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CRA News Oct. 2005
Selected articles from the newsletter of the Carmel Residents Association
 Three French ladies, Paulette Missud, Jackie Tober and Madeleine Dowdakin, from left, had a lot to talk about at the August barbecue, both in English and in French! Paulette grew up in Algiers; Jackie and Madeline were raised in Paris. |
CRA Meeting -- The ocean's moods and actions, an entertaining speaker will tell us
| Thursday, October 27 -- CRA Meeting | |
| 4:45 p.m. -- Dr. Edward Thornton Beach Erosion in Monterey and Carmel Bays Carpenter Hall, Sunset Center (Mission at 8th) |
|
Have you ever wondered, as you walk along Carmel's white sand beach or on the beach walkway, why the sand disappears in the winter but always returns in the summer? Or why the Carmel River cut a path so close to Scenic Road on Carmel Point that a beautiful cypress and the road itself were endangered? The featured speaker at the Oct. 27 Carmel Residents Association meeting, Dr. Edward Thornton, will be able to answer these questions and many more.
A professor in the Naval Postgraduate School's Department of Oceanography, Dr. Thornton has a reputation as an entertaining, fascinating speaker. He has conducted numerous studies on waves, currents and erosion, worldwide and here in our own Monterey and Carmel Bays. Our speaker has degrees from Willamette, Stanford, and Oregon State Universities with a PhD from the University of Florida in coastal and ocean engineering. He has been a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School since 1969, and was named a Distinguished Professor in 1996. He has published over 70 scientific articles and is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in the study of wave and sediment processes in the nearshore of the ocean. Dr. Thornton has been the principal investigator in all the comprehensive nearshore field experiments in the U.S. over the past 30 years.
Highlights from Sept. 6 City Council Meeting
- Overturned a decision of the Historic
Resources Board to deny moving an historic house on its existing site
in order to accommodate another to be built on the same property. (NW
corner San Carlos and 12th) Unanimous.
- Overturned a decision of the Design
Review Board to deny the addition of a partial second story on a house
located on the east side of Santa Rita between 2nd and 3rd. Mayor McCloud
quoted Design Guidelines which protect the city from the mass and bulk
of inappropriate design and building. Vote was 4-1 with mayor dissenting.
- Reversed their earlier decision to
allow water credits to be given to the city for future apartments in
exchange for allowing the Carmel Inn for Seniors to be converted to
condos without benefit of apartments on site. Vote was 4-1 with Gerard
Rose dissenting, saying it is bad policy for the city to change its
mind.
- Consent item on the firefighters'
memorandum of understanding was pulled because the firefighters have
not yet approved it. There is still no contract between the city and
the firefighters.
- Voted 3-2 to proceed with the Scenic
Avenue Beach Walkway project. Mike Cunningham opposed, saying he thought
taxpayers would object to the $157,000 cost; Erik Bethel voted no because
he did not like the proposed surfacing material.
- Voted 4-1 to approve on 2nd reading
the Live Music Ordinance by amending it to reflect a maximum decibel
level of 40, rather than 55, as measured inside any building occupied
by a noise-sensitive use, i.e. apartments over a bar/restaurant.
- Bob Tierney appointed to Forest &
Beach Commission to replace Kevan Uruquart; Erik Dyar appointed to Historic
Resources Board to replace Kathy Henney. All other commissioners whose
terms were up for renewal were reappointed.
- Copies are available at City Hall
of the city administrator's financial report.
President's
Message
Listening
by Sherry Shollenbarger
I was present at two very encouraging
events recently. One, a town hall meeting in the chambers of City Hall
in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The other, a meeting at the Panetta Institute when
members of the Carmel Residents Association attended a talk given by Sylvia
Panetta.
For me, the common denominator of these meetings was learning, once again,
how a respectful, factual and passionate exchange of ideas can be very
powerful.
At City Hall, the residents shared their deeply held convictions, pro
and con, regarding the sale of Flanders Mansion. Neighbors on both sides
of the issue spoke with respect for one another, sharing their concerns.
