CRA News February 2009

Selected articles from the newsletter of the Carmel Residents Association

CRA's dynamic Dines Out duo, Kathy Fredrickson, left, and Mary Ellen Thomas, have done a remarkable job of arranging wonderful dinners after our general meetings. It takes a lot of time to find a restaurant, arrange the menu and organize reservations.

It's the 20th Citizen of the Year Celebration!

The 20th annual Citizen of the Year Celebration will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22, at the Carmel Woman's Club, San Carlos and 9th. Event Chair Casey MacKenzie has planned a memorable afternoon, with Faith Traxler again providing the creative decorations. Refreshments and delicious hors d'oeuvres, catered by Michael Jones of A Movable Feast and the traditional elegant cake donated by Magdy Ibrahim of Pâtisserie Boissiere will be served.

Noted writer, actor, producer and CRA board member Tom Parks will build suspense until he announces this year's honoree.

Community members are welcome and encouraged to attend. There is no charge.

Previous Citizens of the Year are Jim Wright, Joyce Stevens, Enid Sales, the late Jack Billwiller, Skip Lloyd, Noel Mapstead, Clayton Anderson, Roy Thomas, Jean White, Bob Kohn, Linda Anderson, John Hicks, Noel Van Bibber, the late J.S. Holliday, Frankie Laney, Nancy and Bill Doolittle, Merv Sutton, Barbara Livingston, Olof Dahlstrand and Wayne Kelley.

President's Message
How do we want to grow as a village?

by Barbara Livingston

The Carmel Sands Hotel project, across from the Shell Station and Casanova Restaurant, is being followed with great interest by villagers who believe it is entirely too big for Carmel-by-the-Sea. The canyon effect of the proposed two-story building stretches from mid block San Carlos, south to 5th Avenue and around the corner to mid block on Mission St. Concerns about aesthetics, hydrology and water quality, land use and planning, biological resources, as well as transportation, traffic and two years of construction noise, encouraged the Carmel Residents Association Board to challenge the mitigated negative declaration and to ask the Planning Commission for a full blown Environmental Impact Report. (CRA's letter is available upon request.)

To make this $30 million project financially feasible, the developer must increase the number of rooms which previously existed on this site. Because Carmel has a cap on the total number of allowed visitor accommodations, the addition of 15 rooms can only come about as the result of another inn or inns going out of business.

In reviewing this massive proposal, one planning commissioner was provoked to wonder if this large project and others, such as Plaza Del Mar, could be the wave of the future, and if so, perhaps the commission should consider a revision of the design standards to reflect the phenomenon of large scale development in our village. That would make for a very interesting debate.

The Carmel Residents Association finds no fault with the idea of a new hotel replacing the out-of-business motel, and we certainly agree that many of our local inns are in need of upgrades. But first, a basic question needs to be addressed by the Planning Commission, the City Council and residents–How do we want to grow as a village?

The problem is that it is tempting for special interest groups to see issues from only one perspective and for elected and appointed officials to fall under the spell of their impassioned rhetoric. Without consensus about the direction of Carmel's future growth, it could be difficult for our leaders to act in the interest and spirit of community.

Some in the business community who support this project say that large high-end stores are suffering because Carmel-by-the-Sea lacks large high-end hotels, which attract high-end spenders. This thinking represents a major departure from our traditional village lifestyle–smaller is better. The Carmel Residents Association believes in the time tested world image of Carmel as a welcoming, charming community with small inns and restaurants and small shops built around courtyards. As everything around us becomes bigger and better wouldn't it continue to benefit our village to stay better and smaller?

by Tom Parks

Belinda Vidor Holliday

On a brilliant, unseasonably warm Tuesday in mid January, we found artist, Belinda Vidor Holliday, at work–"It's what I do–I work." Could she give us thirty minutes? She did . . . and with a smile.

Well, here we are where CRA was given birth, your large living room studio. And your husband, Jim Holliday, was one of the founders and first presidents of the Carmel Residents Association. We're still going after twenty two years. Not bad, would you say?

