People Speak Out On Dangerous Pedestrian Crosswalks in Capitola

Aiyana Moya
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1
People Speak Out On Dangerous Pedestrian Crosswalks in Capitola

In an emotional city council meeting in Capitola, multiple people spoke out about what they described as dangerous pedestrians crosswalks the intersection of Bay Avenue and Hill Street where a pedestrian was killed last month. 

One of the speakers was Adrian West, the daughter of Debra Town, the woman who was killed at that intersection in a hit-and-run in November. 

“Go drive by the intersection of Bay Avenue and Hill Street,” West urged council members. “You can see how dark it is there at this time of night. Mom was walking there at 8:15 in the evening, so you can imagine how hard it is to see.” 

At the meeting on Thursday night, the council received a traffic report on the safety conditions at Bay Avenue and Hill Street.  

Back in September, the Capitola City Council designated $50,000 from its 2023-2024 fiscal year budget to fund revitalize the intersection. An ad-hoc committee was created which has so far held one widely-attended community meeting. 

In early January, the committee plans to present a design plan that aims to address safety and traffic concerns, with construction slated to begin in spring of next year.  The intent, according to committee members, is to shorten pedestrian crossing distances and additional lighting. But, the committee is still in the process of gathering design feedback and nothing is finalized yet. 

In the meantime, council directed staff to fast-track lighted stop signs. The council unanimously directed the committee to order and install the lighted stop signs as soon as possible prior to the final design, to address some speakers concerns about pedestrian safety during evening and night hours. 

Janet Edwards spoke during the public comment section of this agenda item advocating for the city council to consider bringing someone in on the design process who is blind or has a disability. 

“You need to find people with disabilities who can call attention to these things that you don’t see,” Edwards said. “A blind person at an intersection can’t look someone in the eye to see if they are visible or not.” 

In response to attendees concerns about dangerous pedestrian crosswalks, council also moved forward with restriping the lanes and adding reflective tape on the Hill Street corridor, and to reach out to organizations to coordinate input from senior people on the design of the renovation. 

Bay View Elementary First Net-Zero Campus

Aiyana Moya
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1
Bay View Elementary First Net-Zero Campus

Yesterday during pick-up time, Bay View Elementary students, parents and faculty gathered to celebrate a big milestone: the school became the district’s inaugural net-zero campus, generating as much or more energy than it consumes. 

The achievement fits into a larger push that Santa Cruz City Schools District (SCCS) is making as it tries to achieve zero net energy (ZNE) across the district. But according to SCCS spokesperson Sam Rolens, the district isn’t the only one happy: students have also been excited by the news.    

“The sustainability movement is really catching hold of young people, as young as elementary school aged kids,” Rolens said. “In our curriculum, we’re talking about ecology. We’re talking about sort of energy systems, solar panels. It’s a conversation that we have been having with students so that when we talk about energy usage, or when we talk about solar energy, they all have a pretty good base of knowledge for it.” 

In 2014, the SCCS launched a program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower maintenance and operational costs. A four-phase program, the initial three phases include the district modernized HVAC equipment, implemented smart building controls, and upgraded to energy-efficient LED lighting both indoors and outdoors.

Thanks to bonds passed by local voters in 2016 and later in 2020, the school district has been able to fund these sustainable upgrades throughout schools. 

Now entering its fourth and final phase, SCCS is deploying energy-optimizing technologies across its four schools. Upon completion, the district will have LED lighting district-wide and a new source of renewable energy—the installation of a solar-mounted carport like the one at Bay View Elementary. 

Superintendent Kris Munro expressed pride in leading the community toward sustainability, emphasizing the district’s commitment to expanding its solar infrastructure. 

“It’s not only that our families, our students, and our community have time and again made it clear what a priority it is—we’re also committed to being responsible with the public’s investment into our schools,” Munro said in a press release. “With this step, we’re not only addressing the unfolding climate change crisis but significantly reducing our energy budget going forward.”

The impact of the first three phases is already evident, with SCCS having reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 6,417 tons—equivalent to saving over 825,000 gallons of gasoline or preserving 121,285 trees from deforestation. The upcoming fourth phase is projected to further decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 26%, contributing to an overall program that is anticipated to save the district $9.75 million in general funds over the lifetime of its new equipment.

