Two stories in this week’s issue demonstrate how prejudice can influence policy. First, Tony Nuñez’s cover story digs deep into the story of how housing for farmworkers in Santa Cruz County—and beyond—has been poorly conceived, and continually misunderstood. Most people may never think about it beyond the occasional news story they see when overcrowded housing and other poor living conditions are exposed. But there’s so much more to those stories. How did those conditions come about? And most importantly, who are the people who have to live with those conditions? What would actually improve their situations? This week’s cover story provides some remarkable insight into how we can do better at improving the lives of some integral members of our community.
Meanwhile, Mat Weir’s piece on a new queer reading list put together by members of the LGBTQ+ community and their supporters is an example of how Santa Cruz can pull together some of the most impactful social action around. While other communities are cowering in fear at the thought of kids actually being accepted for who they are, this reading list is the positive, morally steadfast flip-side to the conservative “challenges” to (read: attempts to ban) LGBTQ+-friendly books. Let’s stop pretending like kids don’t have the ability to understand and define who they are, and give them the knowledge they need to explore their identities.
STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR
ONLINE COMMENTS
RE: CORE Funding
Supervisor Coonerty is wrong.
CORE did not prioritize matching fund programs that bring outside state/federal dollars into the county. Hundreds of thousands of outside dollars are being denied. The process and results are only “fair” if you are a bureaucrat using process to protect yourself from criticism. If you are a resident seeking services, CORE just cost many of you the opportunity to receive help because they are turning down outside funds. It’s madness.
Also, the County and City underfunded CORE to begin with, setting up this gross fight amongst nonprofits. The missing money is being spent on office upgrades to one floor of a county building.
—Kriss
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WESTSIDE JENGA Construction on West Cliff Drive. Photograph by Madeline Adamczeski.
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GOOD IDEA
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
Groove, grub and gather in support of an amazing community resource this weekend during the Baila Y Brunch event. Positive Discipline Community Resources is celebrating its second annual Baila Y Brunch, an event where families can join in on guided dance lessons after an outdoor brunch on the beautiful Pinto Lake in Watsonville. All proceeds from the brunch will support the free bilingual programs that Positive Discipline has brought to more than 600 families. Learn more at: www.pdcrcc.org.
GOOD WORK
GOLD DIGGING
Last week, community leaders, shovels in hand, officially broke ground on the new Aptos Branch Library site. The new library will be reconstructed to the tune of $12.4 million, thanks to funds from Measure S. The updated library will feature solar panels, skylights and drought resistant gardens. At the “golden shovel” event, where the shovels hit ground following the previous building’s demolition, local Supervisor Zach Friend, Library Director Yolande Wilburn and others were there to cheer the construction team on.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.”
As I approach Ernestina Solorio’s home in downtown Watsonville, I see a weathered, gray La-Z-Boy on a small porch, and a worn trampoline on the front lawn. There are some action figures and other small trinkets on the recliner, and a busted-up scooter next to it. I ring the doorbell and immediately hear a tiny bark behind the door. I can hear Solorio tell a dog “estate quieto”—calm down—from behind the door before she opens up.
She greets me with a loud “buenas tardes” as her little Pomeranian mix barks away by her feet. I chuckle at the diminutive pooch as we shake hands, and I ask her what his name is.
“Danger,” she says through a thick Mexican accent.
“Oh, como peligro?” I ask as my chuckle grows into a full laugh.
She laughs and confirms, saying that her kids gave him the name 15 years ago when they first got him.
“Lo que quieran mis hijos,” she says—whatever my kids want.
Her home is exactly as I imagined. There’s a washing machine in the corner of the living room behind a couch, and religious decorations are scattered throughout—crosses, sculptures and half-spent candles line the walls. Two large bouquets punctuated by dazzling red roses sit on the mantle of an unpainted red brick fireplace surrounded by candles. One burns away underneath a portrait of a man I later find out is Solorio’s husband. The similarities to my childhood home just blocks away are uncanny, and the nostalgia is heavy.
As we sit down on couches covered with thick, plush blankets, she immediately begins to apologize for pushing our meeting from the previous week. She says that recently, life has been kicking her while she’s down, and it’s been difficult to keep up with appointments. She pulls out her planner and flips through dozens of pages filled with notes and dates that carry her through the next two months. She’s not technologically savvy, she says, but that doesn’t give her an excuse to be unorganized. With four kids to look after, she can’t afford to be unorganized, she adds, before pointing to a set of used planners from months past hidden at the side of her couch.
“I’ve lived a very hard life,” she says in Spanish. “But things are even harder now.”
Solorio moved to the U.S. from Michoacán, Mexico in 1993. She was the youngest of four siblings. Her family had a roof over their heads, but they slept on the floor. She had dreams of making enough money in the U.S. to build her mom a house back in Mexico. But she fell in love with a man from Jalisco, Mexico shortly after she arrived in Watsonville, and they got married in 1996. They had four kids together, who are now 24, 20, 15 and 11—the latter of whom joins us for a spell during our interview and says hi before scurrying away with Danger.
Solorio’s story, in many ways, runs parallel with my abuelito’s journey. Through the Bracero program—an agreement struck between the U.S. and Mexican governments in 1942 that allowed Mexican men to legally cross the border to work in the U.S. on short-term labor contracts—my abuelito voyaged north with the sole purpose of helping his family back in Cueramaro, Guanajuato, Mexico. He worked in the fields picking berries. The way he talks about those days in conversations, he never imagined that he’d lay down roots in this country—2,000 miles away from his original home—but he quickly realized that if he wanted to support his growing family, he would have to stay here. My abuelita eventually joined him in the U.S., and together they had 10 kids—the majority of whom still live here.
But this is where our families’ stories deviate. My abuelito was able to buy a house, and my abuelita could stay home to raise the kids. And when those kids got old enough—10 or 11, give or take—my tias stepped in as second and third mothers for their younger siblings. They stayed out of trouble because they had a support system at home that corrected their course whenever they strayed.
