There have been hundreds of bad sequels to good films. Most remain a stain on the legacy of the original forever, while a few later develop their own cult followings for one reason or another. But only a handful ever get the kind of genuine cultural redemption that The Karate Kid Part 3 has found thanks to the hit series Cobra Kai.
For those who have not immersed themselves in the “Miyagiverse”—named after Pat Morita’s character Mr. Miyagi, the handyman martial-arts master who trained Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid and its sequels—The Karate Kid Part 3 was released in 1989, five years after the original blockbuster from director John G. Avildsen, and three years after the well-received and successful Karate Kid Part 2. Part 3 basically recycled the plot of the first movie (Avildsen later called it “a horrible imitation of the original”), with vicious Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) enlisting the help of Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffin) and Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan) to try to get revenge on Daniel and Miyagi. Meanwhile, Daniel develops a very platonic friendship with Jessica Andrews—her love-interest angle was changed due to the age of the actress, Robyn Lively, who was 16 during filming. The film landed with a thud, was critically reviled and earned Razzie nominations for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Actor.
And yet, when all of those core characters from Part 3 returned for season 4 and 5 of Cobra Kai, fans loved it. That’s the power of the unique cultural phenomenon that the show has become since it debuted on YouTube Red in 2018, before moving to Netflix. Cobra Kai creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have dug deep into the original films to build the mythology of the Miyagiverse. Macchio, who returned to the role of Daniel for the show, says Part 3 is—to his surprise—a crucial part of that world-building.
“These writers love Karate Kid Part 3,” Macchio tells me in a phone interview. “I debate with them all the time—I still think it’s a bad movie. It is a bad move. But even the shortcomings bear fruit in the future with this franchise, that’s how blessed it’s been. Cobra Kai has its own tone that is probably more similar to what Karate Kid Part 3 was, just with better storytelling. It’s a little broader, you know? Everything has little elements of superhero, if not total superhero.”
Of course, the original film gave us quotes like “Strike hard, strike fast, no mercy,” “Sweep the leg” and “Get him a body bag” (a line which has a darkly ironic payoff in Cobra Kai).
“So it’s still larger than life,” Macchio says. “Miyagi rubs his hands together and fixes all injuries. But that’s wish fulfillment, that’s just great storytelling. But there’s still the groundedness, and the heart, which is peppered throughout Cobra Kai. And that’s a credit to the writers, to not let go of that. It’s really interesting to have a series where you’re going so big, then you have these heart-and-soul moments of fathers and sons and mentorship and bullying and overcoming obstacles and single parenting. And that is what the Karate Kid themes were.”
Besides being the star at its center, Macchio has also become the unofficial historian of the Miyagiverse with his new book Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me, which comes out this week. He proves himself the right person for the job, mixing interesting stories from his four-decade-long history with the franchise with a very clear-eyed view of what has aged well and what hasn’t.
For instance, he expresses how proud he is of the film for being the first mainstream movie to address the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II, and calls learning about that dark chapter in American history “one of the richest experiences I had while making this film.”
His co-star Morita, the son of Japanese immigrants, was incarcerated along with his family at the Gila River camp in Arizona, and the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in California.
What comes through above all else over the course of the book is the warmth and tight bond he feels with the extended Karate Kid family of actors, directors and crew he’s worked with over the years.
“It’s because I look back at it and realize the impact of this little movie from 1984 that struck such a chord, and has continued to be relevant—even, you know, in the late ’90s, the 2000s, they did the SNL sketches and the parodies. It never went away,” says Macchio. “And obviously Cobra Kai, it’s incredible how big it is. It’s tough not to embrace all of that and know that every instrument in the orchestra helped make the music. That’s how I look at it.”
Ralph Macchio will discuss his new book “Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me” in conversation with Steve Palopoli at 7pm on Friday, Oct. 21, at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave. in Santa Cruz. The event is sold out. bookshopsantacruz.com.
With her pioneering work in Feminist Studies over the last 40 years, and her role as a Distinguished Professor Emerita at UCSC, Bettina Aptheker is a famed academic. The title of her latest book, Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s-1990s, might make you think of academia, too, and its focus on institutional analysis and the surveying of eras.
But Aptheker doesn’t think like an academic, and her new book—like its predecessor, the memoir Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech and Became a Feminist Rebel—doesn’t read like an academic book. Because what Aptheker really cares about is telling people’s stories.
Several of the book’s chapters are named for the LGBTQ+ members of the American Communist Party who she spent years researching, and you can feel the connection that Aptheker (herself a closeted Communist for many years) feels to them in her prose, like in the chapter on Harry Hay (subtitled “A Communist, Radical Faerie in a Revolutionary Quest”) where she writes, “I sat in the archives with Harry Hay for weeks. I first ‘met’ him at the ONE Archives in Los Angeles, then in the San Francisco Public Library, where the bulk of his papers are housed, and then in the Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library, where I listened to hours and hours of his oral history on cassette tapes, recorded by gay historian John D’Emilio. I felt myself transported into his life, in ways that deeply resonated with both my understanding of the [Communist] Party, and what seemed to be his sheer joyous open heart.”
This research often led to some unexpected developments, like when a former student of Aptheker’s now working as an archivist at Smith College reached out to her because she knew Aptheker was researching closeted members of the Communist Party (which officially banned gays and lesbians from 1938 to 1991). That’s how Aptheker discovered Elizabeth “Betty” Millard, a queer Communist who wrote the groundbreaking 1948 Marxist-feminist book Woman Against Myth—and has her own chapter in the new book. After finding out it was Millard’s niece Olivia who had donated her aunt’s papers to Smith College, Aptheker tried in vain to find her—and finally gave up.
“And then I get a phone call from Olivia Millard,” Aptheker tells me. “So I answer it—and she lives in Watsonville. She’s an activist, and she was calling to ask me for something that she needed. I’m holding the phone like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ So I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll help you. But listen, your aunt was Betty Millard.’ She says, ‘Oh, yes.’ And I told her about the book I was writing, and she said, ‘Come on over to the house.’ I mean, it’s 20 minutes away. So I went to her house multiple times. And she had saved a lot of material from Betty that she didn’t put in the archive. She said, ‘You can have it. You can do whatever you want with it.’”
