The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission on Dec. 1 approved a contract with an engineering company that will conduct a preliminary study of a rail line that could transport passengers along the breadth of the county.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based HDR Inc. is expected to take about two years to complete its work.
The initial early engineering phase will look at infrastructures such as tracks, bridges and trestles, ridership and revenue forecasts projection and a study of potential operations plans on the rail between Santa Cruz and Watsonville.
It will also include extensive community input and provide cost estimates for the rail system’s capital, operation and maintenance.
“Task 1’s” $3 million price tag will come from 2016’s Measure D funds–the county does not have the funds to pay for the remaining three tasks, which are estimated to cost over $7.7 million and include more comprehensive studies.
The RTC will look to competitive grants for funding. The commissioners will then amend the contract with HDR to include additional preliminary work once funding is secured.
The issue has long been a hotbed of controversy for the county. Many call passenger rail a boondoggle that will cost the county hundreds of millions, saying that a trail-only model should replace the tracks.
RTC officials have said it could cost as much as $60 million to make the needed improvements to the track before a rail system can even be considered.
The item passed 11-1, with only Commissioner Randy Johnson voting against it.
Johnson said he was skeptical about the future viability of rail in Santa Cruz County, as evidenced by Bay Area Rapid Transport and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, both facing ridership. He also pointed to Santa Cruz’s METRO system, which has trouble filling seats.
“What is the future of rail,” Johnson said. “Can anybody honestly say this is a vibrant, expanding, exciting sort of future? I’m looking for results.”
But RTC Director Guy Preston warned against such thinking, saying that California’s recent budget surplus created a $150 million fund from the Intercity Rail Capital Program for which transit agencies can apply.
“I do not think the state and federal governments have given up on rail,” he said.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Andy Shiffrin acknowledged that the initial phase of the rail project and future costs would be expensive. But he pointed to Measure D, the Nov. 2022 measure in which 70% of voters signaled strong support for keeping the rail line intact.
“I don’t know whether it will be possible to have a feasible passenger rail system between Santa Cruz and Watsonville, but I think we need to look at it,” he said. “I think this contract moves us along the way.”
Commissioner Greg Caput, whose district includes parts of Watsonville, said that voting “no” isn’t an option.
“We’d basically be saying the voters didn’t know what they were voting on,” he said. “Even if you don’t want to have rail or pursue it, it seems like it would be a slap in the face to the voters.”
Still years in the future—if it ever comes to fruition—the passenger rail would be subject to numerous risks that must be addressed, including encroaching waves, sea level rise and conflicts where the rail crosses traffic.
Preston said it also faces uncertainty regarding its environmental impacts, as work along the bluffs above Manresa and Harkins Slough faces scrutiny from state officials.
“We need to start meeting with the Coastal Commission early and talk to them about what they are going to require in terms of an alternatives analysis to ensure that we don’t move forward with a project that is not buildable,” he said.
Commissioner Mike Rotkin pointed out that some of the Measure D funds were approved by voters specifically to fund rail. He added that the vote before the board was merely to fund the study, not to approve the future rail project.
“The public has given us money to at least study the feasibility of rail,” he said. “We’re not stealing it from other places in the Measure D expenditure model or other kinds of modes of transportation.”
The item garnered some public response. Sally Arnold said communities could reap several benefits from investing in their public transportation systems.
“You’re talking about an investment in our community,” she said. “It is a public service, but there are also going to be economic returns, and we just need to think about the big picture.”
Mark Mesiti Miller of Santa Cruz Friends of the Rail Trail called the vote “another very important step toward realizing the community’s vision of fully realizing the existing rail corridor with benefits for everyone.”
Brian Peoples of Trail Now added that the Commission should start the process by asking the California Coastal Commission whether they would approve the passenger rail in their jurisdiction since he reckons that agency is not likely to do so.
“You keep saying that we need to spend the money to understand the risks, but we already know it,” he said. “These aren’t risks; they’re facts. I think we all need to step back and ask, ‘Is it worth the $7 million commitment?’”
STRAWBERRY GIRLS WITH THE COLOR 8 AND INTHEBACKGROUND “[Strawberry Girls] go to the far extreme in every direction,” frontman Ben Rosett says. The primarily instrumental group organically achieves a “darkness” through irregular chord progressions, among other tricks. While the outfit constantly expands their influential soundscape, their definitive style remains intact. Inspiration is sourced from unexpected places, including Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. “Betelgeuse” sustains an understated hip-hop backbeat alongside psychedelic dissonance—think Janelle Monáe meets Pink Floyd’s “Echoes.” “We want to take [the sound] far from the ordinary,” bassist Ian Jennings says. The Salinas trio continues on that “far-from-ordinary” path with Prussian Gloom, which marks their first independent release in a decade. Modern R&B melds sleekly with ’70s-era prog rock more than any of their previous records. The title track’s hefty dose of math rock guitar shredding is worth experiencing live. $21/$24 plus fees. Thursday, Dec. 8, 7:30pm. Felton Music Hall, 6275 Hwy 9, Felton. feltonmusichall.com.
LITTLE FEAT WITH NICKI BLUHM Nicki Bluhm has collaborated with everyone from the Infamous Stringdusters to several of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh’s projects—she’s equally dynamic doing her own thing, solo. “It’s eye-opening to work with so many different musicians and see how other people do their thing,” Bluhm said before performing with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at the 50th anniversary of the Monterey Pop Festival. As Little Feat glides into their fifth decade, they called on Bluhm to join them on their current tour, celebrating the 45th anniversary of Waiting for Columbus, now considered a jam band playbook. The group’s first live album was recorded during a span of seven performances in 1977 and released as a double-live record in 1978. Backed by Tower of Power’s horn section, the shows included legendary special guests, with former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor’s sweet slide guitar at the top of the list. Little Feat has always been regarded as kindred spirits to the Grateful Dead, and their impact on like-minded groups is still regularly felt. One example: Phish performed Waiting for Columbus in its entirety in 2010. $69.50-99.50 plus fees. Saturday, Dec. 10, 8pm. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. riotheatre.com.