It was a time when Jim and others thought there was an opportunity to wake up Carmelites to what this small village was all about and what they needed to know, and what possibilities there were for active involvement in the life of the town–residents could have their say, in other words.

And, oh yes, it was a success from the beginning and we knew it would be.

When did you arrive in Carmel? Is this a different village from those early years? And in what way?

I came to Carmel determined to make my life here in 1974. I have to laugh when I say this, but I loved all the empty lots. You see I am and have always been a walker and those wooded lots were perfect for exploring. Sadly the mom and pop shops are no more; they just couldn't exist, couldn't pay the rents, and have over the years been replaced by some high end and some very low end businesses. I'm not sure that's progress.

You're a serious artist and past president of the Carmel Art Association which continues to flourish. How do you feel about all the galleries in the village–over 120? Too many? And the quality of what is presented?

I think there are too many. But there is a huge diversity in quality. Art and art appreciation are not taught in schools these days so how would one know what to look for in a painting, a sculpture? One has to be educated to understand what is good and what is not good.

Kitsch is kitsch. And I guess it sells.

Do you feel there is a creative, intellectual center here?

Carmel has lost so much of its support for artists and creative people in general. We had wonderful workshops, lectures on art, places where creative people gathered to make art. I do think the Library Foundation performs a great service to the community with the speakers, writers and artists of all kinds they bring in. And these events are mostly free.

You're aware that absentee residents (second home owners) abound. This has been happening for years. In your opinion how has this changed the dynamic of Carmel-by-the-Sea?

It's a subject we locals seem to be talking about all the time. And yes, it's possible and even probable that, when you leave your house today, you will find you don't know your next door neighbor. It's no one's fault. But at the same time, some second home owners know scarcely anything about their town, its history, its government, its vital issues.

You have been commissioned to sculpt a bust of your husband, historian, J.S. Holliday, a well known and respected man in this community and in the country, we might add. We understand that the State Library is dedicating to him the Rare Book Room at the California State Library in Sacramento. What a daunting project. This must have been a labor of love; also bittersweet. Would you care to comment?

Certainly there's love in the work but just as certainly it has been a bittersweet experience. I'm very serious about this and hope to make it right and something that Jim would approve of. The other day my fingernail nicked Jim's nose and I broke into tears. The first attempt last year was finished and accepted by the Library but broke apart before being bronzed. So I had the opportunity to do it again; I think it may be better.

Carmel is so fortunate to have found you. But then you found Carmel. You work every day at something you love. Is this a gift you give yourself?

Oh, yes. Let me read this to you. It's a quotation from Goethe and it happens to be a credo I've lived by most of my life:

Thank you. And you have.

[Tom Parks is a CRA Board member as well as a well-known writer, actor and producer.]

Be alert–not complacent

We all feel very safe in our quiet village. But we certainly aren't impervious to trouble.

Residents in Carmel's lower Hatton Fields area (Taylor Rd., Atherton Dr., Mesa Dr.) have had a recent rash of burglaries–nine in the past four months! In addition, there were several thefts from unlocked cars last summer.

Carmel-by-the-Sea's Public Safety Director and Police Chief George Rawson says that our village is starting to see some incidents of theft from parked cars as well. Our Police Department is working with the Sheriff's Office to compare information.

Chief Rawson reminds us all to be sure that any valuables in our cars are kept out of sight, preferably locked in the trunk.

Be sure to cancel your newspapers or ask a neighbor to pick them up if you are going to be out of town.

Neighbors can help protect each other against burglaries. If you see any suspicious activity around an out-of-town neighbor's house, alert the Police Department. They would rather have a false alarm than miss a crime. And, while out walking yourself or your dog, if you see a neighbor's newspaper lying in the driveway and the house looks empty, tuck the paper behind a pot on the front porch so it can't be seen from the street.

So, remember to always lock your house when you leave, lock your car when you park it, watch your neighbor's house and, if you really want to be protected, get a dog! It doesn't have to be a Rottweiler or a German Shepherd. Even the bark of a tiny Chihuahua can make a potential burglar decide to go elsewhere.