The people who inspired Aptheker’s book were her people—and she understood the need for it after what she thought would be a small event in 2010 at NYU, where she was delivering a paper on the subject of gays and lesbians in the Communist Party.
“And all these people showed up,” she says. “I mean, the place was packed; they were all either ex-Communists, Socialists, ex-Socialists, radicals. A lot of them were gay or lesbian. And they started talking. I was standing up at the podium, I was just taking notes. They were talking amongst themselves. This happened, that happened—‘No, no, it was this way.’ They’re arguing, because Communists have to argue. And then they came up to me afterwards and said, ‘This is a book. You have to write the book.’”
Bettina Aptheker will read from and discuss “Communists in Closets” at 7pm on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn at UCSC. Presented by the Humanities Institute at UCSC and Bookshop Santa Cruz, the event is free but space is limited, so register at bookshopsantacruz.com. Masking is required.
Tourists from around the world make visiting Henry Cowell State Park a bucket list item. Locals and travelers alike admire and appreciate the natural beauty of the sprawling meadow, the cool air beneath the towering redwoods, the clover-covered forest floor and the trails that lead throughout the park, which features a 40-acre grove of old-growth redwood trees, including one that’s approximately 277 feet tall, about 16 feet wide and around 1,500 years old.
While the self-guided tour provides insight as to the indefatigability of these trees and the benefits they provide to the fragile Santa Cruz ecosystem, few have studied the history around the park as thoroughly as Traci Bliss, author of Big Basin Redwood Forest: California’s Oldest State Park.
A portion of Bliss’ book is set to come to life on Oct. 21. In partnership with the Mountain Parks Foundation, the Rotary Club of Santa Cruz will present a historical reenactment of Rotary International honoring the ancient redwoods.
Attendees will witness a free performance featuring the 1938 dedication of The Rotary Tree on the Redwood Loop Trail. The event will feature members of four area Rotary clubs: San Lorenzo Valley, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and Sunrise Santa Cruz.
In the reenactment, Assemblymember Mark Stone, an avid environmentalist and 20-year member of Scotts Valley Rotary, will be playing the role of Paul Harris, founder of the Rotary Club in 1905. County Supervisor Bruce McPherson, who has been a member of Santa Cruz Rotary for 40 years, will be playing the role of then-Rotary International President Maurice Duperrey.
Period costumes from the ’20s and ’30s will be worn, and Bliss says there will be a couple of “real life villains” as part of the family-friendly play. Bliss expects the reenactment to last about 45 minutes.
“It’s a very moving story, but there are aspects that are humorous and entertaining,” says Bliss. “It’s the true story of how the park became Henry Cowell Redwoods in the 1950s.”
Bliss’ book, the product of 10 years of research and interviews, focuses on the efforts of women in the early 1900s to preserve the trees at Big Basin, and tangentially at Henry Cowell State Park.
“As I dug deeper into the subject, the story got bigger and bigger and bigger,” Bliss says. “At that time, the old newspapers started to become available online, and I’ve been able to tell the story thanks to digital newspapers and other resources.”
The book outlines the story of women who were part of the San José Women’s Club (SJWC) in California. In 1896, women lost their attempt to get suffrage. That loss spurred a huge statewide network in support of suffrage, and the SJWC came together around the cause of preserving Big Basin.
Santa Cruz County took control of the park land in 1930, and named it Santa Cruz Big Trees County Park. In 1954, an adjacent parcel of land donated by Samuel “Harry” Cowell was combined with the property to create Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park named for Samuel’s father.
Within a few months of its founding, Santa Cruz Rotary led the preservation of our local redwood forests and establishing them as public parks. Subsequently, one of the tallest trees in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, the Giant, was dedicated to Rotary. It stands at about the halfway mark in the Redwood Loop.
Bliss says she’s buoyed by this remarkable story of peoples’ resilient commitment to the common good, unselfishness and refusal to give up.
“These individuals have inspired me in so many ways. They had no playbook; in fact, no one in the United States had ever done this before,” she says. “Their sheer determination, unselfishness and commitment is so inspiring. It’s truly a privilege to write about them.”
‘Rotary to the Rescue’ will be held on Friday, Oct. 21, 11:30am-2pm at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in Felton. Free with $10 parking (RSVP required). bit.ly/3EBjlT8.
Re: “Drawing the Line” (GT, 9/14): As a member of the Committee for Planned Growth and Farmland Protection that is putting Measure Q on the ballot, I want to address some of the claims that have been made against us by certain Watsonville City Council members and others. We have been committed to conducting a positive campaign, and will continue to do so.
Starting in July of 2021, for six months we walked the streets of Watsonville, ringing doorbells and talking face-to-face with over 3000 people. The accusations that our process was undemocratic, racist and driven by special interests do not hold water and are inflammatory. Working hard to put an issue on a ballot that the whole city can vote on is the essence of democracy.
The accusation that we are against growth is equally unsubstantiated. We know that the city needs to grow, and the strength of Measure Q is that it directs the city to concentrate on the many existing opportunities to grow within city limits: over 100 vacant and under-utilized sites are identified on the Housing Element on the city’s website, and their recently released Downtown Specific Plan, created by a community visioning process, cites over 3900 potential housing units in that area alone.
Measure Q, and the original Measure U, allow the city to permit residential development on any property that is beyond the Urban Limit Line if necessary to implement state or federal housing law. This is a safety valve for the city, and should have been adequate to satisfy council members who have been so critical of the proposed measure.
Furthermore, certain council members advocate the need for single-family houses, with yards and driveways in suburban neighborhoods. How realistic is that, with the average price of houses in Watsonville pushing one million dollars, and current single-family houses being snapped up by out-of-towners who need no financing? Advocating that kind of growth does not address the needs of the current citizens of Watsonville who need more housing opportunities.