Without a timer, and with a microphone handed around, each resident shared
his or her points of view. People spoke adamantly, but with much civility.
Carmel is in great need of such civil discourse!
At the Panetta Institute we learned how powerful the action part of democracy
is when community members are brought together to listen to each other.
The very presence of California State University, Monterey Bay and, likewise,
the Panetta Institute is the direct result of collaboration and partnership.
And, the result is most impressive.
We won't always be on the "winning side." But let's continue to return
to City Hall, to speak out for or against issues that affect our vision
of Carmel. Let us turn to our neighbors to collaborate, to partner, to
educate each other and, to listen. Many times our goals are more
common than we realize. When they are not, only continued discourse will
allow for creative solutions and the acceptance of final decisions that
is necessary to move forward. Then, everyone will "win," most especially,
Carmel-by-the-Sea.
A chance to peek into Carmel's charming cottages
On Oct. 23, from 1 to 4 p.m., the Carmel
Cottage Society, with the Carmel Preservation Foundation, is offering
a tour of some of the village's most charming cottages.
The eight featured cottages lie in the Eighty Acres, one of Carmel's
earliest additions, settled first in 1906 by poet and pioneer George Sterling.
All of the cottages have been cleverly preserved and redone to reflect
today's lifestyle and comforts in yesterday's craftsman charm.
The $30 ticket includes a reception from 4 to 5 p.m. in the garden of
Moon Door and a book signing by Linda Leigh Paul of her three new
cottage books.
Tickets will be available at the S.E. corner of Mountain View and Santa
Fe with parking at the Forest Theater. For more information, call Enid
Sales at 625-0566.
Citizens' Emergency Response Training (CERT) class starting soon
A Citizens' Emergency Response Training
(CERT) class will begin on Saturday, Oct. 15, and will run on successive
Saturdays through Nov. 12. The time of each class will be 9 a.m. to 1
p.m. To sign up, call Cindy Nagai, 624-2374, or Leslie Fenton or Mitch
Kastros at 620-2030.
It's City birthday and Halloween Parade times
The City's 89th annual birthday celebration
and Halloween Parade will take place on Saturday, Oct. 29. The parade
begins at 11 a.m., meandering through our commercial district on Ocean
Avenue. Adults, children and dogs are welcome to participate in the parade.
Wear your costume and join city dignitaries riding in grand old cars as
the city salutes its residents. Complimentary ice cream will follow for
all participants.
A barbecue lunch and entertainment follows at Sunset Center (San Carlos
between 8th and 10th) beginning at noon. Barbecue tickets are available
for purchase at City Hall and Nielson Brothers Market. Adults tickets
are $12 in advance, $15 the day of the event; the children's hot dog lunch
is $3.
Beach Cleanup
Saturday, October
22
10 a.m. - noon
-
Volunteers meet at foot of Ocean Avenue
-
Please bring gloves
-
Coffee courtesy of Caffe Cardinale
Thanks to Carmel Pine
Cone publisher Paul Miller for the attractive monthly ad he donates
to the Beach Cleanup.
CRA PROFILES
by Walter Gourlay
Ingrid Wekerle--a woman of many talents
Dr. Ingrid Matson Wekerle,
a creative soul, an artist and a scholar, is a confirmed Carmelite,
living in a beautiful home in our village, with an enchanting garden
and a stunning view of the Pacific. Also a confirmed cosmopolitan, she
maintains quarters in New York City and feels at home in Vienna.
Ingrid's professional life is involved with the theater, first as an
actress and dancer, then as a director, teacher, producer and sponsor.
She grew up in upstate New York, where at the age of five she was cast
in dramatic presentations in a convent boarding school. At eleven, she
became involved with the Perry-Mansfield Theater Group as a protégé
of Charlotte Perry, a cofounder of the school. At the age of twelve,
she was giving dancing lessons in New York. Four years later, when she
passed for eighteen, the state Youth Commission hired her to teach weekend
dance classes and run a children's summer camp. She spent the rest of
the summer with Perry-Mansfield in Colorado. That famous institution
was founded in Carmel-by-the-Sea and at the Del Monte Hotel in the early
Twentieth Century under the auspices of Frank Devendorf. For various
reasons, including winter storms, it later transferred to Colorado,
with a winter seat in New York City where Ingrid joined it.
