Zolina Zerevica was hired as a hostess at Tortilla Flats 27 years ago. She’s now the owner and manager—Zolina purchased the Soquel restaurant with her mom and stepdad nearly two years ago. She says locals love the place for the same reasons she does; family vibes and the culinary fusion of influences—the recipes come from the original owner. Favorites include the Rio Grande carne asada, Baja fish taco and the enchiladas. But Zolina says the sauces set them apart—there are as many as eight choices, ranging from red pepper to green to mole to yellow aji chili. The chocolate peanut butter pie is the crown jewel of the dessert menu. Customers also rave about the margaritas. Open every day, 11:30am-9pm (Fridays and Saturdays till 9:30pm)—closed Mondays. GT asked Zolina more about the menu and her path to ownership.
How would you describe the blend of cuisines?
ZOLINA ZEREVICA: All the recipes are from the original owner, and she studied in Mexico, New Mexico and the French Quarter. Some of these recipes include enchilada sauces like our Santa Fe red and green that come from her time down there using Hatch chilis. The Durango sauce exemplifies her French Quarter influence because it’s a light buttery cream sauce traditional to that style of cuisine. You won’t get these tastes or flavors anywhere else; they are unique to us.
How did you become the owner?
The original owner and I had discussed the possibility for years. When she passed away, her partner took over, and he and I started negotiating my taking over. Then he died suddenly, and we purchased it from his daughter.
Going from server to owner was a complete change in role and responsibility, but Tortilla Flats is my happy place.
SANTA CRUZ — West Cliff Drive is not a typical neighborhood thoroughfare.
High above the glittering blue waters of Monterey Bay, where surfers and seals bob in the waves, the small two-lane road hugs the surprisingly close edge of the cliffs. On a recent morning, a couple rode a two-seater bicycle along the roadway, soaking in the expansive views of the Pacific Ocean. A group wearing puffer jackets teetered on an impressive outcropping 40 feet above the water to snap a photo.
This 2.7-mile promenade attracts thousands of joggers, sightseers, cyclists and surfers each day. For many who live in Santa Cruz, the corridor feels like an essential part of the
identity of the funky beach city, about 75 miles south of San Francisco and home to 62,000 people.
“It’s so much more than a road,” said Hilary Bryant, a former mayor of Santa Cruz. “Tourists come here and they go to West Cliff Drive — it’s like our front yard.”
But the recent high-profile winter storms in California hit the region particularly hard, splitting the Capitola Wharf in half and prompting mudslides that shut down two freeways. Along West Cliff Drive, 20-foot-tall waves dragged chunks of the roadway into the sea, closing parts of the road for at least another six months.
The extensive destruction has forced the city to think about how to adapt to an increasingly eroding coastline as sea levels rise and storms become more violent — something many Santa Cruz residents had seen as hypothetical or as an issue to be dealt with in the distant future.
“This was sort of a wake-up call,” said Gary Griggs, a professor of earth sciences who has taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, since the 1960s. “I’ve never seen this much damage this quickly in my 55 years here. So it’s time to step back and say, ‘This is what’s coming.’”
A majority of the state’s coast is lined by cliffs — and most of them are eroding. According to a study published in September, an average of two inches of California’s coast dribbles into the sea every year, though in some spots, like Eureka, it can be 10 times that amount.
This trend will only increase as oceans rise and storms become more powerful this century. That means many eyes are on Santa Cruz, as it decides how to tackle the problem of West Cliff Drive.
There aren’t any easy solutions. Among the possibilities: further bolster the cliffside with seawalls or boulders to preserve the two-lane road; narrow it to one lane to make room for the retreating coastline; or close it to cars altogether.
No decisions, or even proposals, have been made yet, but the future of West Cliff has dominated chitchat around Santa Cruz lately, said Fran Grayson, who owns Steamer Lane Supply, a cafe on West Cliff Drive overlooking the water.
“People are talking about it and stressing about it,” Grayson told me. That’s especially true among the surfers who treasure the breaks off West Cliff that helped make Santa Cruz a worldwide surfing destination.
The damage from the recent storms to West Cliff Drive will cost $13 million to repair, the city manager, Matt Huffaker, said, and without additional steps, the Santa Cruz coastline could sustain as much as $1 billion in erosion and other climate-related damage by the end of the century. “We can’t simply build back in the same way,” he said.