Protecting Pajaro Valley farmland was the goal of Measure U, passed by a majority of voters in 2002 and reaffirmed in 2013 by city residents rejecting the city-backed Measure T that wanted to convert Riverside Drive farmland into big box stores. Most of us intuitively know that in our moderate coastal climate, the flat, deep farmland surrounding the city is only found in a minute part of the entire world. We can produce food on these productive parcels that simply cannot be done anywhere. The transition to organic agricultural practices in the Pajaro Valley is among the most widespread in the state.
Most of us also commonly hear people lamenting the loss of California’s farms, as urban sprawl slowly devoured San Jose’s Valley of the Heart’s Delight, not to mention Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Can anyone name one place where paving over farmland has solved housing problems, reduced real estate costs or addressed homelessness? And that is the way the loss of farmland and the creep of development happens: individual parcels, piece by piece, and the pressure for more gradually builds, and the fertile ground gets covered with concrete.
Don’t be fooled by the glossy language of Measure S, which promises parks, playgrounds for kids, housing for seniors with disabilities, etc. Those things can be achieved within the limits of Measure Q. Read the language of Measure S: it has a loophole to urban sprawl with “exceptions” that allow the city to break the Urban Limit Line with a single City Council vote.
Measure Q will allow us to go into the future, accommodating our growth needs and protecting our irreplaceable farmlands.
Betty Bobeda
Former Watsonviile Mayor and City Councilmember
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This summer, I heard owners and staff from several local restaurants saying things I didn’t expect about the state of the local dining scene—using words like “busy” and “steady” and just plain “good.” It’s not like everything from this chaotic pandemic era that has thrown restaurateurs for one loop after another was suddenly better—far from it—but it was definitely the most positive outlook I’ve heard in quite a long time.
You can find a lot of that same optimism in Andrew Steingrube’s survey of the chefs, owners and staff participating in Santa Cruz Restaurant Week this year. And you can see how SCRW is a part of that; it’s exciting not only to locals who get an economical way to sample the best our local dining scene has to offer, but also to the people behind that scene, who have the opportunity to showcase their culinary creations for Restaurant Week’s crowds.
As always, our pullout section in this issue will give you all the information you need about how and where to be a part of SCRW, but for the uninitiated, here are the basics: from this Wednesday to next Wednesday, Oct. 19-26, participating restaurants will be offering a prix fixe, three-course menu for $25, $35, $45 or $55 per meal. It’s a chance to indulge in your favorite local dishes, and discover new ones.
Besides all the restauranting I plan to do this week, you can find me at the Rio Theatre on Friday night, in conversation with Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid and Cobra Kai fame, discussing his new book Waxing On (see story on page 16). Hope to see you there!
STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR
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GOOD IDEA
MOUNTAIN NEARING
This Friday, support San Lorenzo Valley residents at the Mountain Affair fundraiser. Sample wines, browse gifts, bid at a silent auction and eat an Italian-style family dinner at Roaring Camp. All proceeds will go to the Mountain Community Resource’s fire recovery and community-support efforts. The event will take place from 5-9pm, and you can buy tickets online at communitybridges.org.
GOOD WORK
WALKING THESE STREETS
Sunday was the 8th annual Open Streets event on West Cliff—and the first one since the pandemic caused the neighborhood favorite to take a hiatus. The event, which closes off West Cliff Drive to cars and welcomes local vendors, food trucks and musicians, brought hundreds of community members together. Want proof? Just watch this video of a local pianist playing the keyboard while being pulled in a wagon by a bicyclist, after the pianist accepted the biker’s invitation to hop aboard and play.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Dining is and always was a great artistic opportunity.”
Just like the changing colors of the leaves, that faint winter’s whisper of cold air and pumpkin flavor being recklessly crammed into anything and everything edible or potable, fall also brings with it a new Santa Cruz Restaurant Week.
Now in its 14th year, SCRW allows diners to try a special prix fixe menu—with options for every course—at participating restaurants from Oct. 19-26. This year, we’ve added a fourth dining tier; you can find meals for $25, $35, $45 and $55 among the array of culinary options. Check out the menus in this issue, and go to santacruzrestaurantweek.com for more info.
GT reached out to chefs, owners and staff at each of this year’s participants to ask them about their upcoming SCRW menus and their views on the state of the local dining in general.
Their answers, and the passion and enthusiasm behind them, make it obvious just how excited the people behind our culinary scene are to be back to work and doing their thing after everything they’ve been through over the last few years. Here’s what they said.
What are you most excited about for Santa Cruz Restaurant Week this year?
“The opportunity to serve new guests and showcase what we do well, and feature our unique housemade items such as the artichoke souffle.”
— Ben Kralj, chef/general manager, Back Nine Grill and Bar
“To present the dishes that are representative of our Southern Italian roots with respect to locally grown ingredients on this year’s menu. Moreover, we happily anticipate serving our Restaurant Week comers with the utmost care.”
— Alma Iuliano, general manager, Cafe Mare
“I’m really excited about the duck confit with roasted Brussels sprouts. It’s the perfect fall dish and a unique treat on our menu.”
— Alisha Dodds, manager, Crow’s Nest
“People learning about the flavors we have to offer. Our smoked white fish and ribeye steak are on different ends of the spectrum, but both offer amazing layers of flavor.”
— Mia Thorn, co-owner, Cruz Kitchen and Taps
“To see new and old faces enjoy a good representation of our cuisine.”
— Manny Rangel, owner, El Jardin
“Just that it’s still happening, and that the price options are more flexible. And I’m happy to see how many restaurants are participating this year.”
— Paul Cocking, owner, Gabriella Café
“Definitely bringing all my regulars back in to enjoy our delicious food that we couldn’t offer during the Covid shutdowns, such as our Hawaiian Fish Soup.”
— Luis Martinez, manager, Hula’s Island Grill
Jack O’Neill Restaurant and Lounge’s fresh-caught seafood meets the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch sustainability standards, and their seasonal produce is sourced from various area farmers.
“That we can showcase some of our new fall dishes like our Gracie [their personal fisherman]-caught halibut and our cauliflower al pastor.”
