Page 363 – Good Times

‘One-of-a-kind character,’ Lee Quarnstrom, dies

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September 30, 2021

‘One-of-a-kind character,’ Lee Quarnstrom, dies

As a reporter, Lee Quarnstrom worked for numerous publications around the U.S., including the Associated Press, the Register-Pajaronian and The Mercury News. He was also editor of Hustler magazine and a bookseller in Greenwich Village, and traveled with Ken Kesey’s peripatetic Merry Pranksters on their multi-colored bus “Furthur.”

He also wrote for Chicago’s famed City News Bureau, which was one of the first cooperative news agencies and considered the “school of hard knocks” for Novice journalists. He was a mailman and had a stint as a “dynamiter” on a trail crew in Olympic National Park.

Quarnstrom died Wednesday at his home in La Habra. He was 81.

He chronicled his life in the 2014 memoir “When I Was a Dynamiter! Or, How a Nice Catholic Boy Became a Merry Prankster, a Pornographer, and a Bridegroom Seven Times.”

Longtime Mercury reporter Paul Rogers, who worked with Quarnstrom at that paper’s Santa Cruz bureau from 1990-95, described his friend as a “bon vivant” who had “multiple amazing chapters” in his life.

“He really was a one-of-a-kind character,” Rogers said. “He packed about five lifetimes into one lifetime. He was one of those people who walked down the street and everyone would know him, and they’d either say ‘hi’ or shout obscenities at him.”

Quarnstrom began his career in journalism as editor of his high school paper in Winnetka, Wis. After his stint on a three-man trail crew as a dynamiter—where Rogers says he ironically discovered the solitude of the wilderness and the American landscape—his life took him to Mexico City, and then to Seattle, where he worked for the AP.

He then moved to the Bay Area where he worked for the San Mateo Times.

It was there that Quarnstrom scored an interview with “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” author Ken Kesey, whose newest book “Sometimes a Great Notion” had just come out.

That meeting sent Quarnstrom on a new path, where he discovered the Merry Pranksters and the on-the-road lifestyle that was reshaping the nation, Rogers said.

“He went up there and was just blown away with what he found,” he said. “Lee was so taken by all of this that a few days later quit his job and rented a cabin near where Kesey lived.”

Thus ensconced in the Haight-Ashbury haze of the era, Quarnstrom hung out with the Grateful Dead, was friends with gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson and consorted with Neal Cassidy, the man who was the inspiration for Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” Dean Moriarty character.

At some point during this time, Quarnstrom was married onstage to a woman referred to as “Space Daisy,” a wedding where the band Quicksilver Messenger Service played and music promoter demi-god Bill Graham hosted.

“He was at ground zero as the beat generation transformed into the psychedelic era,” Rogers said. “He was there, a witness to history for all of it.”

After his stint with the Merry Pranksters, Quarnstrom came to Watsonville to work for the Register-Pajaronian, where he stayed from 1969-78.

“He always loved Watsonville,” Rogers said. “He used to drive down there regularly to have lunch with city leaders and old-timers. He thought it was a really genuine part of California. He admired the people, he admired the landscape. He thought that sometimes it didn’t get its due.”

After that, Quarnstrom got a job as an editor at Hustler, an infamous pornographic magazine whose owner Larry Flynt had been recently shot for showing a Black man and a white woman together. Quarnstrom and Flynt’s wife, Althea, kept the magazine running during his recovery, Rogers said.

After his time with Hustler, Quarnstrom worked on a handful of Hollywood game shows before coming to the Mercury, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Former Watsonville Police Chief Terry Medina says that he knew Quarnstrom as one of the many reporters working a series of murders in Santa Cruz at the time.

“We were just about interacting every day,” Medina said.

But Quarnstrom did not fit the mold that most reporters did, he added.

“He was better than the average writer, but he was just living life to the fullest all the time,” Medina said. “He was fun to be around.”

Local author and historian Geoffrey Dunn, who was friends with Quarnstrom for 50 years, says he focused much of his writing on local and state politician Henry J. Mello. He also covered the United Farm Worker issues in the Pajaro Valley.

Dunn says that Quarnstrom had a sarcastic, cynical sense of humor and an occasional public persona as a “rough and gruff bully.” The latter, however, was not the image of the man they knew.

“Privately, he was a real sweetheart,” Dunn said. “He really enjoyed life. He considered himself a Buddhist-with a lower-case b. He had an acceptance of what life throws at you.”

Acosta Avoids Recall

Todd Guild

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September 30, 2021

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WATSONVILLE—An effort to recall Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Georgia Acosta has failed after organizers were unable to gather the roughly 2,200 signatures needed before Monday’s deadline to put it before voters.

Efforts to recall Acosta began early this year after the Area II Trustee, who had recently been sworn in as board president, led a charge to oust PVUSD Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez and replace her.

Rodriguez’s termination was reversed after days of public outcry. The board censured Acosta during a meeting in March, in a resolution that among other things accused her of missing numerous meetings and not publicly giving a reason for the termination.

A May 13 Pajaronian investigation found that Acosta has missed a total of 28 out of 135 possible meetings since 2016, which is a little more than 20%.

Acosta did not respond to a request for comment for this story. In a public statement opposing the recall, Acosta called the effort a “witch-hunt,” said that she was battling cancer for the past few years, and claimed that her attendance record is around 85%. She also said that a recall would be a pricey endeavor for the area’s taxpayers—estimates put the cost of the special election anywhere between $42,960 and $77,328.

“My primary focus has always been to benefit the students, families, employees and taxpayers of the PVUSD,” Acosta wrote.

The recall supporters in an email thanked the group of volunteers that helped with the effort. They did not say how many signatures they ultimately gathered.

“We all knew gathering the large number of valid signatures required to move the recall to the ballot was going to be an uphill battle,” the statement reads. “Both the level of community support we saw, and the overwhelmingly positive response we received while canvassing gives us hope that Georgia Acosta will be voted out of office if she decides to run for re-election.”

Acosta was first elected into office in 2016. She ran unopposed in 2020 and is slated to be on the board through 2024.

According to Ballotpedia, there have been at least 69 recall efforts against 181 school board members this year. Of those board members facing a recall, only one has been removed from office in an election, and seven resigned from office. The vast majority of recall efforts are either still underway (73) or did not go to a vote (85).