As I walked along West Cliff Drive recently, savoring the salty air, pedestrians peered over plastic barriers to get a better look at a spot where the asphalt had crumbled into the sea.
Gretchen Bach, who lives on a stretch of West Cliff that was among the hardest hit by the storms, said the impacts had not been all bad. True, closing one lane of the road has meant fewer parking options for her and her neighbors, but also less car traffic and more breathing room for people on foot.
“People stop and talk to each other, there’s just more space — it’s like our community meeting place,” Bach, who works as a real estate agent, told me. “I’d trade that for parking any day.”
Debates similar to the one around West Cliff Drive are likely to play out across California in the coming decades as the effects of climate change take their toll. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, some 200,000 Californians and almost $17 billion in residential and commercial buildings are at risk from coastal flooding alone. Without intervention, many highways, airports and recreational beaches will be damaged or destroyed.
In Santa Cruz, the reality of coastal erosion and climate change seemed to have sunk in among residents who treasure West Cliff Drive.
“If we do nothing, at some point, there will be nothing to protect and save,” Bryant said.
Soumya Karlamangla is a reporter with California Today, The New York Times. Copyright, 2023, The New York TImes
On Saturday, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees unanimously appointed Adam Scow to fill the seat vacated when former member Maria Orozco was elected to the Watsonville City Council.
“Now the work begins,” Scow said after the vote. “I know it’s going to be a hard job, but I really think this group of trustees, this community, is hungry for change. I feel optimistic and confident that working together, we’re going to make some changes.”
Scow added he wants to look at the budget to increase wages for teachers and staff, which he says will help with teacher retention.
“It’s not just a matter of what employees deserve; it’s what’s going to work to bring people here,” he said. “That’s just a cold hard economic fact given the cost of living.”
Scow’s appointment came after an hour-long meeting during which the Board interviewed four candidates, grilling them on their governing philosophy and how they would be influential board members.
About 30 members of the public spoke during the meeting, nearly all of whom spoke in favor of Scow. This support weighed heavily for the Trustees, who decided after a brief discussion.
Scow is a music teacher for El Sistema, a nonprofit after-school program that brings music to young people. He is a classically trained violinist who plays, among other things, in a mariachi band. Scow has worked as a strategist for Public Water Now, which works to win public ownership of the local water system. He has also worked as the California Food and Water Watch director, overseeing campaigns to promote clean energy and protect California’s water. He also helped pass legislation regarding water rights and overtime pay for farmworkers.
Scow’s record of environmental work also earned him support from the audience, including Ann Lopez, who, as the Center for Farmworker Families director, advocates for a reduction in toxic agricultural chemicals around schools.
The Trustees voted in January to appoint a new member, reasoning that taking it to a special election would have cost $80,000 and left the seat empty until the next public election.
“We didn’t want to see Trustee Area 6 go unrepresented until November,” said Board Vice-President Georgia Acosta. “That’s just not fair to the constituency base of that area.”
Trustee Area 6 covers the Freedom area from Watsonville Municipal Airport north to White Road.
Scow’s seat will be up for reelection in November 2024.
After California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis bought several slices from Pizza My Heart in Capitola’s storm-ravaged Esplanade on Wednesday for herself and the retinue of City, County and State officials accompanying her, she turned, slice in hand and quipped, “The only thing that would make it taste better is if I had gone surfing first.”
Kounalakis is the latest governmental official to visit the Mid-County tourist destination, whose staggering damage has become a backdrop for public officials’ efforts to bring the area federal and state recovery funds.
“Capitola is one of the jewels of the California coast,” Kounalakis said. “It has an energy and a vibe and a community that draws people from around the world. And it’s real important to us that Capitola has the tools to build back better.”
Those tools, she said, include providing evacuees a place to go, and providing emergency dollars to businesses so they can rebound.
But the state also has a long-range vision to help mitigate the effects of climate change, which could lessen the impacts of sea level rise and future atmospheric river storms.
“California is experiencing first-hand the impacts of a warming climate,” she said. “We have followed the science for decades on this, which is why we have the most rigorous emissions reduction program in the country, and it’s why we have the most progressive goals. Our 2045 goals to transition to a clean energy future are the gold standard in the world.”