You might have already noticed film crews at Carmel Mission and around the village. Filming began on Jan. 27 for Carmel, a movie produced by Lawrence Rock of Carmel Valley and Myles Williams, among others.

Rock told the City Council in January that his goal is to create the least possible amount of disruption to Carmel residents and businesses.

The movie, which stars Lauren Bacall, Dina Ruiz Eastwood and Clint Eastwood's son, Scott Reeves Eastwood, centers around Joshua Mason, a 15-year-old art prodigy who is abandoned by his mother in an unfamiliar town. Left alone, he is lost, scared and angry. Soon, he gets in trouble and is offered a deal he can't refuse. Taken in by a crooked art dealer he gets involved in the elusive world of international art forgery. Concurrently, he begins to discover the nature of his amazing artistic talent when he is befriended by a reclusive artist with a hidden past. This old artist is one of the few remaining artists living in Carmel from the Bohemian period that established the art and literature community in Carmel after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The climax of the movie takes place at Sunset Center, where it is also hoped the world premier of the film will be held.

Donations sought for Red Cross windows

When the Carmel Area Chapter of the American Red Cross wanted to replace its original aluminum windows last year, the Planning Commission and City Council decided that the proposed new windows were not consistent with Carmel's Design Guidelines. As a result, the Red Cross was faced with purchasing far more expensive windows, now estimated at $23,000.

Council members Karen Sharp and Ken Talmage made their own proposal. They said they would help raise the money needed to replace the cold, drafty existing windows in the Red Cross headquarters on 8th and Dolores–a Comstock post adobe structure built around 1953.

Sharp and Talmage, along with Mayor Sue McCloud and City Councilman Gerard Rose, each donated $1,000 and have so far raised approximately $8,000. Talmage said that the first check they received in the mail was from CRA President Barbara Livingston.

Sharp and Talmage spoke briefly at the Jan. Carmel Residents Association meeting asking our members to join them in this effort so that the windows can be ordered and installed in the spring.

If you can help with this project, please write a check payable to Carmel Area Chapter–American Red Cross and write "windows" on your check to be sure it goes into that fund. Mail the check to Sharon Crino, CEO, American Red Cross, Carmel Area Chapter, P.O. Box AR, Carmel, CA 93921.

If you have questions, you can call Sharon Crino at 624-6921, Karen Sharp at 624-5727 or Ken Talmage at 624-2462.

Nature Wisdom of Local Greats

Free Local History Lecture

Winter Twilight, Carmel

by Laura Christopher Newmark

Black branches overlay the lemon sky – decorative on winter's twilight hue evolving now to pale turquoise blue. Smudges of sea fog drift slowly by until pine branches disappear from view.

[Even Laura's explanation of why she wrote the above poem is poetic: "It describes the twilight I've observed on cloudless evenings when silhouetted pine branches form an eye-catching pattern against the pastel sky."

We think she should be CRA's official poet laureate! Ed.]

Our Favorite Places

Locally-owned Carmel gas station

SPOTLIGHT ON MEMBERS

CRA Peace Corps volunteers seeking books

When CRA members Wendy and Dave Banks retired, they decided to become Peace Corps volunteers and are now serving a 26-month assignment in Lushoto, Tanzania, in East Africa.

For more than 45 years, Wendy taught pre-school and Dave was a pharmacist, experience that is being put to use in Lushoto. Their first assignment was to teach health services in a clinic and English. Dave is also teaching basic science in a secondary school, with no books–only a blackboard and chalk. Wendy is helping Dave in the health services clinic plus teaching English in the elementary school. In December, the Pine Cone ran a feature about the Banks asking their friends in Carmel to help them start a library with English books. That request is still on the table.

We are asked to please send books or National Geographic Magazines in English, all suitable for elementary students or high school, in all subjects–science, chemistry, physics, elementary English reading, math workbooks and stories.

Please send the books c/o Dave and Wendy Banks, Mtumbi Secondary School, P.O. Box 131, Lushoto, Tanza, East Africa, Tanzania.

If you want to keep up with the Banks, their blog address is:
www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Banks-Duo/

[We appreciate the help of Jean White in providing us with information. Ed.]

Famous CRA dogs!

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