After earning a B.A. from Hunter College of the City University of New
York, Ingrid received a prestigious Fulbright Grant to study at the
Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. The following year she
was one of only two Fulbright scholars in Austria to receive a second
grant, to continue studies in Vienna. Bilingual by now, she studied
music, ballet, modern dance and choreography at the Academy, acting
privately with Max Reinhardt's wife, Helene Thimig Rheinhardt, while
performing in the theater and dance companies of the Viennese German
People's Theater.
After graduating from the Academy, she joined the faculty of Hunter
College and earned an M.A. at night school. Receiving a National Defense
Education Act Grant, she completed her Ph.D. in three years at the University
of Denver, one area of specialization being the theater of the Italian
Renaissance, the Commedia Dell' Arte.
Upon returning to Hunter, Ingrid directed performances at the Hunter
Playhouse, now renamed the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse. Her classes
included children's theater, acting, directing, speech, literature and
integrated arts. At Perry-Mansfield she studied, performed, taught and
directed. "Perry-Mansfield was a home for the arts," Ingrid explains.
Such famous performers as Dustin Hoffman, Julie Harris, Martha Graham,
Mary Wigman, Agnes DeMille, Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey and José
Limon were her teachers and colleagues. In the 1950's Perry-Mansfield,
Ingrid with them, returned to Carmel for the winter months.
Ingrid is already booked for the 2012 national celebration of the 100th
birthday of Perry-Mansfield, which is on the Historic Registry as the
oldest continuing theater and theater school in the United States.
She divides her time between Carmel, New York City and Europe, especially
Vienna, with side trips to exotic places such as Samarkand, Tashkent,
Buchara, Thailand, Nepal and Morocco. Once, on a sabbatical from Hunter,
Ingrid taught a class on the Tibetan border.
She has a special place in her heart for children and children's theater.
Ingrid believes "inhabiting different characters leads young actors
to appreciate the variety of human experience, and opens their awareness
and understanding of people who are different from themselves and who
have lived at different times and places. It's a privilege to contribute
something to the life of a child."
She loves to cook, especially curries, and often gives dinners for non-profit
fundraisers. Above her kitchen entry hangs a sign, "Curry Kitchen."
She likes to write short stories and loves reading, particularly literature,
poetry and history. She enjoys gardening and photography and is an accomplished
equestrian, competent riding Army, Western or English saddles. Currently
she's involved with the Perry-Mansfield Theater Archives, the film department
of which is housed at Lincoln Center in New York City.
Ingrid named her home Our Mundir. A Tibetan term, Mundir
means home, friendship, welcome, hospitality and many other warm things.
It's Our because, she explains, "When one is so fortunate to have a
home, it is a treasure to be shared. Everything we have is actually
ours for only a short time before we pass it on."
To list Dr. Wekerle's many professional accomplishments and honors would
take many pages. She's chaired a theater department, taught a broad
spectrum of theater classes, including at the Brecht Theater in East
Berlin, and translated plays from German into English. Among her many
honors is an appointment to the Artistic Board of the Vienna-based modern
dance company, the Internationale Gesellschaft Rosalia Chladek.
In Carmel, among her numerous other philanthropies and activities, she's
on the board of Colleagues of the Arts, a non-profit founded in 1998,
which provides funds for artistically-talented youths on the Monterey
Peninsula.
Ingrid speaks eloquently of the beauty and charm of Carmel, and describes
the sunrises and sunsets as evoking Homer's "rosy-fingered tips of the
dawn." The creativity of artists and writers "has given Carmel its soul.
I love the non-commercial aspects of Carmel and hope we can preserve
its charm and history without allowing it to become something based
on ability to pay and into a place for investment, such as unused second
or third houses instead of a place where people live in their homes."