CHARLIE HUNTER AND SCOTT AMENDOLA DUO Charlie Hunter’s custom-made seven—and eight-string—guitars allow him to rock a bassline and rhythm and lead guitar simultaneously. Each of his 20-plus releases is touted by jazz critics worldwide, and he’s widely considered the most technically fluent of all modern-day jazz guitarists. “Persevering is important for the small guys like us,” Hunter said before a set at the Monterey Jazz Festival. “Some years are going to be better than others, and you just always work at your craft, no matter what.” Meanwhile, Grammy Award-winning drummer Scott Amendola is one of the Bay Area’s most acclaimed jazz musicians. Together, the pair elevates one another without bringing ego into the equation. “Ultimately, I’m working with [Hunter] because I want his voice and interpretation of my music,” Amendola explained. “That’s how the music is going to be the best it could be.” The duo’s 2021 tour featured nine sold-out shows throughout California and delivered mostly improvised interactive jams that allowed each musician to shine while simultaneously complementing one another. $31.50/$36.75; 15.75/Students. Monday, Dec. 12, 9pm (6pm show sold out). Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. kuumbwajazz.org.
TOMMY EMMANUEL WITH MIKE DAWES “The world’s greatest acoustic guitarist.” This title has been ascribed to 67-year-old Tommy Emmanuel more than a few times, but he’d never take ownership of the sentiment. He’s too damn humble. Emmanuel’s busy guitar-picking style, which sounds like a full band—rhythm and lead guitar alongside vocal melodies—wows audiences worldwide with that same kind of awe of those experiencing the magic of David Copperfield. The guitarist’s record Accomplice Two features collabs with Raul Malo of the Mavericks, Michael McDonald, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Jerry Douglas. Mike Dawes is an ideal touring buddy for Emmanuel: Also considered one of the world’s elite acoustic guitarists, Dawes was voted “Best Acoustic Guitarist in the World” twice by Total Guitar Magazine and MusicRadar. The guitarist also has a lofty fanbase, including Metallica’s James Hetfield and the 1975’s Matty Healy. $39.50-59.50 plus fees. Tuesday, Dec. 13, 8pm. Rio Theatre, 1 205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. riotheatre.com.
ERIC LINDELL AND ANSON FUNDERBURGH Multi-instrumental guitarist Eric Lindell’s Revolution in Your Heart might be the New Orleans singer-songwriter’s opus. Revolution in Your Heart is one of those records that could be from any era; stories of love lost, love gained, family and friends are down-to-earth and accessible to a fault—in a good way. Recorded at the renowned Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana, Lindell’s neo-soul is a low-key eruption with his indelible mark on every second of the 12 tracks on the record—he performs all the instruments except drums (Willie McMains). “Don’t let a mindless fool get a hold of you,” Lindell croons in “Revolution.” “You got to keep pushing and let love rule. Start a revolution in your heart.” “I’m just a simple country boy,” Anson Funderburgh says. The longtime performer is unassuming until he plugs in his Strat and lets his trademark fusion of Chicago and Texas blues ring. Funderburgh and Lindell have collaborated regularly for years and performed together six times at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. $35/$40 plus fees. Tuesday, Dec. 13, 8pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. moesalley.com.
COMMUNITY
TITANS OF TECH 2022 With past nominees including bigwigs like Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt and Netflix co-founder Marc Randolf, Santa Cruz Works honors those who have contributed to the growth of the local tech and entrepreneurial community. This year is a tad different; the annual event will also incorporate MVPs and those who deserve recognition for their efforts—not necessarily limited to the tech field. The mission of this year’s event is to give credit to the essential piece needed for any business that aims to succeed: the employees. Any company that wants to thrive needs intelligent people to help make it happen. Cruz Control will provide the musical soundtrack to the event. $20-50. Wednesday, Dec. 7, 6-8pm. Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. kuumbwajazz.org.
THE TANNERY’S WINTER ART MARKET If you’re looking for holiday gifts that aren’t run-of-the-mill, this year’s Winter Art Market is your answer. There will be a dozen open artist studios for you to shop. Once you’re done shopping, stick around for live music from Anna May and Isla Byrne & Jamie Schnetzler. Also, grab a bite from Honey B Market or Epoch Eats Areperia 831 and an adult beverage from Woodhouse Blending & Brewing. There will be things to see, too, including the Small Works exhibit in Radius Gallery and new public art installations. Artists Gazelle Walker, Suzy Radonsky and Linda Cover will offer free all-ages activities for those with kids in tow. Free. Saturday, Dec. 10, 10am-5pm. Tannery Arts Center, 1050-1070 River St., Santa Cruz. tanneryartscenter.org/winter-art-market.
SANTA CRUZ BALLET THEATRE PRESENTS THE NUTCRACKER In its 20th year at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, this holiday favorite is the only Nutcracker production in Santa Cruz County featuring a live orchestra. With 52 professional musicians led by conductor Maestro Pamela Martin, the show will feature 50 local dancers and SCBT alums and Houston Ballet Principal dancer Melody Mennite as the Sugar PlumFairy. The holidays simply wouldn’t be the same without the Nutcracker.$20.50-71.50 plus fees. Saturday, Dec. 10, 4:30pm, Sunday, Dec. 11, 1pm and 4:30pm. Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, 307 Church St., Santa Cruz. scbt.org.
SIP ‘N SHOP FOR FARM DISCOVERY Home/Work “caters to the mindful shopper with its thoughtful selection of stylish and functional design pieces that consider fair labor, affordability and sustainability.” It’s the ideal location for Sip ‘N Shop for Farm Discovery. Enjoy farm-fresh apps, drinks and live music from the Banana Slug String Band. Sales and raffle proceeds will support Farm Discovery’s Santa Cruz Gives campaign. Join the giving revolution. Free. Sunday, Dec. 11, 4-6pm. HOME/WORK, 1100 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. farmdiscovery.org; santacruzgives.org.
My family’s Christmas tree was always home to an eclectic mix of homemade ornaments accumulated over time—none two alike, each with a story. Each year, we decorate the tree, sip warm drinks and share memories associated with each ornament. My favorite is a snowflake I made as a Girl Scout, using corks, sewing pins and shiny beads. I remember the first time I hung the snowflake alongside the other sparkly—and some not-so-sparkly—bobbles. I felt great pride; my creation had become a permanent part of the Miller family tradition.
