After decades of resistance, Carmel-by-the-Sea is about to address some of its residents’ biggest frustrations.

Quite literally.

The moneyed little town, where homes and businesses have no street addresses, soon will have numbers assigned to its buildings, forgoing a cherished local tradition after too many complaints about lost packages, trouble setting up utilities and banking accounts, and other problems.

The Carmel-by-the-Sea City Council approved establishing street addresses in a 3-2 vote earlier this month, with proponents citing public safety concerns and the need to abide by the state fire code, which requires buildings to be numbered.

“Do we need to wait for someone to die in order to decide that this is the right thing to do? It is the law,” said Councilmember Karen Ferlito, who voted in favor of addresses.

Rather than street numbers, residents in the town of 3,200 have long used directional descriptors: City Hall is on the east side of Monte Verde Street between Ocean and 7th avenues. And they give their homes whimsical names such as Sea Castle, Somewhere and Faux Chateau.

There is no home mail delivery. Locals pick up their parcels at the downtown post office, where, many say, serendipitous run-ins with neighbors are an essential part of the small-town charm.

For more than 100 years, residents fought to keep it that way, once threatening to secede from California if addresses were imposed. They argued that the lack of house numbers — along with other quirks, such as no streetlights or sidewalks in residential areas — added to the vaunted “village character.”

“We are losing this place, day by day and week by week, from people who want to modernize us, who want to take us to a new level, when we want to stay where we are,” Neal Kruse, co-chair of the Carmel Preservation Assn., said during the July 9 City Council meeting at which addresses were approved.

The debate over street numbers has simmered for years and intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people began shopping online more frequently and struggled to get their packages delivered.

Some residents and tourists worry that if they have an accident or a medical issue, emergency responders will have trouble finding them. Others have had trouble receiving mail-order prescriptions and medical equipment.

“This is a life-and-death situation in my life and my family,” resident Deanna Dickman told the City Council. “I want a street address that people can find on GPS and get there, and my wife can get the medication she needs.”

Dickman said her wife needs a shot that comes through the mail and must be refrigerated. If she can’t get it delivered, she has to travel to an infusion center and get her medication every 30 days “so she can breathe,” Dickman said.

Dickman once had her own temperature-controlled medication “tossed over a fence a block away.” The property owner was not home, and it spoiled.

Resident Susan Bjerre said she once needed oxygen delivered to her house for someone who had just gotten out of the hospital. The delivery driver could not find the residence, so she said: “I will be in the street. I will wave you down.”

“This is going to sound really snarky, but I think people who oppose instituting an address system don’t realize how inconsiderate they are to everyone else,” Bjerre said.

Another speaker, Alice Cory, said she worried that implementing addresses in Carmel-by-the-Sea — long a haven for artists, writers and poets — “would just make us another town along the coast.”

In the one-square-mile town, “the police know where everybody is,” and fire officials get to people quickly because there are so few streets, she said.

“Let’s keep it that way, and let’s keep the sweetness of this little town, because people know Carmel for a reason,” she said.

Neal Kruse, center, with Karyl Hall and her dog, Bubbles, chat with a resident at the Carmel Preservation Assn. booth at a farmers market. Kruse and Hall worry street addresses will hurt the town’s character.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Emily Garay, a city administrative analyst, told the council that while local authorities might be familiar with Carmel-by-the-Sea’s unconventional navigational practices, other emergency responders — such as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or Monterey County’s contracted ambulance provider — might struggle to quickly figure out where people live.

The California Fire Code requires buildings to have and display addresses. But Carmel-by-the-Sea has not enforced the provision.

“I believe, as a professional firefighter for over 37 years [with] a lot of experience in emergency response, that if the question is, ‘Is it more advantageous to have building numbers identified?’ Yes, absolutely,” Andrew Miller, chief of the Monterey Fire Department, told the council.

Residents opposed to street addresses have said they fear that numbering houses would lead to home mail delivery — which, in turn, could trigger the closure of the Carmel-by-the-Sea post office.

In January, David Rupert, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service told The Times that the post office had “been serving the local community since 1889” and there were no plans to close it. (The lobby for the post office was red-tagged this spring after a septuagenarian crashed her red Tesla through the front windows.)