Capitola Mayor Margaux Keiser said that she hopes the visit will help reignite the village’s image as a tourist destination, as the hardest hit restaurants—Zelda’s, Sand Bar, Paradise Beach Grille—struggle to rebuild.
The damage to the City is estimated at $2.6 million, with repairs to the Capitola Wharf ringing in at roughly $9 million.
The City was already planning on a massive renovation project on the Wharf, including possible widening, pylon repair and upgrades to the bathrooms, before the storm hit. That was paid for by a $3.5 million grant secured by Congressman Jimmy Panetta.
Now, with a much larger project on the horizon, the City has received an additional $1.9 million in state funding from the office of Assemblyman Mark Stone. Additional funding will come from Measure D, the City’s quarter-cent sales tax approved in 2016 and reauthorized in 2018 to fund City Services.
The City will also look to FEMA and its insurance provider to fund the project, which City Manager Jamie Goldstein hopes will begin in August.
A man who provided illegal drugs to two female victims, 16 and 17, and committed sex offenses against them, was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in state prison, Santa Cruz County District Attorney Jeff Rosell announced.
The parents of Emma Lace Price, the 16-year-old who was found dead of an overdose at Michael James Russell’s Corralitos residence on Nov. 12, 2021 with four different narcotics in her system, have additionally filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Russell and his parents. The case will be heard in March.
Meanwhile, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s investigators are being criticized for not considering Price’s death suspicious at first, and for treating it as merely an overdose.
Investigators discovered that, in the days leading up to her death, she had been getting illegal narcotics from multiple dealers, including Russell.
According to court documents, Russell met Price about a month before her death, and the two began a sexual relationship, which involved him giving Price Percocet laced with Fentanyl. Once she entered an unresponsive state, the lawsuit further alleges he failed to give her the medical attention she needed.
Court documents show that Russell instead called a friend, and removed Price’s clothes and put her in a cold shower. He and the friend then injected her with Narcan, and finally called 911 after 30 minutes.
Still, Rosell said that there was insufficient evidence to hold him responsible for her death.
“This was an incredibly tragic case which has had a devastating impact on (the victim’s) family, her loved ones, and many other concerned members of the community,” Rosell stated in a press release. “While nothing can bring back their daughter, nor does this sentence represent the pain and trauma of their loss, our office hopes this disposition will further protect the public by ensuring a defendant who takes advantage of underage victims is held accountable for his crimes.”
Russell, 24, will have to register as a sex offender upon his release.
BITCHIN BAJAS Chicago psych trio Bitchin Bajas’ Bajascillators might have only four tracks, but each of the 2022 release’s four tunes surpasses the 10-minute mark. Layers of minimalist loops that peak into lush HiFi currents of ecstasy running concurrently. Keys, reed and woodwind instruments percolate, distending and hovering with purpose; this isn’t the music of some kid messing around with a MIDI in the basement. Bajascillators might sound that way at first listen, but the Bitchin Bajas approach is calculated, and every move ensures that listeners will never grow bored. The trio’s magic trick: unleashing epic tracks—one song clocks in at 14 minutes—that feel like they happen super quickly. Cooper Crain, Rob Frye and Dan Quinlivan are creative master mind-effers. That’s not meant to be a negative thing. $20. Wednesday, Feb. 8, 7pm. The Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. folkyeah.com
THE COMING OF AGE OF AMERICAN ART MUSIC: THE BOSTON SIX COMPOSERS The music is stunning—described as “Mendelssohn with an American twist”—ranging from dreamy, alluring and jokey to mighty and intense and the players include local luminary Kate Alm with members of Symphony San Jose. This unique performance will be one of the month’s most impressive live musical performances. $35 plus fees. Thursday, Feb. 9, 7:30pm. Peace United Church, 900 High St., Santa Cruz. distinguishedartists.org
MATT HECKLER WITH JOHNO LEEROY Matt Heckler is “the fiddle player you want to believe still exists. Veering from Appalachia to Romania, Ireland to the Catskills, his music is definitively unsafe and entirely his own.”Meanwhile, Denver-based country/folk singer-songwriter Johno Leeroy opens. He describes himself as a “songwriter, story delivery artist and traveling T-shirt salesman, who crafts modern Americana, country and soul music while paying homage to the traditional roots style of writing and recording.”$16/$19 plus fees. Friday, Feb. 10, 8pm. Felton Music Hall, 6275 Hwy 9, Felton. feltonmusichall.com