More than two decades later, my snowflake has endured the wear and tear of any holiday decoration stored in a musty garage or attic for all but a few weeks of the year. And the memories associated with that little snowflake continue to emit an effervescence as poignant as that first Christmas it was on display. Now crooked and missing a few beads, my snowflake is the ornament equivalent of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree: It’s not much to look at, but it bursts with holiday spirit.
Like my family and me—and our perpetually growing collection of ornaments—Santa Cruz has had its own holiday tradition: Tomáseen Foley’s “A Celtic Christmas.” The show is a collaboration between Tomáseen Foley, director and main storyteller, and longtime music director William Coulter, featuring an assortment of additional musicians and dancers. The amalgamation of traditional music, dance and storytelling has toured the U.S. for 27 years, celebrating the holiday season.
Coulter, a Santa Cruz resident, started working with Foley 28 years ago. Foley had approached him and other local performers to join him for a new holiday-themed show, which would include himself telling stories, with singing and dancing.
“At the time, he was a fledgling storyteller,” Coulter says. “We gathered up in Medford, Oregon, and had our first shows in that area. Since then, we’ve toured all over the states every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The show has evolved, we’ve had many different performers come and go, but the core of the show has remained the same.”
“A Celtic Christmas” aims to recreate a Christmas Eve night in rural Ireland, similar to those of Foley’s youth in the 1950s. Foley was raised in a home with a thatch roof, stone walls and a flagstone floor—without plumbing or electricity, and the sole heat source was an open turf fire.
Foley reminisces on how neighboring families would gather on wintry nights with traditional carols and dances and tell stories.
“Tomáseen calls himself a storyteller, but it’s a bit different from what one might imagine,” Coulter says. “He does not do characters or funny voices or one-liners. He basically sits down at the front of the stage and tells you about his life as a kid, the people in his community and their adventures and relationships. It’s like sitting down with someone in a pub and hearing interesting stories about their life.”
The other players and dancers in “A Celtic Christmas” are world-class artists in their own right. Coulter, an internationally recognized master of the steel-string guitar, has been performing, recording and teaching traditional Celtic and American folk music for more than 30 years.
Coulter will play the guitar, and an Irish drum called the Bodhran this year.
“We haven’t had that in the show in a while,” he says. “We’re excited to bring that back; it adds a really exciting rhythmic element to some of the tunes.”
The show will also include a brand new song, “The Welcome,” which explains the old Irish tradition of placing a candle in each window to welcome neighbors.
For the past four or five seasons, minus the pandemic years, “A Celtic Christmas” has had the same cast, which Coulter calls “the best cast we’ve ever had.”
“In the past, we’ve changed out people occasionally,” he says. “But when you’re working with the same people for that long, the chemistry increases, and magic happens.”
Coulter says he hopes “A Celtic Christmas” inspires audiences to slow down a touch, unplug and be more attentive to others.
“It’s so common these days to have such short reactions to little things on our phones,” he says. “I think that often bleeds into our reactions to other people. To sit still and hear someone talk for a while is a very human experience that we are lacking right now. I hope people walk away from the concert being reminded that it’s okay just to sit and listen.”
Whether it’s gathering with loved ones, cooking potato latkes, traveling, baking German Pfeffernusse cookies—or hanging an ornament that looks like a snowflake if you squint just right—we all have traditions that remind us: it’s “that time of the year.”
“A Celtic Christmas” will be held Saturday, Dec. 11, at 3pm at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $34-49. bit.ly/3LPlfB1.
Once upon a time, no self-respecting punk would be caught dead playing country music. But starting in the early-to-mid-’80s, a handful of Southern California groups made outlaw country cool in the pit—L.A.’s X formed the rootsy side project the Knitters in 1985, and Orange County’s Social Distortion released the landmark cowpunk album Prison Bound in ’88. Add in the punk-blues of the Gun Club and straight-up country-punk fusion of Tex and the Horseheads in L.A., and the washboard-powered wildman antics of Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper in San Diego, and SoCal punk practically had its own Americana movement going by the time Social D found gold-record success with their 1990 self-titled third album, which featured a charting cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”
Guitarist Chris Shiflett grew up on the edge of that scene in Santa Barbara, but ironically had to get to Northern California to discover the alt-country sound that was about to blow up in a big way when he joined No Use for a Name in 1995. The band had started in Silicon Valley in the mid-’80s, and found a following after Tony Sly became the frontman, and they signed to Fat Wreck Chords. At that time, no one would have expected No Use For a Name to be the place to get an Americana education, with the band releasing fast and furious melodic hardcore records like 1994’s Daily Grind and 1995’s Leche Con Carne. But Tony Sly was full of surprises, as fans would discover on his acoustic solo releases in the 2000s.
“Tony loved Uncle Tupelo and those early Son Volt records,” says Shiflett. “We used to listen to that shit just constantly on the road; he was into that stuff early. He was really the one that turned me on to it. I mean, I already loved X and Social D and some of the music that was influenced by country and roots and blues. But really, Tony turned me on to a lot of that stuff, and that’s what kind of set me on that path.”
It’s been a wild path, too, one that led Shiflett to play in the punk-covers supergroup Me First and the Gimme Gimmes for many years on the side, while leaving No Use for a Name in 1999 to play in Foo Fighters (just after the Foos released their album There is Nothing Left to Lose, which won the band its first of many Grammys for Best Rock Album).
With a long gestation period between the Foo Fighters’ 2007 record Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace and its 2011 follow-up Wasting Light, Shiflett not only recorded a second album with his brother Scott Shiflett for their side project Jackson United, he also made his first foray into Americana with 2010’s Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants. But it’s really on his solo records, 2017’s West Coast Town and 2019’s Hard Lessons, that you can hear him finding his sound and soul as an Americana singer-songwriter.
He’s also become kind of a chronicler of the genre, having recorded over 200 episodes of his podcast Walking the Floor with Chris Shiflett, on which he talks to a range of musicians, many of them Americana artists like Dave Alvin, Robert Earl Keen and Steve Earle (he’s also interviewed those O.G. cowpunks John Doe of X and Mike Ness of Social Distortion).
“It’s been an interesting evolution of the genre over the years,” says Shiflett. In the early days, he says, “I don’t think a lot of those bands that were coming up at that time came up through country music or were even necessarily fans of country music. They were, like, rock ’n’ roll people that found it kind of like I did. Whereas nowadays, you have a lot of folks that really did grow up with [country and roots music]. I think we’re more sort of steeped in it. I was kind of shocked when I interviewed Todd Snider, and he was like, ‘Nah, I never listened to heavy metal or punk rock or any of that shit.’ Americana is kind of a big tent.”
