Both. That’s my answer to which event in our cover story you should go to. I’ve been to both over the years and had a great time.
First off, Pride.
I have never felt as much love, joy and inclusivity as at the Pride Parade and its surrounding activities. It’s a great community gathering, somewhat like the annual Holiday Parade, but a bit crazier and more colorful.
It’s kid and family-friendly (San Francisco’s, with more wild floats and exhibitions, is less so for younger kids. The leather and nudity might be too much.). But I’ve been taking my 10-year-old since he was 4 and he loves the acceptance, festivities and love all over.
I remember my own childhood when the word gay was used as an insult. Luckily, here in our county, he’s never had to deal with anything like that. “It doesn’t matter who you love as long as you love someone,” he says.
And there’s a lot of humor and costumes in this parade. The moms who announce that they give hugs on their T-shirts, the stilt walkers, the booths from businesses all over the area, the dressed-up dogs, the diversity. It can’t help but make you smile.
That’s Sunday (although there are other events over the next few days listed in our cover story).
Then, there’s the VegFest on Saturday, celebrating animals and trying to convince people not to eat them.
They do this in a way that’s not negative, by serving food from dozens of booths that’s damned tasty without killing anything to prepare it.
They don’t proselytize so much as they give good-tasting alternatives to foods you might be eating out of habit or not knowing that vegetable or vegan dishes can be so tasty you don’t miss meat.
The thing people may not realize: you don’t have to be LGBTQ+ or vegetarian to thoroughly enjoy these events. There’s plenty of entertainment and really great people to meet and conversations to be had.
See ya there.
On the news side, we have two important stories: one about working to save Watsonville Community Hospital. I can’t stress how crucial that is. Our county is too big not to be able to get help when you urgently need it.
The other story is about a proposal to make battery storage systems safer. We need the storage to move away from fossil fuels, but at what cost? We don’t want them leeching poison into the soil and air. Can we reach a compromise?
Thanks for reading.
Get out and be festive this weekend.
Brad Kava | Editor
PHOTO CONTEST
RATTLED In the Colina Ranch, near Aromas, the fattest-ever rattlesnake. We also saw a mountain lion, wild boar, and 40 kinds of birds. Just look at the girth of this snake! It’s enough to rattle your nerves. Photograph by Ross Levoy
GOOD IDEA
A project to construct a pedestrian overcrossing at Mar Vista Drive in Seacliff will result in intermittent overnight lane closures of Highway 1 on Thursday, June 11.
Travelers heading northbound and southbound on Highway 1 will be reduced to one lane from State Park Dr. to Park Ave. beginning at 9 pm. Work will continue through the night with intermittent full closures of the northbound and southbound lanes. All lanes will be open by 6 am Friday, June 12.
Both closures will use Soquel Drive as the main detour.
Please allow extra time for you to travel through the area.
GOOD WORK
In 2020, the CZU Lightning Complex Fire tore through Lehi Park, destroying every structure on the property – except for two bathrooms. They stood unharmed; even the toilet paper remained intact. The project, by FUSE ARCHITECTS + BUILDERS, of Capitola, just received its fourth award: an Honorable Mention from San Francisco Design Week. This award is not only for aesthetic design, but also for design in environmental resilience, sustainability, innovation. A local company designs for a very real issue in California – wildfire – and is receiving local, statewide, and now national recognition for the innovation.