Supervisors Clarify Deed Requirement Affecting CZU Fire Survivors

Drew Penner

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September 30, 2021

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Supervisors Clarify Deed Requirement Affecting CZU Fire Survivors

Two women near the public comment podium hugged following a contentious item before the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Tuesday afternoon, as it reversed course on a move that would have affected the property papers of many rebuilding after the CZU Lighting Complex fires.

At first, some in the crowd that had descended from the San Lorenzo Valley weren’t quite sure what the unanimous decision actually meant, so Fifth District Supervisor Bruce McPherson spoke up.

“The long and short of it is we eased the covenant,” he said.

The supervisors are caught in a tightrope act of paving the way for frustrated residents to rebuild while protecting people from falling victim to a future disaster. The rugged terrain in the Santa Cruz Mountains means landslides are a real concern, particularly in the wake of a forest fire.

The CZU Lightning Complex destroyed 911 single-family homes, three multi-family structures and 148 commercial or mixed-use structures in Santa Cruz County, according to county staff. Approximately 90 additional residences were damaged.

After the majority of flames were extinguished, the Watershed Emergency Response Team (WERT) issued a rapid response assessment in October 2020, followed by the more-detailed Boulder Creek Post-WERT Study by the California Geological Survey in November. Both identified the need for the County to obtain additional information to assess risk areas more fully, staff wrote in its report.

A few months later, residents were forced to evacuate, again, as an atmospheric river sent pounding rain to the region, sparking fears of shifting earth that largely didn’t materialize.

Community Foundation Santa Cruz County funded a $200,000 study, completed by the Atkins group, an engineering and project management firm that was acquired by SNC-Lavalin in July 2017.

Atkins, which has worked on the Dubai Opera and Heathrow Airport, brought its analysis tools to bear on Santa Cruz County’s geology and hydrology.

On Sept. 14, before the report had been completed, the Board of Supervisors approved a directive that let eligible property owners skip the “site-specific geological report” step in the rebuilding process to promote the issuing of building permits. The catch was that the property owner’s title would feature a “declaration of covenant” that includes “an assumption of risk, indemnification of the County, and disclosure to future property owners of unknown geologic hazards.”

Local residents weren’t too thrilled about this plan, which was presented via a “sample” covenant.

“Members of the public have voiced opposition to recording such a covenant,” staff wrote, adding officials are looking into how this would impact financing and insurance. “The language in the sample covenant discloses that a geologic report was not prepared, geologic hazards have not been characterized, and mitigations have not been identified, resulting in a potentially substantial but unknown level of risk that is being accepted by the Permitee.”

But now, The Atkins Debris Flow—Flood Hazard Study for the 2020 CZU August Lighting Complex Fires report refines the “hazard zones,” and provides information that “will facilitate revision of the sample covenant document to make it less broad, and closer in format and content to the standard Declaration of Geologic Hazard that has been in use for many years,” according to the staff report submitted by Acting Planning Director, Paia Levine.

Many homeowners have faced seemingly endless roadblocks to rebuilding, from the requirement to remove toxic materials to concerns about sewage systems being too close to waterways.

Being told they couldn’t build somewhere they used to live, without changing their ownership documents in a way that could devalue their property or make it hard to sell—because of some high-level report—felt like another thorn in the side for some.

“I know it’s been a frustrating experience,” McPherson said, adding the time had come to make adjustments. “Let’s just get back to the basics.”

A parade of community members took to the microphone—mostly in person—voicing their worries, and downright exasperation, at the snail’s pace of post-wildfire reconstruction.

“Please support our neighbors who lost their houses,” said a Boulder Creek woman whose house did not burn down, speaking up for fellow locals. “It’s nothing short of a miracle that Boulder Creek wasn’t completely destroyed.”

Katie Webb, the Swanton representative on the Davenport/North Coast Association Board, zeroed in on purported “inconsistencies” in the Atkins report for that part of the county.

In the end, the supervisors voted to accept the Atkins report, although they did tell staff to look at the section Webb was talking about, to make sure any problems were fixed.

But that wasn’t the only CZU-related discussion at the regularly scheduled meeting.

In addition, McPherson asked State Senator John Laird to check on firefighting helicopters supposedly stuck in Orange County, and find out if they could be used for night operations.

Laird replied that he’s working to make sure districts in California don’t hold their firefighters back from helping areas in need, as occurred when the San Lorenzo Valley burned. And he’s trying to get the state to “rejigger” its rules to make it easier for prisoners to fight fires, he added.

The Board of Supervisors also voted to write a letter to Cal Fire requesting that an After-Action Review (AAR) of the State’s response to the CZU Lighting Complex be conducted and provided and, if the request is declined, ask Cal Fire officials to explain why they won’t do it. Supervisors McPherson and Ryan Coonerty had proposed this idea.

“The County conducted a review of County Fire’s operations pertaining to the CZU fire,” staff noted. “However, Cal Fire did not conduct a full AAR.”

The report is not meant to punish, but rather to improve the community’s ability to respond to future fire events, according to the staff report.County officials included an example after-action report the National Parks Service did for the Carr Fire, to demonstrate to supervisors how helpful such a document can be in identifying issues, successes and challenges in the aftermath of a wildfire.

Mandates Boost Vaccination Rates Among Health Care Workers in California

The New York Times and GT Staff

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September 30, 2021

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Mandates Boost Vaccination Rates Among Health Care Workers in California

By Shawn Hubler, The New York Times

California’s requirement for all health care workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, which took effect Thursday, appears to have compelled tens of thousands of unvaccinated employees to get shots in recent weeks, bolstering the case for employer mandates.

In a survey of more than a dozen of the state’s major hospital systems, most health care employers reported vaccination rates this week of 90% or higher, with hundreds — and in some cases, thousands — more workers in some systems opting to be vaccinated, rather than to apply for limited medical or religious exemptions, since Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration issued the health order Aug. 5.

The uptick in vaccinations comes as a federal vaccine mandate, ordered by President Joe Biden, is pending for hospital and nursing home employees. Several other states also have imposed mandates for health care workers, including New York, where employees at hospitals and nursing homes were to have received at least one vaccine dose by the start of this week.

