[Magdalen] Small-town politics bringing out the worst.

[M J _Mike_ Logsdon]

>>>When I saw the subject, I wondered if it was going to be about our local
elections!<<<

Good God.  I gotta deliver my mail-in ballot on Monday or I'm up a certain creek!  (It's only one small school district race, and the incumbent is the daughter of my Pop's first boss and why I live in Salinas and not El Centro.  My vote is guaranteed!)

As for local politics on the county level, recently our Planning Commission approved a "canine sports center" in Carmel Valley right between the Quail Meadows Golf Club and the river.  The neighborhood was aghast, and since one of the Planning Commission members was spearheading it (duly recused during voting), no warm local feeling was for this project from the beginning.  (Forget the illegal grading that began before the project had even been applied for.)  The Planning Commission's approval was obviously appealed to the Board of Supervisors, who this past week KILLED IT.  Dead.  The prevailing sentiment was that the Planning Dept had failed to do its job, and especially the Planning Commission itself.  There were plenty of issues, trust me, but the one that the EIR categorically said was UNmitigated to the extreme was traffic, and on that alone (besides neighborhood opposition), it was put to bed for good.  It can be litigated, but no longer appealed.  But after all the money spent to railroad it through so far (much of which came from the purse of the Planning Commission member mentioned earlier), it's unlikely a judge ruling in its favor would be worth the risk.  It's already being rumored that that Planning Commission member might resign, as well as others, and it's worth saying that said Planning Commission member's husband is on my Water Resources Agency board, so who knows how things will shake out.

And all about what I've been calling "Martha's Dogs" all along.  A canine sports center.  Sheesh.