“It’s a big priority of ours to just be thanking the community for the facility’s bonds, because without them we just wouldn’t be able to do any of this,” Rosen said. “We’re incredibly proud of the priorities that we set as a school. But none of that would matter if we didn’t have that support.”

Soquel High School Football Wins First State Championship

Tarmo Hannula
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0
Soquel High School Football Wins First State Championship

The Soquel High School football team paraded onto their home field Wednesday, sandwiched between the school’s band percussion team and the varsity cheerleaders in a special proclamation ceremony after becoming the first football team in Santa Cruz County to win a California Interscholastic Federation State Championship on Dec. 8.

The Soquel Knights and cheerleaders seated in a long row at Dewey Tompkins Stadium Wednesday. They were greeted with a roar of applause from the crowded grandstands.  

“This is about a 13-2 record, the most wins in county history,” said athletic director Stu Walters. “They finished the season with a 10-game winning streak and they dominated their five playoff games, outsourcing their opponents 155 to 35.”

At the podium, Senator John Laird told the crowd that an official proclamation was being assembled for the school.

“On behalf of the state, we wish to recognize Soquel High School for its exceptional talent, triumph and accomplishment and inspiration,” he said. 

Laird also said a certificate for coach Dwight Lowery was being drawn up, as were special state recognitions for every member of the football team.

County Supervisor Manu Koenig added: “It’s not any individual that makes a great team, but the teamwork of all that makes a team great.”

Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah ran down a lengthy list of accomplishments by the team that included:

• 1,501 yards for quarterback Sam Whalen, and 17 touchdowns over the course of the season

• Senior wide receiver Jordan McCord with 629 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns

• Junior halfback Terry Lundie who averaged 73.4 rushing yards per game

“The list goes on and on,” he said. “This group has been nothing but exemplary. You have shown us what Santa Cruz County can accomplish.”

Whalen added, “It’s pretty amazing; it’s really rewarding. At the beginning of the season not a lot to expect really, I mean, we were losing a lot of great players. But it turns out we’re an incredible team.”

Hundreds Of People Packed Meetings Calling For Ceasefire

Aiyana Moya
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0
Hundreds Of People Packed Meetings Calling For Ceasefire

Hundreds of people packed city and county meeting chambers throughout the day on Tuesday to ask local elected leaders to pass resolutions demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict. The action resulted in the Santa Cruz City Council creating a special meeting to discuss passing a ceasefire resolution, meanwhile the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors struck down a similar motion. 

Watsonville declined to discuss the topic. After dozens of people asked them to schedule a special meeting later in December.

At the Santa Cruz City Council meeting, more than 150 people spoke out in favor of a ceasefire during a public comment session that lasted nearly three hours. Many called for a resolution similar to the one passed unanimously by the Oakland City Council in late November, which calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution also demands the release of all hostages, unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the restoration of critical infrastructure, as well as respect for international law.

Santa Cruz Councilmember Sandy Brown presented a motion to call for a special meeting in December where the council will discuss a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire using the Oakland resolution as a model. 

Councilmember Sonja Brunner seconded the motion. 

The motion passed, with Councilmembers Brown, Sonja Brunner, Martine Watkins, Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson and Mayor Fred Keeley voted in favor of the motion and Councilmembers Renee Golder and Scott Newsome voted against the motion.

Earlier in the day, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors rejected a motion to draft a resolution  to the violent conflict.

The item, which was placed in the consent agenda, failed in a 3-2 vote. Board Chair Zach Friend explained that the supervisors should be cautious about anyone who may be unintentionally hurt by taking a stand on the contentious issue.

“As a Board that prides itself on inclusivity and tolerance, there seemed to be no path toward achieving those values on this issue—for many in our community—if we adopted the resolution,” he said in an email.

The same day, outside the Watsonville City Council chambers, Capitola resident Erix Celis said he hopes to “start saving lives” by asking elected leaders to take a stand.

Celis identified himself as a Guatemalan.