Ingrid Wekerle, we are immeasurably richer for having you among us,
a generous part of the creative tapestry that is Carmel.
Measure W -- a water question on the November 8 ballot
The Sept. issue of Carmel Residents
Association News announced that the Association would sponsor a public
forum on Measure W in October. That event was cancelled due to the difficulty
of finding anyone to represent those who oppose the measure. We hope that
the short, impartial synopsis on this important ballot measure, which
appears below, will be helpful in clarifying this issue.
Measure W on the November 8 ballot will allow the Monterey Peninsula
Water Management District to study public ownership of Cal-Am's private
water distribution system and the cost and process for the public to acquire
that system.
Measure W asks:
"Shall the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District be directed to
investigate the cost and process to publicly acquire the private water
utility system presently owned and operated by the Monterey District of
California American Water (Cal-Am), and be directed to recover up to $550,000
for costs of the investigation as a surcharge upon water bills of Cal-Am
customers?"
The measure is supported by the Monterey FLOW Coalition, which includes
the grassroots group Citizens for Public Water and Monterey FLOW, a group
of Peninsula business leaders concerned about the effect of rising water
rates on local businesses.
The Monterey and Pacific Grove Chambers of Commerce as well as the Monterey
County Taxpayers Association, oppose Measure W, saying it will be too
expensive to buy out Cal-Am.
Monterey Peninsula residents pay some of the highest water rates in California
and Cal-Am is proposing to increase rates 300% by 2010.
A "yes" vote on Measure W would authorize a one-time fee of an average
of $14 to be included on each Cal-Am customer's water bill to fund the
study. A "no" vote would maintain the status quo.
Measure W does not identify any particular public agency that would operate
the system. Those options would be addressed in the study, and may include
the current sewer agency (Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency)
or another joint powers authority. After the study provides the facts,
any buyout proposal would be put to a future vote.
Carmel Unified School District bond measure also on November ballot
Measure A would provide $21.5
million in funds for needed Carmel Unified School District facilities:
a new library complete with computer center at Carmel High; replacement
of the library, built 40 years ago as a drama lecture amphitheater; a
350-seat theater to serve the whole District; a 40-meter pool to replace
the 25-foot pool that is only 4 feet deep. Funds would also build a hands-on
science classroom at Carmel Middle School, expand that school's gym and
allow the District to replace aging temporary buildings with permanent
classrooms on three campuses. The access road to Captain Cooper Elementary
in Big Sur would also be repaired.
OLD CARMEL
by Connie Wright
John O'Shea: The Impassioned Painter
John O'Shea was born in
Ballintaylor in the south of Ireland in 1876. His family were farmers
of modest means. He studied painting in Dublin and Cork, emigrated to
the U.S. in the late 1890s and settled in New York City, where he studied
at the Adelphi Academy and at the Art Students League.
In 1913 O'Shea moved to California and exhibited landscapes in Pasadena
and Los Angeles; both of these exhibitions were well received and praised
as "beautiful interpretations of our landscape." He moved to the Carmel
Highlands in 1917 and in December of that year participated in an exhibition
of the Arts and Crafts Club, a forerunner of the Carmel Art Association.
In 1922 he married Molly Shaughnessy of Terre Haute, Indiana, who had
inherited a large fortune in steel and iron mills from her first husband.
Molly owned ten acres in the Carmel Highlands where she and John built
a stone mansion, Tynalacan, next to the painter William Ritschel,
and near Smugglers' Cove. They were both bon vivants who partied almost
as much as he painted. At their mansion they entertained many friends,
among them Una and Robinson Jeffers, Edward Weston and Mabel Loomis Dodge,
the wealthy patroness of the arts and her third husband, American Indian
Tony Luhan.
In 1926 and 1927 he made a number of painting trips to Arizona with his
close friend, fellow painter and neighbor Theodore Criley. They camped
and painted. An exhibition of O'Shea's paintings in Pasadena contained
works from that trip. The exhibition traveled to Tucson and San Francisco.