This wasn’t the case for Solorio’s family. For much of her 26 years in the U.S., Solorio has had to be the breadwinner. She was picking berries deep into three of her pregnancies to make sure her kids had a roof over their heads, and an opportunity to focus on school. Her husband was deported back to Mexico several years ago, putting even more responsibility on her shoulders. Just a few weeks before our interview, her husband had died after battling years of health issues related to alcoholism. Solorio couldn’t attend the funeral—she’s on a work visa that does not allow her to leave the country—but three of her kids, all of them U.S. citizens, did.
Her eldest kid has sporadic debilitating mental health issues as a result of multiple car crashes. The 15-year-old and 11-year-old are both dealing with learning disabilities—the former, Solorio says, is being transferred from the local school district to a specialized program over the hill in San Jose.
She looks off to the ceiling—thanking God that she’s still alive and that her kids are with her before voicing her grief—and wonders aloud whether the pesticides she inhaled while pregnant had any impact on her children’s development. She’s asked doctors about this, but none have taken the question as seriously as she’d like. Her eyes begin to well up with tears, and even though she’s wearing a mask, I can see her lip quiver underneath it.
“You learn about all of this now, and it’s difficult to deal with,” she says in Spanish. “My life hasn’t gone the way I wanted it to, but I have to keep going.”
Close to Home
There is an unspoken trade-off that comes with being a farmworker in the U.S. They are expected to sacrifice their bodies and well-being toiling away on the fields, and, in exchange, they receive a fleeting chance to provide education and opportunity for their kids. And while there are several stories that end like my abuelito’s—fostering a big family that progresses from farmworker to blue-collar worker to white-collar worker from generation to generation—there are thousands of others that take Solorio’s path.
This has long been well-known in Watsonville, the Pajaro Valley and around the Central Coast. But it wasn’t until recently that the conditions many farmworkers deal with gained notoriety throughout the country. When many of us were sheltered in our homes in the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic, farmworkers did not have the same privilege. They went to work during a time in which the world knew very little about how Covid spread.
The San Andreas Community on San Andreas Road in Watsonville provides affordable housing for farmworker families. PHOTO: TARMO HANNULA
“The Central Valley, Imperial Valley, our own valley, they became hotspots because these are families that couldn’t avoid exposure to Covid-19 because of the work they do, but then after work, going home to these overcrowded living conditions. It’s inhumane,” said 30th District Assemblyman Robert Rivas. “I’m so glad those news outlets reported on this, because it really brought to light that in a state like California, the fifth-largest economy in the world, no one should be living like farmworkers live in this state—and we’ve got to do better.”
In retrospect, says Rivas, who represents the Salinas and Pajaro valleys as well as San Benito County and Gilroy and Morgan Hill, the media exposure is one of the tragic but important silver linings of the pandemic. A product of modest farmworker housing in the tiny town of Paicines near Hollister, Rivas says that he and many who grew up on the Central Coast know all too well about the conditions that farmworkers face. But, he adds, for many across the country, the reporting during the pandemic served as a dose of reality.
“I think that there’s been a lack of understanding, and I think that has changed,” Rivas says. “There has been so much more focus than has been the case in the past on the work farmworkers do, and I think that has helped increase awareness and generate a better understanding of the crisis we know exists in regions such as our own.”
A 2018 landmark farmworker housing study of the Salinas and Pajaro valleys spearheaded by the City of Salinas found that many farmworkers live in crowded, unsafe and deteriorating housing because of low wages and the seasonal nature of their work. Families of eight live in a room designed for one. Seasonal workers rent corners of living rooms and hallways. And these cramped homes were reportedly littered with mold, insects and rodents, as well as broken-down bathrooms, kitchens, roofs and plumbing. The study also set goals and an action plan on how to solve the problem. The loftiest goal on the list: create roughly 5,300 permanent, affordable farmworker housing units in the Pajaro and Salinas valleys over five years.
The region has not made significant progress toward meeting that goal, yet Rafael Hernandez says that there are still misconceptions about the state of farmworker housing that trick the general public into believing that there is significant progress being made.
Hernandez is a housing program associate for Monterey Bay Economic Partnership (MBEP), a nonprofit coalition between the public, private and civic sectors in Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties. In that role, he serves as a conduit who guides housing projects—primarily affordable, nonprofit-led developments—from concept to creation. He says that although there have been some good-sized projects that have been constructed over the past few years—the majority of them in Monterey County—many of them do not address the root cause of overcrowding.
“I think when people think about farmworker housing, people think about bunk housing, H-2A [the federal program that allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to fill temporary agricultural jobs], but that’s the misconception,” he says. “What we’re talking about is family housing. People that live here, have lived here for years and are really struggling … So people see these H-2A complexes going up, and think, ‘We’re making progress.’ Those projects are good, but they don’t address some of the most dire situations that we saw in the [2018 study].”
It’s that missing family housing, Hernandez says, that creates the greatest “human cost” of the overcrowded housing dilemma: the impact on the kids.
Although children in these overcrowded conditions might have a roof over their heads and four walls around them, they can be considered homeless, according to the McKinney-Vento Act of 1987. That federal legislation sought to help shield educational rights and protections for children experiencing homelessness, which, according to the act, is generally defined as a child who lacks a “fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.”
A study conducted by an education justice think tank in 2019 found that Monterey County had the largest population of homeless youth in the state. A staggering 9.9% of students in that county were homeless; 90% of those students were Latinx and 64% were English learners. In the Pajaro Valley Unified School District—Santa Cruz County’s largest school district that dips into Monterey County—there were 2,510 students this past school year that qualified as a “student in transition,” according to district spokesperson Alicia Jimenez.
“You ask about what the human cost is for not addressing the situation, it’s this,” Hernandez says.
