KING CITY — King City’s 2025 Beautification Week, running June 20-29, kicked off last Wednesday with a barbecue luncheon at San Lorenzo Park.
This year marks the 33rd year for the week, which encourages those who live or work within King City to do at least one thing to improve the appearance of the town.
“If someone had told me in 1977 that King City would look like it does today, I would have found that unbelievable, but indeed in 48 years I have witnessed in King City an amazing transformation,” said Beautification Week Chairperson Karen Jernigan.
Jernigan said she was impressed by what community members have been able to do while working alongside the government. She highlighted some of the changes she’s noticed within the past year, from many new signs, to the installation of sculptures in the Broadway median between First and Second streets, to the opening of the Downtown Plaza, to safer bulb-out crosswalks on Broadway, to new business openings, to parking lot improvements.
“Even things like better pavement help our overall appearance,” Jernigan noted.
“If each of us does one thing this month to improve the appearance of our home or business, we could continue to make progress toward making King City a great place to live,” she said in continuing the efforts, which began in 1992.
Liz Hall from Waste Management (WM) announced the return of the Beautification Award, which was presented to local residents Diana Taplin and Alejandro Zamora, who each had differing strategies to incorporate rocks and drought-resistant plants in their yards.
Hall encouraged community members do anything they could to improve the city.
“Sometimes it’s just a matter of offering to help your neighbor with a little something,” Hall said.
City Engineer Octavio Hurtado presented the featured talk. He framed his 20 years with the City of King by reminding how many improvements were needed and how many changes were yet to happen.
“First Street had an old, narrow bridge and guard rails and a separated pedestrian bridge that you could bounce on when you walked,” Hurtado said.
He went over the improvements to the city, starting with the First Street bridge, to city entryway signs, to installation of art along Canal Street, to the visitor’s center, to expansions to the city’s park system, to sidewalk improvements and handicap access ramps.
“Besides the obvious benefits for pedestrians, it sparks many homeowners to make additional improvements to their houses and landscaping,” Hurtado said of the sidewalks.
Hurtdao shared that the city has two projects that have been fully designed and are coming up in the near future. The first is a roundabout planned for the intersection of Broadway Street and San Antonio Drive, which will have a wind sculpture in the center, and the second being completion of the Day’s Inn homeless housing project.
The city has additional projects in the design phase further out in the future. Those include a safe bicycle route project along San Antonio Drive, a city electric vehicle charging station at 225 Broadway, and a multimodal station.
The June 18 luncheon also looked ahead to the next round of community events, mostly with an eye on Independence Day. King City Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture will host the parade on Broadway on July 4, which will lead the community toward San Lorenzo Park, where the Monterey County Agricultural and Rural Life Museum, in partnership with the King City Young Farmers, will host a car show and barbecue.
Chamber Manager Janet Bessemer warned that the city’s fireworks program is in need of donations.
“If we don’t get enough money this year, then there won’t be fireworks next year,” Bessemer said. “So we are asking for donations from the community.”
MCARLM Executive Director Teri Storelli said this year’s park event will feature a return of the Quilt Guild to the depot building, as well as a tractor show and an improved kid’s zone. There will also be a poker walk and watermelon and hot dog eating contests.