“My grander vision is collective liberation,” he said.  “A lot of our struggles are connected. We are deeply impacted by the United States and its influence all over the world, and as a resident of the United States, I’m encouraging (the city council) to use their power so we can stop the killing abroad.”

Watsonville resident Irene Juarez-O’Connell, an organizer for Palestine Solidarity Central Coast said that the speakers had a measure of success when the Santa Cruz City Council agreed to hold a special meeting to consider a ceasefire resolution.  

“We can see unfolding before our eyes the atrocities happening, and we know that this is our tax dollars supporting this,” she said. 

“We feel that there are council members currently who are parents who have families who can understand this perspective, just standing up for the right thing, just staying ‘ceasefire’ and ‘stop the violence,’” Juarez-O’Connell said. “That’s at the end of the day what we’re asking for, so that there can be a just and peaceful solution for Palestinians and Israelis.”

County Officials Considering Borrowing Millions

Todd Guild
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0
County Officials Considering Borrowing Millions

Santa Cruz County officials are considering borrowing money to help pay for costs of the CZU fires, the Covid pandemic, the storms and floods from early 2023 and other disasters that have beset the county.

County staff will return to the board with a financial plan in February.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday heard a report about how the disasters have siphoned the county’s revenues as it waits for the years-long process of waiting for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other agencies.

County officials said that they have received only 40% of more than $250 million that was spent on recovery efforts from storms in 2017 and 2023, the CZU wildfires in 2020 and the pandemic.

The remainder of $159 million pencils out to 75% of the county’s annual discretionary general fund revenue.

 “We’re having to reorder our total budget priorities, and we’re going to have to issue debt to maintain our ability to basically fund this cash flow awaiting the response from FEMA and other federal agencies to get reimbursed,” County Administrative Officer Carlos Palacios said. 

The county has so far completed just 120 projects from the 2017 storms, and 86 from the more recent storms, which damaged 215 sites.

The problem, Palacios said, is that FEMA has faced an increasing number of disasters nationwide over the past decade—25 in 2023, which has meant that counties are waiting from 3-6 years to get reimbursement from the agency, which was created to respond to just one disaster every decade.

That is coupled with a staffing shortage at FEMA, Palacios said. 

“They’re being faced with all these disasters,” he said. 

Santa Cruz County has faced seven federally declared disasters over the past six years, Palacios said, which he said is due in part to the region’s susceptibility to natural disasters fueled by the ongoing climate crisis. 

“We are seeing the impacts of climate change in Santa Cruz County, not only in the frequency and severity of storm and fire events that we are facing, but also on the impact on the county budget,” he said. 

Santa Cruz City Council Approves License Plate Cameras  

Aiyana Moya
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3
Santa Cruz City Council Approves License Plate Cameras  

The Santa Cruz City Council approved the police department’s request to use grant funds to install 14 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras at the city limits in a 5 to 2 vote. 

City Mayor Fred Keeley and Santa Cruz Council Member Sandy Brown voted against the measure.   

According to Santa Cruz Police Chief Bernie Escalante, the data will be used to “identify stolen vehicles, locate missing children or adults and investigate individuals wanted for serious crimes.” The city is applying for funds from a State Homeland Security Program Grant (SHSPG), a yearly grant that the Department of Homeland Security funds. 

Earlier this month, the council debated whether to acquire the ALPR cameras to monitor the entrances and exits of the City. The police department proposed a partnership with Flock Safety to install the cameras at key access points.

According to data Police Chief Escalante presented, one reader currently installed in the Beach Flats neighborhood has helped police locate a wanted vehicle involved in a shooting. At the Tuesday night meeting, he also pointed to a recent case where Capitola’s police department used the city of Watsonville’s readers, which helped locate the suspect in a fatal hit-and-run. 

Some at the meeting spoke out against the cameras, saying they are a violation of privacy and they questioned the use of the data collected by Flock. 

“This is expanding policing through surveillance,”Jazz Mia said via Zoom. “What about any subpoena or leaks of the data collected? How can SCPD really claim that this information can be protected in a world of threats to and weaknesses of cybersecurity?” 