Playing Catchup
While the pandemic served as a signal boost for the plight of the farmworker, the staggered halts in work and triage of responsibilities for local government agencies and other organizations over the past two years—including the response to the CZU Lightning Complex—have served as a devastating blow for the momentum that was starting to coalesce behind farmworker housing.
Just months before the pandemic struck, the County of Santa Cruz had updated its rules around employee housing to try to help alleviate the situation laid out in the 2018 study of the Salinas and Pajaro valleys. The plan was to allow employers to build small, bunk-style housing developments in rural agricultural land in order to sustain their business. And, perhaps most importantly, the update also included the creation of a “development reserve” of 200 affordable housing units deed-restricted to farmworkers and their families that could be constructed on agricultural land without having to go through the hassle of “upzoning” the property.
Suzanne Ise, a principal planner with the county, says that the reserve allows prospective developers to call “dibs” on a portion of the 200 units for a nine-month period while they conduct the legwork needed to determine if the project is viable. That gives the applicant some assurance that if they can square away all of the pre-construction minutiae that they will have a fast track waiting for them come construction time. Ise says that the county has received one request to reserve 80 units, but it has expired.
“But it’s not that the applicant is no longer working on those efforts. It’s just that the pandemic has really slowed things down quite a bit for everybody,” Ise says. “It’s almost like we lost a year in terms of where we thought we would be in 2019.”
The good news is that despite the setbacks for developments on agricultural land over the last two years, homes that are deed-restricted to farmworkers are indeed being built. Late last month, nonprofit developer Eden Housing broke ground on a 53-unit affordable housing complex off Freedom Boulevard in Watsonville. Of those units, roughly half will go to farmworkers and their families. And two more developments backed by MidPen Housing, another nonprofit developer, will feature another 74 units with similar deed restrictions.
MBEP’s Hernandez says all three of these projects are the gold standard of affordable housing. Not only are they family homes, but they come with several amenities such as computer and community rooms, outdoor barbecue and play areas and wellness, career, education and financial service centers. These resources are included in projects as a way to increase a nonprofit developer’s chances of receiving funding from the state and federal government in hypercompetitive grant applications. Hernandez would like to think that these nonprofit leaders are also working these features into their projects because it’s the right thing to do.
Rivas is trying to bolster these efforts with Assembly Bill 1654, which would set aside additional state funding for new housing projects benefiting farmworkers over the next 10 years. It would also replicate the local 2018 farmworker housing study on a statewide scale, and develop a strategy to “substantially improve policy, funding and implementation of farmworker housing production in California to adequately address the size and scope of the problems identified in the study.”
For decades, farmworker housing was built cheaply on the edges of society next to the land the laborers would oversee. But while that approach kept costs low for farmers and worked for some farmworkers, it also made life tough for secluded farmworker families that wanted their children to benefit from the U.S. education system. These new projects give farmworkers a shot at setting their children up for success, Hernandez says.
“It’s not just about the home,” he says. “It’s also about the opportunity.”
And Solorio says that’s all farmworkers want. The work is brutal, and the expectations are tremendous, but it’s all worth it if her kids can find success that she never could. She proudly says that her 20-year-old daughter is supporting herself and her two children, and living on her own after recently graduating from school in San Jose.
“I feel so happy for her that she’ll one day offer everything to her kids. What do I have to offer to my kids? I have no education. I can’t offer them what they need,” she says in Spanish. “I’d like to learn a little English, look for another job cleaning somewhere, but I can’t. Farmworkers sacrifice themselves. Sometimes we’re underpaid, and other times we’re mistreated. We’re in the cold, in the heat and, nevertheless, we have to do our work. Sometimes I think, ‘Will this get better?’ I’m not sure. But I have to keep trying. I have to keep going. God willing, things will get better.”
As the nation observes LGBTQ+ Pride month, Santa Cruz County continues to be at the forefront of representation and inclusivity while celebrating diversity. On Tuesday, June 14, the Santa Cruz County Office of Education (SCCOE) held a press conference to announce the newly created LGBTQ+ Top 40 Booklist: a comprehensive guide to age-appropriate queer and LGBTQ+ reading for students ages pre-kindergarten through high school.
“I’m really proud to live in Santa Cruz,” project consultant and task force member Rob Darrow tells GT. “We’re helping to encourage and empower students to read a diverse set of books across our county.”
The Top 40 Booklist is the culmination of four months of collaboration between 16 different task force members—from education consultants like Darrow to public and school librarians, book lovers, a Bookshop Santa Cruz employee and a high school student who inspired the project. The Queer Youth Task Force and the Safe Schools Project also contributed to the list.
Ten books each were chosen for grade groups K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12, and the list provides fiction and nonfiction picture books, as well as anthologies and graphic novels. Each title had to meet a particular set of criteria, including a protagonist who was part of the LGBTQ community and positively represented. The stories also had to represent different genders, sexual orientations and ethnicities, and had to be published within the last 10 years.
“We want to make sure that every student in our county has access to these resources,” said Santa Cruz County Office of Education Superintendent Dr. Faris Sabbah at the press conference. “Not only for our LGBTQ students to see themselves reflected in the books, but also for allies to be able to learn about each other so we can grow together as a community of strength.”
Among the other speakers at Tuesday’s announcement was Lisa Bishop, ex-president of the California School Library Association. She agreed that students at all developmental stages of learning should have access to the widest and most diverse books.
“I want to let you know the California School Library Association fully, fully, fully supports and applauds the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and the LGBTQ+ Book Selection Task Force,” she told the audience.
Ivy Quirk, who identifies with the LGBTQ+ community and is the head children’s book buyer at Bookshop Santa Cruz, says her task force group–-which was for grades 3 through 5–vetted around 50 titles to choose their top 10.
“We also researched the author’s own stories—is it someone speaking from the community or to the community?” she explains to GT. “Multiple authors write at varying age ranges, so we wanted to make sure we spotlighted everyone that we can [without much crossover].”
