SAVE THE EARTH
Governor Gavin Newsom recently vetoed a bill that would have required data centers to disclose the amount of water they use. But there’s an even thirstier culprit: animal agriculture. Raising, feeding, watering and cleaning filthy factory farms consumes trillions of gallons of water annually. So let’s make a difference right now by going vegan.
According to some reports, the meat and dairy industries account for an estimated 47% of California’s water footprint. And California’s mega-dairies use an estimated 152 million gallons of water each day—more than enough to meet the indoor water needs for every resident of San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose combined. By comparison, California’s data centers look like a drop in the bucket. Plus, waste from factory farms pollutes rivers with nitrates, ammonia and E. coli, posing a threat to both animals in nature and human health.
If we’re serious about conserving water and protecting the planet, we can’t keep raising, exploiting and killing animals for food. So, please, let’s go vegan.
Rebecca Libauskas | The PETA Foundation
SWEET 50
We’re having a celebration for Polar Bear Ice Cream’s 50th anniversary. The celebration will be at the Capitola Village Polar Bear store on Saturday, Oct. 25 and the Ice Cream on Fair store on Sunday, Oct. 26. We’ll be bringing back some legacy flavors, giving out promotional cups, and selling commemorative hoodies.
In addition, I’m working on a longer-term project of collecting history and stories of ice cream in Santa Cruz for both Marianne’s and Polar Bear.
Thanks so much!!
Jasmine | Event Coordinator | SweetSurf Catering Co.
NO KINGS MARCH
The No Kings protest gathering here in Santa Cruz was wonderful. Ten thousand people, maybe more, just as promised by Buffalo Springfield, but this was a calm, cheerful crowd.
Perfect weather helped: sunny, about 70°, very light breeze. We had a lot more young people than in June, when we seemed to have more elderly hippies than young people. We gray-haired people had attended protests in the ’60s and ’70s—we feel comfortable exercising freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. Maybe younger people saw grandmas and grandpas marching in June and figured it’s safe enough to participate.
It seemed that about two-thirds of people this time had signs, maybe because people with signs are more visible, but it does indicate a greater sense of involvement, since sign-making requires planning and doing. Virtually all the signs were home-made and showed a wide array of thoughts. One said, “TOO MANY REASONS TO LIST HERE.”
The only police I saw were just directing traffic, and the only drama I saw was EMTs caring for an elderly man who appeared very tired.
I saw the F word written more times than in the past five years combined, which means people are upset, but they’re directing their anger calmly and appropriately.
Though I arrived alone, I eventually came across two friends, so we chatted for a few minutes.
My sign got approving thumbs-up from several people. I’m pleased with how well my sign turned out—I used durable fabric so it’ll be ready for next time. It said, “REAL PATRIOTS RESIST TYRANTS” on one side, “RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES” on the other, and had two American flags.
What we did not have: There were no guillotines, no zip ties, no ropes, no tear gas, no flash-bangs, no fires, no blood, no stampede, no troops, no visible weapons, no boarded-up stores, no cigarette smoke, and scarcely any pot smoke.
We did have lots of American flags, people who were veterans, several fun costumes, hundreds of people taking photos with their cell phones, some live music, some chanting, some number of people in wheelchairs, several strollers, plus people lining the route.
The mood overall was cheerful and friendly, pretty much like Santa Cruz any day of the week. I’m so glad to live here!
Susan McLean | Santa Cruz
ONLINE COMMENTS
RE: NO KINGS
Fantastic! A bunch of morons with little knowledge of the US Constitution have prevented someone, not sure who, King Charles? from becoming a king here in the US. It worked! No kings!
Guy Dagar | Goodtimes.sc
I find it quite unappealing/distressing that Santa Cruz is going to spend the next 3 years hating Trump and throwing tantrums left and right, little else. While I suspect one party controlling all branches of government sure can lead to abuses of power, that is not Trumps fault. The Dems just don’t offer much of anything and their ideas are dysfunctional. Imagine any state that was never a slave state paying reparations. Just an example of a Dem stupid idea. There are so many like open boarders, the Covid fiasco, an endless list. People can sure protest all they want, but Trump is killing it in so many ways, and the media in Santa Cruz, and the people, just live in an empty echo chamber of TDS hate. I applaud Good Times for having somewhat uncensored online comments unlike Sentinel which has none, and the very judgey Nextdoor.