Here at the Voice, we do not have a category called "At least we didn't do THAT" but if we did, this move by San Carlos would be tagged to that category.  The Daily Post has a front-page piece about the city of San Carlos taking over the lease of a long-time gun store on El Camino that has sat empty for two years costing San Carlos more than $500,000 and counting.

The back story is Imbert & Smithers got its license revoked by the ATF at the end of 2022.  Three years earlier, San Carlos passed rules about where gun stores could, or rather could not, locate.  Imbert & Smithers was grandfathered into the ECR location, but any new gun store use is disallowed.  The city offered to buy the landlord out of the lease to the tune of $570,528 so far plus more than $90K each of the next two years.  San Carlos cannot find a tenant for such an outdated building and is also on the hook for maintenance and property taxes (triple net lease)!  San Carlos residents should be furious at the waste.  The archaic thinking that location restrictions have noticeable impact on public safety turns out to be expensive and generally pointless in an era when three taps on your phone can find anything.  At least we didn't do that!