My recollection, possibly wrong, is that it was not until after the Eastwood mayoralty that the city council finally relaxed an ordinance against eating ice cream cones on the street. The council spends a lot of time on matters of such gravity. We attended a meeting where it was decided that a homeowner would have to rebuild his patio rather than chop back a tree growing through it and getting bigger all the time. The result is a low-rise city of 4,200 where almost every street is shaded by pines grown to heights of tens of feet. Wares range from Asian and European classic to romanticized American scenes that seem to be the best sellers.
Visitors stay in a scattering of low-rise hotels plus many bed and breakfast inns.
Weekend sellouts are common. San Francisco is not much more than 100 miles to the north. San Jose and Silicon Valley are even closer. The purity of Carmel's environmental regulations is modified when one drives out of town and across California Route 1 to Carmel Valley. At its entrance is an upscale, though low-rise, shopping center where even Safeway and Burger King are allowed.