Molly and John traveled to Tahiti in 1928, from which he returned with
a number of landscapes, seascapes and still lifes, richly colored and
using broad strokes. In 1930 he painted in New Mexico around Taos. In
1931 he exhibited at the Denny-Watrous Gallery in Carmel, owned and run
by Dene Denny and Hazel Watrous, who were to found the Carmel Bach Festival.
The paintings were partly from his Tahitian tour. Edward Weston wrote
of that exhibition that his "color ... is vivid, subtle, somber, sparkling
gem-like--it comprehends the gamut."
His color palette at times contained orange, red, light green, light blue
and pink. In 1933 he showed at the Denny-Watrous Gallery again, but this
time he showed works in charcoal, an artistic departure. Lincoln Steffens
wrote teasingly of that show that it wasn't art at all, because the artist
enjoyed what he did and didn't suffer.
O'Shea had an Irish wit, charm and temper. Molly said, "He paints at white
hot heat and the air's blue with his curses."
Due to the persuasiveness of the local philanthropist Noel Sullivan, the
Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco had a large retrospective
of O'Shea's work in April and May of 1934. The work was praised by the
San Francisco News as "fresh and vigorous." The success of this
show resulted in exhibitions of his work throughout the 1930s, the Crocker
Art Gallery in Sacramento, for example, in 1935. That same year he spent
six months in Mexico painting. Works from that period were exhibited at
the Del Monte Art Gallery of the Del Monte Hotel (at present, the Naval
Postgraduate School). The oil painting Comida, Market Day, which
hangs over the fireplace in the Reading Room of the Harrison Memorial
Library, is a product of that Mexican stay.
John O'Shea was an active member of the Carmel Art Association, an exhibitor
and a juror, and because he loved gardens he designed the garden and patio
of the Art Association. He served three times as president of that group,
in 1934, 1937 and 1938.
He and Molly moved to Pebble Beach in 1938. In 1941 he received a first
prize at the California State Fair for oil painting and one month later
Molly died. In 1942, much saddened, he moved to Masten House, near
the Highlands Inn.
The same year, the Bohemian Club in San Francisco held a show of his work,
much praised by Alfred Frankenstein, famed art critic for the San Francisco
Chronicle.
In 1944 he moved to a cottage on San Carlos and Vista in Carmel Woods.
He died there in 1956. The Carmel Art Association held a memorial exhibition
of his paintings.
DID YOU KNOW?
The city code has specific rules for fires on Carmel Beach:
- Fires for cooking or warmth are allowed
on Carmel Beach south of 10th Ave.
- Fires can be on the sand or in a
hibachi, charcoal grill or other receptacle.
- Burnable material can not extend more
than two feet above the base of the fire.
- Flames can not extend into the air
more than five feet from the base of the fire.
- The base of the fire can not exceed
four feet across.
- Charcoal starter is the only flammable
liquid that can be used for the fire.
- Fires are not allowed on any slope
or within 25 feet of a wall, vegetation or combustible material not
intended to be used in the fire.
- All fires must be extinguished with water but left exposed prior to leaving the beach. (Buried embers can burn the feet of unsuspecting barefooted walkers.)
READABLE READS
Susie Carr and Mary Condry
highly recommend Desert Queen by Janet Wallach. It is "a
masterful biography of Gertrude Bell (1868 - 1926) who broke the Victorian
mold and became an adventuress, turning away from the privileged world
of the eminent Victorians. She explored, mapped and excavated the world
of the Arabs, became well connected to the Arab tribal sheikhs and was
instrumental in creating the modern Middle East after WWII. This is an
excellent read that relates to our situation in Iraq today."
Nancy Collins writes, "The 6th Lamentation by William
Broderick just won the highest praise of any book read by the All Saints
Book Club. It is both a literary thriller that will keep you turning pages
well into the night and a complex and thoughtful story that will make
you ponder the themes of forgiveness and redemption."
Remember that your City Council is on T.V.
City Council meetings
are taped and re-broadcast
Sundays, 8 a.m. - 12 noon on
KMST Channel 26