LEO KOTTKE Along with John Fahey, Leo Kottke is one of the most influential acoustic guitarists, bringing a unique sound and virtuosic flourishes to the instrument. His propulsive fingerstyle playing heard in his solo instrumental work has cemented his reputation as a true innovator. The two-time Grammy nominee’s inspiration can be found in everyone from Mississippi John Hurt to John Phillip Sousa. Such versatility has translated into collaborations with some of the most talented musicians in the world, including Lyle Lovett and Phish bassist Mike Gordon.Kottke’s 1971 major-label debut, Mudlark, positioned him as a singer-songwriter, despite his own wishes to remain an instrumental performer—in the liner notes to 1972’s 6- and 12-String Guitar, issued on Fahey’s Takoma label, Kottke describes his voice as “geese farts on a muggy day.”$30-45 plus fees. Saturday, Feb. 11, 8pm. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. riotheatre.com
CYRILLE AIMÉE Acclaimed singer Cyrille Aimée is an improvisational wizard. The New York Times called her a “rising star in the galaxy of jazz singers.” The Grammy-nominated vocalist went from busking throughout Europe to dazzling audiences at some of the world’s most prestigious jazz festivals, performing on Broadway and wowing the infamously brutal audiences at the Apollo in New York City. Aimée won the Montreux Jazz Festival Vocal Competition and the Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Vocal Competition and co-starred with Bernadette Peters in a Stephen Sondheim tribute at the renowned City Center in New York. The performance inspired her to dig deeper into Sondheim’s repertoire, resulting in her most recent album, Move On: A Sondheim Adventure. Pianist Sam Hirsh, bassist Max Gerl and drummer Anthony Fung will join Aimée in Santa Cruz. $42/$47.25; $23.50/students. Monday, Feb. 13, 7pm. Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. kuumbwajazz.org
THE FRIGHTS WITH SAD PARK The Frights, an infectious West Coast surf-punk outfit, initially formed as a prank. The “prank” turned out to sound way better than expected, and the outfit found success. Almost despite themselves, moving from the tiny San Diego indie label Postmark Records, which issued their early EPs and their 2013 debut, all the way up to the revered punk label Epitaph, which released their 2018 record Hypochondriac. The Frights’ 2020 Everything Seems Like Yesterday represents the talent of “home studio” singer and guitarist frontman Mikey Carnevale. Originally, Carnevale was going to release everything as a solo album but changed his mind after playing the new material during 2018 shows in San Diego and L.A., back when most of the material was written. If you like bands like FIDLAR, you’ll dig the Frights. Los Angeles emo punk rockers Sad Park—vocalist and guitarist Graham Steele, bassist and backing vocalist Sam Morton and drummer Grant Bubar—released two EPs, Sad Park and Good Start, Bad Endings. In 2018, they released their full-length debut, Sleep, which grew their fanbase exponentially. $25/$30 plus fees. Tuesday, Feb. 14, 8:30pm. The Catalyst Atrium, 1101 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. catalystclub.com
THE LONE BELLOW WITH TALL HEIGHTS “One of the reasons we went with Love Songs for Losers as the album title is that I’ve always seen myself as a loser in love,” the Lone Bellow lead vocalist Zach Williams says. “I’ve never been able to get it completely right, so this is my way of standing on top of the mountain and telling everyone, ‘It’s okay.’ The songs are looking at bad relationships and wonderful relationships and all the in-between, sometimes with a good deal of fun. It’s us just trying to encapsulate the whole gamut of experience that we all go through as human beings.”Love Songs for Losers follows up the group’s 2020 chart-topping Half Moon Light—a critically acclaimed effort that marked their first outing with the National’s Aaron Dessner as producer—which spawned the Triple A radio hits “Count On Me” and “Dried Up River” (both hit No. 1 on the Americana Singles chart). After sketching Losers’ 11 songs in a church, the band spent eight weeks at Roy Orbison’s home on Old Hickory Lake, carefully crafting their most sprawling and varied work. Note: This show has been moved from the Rio Theatre. All tickets purchased for the show will be honored. $30.50/$119 VIP plus fees. Tuesday, Feb. 14, 8pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. folkyeah.com
COMMUNITY