His solo tours, like the one that brings him to Moe’s Alley this week, are a whole different world than the stadiums he plays with Foo Fighters, sort of bringing his career full circle.
“It’s so different for me now doing van tours and gigs like this, because I don’t think I appreciated it when I was in No Use for a Name,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong. I loved it. I loved every minute of it. But I didn’t necessarily think about it in those days. I slept through just about every drive we ever did, so I felt like I missed that whole part of it. A van tour is a very different animal than being on a big tour. You see things differently—it’s more like a road trip.”
Chris Shiflett plays Wednesday, Dec. 14, 8pm at Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz; $20/$25. moesalley.com.
This week’s cover was a little tricky. You see, Denver Riggleman is a quirky character. He is wearing a Bigfoot t-shirt in his freaking cover pic. He even wrote a book about Bigfoot! OK, it was technically about why people continue to believe in Bigfoot, which falls way more into his wheelhouse as a data analytics expert, but whatever. I love everything Bigfoot. Do you know how bad I wanted to put a still from the Patterson-Gimlin film somewhere on this cover? So bad.
Riggleman is also a former Republican Congressman from Virginia who got run over by the GOP’s ultra-right Trump cult and ousted in the 2020 primary, largely because he had officiated a same-sex wedding. Riggleman then left the party, becoming an independent. Do you know how bad I wanted to put a pic of the same-sex wedding he officiated somewhere on the cover? So bad.
To me, those things really epitomize what makes Riggleman such an intriguing political figure. But you won’t find either of them on the cover this week (other than, again, the shirt). That’s because when I readSteve Kettmann’s interview with Riggleman in this week’s cover story, any notion of doing something whimsical on the cover instantly vanished. The author of the new book The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation Into January 6th talks about the growing danger our country is facing from far-right extremists like the ones who stormed the Capitol Building last year, and it is sobering stuff. He also discusses how social media and other digital networking has made fringe radicalism even more insidious, and how antisemitism is rising as the manipulators behind these movements seek to streamline their attacks on common sense.
So yeah, it’s a million miles away from Bigfoot kookiness or thinkpiecing about political definitions. But it is an important reality check about the state of our democracy.
“The two-ship Portuguese expedition under the command of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (João Rodrigues Cabrilho) explored northward from Jalisco in 1542, stopping at San Diego Bay on September 28th, San Pedro on October 6, Santa Monica on the 9th, San Buenaventura on the 10th, Santa Barbara on the 13th and Pt. Concepcion on the 17th. Because of adverse winds, the expedition turned back at about Santa Maria, harboring at San Miguel Island, and did not progress beyond Santa Maria until November 11. With a favorable wind later that day they reach the “Sierra de San Martin,” probably Cape San Martin and the Santa Lucia Mountains in southern Monterey County. Struck by a storm and blown out to sea, the two vessels are separated and do not rejoin until the 15th, probably near Año Nuevo north of Santa Cruz. The next day they drifted southward, discovering “Bahía de los Pinos”and “Cabo de Pinos.” These are most likely Monterey Bay and Point Pinos. On the 18th they turned south, passing snow-capped mountains (the Santa Lucias), and on November 23 returned to their harbor at San Miguel Island, where they remained for nearly three months.” (from mchsmuseum.com) … Cabrillo never landed in the Monterey Bay area. Never met up with, so he could not have “enslaved and brutalized the Amah Mutsun people who lived here.” Don’t let the facts get in your way though and carry on.
— Mark McLaughlin
In response to Mark McLaughlin: Rather narrow view of how this man lived his life. He was a conquistador who gained his wealth through forced labor that destroyed communities, because he’d rake in the bounty of labor that once sustained the egalitarian communities he preyed on. He was part of a distinct system of destruction, a low affect, sensation seeking person who yearned to dominate and centralize power for the sake of personal versus societal benefits. You narrow in on a detail of dispute—just like people dispute where they came from. And that narrow view ignores the bigger issue. It’s not as if there isn’t enough evidence to confirm his abuses, whether they happened in this area or just Guatemala. The bigger point is, why are we remembering this person and honoring him? We are in a time of reflection where there are people in society who are questioning the habit of calling power seekers heroes. There is nothing heroic about hoarding and violence. There is, however, something heroic about taking a stand and calling out these patterns of thinking and how they influence society as a whole.
— Cassie
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
TWILIGHT ON LOCUST STREET Downtown Santa Cruz at dusk. Photograph by Andrea Greenspan.
Submit to ph****@*******es.sc. Include information (location, etc.) and your name. Photos may be cropped. Preferably, photos should be 4 inches by 4 inches and minimum 250dpi.
GOOD IDEA
SURVEYING THE LAND
South of Davenport, the Coast Dairies Monument is shaped by rugged terrain, mountain ridgelines and six streams that pour into the Pacific. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is now accepting public input on the rules that will determine public access to the lands, public health and safety and protection of natural and cultural resources. Add your two cents by Jan. 30, 2023 at blm.gov/cotoni-coast-dairies.
GOOD WORK
HOMEKEY FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Last week, the state awarded Santa Cruz County $2.2 million in funds that will be used for permanent housing for formerly unhoused people. Santa Cruz County was one of four communities to receive a final round of funding from the state’s program Project Homekey. The money will help convert the former River Street commercial office space into seven units of permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals, with the goal of opening its doors by the end of the year.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“A people inspired by democracy, human rights and economic opportunity will turn their back decisively against extremism.”
At last Wednesday’s downtown farmers market, I saw a classic scene: At the foot of one of the very tall liquid amber trees, the sun shone on a little girl gleefully tossing autumn-gilded leaves in the air. When I remembered that this tree and others are to be axed because of a recent vote, my heart flooded with grief and sorrow for the Santa Cruz citizens willing to pave paradise and put up a parking garage.
Kathleen Tyger Wright
Santa Cruz
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Bestselling author Denver Riggleman, whose past jobs include bouncer, Air Force intelligence officer, tech CEO and Republican Congressman, wants people to think more about Jeff Bridges. Not the man himself, not even his Dude character, but the young, freshly scrubbed Jeff Bridges in the 1982 movie Tron, who somehow found himself leaving the flesh-and-blood world to end up inside a mainframe computer.
