The Regional Transportation Commission has several big projects in the works, including on Highway 1. What will these accomplish, and when can residents expect completion?

There are several important projects under way through the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC). One is the Soquel Avenue/Morrissey Boulevard auxiliary lanes project on Highway 1. That’s a project that will add one lane on each side of the freeway between Soquel Avenue and Morrissey Boulevard. On average, that section of Highway 1 is used by more than 100,000 vehicles per day. The expectation is that these auxiliary lanes will reduce congestion and make entering and exiting the freeway safer in that area.    

SANTA CRUZ > Silent auction fundraiser kicks off Project Homeless Connect

“I am not a miracle—I am a product of people’s generosity,” Stephen Nelson told a crowd of about 60 people at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History on Thursday, Feb 23.

Nelson, who once homeless and struggled with addiction, came to Santa Cruz almost eight years ago, and today he works with the Homeless Service Center to provide services to people who now face the difficulties he once struggled with.  Nelson spoke to the crowd as part of a charity fundraiser benefitting Project Homeless Connect, a one-day event that aims to provide necessary services to Santa Cruz’s homeless population.

APTOS > Afghan orphans stop in Aptos on a nation-wide road trip

Six Afghan orphans, aged 11 to 17, spent a night in Aptos on Thursday, Feb. 23. Their visit was one of many stops on a road trip across the United States sponsored by their orphanage in Kabul. They left for San Francisco today, Friday, Feb. 24, to see the Golden Gate Bridge.

The six kids and their two adult teachers, Nasrin Sultani, an Afghan national, and American Ian Pounds, have been on the road in a 32-foot RV since Jan. 7, starting out in Boston and taking the southern route through New Orleans, Texas and Arizona.  

SANTA CRUZ > Local cleaning service and resident featured on ‘Hoarders’

When the phone rang at Sunrise Cleaning Service on Market Street, owner Tracy Taylor thought it was just another prospective client. But the longtime Santa Cruz resident was in for a surprise: the woman on the other end of the phone worked for the cable network A&E, and she wanted to enlist Taylor’s help for an upcoming episode of the popular television series “Hoarders.”

Denver disco and electro-funk trio Juno What?! will move you

When Joey Porter sings onstage, it’s easy to get distracted by the giant straw that stretches from his mouth all the way down to the effects pedal sitting beside his vintage keyboard, a 1982 Roland Juno-106. Porter—one-third of the far-out funk collective from Denver, Colo., known as Juno What?!—isn’t sipping on anything but his own feel-good lyrics, voiced like a robot thanks to this ingenious and manipulative contraption: the talk box.

“I’ve been using the talk box for 20 years,” says Porter, a Tennessee native. “I really like soulful music, but I don’t have a soulful singing voice. A white boy in Nashville turns funk musician … doesn’t make sense to me either.”

Audacious ‘Artist’ poised to make big noise at 84th Academy Awards

Imagine my surprise to find so many of my favorite movies of 2011 up for major Academy Awards this year. Are my tastes becoming more mainstream, or is the Academy getting a clue? But whichever, some surprises in the pre-Oscar awards season and the usual free-for-all resulting from nine Best Picture nominations, ought to make for a lively Oscar show. Time to dust off the ol’ crystal ball and make a few fearless predictions.

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Cole Berry currently serves as world-fusion/funk band New World Ape’s percussion virtuoso, but if his passion for their eclectic brand of music ever wanes, he’s got other plans. “If I wasn’t in this band right now, I’d probably just be in the Andes,” he admits. Fortunately, it’s that immutable wanderlust that feeds his band’s musical fire. The core five of the seven- to eight-piece ensemble met while studying at UC Santa Cruz. In 2009, a year after graduating, Berry was contacted by drummer Beaumont Bradbury. “I was actually in La Paz, Bolivia, recovering from some intestinal issues,” recalls Berry, “and I got this email from him saying he wanted to kind of put together this serious progressive dance band, and I said yeah, count me in.”

Variety of services and professional etiquette help make this place a haven

We lead busy lives. And while we might already know that it’s best to find the right balance between work and play, we often overlook another important aspect to creating harmony between the mind and body: nurturing. As in, taking care of your skin and body in ways that go beyond basic maintenance. I’m talking about really taking care of yourself.

That’s where Patty Yarr comes in. As a licensed esthetician for 22 years, Yarr has absorbed a great deal of knowledge about skin and body health. During the last 10 years, she’s been at the helm of Aptos Village Skin and Body Care, a unique sanctuary nestled in the most picturesque part of Aptos. Many things shine here but mostly, it’s Yarr’s commitment to great customer care and offering an impressive line of skin care products—it’s one of the reasons she hit our radar in our annual health issue. (See GT’s 2/23 cover story.)