Plus Letters to Good Times
Sustainability Now
Hand Over the Money, Honey
Dollar Dazed
Last week we read that several parking lots in Santa Cruz will suddenly be affecting your pocketbook—come March 1, it’s going to cost. Judging by all the comments we received online about last week’s “Pay to Park” story (see Letters), it seems, not surprisingly, that the news didn’t go over too well. Well, on some level, I suppose it makes sense. The City is always looking for ways to boost revenue. But, for some, it’s a bit headscratching. For as inventive and creative as Santa Cruz considers itself to be, I’d be curious to know what other ideas may have floated around City Council chambers. Were there any? And bless the councilmembers. I cannot think of a worse fate than to sit there and maneuver oneself through the often painstaking tasks of sifting through agendas and dilemmas and, of course, all of Santa Cruz’s more colorful personalities. (Or, not so colorful.) Oh. the patience it must require. Still, I wonder if the folks on the council are really having fun? Do they greet the day feeling invigorated and excited? Are they thrilled to serve? Does their excitement spill out into the community, creating a fascinating ripple effect of enthusiasm? Questions—I am forever asking them. (And no, I didn’t just write this after watching an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.)  Well, I suppose we could ask these same questions of oursevles. Are we happy, excited and thrilled to be planted right where we are? Not a bad thing to ask actually.

Christopher Durang’s witty work hits the Actors’ Theatre

Theater director Gerry Gerringer sits in a tiny office, and we talk, like therapist to patient, which is ironic, since he’s directing a play about such things, with Christopher Durang’s “Beyond Therapy,” opening up at the Actors’ Theatre on Feb. 25 and running through March 19.

“It’s really a clever, funny script,” Gerringer says. “It was kind of a play for its time, and now as time has elapsed since the ’80s when it was written, it becomes kind of a satire that’s relevant today. Though all of the characters in some ways have their strangeness, the two therapists who are in this play are so out there and eccentric that it’s almost going beyond therapy to think that they can help these people. Comedy is very therapeutic. I think humor connects people and provides access to dialogue about different political issues. Laughter is one of the best things you can do on a regular basis.”

While naysayers continue to barrage Obama for not implementing change fast enough, one local teen has been inspired by local humanitarians and by the president, and is taking matters into his own musically gifted hands. Barney Greer, a 15-year-old Santa Cruz alto sax star, is harnessing his talent and the talents of his peers to raise funds for Haiti through a teen concert at Kuumbwa Jazz on Friday, Feb. 26. “I noticed people and places around me that were wanting to help Haiti and doing things to make it happen,” Greer says. “Even Obama wrote an article about why Haiti matters. I read it and I realized that I had a band and a phone—to make calls, to make a benefit.” With no previous experience putting together a large event of this kind, the Harbor High student began spearheading this week’s Funk ‘n’ Rock for Haiti concert. What he describes as a “clash of genres,” the evening boasts a teen lineup of four local bands, starting with the high energy of the self-explanatory Funky Dosage six-piece, the dance rock of Jackie Rocks Band, the funk and jazz fusion of Greer’s own quartet, Barney and the Dinosaurs, and ending with the Kuumbwa Jazz Honor Band winding it all down into a straight ahead jazz closing. Greer is giving proceeds to International Medical Corps, an organization that sends medical training, relief and supplies to places in need.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros spread the good word

If it’s the job of a messiah to convert the unbelievers, then Edward Sharpe—aka Alex Ebert—has some work in front of him. Stumbling upon the former Ima Robot frontman’s band at this past October’s Treasure Island Music Festival, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are the kind of act that immediately invited my skeptical inquiry. Not since The Polyphonic Spree had I seen a band with such a definitive “shtick.”

For those who have never seen them live (or their appearance on David Letterman), the group is a dozen-or-so-strong baroque ensemble with a singular and undeniable hippie aesthetic that it will bring to the Rio Theatre on Monday, March 1. Ebert usually dances around shirtless and shoeless, nappy hair tied in a crown, while the rest of the band easily could have taken its wardrobe from the set of Little House on the Prairie. Still, Ebert denies collusion, stating that “it’s just us being who we are. If we coordinated it’d be obvious. We’d be wearing all black, or all white or something.”

Violinist Laura Albers uses her superpowers to rekindle the spirit

Laura Albers is a veritable Wonder Woman with a violin: She works as the Associate Concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera orchestra, holds bachelor and master of music degrees from The Cleveland Institute of Music and Juilliard, races as a triathlete and also happens to be double-take beautiful. Oh, and did we mention that she started playing the violin at age 2?

No, that isn’t a misprint. Albers, who will perform at Cabrillo College Distinguished Artists Concert & Lecture Series’ “Rekindling the Spirit of the Age of Enlightenment” (an all-Mozart program taking place at Cabrillo Music Recital Hall on Saturday, Feb. 27 and Sunday, Feb. 28), took up music as a 2-year-old with the help of her mother, violin teacher Ellie LeRoux. “I wanted a violin because that’s what she had,” Albers explains.

Localism is about having pride in your community and being proud of where you live. When we were young we tended to take it a little too far with the Westside vs. Eastside vs. Valleys … but most of us grew out of that. Santa Cruz is a great town. Now I’m committed to improving my neighborhood and making Santa Cruz cleaner and safer.
Jeremy Matthews
Santa Cruz | Sales Operations

Sudents, faculty, and staff are banding together: On March 1 and 4, tens of thousands of students and workers from the University of California, California State University, and community college systems will take action against budget cuts and more. Some will march on their own campuses while others will head straight for the state capitol. Plans for the 4th have evolved from a statewide strike in California into a national day of protest in support of higher education. Organizers at UCSC also have big plans. Check GT’s March 11 issue for more information and event coverage.

Methane digesters are shutting down due to new environmental regulations. How will the controversy impact clean fuel projects in Santa Cruz?

Despite the 1,700 cows roaming the Fiscalini Farms barn, things are surprisingly quiet.

“Happy cows don’t moo too often, and these cows live in the lap of luxury,” says Nettie Drake, an agricultural engineer who helps dairies install renewable biogas systems.

New start offers immediate and interim psychiatric care

For the past 27 years Dominican Hospital has been the go-to place in Santa Cruz for acute psychiatric services, or immediate, short-term care. However, when the county’s contract with Dominican’s Behavioral Health Unit is up in 2013, it will seek a new place to house many of those in need of psychiatric care. In the coming years the county plans to build a separate Psychiatric Health Facility [PHF] that will include 16 more beds than are currently available.

“It became clearer and clearer to Dominican and to their parent corporation, Catholic Healthcare West, that operating the psychiatric unit really didn’t work for them financially and in business terms,” says Leslie Tremaine, director of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. “And that is not unique to Catholic Healthcare West. That’s happening all over the country to general hospitals that have had psych units.”