Imagine if the transfer went the other way, from the virtual world to the real one? And what if this “Reverse Tron” plague, as Riggleman has dubbed it, runs rampant, with digital extremism inciting acts of violence? That, he keeps telling people, is exactly what is happening.
But even when he sat on the New York Times bestseller list recently as co-author (with Hunter Walker) of The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation Into January 6th, Riggleman still felt like a man shouting into the wind, with no one heeding his warnings—the same way he did the day before the January 6 riots.
“What’s really scary is when digital violence and memes and fantasies actually become reality,” Riggleman told Good Times. “If you look at the attack on Paul Pelosi, if you look at the attack on January 6th, if you look at attacks like the QAnon father who killed his family because he thought they were possessed somehow. Because of QAnon, this radicalization and push towards hatred to dehumanization of others can actually become real-world violence in a very fast way. That’s a decentralized power of social media that the digital can be made real.”
Riggleman would like to dial back his cable-news spots and book-tour appearances, like the one he’ll make in Santa Cruz this week, where he sounds the alarm on the dangers of weaponized disinformation. He’d rather focus on the family business, Silverback Distillery in Afton, Virginia, where both his wife, Christine, and daughter, Lauren, are award-winning distillers.
But ever since Riggleman performed a gay wedding and became a target of QAnon, he has been on a mission to sound the alarm on the QAnon phenomenon, which in August 2020 he memorably called “the mental gonorrhea of conspiracy theories,” specifically warning of the rise of Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Elected to Congress in 2018, Riggleman had his own Republican party turn on him at the height of GOP Trump fervor after he officiated this same-sex wedding in July of 2019. He was defeated in the 2020 primary by an evangelical Christian candidate promoted by Trump and censured by a Republican committee in his home state of Virginia later that year. He subsequently left the GOP. PHOTO: Courtesy of Denver Riggleman
Riggleman is a former Republican, one more than willing to work with Democrats to fight against the MAGA legions. In fact, he played a primary role in Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger’s surprise recent reelection in the House, cutting a TV ad with her that analysts said cut through the fog of typical political noise by emphasizing bipartisanship and common sense. Riggleman was asked to work for the January 6 committee as a senior technical advisor, putting together teams that, for example, found the texts from Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pushing White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to take more radical action to undo the results of the 2020 elections.
“We have to remember that January 6th was a fundamental and coordinated attack on our democracy,” outgoing Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty told GT. “What I am taking away from the surprising results of the November election is that there is a fragile majority of Americans that are willing to fight back. Denver Riggleman is a fascinating figure because, like Liz Cheney, he’s willing to sacrifice his position and party for the cause. I hope we see more.”
Coonerty will join Riggleman this Friday, December 9, for a public discussion of how to save democracy in a time of mounting threats, at the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods.
Among the topics of conversation: Bigfoot, the subject of Riggleman’s first book, which was a study of disinformation. As Roll Call reported on a Riggleman appearance at a Washington conference earlier this year: “Riggleman connected opponents’ portrayals of his Bigfoot book in his successful 2018 campaign with how voters could be so fired up by people trying to make money off of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election that they attacked the Capitol.”
Coonerty, also a former Santa Cruz mayor, thinks the tide might finally have shifted with basic democratic values reasserting themselves. “I’ve taught voting rights and redistricting for almost 20 years at UC Santa Cruz,” he said. “Until recent years only the most politically interested students took the course. Now I’m having new students show up with a passionate interest and awareness of what’s at stake. It gives me hope for the future of democracy.”
With ‘The Breach,’ Riggleman (left) says he sought to show how predictive data can be used to stop the next January 6th.
GT spoke recently with Riggleman by phone about his new book and unusual political history.
You monitor right-wing online activity. What was your take on the recent series of antisemitic incidents in the news that included Kanye West being captured on video with Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes saying, “I like Hitler,” and social media’s explosive reaction?
DENVER RIGGLEMAN: We should be worried. If you look at what “J6” encapsulates at this point, it has become its own political movement, its own ideological movement, and a lot of that is really branded with antisemitism, racism and xenophobia. It’s really a free dereliction to believe the most insane conspiracy theories, either based on ignorance or the ability of grifters to persuade a large swath of constituents and voters that there’s some deep-state coup. I think what you see with Kanye West, Nick Fuentes, Alex Jones, all these grifters/true believers/Nazis [is that] instead of targeting generalized terms like “globalists” or “New World Order” or “deep state,” they are now just targeting Jews. It’s very, very effective, because if you can dehumanize and get people to believe that there’s one type of individual race, religion or ethnicity that’s creating chaos in America and trying to destroy it, that’s when violence happens. I think they have really changed their technique from more of an overarching globalist deep state type of attack on the United States, to “It’s just the Jews.”
Do you see this online conspiracy-mongering leading to more extremist violence?
I put out tweets on January 5th, 2021, that I saw violence coming the next day. A lot of people offered warnings. I wasn’t special. We had seen it coming with data for some time, and we thought it was inevitable to have violence. I would say right now I’m almost to the point—you never say anything is 100% down-the-line going to happen—but it seems inevitable that there’s going to be some pretty extreme violence, either against Jewish individuals or organizations.
You warned early on about figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, and co-sponsored a resolution (with Democrat Tom Malinowski) condemning QAnon in October 2020. You also went on CNN with Jake Tapper that month and specifically warned about—as the Post put it—“dangerous, wildly fantastical conspiracies that could lead to violence, including the one Trump promoted on Twitter on Tuesday.” Where do you see all this going?
I would say that information warfare is the new forever war. I don’t know if the two-party system survives social media. Inconsistency is a feature, not a bug for conspiracy theorists. They want to hit you right in the amygdala. When you have social media that’s so vast, with so many digital streams that seem to be transmitted directly into people’s frontal lobes, the fact is the digital can be made real. I call this “Reverse Tron.” Violence is decentralized. If you’re talking about antisemitism, it’s almost like a decentralized digital pogrom. You don’t know where the violence is going to come from because everybody’s on the same page—they’re using memes, cartoons and jokes to press their message out into this bizarre digital ecosystem of conspiracy theorists, antisemites, Nazis, racists and things of that nature that are populating the far right. The issue that we have right now in this new war, this new system, is that people who consider themselves normal could be caught up in some of these belief systems, which they don’t even know stems from deep-rooted virulent antisemitism or racism. That’s what scares me. You have people that are being tripped up online because they don’t have the baseline knowledge to really determine what’s fact and what’s fiction. I think that’s probably where social media is really effective in radicalizing people. They have their own digital prophets that they can rely on, and sadly a lot of this is religiously based. That’s very difficult to combat.