Another person raised concerns over the test community being the Beach Flats neighborhood, an area of Santa Cruz that has a high concentration of Latinx residents. 

“The poorest, brownest community in Santa Cruz was where we put our surveillance technology as a test,” Richie Misler said via Zoom. “Systemic racism was already on the front.” 

Meanwhile, council members commended the guidelines for the cameras. At the meeting, council members requested there be an annual report on their use and effectiveness, with data on the total number of scans from the cameras, the number of arrests made and vehicles recovered as a result of the cameras. 

“I’m appreciative of all the questions and concerns about how this is used,” council member Sonja Brunner said. “Even though there is a photo of the vehicle’s…license plate, it’s not even used unless it’s related to a crime or abduction…We already have cameras everywhere.”

Six People Were Injured In UCSC Bus Crash

Tarmo Hannula
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0
Six People Were Injured In UCSC Bus Crash

Six people were injured Tuesday night on the UC Santa Cruz campus when a bus veered off the road and slammed into a  stone column.

Authorities told the media that the six people who were injured included the driver of the bus, who suffered major injuries and was flown by helicopter to Valley Medical Center in Santa Clara. Of the five passengers on the bus that were injured, four were taken to Dominican Hospital and one was taken to Valley Medical Center.

The 8:30pm crash happened near the main entrance to the campus on Coolidge Drive between High Street and Ranch View Drive as the bus was coming down a hill toward High Street.

The bus struck a stone structure that is part of the remains of the historic Cowell Ranch building that, in earlier times, served as a lime kiln site.

A statement from the school’s Slug Support stated the collision has caused damage to the lime kiln and there could be structural issues.

“We ask everyone to avoid the area to prevent injury,” the group said. “Difficult news like this can impact the entire campus community and be complex to process. The incident and cause is still under investigation.

Street Talk

Jeanette Prather
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0
Street Talk

“Is there a local small business you like to support during the holidays?”

Ava Carney, 20, Student of computer science, Cabrillo College

“Toque Blanche, some people still know it as Chefworks, on Pacific.
I feel like it’s the best place for a family gift because everyone is cooking.”
— Ava —

Kael Gonzalez, 19, CEO Ittacuauhtli Impacts, LLC

“Los Primos Taqueria on Ocean Street is a great little place.
I also really love Go Ask Alice, the herbal apothecary and gift shop on Pacific.”
— Kael —

Anna Bullock, 22, Paralegal

”Botanic and Luxe, the little plant and home shop at Abbott Square.
It’s kind of new. It’s really nice and pretty affordable.”
— Anna —

from left, Nick Fisher, 56, Wildlife biologist, and Tiffen Shirey, 53, Adult Ed. Teacher

“Paper Visions, they have something for everyone.
Oh, and Far West Fungi the mushroom shop!
They have growing kits, and truffle fries kits.”
— Nick and Tiffen —

Brooke Lipman, 46, Farmer, Organic Farm Inspector, Mama

”I would say Scotts Valley Feed.
The owners are the most down-to-earth goodhearted people.
They have an awesome gift selection like local honey and local hand-made goods.”
— Brooke —

Mose Lipman, 11, Student

“Pleasure Pizza! it’s just kinda cozy.
And when we go to the movies during the holidays, it’s right next door.“
— Mose —

Two Organizations Keeping Santa Cruz’s Arts Alive

Tarmo Hannula
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0
Two Organizations Keeping Santa Cruz’s Arts Alive

Two organizations keeping Santa Cruz’s cultural community thriving that we are highlighting this week as part of Santa Cruz Gives fundraising campaign are the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and Arts Council Santa Cruz County. The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History has connected people to the wonders of nature for over 100 years at their Seabright Beach Location, and plans to use donations from the fundraising campaign to 

Meanwhile, the Arts Council Santa Cruz County hopes to fund arts education and opportunities for more than 18,000 youth with its donations. 

Hear from the organizations themselves below. 

The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History Brings Nature to Life

The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, situated just off the sands of Seabright State Beach, has been a vital bridge between people and nature for over 100 years. The Museum highlights the region’s colorful spectrum of plant, animal, and human communities from the edge of the Pacific to the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Its mission is to connect people with nature and science to inspire stewardship of the land. 

