The people are so nice and welcoming here. I’ve lived here for five months and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.
Beatrice Black
Santa Cruz | Penny Ice Creamery

How creativity and expression bring a renewed sense of importance to the incarcerated

Jack Bowers once had a revelation while walking through his Seabright neighborhood. As Bowers, who worked as an art facilitator at Soledad State Prison, and his kids made their way to a local playground, he saw a man on a porch that he recognized—a former inmate from Soledad. It gave him a renewed sense of the importance of prisoners being a part of the larger community.

“It was brought home to me: Who do we want coming back to the community?” says Bowers. “Someone who is angry and bitter, or someone who’s part of the community, a responsible neighbor? It’s called enlightened self-interest.”

Unique culinary touches at Zachary’s have kept us coming back for 26 years

Babies know not the difference between weekends and weekdays, and my oldest awoke by 6:30 every morning. On Saturdays we’d either drive to the wharf, or put him in an aluminum-framed backpack and walk downtown for breakfast. Once, when my not-quite toddling son dragged his backpack to my bedside, sadly on a school day, I knew he was hungry for Zachary’s.

With Café Violette changing hands again, I wondered if they still served any of the original Middle Eastern plates. It was a sunny afternoon, and surprisingly busy for a mid-week.

This tiny cafe on the corner of the Esplanade and Stockton Avenue in Capitola serves 48 flavors of locally made Polar Bear and Marianne’s ice cream. A regular milkshake ($5) made with Marianne’s Raspberry Cheesecake was thick and bubble gum pink.

Our lives are full of gadgets, big and small, that eventually wear out and need replacing—officially going from loyal device to what has been dubbed “e-waste.” More than 2.37 million tons of e-waste was discarded in the United States in 2009, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. But most of these items can be recycled (or “e-cycled”), and doing so has big eco-benefits—for example, recycling one million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by 3,657 U.S. homes in one year, says the EPA. Locally, Santa Cruzans looking to unload their e-waste responsibly can make use of a free e-waste recycling event on Saturday, Jan. 21 at HOPE Services, 220 Lincoln St. in Santa Cruz, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visit hopeservices.org to learn more.

Regents spare classes—for now—and drain staff healthcare surpluses instead

Gov. Jerry Brown announced a $100 million mid-year cut to the 10-campus University of California system in December, just as UC Santa Cruz staff and students left for winter break. UCSC’s share of the cut is $6.5 million, but no classes will be affected through the end of the current school year.

Homeless volunteers help clean up historic Santa Cruz cemetery

Three months ago at the Evergreen Cemetery, thickets of blackberry, periwinkle and ivy obscured eroded pathways and cracked gravestones. The cemetery’s seven acres and unmatched local history were largely inaccessible.

Donations allow UCSC’s unique Sikh and Punjabi studies program to grow

Getting singled out and patted down at American airports is something Nirvikar Singh has come to expect while traveling. Rather than act frustrated, he laughs good-naturedly while discussing it. It’s something many Sikhs have dealt with in the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, he explains.

Civility declines when childish parents meet in predictable ‘Carnage’ 

Why can’t Johnny play nice with the other kids in the park? Is he a bullying little monster? Was he goaded into it by some other bullying little monster? Or is he acting out some basic, primal instinct that’s still roiling just beneath the fragile surface of human civility? The new Roman Polanski film, Carnage, opts for Door Number Three, exploring at close range (and in often claustrophobic terms) what happens when four apparent grown-ups get together for some polite chit-chat after the son of one couple injures the son of the other couple during an after-school altercation in the park.