How much do you think Trump will continue to be a factor in this going forward, and in the 2024 election?
I think he is the presumptive nominee as we go forward. People are already counting him out, thinking that [Florida Governor] Ron DeSantis or other individuals might challenge him, and they certainly might. But even in polling as of right now, December 2022, Trump is still well ahead of DeSantis in polling for the nomination. To count Donald Trump out, I think, would be unfortunate. I think we have to be very aware that radical elements are still behind Trump. Even though when we see Kanye West, Fuentes and other people like that trying to take over as the chaos agents for the crazies, the conspiracy theorists, the white supremacists and the far right, I do believe Trump still has a leg up. He still controls the digital space and that’s really important for these type of actors and characters out there.
What was your goal in co-authoring ‘The Breach?’
This is a book about how data can be predictive on how to stop the next January 6th. It also delves into the history of some of these people. What this book really tries to look at with data is that past performance or behavior is indicative of future performance or behavior. Some of the same people that have pushed the insanity in the past and been able to profit off of it, they have been able to radicalize others. That is the key, that is the untold story of January 6th: How technology can be used to fight technology. In that way, we might be able to turn the tide on that 3 to 5 percent of the population that might actually be reached.
In this last election, you cut an ad with Abigail Spanberger and helped her win reelection. How did that come about?
She called me. Abby asked if I would be willing to do an ad, and I said yes immediately. I always believe as sane, rational humans, we should be supporting facts-based people over facts-challenged people. Her opponent was so batshit crazy that it was a no-brainer for me. Abby was such a good candidate, she’s been a great congresswoman, she really does care about her constituents—and she was running against somebody completely unhinged.
You’re no longer a Republican. Are you an independent?
Yes, you can call me an independent, but I’m a distiller, too. I like to listen to other distillers in history and take the advice. A famous distiller in our history, George Washington, he warned against the two party system or parties in general. Said that’s why he was unaffiliated. I will continue to be, probably forever, unaffiliated.
How does your family business, Silverback Distillery, shape your perspective?
Not only am I not in the political pipeline, I don’t need to grift and make money off this crap, off the political system, because we actually have real jobs. We own distilleries in Virginia and Pennsylvania. My wife and daughters really run the bulk of the business interests. The fact is that I just have an amazing family. I have amazing women in my life that have allowed me to try to help others. Without them, I wouldn’t be here today.
You’re still on Twitter, which seems like a very bizarre place now under the leadership of Elon Musk. What do you think Musk is up to, and where do you see all this going?
I think Musk enjoys being a chaos agent. I do believe he thinks there’s more money to be made long-term by appealing to a certain subset of crazies in order to push his own agenda. With the money that he has, he really is playing with the American public at this time with being completely disingenuous [while] taking away filters and content moderation. Now, somebody who loves the First Amendment, I can plausibly see what he’s saying about people coming out and trying to protect free speech. But the issue that you have on a private platform is that free speech is really pushing people towards violence.After the bizarre Kanye West antisemitism interview with Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes, “Hitler was right” trended at 500% more on the Twitter platform. You have a lot of eyeballs on this type of language.
What’s your advice for individual people out there who are just trying to stay sane in an insane world? What are the things that you emphasize that people can do and should do?
The scariest thing is that you have to confront lies and disinformation. You have to confront facts-challenged people where they live. You can’t let it go for a second. I don’t know if people are ready for that house-to-house intellectual fighting between the facts-based and the facts-challenged. But right now, I think we can only cut across maybe 3 to 5 percent of the independents and center right who have fallen for a lot of these conspiracy theories like “Stop the Steal” or globalist New World Order or Covid conspiracy theories. All of this stuff is very difficult to break through, especially if there’s religion attached to it. Sadly, that means people on the side of facts and data have to confront it every second of every day.
DENVER RIGGLEMAN will discuss his new book ‘The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation Into January 6th’ in conversation with outgoing Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty and Steve Kettmann on Friday, Dec. 9, at 7pm at the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods, 858 Amigo Road, Soquel. Free (RSVP required). in**@***************ds.org.
Laura Marcus admits that she’s not very good at keeping her opinions to herself.
Around three years ago, the CEO of Dientes Community Dental Care was handpicked by then-Santa Cruz County Supervisor John Leopold to lead a community meeting regarding a 3.6-acre plot of land on Capitola Road.
“People were like, ‘We want a coffee shop.’ There’s already a coffee shop. ‘We want a market.’ There’s already a market,” Marcus says. “I thought, ‘What could we do here that could have a real impact in the community?’”
That thought served as the kernel for a state-of-the-art health and housing campus at 1500 Capitola Road, where locals celebrated the first of two ribbon cuttings on Nov. 19. With Marcus holding one side of the giant ceremonial scissors and Santa Cruz Community Health (SCCH) CEO Leslie Conner the other, the pair chopped through the oversized ribbon as the large crowd cheered.
As the tag-teamed scissor chop might suggest, the health and housing campus is a partnership between Dientes and SCCH. On one side of the campus is a 20,000-square-foot, two-story facility that provides medical, behavioral health and specialty care with a focus on pediatrics run by SCCH. On the other side of the campus, Dientes runs an 11-chair clinic where it will provide comprehensive dental care to low-income patients of all ages.
Next fall, the 57 low-income housing units being constructed by nonprofit developer MidPen Housing will be completed and filled.
As music blares in the background from a live band hired for the event during an interview a few moments after posing for photos and shaking dozens of hands, Marcus calls the day a “surreal moment” for all those involved in the project over the past three years.
“We keep laughing and saying, ‘The hard part is over, and now the hard part starts,’” she says.
Filling a Need
According to the state’s Health Places Index (HPI), many of the neighborhoods in Mid-County are considered to be among the healthiest places to live. The HPI, a product of the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, determines a community’s health rating by measuring various social conditions that impact a person’s health such as education, job opportunities and clean air and water.