— Dan Smart, director of sales and marketing, Jack O’Neill Restaurant and Lounge
“Getting our food out there to new customers that may not have come in unless it was Restaurant Week.”
— Will Stout, general manager, Kianti’s Pizza and Pasta Bar
“To see people excited about dining out. I’m really happy to see people supporting the restaurant scene.”
— Patrice Boyle, owner, La Posta
“To have a chance to see more new customers and also old customers coming back to enjoy the experience of the restaurant.”
— Giovanbauttista Spanu, chef/owner, Lago di Como
“We are getting much more inventive with our food and cocktail specials, and Restaurant Week is a great opportunity to try some of these out.”
— Whitney Ayers, manager, Makai Island Kitchen and Groggery
“To have locals come enjoy Capitola Village, rediscover restaurants they love and try new spots.”
— Eleanor Savage, general manager, Margaritaville
“We’re serving a new dish, a Mahi Mahi brochette chargrilled like a kebab and served with rice and a roasted bell pepper cream sauce.”
— Margaux Keiser, manager, Paradise Beach Grille
“Getting a different crowd in. Restaurant Week really accentuates that, and it’s a chance for us to showcase our menu and some new items as well.”
— Vincent Lee, manager, Riva Fish House
A Philly cheese steak with fries at Riva Fish House. PHOTO: Tarmo Hannula
“I’m excited to offer the different options we have like our blackened Mahi Mahi and Guinness bone-in pork chop.”
— Chris Jones, general manager, Rosie McCann’s Irish Pub and Restaurant
“To feature some of our already best-selling items like our spicy chicken sandwich and mushroom pinsa [a Roman-style flatbread].”
— Scott Meyer, general manager, Seabright Social
“To showcase some fall dishes and get people in again during the week. It was a busy summer, but now that kids are back in school, it has slowed down during midweek.”
— Ken Drew, executive chef, Sevy’s Bar and Kitchen
“We see Restaurant Week as an opportunity to keep improving, and to get different people coming in to try us and enjoy our authentic Italian cuisine.”
— Andrea Loporcaro, co-owner, Sugo Italian Pasta Bar
“To have them come in and check us out, and experience what our flavors are all about.”
— Erasmo Garcia, executive chef, The Point Kitchen and Bar
“Personally, I’m excited to experience some new restaurants, and for customers to experience our restaurant, maybe for the first time.”
— Connie Hagston, director of sales and marketing, The View at Chaminade
“To offer our organic menu choices, and bring back some items that guests have wanted back on the menu—really listening to our clients.”
— Eric Taillan, owner, Tramonti
How have you seen the Santa Cruz dining scene change over the last few years?
“With Covid and everything else, I’ve seen many restaurants struggle. Between labor shortages, food costs and new government regulations, it has been challenging.”
— Ben Kralj, chef/general manager, Back Nine Grill and Bar
“We all know Covid was an extreme obstacle to overcome. We endured and thank our loyal and new customers, our hard-working staff, and look forward to the continuation of serving our great community for years to come.”
— Alma Iuliano, general manager, Cafe Mare
Cafe Mare owner Jean Pierre Iuliano uses fresh, local organic ingredients to share “the simple goodness that is Italian cooking.”
“After being limited in the way that the community could celebrate over the last few years, people are extra excited to celebrate good company and good food in larger groups.”
— Alisha Dodds, manager, Crow’s Nest
“After all the industry has been through, everyone in town seems ready to participate in dining out again. And as a newer restaurant, we are excited to be a part of that.”
— Mia Thorn, co-owner, Cruz Kitchen and Taps
“Covid definitely affected the industry by making it stronger, and it also made us enjoy the dining out experience even more.”
— Manny Rangel, owner, El Jardin
“There seems to be more interest in fine dining. This was our busiest year ever, and I know some other fine dining places in town seem to be very busy also.”
— Paul Cocking, owner, Gabriella Café
“Honestly, it’s been a ride for restaurants all over town. Now that we’re almost over Covid, we’re going back to our old days of being a top restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz.”
— Luis Martinez, manager, Hula’s Island Grill
“One thing I’m seeing a lot of is that restaurantgoers are seeking an authentic Santa Cruz dining experience, as well as focusing on locally sourced ingredients.”
— Dan Smart, director of sales and marketing, Jack O’Neill Restaurant and Lounge
“There’s a lot more respect now for those working in our industry, and it’s a more relaxed vibe with regulars and new customers alike.”
— Will Stout, general manager, Kianti’s Pizza and Pasta Bar
“Decimated by Covid, but reviving with a lot of great new energy, ideas and actors. There is great potential right now.”
— Patrice Boyle, owner, La Posta
“After Covid, I’ve seen that people really want to go out more. And also, the Santa Cruz community was really helpful to the restaurant industry during the pandemic.”
— Giovanbauttista Spanu, chef/owner, Lago di Como
“I would say comfort-style dining is coming back, with an emphasis on making guests feel like they are walking into their own home.”
— Whitney Ayers, manager, Makai Island Kitchen and Groggery
La Posta’s Salccicia pizza features housemade sausage, tomato sauce, kale, red onion, mozzarella di bufala and calabrian. PHOTO: Tarmo Hannula
“We’re all very grateful to see a return to normalcy over the last year in the local dining scene. It’s exciting to see tourists return to the beach, and to be able to offer everyone a safe, enjoyable dining experience.”
— Eleanor Savage, general manager, Margaritaville
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs stemming from Covid. We’ve had to get creative and I’ve seen an emphasis on outdoor dining with a focus on aesthetic and making it more inviting.”
— Margaux Keiser, manager, Paradise Beach Grille
“Similar to other places, after Covid we lost a lot of our experienced staff. I feel like the local dining scene is making a comeback and people are feeling safe going out again.”
— Vincent Lee, manager, Riva Fish House
“I’ve only been in Santa Cruz for two months. I’m from Brooklyn, New York, and am happy to be on the West Coast and in a new dining scene and new dining world.”