“Visitors to the museum will learn about the rich and varied landscape of Santa Cruz County, from shoreline to summit, from the deep past to its Indigenous caretakers and modern stewards,” said Development and Community Engagement Kiersten Elzy-Loving. “The museum hosts special exhibits two to three times a year, featuring local science illustrators, current topics in natural history, and highlights from our collection. Every trip to the museum provides visitors of all ages an opportunity to engage with hands-on exhibits and meet live animals.”

The museum’s founder, Laura Hecox, grew up in the Santa Cruz Lighthouse. She was driven to explore and learn about the nature around her and share it with others. At the inception of the museum, she had a hope that each person who visits the museum or participates in one of its numerous programs for the community would walk away better informed about the county’s natural world and feel inspired to care for it. 

“Museum visitors of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds making a personal nature connection benefits our entire community and is one reason museum entrance for children is always free,” Elzy-Loving said.

The Museum provides free natural history and science field trips for public schools, grades K-12 throughout the school year that are curriculum complementary. 

“We offer many online learning options, educational kits, and other support tools for educators,” Elzy-Loving said. “We also provide our Earth Stewards Project, where we work with teens from regional high schools and other nonprofits by engaging the students in service learning environmental projects outdoors throughout the county.”

The museum pays deep tribute to a lengthy list of volunteers. 

“Our public programs and community events are only possible with their support. Our goal is to provide volunteer opportunities for a variety of schedules through several different options, including indoors and outside,” Elzy-Loving said. “We invite anyone interested to contact us to learn more.”

The museum stays on course with 14 full-time employees, six part-time and a handful of seasonal staff members. 

“It’s important to include that our volunteers provide hundreds of hours during the year, supporting events, public programs, and working in the museum’s Garden Learning Center, and other projects,” Elzy-Loving said.

The Santa Cruz Natural History Museum has been an independent nonprofit since 2009 but depends on various fundraisers to support their lengthy list of programs and exhibits. 

“It also depends on donors’ generosity to help our programs for schools and the community thrive,” Elzy-Loving said.

Fueling Santa Cruz’s Arts

Arts Council Santa Cruz County’s (ACSCC) mission is to nurture and invest in artists, culture, and the arts. 

“Together, we’re building a stronger Santa Cruz County, where all artists have access to the resources they need to thrive; where a full range of creative expression is accessible to everyone; and the arts are recognized for their essential contributions to a healthy, vibrant, and representative community. Our community of supporters is critical to these efforts,” Crystal Birns Communications Director said. 

ACSCC just completed a study on the economic impact of the arts in Santa Cruz County which illuminated how the nonprofit arts and culture are an important economic engine for the entire county. 

It also highlighted how the pandemic had an outsized impact on local arts institutions that continues to be felt. The study showed that in Santa Cruz, artists have difficulty affording to live and work in the county. 

With 21 programs advancing the arts in the community, the ACSCC is involved in arts events and creative projects year-round and across the county. Other programs include grants to artists and arts organizations, community initiatives such as Open Studios, support for the artists who live and work at the Tannery Arts Center, and our new Watsonville Center for the Arts that provides space for performing arts classes and rehearsals.

The staff at ACSCC includes the equivalent of 12 full-time positions plus about 50 part-time teaching artists. About 10 high-school teaching artists are hired through their Mariposa Arts program in Watsonville, where high school students “find their voices and discover their creative gifts through arts training that also supports the development of powerful life skills,” according to the organization’s website.    

“Like most nonprofits, there is always more work to do than we have the resources to support,” Birns said. “We are funded through local governments and schools, state and federal grants, private foundations, and individual donors. In order to sustain and expand our work, we need our local community of donors to recognize the value that the arts bring to our region, and support the art and culture that makes Santa Cruz County such a creatively dynamic place.”  

Birns added that ACSCC has played a vital role in ensuring that the arts have a strong presence in school district plans in Pajaro Valley, Live Oak, and San Lorenzo Valley, which translates into more arts and music teachers funded in the schools. 