But as the cost of living exponentially rises and wages and employment opportunities for lower-income residents stay stagnant, not everyone in Mid-County is managing to make ends meet. Around 15% of Live Oak Elementary School students are considered homeless, about 15,000 area residents do not have a doctor and roughly 74% of adults in Live Oak don’t have access to affordable dental care.
Marcus says that the new Dientes facility will serve around 6,000 low-income patients a year. Around 3,000 of those patients, Marcus says, currently receive services at Dientes’ 1830 Commercial Way location, about two miles from the new spot on the other side of Highway 1.
“This [new location] really brings it into the neighborhood where people live,” Marcus says. “Some of our patients are going to be able to walk to this location, and that’s huge for them.”
Although securing transportation might not be a deterrent for some county residents, it could be the difference between making or missing an appointment for the low-income residents Dientes serves, Marcus says. That is why the new campus is revolutionary: It brings services closer to the residents’ doorstep. Along with the health care services provided by Dientes and SCCH, Watsonville Law Center will have an immigration lawyer working on campus and MidPen will provide various services as well.
“The people that are living here are getting the wrap-around services they need. This is the way of the future in my mind,” Marcus says. “Santa Cruz is desperate for housing, so why don’t we continue to do these partnerships where we’re offering more than just housing and create a community hub?”
The 1500 Capitola Road location won’t be the last time Dientes and SCCH team up on a project. The two are working with the City of Santa Cruz on a smaller but similar development downtown. Dubbed Pacific Station South, the seven-story, mixed-use building will provide 70 affordable housing units and medical office space for both providers when it’s completed in 2024.
SCCH’s Conner says the two housing projects are a step in the right direction, but stresses that the county, which was ranked the second-most expensive rental market in the nation earlier this year, “probably needs another thousand” units to make a significant impact.
“It’s hard, but it can be done. And it can be done in a beautiful way, and we need to do it,” Conner says. “As a community, sometimes we’re going to have to sacrifice so that there aren’t people living on the streets.”
Decades of Service
This is the 30th year that Dientes has provided services in Santa Cruz County. Marcus has been with the nonprofit for half of them, spending four years as associate director around the turn of the century before taking over the top spot upon her return in 2011.
In that time, Dientes has grown from 26 employees and a $2.5 million budget to 120 employees and a $15 million budget.
Along with its Commercial Way and Capitola Road clinics, it also has locations in the Beach Flats neighborhood and in Watsonville and hosts an outreach reach clinic at the Housing Matters campus on Coral Street. It also conducts outreach days at local schools and skilled nursing facilities, providing cleanings for families who cannot afford dental care.
With the addition of the new clinic, Dientes will now serve 18,000 patients a year, 97% of whom live at or below the poverty level.
“We’ve done a lot of good over the past decade, and we’ve got so much more to do,” Marcus says.
In the coming years, Dientes will not only open up the aforementioned clinic in Downtown Santa Cruz, but also add five chairs to its Watsonville clinic, bringing the total number of chairs at that location to 11.
Marcus says that the organization’s steady rise is a product of its hard-working staff, and its wide web of donors who have slowly but surely bought into the idea that good oral health can positively impact a person’s life in several ways, from giving them the confidence to smile wide during a job interview or addressing bothersome, painful issues with their gums and teeth.
Dientes is one of 63 nonprofits participating in this year’s Santa Cruz Gives, the holiday giving drive helping Santa Cruz County organizations. Their Gives project this year is providing “Healthy Smiles for All,” which would allocate funds to ensure “that cost, insurance, income, race, language and transportation do not prevent people from visiting the dentist.”
“We feel like we’re adding value to the rest of the services that are offered in the community. I think people get excited about that idea,” she says. “They’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. I see the value in a healthy smile.’”
Here are five other nonprofits operating in the health and wellness sector that are participating in Santa Cruz Gives:
Encompass Community Services
The largest provider of health and human services in Santa Cruz County, Encompass’ Gives project is the construction of a state-of-the-art behavioral health center in Watsonville. The Sí Se Puede Behavioral Health Center will provide personalized, bilingual substance use and mental health treatment to more than 1,300 people a year.
The center will help the organization build on its 30-year history of serving the Watsonville community through bilingual programming that is led by Latinos with lived experience with substance abuse disorders.
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte
Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this year declared California a Reproductive Freedom State, and a safe haven to all who seek abortion care. People are already traveling thousands of miles for care at Planned Parenthood health centers throughout the state.
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Gives project—called “A Safe Haven for All”—is to respond to an additional 250-500 abortion patients every week throughout its local affiliates as more and more states deny their residents the right to abortion services.
Families In Transition
The project this countywide nonprofit hopes to fund through Santa Cruz Gives will help local families restore their credit scores to give them a better opportunity at snagging one of the forthcoming affordable and low-income housing units currently under construction across the county.
Center for Farmworker Families
A nonprofit dedicated to helping the area’s impoverished farmworkers survive on the expensive Central Coast, the Center for Farmworker Families’ (CFF) project is called “Comida, Cobijas y Cariño” (Food, Blankets and Care), a new program that invites 20-30 members of their farmworker families to participate in a monthly small-scale distribution where they will not only receive food, but home goods such as blankets and bedding, cookware and personal health items such as toiletries.
At these events, CFF partners with other nonprofits such as the Community Action Board Santa Cruz County and La Manzana to educate farmworkers about services available to them. A representative from each farmworker family will be invited to participate in the distribution just 1-2 times yearly.
Community Bridges
In Santa Cruz County, 56% of residents age 5 and older do not speak English very well or at all, according to the Census Bureau. Community Bridges’ project for this year’s Santa Cruz Gives, called “Let’s Learn English Together!,” seeks to address this.
This initiative will teach non-English speaking parents during the day to speak English, and help pay for childcare for young children while their older children are in school. This will allow them to guide their children with schoolwork.
In Santa Cruz County, the poverty rate among those who worked full-time for the past 12 months was 3%. Among those working part-time, it was 16% and for those who did not work, it was 19%.
Three years after “pandemic” entered our everyday lexicon, there’s a new, unwelcome vocab term to learn: “tripledemic.” As the weather gets cooler, and friends and families gather indoors for holidays, emergency departments around the country must now balance an influx of Covid, flu and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) cases.
