Capitola says 'No' to tiki carving

From the Mercury News newspaper ....

*In the summer, when a dozen surfers known as "the usual suspects" put up a 3-foot tiki in the city garden behind the bandstand on the Esplanade, they thought it would express the spirit of aloha.

(photo by Shmuel Thaler)

Thursday night, only two of the five City Council members agreed. The others said that approving the tiki, installed in cement without city permission, could open the door to any and all statues cropping up on city property.

So the tiki must go. *

Full story here
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10691175

It appears the main objection was that the carving was placed without going through the normal approval process - not because of any direct hatred to things tiki.

Vern

It's usually easier to get forgiveness than permission, I guess not in this case.

"The nose of the camel is under the tent" ??? Is that some sort of covert code phrase like "The eagle has landed"?

Once the nose of the camel is in the tent, the rest is sure to follow.

The dangers of the tent rising upon appearance of the camel noes... terrible. I mean nose.

I guess if they hafta suffer through reams of paperwork just to take a bathrom break, everyone else has to follow the red tape trail...

Believe me, Capitola council has nothing better to do.

I've put out 2 tikis around town as well as a number of tiki related paintings on plywood nailed to light poles. I enjoy the attempt to expose tiki to people, but I know that my stuff can and does disappear. It seems like they will be able to take it down themselves, so that's good.

Blindy, I thought of you when I saw this thread :lol:

Here is a follow-up article on the Capitola tiki. Particularly interesting are the last paragraphs

*She told the story of the Saba restaurant and the Caribbean ballroom near the Esplanade, an island paradise complete with hard-carved tikis and the capacity to entertain 1,000 people -- twice the size of the beachside community at the time.

The Saba lasted only three years before it burned in 1957, but it left indelible memories. Swift is preparing a historical exhibit called "Just Beachy," starring the Saba and its tikis. Soquel artist Frank Hill, who carved tikis for the Saba at 23, has designed a poster for the exhibit based on one he did in 1954. When the exhibit opens in November, there will be T-shirts featuring a tiki.

"The spirit of aloha hasn't left Capitola," Swift said.*

http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_10726699

The tiki was removed this past Wednesday.

This appeared in the Santa Cruz Letters to the editor Oct. 16th 2008:

The tiki has spoken

I feel compelled to write because I have gotten wind of the fact that where I currently reside may soon be changing. I am the Tiki in Capitola and I have heard my friends and the people who have made it possible to exist in this wonderful community that things may be changing soon. I love overlooking the Capitola surf break, the fabulous sunrises and sunsets and the interesting locals and visitors that have stopped by to enjoy my company.

I gather that the Capitola City Council has deemed that I must go, but frankly I do not want to live anywhere other than this beautiful bluff I currently reside at.

I promise I will continue to be a good addition to the community, I will not be destructive, I will not use any foul language and I will not stir up any trouble. I will try and constantly emanate the aloha spirit, but please, please do not take me away from my friends and the wonder bluff.

Sincerely, Capitola Tiki

Whoever had the task of "uprooting" our beloved Tiki, obviously had no idea how painful a "Tiki Curse" can be.
Good luck to them fools.

I am truly saddend to see such a gem removed as I walk down to the jetty every morning with my son. As a Capitola citizen I am ashamed that the momentum to have this great peice of art removed was started by the mayor Kirby Nicol. All this during an election year. Does he not want the "Tiki" vote?

p.s. next time let's drive the anchors deeper.

From the Santa Cruz Sentinel Mon. Nov 24th 2008

Round two for the tiki Tuesday

The tiki may get a second chance.

The Capitola City Council will reconsider Tuesday night whether to accept a controversial tiki as a gift of public art.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. The council, which usually meets Thursdays, changed the date due to Thanksgiving.

The 3-foot statue installed one summer morning by Jon Nelson, a member of "The Usual Suspects" surfing group, was removed by city staff last month. The council declined to accept the statue Oct. 9. Councilmen Michael Termini and Ron Graves were in favor but Mayor Kirby Nicol, and Councilmen Bob Begun and Sam Storey objected to the statue being installed without the council's approval.

Since then, many community members have let the city know they favored reconsideration.

Steve Krull, a retired police chief from Livermore, a Capitola surfer and owner of the tiki, wrote the city Arts Commission Nov. 6, pleading the tiki's case.

"While not a resident yet I am trying, my wife and I spend a considerable amount of time there and feel a connection to the community," he explained.