New York’s mandate also accompanied a rise in vaccine compliance among health care workers, as did a mandate imposed by United Airlines, which reported this week that 99% of its workforce of 67,000 was vaccinated and that 600 unvaccinated employees would be fired. Two months after Tyson Foods mandated inoculation, 91% of its 120,000 U.S. employees are vaccinated, compared to less than half in early August.

At UC Davis Health in Sacramento, where 94% of some 15,000 workers are now vaccinated, Dr. David Lubarsky, the chief executive, said employee compliance was boosted both by the state mandate and an earlier one imposed in July by the University of California.

After the first mandate, he said, the system’s vaccination rate, which had plateaued at about 80%, rose by about 9 points, or roughly 1,350 employees. The needle then moved by another 5 points or so after the second mandate, adding 750 more vaccinated workers. By contrast, Lubarsky said, fewer than 1,000 employees systemwide have requested religious or medical waivers, and only about 50 are expected to be so vaccine-resistant that they will face disciplinary action and eventually lose their jobs.

Lubarsky credited the shift in part to the terrifying rise of the delta variant. Part, too, was a concerted strategy within the system to educate workers and combat misinformation. But, he said, “as deadlines loom, people tend to make decisions in their best interest.”

In a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Americans said fear of the virus’s delta variant, more than mandates, had fueled their decisions to get vaccinated. But California health authorities also note that the state’s aggressive stance on inoculation has contributed to one of the nation’s lowest rates of new coronavirus infections. About 72% of eligible Californians have had at least one dose of vaccine.

Nationally, requirements for health workers to be vaccinated have prompted some nurses and other hospital employees to leave their jobs. Some have retired early, while others have resigned in protest or taken legal action.

In California, some systems braced for disruption before the Thursday deadline as hundreds of nurses, technicians and other workers refused inoculation, but most said they were prepared to backfill staffing shortages with trainees, new hires or travel nurses.

California’s statewide rules for health workers allow employees to continue working unvaccinated if they can prove that the vaccine is dangerous to their health or prohibited by their religion; they must then be tested for the virus twice weekly and wear face masks.

But medical exemptions are rare, and most major religious denominations support vaccination. Many large hospital systems also have employer mandates that are more restrictive than the state measures, and some have told workers they cannot accommodate unvaccinated employees unless they can work fully remotely.

In parts of the state that are politically conservative or that have active pockets of vaccine resistance, some hospitals reported hundreds of applications for exemptions. A spokesperson for Enloe Medical Center in rural Chico, California, which last week reported a surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations among unvaccinated patients, said this week that only about 88% of the staff there is vaccinated. In another case, health authorities said vaccine refusals had left a hospital without ultrasound technicians.

The exemption requests represent a tiny fraction of the overall health workforce, but concentrated vaccine resistance among nurses and technicians has forced some already hard-hit institutions to scramble, said Jan Emerson-Shea, a spokesperson for the California Hospital Association.

At Sharp HealthCare in San Diego, which employs about 18,000 workers, 91.7% were vaccinated this week, up from 88% two weeks ago, according to a hospital spokesperson. But more than 500 employees remained unvaccinated, nearly 300 were only partly vaccinated, and nearly 700 had requested exemptions.

“It’s become a real challenge for some hospitals to get enough staffing,” Emerson-Shea said, adding that her organization has asked the California attorney general to investigate reports of price gouging by agencies charging hospitals hundreds of dollars an hour for travel nurses.

This week, state public health authorities offered health facilities a 45-day grace period on compliance to fill critical staff shortages caused by the mandate.

But California has generally taken a tough stance on pandemic health measures. At the start of the crisis, the state was among the first to issue stay-at-home orders, and it has been among the most aggressive in promoting masks and vaccinations.

Newsom — who earlier this month overcame a pandemic-fueled effort to remove him from office — said this week that the state is “in discussions” with school districts about a mandate requiring eligible students to get the vaccine. State health officials this week also extended the health worker mandate to include thousands of in-home health workers and health employees at senior centers, disability centers and hospices, giving them a Nov. 30 deadline.

“This is a critically important mandate that helps ensure the safety of all individuals in our health care system, and it especially protects those who are critically ill who rely on hospitals and other facilities to protect their health,” Dr. Tomás J. Aragón, the state’s public health director, said in a statement, adding that health authorities are watching deadlines closely and “expect full compliance.”

Compliance appears to be the aim at the state’s largest health care employers. At the massive Kaiser Permanente system, for example, more than 9 in 10 of the 216,000 employees and 23,000 physicians in California are fully vaccinated, a spokesperson for the system said. Two weeks ago, the system’s employee vaccination rate was about 87%.

At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, about 97% of 17,000 or so employees are now vaccinated. Dr. Jeffrey A. Smith, the chief operating officer, said that while most of the hospital’s staff and physicians were early adopters, as many as 800 employees got their shots after the state mandate limited their options to work at other California hospitals.

Similarly high compliance rates were reported by Stanford Health Care in Palo Alto, where officials said 97% of 15,000 workers were now vaccinated; at the sprawling Northern California system Sutter Health, where some 91% of employees and 96% of affiliated providers are now vaccinated, representing more than 54,000 health care workers; at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, where more than 90% of some 3,600 physicians and staff are vaccinated; and at UC Irvine Health in Orange County, where officials said the university and state mandates have boosted vaccination rates among nurses to 95%.

“We don’t do this because we want to force health care workers to get vaccinated; we do it because patients deserve protection,” said Sen. Richard Pan, a state legislator and pediatrician who led a push in recent years to tighten California’s vaccine laws.

“If you’re in health care because you’re committed to taking care of people, then getting vaccinated is a pretty straightforward decision,” Pan added. “If we stand firm, I think most people will step up.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Airport Benefits, Measure U Renewal and a Side of Anger

Tony Nuñez

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September 30, 2021

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Airport Benefits, Measure U Renewal and a Side of Anger

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville City Councilman Lowell Hurst has held office on and off since first being elected to the council in 1988. Typically, the seasoned politician takes fellow council members and the attendees of Watsonville City Council meetings back in time, and provides perspective on community issues—what’s worked, what’s failed and why things are the way they are. These recollections usually end with a lighthearted attempt at humor.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting Hurst’s comments on the City’s decades-long battle to update its general plan took on a much more somber tone.

“Usually when you look back at history, you’re nostalgic … it kind of feels all warm and fuzzy, you forget about the bumps and bruises … but in this case, this is sad,” Hurst said. “This is actually very traumatic for all the residents in Watsonville.”