Garay said addresses would not trigger home delivery.

Before voting against addresses, Mayor Dave Potter said he was “concerned about the fact that we’re kind of losing our character of our community along the way here” and that it had become the nature of the community “to fight over little things.”

But Ferlito said she had received “piles of emails from residents” who wanted addresses and worried about being found in a crisis.

“If we’re saying we will lose our quaintness because we have an address, I think that’s a false narrative,” she said. “This is more than quaintness. This is life emergencies.”

Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Safra Catz will leave her position on the Walt Disney Co. board of directors Friday, the Burbank media and entertainment giant said.

Catz served as a member of the board for six years. After her departure, the board will have 11 directors instead of 12.

Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger described Catz’s contributions as “tremendous,” saying in a statement that she helped shape the company’s “long-term strategic planning amid a rapidly changing technological landscape that affects our businesses.”

“I’ve been honored to serve on Disney’s Board, and I am especially proud of the work we’ve done to fortify the company’s unparalleled strengths and continue its rich legacy of innovation,” Catz said in a statement.

Catz has served as CEO of software stalwart Oracle since 2014.

The move comes as Oracle co-founder and chairman of the board Larry Ellison has become more involved in the entertainment industry. His son, David Ellison, recently reached a deal to buy the Redstone family holding company National Amusements Inc., giving his Skydance Media control over Disney competitor Paramount Global. Larry Ellison is said to have contributed significant financing to the deal.

Adidas has removed Bella Hadid from its social media pages after issuing an apology for “any upset or distress caused” by its release of an ad campaign for retro sneakers based on shoes first released during the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The company selected Hadid as the face of its SL72 project, which marks the 52nd anniversary of the Munich Olympics with a throwback to Adidas’ popular shoe from the 1970s.

In 1972, the Games were marred by the infamous Munich massacre, which happened after Palestinian militant group Black September orchestrated a terrorist attack targeting Israeli Olympic team members, nine of whom were taken hostage. By the time it was over, 11 Israelis, a West German police officer and five of the terrorists died.

The controversy follows the sportswear company’s decision to hire Hadid, who is Palestinian American and vocal about her advocacy for Palestinian relief efforts. Hadid, 27, has been posting her support for the Palestinian cause on social media for years. In 2017, the model spelled out her thoughts on Instagram.

“Watching the news and seeing the pain of the Palestinian people makes me cry for the many many generations of Palestine. Seeing the sadness of my father, cousins, and Palestinian family that are feeling for our Palestinian ancestors makes this even harder to write,” Hadid said. “The TREATMENT of the Palestinian people is unfair, one-sided and should not be tolerated. I stand with Palestine.”

Adidas faced criticism from Jewish organizations and Israel for aligning the SL72 campaign with a model known for her pro-Palestinian sentiments. The American Jewish Committee condemned Adidas’ decision, labeling it either a “massive oversight or intentionally inflammatory.”

“For Adidas to pick a vocal anti-Israel model to recall this dark Olympics is either a massive oversight or intentionally inflammatory. Neither is acceptable. We call on Adidas to address this egregious error,” the AJC said in a post on the social media platform X.

Adidas subsequently issued its apology.

“The adidas Originals SL72 campaign unites a broad range of partners to celebrate our lightweight running shoe, designed more than 50 years ago and worn in sport and culture around the world,” a spokesperson told The Times via email.

“We are conscious that connections have been made to tragic historical events — though these are completely unintentional — and we apologize for any upset or distress caused. As a result we are revising the remainder of the campaign. We believe in sport as a unifying force around the world and will continue our efforts to champion diversity and equality in everything we do.”

Representatives for Hadid were not reachable for comment Friday. A pinned post on the model’s Instagram account from 2021 underscores her commitment to raising awareness about Palestinian issues.

“A Palestinian girl on the cover of Vogue. The joy it brings me to say that….I won’t stop talking about the systematic oppression, pain and humility that Palestinians face on a regular basis. With only love in my heart and an open mind to educate myself and learn more every day…. No matter what.”