THE CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES DILLER LECTURE WITH GERSHOM GORENBERG: ‘THE SECRET WAR AGAINST THE NAZIS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST‘ At the midpoint of World War II, an Axis army under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was on the brink of conquering the Middle East. Historian Gershom Gorenberg’s War of Shadows reveals the espionage affair that led to the British victory against Rommel at El Alamein—turning the tide of the war and preventing the mass murder of the Jews of Egypt, Palestine and the rest of the Middle East. Gorenberg (Kresge ’76, Religious Studies), an American-born Israeli journalist, covers Middle Eastern politics and the interaction of politics and religion. He is currently a senior correspondent for the American political magazine The American Prospect. Free (Registration required). Wednesday, Feb. 8, 6pm. UCSC Cowell Ranch Hay Barn, 94 Ranch View Road, Santa Cruz. thi.ucsc.edu
Zooming in from his girlfriend’s place in Los Angeles, singer and guitarist Zac Carper of the SoCal punk band FIDLAR explains how the pandemic caused him to go down a dark path. “The pandemic happened, and I went hard,” he says, wearing a black sleeveless T-shirt with the words “I Not Late” emblazoned across the front. “It was one of those things where I could have either got my life together or completely destroyed it. I kind of went the latter.”
Inspired by attending a DMT ceremony in Malibu, Carper implemented his DIY psychedelic therapy on himself with decidedly mixed results. “After that, it just got me into this crazy psychedelic trip,” he continues and laughs. “I started to microdose, but I realized I was just getting high the whole time. I wasn’t doing it right.”
That experience led to Carper writing the new FIDLAR song “Taste the Money,” one of four new songs that will appear on an upcoming EP to be released in March of this year. The song initially comes on like polished pop punk before some thunderous riffs ensue that recall the pummeling punk anthems from their 2013 self-titled debut and lyrics that ask, “am I tripping or is this trip tripping me?”
The confusing period of societal upheaval around the pandemic also led FIDLAR to question its very existence, says drummer Max Kuehn, who is on the same Zoom call from his apartment studio. “What is even a band?” he says he thought after the pandemic caused stages to become silent in 2020. “It was this thing where is music ever going to come back? Is this even a tenable career anymore?”
Carper says that the pandemic temporarily took away FIDLAR’s reason for existence. “All of the stuff for FIDLAR, everything revolves around playing live,” he says. “That’s why we wrote music, to play live shows. When that got taken away, it was like, what do we do now?”
Thankfully Carper, Kuehn and bassist Brandon Schwartzel decided to press on while founding member and guitarist Elvis Kuehn—Max’s brother—had no desire to return to FIDLAR’s frequently grueling tour schedule. “He was like, I am just kind of over it,” Kuehn says. “I feel completely opposite. I want to go and fucking tour again.”
Elvis’ departure left a noticeable absence in the group that FIDLAR has decided to fill with new guitarist Michael Crain—who is in Dead Cross with vocalist Mike Patton among other projects—during their shows. “Michael is playing guitar live because I don’t think Zac could shred and sing at the same time,” Kuehn says.
“I can’t hack it, man!” Carper exclaims.
The other two songs that have been released from the upcoming EP explore the extremes of the band’s sound. “FSU” is a lurching grunge song about substance abuse, while “Sand on the Beach” is a sunny, smirking pop punk nugget. “I think those are our two modes,” Carper says. “It’s kind of yin and yang in that way. I love fucking poppy, really simple shit, but I also love to scream.”
The EP was recorded at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studio and produced by Grammy-winning producer Dave Sardy, who has a dizzying amount of album credits to his name, from LCD Soundsystem to the Who to Oasis. “I think good producers just instill this confidence in the musician and artist,” Carper says of working with Sardy. “I think he nailed that part.”
What is apparent from FIDLAR’s new songs is that they are taking a more straightforward approach than on their last album, 2019’s overstuffed Almost Free. That final offering found the band straying far from their punk rock roots on songs including the Beastie Boys-inspired “Get Off My Rock,” the instrumental title track that employs horns, and most notably, the pop duet “Called You Twice,” where Carper sings with Grammy-nominated vocalist K.Flay. “I know it’s pretty polarizing,” Carper says of Almost Free. “People that really like our first two records don’t like that record, but then it also gained us this new level of fans that don’t really care about the fucking punk rock cred thing.”