What was supposed to be a quick preview of the City’s upcoming efforts to update its guiding document turned into a venting session for the elected leaders frustrated with restrictions placed upon them that they say halt their ability to address several issues and bring in revenue.

Among those restrictions highlighted by several council members: a pro p osed extension of Measure U, a ballot measure approved by Watsonville voters in 2002 that put limits on where and how the city could expand, and constant threats of litigation stemming from land use around Watsonville Municipal Airport.

“We’re hamstrung by forces that don’t live in the city,” Hurst said. “We’re hamstrung by other agencies and clubs and associations and business interests that don’t really share our interests in some ways.”

Those comments came after a presentation from Community Development Department Director Suzi Merriam that recapped the last 20 years of planning, litigation and disappointment the City has undergone while attempting to lay out its future.

In those two decades, Watsonville has lost lawsuits against the Watsonville Pilots Association (WPA), halting its effort to update its general plan—then called the Watsonville Vista 2030 General Plan—and leaving the City with a checklist of tasks needed for the update to advance. The City, Merriam said, tried to resolve airport land use conflicts with the WPA last decade, but there was no funding available to implement the court-ordered revisions to the general plan.

But with an influx of cash coming from the federal government thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act the City plans to use $1.1 million to update its general plan, and other land use documents concerning the airport.

That work is expected to get underway early next year, Merriam said.

On the day of the meeting, attorneys representing the WPA in a letter to the City Council said they had several concerns about the language staff used in its report. The letter stated that, among other things, the City was misrepresenting the language included in Measure U about potential housing development in the Buena Vista area around the airport, and that it was also trying to skirt the ruling of the court that it needed to incorporate the California Division of Aeronautics’ California Airport Land Use Planning Handbook into its general plan update.

Merriam and City Manager Matt Huffaker both said that was not the case and that the City would work with the WPA as the general plan update advances.

The letter and the greater discussion around the general plan, Measure U’s impact on Watsonville and the usefulness of the airport frustrated most of the City Council.

After saying that he didn’t care about WPA’s constant threats of litigation, Councilman Eduardo Montesino asked about the possibility of envisioning a future without the Watsonville Municipal Airport.

“It is very, very, very difficult and I don’t think necessarily in the City’s best interest, at this point, to look at closing the airport,” said Merriam, saying that it does provide economic benefits for the City as some large employers use the facility and that future innovations in the aviation field could make it a key resource.

Closing an airport, Merriam added, is also a long and expensive process that would not solely be up to the City. The Federal Aviation Administration also has a controlling stake in Watsonville Municipal Airport, she said.

“It’s not like us in the City can just decide to close the airport. There’s other players involved,” she said.

Montesino said that he strongly disagreed with Merriam about the benefits the airport provides to the community, highlighting the fact that other municipalities in Santa Cruz County have closed down their airports in the past and that it has for decades created headaches for the City.

“I just don’t understand people’s fantasy … we have all these boundaries, we’re landlocked,” he said. “We have to look at the greater public benefit. Does it equate to some small business interest having some privileges? Because it’s a privilege.”

Councilman Francisco “Paco” Estrada said that he does support Watsonville Airport Director Rayvon Williams’ vision for the airport, but that the proposed 20-year renewal of Measure U coordinated by a committee of agriculture representatives and local environmentalists could keep the City in a perpetual cycle of planning and litigation. A renewal would likely mean the city would have to continue building toward the sky in apartment and condo developments to meet its escalating housing mandates.

“We have all these small groups telling us how we can grow, how we can build our city—they tell us what type of transportation we can and can’t have—where’s the democracy there?” Estrada asked. “The needs of the people are not being met … It’s very frustrating because we’re doing our very best to make sure that each family has a home, that every child has a room, a kitchen, school, parks, but we can’t grow. It’s hard to not call out the racism in all of this.”

Councilwoman Ari Parker agreed with Estrada that the boundaries set in Measure U have reached their end date, and that simply extending them through 2040—as proponents are campaigning for—would be detrimental to the city’s future. During an earlier presentation at Tuesday’s meeting about how the City would be mandated by the State to accommodate another 2,100 homes over the next eight years, Parker worried about the decline in quality of life for Watsonville residents because of cramped living conditions as a result of dense housing development.

The committee backing the extension of Measure U filed its petition to the Watsonville City Clerk’s office earlier this year, and has until Dec. 15 to gather the roughly 2,200 signatures—or 10% of Watsonville’s voting body—needed to put the item before voters next November.

It’s unknown what effects a renewal of Measure U might have. The City recently commissioned a study to probe its potential impact.

Parker on Tuesday called for the WPA and agricultural community to come together with residents and City leaders to determine the future of the city.

“Let’s get together and have a real discussion about where the future of Watsonville goes and let’s be reasonable about it,” Parker said, “because just by positioning ourselves and saying that ‘it must be this way and that’s the way it is or we’re going to sue you again’ doesn’t serve the city we all profess to love so much in this Pajaro Valley.”

New Bill will Help Fund Pajaro River Levee Project

Todd Guild

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September 30, 2021

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New Bill will Help Fund Pajaro River Levee Project

SACRAMENTO—A new bill authored by state Sen. John Laird and Assemblymember Robert Rivas will fund all of the state’s share of the design and construction phase of the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project, which will help move forward the long-awaited work.

“Today marks a momentous day for the flood-prone communities of Watsonville and Pajaro,” Laird stated in a press release. “Governor [Gavin] Newsom’s signature of [Senate Bill] 496 will provide 100-year flood prevention in a region that has faced years of hardship due to unmet needs for infrastructure repair. This bill reflects a meaningful investment in a safer future for residents of Senate District 17.”

SB 496 directs the Department of Water Resources to pay 100% of the State’s cost-share for reconstruction—a total of $140 million—of the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project.

Gov. Newsom signed the bill on Sept. 24.

Before the bill, the State was only set to pay 70% of the total, says Mark Strudley, Interim director of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency.

Strudley says the funding will mean local leaders will not have to turn to the community to help fund the State’s portion of the project.

While paying for the maintenance and operations of the levee will fall partially to the community once it is completed, that cost will be much lower thanks to SB 496.

“This is going to reduce cost to the community in a big way,” Strudley said.