“We rallied local artists in support of Watsonville’s new percent for the arts ordinance,” she says. “And we are working with Santa Cruz City leaders to ensure that the arts are an important part of its development downtown.”

Birns further stressed the importance of the Watsonville Center for the Arts, a collective of artistic and cultural groups sharing classes with the Watsonville community.

Santa Cruz Gives is funded by the generosity of Good Times, Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County, Community Foundation Santa Cruz County, Applewood Foundation, Joe Collins, Driscoll’s, Inc., Monterey Peninsula Foundation, Comcast, Santa Cruz County Bank, Wynn Capital Management, The Pajaronian, and Press Banner.

Cabrillo College’s New Wine Studies Degree

Aiyana Moya
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0
Cabrillo College’s New Wine Studies Degree

What do climate change and cocktails have in common? 

Both are changing the wine industry.  

Deborah Parker Wong, who helped create Cabrillo College’s new Wine Studies Associates in Science (A.S.) degree, says that the wine industry is at a turning point. Parker Wong, who joined Cabrillo College in 2015 but who has a long history entwined with wine, spends her time delving into the wine industry in one way or another.  

From strolling with winemakers in the hills of Tuscany to giving lectures in the countryside of France to doing field research to collect data on the industry’s demographics, Parker Wong is seeing in real-time how the industry is responding to changing demands: both from its consumers and as a result of the natural world. 

As part of Cabrillo’s new wine degree, Parker Wong plans on exploring the innovative ways the industry is adapting to engage its new consumer base and also confront the challenging new realities that climate extremes are posing to winemakers. 

A Changing—And Aging—Industry 

The future of the wine industry lies in the hands of younger women of color. 

The industry’s primary market—people in the baby boomer generation—is shrinking, as people are nearing retirement age, the time of life when consumerism typically declines. Meanwhile, millennials and Generation Z, the newest generation to reach drinking age, are more interested in cocktails and spirits than wine. 

Parker Wong, during her research into the industry’s consumers, found something surprising.

“All the data lined up and pointed to college-educated young women of color as the wine industry’s customer, and its three to five years customer,” Parker Wong says. 

The surprising part lies within the disconnect between its potential consumer base and the industry itself. Less than 1% of wineries in the United States are owned by Black people and just 14% of wineries have a woman as their head winemaker. 

But Parker Wong sees the changes in wine consumption as a fascinating part of the industry—one that can represent an opportunity, even if at the same time posing a challenge. 

“Some baggage related to wine is that it’s too complicated,” Parker Wong says. “Or that people who sell wine and serve wine are snobby. Wine is not as casual a beverage as other types of beverages like hard seltzers or beer or whatever other choices we have now, and we have lots of choices.” 

To stay relevant, Parker Wong says, the wine industry needs to adapt. 

“That is what will be taught in this program,” Parker Wong says. “It’s all woven in, and of course, there’s a class coming up in the spring called wine business basics. It takes a really cold hard look at the three tier system of sales that exists in this country.”  

A Modern Wine Degree 

Staying relevant and finding innovative ways to expand its consumer base is just one aspect of the wine industry that prospective students enrolled in the new degree program can look forward to.

The new degree, which will take effect beginning in the fall of 2024, will have two companion certifications for students seeking employment in the wine industry and also for people looking to pursue interests or increase employment opportunities without earning college credits. 

The program has something for a range of people interested in wine, Parker Wong says. 

“Analytical wine tasting and the assessment of quality and style in wine are really important to me and I teach that as the foundation of my curriculum,” Parker Wong says. “If you take a wine class with me you will learn wine and spirit education choice, a systematic approach to tasting. Any student who comes out of this program will be skilled at evaluating quality and style in life.” 

Parker Wong played a pivotal role in shaping the wine program’s trajectory. The degree and certificates were developed over a three-year period by the instructor along with an industry Advisory Board with people in the industry from across Santa Cruz County. 

The program comprises 11 major courses including basic winemaking, wine grape viticulture and world wines. Seven of those courses are transferable to the California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC) systems. 

Overall, this course is for anyone who finds some type of pleasure in the experience of drinking wine—or maybe, someone who wants to.  