— Chris Jones, general manager, Rosie McCann’s Irish Pub and Restaurant
“I’ve seen a lot of new concepts coming into town in certain areas, but here in Midtown it has been the long-standing businesses that are still around.”
— Scott Meyer, general manager, Seabright Social
“It’s pretty much getting back to normal; people feel more comfortable going out to dinner again.”
— Ken Drew, executive chef, Sevy’s Bar and Kitchen
“We opened in July 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. We’ve been growing and have gone from two employees to 15 employees, so we’ve only noticed positive changes.”
— Andrea Loporcaro, co-owner, Sugo Italian Pasta Bar
“It has been pretty rough the last couple years, with lots of up and downs. Especially because you can’t expect what we went through, and nobody was prepared.”
— Erasmo Garcia, executive chef, The Point Kitchen and Bar
“The change I’ve seen overall is an increased desire for outdoor dining options as a result of the pandemic.”
— Connie Hagston, director of sales and marketing, The View at Chaminade
“I only invested in the restaurant three months ago, but from what I’ve seen there are more restaurant choices now, and a lot more affluence.”
— Eric Taillan, owner, Tramonti
Where to Go
Back Nine Grill and Bar
555 Hwy 17, Santa Cruz; 831-226-2350
Cafe Mare
740 Front St., Santa Cruz; 831-458-1212
Crow’s Nest
2218 E. Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz; 831-476-4560
Cruz Kitchen and Taps
145 Laurel St., Santa Cruz; 831-713-5173
El Jardin
655 Capitola Road, Santa Cruz; 831-477-9384
Gabriella Cafe
910 Cedar St., Santa Cruz; 831-457-1677
Hula’s Island Grill
221 Cathcart St., Santa Cruz; 831-426-4852
Jack O’Neill Restaurant and Lounge
175 W. Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz; 831-740-8138
Kianti’s Pizza and Pasta Bar
1100 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz; 831-469-4400
La Posta
538 Seabright Ave., Santa Cruz; 831-457-2782
Lago di Como Ristorante
21490 E. Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz; 831-454-8257
Makai Island Kitchen and Groggery
49A Municipal Wharf, Santa Cruz; 831-466-9766
Margaritaville
231 Esplanade, Capitola; 831-476-2273
Margaritaville GM Eleanor Savage says it’s been great to see diners rediscover old favorites.
Siri Rodoni polishes out remnants of dirt on one of her pumpkins and adjusts her table to hide the white parking lines on the pavement below.
It’s Wednesday morning, and Rodoni is one of the dozen or so farmers arranging vegetables and produce on tables in an empty parking lot, preparing for the rush of the tote-bag-carrying shoppers who will show up in a few hours.
Every Wednesday for the past 15 years, Rodoni Farms has been selling products at Santa Cruz’s downtown farmers market, located in a parking lot known as Lot 4 on Cedar Street. For six days a week, the nondescript blacktop is used for parking, but on Wednesdays, it transforms into a bustling space for vendors to sell their products.
Recently, the future of the unassuming lot has been catapulted into the local political spotlight, and is at the center of a debate that touches on two sensitive issues in Santa Cruz: affordable housing and community priorities.
The City of Santa Cruz plans to repurpose the lot to make way for a new library, a child care center, a parking garage with 243 spaces and an apartment complex with 124 units of housing, the majority of which will be set aside for low-income residents. The eight-story development known as the Mixed-Use Library Project has been in the works since 2016, and the city says it can break ground as early as 2024 if plans are approved by the City Council in December.
But the group Our Downtown, Our Future has taken aim at these plans via Measure O, which proposes different ways to achieve a new library and more affordable housing—ways that don’t involve a new parking garage or moving the downtown farmers market.
Rick Longinotti, one of the major proponents of Measure O, says that the city’s current vision for Lot 4 is shortsighted, and perpetuates local dependence on cars, even as California lawmakers are taking an increasingly stronger stance against creating new parking space. And, he adds, there is no indication that Santa Cruz residents want the farmers market to move, or that they thought their “Yes” vote on Measure S—a $67 million ballot measure approved by voters in 2016 to upgrade the Santa Cruz Public Libraries system—would produce the towering downtown development.
“I think [the city] is hiding the ball—I think they’re hiding the truth,” Longinotti says.
If Measure O is approved, Santa Cruz’s General Plan and Downtown Plan will be amended to keep the downtown library and farmers market in their current locations. The measure would also outlaw the construction of above-ground parking structures on various city-owned lots, which would instead be prioritized for affordable housing production. Importantly, says Longinotti as we stroll through downtown Santa Cruz on a sunny Monday afternoon, this includes Lot 4—Measure O authorizes, but does not require, the development of affordable housing there.
“It’s wrong to say that we’re not for affordable housing—we want affordable housing,” Longinotti says as we reach the corner of Lincoln and Cedar streets, “but [Lot 4] is an ideal spot for a public plaza.”
A few weeks earlier, standing in Lot 4 as the farmers market sets up for the day, former Santa Cruz Mayor Don Lane shakes his head in disbelief at the statement that Longinotti and other Measure O supporters are for affordable housing.
“It makes me crazy to think about that,” Lane says. “We’re making a parking lot and 120 affordable housing apartments with this project, and [Measure O] says they want affordable housing, but they’re stopping us. Measure O would literally stop hundreds of affordable housing units. How is that pro-affordable housing?”
Lane is part of a long list of former and current local politicians—and more than a few librarians—who support the mixed-use library project. They say the affordable housing units, desperately needed in a city recently named the second-most expensive rental market in the country, make the project worthwhile. And they add that the community has had its chance to mold the project through numerous public input workshops.
Yes, there’s a parking garage, Lane says, but it will replace the parking spots currently lost to other projects being built out around the city. And while the farmers market will move, Lane thinks the ongoing discussions between city officials and the farmers market association are the right way to give it a new permanent home.
“[Measure O] has preempted the farmers market itself,” Lane says. “They want the market to be where they want it, end of story.”