Purple Reigns
The project’s origins date back to 2020, when a Scotts Valley High School student named Q Licht started the Purple Sticker Project. The Santa Cruz County of Education credits Licht with conceiving the project after he visited Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma and saw how they highlighted books with positive LGBTQ+ representation.
“I wanted to make a difference in my community by putting a system in place that could make school libraries more like Copperfield’s books,” writes Licht, who didn’t respond to an interview request, on his website.
He proceeded to work with Soquel High School librarians to place square purple stickers on queer books, and created an ever-growing online list of titles.
At the same time, Darrow—who used to work as a history teacher and a librarian before becoming an LGBTQ+ support consultant—says educators are constantly asking for affirmative queer reading for their students.
“As I’ve been doing workshops around the state for the last five years, one of the great needs educators say to me is, ‘Can you just give me a list of the best books to read?’” he says.
In 2021, Darrow met Licht at an LGBTQ+ Town Hall webinar sponsored by the SCCOE, and the two discussed furthering the Purple Sticker Project. Momentum continued when a guest speaker at the webinar donated his stipend back to SCCOE to further LGBTQ+ undertakings as well as the Purple Sticker Project. Last October, Bookshop Santa Cruz ran a promotion to raise funds for LGBTQ+ book purchases to be used in school and public libraries.
Quirk says she’s proud to be part of a project that helps LGBTQ+ students feel seen.
“It’s important for many reasons, but two very specific fronts,” she explains. “First, it helps kids in the LGBTQIA community who maybe are still figuring things out about themselves to see themselves be represented in some way. When you can put a name to something, it often helps anyone get through it.”
She says representation is also important for students who don’t identify with the queer community, because it allows them to develop empathy and understanding for what their peers might be going through.
“Having them in the library highlighted and visible says a lot to the kind of support the queer community can get in schools, and that it’s something their peers should be thinking about in how to support each other.”
According to the research, LGBTQ+ students are some of the most at risk. A 2021 California student study by WestEd—a nonprofit agency that works with education communities to promote student welfare and learning—discovered youth who identified as queer were twice or more likely to report being bullied, and fewer than half reported feeling safe at school. Transgender and bisexual students were most likely to experience depression and report suicidal thoughts.
The authors of the study asserted that if LGBTQ+ students received the same support and safety as other students, disparities would drop by half.
A 2019 study by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) found the statistics are similar throughout the nation, and also affects students’ studies as well. That report discovered LGBTQ+ youth who experienced discrimination were three times more likely to have missed school, had lower GPAs and were more likely to drop out than those who did not face discrimination.
Banned in the U.S.A.
On the national level, the LGBTQ+ Top 40 Booklist comes at a time when school districts across the country continue to ban books at an alarming rate.
In January, the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee unanimously voted to ban Maus, the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel by cartoonist and former UCSC guest lecturer Art Spiegelman, because of objectionable language and its depiction of nudity, violence and suicide. Maus details the author’s first-hand experience of coming to terms with his parents as Holocaust survivors, only to lose his mother to suicide years later.
Last December, a bill was introduced in the Oklahoma State Senate that would prohibit the state’s public school libraries from keeping books about sexual activity or sexual and gender identity. According to the American Library Association, last fall they received 330 challenges to books, an “unprecedented” number.
“It adds emphasis to the importance of why we need government agencies, schools and libraries like ours,” says Santa Cruz County Office of Education Communications and Public Relations Officer Nick Ibarra. “To come together and say, ‘It is appropriate for students to read these stories.’ When other states and schools are banning these books, it underscores the importance of what we’re doing.”
“There is no research that shows teachers forcing kids to read a certain book causes them to think a certain way,” Darrow says. “It’s a political tactic to get publicity, and it does not serve our students well to deny them a broad list of books to read.”
Title Mine
Among those chosen for the Top 40 list are a number of books with Bay Area authors or a focus on Bay Area history and the queer community. For grades 9-12, notable Bay Area authors like James Brandon (Ziggy, Stardust & Me) and Maia Kobabe (Gender Queer: A Memoir) are favorite picks for Darrow.
For Quirk, some notable books are National Book Award For Young People’s Literature Winner King & The Dragonflies by Kacen Callender (grades 3-5), Julián Is A Mermaid by UC Santa Cruz alum Jessica Love (pre-k-2) and Grandad’s Camper by Harry Woodgate (pre-k-2).
“I love Grandad’s Camper because it shows a biracial family and an elder queer, which we don’t see a lot of representation for,” she explains. “As a Millennial, a lot of previous-generation queers did not make it to old age, so it’s really lovely to see.”
The books chosen for the LGBTQ+ Top 40 Booklist are available in public and school libraries and are also for sale at Bookshop Santa Cruz. For Darrow, the hope is to keep the list alive and growing, adding books as they are published for future generations of students.
“What’s most exciting is that there are now hundreds of titles with great LGBTQ representation that have come out in the last 10 to 20 years.”
Moving forward, the Santa Cruz County Office of Education is working on how to provide schools with the newly chosen material.
“It is our goal to provide a set of these books to every school library in Santa Cruz County,” said Sabbah at Tuesday’s meeting. According to Darrow, it will cost an estimated $30,000 to accomplish that goal.
Bishop told the conference there should also be money coming soon from the state legislature.
“We’re trying to make sure it goes directly to school libraries instead of being dispersed all over the place,” she said. “Please ask your principals and your superintendents to earmark that money for this project.”
The LGBTQ+ Top 40 Booklist can be found at sccoe.link/lgbtqbooks.
For years, researchers and hobbyists have watched monarch butterfly populations plummet.
Millions of monarchs fluttered around California’s overwintering sites in the 1980s, but in November of 2020, scientists and volunteers counted less than 2,000 in the state. Pacific Grove, sometimes called “Butterfly Town USA,” recorded none.