The next—and significantly more difficult—hurdle will be securing federal funding, for which roughly $260 million is still needed, Strudley says.

But he adds that the funding from SB 496 will be a signal for federal officials and the Army Corps of Engineers that the Pajaro Levee system is a worthy project.

That would be a big step, since federal allocations often are based on property values, leaving low-income communities such as Pajaro out, Strudley says.

“We’re hugely thankful to Sen. Laird,” he said. “This is the only authorization like this in the state of California.”

The Pajaro River project affects some of the most productive farmland in the world, as agriculture is a $750 million to $1 billion per year industry in the Pajaro Valley, Laird stated.

Santa Cruz County Supervisor and Chair of the Flood Control and Water Conservation District Zone 7 Zach Friend called the funding “nothing short of historic.”

“For decades, Watsonville and the Town of Pajaro have lived under the fear of flooding and unquestionably hope is on the horizon,” he said. “With current flood protection levels that are some of the worst in the nation, the State’s assistance cannot come soon enough and is greatly appreciated.”

Attempts to upgrade the system date back decades. Built in 1949, the levee breached and caused flooding in 1955, 1958, 1995 and 1998, when Pajaro was severely damaged and acres of cropland were destroyed.

The March 1995 flood caused more than $95 million in damage to the city and to 3,300 acres of agricultural land and forced evacuation of hundreds of families.

The Bench Excavation Project in 2012-13 removed accumulated debris from the levee and river and helped to increase water flow. But that was meant as a temporary measure.

Nancy Bilicich, co-chair of the Flood Control and Water Conservation District Zone 7, said the funding comes as a measure of success for efforts that have been years in the making.

“We could not have had better news,” Bilicich said. “Hopefully a new Levee is coming to Watsonville and Pajaro once the voters vote on the issue.”

Watsonville Mayor Jimmy Dutra called the funding a “major milestone.”

“We are incredibly thankful for Senator Laird’s leadership and advocacy, and the many dedicated City and County staff that helped make this a reality,” Dutra said.

SB 496 will take effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

County Lifts Indoor Mask Mandate as Covid-19 Cases Fall

GT Staff

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September 29, 2021

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County Lifts Indoor Mask Mandate as Covid-19 Cases Fall

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Vaccinated individuals are no longer required to wear masks in some indoor public spaces around Santa Cruz County after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday morning moved the county into a lower tier within its community transmission tracker.

Santa Cruz County over the past seven days saw 121 residents test positive for Covid-19, a major decrease from just a few weeks ago when some 275 people were identified with the disease over a seven-day period. The lower case count allowed the county to move into the yellow “moderate” tier, the third-least restrictive notch of the CDC’s four-tier system.

Wednesday’s move does not impact face covering requirements issued by the State of California. That means people who are unvaccinated against Covid-19 must continue wearing masks while indoors in public spaces, and schools, businesses, venues and organizations can continue requiring masks. Everyone, regardless of vaccination status, must also wear masks while using public transportation and visiting healthcare facilities and congregate shelters.

“Face coverings and vaccinations continue to be the best way to stop the spread of Covid-19 and protect yourself and loved ones from infection,” County spokesperson Jason Hoppin said in a press release. “It is strongly recommended that face coverings continue to be worn in all indoor spaces.”

Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel reissued her mask order on Aug. 20, as the number of people contracting Covid-19 grew.

According to the latest data available on the county dashboard, there were at least 471 residents testing positive for Covid-19 as of Monday. However, State data shows that the county’s test positivity rate over a seven-day period had fallen to 1.2%—it was at 4.6% when Newel reinstated her mask order in August.

The number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 in the county has also fallen since mid-September when some 22 residents were in local hospitals with the disease. The latest State data shows that 12 people were currently hospitalized with Covid-19, including two that were in the ICU.

For information about Covid-19 vaccinations and a list of vaccine providers, including local pop-up clinics, visit santacruzhealth.org/coronavirusvaccine.

Letter to the Editor: No Benefit for Locals

Letters to the Editor

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September 29, 2021

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Letter to the Editor: No Benefit for Locals

Re: “Great Wet Hope” (GT, 9/15): Thanks for publishing the well-researched and informative article by Erin Malsbury about the water situation in Santa Cruz County.

I have to disagree, however, with a comment quoted in the piece by Sierra Ryan, the Interim Water Resources Manager for Santa Cruz County. She claims that since new buildings are more water-efficient than old ones, the impact of development is irrelevant. In fact, these more efficient units are not replacing the old units, they’re just further adding to the demand by causing an increase in the population of our county, as well as adding to our traffic problems that are so apparent.

One would have to wonder why the Santa Cruz City Council majority have recently approved several projects amounting to more than a thousand new units (a minute fraction of them being affordable) without addressing the obvious water and traffic issues. At the same time, the city is continuing to force single residences to subsidize the water rates that business, hotels, the University and especially constructions projects pay.

The answer is unfortunately quite simple: the developers and real estate interests have bought the council majority their jobs by spending $750,000 on a recent recall election. This figure is especially shocking, taking into account the fact that the average council election has an expenditure of less than $30,000.

Yes folks, monied special interests have captured our town just as they have so frequently in larger political venues. People should be aware that they’re abdicating their responsibility of being informed voters if they are allowing themselves to be influenced by massive misinformation campaigns flooding their mailboxes with flyers. A good rule of thumb is if you see a lot of money being spent on an issue or campaign, ask yourself what special interests are at work here, and if they are acting in the public good—which would be very rare.

The onslaught has begun—witness the corner of Laurel and Front Street, which will take up an entire city block with an eight-story building, and is only a forerunner of many monstrous projects approved by the current majority. The livability of our city is going to continue to get worse. These projects do not benefit the current residents of Santa Cruz, only the greedy developers. It’s up to us whether we will limit further damage in the future.

Fred Geiger
Santa Cruz

This letter does not necessarily reflect the views of Good Times.To submit a letter to the editor of Good Times: Letters should be originals—not copies of letters sent to other publications. Please include your name and email address to help us verify your submission (email address will not be published). Please be brief. Letters may be edited for length, clarity and to correct factual inaccuracies known to us. Send letters to le*****@go*******.sc.

Things To Do in Santa Cruz: Sept. 29-Oct. 5

GT Staff

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September 29, 2021

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Things To Do in Santa Cruz: Sept. 29-Oct. 5

A weekly guide to what’s happening.