Almost Free was more of a studio confection, while the band’s newest songs were written to be played live. “It [the new EP] was all about using the limitations that we have, which in general is where we shine,” Carper says
With the new EP coming out in the spring and a mini tour of 10 West Coast shows kicking off with their performance at The Catalyst on Feb. 17—before a brief run through Australia and New Zealand—FIDLAR are slowly gearing up for their next chapter. “We’re microdosing being in a band now,” Carper says. “We’re microdosing some tours right now. Then we’re going to macrodose.”
FIDLAR (Liily and Reckling opens) performs Friday, Feb. 17, at 9pm. $27 plus fees. The Catalyst, 1101 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. catalystclub.com
Initially, a community member sent me an email recommending we showcase Santa Cruz’s Darco Printing & Paper Store. Yes, the story about the business itself does warrant notoriety: For more than 50 years, it’s remained open when big box chains like Staples began popping up. When online giants, namely Amazon, crashed down, forcing many of those chains, like Office Max, to shutter, Darco kept on keeping on. In the face of the pandemic—the final nail in the coffin for many small business owners—the local office supply operation on Doyle Street pulled through. Most recently, the shop survived a BMW that crashed through its storefront, forcing it to close for over a year while it was repaired.
However, the most impressive detail about Darco and its perpetual survival is its owners, Beverly and Dave Ray. They’ve been happily married for nearly 55 years while running the business together. It’s an inspiring rarity that makes me question the adage, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I think Beverly and Dave lucked out. When they first met, they both knew what they had found. And, to this day, they never take it for granted.
Santa Cruz Burger Week could be considered Valentine’s Day for burger lovers. It’s approaching quickly—Feb. 22-28—so get ready for a bunch of sweet burger giveaways! Also, thanks for showing love for all things local and participating in the Best of Santa Cruz voting.
ADAM JOSEPH | INTERIM EDITOR
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
An uplifting rainbow appears over log-littered Black’s Beach last Sunday. Photograph by Matt Regan.
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GOOD IDEA
If you were in town on New YearThis Valentine’s Day, treat your friend or your lover, or even show yourself some self-love, with a present that’s unique and also benefits flood and storm victims. Watsonville-based glassmaker and Annieglass owner, Annie Morhauser, is donating 20% of online sales to the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County’s disaster relief fund. For those interested in a unique DIY Valentine’s Day gift idea, Annie also offers workshops where participants can decorate 2-5 inch glass hearts with gold and silver permanent markers. annieglass.com
GOOD WORK
Community radio station KSQD (fondly known as K-Squid) has reached its campaign goal of raising $400,000, money that will allow it to triple its audience reach with farther-reaching signals. Once built, K-Squid’s programming will reach a potential audience of 645,000 listeners, including areas of Aptos and Watsonville that currently aren’t serviced. KSQD, run by the nonprofit Natural Bridges Media, brings the community local news, interviews and music programming. Tune in at 89.7 FM.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.”
It has recently come to my attention that there is another layer of sex discrimination happening in our schools.
I’m a mother of a middle schooler. In her peer group, there are athletes as well as cheerleaders. In a conversation about cheering at one of the girl athlete’s games, several students said that the cheerleaders only cheered at boys games. “I’m sorry, what?!” I exclaimed. The expressions on their faces were a mix of resignment, mutual disgust and confusion. It was clear that some of these students have already, at such a young age, learned to accept that “that’s just how it is” that girls are not given equal support.
I was genuinely shocked. I am NOT okay with this. Would you be? I started to ask around. I called the school. I called some other schools. I asked some parents. I spoke to several athletic directors. For middle school and junior high, there was a mix of responses, some of which were inclusive of cheering for both girls and boys sports teams. In high school, this was not the case. I was not given clear answers as to WHY the girl’s teams are not equally represented.
I’m not an investigative journalist: I think one should enthusiastically take this topic on, though, and give it the time and attention it deserves. I am a woman and a parent, and I cannot be alone in my concern and upset that we are sending a message to girls that they don’t deserve the support, encouragement and recognition we give our boy athletes. (And yes, this conversation extends beyond this topic).
