Any DUers from the Monterey/Salinas area?

[Biased Liberal Media]

I'm curious how the mayor & local races went. Can someone fill me in?? Did Jerry Smith get county supervisor?? (that bastard...)

Thanks!

ETA: I'm a native Californian (born in Salinas, raised throughout Monterey county) living in Bellingham, WA now.

[Biased Liberal Media]

1. kick!

[Oeditpus Rex]

2. MoCo results

Smith beat Parker 50.6 percent to 49.

The Californian — Monterey County Election Results

(I lived the first 42 years of my life in Salinas, the last almost-seven in Hollister.)

[Biased Liberal Media]

3. Yuck

Well...makes me glad I don't live there anymore...altho living up here isn't any better...except for the cost of living..LOL.

I can just see it now: Land development ahoy! Average cost of a house: $700,000. Ugh.

Thank you VERY much.

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. Not quite that bad

More like $350,000, but that's certainly bad enough.

[Biased Liberal Media]

5. Maybe in Salinas...

but Monterey?? Shoot, houses in Seaside are going upwards of $500k plus...and that new development (Seaside Highlands) is like $800k for the least expensive. I don't understand how people can make it out there...

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Seaside Highlands?

I wasn't even aware of that. 'course, we're in an information vacuum over here. I rarely read the Californian anymore and almost never the Herald. Where's Seaside Highlands located?

I suppose the people who can afford said homes don't work here, but do the 101 Shuffle to Silicon Valley or its younger sibling, Scotts Valley. That's just a guess, though.

Then again, living far above one's means seems to be back in vogue.

[Biased Liberal Media]

7. It's on the Former Fort Ord

by Seaside High, you can see the housing development from Hwy 1. I was just in Cali visiting and being gone almost a year (living in WA state now) I am appalled at how little of a lot they get for all that money. insane. however, some of them have ocean views.

Oh and the military is building new housing on Coe Ave now, REAL nice housing at that. Kinda sucks when people can't even make rent out there. I could not live there ever again.

I heard Santa Cruz/Scotts Valley has gotten rather pricy too. It's too bad.

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. What, up on the hill

by Fremont Blvd. and Hwy. 1?

It just occurred to me that the last time I was on the Peninsula was in... March, I think. Used to be over there all the time, when I lived in Salinas and wrote for the Herald.

Last I heard about housing in Sanna Crooz was the 2002 report by... I think it's the National Association of Home Builders. Anyway, the SC metro area was highest in the nation in terms of housing costs compared to household income. I think the average was something like $535,000.

In Hollister it topped $400,000 about a year ago, and developers look at San Benito County and drool over all the undeveloped land. But there's a building moratorium in the city limits because the infrastructure can't even handle what we've got now, and being 56th out of 58 California counties in percentage of tax revenue returned from the state doesn't help.

What prompted you to move to Washington?

[Biased Liberal Media]

9. Well Mr. BLM grew up there

and secondly we couldn't afford to make it in California anymore. I miss my family desperately but...I could NEVER live there again.

By the way, I'm privy to information that there is a guy in cohorts to start developing land out there in Marina (outskirts of Marina anyhow). Let's just say that he's a huge land developer and has been purchasing land to make more subdivisions and developments. Ugh.

That development was being built back in 2003 IIRC...not sure. Anyhow you used to write for the Herald? Too cool. Why did you leave Monterey? (If you posted above my bad!)

About that development it used to be the former COE AVENUE...it's where the Monterey Adult School is, over by that mobile home park. Does that ring a bell kinda??

[Oeditpus Rex]

10. I asked a friend who lives in Marina

about Seaside Highlands. He said, I guess half-jokingly, that $1 million homes there are considered low-income. He also knows of the developer you mentioned, but didn't elaborate.

There's a hell of a lot of land on the former Ft. Ord that's begging for SOMEthing to be done to it, and I'm pretty surprised that more hasn't been done. But then, I think there's a lot of federal red tape that still gets in the way. I do know there's still some danger of finding artillery shells, etc., in certain areas.

I know where Coe Ave. is (Was? Former?), but I'm not that familiar with Monterey/Seaside as I lived all my life in Salinas before I moved to Hollister. I wrote sports for the Herald, so I can tell you how to get to almost any high school on the Peninsula, but not too much beyond that. I moved over here to take a job as sports editor of the Hollister paper — a position I no longer hold.

[Biased Liberal Media]

11. Yes, former Fort Ord

right by Seaside High school (the Fort Ord side).