ARTS AND MUSIC

BANFF CENTRE MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL VIRTUAL FESTIVAL Bring the adventure home! Fluff up your couch cushions, grab a snack of choice, and make sure you have a good internet connection because the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour is Virtual! Travel to the most remote corners of the world, dive into daring expeditions, and celebrate some of the most remarkable outdoor achievements, all from the comfort of your living room. Films can be purchased individually or as a bundle. Banff will also be screening Award Winners: Monthly Film Series; join us online for a mixed program of award winners from the 2020, 2019 and 2018 Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festivals. Catch up on missed films or relive some of the best that Banff has to offer. Just announced is the Encore Classic Films from the past 10 years. Audience favorites. Don’t miss out! Screening until Oct. 24, 2021. Visit riotheatre.com for more information about the online programs and how you can support your local screening. You may also go directly to the Banff affiliate link for the Rio filmfest.banffcentre.ca/?campaign=WT-163945. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz.

COME OUT TO MOTIV SUNDAY NIGHT FOR “SHEDM: THE FEMALE CREATORS OF DANCE MUSIC” WHERE WE MIX IN THE DARKEST BASS BEATS BY FEMALE PRODUCERS Sundays: DJs are mixing in the darkest bass beats by our favorite female and LGBT producers. Don’t miss out. Guest DJs every week. Motiv nightclub is open and fully remodeled—there are all-new bathrooms and state-of-the-art dance floor lights. Add to your calendar: facebook.com/events/3008160246139834. Sunday, Oct. 3, 9pm. Motiv, 1209 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz.

VIBE-A-LICIOUS Join some of the finest vibe-slingers in Santa Cruz for an evening of conviviality, revelry, and booty shaking. Musical treats are carefully selected and blended by the mix masters on deck. Vibe-a-licious sound flavors will emanate from the speakers, satisfying your most voracious appetite for getting down. $5 suggested donation. For the health and safety of our fellow dancers, please be prepared to show proof of vax or a negative covid test (within 72 hours). Masks Required Indoors; please be mindful and respectful of physical distance. Line-up includes Denver Drake, Solkist, Lowdeka, Buxta Høøda. Saturday, Oct. 2, 8pm, 8am. Bocci’s Cellar, 140 Encinal St., Santa Cruz.

WESTSIDE MARKETPLACE Time for the Westside Marketplace, first Sundays at the Wrigley! Featuring local art, handmade & vintage shopping, food trucks, pop-ups and live music—all outdoors at the Old Wrigley Parking Lot on Mission. Free admission and parking, friendly leashed pups are welcome! For more details visit scmmakersmarket.com or foodtrucksagogo.com and keep an eye on our social media! Sunday, Oct. 3, 11am-5pm. The Old Wrigley Building, 2801 Mission St., Santa Cruz.

WHEN WE PAINT OUR MASTERPIECE: THE ART OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD COMMUNITY Learn how the members of the Grateful Dead and the global Deadhead community took inspiration from one another in creating an image-rich, worldwide art practice that, like the band’s music, scrambled perceived standards and norms. The creative works presented in When We Paint Our Masterpiece reveal a world full of variety when it comes to design practices, international traditions, visual icons, and vernacular art forms. There has been space for all of these patterns and visions in the community of fans and fellow artists that blossomed around the band, and that community of creators continues to thrive today. This exhibit explores the mutual appreciation among fans as well as between fans and the band. Free. McHenry Library, UCSC, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz. Through December 22, 2022.

COMMUNITY

CENTRAL COAST FIRST PEOPLES: MAKE A CANOE WITH LINDA JANKLOW / PEOPLEOLOGIE The Santa Cruz area is and was home to the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. Learn about ancient traditions using plants to make everyday tools and objects. Knot, weave, build a boat, and try it out in water! Registration required. The program will take place on the Felton patio. Saturday, Oct. 2, 1pm. Felton Branch Library, 6121 Gushee St., Felton.

CUÉNTAME UN CUENTO Acompáñanos para una hora de cuentos, actividades y canciones en español. Este programa es para niños de 0-8 y sus familias. La hora será miércoles a las 4:30pm. Nos reuniremos en el porche exterior. Cuéntame un Cuento se llevará a cabo en Capitola durante el período de construcción de Live Oak. En caso de mal clima, se cancelará la hora de cuentos. Join us for Spanish Storytime, activities, and music! This program is best suited for kids ages 0-8 and their families. Storytime takes place on Wednesday at 4:30pm. We will meet on the outside porch. Storytime will take place at Capitola during Live Oak’s construction period. In the event of bad weather, storytime will be cancelled. Wednesday, Sept. 29, 4:30pm. Capitola Library A Santa Cruz City County Public Library Branch, 2005 Wharf Road, Capitola.

FAMILY SANGHA MONTHLY MEDITATION Come help create a family meditation cooperative community! Parents will meet in the main room for about 40 minutes of silent meditation, followed by 10-15 minutes of discussion about life and mindful parenting. Kids will be in a separate volunteer-led room, playing and exploring mindfulness through games and stories. Parents may need to help with the kids for a portion of the hour, depending on volunteer turnout. All ages of children are welcome. Please bring toys to share. Quiet babies are welcome in the parents’ room. Donations are encouraged; there is no fee for the event. Sunday, Oct. 3, 10:30am-noon. Insight Santa Cruz, 740 Front St. #240, Santa Cruz.

FELTON TODDLER TIME Join Librarian Julie on our beautiful Felton patio for Toddler Time. Toddler Time is a weekly early literacy program for families with children ages 0-3 years old. Music, movement, stories, fingerplays, rhymes, and songs are a fun way for your child to learn. Let’s play and learn together! Make sure to bring something to sit on. We ask that adults please wear a mask. Repeats weekly. Wednesday, Sept. 29, 11am. Felton Branch Library, 6121 Gushee St., Felton.

GREY BEARS BROWN BAG LINE Grey Bears are looking for help with their brown bag production line on Thursday and Friday mornings. Volunteers will receive breakfast and a bag of food if wanted. Be at the warehouse with a mask and gloves at 7am. Call ahead for more information: 831-479-1055, greybears.org. Thursday, Sept. 30, 7am. California Grey Bears, 2710 Chanticleer Ave., Santa Cruz.