Santa Cruz County maintained low Covid numbers for most of the fall, but wastewater monitoring, reported on publichealth.verily.com, shows recent jumps in Covid, flu and RSV.
It measures copies of the viruses per gram of solid waste, which indicates levels of infection in a community.
“It’s, I think, a perfect way to monitor the health of the community,” Dr. David Ghilarducci, Santa Cruz County Deputy Health Officer, says. “One of the problems with testing is you’ve got to go to a testing center, you’ve got to get the test, you’ve got to wait for the results. There are lots of barriers to that.”
The wastewater numbers show community trends more accurately, but they don’t necessarily reflect the situation in local hospitals.
Emergency departments are now nearly full with the combined force of the three viruses. In a recent press release, county health officials urged people with mild to moderate symptoms to refrain from trips to the ER and instead recover at home or turn to primary care providers.
Ghilarducci reports that Dominican Hospital is nearly full. Alongside limited resources, staffing poses one of the biggest challenges, he says.
“A lot of people have burned out after Covid,” he says. “They have left the medical profession, have maybe been unwilling to work extra hours like they used to because they’re just tired.”
Covid and flu tend to hospitalize older adults, but RSV primarily affects young children, creating another strain.
“We started off with very little inpatient pediatric capacity in our county—really, statewide,” says Ghilarducci. “And so that is particularly scary because we might rely on sending kids to children’s hospitals over in Santa Clara County. Those hospitals are now full, and we’ll have kids that we’re going to have to take care of here in this county because there’s simply no place to send them. Capacity’s constrained everywhere.”
Before Covid, most kids were exposed to RSV before their second birthday. But Covid precautions largely kept both flu and RSV away. Now, four and five year olds are catching the virus alongside infants.
“So now we have this susceptible population that is catching up for the first time,” says Ghilarducci. “The same is true for flu; we largely skipped flu the last couple of years because of Covid precautions.”
Familiar Precautions
Now, with restrictions lifted and life returning to normal in many spheres, people are catching viruses they haven’t been exposed to in a few years.
“I’m actually least worried about Covid right now,” says Ghilarducci, citing a recent study that only about 5% of the U.S. population has never been exposed, either through infection or vaccination.
“That’s a far different situation than what we looked at last winter, and even better than what we saw the winter of 2021,” he says.
That’s not to say the situation couldn’t change.
“Covid continues to produce variants,” says Ghilarducci. And immunity wanes over time. “So we fully expect to see more hospitalizations and deaths from Covid.”
UCSC infectious disease ecologist A. Marm Kilpatrick makes similar points. The increase in transmissions over winter comes as no surprise, he says.
“We spend more time indoors, and environmental conditions allow viruses to persist longer in the environment—cooler, drier,” he says. “But the severity of the disease will likely remain low and decrease further unless a new variant arises with higher severity—or that is so different that it can evade multiple aspects of our immunity.”
Researchers have no way of anticipating a variant like that.
“We all hope it won’t happen, but no one can predict whether it will or won’t,” says Kilpatrick. “Anyone that says they can is spreading BS.”
Fortunately, familiar precautions work against all three viruses.
In another press release, Santa Cruz County listed several recommendations: Get vaccinated and boosted—and treated if needed. Stay home when sick to avoid spreading the viruses. Avoid going to the ER for anything beyond severe symptoms. Test before gathering with large groups of people. Wear a mask. Wash your hands, and cover your coughs and sneezes.
“If you’ve been boosted before, that’s great,” says Ghilarducci. “But if you don’t have the new booster, you don’t have full protection like you used to.”
He recommends the flu vaccine as well. There aren’t any vaccines for RSV yet.
And to the notion that the Covid pandemic is “over,” Ghilarducci responds that it hasn’t ended, just changed.
“I wouldn’t let your guard down. It’s okay to relax a little bit. But also think about all the principles that helped keep you safe and alive over the last couple of years,” he says. “Those, I think, will continue to be important.”
Batteries, fake leather, packing material, soil purification, dyes, imitation steaks and experimental treatments for alcoholism all have one thing in common: They can be made from mushrooms.
Fungi, a category of life completely separate from plants and animals, continue to surprise us, and experts have watched public interest bloom—or rather, mushroom—in recent years. In Santa Cruz, however, fungiphilia is nothing new.
Since 1974, visitors to the annual Fungus Fair have marveled at giant displays of local mushrooms and enjoyed fungi-filled foods. But Covid closed the doors on the multi-day event in January 2021, which had been held for the last several years at the London Nelson Center.
Last February, the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History teamed up with the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz to bring back a “mini” version of the free event. The one-day fair, outside the museum where the event launched almost five decades ago, drew nearly 1000 people.
The collaboration continues this year with another mini fair outside the museum on Dec. 10. It will include the classic fungi display and local vendors and activities.
One of many local varieties of mushrooms found throughout Santa Cruz County. PHOTO: Tarmo Hannula
Visitors can paint with mushrooms, sniff around an olfactory-focused booth or learn about lichens. Interested foragers can practice identification and bring their own mushrooms for the display, and the culinarily inclined can try “fungus forward food” from Areperia 831.
The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History will set up a station about identifying plants—a valuable skill for mushroom hunters. And local artists will display nature-focused art.
“We call it mini because it’s going to be smaller than London Nelson. But as you start to put it together, it gets bigger and bigger,” says Marisa Gomez, the community education and collaboration manager at the museum. “There’s so much love for mushrooms in Santa Cruz.”
The fair will kick off mushroom season both for the museum and the Fungus Federation, which will host mushroom hunts in January.
The Fungus Federation encourages people of all ages to explore the wild world of mushrooms. There’s only one rule: “If you don’t know what it is, don’t eat it,” says Phil Carpenter, a retired chemist who has led mushroom walks for more than three decades and is one of the science advisors for the federation.
“It’s not ‘maybe,’ but ‘for sure,’ because there’s a lot of lookalikes,” he emphasizes. To appreciate the beauty of mushrooms, just take a camera, he says. But for eating, it’s vital to get more in-depth.
“Learn how to identify, know people who know how to identify and know people that you can trust to give you the proper identification before you eat something,” he says. The Mini Fungus Fair could be a good place to start.
The Mini Fungus Fair takes place on Saturday, Dec. 10, 11am-3pm. Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, 1305 E. Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz. santacruzmuseum.org.