This drop was particularly dramatic, but the population has declined for decades.
This past winter offered some hope, with over 200,000 monarchs recorded in the state, but most researchers remain concerned.
The authors of a new, controversial study in the journal Global Change Biology, however, suggest that even though monarch numbers are declining at overwintering sites, the overall population might actually be increasing—a conclusion that has been met with skepticism by other scientists.
The debate comes at a critical time for monarch populations, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers the butterfly for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The conversation shows just how complicated monitoring a species can be—even for something as well-documented and beloved as monarch butterflies.
Winging It
North America has two main monarch populations—eastern butterflies migrate from the northeast to Mexico, and the western population settles in central and southern California for the winter.
But these migrations don’t happen all within one lifetime. A full annual migration cycle includes four generations of monarchs. The first three generations emerge from their pupae, mate and die within a few weeks. But the fourth generation is different. This migrating generation flies south, overwinters and begins the journey back north in the early spring to lay eggs.
“It used to be that we all thought we could just sample them during the wintering phase,” says Andrew Davis, an ecologist at the University of Georgia, and co-author of the study.
But Davis disagrees with that approach now, and instead turned to summer breeding numbers. Increased parasites, car strikes, pesticides and other threats prevent many monarchs from reaching the final overwintering site, he says.
“So it’s not like there’s fewer monarchs being produced. It’s more like there’s fewer monarchs reaching the end goal,” he says.
The researchers pulled community science data from the North American Butterfly Association (NABA). Each summer, volunteers count butterfly numbers at specified sites.
The scientists modeled monarch numbers across the U.S. using 135,705 observations from 403 sites over time periods that ranged from 10-26 years.
They concluded that although some summer areas saw declines, all the sites together showed a slow annual increase.
“The statistics that were involved in reaching our conclusions were absolutely mind-boggling,” says Davis. “We had to account for how many people were counting, and for how long and so forth. We also had to account for the effects of weather and climate.”
The researchers concluded that in some parts of the country—particularly in the midwest—higher temperatures had a positive effect on the summer population of monarchs.
“But on the other hand, there’s other places in the country where the reverse is true. So it seems to vary widely depending on where you are,” he says.
Grounds For Skepticism
Davis sees the conclusions as good news, but other researchers disagree with the findings.
“The breeding grounds for the monarch have always been complicated, with some areas going up and some going down in different stretches of years,” says Matthew Forister, a professor and insect ecologist at the University of Nevada Reno. “We’ve known that for a while. But the overwintering grounds continue to go down, which was not part of this paper.”
Forister says although the data set is useful, it cannot provide the complete picture.
“It’s that once-per-year survey point,” he says. And in a species that goes through multiple generations a year, it can make things look better than they are. “A couple of generations of insect reproduction, and you can bounce back up to pretty high numbers. But that doesn’t reduce the concern for having low overwintering numbers.”
The reason for continued concern, he explains, is a process called the “bottle neck effect,” which occurs when a population experiences an extreme decrease. Losing a large chunk of a population removes the diversity that species need to stay healthy and adapt to changing conditions.
“One of the few things that we know with certainty in conservation biology is that bottlenecks are bad,” says Forister. “You go through a constriction in population numbers, you’re vulnerable to extreme events like storms. You’re vulnerable to inbreeding depression. It’s bad.”
Other researchers take issue with the data itself.
“I think the way it was applied for this particular study is somewhat problematic,” says Emma Pelton, the western monarch lead for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
She calls the data set a “snapshot of some usually pretty high-quality butterfly habitat.”
“The sites where people are going out to look for butterflies as part of this community science project are not chosen randomly over the landscape,” she says.
Davis pushes back on that critique.
“These survey sites had dozens of different types of habitats, including good ones and bad ones,” he says.
Davis believes some of the skepticism is “political.”
“The monarchs-are-in-trouble narrative is very powerful. It motivates people to go out and plant a butterfly garden, to join an organization, to donate money to a cause,” he says.
Pelton argues that the criticisms are backed by other studies.
“The fact that they conclude that this means the populations are okay—it really goes against the grain of what a much larger body of work shows and what the vast majority of monarch researchers believe is happening,” she says.
Continued Threats
One thing all the scientists agree on is that habitat destruction, pesticides and climate change pose serious threats to insects around the world.
“Everything is not fine for any insect in North America—or just about anywhere else—because habitat is decreasing, and the remaining habitat is being fried by climate change and contaminated,” says Forister.
Another source of agreement is the benefits of community science. Tracking population numbers is clearly a complicated process, and the more observations involved, the more opportunities researchers have to piece together the puzzle.
“Community science and reporting what you see really can make a difference,” says Pelton.
Interested volunteers can participate in projects like the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper, visit local sanctuaries like Natural Bridges or find a local NABA chapter.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries actor Marilu Henner has an unusual condition: hyperthymesia. She can remember in detail voluminous amounts of past events. For instance, she vividly recalls being at the Superdome in New Orleans on September 15, 1978, where she and her actor friends watched a boxing match between Leon Spinks and Muhammad Ali. You probably don’t have hyperthymesia, Aries, but I invite you to approximate that state. Now is an excellent time to engage in a leisurely review of your life story, beginning with your earliest memories. Why? It will strengthen your foundation, nurture your roots and bolster your stability.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Poet Elizabeth Bishop noted that many of us are “addicted to the gigantic.” We live in a “mostly huge and roaring, glaring world.” As a counterbalance, she wished for “small works of art, short poems, short pieces of music, intimate, low-voiced and delicate things.” That’s the spirit I recommend to you in the coming weeks, Taurus. You will be best served by consorting with subtle, unostentatious, elegant influences. Enjoy graceful details and quiet wonders and understated truths.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the coming weeks, you will need even more human touch than usual. Your mental, physical and spiritual health REQUIRE you to have your skin in contact with people who care for you and are eager to feel their skin against yours. A Tumblr blogger named Friend-Suggestion sets the tone for the mood I hope you cultivate. They write, “I love! human contact! with! my friends! So put your leg over mine! Let our knees touch! Hold my hand! Make excuses to feel my arm by drawing pictures on my skin! Stand close to me! Lean into my space! Slow dance super close to me! Hold my face in your hands or kick my foot to get my attention! Put your arm around me when we’re standing or sitting around! Hug me from behind at random times!”