The Arts Commission discussed the matter Nov. 11 and voted unanimously, with one member absent, to accept the tiki. Commissioner Dennis Norton, the top vote-getter in the November City Council race, made the motion. He had called the statue's removal "bad juju."

Coincidentally, the current exhibit at the Capitola Historical Museum
tells the story of the Saba restaurant and the Caribbean ballroom near the Esplanade, an island paradise complete with hard-carved tikis -- the place to be in the 1950s.

More Bad news for the Capitola TIKI.

This from the Santa Cruz Sentinel

CAPITOLA -- Someone took the tiki.

Capitola police on Sunday reported that the 3-foot-tall wooden totem that community members rallied behind this past fall was stolen sometime Saturday night or early Sunday from its village berth.

Capitola police Sgt. Mark Gonzalez, who was notified of the crime by a Sentinel reporter who was tipped to the theft by a community member, said it appears the tiki was carried away as there were no drag marks in the flower bed around it.

"There were 8-inch spikes drilled into the bottom and the spikes were secured in concrete," Gonzalez said. "Someone would have really had to push or kick the tiki over to remove it from the base.

"This is horrible," he added. "It's bad karma."

The tiki's initial installation this past summer created a mini tempest in the village. It was installed in July in a public flower bed at the end of Esplanade Park without city permission by Jon Nelson of Soquel. He had gotten the totem from Steve Krull, a retired police chief from Livermore and avid surfer who had bought the tiki for $300 in San Diego. Krull and Nelson are both members of the Usual Suspects, a group of longtime Capitola watermen.

But the city ordered the tiki removed as it had been installed without going through the proper approval process for public art.

Nelson at the time said the group just wanted to give the totem a good home on the beach and spread the aloha spirit, not make waves.

So the tiki was yanked, and the group members decided to get their totem installed properly. They submitted a letter to the city asking that the tiki be considered a donation of public art, then went to the Capitola Arts Commission, which recommended approval.
But the City Council in October rejected the totem, which triggered a swell of community dissent.

The council in late November reconsidered and voted in favor of the tiki's return.

"It was something the village needed to have there," Mayor Bob Begun said Sunday.

Capitolans Gayle Brubaker and her boyfriend Keith Bridges were on their morning walk around 9 a.m. Sunday when they noticed the tiki had been swiped.

"It's really a sad commentary of what some people can to affect the enjoyment of other people in Capitola," said Brubaker, who also mentioned the theft several years ago of a dolphin sculpture that also was bolted to the ground in Esplanade Park. "It's the bad juju stealing the tiki."

Brubaker mentioned that Capitola and the tiki are featured in the current issue of Sunset Magazine. She and Bridges surmise someone may have seen the article and nabbed the tiki to make a quick buck.

Whatever the reason, Gonzalez and the other tiki fanatics want the sculpture returned.

"As far as the Police Department is concerned, first and foremost, we'd like to get it back," Gonzalez said. "Second, we'd like to find the people who stole it and hold them accountable for their actions."

Gonzalez asked that anyone who knows anything about the theft to call the department at 475-4242 or the anonymous tip line at 475-2791.

This is sad. I am glad I read it here before seeing it in the Sentinel. I had not yet had a chance to go see it in person.

For anyone who is interested , the blog about this Sentinel article is here:

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/santa-cruz-sentinel/T2P1O2V7C92Q6R3BI

Not good mana! Seems like this tiki and/or the location has been a problem from the onset. Maybe there should be a tiki carved by a local and not just some carving purchased out of town by some valley kook who likes to surf here. Also if it had been bigger it would have been harder to make off with. I'm sure the Sunset piece could have had somthing to do with it as well.

There are two tikis just a mile up the coast at my surf spot Pleasure Point. One is kinda small on the bluff at the south end of the Dirt Farm just north of 38th. Ave. the other is about 6 ft. tall and is overlooking the point next to the Pleasure Point sign. They are just a part of our little East Side lifestyle and I hope nothing happens to them...

Sad story about the capitola tiki - especially after the community gathered together to "do it the right way".

On 2009-03-23 08:33, KuKu wrote:

Maybe there should be a tiki carved by a local....

There are two tikis just a mile up the coast at my surf spot Pleasure Point. One is kinda small on the bluff at the south end of the Dirt Farm just north of 38th. Ave. the other is about 6 ft. tall and is overlooking the point next to the Pleasure Point sign. They are just a part of our little East Side lifestyle and I hope nothing happens to them...