“Wine is a source of tremendous enjoyment,” Parker Wong says. “There’s the sensory and the experience are part of consuming and drinking wine with friends at the table. It can’t be replicated, in my opinion, by any other beverage in the world.” 

People Speak Out On Dangerous Pedestrian Crosswalks in Capitola

Dangerous Pedestrian Crosswalks
In an emotional city council meeting in Capitola, multiple people spoke out about what they described as dangerous pedestrians crosswalks the intersection of Bay Avenue and Hill Street where a pedestrian was killed last month.  One of the speakers was Adrian West, the daughter of Debra Town, the woman who was killed at that intersection in a hit-and-run in November.  “Go...
Read more

Bay View Elementary First Net-Zero Campus

Bay View Elementary
Yesterday during pick-up time, Bay View Elementary students, parents and faculty gathered to celebrate a big milestone: the school became the district's inaugural net-zero campus, generating as much or more energy than it consumes.  The achievement fits into a larger push that Santa Cruz City Schools District (SCCS) is making as it tries to achieve zero net energy (ZNE) across...
Read more

Soquel High School Football Wins First State Championship

Soquel High School Football
The Soquel High School football team paraded onto their home field Wednesday, sandwiched between the school’s band percussion team and the varsity cheerleaders in a special proclamation ceremony after becoming the first football team in Santa Cruz County to win a California Interscholastic Federation State Championship on Dec. 8. The Soquel Knights and cheerleaders seated in a long row at...
Read more

Hundreds Of People Packed Meetings Calling For Ceasefire

Hundreds of people packed
Hundreds of people packed city and county meeting chambers throughout the day on Tuesday to ask local elected leaders to pass resolutions demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict. The action resulted in the Santa Cruz City Council creating a special meeting to discuss passing a ceasefire resolution, meanwhile the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors struck down a similar...
Read more

County Officials Considering Borrowing Millions

County considering borrowing millions
Santa Cruz County officials are considering borrowing money to help pay for costs of the CZU fires, the Covid pandemic, the storms and floods from early 2023 and other disasters that have beset the county. County staff will return to the board with a financial plan in February. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday heard a report about how the disasters...
Read more

Santa Cruz City Council Approves License Plate Cameras  

Santa Cruz City Council
The Santa Cruz City Council approved the police department’s request to use grant funds to install 14 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras at the city limits in a 5 to 2 vote.  City Mayor Fred Keeley and Santa Cruz Council Member Sandy Brown voted against the measure.    According to Santa Cruz Police Chief Bernie Escalante, the data will be used...
Read more

Six People Were Injured In UCSC Bus Crash

Police Arrest
Six people were injured Tuesday night on the UC Santa Cruz campus when a bus veered off the road and slammed into a  stone column. Authorities told the media that the six people who were injured included the driver of the bus, who suffered major injuries and was flown by helicopter to Valley Medical Center in Santa Clara. Of the...
Read more

Street Talk

row of silhouettes of different people
"Is there a local small business you like to support during the holidays?” “Toque Blanche, some people still know it as Chefworks, on Pacific. I feel like it’s the best place for a family gift because everyone is cooking.” — Ava — “Los Primos Taqueria on Ocean Street is a great little place. I also really love Go Ask Alice,...
Read more

Two Organizations Keeping Santa Cruz’s Arts Alive

Two Organizations Keeping Santa Cruz's
Two organizations keeping Santa Cruz’s cultural community thriving that we are highlighting this week as part of Santa Cruz Gives fundraising campaign are the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and Arts Council Santa Cruz County. The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History has connected people to the wonders of nature for over 100 years at their Seabright Beach...
Read more

Cabrillo College’s New Wine Studies Degree

Cabrillo College's New Wine Studies
What do climate change and cocktails have in common?  Both are changing the wine industry.   Deborah Parker Wong, who helped create Cabrillo College’s new Wine Studies Associates in Science (A.S.) degree, says that the wine industry is at a turning point. Parker Wong, who joined Cabrillo College in 2015 but who has a long history entwined with wine, spends her time...
Read more
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