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Author John Banville wrote what might serve as a manifesto for some of us Crabs: “To be concealed, protected, guarded: that is all I have ever truly wanted. To burrow down into a place of womby warmth and cower there, hidden from the sky’s indifferent gaze and the harsh air’s damagings. The past is such a retreat for me. I go there eagerly, shaking off the cold present and the colder future.” If you are a Crab who feels a kinship with Banville’s approach, I ask you to refrain from indulging in it during the coming months. You’re in a phase of your long-term astrological cycle when your destiny is calling you to be bolder and brighter than usual, more visible and influential, louder and stronger.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “We wish to make rage into a fire that cooks things rather than a fire of conflagration,” writes author Clarissa Pinkola Estés. That’s good advice for you right now. Your anger can serve you, but only if you use it to gain clarity—not if you allow it to control or immobilize you. So here’s my counsel: Regard your wrath as a fertilizing fuel that helps deepen your understanding of what you’re angry about—and shows you how to engage in constructive actions that will liberate you from what is making you angry.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo author Jeanette Winterson was asked, “Do you fall in love often?” She replied, “Yes, often. With a view, with a book, with a dog, a cat, with numbers, with friends, with complete strangers, with nothing at all.” Even if you’re not usually as prone to infatuation and enchantment as Winterson, you could have many experiences like hers in the coming months. Is that a state you would enjoy? I encourage you to welcome it. Your capacity to be fascinated and captivated will be at a peak. Your inclination to trust your attractions will be extra high. Sounds fun!
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran lexicographer Daniel Webster (1758–1843) worked hard to create his dictionary, and it became highly influential in American culture. He spent over 26 years perfecting it. To make sure he could properly analyze the etymologies, he learned 28 languages. He wrote definitions for 70,000 words, including 12,000 that had never been included in a published dictionary. I trust you are well underway with your own Webster-like project, Libra. This entire year is an excellent time to devote yourself with exacting diligence to a monumental labor of love. If you haven’t started it yet, launch now. If it’s already in motion, kick it into a higher gear.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Shouldn’t the distance between impossible and improbable be widened?” asks poet Luke Johnson. I agree that it should, and I nominate you to do the job. In my astrological view, you now have the power to make progress in accomplishing goals that some people may regard as unlikely, fantastical and absurdly challenging. (Don’t listen to them!) I’m not necessarily saying you will always succeed in wrangling the remote possibilities into practical realities. But you might. And even if you’re only partially victorious, you will learn key lessons that bolster your abilities to harness future amazements.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian novelist George Eliot wrote, “It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings—much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth.” I believe you will be exempt from this rule during the next seven weeks. You will be able to speak with lucid candor about your feelings—maybe more so than you’ve been able to in a long time. And that will serve you well as you take advantage of the opportunity that life is offering you: to deepen, clarify and refine your intimate relationships.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Author bell hooks (who didn’t capitalize her name) expressed advice I recommend for you. She said, “Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.” As you enter a phase of potential renewal for your close relationships, you’ll be wise to deepen your commitment to self-sufficiency and self-care. You might be amazed at how profoundly that enriches intimacy. Here are two more helpful gems from bell hooks: “You can never love anybody if you are unable to love yourself” and “Do not expect to receive the love from someone else you do not give yourself.”
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In April 2005, a 64-year-old Korean woman named Cha Sa-soon made her first attempt to get her driver’s license. She failed. In fairness to her, the written test wasn’t easy. It required an understanding of car maintenance. After that initial flop, she returned to take the test five days a week for three years—and was always unsuccessful. She persevered, however. Five years later, she passed the test and received her license. It was her 960th try. Let’s make her your role model for the foreseeable future. I doubt you’ll have to persist as long as she did, but you’ll be wise to cultivate maximum doggedness and diligence.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In the eighth century, Chinese poet Du Fu gave a batch of freshly written poems to his friend and colleague, the poet Li Bai. “Thank you for letting me read your new poems,” Li Bai later wrote to Du Fu. “It was like being alive twice.” I foresee you enjoying a comparable grace period in the coming weeks, Pisces: a time when your joie de vivre could be double its usual intensity. How should you respond to this gift from the Fates? Get twice as much work done? Start work on a future masterpiece? Become a beacon of inspiration to everyone you encounter? Sure, if that’s what you want to do. And you could also simply enjoy every detail of your daily rhythm with supreme, sublime delight.
Now that we are officially into summer, a chilled Rosé of Syrah is just what you need for warmer weather. And Lester makes a superb one!
Our recent wine tasting at Lester Family Estate was a lovely experience. On one of their shaded outdoor patios, overlooking acres of vineyards, we enjoyed a “Tour of the Vineyard” tasting with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah—adding on the Rosé of Syrah later.
Lester’s fabulous wines result from the luscious grapes they grow and their experienced winemakers. Kudos to John Benedetti for making this gorgeous 2020 estate Rosé of Syrah ($27). Benedetti also makes wine under his Sante Arcangeli Family Wines label—his tasting room is in Aptos Village.
“This lively Rosé expresses a galaxy of fresh flavors on the nose and in the glass,” the Lester folks say. “A beautiful shade of dark-copper salmon, it possesses the substance of Pinot Noir with the freshness of Rosé. Citrus peel, watermelon, rhubarb and tangerine all emerge with a spicy finish that’s also delightfully dry.”