Who decides which games and sports are cheered for? Is there a rotation? How many schools participate in inclusion, and how many join in discrimination? Who else is looking at this and asking what messages these decisions send our youth?
I’m genuinely curious to learn more. I was not aware of this disparity until very recently. I don’t want to be a bystander who accepts this is “just the way it’s always been.” We are the ones who decide. Our voices and our choices matter. Our girls matter. I invite you to join this dialogue. Let’s create a shift toward equality in how we support our community’s youth.
Rebecca Hazelton, Nutritionist, Transformational Health & Wellness Coach
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To step through the front door is to fall in love with the bright, tidy paper and printing shop in the center of Doyle Street, wedged between Soquel and Water streets. DARCO was named by and after David Anthony Ray.
You might ask, “Who’s David Anthony Ray?” The quick answer: the guy who’s married to Beverly Ray. The long answer: the guy who’s one of the protagonists in a love story that centers around a local print shop that has been in business for over 50 years. David and Beverly must be doing something right, living and working together for a half-century.
The fans and patrons of this midtown Santa Cruz landmark would agree. DARCO’s clean, spacious showroom is filled with the soft colors of manila envelopes in every possible size; neatly arranged reams of paper stock for printers and computers; various stationery tablets, envelopes packaged by the dozen, legal pads, an assortment of pens and pencils, greeting card stock and sticky pads in neon hues. The main store is a full-service office supply emporium that spans back to anything like Office Depot or Staples. Heaven for paper lovers, DARCO invites serious browsing.
The print shop next door handles special orders—from brochures to business cards to promotional displays; a wide variety, astonishingly low prices and the kind of hands-on assistance that barely exists anywhere else. That’s the secret weapon—customer service.
Dave and Beverly Ray first met at her mother’s summer cabin in Boulder
Creek in 1965. PHOTO: Erin Malsbury
Beverly Ray, whose perennial pageboy now gleams white, totals up orders on her adding machine. At the same time, her husband and co-owner, Dave, consults about your special orders and custom printing needs, wearing a big smile as he looks up every so often, meeting your eyes. Nothing seems to ruffle their feathers or stop them from making sure you’re happy you came by. During their busiest years, the couple had five employees working the front of the store and the printing shop. Business slowed a bit with the internet and the influx of big box chain stores. Now—after Covid quarantines, supply chain issues and most recently, the destruction of their front window and showroom by a wayward BMW—it’s just the two of them.
“We decided to add the CO initials,” Beverly explains. “If we added my initials, it just didn’t have a good ring to it. DARBR.” She has a point. So, DARCO it was, and in the beginning, 51 years ago, the print shop was initially run by Dave and his older brother Don.
“There were lots of print shops back then,” Dave recalls. And while the Rays still have long standing accounts, the work has downsized to accommodate their schedule. And that suits them just fine.
The Rays married in San Francisco right before Dave left for military service. They exchanged hundreds of letters while they were separated.
LOVE STORY
Dave and Beverly met at her mother’s summer cabin in Boulder Creek in 1965. He played guitar for her, a crucial ingredient in their early courtship. The couple married in San Francisco right before Dave left for military service. While separated, letters continued back and forth about the extent of his leave.
That was over 55 years ago, and the Rays continue to redefine togetherness.
After the service, which included a stint in Vietnam in 1968, Dave and his brother came to Santa Cruz to open DARCO while Beverly worked with the Federal Reserve. By the time Don left DARCO for a job at UCSC, Beverly had amassed plenty of business experience and could help run the shop without much oversight. She started as a “tube girl” in the era long before email, sending communications through the pneumatic tubes that typically crisscrossed multi-story office buildings.
“Then I ran the IBM machine balancing out all the department’s accounts and processing the military checks,” Beverly recalls.
She’d come down to help at the print shop on weekends, but in 1972 they decided that she should move to Santa Cruz permanently, and the two of them would run the shop together.
The idea to open a print shop grew organically out of Dave’s boyhood interests.
“I actually had a letterpress print shop when I was 10 years old,” he says. “I set type in the garage.”
Later in his life, Dave attended San Francisco City College, where he studied offset printing.
Adds Dave, “Even now, I do the printing, and she does deliveries.”