LA SELVA BEACH PRESCHOOL STORYTIME Join us for a fun interactive storytime. We’ll read books, sing songs and use rhythm and movement. This event is suitable for children ages 3-6 years. There will be an arts and crafts project to take home. This event will be held outside on the back patio. Please bring something to sit on and dress for the weather. Masks will be required. Repeats weekly. Tuesday, Oct. 5, 11am. La Selva Beach Branch Library, 316 Estrella Ave., La Selva Beach.

PRESCHOOL STORYTIME IN THE SECRET GARDEN Join us in the Secret Garden in Abbott Square at the MAH for storytime! We’ll share stories, songs and rhymes in a safe environment! This 30-40 minute program is intended for children aged 2-6. Do it yourself craft kits will be provided every week. Every other week we will feature STEM-related stories and concepts. Tuesday, Oct. 5, 11am. Abbott Square, 118 Cooper St., Santa Cruz.

PRESCHOOL STORYTIME ON THE FELTON PATIO Join Librarian Jackie on our beautiful Felton patio for Preschool Storytime. Preschool Storytime is a weekly early literacy program for children ages 3-5 years old and their caregivers. Music, movement, stories, fingerplays, rhymes, and songs are a fun way for your child to learn. Let’s play and learn together! Make sure to bring something to sit on. We ask that adults as well as children ages 3 and up please wear a mask. Repeats weekly. Thursday, Sept. 30, 11am. Felton Branch Library, 6121 Gushee St., Felton.

GROUPS

COMMUNITY PILATES MAT CLASS Come build strength with us. This very popular in-person community Pilates Mat Class in the big auditorium at Temple Beth El in Aptos is in session once again. Please bring your own mat, small Pilates ball and Theraband if you have one. You must be vaccinated for this indoor class. Suggested donation of $10/class. Thursday, Sept. 30, 10am. Tuesday, Oct. 5, 10am. Temple Beth El, 3055 Porter Gulch Road, Aptos.

ENTRE NOSOTRAS GRUPO DE APOYO Entre Nosotras support group for Spanish speaking women with a cancer diagnosis. Meets twice monthly. Registration required, please call Entre Nosotras 831-761-3973. Friday, Oct. 1, 6pm. WomenCARE, 2901 Park Ave., Suite A1, Soquel.

S+LAA MENS’ MEETING Having trouble with compulsive sexual or emotional behavior? Recovery is possible. Our small 12-step group meets Saturday evenings. Enter through the front entrance, go straight down the hallway to the last door on the right. Thursday, Sept. 30, 6pm. Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center, 2900 Chanticleer Ave., Santa Cruz.

WOMENCARE ARM-IN-ARM WomenCARE Arm-in-Arm Cancer support group for women with advanced, recurrent, or metastatic cancer. Meets every Monday at WomenCARE’s office. Currently on Zoom. Registration is required, call WomenCARE at 831-457-2273. All services are free. For more information visit womencaresantacruz.org.. Monday, Oct. 4, 12:30pm.

WOMENCARE MEDITATION GROUP WomenCARE’s meditation group for women with a cancer diagnosis meets the first and third Friday from 11am-noon. For more information and location call 831-457-2273. Monday, Oct. 4, 11am-noon. WomenCARE, 2901 Park Ave., Suite A1, Soquel.

WOMENCARE TUESDAY SUPPORT GROUP WomenCARE Tuesday Cancer support group for women newly diagnosed and through their treatment. Meets every Tuesday currently on Zoom. Registration required, call WomenCARE 831-457-2273. Tuesday, Oct. 5, 12:30-2pm.

WOMENCARE: LAUGHTER YOGA Laughter yoga for women with a cancer diagnosis. Meets every Wednesday, currently via Zoom. Registration is required, please call WomenCARE at 831-457-2273. Wednesday, Sept. 29, 3:30-4:30pm.

OUTDOOR

CASFS FARMSTAND Organic vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers are sold weekly at the CASFS Farmstand, starting June 15 and continuing through Nov. 23. Proceeds support experiential education programs at the UCSC Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems. Friday, Oct. 1, Noon-6pm. Tuesday, Oct. 5, Noon-6pm. Cowell Ranch Historic Hay Barn, Ranch View Road, Santa Cruz.

EVERGREEN AT DUSK: CEMETERY HISTORY TOURS Welcome back to our second year of Evergreen at Dusk historical tours. We invite you to discover the stories and secrets found within Evergreen Cemetery, one of the oldest public cemeteries in California, on a self-guided or private tour of the grounds. Bring your curiosity as you explore the final resting place of Santa Cruz’s early settlers. The 45-minute tour uncovers the stories and tombstones of the people who made Santa Cruz what it is today. Designed for the daring, the curious, and the history-loving. This tour is great for all ages! Each tour should take 30-45 minutes to complete. The time you select is when your group/household tour begins, we recommend arriving 5-10 minutes early to ensure you can begin right on time. Upon arrival, find the MAH table near the iconic Evergreen Arch. We will give you the printed map and guide with a brief introduction to Evergreen. Following the welcome, you are then free to follow the scavenger hunt like map and travel back in time uncovering the stories buried across the grounds. Go at your own pace and begin your adventure. We’ll be there on-site to help you get from tombstone to tombstone if assistance is needed. This tour will be led by a MAH staffer and is available to two households per night. Dig deeper into the stories and history of the cemetery. This tour has to be on your Santa Cruz Bucketlist. Please be sure to wear your mask if you are not vaccinated and maintain a 6-ft distance when around other explorers or MAH staffers. Thursday, Sept. 30, 4-7pm. Evergreen Cemetery, 261 Evergreen St., Santa Cruz.

FREE TUESDAY AT UCSC ARBORETUM Community Day at the UCSC Arboretum, free admission on the first Tuesday of every month. Come explore the biodiversity of our gardens, great birdwatching or simply come relax on a bench in the shade. Tuesday, Oct. 5, 9am. UCSC Arboretum & Botanic Garden, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz.