It’s well worth visiting the Lester estate for the Rosé of Syrah alone. But, if you’re interested in getting there in an exciting new way, then Sidecar Tours is your answer. Ed Lane, who runs Sidecar Tours, has a small fleet of motorcycles, complete with days-of-yesteryear sidecars that hold two people. He can whisk you up to the estate, or you can organize a specific outing. With a glass of Rosé in hand, he took me on an exhilarating spin around the Lester stunning Deer Park Ranch property. We buzzed and bumped along tree-lined roads—I didn’t spill a drop! It was a totally fun experience. Lane’s replica 1941 Ural bikes are like something from WWII—or out of Harry Potter. It brought back memories of my late father’s motorcycle shop in England, Syd Smith Spares, which still exists.
Lester Estate Wines, 2000 Pleasant Valley Road, Aptos, 831-728-3793. deerparkranch.com; sidecartoursinc.com/santa-cruz.
Cara Pearson has been working at Pacific Cookie Company since she was 13, but never envisioned becoming the business’s president and co-owner. Her parents Larry and Shelly founded the Santa Cruz legend in 1980, and the cookies have been a hit ever since. Meanwhile, Cara, who graduated with an anthropology degree from UCSC, initially had no interest in the family business. When her dad offered her a management position, she had a change of heart. PCC bakes at a higher-than-normal temperature, ensuring a crispy exterior with a soft interior. All the cookies are made with sustainable ingredients, and over 50% of those ingredients are locally sourced. Some bestsellers include the classic Chocolate Chip, the triple-chocolate Dr. Midnight and the Almond Joe. PCC’s flagship retail bakery on Pacific Avenue is open every day 10am-10pm (Fridays and Saturdays until midnight). They also have an online store that ships worldwide. Cara recently spoke about having a family cookie business and what it takes to produce high-quality cookies consistently.
What’s it like running the family business?
CARA PEARSON: Growing up, it was like being a local celebrity. Everyone loves cookies, and most people knew about Pacific Cookie Company, so when I was little, I was worried that people only liked me because of our cookies. Now I have two daughters, and they also share the same concern. It’s always meant a lot to me to be a part of the local community because there are so many amazing entrepreneurs. I often connect with, and advocate for, other female-owned businesses like ours, of which they are many, especially downtown. I didn’t always want to run the family business, but now it’s one of the most fulfilling parts of my life.
What makes your cookies so good?
One thing that sets us apart is that we only make cookies. We’ve spent 42 years trying to continuously get better at what we do. Day in and day out, we are obsessed with quality and producing a cookie that’s affordable, has superior taste and a wide variety of flavors. We are constantly baking to ensure freshness, and we are also known for the great smell of our cookies that wafts up and down Pacific Avenue.
Pacific Cookie Company,1203 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, 831-429-6905; pacificcookie.com.
When people ask about my favorite local restaurants, the short list always includes downtown’s Laili Restaurant. A consistent kitchen and that atmospheric inner courtyard are among the compelling reasons to make it one of my top dining destinations. And last week simply reinforced my affection for this house of Mediterranean dining with a Middle Eastern inflection.
We started with generous glasses of tempranillo ($9), joined by a fragrant circle of warm naan flatbread. The garlic and herb-infused olive oil that accompanies the bread makes an irresistible dip. After years of roaming Laili’s mouth-watering menu of kabobs, pastas and well-spiced appetizers, we’ve settled on our favorites. Splitting the always-seductive beet salad ($11), we worked our way through a thicket of baby arugula down into a layer of marinated beets in dijon balsamic vinaigrette strewn with goat cheese. This dish is always satisfying, the earthy sweetness of the beets complexified by the tang of feta.
These days, our entrees invariably lean toward some variety of kabob. My companion Jack debated between chicken and lamb before deciding on the Chicken Kabob ($22). It’s easily among the top chicken dishes in town. Tender wedges of chicken breast, perfectly grilled, arrived on a long ceramic rectangle, nestled against a technicolor array of mixed vegetables and abundant saffron rice. On one side of the platter were the piping-hot sauteed tomatoes, broccoli and zucchini (zucchini with actual flavor), and on the other side were a trio of chutneys that are worth a visit to Laili all by themselves—the tomato-based red sauce, another mound of garlicky sour cream and a cilantro green chutney that packs some heat.
My entree platter of perfect filet mignon kabob (done exactly between rare and medium rare, as requested) came with spiced saffron rice infused with raisins, and more of the veggies and chutneys ($32). Dinner in the Laili courtyard, enclosed by high walls covered in emerald vines and flowering plants, made the perfect homecoming dinner after a long flight from Paris.
Laili Restaurant, 101B Cooper St., Santa Cruz. Tuesday-Saturday, 4-8pm. lailirestaurant.com.
On the Margins
If you consider yourself an oeno-adventurer, then make tracks for Soif tomorrow night—Thursday, June 23rd—and join ace local winemaker Megan Bell, who’ll be pouring some of her unexpected varietals under her Margins label. The Margins style involves regions, vineyards and especially varietals one can think of as “under-represented”—stuff you don’t encounter on the average restaurant wine list. Bell will introduce a tasting selection of six different wines on the Soif patio from 5-7pm; $30/$15 for Soif wine club members, purchase tickets online or at the wine shop. Also, consider checking out the upcoming pop-up food events at Soif, with local guest chefs selected by sommelier Dede Eckhardt and wine director Alexis Carr. On July 8 Aaron Robertson of Akira will whip up Japanese items, and on July 23 Full Steam Dumpling will dazzle your tastebuds. The whole pop-up phenomenon is such a smart way of bringing the talent of innovative chefs to the public. Talent can be shared and tasted in a work-around alliance that bypasses the daunting cost of opening a full-on brick-and-mortar store. Soif Wine Bar & Merchants, 105 Walnut Ave, Santa Cruz. Check soifwine.com for future pop-up events.