Parking and People
A small smile creeps onto Longinotti’s face when he talks about the city’s initial development plans for Lot 4. Back in 2016, the first draft of the new library only included a 640-space parking garage, and he points out that Lane, now the co-chair of affordable housing think tank Housing Santa Cruz County, voted in favor of that project. The omission of housing units and a childcare facility at the onset of the project, Longinotti says, should serve as solid evidence of the project’s true aim.
“It’s about parking,” he says. “It always has been.”
Longinotti accuses the city of “burying” a $100,000 parking study that concluded there was no need for a parking structure. That study, conducted by Nelson/Nygaard, found that there was more than enough parking downtown, but that the city needed to better manage its lots. It was never publicly presented to the City Council after it was published in 2019, Longinotti says.
He questions why the city would elect to use parking revenue funds to build more parking rather than use that money to support affordable housing production. That’s why Measure O also amends the general plan to prioritize surplus parking revenue from the Downtown Parking District for, among other things, the development of affordable housing on the smaller parking lots scattered across the corridor, as identified in the measure.
The question before voters, he says, is simple: “Would you rather spend public money on parking or housing?”
But downtown has changed dramatically since 2019, and with various housing and hotel projects in the pipeline chewing up other parking lots across the corridor, the outlook for public parking could be very different in just a few years, or months.
Just across the street from Lot 4, the old Calvary Church parking lot was recently fenced off as work on a 65-unit affordable housing complex began. And a few blocks over on Front Street, a handful of projects that will bring hundreds of housing units to Santa Cruz have broken ground or are on the verge of doing so. In addition, the City is in the midst of possibly adding another 1,800 units just south of Laurel Street through its Downtown Plan Expansion project.
The forthcoming construction and a new bill that does away with parking minimums on building projects, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom a month ago, will put a squeeze on parking, Lane says. The loss of the Cavalry Church parking lot is already being felt, he says, gesturing toward the streets that are already lined with cars two hours before the start of the farmers market.
Over the past four years, 230 public parking spaces have been lost downtown to make room for the seven new affordable housing projects that have been authorized. The city forfeited another 61 spaces for outdoor dining.
The campaign against Measure O says Longinotti is only telling half the story. While the Nelson/Nygaard study points to poor management, it also recommends creating a new parking supply as the city fulfills other steps laid out in the report—key among them, downtown affordable housing projects. The report concludes that once affordable housing projects downtown implement off-site parking, there will be a need for more spaces.
“Measure O is just repeating their same arguments, even as they fall apart,” says Lane. “It gets knocked down, and they repeat it anyway.”
Nor is he impressed with the measure’s suggestion of other sites for affordable housing.
“You can’t just point to a lot and say affordable housing can go there,” he says.
There are nine city-owned lots that the ballot measure suggests as potential sites for housing projects. According to real estate consulting firm Keyser Martin, which the city hired to examine the viability of the lots the measure put forward, there are only three that could realistically be used for housing projects; the other suggested lots were found to be too small.
In line with city regulations, these lots are already available for city use as affordable housing sites. In fact, the ballot measure’s stipulation that above-ground parking would be eliminated would actually reduce the chances for developing on these lots, according to the Keyser Martin report.
Whether a lot can be transformed into affordable housing is only one small piece of the puzzle, says Lane. It then takes several years to compile funding from various sources and to get enough public agencies on board to see the project to completion. So while the mixed-use library project still needs to secure more than $120 million for the housing portion of the project alone, according to a report to the City Council in September, scrapping it would likely mean the city will have to go through another multi-year community visioning process just to get back to this point.
“They would basically say, ‘Let’s throw this project away and start from scratch somewhere else?’ That’s crazy,” says Lane. “That’s many years of delay, and no guarantee that it even has a good outcome.”
But Longinotti says that the opposition’s bird-in-the-hand argument is nullified because the Parking District is at a deficit, meaning the city won’t be able to finance or issue bonds for the parking garage until it is in good financial condition. It could be several years before this happens, Longinotti says.
“And there’s no guarantee that ever happens,” he adds.
Santa Cruz’s interim spokesperson Eileen Cross tells GT that the Measure O campaign’s claims about the Parking District’s financials are misleading. The district did, indeed, see revenues dip over the past two years, but Cross says this is because the city made the “intentional policy choice” to lower parking rates in downtown to aid businesses during the pandemic.
Cross says revenues have begun to bounce back as pandemic restrictions have waned, and that the city expects to “secure either bond or secure direct financing to complete construction.”
Market Watch
Earlier this month, as voters were starting to receive their ballots, Lookout Santa Cruz reported that city officials and the Santa Cruz Community Farmers Market Board were honing in on an agreement for a permanent location for the downtown market—eyeng Lot 7, at the corner of Cathcart and Front streets, as the primary contender.
But Friday, just weeks before the election, the city and the market announced that, after five years of discussions, a site for the market to call home is still up in the air.
According to a press release from the city, the farmers market unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the city to find the market a permanent home. The city also announced that it has approved more than $1.7 million to fund the construction of a physical structure for the market. A MOU is not legally binding, however, and Lot 7 has not officially been chosen as a new site.
Representatives for the market have said at City Council meetings that they are open to moving locations, and support the library project. But what some vendors have to say is slightly different.
Three of the vendors selling products at the market told GT that even if they supported the project, they were hesitant to support the move. The issue has become so divisive that two farmers declined to talk about it.
Rodoni, who also sells at farmers markets in Felton and Scotts Valley, says the location of the downtown market is not ideal. The downtown location caters less to families, which she says makes the market less community-oriented—and generally worse for business. Meanwhile, parking in downtown Santa Cruz is its own logistical problem. Some days, Rodoni has to park a few blocks away.
Even though she supports the library project, she is aware of the costs that moving the market’s location will have on her own business, based on past experiences. The Scotts Valley farmers market has moved three times since she first started selling.
“Every time you move, it takes away from our income, because it’s hard to get customers to know about the new location,” says Rodoni.
But the farmers market customers that GT spoke with said regardless of the location, they would continue to come out and support the market.