Wil at SC tiki shack is your man. His tikis are AWESOME and he did the one at Pleasure Point as a memorial to Jay Moriarty.
Check out his work: http://www.sctikis.com/

Thanks for the info KuKu, I will have to check out the Pleasure Point tikis next time I'm in town. My husband used to live on 38th and my girlfriend and I used to ride our bikes along the cliffs but it has been a long time...my cruiser had no brakes which made for some interesting times. We used to go from westside where I lived and ride out to the hook. Fun times.

This has a familiar ring to it.
I once carved a tiki for our fair City, and it too was stolen. I got some great press out of the deal. It was on TV, Radio, front page headlines. Listeners of the station put up a reward for the return of the missing tiki. The tiki was found! The city auctioned it off and raised over 1800.00 for charity with it. I got tons of sales as a result. You gotta see the silver lining!! Everyone thought I had stolen my own tiki, but that was'nt the case.

This story made me smile.
I hope the Capitola Tiki gets found as well.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper announced a $500 reward for return of the purloined 'Tola Tiki

On 2009-03-27 13:57, Kikkietiki wrote:
The Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper announced a $500 reward for return of the purloined 'Tola Tiki

Jeez, they could get a brand new one just like it for around $200 bucks... :roll:

The newspaper is not offering $500 for the return of the tiki - they are offering $500 to "anyone who provides information that results in the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who stole the tiki"

http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_12008111

My bad...I must have misread it. I initially tried to just copy the article here but it wouldn't work.

The reward for information about the missing Capitola Tiki has now gone up to $1,000:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_12016952

It was'nt me!

Where do I donate money?
We probably won't find him/her, but we can scare the hell out of them.

Unga Bunga, click the link for the story above, and click on the reporter's name (Jondi Gumz) and you can email her and ask.

The latest Capitola tiki news from the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

Carver donates tiki to Capitola to replace one that was stolen
By JONDI GUMZ
Posted: 05/02/2009 01:30:55 AM PDT
CAPITOLA -- A tiki created by a local carver will be installed at the Esplanade Park in time for a dedication during Capitola's 60th birthday celebration next weekend.
Ron Lorenzo, 60, who has lived in Capitola Village for 12 years, spearheaded the effort to get a new tiki to replace the one stolen March 23.
"I knew when the first tiki went in, I liked it there," he said. "So I did whatever I could to get it back."
The first tiki caused a kerfuffle. A group of surfers known as "the usual suspects" were behind its installation overlooking Monterey Bay last summer. The City Council ordered it removed because it was put in without city permission. Supporters then followed the city review process, and it was returned to its perch in Esplanade Park until thieves struck.
The stolen statue hasn't been recovered, despite a $500 reward donated by the Sentinel and matched by city resident Richard Tessen.
Ray Apolskis, owner of Surf N Shack in Capitola Village, agreed to donate a replacement tiki, then discovered a buyer had already put a deposit on it.
Local carver Wilhelm Zilliacus came to the rescue, offering to donate a tiki to the city, as long as Lorenzo took care of the paperwork, which he was happy to do. He took the tiki to the city art and cultural commission, which voted unanimously to accept it as a donation of public art.
City Council members did the same.
The 6-foot tiki, valued at $600, is bound to attract attention for its enigmatic expression. The installation is planned for Monday or Tuesday, depending on weather, and measures will be taken to ensure it stays put.
"We'll have a camera on it," said Councilman Dennis Norton, referring to the city's surf Web cam. "We'll be watching it all the time."

Well, they couldn't have chosen abetter carver to replace the Tiki. Well done Will.

I Love happy endings!

All is Well That Ends Well!!!!

New tiki statue installed in Capitola

A new tiki statue was installed in Capitola Tuesday, with some serious security.
Village resident Ron Lorenzo procured the new tiki, created by local carver Will Zilliacus.

City public works staff used 14 sacks of cement and a steel rod to put the tiki in place at Capitola's Esplanade Park looking out at the ocean.

"He ain't going anywhere, this guy," Lorenzo said.

A GPS chip was embedded inside the tiki to track its whereabouts in case the statue leaves its perch.

"I hope he stays here for a long time," said city public works superintendent Ed Morrison.

Kelly Barreto, who works for the city Art and Cultural Commission, said all of the commissioners agreed the new tiki has "good juju."

A GPS chip? Wowzers! Is this the first techno tiki?