Looking Forward
On our summer dining horizon, first up is this week’s opening of the new Rio del Mar Venus Spirits Beachside, followed in a few weeks by the Westside’s Namaste Indian Bistro. And fingers crossed that the new Cafe Iveta on Front Street will be opening soon a few doors down from Big Basin Tasting Room. Happy day after Solstice!
Burglaries nearly doubled in 2020—overall, crime fluctuated heavily during the pandemic, Scotts Valley Police Department Chief Steve Walpole, Jr. told the city council in his annual presentation. The numbers have dropped since, and thankfully, there are still no homicides to report.
“I’ve been really impressed by the morale of the department as a whole,” Walpole said. “Everything seems like it’s running on all cylinders.”
In 2021, officers cited 65% more people than the previous year, initiated 12,965 calls (up from 12,192 in 2020, but still below 2019’s 14,530), arrested 425 people (up from 374 last year, but below the 486 arrests of 2019), and responded to 6,033 calls for service (well below the about 6,400 calls of the prior three years).
“6,000 calls for services are no joke,” Councilmember Derek Timm commented, adding he’s been enjoying meeting all the recruits.
Robberies had jumped to seven in 2020 (up from one in 2019) but were back down at two last year. Arsons also landed at two.
Rape had risen from two in 2019 to seven in 2020; SVPD police investigated six rapes in 2021.
Larceny has been remarkably consistent over the past three years, at 105, 104 and 106 for the years starting with 2019. But auto thefts had risen from eight to 21 in 2020 but were down by almost 50% this year. However, car accidents had dropped in 2020 to 114 but rose more than a third this year to 156. Drug violations continue to decline—from a high of 162 in 2018 to 90 in 2020, down to 79 this year.
Councilmember Jack Dilles noted that the police statistics showed the breakdown of arrests and other enforcement actions by race is in line with Scotts Valley’s population makeup. Walpole said he feels that’s an accurate way to interpret the data.
The chart presented to the council shows that 74 white suspects were taken into custody last year (64% of 112 total), while white people account for 78% of the city’s population (as measured by the 2020 Census). Five Black suspects were taken into custody (4% of the total)—Black people account for 1% of the population. 29 Hispanic suspects were taken into custody (26% of the total)—Hispanic people account for 11% of Scotts Valley’s population.SVPD didn’t take any Asian suspects into custody, although Asian residents account for 7% of the population.
Meanwhile, Black people accounted for 3% of those given verbal warnings; white people accounted for 71%, Hispanic people 19%, Asian people 4% and others 3% (other races make up 3% of the population).
The stats appear to even out when all enforcement actions, including fix-it tickets, notice-to-appears and public service stops, are factored in. Black people accounted for 3% of stops, white people 70%, Hispanic people 21%, Asian people 3% and others 3%.
But there is one substantial demographic disparity: Scotts Valley is home to about the same number of men and women, yet men were stopped by police 1,609 times, compared to women who were stopped 834 times.
The department is getting its traffic unit and junior police academy up and running again. It’s exciting news, but Walpole said the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas is perpetually on his mind these days, especially while he watched over the recent local graduation ceremony.
“I think everybody was thinking about Texas,” he said. “It was important for me to be [at the graduation] and assure everyone we had it under control.”
Mayor Donna Lind, a retired SVPD officer, said she’s pleased the community can help train-up neighboring jurisdictions—Scotts Valley was set to play host to hundreds of officers across Northern California for an active-shooter drill.
“It’s so helpful to train with other agencies,” she said. “This training allows you all to get comfortable [working together].”
Councilmember Randy Johnson applauded Walpole—his father previously led the force—for helping rebuild the department after several hiccups.
“You’re fulfilling the same role [as your father] in the best possible way,” Johnson said.
The Watsonville City Council looked at a half-cent sales tax which, if approved by voters in the Nov. 8 election, would fund city parks, after-school and anti-gang programs and road repair of city streets.
The council, on June 28, will consider placing the “community investment transaction and use tax” on the ballot.
It would put the city’s sales tax at the state cap of 9.75% if approved, go into effect immediately after the election and be in place until voters repeal it. The hike would generate an estimated $4 million annually for the city’s general fund.
The tax would not cover essential purchases such as food and medication. An oversight committee would report to the council. The council did not take action on the information-only item.
City staff brought the tax forward after a poll of 486 likely voters showed that 68% would support it, said City Manager Pro-Tem Tamara Vides.
That same poll listed roads and essential infrastructure as the top funding priority, with 85% saying they want investment here. Other areas of concern are maintaining the city’s trail system and providing safe places for kids to play, as well as after-school programs, senior programs and parks.
“Our park system has been underfunded for a number of years,” Vides said. “Some of our parks are starting to show their age, and they are hard to be maintained to a good standard.”
Vides said the idea for the tax comes as Watsonville reels from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I can summarize it as a lack of sustainable funding that is available to support services that create a vibrant and resilient community,” Vides said.
Several council members expressed concern that the revenue is spent on what is promised to the voters. Vides said that the specific allocations are up to the council and can be changed with a council vote.
Councilmember Jimmy Dutra said that, despite the poll, passage of the tax is not a given. He pointed to Santa Cruz’s Measure F, a half-cent sales tax on the June 6 ballot that is behind, with 50.89% voting no.
“That could be an indication of what November is going to be because of the inflation and families really suffering,” he said. “Have we considered this? Are we premature? Is this the right time?”
Administrative Services Department Director Cindy Czerwin acknowledged that new taxes could burden residents in a low-income community but said that Watsonville has fewer services to offer its residents than the City of Santa Cruz. This problem can be eased with the tax.
“I think it’s worth putting it to the voters to let them decide whether they want more services for our city or they don’t,” she said. “We’re saying that if you want more, this is a way to get there.”
Mayor Pro Tem Eduardo Montesino said that any new tax would face opposition.
“It’s never a good time to raise taxes,” he said. “But this is an opportunity for us to invest in our own community. I think the argument is, why wouldn’t we put this forward to the voters?”