As Jackson Sales, a newcomer to the market, waits in the line at the Rodoni Farms stand, he says he comes to the market because he wants to support local farmers and buy his produce from the source—and that won’t change just because the market moves.
“It’s these people who make the farmers market,” Sales says, motioning to the various vendors passing vegetables and flowers to customers. “It’s not the parking lot.”
A former Cabrillo College baseball coach who filed to run for a seat on the school’s Governing Board weeks after he was fired by its trustees has dropped out of the upcoming Nov. 8 election.
The decision, fired coach Bob Kittle tells GT via email, came days after he was notified by Cabrillo administrators that this publication had filed a public records request to obtain the termination letter the school sent to him, and the results of Cabrillo’s investigation into his conduct.
Kittle, a longtime figure in Santa Cruz County’s baseball and sports landscape, also informed GT that on Oct. 14 he filed an injunction in Santa Cruz County Superior Court to stop Cabrillo from releasing the documents.
In the filing obtained by GT, Kittle claims that Cabrillo “wrongfully and unlawfully” began the process of releasing confidential files, an act that would cause “irreparable personal and professional damage … for no benefit other than for requestor’s personal professional gain.”
The injunction was granted, and a judge is set to hear the case on Jan. 10.
It is unclear what led to Kittle’s ouster. Cabrillo President Matt Wetstein says that he cannot comment on the college’s decision to terminate Kittle’s employment at a June 13 Governing Board meeting.
“We do not comment on personnel matters,” Wetstein says, adding that they’ll await the order from the judge as to whether or not the school can release the records requested by GT.
Kittle was running against Trustee Adam Spickler for Area II—which encompasses portions of Live Oak and the Eastside of Santa Cruz—in next month’s election, but he told GT that on Oct. 12, five days after administrators told him the public records request was being processed, he contacted his opponent via email to tell him he was withdrawing from the race.
Because his name will still be on the ballot for Area II voters, Kittle told Spickler that if he wins the election he will “resign immediately and/or never assume office (whatever the official act requires).”
Kittle did not answer questions about his dismissal or his decision to run for the Governing Board before press time Tuesday.
Typically, personnel records are not disclosed under the California Public Records Act unless the public interest in disclosing those documents outweighs the private interest in withholding them.
Wetstein says the school’s legal counsel found precedent to approve GT’s request because Kittle had become a public figure by entering the election. Now a judge will have the final say on whether the release of those documents is still in the public’s interest.
Spickler became the first transgender man to hold elected office in California when he was appointed to the Governing Board in 2018 and has since made a name for himself in Santa Cruz County politics—he was one of the strongest voices against Measure D in the June primary and he sits on various regional boards.
Even before Kittle’s recent move, Spickler was considered the favorite heading to November after securing dozens of key endorsements, including the Cabrillo College Federation of Teachers.
He tells GT that Kittle’s decision to bow out of the election is not surprising when considering the public records request into his firing. Spickler says he cannot elaborate further about the matter but adds that Kittle’s departure from the race does not change much for his campaign.
“I mean this genuinely: I feel I’m the best candidate for this seat, for Cabrillo College, for moving the college forward, for supporting students, faculty and staff,” Spickler says. “Regardless of what the story might be behind [Kittle’s] lack of employment with the college and decision to run, what’s always been true for the staff and faculty of Cabrillo who have endorsed me is that I should be re-elected, regardless of what’s going on with Mr. Kittle.”
Before Kittle took the reins at Cabrillo, he guided the Santa Cruz High School team through one of its best 13-year stretches in the program’s storied history. Between 1997-2009, the Cardinals won eight league titles, and had three appearances in the section championship, winning one. Impressively, 47 players went on to play college baseball, with a dozen earning NCAA Division I scholarships.
At Cabrillo, he paced the Seahawks to three conference titles and helped them advance to the prestigious super regional round of the state championship on five occasions. Under his leadership, the school became a popular stop for raw players looking to catapult themselves into a four-year program. He also sent a handful of players to the major leagues.
Kittle, who is listed as a physical education teacher at Santa Cruz High, in 2018 was named the commissioner of the county’s high school athletics league, the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League. He took over at a time in which the league had seen an exodus of schools as competitive balance in several sports tilted too far in other directions. Several media outlets reported that it was Kittle’s job to “save” the league from going under.
The league’s president, Harbor High School Principal Tracey Runeare, says the SCCAL’s Board of Managers was not notified by Cabrillo that Kittle had been let go. She says she cannot comment on whether the league will conduct its own investigation into Kittle’s firing.
More than 300 workers for the City of Santa Cruz on Monday morning amassed in front of City Hall, the Santa Cruz Wharf, the wastewater treatment facility and the Corporation Yard, marking the first time in the city’s history its workers have gone on strike.
The unfair-labor-practices strike means that garbage will not be collected in the city. Parking services are stalled and the landfill and city recycling centers are closed. Additionally, all libraries are shuttered except for the Capitola and Scotts Valley branches. Most city services were closed Monday, as were many city parks. Essential services such as police, fire, water and sewer continue.
Contract negotiations have been ongoing since early this year.
Santa Cruz City Manager Matt Huffaker said on Monday that the City and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521 had agreed to use a state mediator, and a meeting was scheduled for later in the day.
“The City is eager to continue working towards an agreement as soon as possible,” he said.
The workers—represented by SEIU—on Oct. 4 rejected the City’s offer last week of a 12% raise over three years and a one-time $1,100 payment, saying it did not address the rising cost of living.
“We’re asking for fairness, that’s all,” said parking services worker Gabriella Salinas-Holz. “For them to deal with us fairly.”
The union says that the proposed level of pay does not attract new employees, or retain current ones, meaning the offer would not improve numerous vacancies or unsafe working conditions.
No union members would say what specific amount they would consider a fair offer from the city.
Jonna Hubling, who works in parking services, accused the city of a hardline approach during contract talks.
“They don’t negotiate,” she said. “They pay for high-priced lawyers to come in and say, ‘This is it.’”
The workers also accuse the city of union-busting, saying that they were not allowed to wear pro-union clothes or put informational signs in their work areas.