“He pays the bills, and I collect the money,” Beverly says playfully. “That’s the DARCO division of labor.”
When he’s not with Beverly or manning the print shop, Dave Ray performs Hawaiian surf-rock with the Island Breeze Band.
THE INCIDENT
Dave still plays guitar. He’s been playing with a Hawaiian surf rock group, the Island Breeze Band, since 1998. Along with Stan Meidinger, Patti Maxine and Stan Parola, the outfit has played everywhere from the Pono Hawaiian Grill to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk—Beverly was even one of the hula dancers for a while.
Dave was up in Santa Rosa for a gig a year and a half ago. On his way home from the show, he swung by the store. The usual quiet stillness of nighttime on Doyle Street was anything but. There were emergency vehicles with flashing lights, orange cones and yellow police tape.
“I knew something wasn’t right,” Dave laughs.
A BMW had plowed through DARCO’s front showroom window.
“I was inside, in the back, when it happened,” Beverly says. “I called 911. They came so quickly, and they were so kind to me. I wanted to stay there until Dave could get back because the store wasn’t secure, with the front window knocked out.”
One of the officers volunteered to stay and keep an eye on the place so Beverly could head home and decompress. She didn’t want to call Dave.
“He was two and a half hours away, and what could he do at that point? I didn’t want to worry him. He had a gig to play,” Beverly says.
Beverly was safe, and someone was watching over the store. Why put a damper on Dave’s performance? It’s that kind of thoughtfulness that has kept the marriage strong.
It took some time following the Beamer mishap, but DARCO reopened; the updates are sleek without being over the top. The place looks and feels like itself, only better.
“We’ve got LED lights,” Beverly says.
Open from Tuesday through Friday, the couple spends their three-day weekends either at their Boulder Creek cabin, inherited from Beverly’s mother, or at a new vacation dwelling they recently purchased on Lake Don Pedro outside of Merced.
They’d survived all the expected—and unexpected—ups and downs of running a small business in a destination beach town, including the earthquake of ’89 and a global pandemic, but an accident in 2021 stopped things for a year and a half of remodeling. The Rays continued to operate a scaled-down business at their printing facility next door while the main store underwent the forced renovation. New ceiling and walls, fresh paint, a beautiful new floor and a spacious front show window, recently finished.
“We made it back,” Beverly grins, face glowing, white hair shining.
For more than 50 years, DARCO has provided Santa Cruz with office supplies of every kind. PHOTO: Erin Malsbury
THE WAY IT IS
“It’s just the two of us now,” Dave explains. “I put up the shelves, and Beverly fills in things the way she wants. She makes those stationary notepads with all the different colors. They’re very popular. Who can resist those colorful ‘Things to do Today’ notepads?’”
“I do the invoices and statements on a computer,” Beverly says, nodding toward the desk in the back of the store. “But everything else I do by hand. Computers just aren’t as reliable. She pats the adding machine that sits firmly alongside the cash register.
Dave has handled printing for over five decades and contends that he’s never bored. And yes, things have changed throughout the years, but not in ways you’d expect—if you’re talking to the Rays.
“Now it takes longer to get the products,” Dave says. “Those big box stores blasted my business. Now it’s just Palace and us. There used to be more choices. Now, things have merged into a few styles and colors. Like with cars.”
Beverly adds, “But there’s nowhere else to buy, just one piece of paper or one envelope.
And that kind of detailing is part of why they can keep their doors open.
“Our success is also due to our customers,” Beverly insists. “Word-of-mouth return customers. We don’t tell people what we have. We ask people, ‘what do you want?’”
After 55 years of marriage, Beverley still treasures every minute she’s with her hubby, Dave.
Crosby, Stills, and Nash plays softly in the background on a recent visit. The Rays just returned from a three-day weekend at their new lakefront property.
“Raking leaves, watching the deer that come to visit,” Beverly grins.
The couple has mastered the pace of a longstanding romance.
“We enjoy doing a lot of things together,” Dave says, beaming at his wife. They nod in agreement.
Does Beverly ever get tired of having Dave around?
“Oh, definitely no,” she insists. “I still have all his letters. Can you imagine? I treasure every minute I’m with him.”
DARCO Printing & Paper Store, 130 Doyle St., Santa Cruz; 831-426-5616.
