay Kayaks was the other. After the city bought the property, there was a call to demolish these buildings and put their tenants out of business. A previous city council came close to doing so. The arguments against the businesses were to open up views from Del Monte Avenue, and keep private enterprise out of public  parks. Arguments in favor of the businesses were that they provided the public with social and recreational opportunities that otherwise would not exist. I watched the council meeting live on TV. I was relieved to see the council agree tha...