Huffaker said that is not true.
“The city respects the union’s right to self-expression, including their right to strike,” he said in a prepared statement.
The city allows employees to post union signs in their workplace as well as on their uniforms, Huffaker added, although posting of any non-city signage on vehicles is prohibited.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” Aries mythologist Joseph Campbell said that, and now I’m passing it on to you just in time for the Sacred Surrender Phase of your astrological cycle. Make sage use of Campbell’s wisdom, Aries! You will generate good fortune for yourself as you work to release expectations that may be interfering with the arrival of new stories and adventures. Be brave, my dear, as you relinquish outdated attachments and shed defunct hopes.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes before being discarded. Then they languish in our soil or oceans, degrading slowly as they cause mayhem for animals and ecosystems. In alignment with current cosmic rhythms, I’m encouraging you to be extra discerning in your relationship with plastic bags—as well as with all other unproductive, impractical, wasteful things and people. In the coming weeks, you will thrive by focusing on what will serve you with high integrity for a long time.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Achilleas Frangakis is a professor of electron microscopy. He studies the biochemistry of cells. In one of his research projects, he investigated how cells interact with the outside world. He didn’t learn much about that question, but as he experimented, he inadvertently uncovered fascinating new information about another subject: how cells interact with each other when they heal a wound. His “successful failure” was an example of what scientists sometimes do: They miss what they looked for, but find unexpected data and make serendipitous discoveries. I suspect you will experience comparable luck sometime soon, Gemini. Be alert for goodies you weren’t in quest of.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Renowned Brazilian novelist Osman Lins was born under the sign of Cancer the Crab. He wrote, “I will now live my life with the inventiveness of an engineer who drives his locomotive off the tracks. No more beaten paths: improvisation is the rule.” In the coming weeks, I am all in favor of you, my fellow Cancerian, being an inventive adventurer who improvises liberally and departs from well-worn routes. However, I don’t recommend you do the equivalent of running your train off the tracks. Let’s instead imagine you as piloting a four-wheel-drive, all-terrain vehicle. Go off-road to explore. Improvise enthusiastically as you reconnoiter the unknown. But do so with scrupulous attention to what’s healthy and inspiring.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In recent years, art historians have recovered numerous masterpieces that had been missing for years. They include a sculpture by Bernini, a sketch by Picasso, a drawing by Albrecht Dürer and a painting by Titian. I’m a big fan of efforts like these: searching for and finding lost treasures. And I think you should make that a fun project in the coming weeks. Are there any beautiful creations that have been lost or forgotten? Useful resources that have been neglected? Wild truths that have been buried or underestimated? In accordance with astrological potentials, I hope you will explore such possibilities.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The most important experience for you to seek in the coming months is to be seen and respected for who you really are. Who are the allies best able to give you that blessing? Make vigorous efforts to keep them close and treat them well. To inspire your mission, I offer you three quotes. 1. Franz Kafka said, “All the love in the world is useless if there is a total lack of understanding.” 2. Anais Nin wrote, “I don’t want worship. I want understanding.” 3. George Orwell: “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libra poet Wallace Stevens said that the great poems of heaven and hell have already been written, and now it is time to generate the great poems of earth. I’d love to invite all Libras, including non-writers, to apply that perspective in their own sphere. Just forget about heaven and hell for now. Turn your attention away from perfection and fantasylands and lofty heights. Disregard pathologies and muck and misery. Instead, explore and celebrate the precious mysteries of the world as it is. Be a connoisseur of the beauty and small miracles embedded in life’s little details. Find glory in the routine.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Here are two top Scorpio pastimes: 1. exploring and deploying your intense, fertile creativity; 2. spiraling gleefully down into deep dark voids in pursuit of deep dark riches. Sometimes those two hobbies dovetail quite well; you can satisfy both pursuits simultaneously. One of my favorite variations on this scenario is when the deep dark void you leap into turns out to actually be a lush wonderland that stimulates your intense, fertile creativity. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, that’s likely to happen soon.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I don’t want to be made pacified or made comfortable. I like stuff that gets your adrenaline going.” Sagittarian filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow said that. With the help of this attitude, she became the first woman ever to win an Academy Award for Best Director. Her film was The Hurt Locker, about American soldiers in Iraq who dispose of unexploded bombs while being harassed by enemies. Anyway, Bigelow’s approach is usually too hard-ass for me. I’m a sensitive Cancer the Crab, not a bold Sagittarius the Centaur like Bigelow and you. But I don’t want to assume you’re in the mood for her approach. If you are, though, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to deploy it. Some marvelous epiphanies and healing changes will be available if you forswear stuff that makes you pacified or comfortable.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Author Jan Richardson tells us we can’t return home by taking the same route we used when we departed. This will be wise advice for you to keep in mind during the next nine months. I expect you will be attempting at least two kinds of homecomings. For best results, plan to travel by different routes than those that might seem natural and obvious. The most direct path—the successful passage—may be circuitous.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the coming days, maintain strict boundaries between yourself and anyone or anything that’s not healthy for you. Be ultra-discerning as you decide which influences you will allow to affect you and which you won’t. And rather than getting sour and tense as you do this, I recommend you proceed with wicked humor and sly irony. Here are three saucy self-protective statements you can use to ward off threats and remain inviolable. 1. “The current ambiance does not align sweetly with my vital soul energy; I must go track down some more harmonious karma.” 2. “This atmosphere is out of sync with my deep precious selfness; I am compelled to take my deep precious selfness elsewhere.” 3. “The undertones here are agitating my undercurrents; it behooves me to track down groovier overtones.”
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): While asleep, have you ever dreamt of discovering new rooms in a house or other building you know well? I bet you will have at least one such dream soon. What does it mean? It suggests you want and need to get in touch with parts of yourself that have been dormant or unavailable. You may uncover evocative secrets about your past and present that had been unknown to you. You will learn about new resources you can access and provocative possibilities you had never imagined.
Homework: What do you do pretty well that you could ultimately learn to do with brilliance and mastery? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