GUIDED COASTAL WALK On this 2.5-mile family-friendly walk, we’ll explore the plants, animals, and geology of our coastal bluffs. Bring water, hat, closed-toe shoes, layered clothing, and binoculars if available. Meet next to the park map in Wilder Ranch main parking lot. Rain cancels. Vehicle day-use fee is $10. For more information, call 831-426-0505. Spaces are limited and early pre-registration is recommended. Attendees are required to self-screen for Covid-19 symptoms when pre-registering. Masks and social distancing are also required at all programs. To register, visit santacruzstateparks.as.me/schedule.php. Saturday, Oct. 2, 11am. Wilder Ranch State Park, 1401 Coast Road, Santa Cruz.

HISTORIC RANCH GROUND TOUR Discover what life was like a century ago on this innovative dairy ranch. This hour-long tour includes the 1896 water-powered machine shop, barns and other historic buildings. The vehicle day-use fee is $10. For more information, call 831-426-0505. Spaces are limited and early pre-registration is recommended. Attendees are required to self-screen for Covid-19 symptoms when pre-registering. Masks and social distancing are also required at all programs. Saturday, Oct. 2, 1-2pm. Sunday, Oct. 3, 1-2pm. Wilder Ranch State Park, 1401 Coast Road, Santa Cruz.

SUNSET BEACH BOWLS Experience the tranquility, peace and calmness as the ocean waves harmonize with the sound of crystal bowls raising vibration and energy levels. Every Tuesday one hour before sunset at Moran Lake Beach. Call 831-333-6736 for more details. Call 831-333-6736 for more details. Tuesday, Oct. 5, 6:30-7:30pm. Moran Lake Park & Beach, East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz.

YOU PICK ROSES We are growing over 300 roses, deeply fragrant, lush and in every color, and we want to share them with you! Get out of the house and enjoy cutting a bucket of roses for your pleasure or to share with family and friends. Visit birdsongorchards.com to make a reservation. Once you have made a purchase, you will be sent a calendar link to pick a time for your reservation and directions to our farm in Watsonville. Friday, Oct. 1, 11am. Sunday, Oct. 3, 11am.

The Jewel Theatre Returns with ‘Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle’

Christina Waters

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September 29, 2021

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The Jewel Theatre Returns with ‘Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle’

Coming together in an improbable encounter are Georgie (Erika Schindele), an uninhibited American in her early 40s, and Alex (Paul Whitworth) a staid Irishman in his mid-70s.

They might as well be from two different planets, as we quickly discover at the tempestuous start of Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle, the vibrant opening production of the Jewel Theatre’s long overdue 2021 season. So randomly implausible is their meeting—much less their ensuing entanglement—that they might as well be acting out a version of quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.

In fact, they are. Playwright Simon Stephens argues that none of us can possibly know how or when random occurrences can alter our well-ordered world. Think of it as a high-concept variation of screwball comedy: a wacky woman pursues an inhibited man and overthrows his world—and hers—in the process. Two radically unsuited people collide, clash, and invariably begin adjusting themselves until, well, I won’t reveal the ending. Heisenberg flirts with that cliché just enough to catch us off-guard, and then sets up a whiplash trajectory.

From the moment she encounters Alex, Georgie gushes, confesses, vacillates, and refuses to be pinned down. Written by the British Stephens as a stereotypically uninhibited American woman, Georgie swears constantly, gestures impulsively and changes moods pathologically. “I’m a waitress, no I’m not, yes I am,” she tells Alex. Heisenberg himself would smile at the very idea of us trying to predict the behavior of any human being. Certainly not Georgie, as finessed by an adroit and kinetic Schindele.

Just as we grow used to the idea that Georgie is a wildly dysfunctional but worldly character, the playwright reveals Alex’s own eccentricities, and his sophistication about life, sex, love, and music. To hear Paul Whitworth enumerate the seemingly endless styles of music his character enjoys—from rock ’n’ roll to classical to rap to dubstep—is to be enchanted. By the end of the play, the colliding characters have almost exchanged places, each awakening to the random possibilities of an unpredictable world. It’s hard to grasp that you’re watching actors, rather than eavesdropping on two people transform impossibility into transformative grace.

Schindele brings aerobic energy to her role as a loose cannon in this artful and entertaining production. Her nonstop outpourings of half-truths and expletive-infused guesses ricochet against the bemused quirks of Paul Whitworth’s Alex. She might be nuts, he might be lonely. She might be missing a son, he might talk to his dead sister. Along with the audience, the two of them have to guess when and if the other is telling the truth—or what that might even mean. The pace accelerates when Alex responds to Georgie’s abrupt sexual overtures. And some of the finest scenes between the two actors happen in the intimate moments they both relish in the play’s center. We are as surprised as they are at their happy collision, however temporary it may be.

What a pleasure to see Paul Whitworth take the stage again. Just to hear his astonishing voice, grown lower in pitch over the years, is akin to inhaling a snifter of fine single malt. While his Irish accent occasionally wanders, his control of face and hands—every movement—is rich with nuance. Whitworth has an uncanny ability to embody the act of listening; I’ve never seen an actor do so with more ferocity, care and wit than he does in Heisenberg. The two actors work seamlessly together, speaking and moving continuously throughout the production. The satisfying and spare set design by Andrea Bechert becomes a train-station bench, a butcher counter, a restaurant table, a bed, and a desk. These appear and disappear through a few deft moves by the players.

Smart lighting design by Kent Dorsey and fine direction by Paul Mullins add to the lingering spell of Heisenberg, the start of a theater season we’ve missed for so long.

As the chaos of opposing paces and purposes begins to synchronize, the play heads toward into a surprise dance of closure. As in quantum physics, things aren’t where we look for them, and when we look too closely, they disappear. Applying this metaphor to the collisions of two unlikely people, Heisenberg reverberates long after the lights have come up.

‘Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle,’ starring Paul Whitworth and Erika Schindele, plays at the Jewel Theatre through October 10.

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ARTS AND MUSIC

COMMUNITY

GROUPS

OUTDOOR

The Jewel Theatre Returns with ‘Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle’

‘One-of-a-kind character,’ Lee Quarnstrom, dies

Acosta Avoids Recall

Supervisors Clarify Deed Requirement Affecting CZU Fire Survivors

Mandates Boost Vaccination Rates Among Health Care Workers in California

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New Bill will Help Fund Pajaro River Levee Project

County Lifts Indoor Mask Mandate as Covid-19 Cases Fall

Letter to the Editor: No Benefit for Locals

Things To Do in Santa Cruz: Sept. 29-Oct. 5

The Jewel Theatre Returns with ‘Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle’