Santa Cruz Gives Kicks Off Its Biggest Campaign Ever

-
0
Santa Cruz Gives Kicks Off Its Biggest Campaign Ever

After five years of rapid growth, our Santa Cruz Gives holiday campaign is doubling the number of local nonprofits we accepted to 80. Here’s a guide to the projects they will fund with your donations

Alzheimer’s Association

Big Idea for 2022: “Alzheimer’s Doesn’t Stop—Neither Do We.” More than 5,300 people in Santa Cruz County live with Alzheimer’s and other dementias, and another 8,000 loved ones and caregivers are impacted. All deserve reassurance they are not alone on their journey. The Alzheimer’s Association in Santa Cruz connects people with a community of support every step of the way. All services are free and offered in English and Spanish by phone, virtually, and in-person, including care consultations to help families anticipate and plan; support groups to connect with others who understand the journey; education on topics such as how to have dementia conversations, effective communications with those living with dementia, self-care for caregivers; healthy living for brain and body.

Arts Council Santa Cruz County

Big Idea for 2022: “Watsonville Movement for Arts and Culture.” Imagine a bustling, welcoming, and inclusive space for artists, arts organizations and the community in Watsonville. A place where we all belong, are rejuvenated and have fun through the arts. Our collective yearning for a space to create, experience joy and feel connected to ourselves and each other is palpable. Let’s build a home for the arts rooted in Watsonville’s rich cultural traditions, hopes and imagination.

BalanceSCC

Big Idea for 2022: “2022 Teacher Grant Fund.” Our Teacher Grant Fund grants more than $25,000 in supplies annually directly to local teachers and service providers for items they need but cannot afford. Typical items are Chromebooks, iPads, therapeutic chairs and swings, etc. We typically gift to approximately 60 local teachers/specialists who each work with 30-200+ students with unique needs each year. We raise the funds from the community to support this effort. We have also given free training to more than 100 local educators for school staff to help children learn constructive ways to handle crisis.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Cruz County

Big Idea for 2022: “Transgender Matching Program & LGBTQ+ Service Expansion.” Big Brothers Big Sisters began matching transgender youth throughout the county with volunteer transgender adult mentors in 2015. We will increase support to our mentors, matches and other agencies on LGBTQ+ matters through training, roundtables and enhanced match support and activities to address this underserved population. We work in close partnership with other agencies to implement a proven mentoring model, which serves as a national model.

Birchbark Foundation

Big Idea for 2022: “Love Heals.” When a pet has a health crisis with a good prognosis, the unique love of a family animal must never be lost simply due to cost. BirchBark will provide stability to vulnerable families faced with fixable, but unaffordable, urgent veterinary care. Our goal is to provide healing love and save the lives of 100 pets with Santa Cruz Gives donor funds. In addition, we help our veterinary partners, who often must euthanize pets and are extremely affected emotionally when clients do not have financial resources to save their animals’ lives. 

Bird School

Big Idea for 2022: “Spreading our Wings.” Research clearly indicates that time spent connecting with nature significantly improves people’s mental and emotional well-being, which is seriously at risk for many young people today. The Bird School Project looks forward to expanding access to transformative pathways in birding, community leadership, field experiences and overall personal health and well-being for the students of Santa Cruz County. With your support, BSP strives to reach more students from minority and underrepresented backgrounds, providing resources and mentorship for them to become environmental changemakers. Our highly successful core program costs only $6 per student. Funds raised supplement the cost of our program for schools in Santa Cruz County, often making it free. 

Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County

Big Idea for 2022: “Power Hour + SMART Moves Programs.” Our clubhouse-wide “Power Hour” program complements and reinforces what youth learn at school via daily 60-minute sessions in which every member at the club receives homework help, tutoring or participates in self-directed learning. The SMART Moves program supports social-emotional learning and helps youth strengthen healthy decision-making, boost self-esteem, avoid risky behaviors, develop assertiveness, analyze media and peer influence and build resilience. 

CASA of Santa Cruz County

The Big Idea for 2022: “Advocating for Foster Youth in Santa Cruz County.” CASA recruits, screens, trains and supervises Volunteer Advocates to work one-on-one with children and their families to support reunification or permanent placement into a safe and healthy home. Advocates get to know their child’s situation and needs, help caregivers access resources to meet those needs, and advocate for the child’s best interests in court, community, and school settings. They build strong relationships with the family and work with a CASA Advocate Supervisor to create an Advocacy Plan for their child. 

Camphill Communities

Big Idea for 2022: “Solar for a Sustainable Future.” Over the past two years, we raised funds to install solar panels and batteries on all current homes and properties. In order for Camphill to provide affordable housing for aging residents, staff and volunteers, we need to build an additional home for those who wish to age in Camphill and stay in our community. We have the funds for the building, but now all new construction in Santa Cruz County requires solar panels. Having the funds to install this will allow us to provide adequate housing, and ensure the future of our organization and the people we serve.

Catholic Charities

Big Idea for 2022: “Together we thrive! Juntos salimos adelante!” Your generosity will provide direct rental and utility assistance to Santa Cruz County residents still struggling with the economic effects of the pandemic. Seniors and adults ineligible for federal aid continue to walk through our doors seeking help and hope to stabilize their homes. Your support can provide up to $1,200 in rental and utility assistance to each individual struggling with past due rent or bills. Catholic Charities is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency serving people of all backgrounds and beliefs. Typically our Emergency Rental and Utility Assistance program runs November–February but has been adapted to a year-round program to support people financially impacted by the pandemic.

California Certified Organic Farmers Foundation

Big Idea for 2022: “Hardship Assistance for Organic Farmers & Processors.” The Bricmont Hardship Assistance Fund is the only fund in the U.S. that provides direct financial assistance exclusively to organic producers who suffer financial losses due to extreme hardship. This fund is 100% pass-through, so every dollar we raise goes directly to an organic farmer or producer that is experiencing extreme hardship. In 2020, applications to this fund quadrupled (as did our award amounts) as the organic farming community experienced market, workforce and supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic and wildfires in the West. We are again bracing to support the increased need as the pandemic continues, accompanied by drought and fires. 

Coastal Watershed Council

Big Idea for 2022: “Healthy River, Healthy Santa Cruz!” We envision the Santa Cruz Riverwalk becoming Santa Cruz’s Central Park. CWC organizes volunteers to pick up trash, pull invasive weeds, and plant native plants to improve the beauty of the Riverwalk and invest in a healthier river ecosystem. Over the past few years, the San Lorenzo River has taken a turn for the worse due to drought, misuse and neglect. This river is our city’s main source of drinking water, it is home to threatened and endangered species and was the cornerstone to our city’s founding. This river needs us and we need it. Every donation is a gift to protect the river that we rely on and impact every day.

Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County

Big Idea for 2022: “A Helping Hand to Underserved Communities.” Amid the overall wealth of Santa Cruz County, certain communities have historically been left out. We created a “basket” of items this year for Santa Cruz Gives donors to show you what we can do together to counteract the historic omission in a small way at a local level. CAB will fund DACA renewal scholarships for two immigrant youth; purchase ingredients for six community meals for 12 local seniors at the Davenport Resource Service Center; provide vaccination gift card incentives to 50 farmworkers; and give direct financial assistance to four families experiencing homelessness, plus 20 families of Day Worker Center members who lost work due to Covid.

Community Bike Collective

Big Idea for 2022: “Community Bike Camp.” Community Bike Collective is rooted in our community, equity and justice. Our Summer Bike Camp is free to local youth, with a focus on under-resourced and underserved youth in Santa Cruz County. If kids don’t know how to ride, we teach them. We implement life-changing programs for local youth. Many of our youth have never seen a redwood tree or been to the beach! Your support will fund impactful programs that engage youth through learning in action with hands-on activities including bike skills, life skills, self-care, community-care, healthy living and local history. 

Community Connection at the Volunteer Center

Big Idea for 2022: “Meaningful Connections & Food for our Vulnerable Neighbors.” Our community members living with serious mental illnesses are some of the most vulnerable and isolated in the community. During the pandemic, while many of us struggled with isolation and the inability to connect with people and activities that bring meaning and health to our lives, they suffered greatly. We have provided healthy food deliveries and regular contacts through phone and internet outreach to the mental health community we serve. We now need to raise funds to continue our food distributions and services connecting participants to activities such as education, work and volunteerism that improve lives and make our community stronger. 

Community Life Services

Big Idea for 2022: “Build Back Santa Cruz County.” Businesses cannot find the talent, labor and employee commitment to fully recover from the pandemic. We have a solution. Even before Covid, we supported adults with disabilities to prepare and join the workforce—and we haven’t stopped. Currently, we have 25 individuals looking for meaningful work. We seek your donations to fund a temporary, dedicated, part-time Employment Specialist to focus on outreach, engagement, networking and training with local businesses to provide employee matches of all abilities and prepare and diversify their workforce as we build back our local economy and include everyone. 

County Park Friends

Big Idea for 2022: “Scholarships for Kids.” Every kid should have a chance to experience the wonder, health, wellness and joy available in our Santa Cruz County parks, beaches and trails. Our scholarships and equity programs knock down barriers that include fees, language, accessibility and transportation. We make sure our programs (such as Learn-to-Swim lessons and Junior Pool Guards) and public spaces are truly welcoming to all families in our community. We would like to continue this important work, which has become more critical for families during the pandemic.

Dientes Community Dental Care

Big Idea for 2022: “Give Kids a Smile Day.” Toothaches are one of the most common reasons low-income kids miss school. Dientes’ Give Kids a Smile Day provides life-changing, free dental care to uninsured children in Santa Cruz County, and is a part of our Dientes Cares for Kids program. Our goal is to make prevention more common than treatment so that kids can focus on school instead of a toothache.

Eat for the Earth

Big Idea for 2022: “Community Rx.” Community Rx supports community members who want to make a dietary change that prevents and often reverses deadly chronic diseases, reduces severity of COVID symptoms, contributes positively to the environment, is kind to non-human animals and tastes great! Eat for the Earth provides education and advocacy promoting the benefits of plant-based and plant-strong diets. Our accomplishments include working with nine restaurants to increase plant-based offerings; providing education at 10 community festivals in our county, and serving 450 free, whole-food, plant-based meals and 8,787 food samples; holding seven free dinner party presentations; and providing educational speakers for local events.

Ecology Action

Big Idea for 2022: “Youth Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Education for All.” At Ecology Action, we are doing our best to create and deliver cutting-edge school-based programs that teach vital bike and pedestrian safety skills to elementary students: Walk Smart and Bike Smart. In one generation, student walking/biking to school has dropped from 50% to 15%. Our surveys show the major reason is concern about student safety. By providing the right training and boosting student skills and confidence, we believe we can move the needle on safe biking and walking to schools—a benefit for the entire community. Please help us bring this valuable, popular program to all Santa Cruz County second and fifth graders.

Families in Transition

Big Idea for 2022: “Set Up for Success.” Toward our goal to end and prevent homelessness in the County, our project will help families in our program with essential expenses that restrictive government funding leaves out. Necessary expenses include bedding, pajamas, cleaning supplies and nutritious food to fill the fridge. With Set Up for Success, donors choose the amount they’d like to donate and will know how our organization benefits a family in need. $50 provides groceries for a family of four; $100 provides groceries and cleaning supplies for a family of four; $250 provides groceries, cleaning supplies and clothing for a family of four; $500 provides the essentials that help make a house a home.

Farm Discovery at Live Earth

Big Idea for 2022: “Community Produce Distribution + Nutrition Education.” This program increases access to fresh fruits and vegetables, nutrition and environmental education, and relieves food and nutrition insecurity, resulting in improved community health and environmental stewardship. We donated 96,000 lbs. (48 tons) of produce in 18 months during the pandemic. An average of 25 lbs. of produce feeds a family of four for one week—therefore, we feed about 50 families per week. With your support, we’ll continue this, keeping our cost to only $1.30/lb. of produce, which covers the produce and all labor to keep the project going. We provide produce, through partners, to farmworkers, families, kids, homeless and veterans. 

“Food, What?!”

Big Idea for 2022: “Support FoodWhat’s New Culinary Manager Role.” Starting in 2022, we will introduce our newest position, the FoodWhat Culinary Manager! Our Culinary Manager will create culturally-relevant recipes, teach youth employable culinary skills, coordinate distribution of home meal kits, hold online culinary sessions for youth, and support youth as they run their farm-based businesses. Through FoodWhat, Latinx youth address health disparities related to lack of access to healthy food and the need for supportive community. 

Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries

Big Idea for 2022: “Realizing the Promise.” We are raising funds to bridge the gap between Measure S (passed in 2016 for basic infrastructure upgrades) and the needs at the 10 branches in the Santa Cruz Public Libraries. We already completed three beautiful branches in 2019-2021. We are supporting renovations at Branciforte and Garfield Park in 2022, and an expanded facility in Aptos will be complete in early 2023. $1 million will help to create new library spaces for children, teens, community programs, adult services, exhibits, collaborative study areas and learning activities, together with new collections, technology, equipment and furnishings required to attain the community’s vision. 

Girls Inc.

Big Idea for 2022: “Friendly PEERsuasion Program.” The Friendly PEERsuasion program is a unique response to the needs of girls because it approaches drug-abuse prevention as a peer issue, using the positive influence of young people modeling healthy behavior. Phase I is a series of workshops that train seventh grade girls (ages 11-14) as facilitators with skills such as decision-making, assertiveness, and communication. They also practice walking away from situations where they feel pressured to use alcohol or drugs. In Phase II, the newly trained “PEERsuaders” work with fourth and fifth grade girls (ages 6-10) as role models and leaders, guiding activities that help avoid girls’ use of harmful substances, especially by giving them skills to refuse and walk away.

Grey Bears

Big Idea for 2022: “The Joy is in the Journey.” Grey Bears works to solve the problem of senior hunger and isolation, and to engage everyone to reuse and recycle. Our weekly food deliveries, daily distributions and hot meals nourish 4,700 seniors, families and farmworkers. We do it all with the help of 550 amazing volunteers who will contribute 60,000 hours of service this year. Our aging community is a hardworking asset—a natural resource with a diversity of skills, talents and boundless ways to contribute. We believe in moving forward together toward a common vision, and that the joy is always in the journey. 

Groundswell Coastal Ecology

Big Idea for 2022: “Saving Santa Cruz Monarchs.” Since 2015, Groundswell has worked with monarch conservation partners to develop and implement management plans that enhance monarch overwintering sites at Lighthouse Field and Natural Bridges State Parks. Groundswell improves overwintering grove ecosystems by planting windbreak trees and nectar resources, controlling predators and managing fuels (to prevent fire). We involve community volunteers and K-12 students in this work.

We need your help to save wild monarchs during the 2022 monarch season.

Habitat for Humanity

Big Idea for 2022: “For Renters Who Lost a Home in the CZU Fire: A New Home.” With a safe, simple and well-built home with room for family members, outdoor space and a neighborhood of peers, families who were on the brink of homelessness and poverty are able to work their way up, have pride of ownership and a network of community members to lean on. Habitat has given priority to families displaced by the CZU fires for two homes available in the Rodeo Creek Court development in Live Oak. Please help us support a couple we have selected—both are educators with strong ties to the community, who have continued to work hard as they pick up the pieces from their devastating loss. 

Health Projects Center

Big Idea for 2022: “Aging at Home with Dignity.” To help people to age safely at home with dignity, we will manage health care and supportive services for medically frail, low‐income elders; support family caregivers to provide quality care to their loved ones, and to take care of their own physical and mental health; transition low-income people from institutional living to home; and strengthen the health care workforce to effectively address geriatrics and in-home care management. We are also working to educate older adults about Covid-19, and facilitate access to vaccination. We collaborate with the County of Santa Cruz to provide in-home vaccination to frail, older residents.

Homeless Garden Project

Big Idea for 2022: “Essential Workforce Development.” HGP needs the community’s support to continue to provide our core program of training and employment to people experiencing homelessness and provide essential food for the community. This year we donated tens of thousands of pounds of fresh, organic produce—this is the byproduct of our mission and allows us to help even more of our neighbors in need! We also operate the first-ever CSA program in Santa Cruz County; an educational volunteering program that helps to build bridges between the housed and unhoused; and a newly expanded online retail shop. 

Hopes Closet

Big Idea for 2022: “Feed The Sole!” Many children are not able to participate fully in physical education at school or have optimal orthopedic health because they cannot afford shoes with proper support. We have an ambitious goal in the upcoming year: to provide each child who receives our services with new athletic sneakers! Please help us to help local children stand taller and feel empowered with a new pair of shoes.

Housing Matters

Big Idea for 2022: “The Home Sweet Home Project.” Your donation to Santa Cruz Gives will fund “Home Sweet Home” baskets for families and individuals who are receiving services (like housing navigation and case management) through a Housing Matters program, and who are moving from homelessness into permanent housing. These baskets will be filled with home essentials such as cleaning supplies, linens, grocery gift cards and a special housewarming gift. 

Jacob’s Heart

Big Idea for 2022: “Support for Fragile Families.” Caring for a medically fragile child is always rife with fear and uncertainty. With support from Santa Cruz Gives, Jacob’s Heart will increase crisis counseling by hiring a team of bicultural psychotherapists and specialists with expertise in healing complex grief and trauma to provide care to families during treatment, families experiencing anticipatory grief and those who are bereaved.

Live Like Coco

Big Idea for 2022: “Children’s Memorial Reading Garden.” Families who have lost a child often fear their child will be forgotten—or remembered only as a tragedy. The Live Like Coco Foundation wants to honor these children’s stories by sponsoring a special project at the Aptos branch of the Santa Cruz Public Library, one of several branches currently being rebuilt. Live Like Coco has agreed to sponsor the Children’s Reading Garden as a special memorial to Coco as well as other children our community lost too soon. 

Live Oak Education Foundation

Big Idea for 2022: “Visual Arts for TK-3rd Grade Students.” TK-3rd grade students did not receive specific arts instruction prior to the Live Oak Education Foundation’s first investment in 2019. Through equitable, hands-on artistic opportunities, our students explore self-expression and creativity, become inspired and increase their educational and social mobility. Funds raised through Santa Cruz Gives will provide 10 weeks of hands-on visual arts instruction from SPECTRA teaching artists for elementary students. We are grateful to offer this through a partnership with the Arts Council Santa Cruz County.

Meals on Wheels

Big Idea for 2022: “Meals on Wheels Breakfast Project.” The Meals on Wheels program proposes an essential breakfast meals project for older adults and seniors who otherwise would not have access to critical balanced nutrition due to lack of resources. With your donations, we would provide ready-made, high-nutrient-dense meals for community members in need. Our free breakfasts are particularly crucial for older adults during this continuing public health crisis and uncertain economy, and vital to support not only the health of participants, but also to reduce the stress of the cost of transportation.

Media Watch & Amah Mutsun Land Trust

Big Idea for 2022: “Amah Mutsun Educational Mural (potential site Laurel & Mission Street). Through a public mural, Media Watch will collaborate with local BIPOC muralists, Amah Mutsun Land Trust stewards and volunteers to create a visual celebration of the diverse past, present and future contributions of Santa Cruz County’s Indigenous people. Embedded QR codes will allow viewers an immersive experience of our local Indigenous people. This project hopes to partner with Santa Cruz County’s Office of Education with activities for both K-12 and university students. 

Mental Health Client Action Network (MHCAN)

Big Idea for 2022: “MHCAN Homeless Shower Program.” Many MHCAN members are unhoused and use our facilities to shower and maintain personal hygiene. Maintaining personal hygiene can help members reintegrate to society, engage in the job market and maintain personal dignity. We will provide showers four days a week for up to 50 people a day at our drop-in center. The shower list is always full for our two showers (one is handicapped accessible). We do not have funding for toiletries, towels, toothbrushes or other hygiene supplies. Please help us to meet this important need.

MENtors: Driving Change for Boys, Men & Dads

Big Idea for 2022: “Equity for Our Boys.” Many boys and young men from Black, Latinx and less-advantaged backgrounds were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, distance learning and social isolation compared to their more advantaged peers. We plan to create a weekly, facilitated, safe and welcoming space for boys and young men in middle and high schools to explore, build and enhance the pillars of resilience to get youth out of the survival mode and be able to thrive during this challenging time.

Monterey Bay Economic Partnership (MBEP)

Big Idea for 2022: “Student Ambassador Program.” MBEP’s Student Ambassador Program provides meaningful internship opportunities for students in the region to cultivate a strong local workforce and advance important initiatives. Our initiatives cover the region’s most pressing issues: housing, climate change, transportation, workforce development and broadband. The idea is to match qualified students enrolled at local colleges with these initiatives. At the end of their internship, students are awarded a stipend.

Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Foundation

Big Idea for 2022: “Commitment to Multicultural K-12 Education.” The Foundation seeks to provide free, immersive learning experiences in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. In-school and after-school programs are often the only way for students from marginalized communities to access environmental education, as their families may not be able to afford visits or programs at aquariums, natural history museums, etc. By offering in-person and remote learning at no cost, we eliminate this barrier for up to 1,500 students each year to experience the sanctuary in a new, exciting and educational way.  

Museo Eduardo Carrillo

Big Idea for 2022: “Local Legendary Chicano/a Artists Inspire Teen Writing.” The Califas Legacy Project is focused on five influential Monterey Bay region Chicano/a artists: Eduardo Carrillo, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Ralph D’Oliveira, Yermo Aranda and Carmen Leon. A full-color book featuring the artists’ work and local teen narrative writing was produced in a very limited edition. With your support, we would reprint the book to give 3-4 free copies plus our award-winning curriculum guide to all 70 middle and high schools (for libraries and instructors) in Santa Cruz County, where 22,500 students are enrolled.

National Alliance on Mental Illness of Santa Cruz County (NAMI)

Big Idea for 2022: “Bilingual Mental Health Support.” There is great need for culturally responsive mental health services in Spanish in Santa Cruz County. NAMI SCC is expanding programming so all families can achieve hope, healing, education, and support for those with mental health conditions and those who love them through our Helpline, classes and weekly support groups. We seek funds to broaden our peer-led classes and support groups in Spanish. 

Nourishing Generations

Big Idea for 2022: “Peer-to-Peer Nutrition and Culinary Education.” Our big idea is to share our expertise with Live Oak and Watsonville residents by training neighbors to teach neighbors to spread the word about healthy eating and healthy cooking. We’ll start by training ten instructors, provide food and materials and will pay trainees for all of their time. These new trainees will allow us to expand to educating an estimated 400 in the first year.

Pajaro Valley Loaves & Fishes

Big Idea for 2022: “Alleviate Food Insecurity among Farmworker Families and Their Children.” For the past 30 years, we’ve been a frontline, boot-strapping food pantry and lunch program touching thousands of lives each year with a limited budget and efficient operations carried out by hundreds of volunteers and a small-but-nimble staff. We receive, store and distribute more than 500,000 pounds of food each year, and serve over 26,000 hot, nutritious meals. Many of our farmworker clients work long hours harvesting food for us all, and find it challenging to make our 3pm closing time during the harvest season. To assist working families (living below the poverty line), we need support to extend pantry hours to 6pm. Please join us in making healthy food accessible to our neighbors in need.

Pajaro Valley Shelter Services

Big Idea for 2022: “Hope and Home: Moving Families Out of Homelessness and Into Permanent Housing and Self-Sufficiency.” Families in PVSS programs literally work their way out of homelessness and financial vulnerability. Our three-pillar program model transforms the lives of families in the areas of Emotional Stability, Financial Stability, and Housing Stability. We are launching a new tenant education program: Hope and Home. We’ll provide information, training, and support that increase the ability of families to find and keep appropriate housing. Families learn to avoid common housing pitfalls such as poor landlord/neighbor relationships; lack of emergency funds; irresponsible use of credit; and lack of knowledge of housing laws.

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte

Big Idea for 2022: “Celebrating 50 Years of Providing Quality Health Care to Santa Cruz County.” This year, we celebrate 50 years of providing quality health care and advocacy in Santa Cruz County. What began as a referral and advocacy organization in Cynthia Mathews’ kitchen now provides non-judgmental health care at our Westside and Watsonville centers, including reproductive care, primary care, behavioral health care, and Covid-19 testing to more than 12,000 patients annually. Please help us continue to provide access to health care to all who need it.

Project SCOUT

Big Idea for 2022: “Let’s Get Santa Cruz County Residents the Money They Deserve.” Now that we have put more than $2 million of refunds in the wallets of those most in need in the county, we want to reach out to those who could benefit most from filing a tax return and often do not. It could be seniors who may qualify for the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), or high schoolers working to help parents make ends meet who are not aware that by filing taxes they can get money back. Your support would provide outreach for those who may not be aware they should file taxes, and more volunteer tax-preparation sites and online, virtual options to increase the numbers we can help.

Recovery Café

Big Idea for 2022: “RCSC – Safe Steps.” RCSC will expand to provide a safe, welcoming community two days a week for people to find support in their healing and growth—with free coffee, snacks and lunch. Members will have their struggles heard and they will receive encouragement from their peers. Each member has individual discussions regarding their goals, and referrals to assist them in reaching them, when appropriate. Members share their knowledge, are peer supports and volunteer within the program as they are able. 

Regeneración — Pajaro Valley Climate Action

Big Idea for 2022: “Pathways to Leadership for Young Climate Justice Champions.” In 2022, we will meet with young activists at school sites, listen to their ideas and offer tools for preventing burnout, leading effective meetings and eliminating oppressions that are in the way of building a unified movement to protect life. We plan to host twelve student interns over the next year and make a minimum of eight presentations on climate justice. We will also create opportunities for youth leadership in classes or clubs at high schools or colleges/universities.

Resource Center for Nonviolence

Big Idea for 2022: “Antiracism Book Circles.” The Resource Center for Nonviolence addresses the historical dominance of white culture in Santa Cruz County by offering Antiracism Book Circles, accessible to every community member. Donations support the creation of these circles and also support creating antiracism book circles within other organizations that would like to offer a book circle to its members. Some circles are multiracial, and some are organized for racial or gender “affinity groups” to enable Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and other BIPOC community members to explore antiracism subjects with community peers. 

Safe Ag Safe Schools

Big Idea for 2022: “Say Before You Spray.” Most people don’t know that in California, you have no right to know in advance about applications of hazardous agricultural pesticides, and the ag industry is determined to keep it that way! We are calling on Santa Cruz County to publicly post all “Notices of Intent” to use Restricted Material pesticides before they are applied so that residents can protect themselves from harm and so doctors can understand what their patients may have been exposed to. Please help us increase transparency.

San Lorenzo Valley Museum

Big Idea for 2022: “Enhanced Outdoor Space.” We find that sharing the region’s cultural history increases a sense of belonging, which leads to stronger civic engagement. For 2022, we want to install a permanent outdoor structure—a gazebo that will provide shade, shelter and lighting. This space will be used by the K2/3 school program, serving around 350 students annually, as well as visitors to the gallery and grounds.

Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre

Big Idea for 2022: “Outdoor Stage.” Imagine being able to view ballet performances outdoors at various locations around the community! SCBT would like to construct an outdoor, portable stage that can be used for the safety of the audience and dancers alike. We would also make it available for use by other organizations—therefore, your contribution would support many local events. The stage will be developed for longevity and flexibility so it will serve for 20 years or more. 

Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos

Big Idea for 2022: “Santa Cruz Cares for Kids.” This would be a project that takes place at The Spot, a warehouse center in Barrios Unidos. Your funding would cover an after-school kids program for ages 5-17 years old, from 2pm-7pm daily Monday-Friday. We need two part-time employees, padded flooring, desks and computers to give kids a supportive place to go after school. We hope to begin this project in January 2022.

Santa Cruz Community Ventures

Big Idea for 2022: “Semillitas ‘Small Seeds’ Milestones Program.” Semillitas (“small seeds” in Spanish) provides all county newborns their own college savings accounts, and has seeded 2,000+ accounts with an investment of up to $50. Children with college saving accounts are three times more likely to go to college and four times more likely to graduate. Our Semillitas Milestones Program provides working-class families additional contributions to a child’s account if parents keep up with health, dental and educational workshops. The goal is to help secure up to $500 for their child’s savings by kindergarten.

Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter Foundation

Big Idea for 2022: “Creating a More Humane Community.” Shelters such as the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter have become comprehensive centers that set important “best practices” standards in animal welfare, helping to create a more humane community. Our current campus expansion continues this mission by increasing our free and low cost spay/neuter services and focusing on other preventative programs that keep animals out of the shelter.

Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH)

Big Idea for 2022: “Without Walls: MAH Outdoors.” The MAH seeks support for an initiative featuring multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaborations in outdoor public spaces across Santa Cruz County. Curated around themes of history, heritage and place, this rotating series of open-air activations is important because it helps us reconnect following the pandemic through artworks that are catalysts for dialogue, learning and social action.  

Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History

Big Idea for 2022: “The Museum at Your Side.” Early in 2020, we launched a new collection of resources, “The Museum at Your Side,” providing educators, families, and our community with programs and tools for understanding science and exploring nature wherever they are. The success of this pandemic-inspired project has us ready to launch the next phase of bringing the museum to the community, online and in person. Expanding the Museum at Your Side means increasing access to museum programs, collections, exhibits and offering additional in-person events throughout Santa Cruz County.

Santa Cruz Shakespeare

Big Idea for 2022: “Transportation Fund for Students.” Our goal is to ensure that every single high school student in Santa Cruz County has seen a live, professional production of a Shakespeare play by the time they graduate. Often, schools run into transportation difficulties when planning a field trip to enjoy a play at The Grove, and parents may not have a vehicle or the ability to miss work. We hope to alleviate the expense by providing funds for buses. Santa Cruz Shakespeare extends its summer season into September each year to offer student-only matinees for high schools. Please help us support schools in need and expand current opportunities to more students.

Santa Cruz SPCA

Big Idea for 2022: “A Building for a Better Future.” Through the support of you, our community, our shelter can help over 450 homeless animals to be adopted; more than 2,300 low-income families or individuals receive nearly 25,000 pounds of dog and cat food; teach over 4,000 local school children (elementary to high school) age-safe and humane animal care practices; host almost 10,000 hours of soul-nourishing, animal-care volunteer hours and engage more than 4,500 members of our community.

Save Our Shores

Big Idea for 2022: “Increase Outdoor Marine Environmental Options for K-12 Students.” Students not only connect with nature, but they build skills together as they lead in schoolyard cleanups, create art from litter, and nature journal on field trips to the coast, a slough or watershed. Save Our Shores incorporates outdoor-friendly learning activities and tools while maintaining alignment with Next Generation Science Standards.

Second Harvest Food Bank

Big Idea for 2022: “Got Food?” You can help us provide food for 85,000 people a month in Santa Cruz County who depend on Second Harvest and our network of nonprofit agencies and safety net services such as food pantries, shelters and group homes to fill pantry shelves and provide hot meals. Volunteers help power Second Harvest Food Bank, allowing us to distribute a staggering 10 million pounds of food each year.    

Senderos

Big Idea for 2022: “Lifeline for Latinx Youth & Families: Wellness + Resilience.” In addition to free folkloric dance and music classes for Latinx youth, our community center—Plaza Comunitaria—provides bilingual, culturally-relevant programming on topics such as healthcare, education, mental health, housing and nutrition. Because the pandemic continues to impact families already disadvantaged by inequities of income, access and race, we want to expand this project that is a lifeline to participants. 

Senior Network Service (SNS)

Big Idea for 2022: “The Anti-Covid Loneliness Project.” Senior Network Service will, if funded, launch a program designed specifically to ensure that the residents we serve are regularly contacted and engaged in conversation. Knowing that someone cares, engaging in intellectual stimulation and having something to look forward to—these can make a huge difference to a senior or person with disabilities, and have an extremely positive effect on their well-being.

Seymour Marine Discovery Center

Big Idea for 2022: “Adopt an Eel, Octopus, Swell Shark or Jelly.” The creatures at Seymour Center have had a tough couple of years, just like many of us. Last year nearby fires forced us to evacuate them to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They’ve returned safe and healthy, but now they need your help to get ongoing care. Will you adopt an eel today? Or an octopus, a swell shark, or a jelly? We admit we won’t send you home with one, but we hope you’ll come to visit them. Your gift will help feed dozens of live creatures and keep their tanks clean. You will also fund the touch tank, where you can touch a sea star, hermit crabs and more.

Shared Adventures

Big Idea for 2022: “South County Inclusion.” Shared Adventures has a large participant base in our county, but only receives a modest response from the Latinx disabled community. We plan to make an extraordinary effort to reach out to the Latinx community, to encourage participation in our activities, from sailing and horse-riding to game days and field trips. We’ll hold more activities in South County; focus outreach toward multicultural agencies, schools and families; increase multicultural staff and volunteers; and use Spanish language media resources. 

Soroptimist International of Capitola-by-the-Sea

Big Idea for 2022: “Live Your Dream.” Each year, our club receives 12-13 applications for our Live Your Dream awards for eligible women—they must be enrolled in or have been accepted to a BA or technical training program, are the heads of their households, have a demonstrated need and live anywhere in Santa Cruz County. Winners have at least one child. More than half of our recipients are survivors of domestic violence, trafficking or sexual assault. Applicants hope to receive one of our $2,000 cash awards that they may use to pay for rent, car repairs, medical bills or clothes for their children. We typically only are able to fund three awards. Our club’s dream—and our big idea—is to raise enough to fund cash awards and holiday gift cards for every eligible applicant.

Special Information Parents Network

Big Idea for 2022: “Mental Health Support for SPIN Families.” We currently provide parent-to-parent support through our mentor parent program and parent-led support groups, and informational workshops and trainings for families who have children with special needs. With your support we would like to offer SPIN parents free sessions with a licensed therapist—both group and individual sessions—with English and Spanish speaking therapists. 

Sustainable Systems Research Foundation

Big Idea for 2022: “The Sustainable Urban Food Initiative (SUFI).” We support small farms with new technologies, promote agriculture that protects and restores natural resources and champion new Latinx farmers. Project impacts are farms that are more productive per acre, more environmentally sensitive, produce healthier food and promote local food justice. We have received a US Department of Agriculture grant supporting this project, but that covers only a portion of the cost. Funds go directly to training costs, including direct support for farmers.

Teen Kitchen Project

Big Idea for 2022: “Meal Delivery for the Critically Ill in Santa Cruz County.” TKP’s clients can heal when they receive healthy foods as part of their recovery from a critical illness. This is why every week we prepare and deliver more than 1,700 medically-tailored meals countywide. There has been a surge in requests for our services during the pandemic: we doubled the number of households we serve and the number of meals delivered increased 150%. We need your support to add refrigeration to one of our vans to allow safe transport of meals countywide.

UnChained

Big Idea for 2022: “Canines Teaching Compassion.” UnChained works with two vulnerable populations in Santa Cruz County: homeless dogs and underserved youth. UnChained offers innovative animal-assisted therapy in an 8-week program for youth and dogs twice a week, teaching teens to train dogs in basic skills, positive socialization and good manners. Our youth help place the dogs into adoptive homes after having achieved values of patience, respect and responsibility for themselves and others. Please help UnChained hire a licensed mental health professional to co-lead our programs alongside the dog trainer, and advance the social and emotional learning of our youth.

Valley Churches United

Big Idea for 2022: “Food Pantry.” Folks that never needed our support before but found their lives in hardship for the last year and a half due to the pandemic crisis followed by the CZU fire disaster continue to rely on our year-round food pantry. We ask for funds to stock our food supplies year-round with our focus on nutritious foods and sources of protein. We do receive food donations from Second Harvest Food Bank, but to meet the need we must purchase food throughout the year. We hope to raise enough to provide at least 12,500 pounds of food for grateful clients.

Veterans Memorial Building (VMB)

Big Idea for 2022: “Veterans Village—Veteran-Owned and Operated.” We have raised 75% of the funds needed to develop a Veterans Village that would provide housing for up to 40 veterans in need of permanent, supportive, affordable housing in Santa Cruz County. We have the support of community leaders to acquire a property with housing that will ultimately generate the revenue to support itself through HUD-Vash funding (for veterans housing). Once set up, the model is designed to generate funds for operations and future expansion. It also enables us to build real estate equity for the nonprofit. We need your initial help to provide a community center, onsite support service staff and operation. 

Vets 4 Vets Santa Cruz

Big Idea for 2022: “Computer Lab Updates for Veterans.” We are asking for support for our big idea, which is to purchase new computers to update our veterans’ computer lab located in the Santa Cruz Veterans Memorial Building. This computer lab allows all veterans access to the internet, enabling them to perform essential tasks such as accessing email, searching for housing and employment and learning to use basic software programs, including Microsoft Office.

Warming Center/Footbridge Services Center

Big Idea for 2022: “Warm Nights For Everyone.” It’s our commitment that everyone sleeping outside in a doorway, tent or car should have what they need to be warm at night. This will be our eighth year providing a pop-up shelter, yet many will choose to stay in their tents even on the coldest nights. Hypothermia is a constant threat for those isolating in this way. In addition to providing a coldest nights’ shelter, we also stock and distribute as many as 1,000 blankets, thousands of hand warmers, gloves, beanies and warm clothing. We’ll also distribute more than 100 tents and several hundred rain tarps.

Watsonville Wetlands Watch

Big Idea for 2022: “Reconnecting Pajaro Valley Youth to Nature.” Emerging from 15 months of virtual instruction, students need enriching outdoor learning experiences. Watsonville Wetlands Watch will host thousands of 3-12th grade students for environmental education and hands-on outdoor environmental restoration field trips in Watsonville wetlands, parks and trail systems in support of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District’s Restorative Start initiative now through spring of 2022. Students will learn how to take meaningful action related to climate change resilience and urban forests. Teens will restore wetland habitat for local, migratory, rare, threatened and endangered wildlife. They will also plant trees throughout parks, streets and neighborhoods.

Wings Homeless Advocacy

Big Idea for 2022: “Rehousing Wave: Welcome Home.” The County of Santa Cruz provided safe shelter and critical services to more than 800 residents who lacked housing during the pandemic. With state funding for these shelters ending, many of those 800 people need permanent housing or they will fall into homelessness again. Join Wings and the rest of the Homeless Action Partnership to help us prevent homelessness for everyone exiting these quarantine shelters. The effort is called the Rehousing Wave, and Wings is proud to be an integral part by providing basic needs to people transitioning into permanent housing. When you donate to our project, you help to provide beds, hygiene and cleaning supplies and vital documents services to families and individuals. With no building expenses, only 1.5 full-time-equivalent staff and 50 volunteers, we demonstrate the power of community in action.

Yoga For All Movement

Big Idea for 2022: “Reunite with Wellness.” We are doing things differently by not only teaching yoga to incarcerated students, but by empowering them to become yoga teachers themselves. This program builds on the practice of yoga and meditation and offers training in group facilitation and holistic wellness, with a focus on breathwork, nutrition and somatic movement. Incarcerated students will learn invaluable tools for self-care, and skills to become facilitators of this work. This is a mentorship program that will provide transitional support by placing certified facilitators in teaching jobs where the unique lived experience of those transitioning from incarceration is valued.

Your Future is Our Business

Big Idea for 2022: “LINKS SantaCruz.org.” YFIOB will support students by connecting them to community members working in all 15 industry sectors recognized in California. Introducing students to a variety of careers early on allows them robust, hands-on experiences. We do this by offering in-person services such as career fairs, panels, job shadowing, internships and mentorships. One of the gaps for our schools is to be able to access these LINKS at a moment’s notice. Your support will help us to create LINKS SantaCruz.org where vital information will be available any time. This online platform would connect schools and businesses, and give teachers access to career-based curriculum, business LINKS and community opportunities for students. It would also house virtual tours of companies and other tools for use in curriculum.

The Santa Cruz Gives campaign continues through Dec. 31. To read more about these groups, and to donate, go to santacruzgives.org.

UCSC Unveils ‘Blueprint’ for Long Range Development Plan

-
0
UCSC Unveils ‘Blueprint’ for Long Range Development Plan

In a future envisioned by the UC regents, the student population at UCSC will increase by 43%, with a commensurate expansion of faculty over the next 20 years. Additionally, all new students and many faculty members will be housed on campus, with a compact footprint for new development that leaves the university’s natural areas intact.

This includes four new residential colleges and housing for up to 25% of new employees.

These ambitions, outlined in the Long Range Development Plan and a related environmental impact report (EIR) that were approved by the UC Board of Regents and the Finance and Capital Strategies Committee in September, is a framework for how UCSC will grow over the next two decades.

In the coming years, university officials will work with city and county leaders to balance the proposed growth with the needs of the broader community, says UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive.

“I believe we can both fulfill our mission to serve California and continue to be a great neighbor in Santa Cruz,” she says. “With the plan approved, we can focus on addressing the remaining concerns. The campus, city and county have a strong relationship, and I know we’re on the path toward resolution.”

That is an important part of the future planning process. With the increased water usage that comes with such growth, in addition to traffic and housing issues, it’s important to get buy-in from local leaders, says Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty.

“That’s going to have an enormous impact on a community our size,” says Coonerty. “Creating access to students when you don’t create affordable housing or available classes is not really increasing access to higher education.”

Coonerty says that when the previous LRDP was created, the city and county leaders sued the university, before all parties went into negotiations about how the plans might be carried out.

This time around is different, he says.

“Before we start talking about any kind of litigation, we’re doing mediation,” he says. 

In 2008, Coonerty says, the university made a commitment to house two-thirds of new enrollment and to reduce water and traffic use, plans which were largely successful, he says.

“They lived up to those commitments since 2008, and now we’re looking for them to continue and expand on those commitments as we move forward with this LRDP,” he says. 

It is important to note, Larive says, that the LRDP contains no specific development projects, each of which would be subject to environmental reviews and approval by the regents. Instead, it lays out in a general way how the campus might develop in the coming years.

“The plan is a blueprint,” she says. “It’s a framework that guides future development for the campus.”

Larive also says that the current plans almost mirror those of the university’s founders, who in 1965 planned for 27,500 students by 1990.

The LRDP came after more than four years of work by campus leaders, planners and other community members. It garnered unanimous support from the UC Board of Regents Finance and Capital Strategies Committee. 

“We heard a lot of input, and that input was incorporated into this plan,” Larive says.

Larive says that the university is already successfully addressing water concerns, using less water than it did 25 years ago thanks to initiatives such as using rainwater capture and storm runoff.

The proposed Student Housing West project, for example, calls for its own wastewater treatment plant, making it a zero net new use project, Larive says. 

Because plans call for housing all new students on campus—and many employees—the reduced vehicular traffic will also help ease traffic issues, UCSC officials say. In addition, campus leaders will encourage pedestrian, bicycle and transit use.

“It’s impossible to fully predict university life 20 years from now,” Larive says. “But it is prudent that our campus produces a well-thought-out roadmap that can serve as a guide regardless of what the year 2040 brings.”

Andrew Schiffrin, a UCSC lecturer who works in Coonerty’s office and sits on the Santa Cruz Planning Commission, says he hopes that UCSC’s plans to expand enrollment will be tied to its creation of new on-campus housing.

The EIR, Schiffrin says, assumes the university will meet its housing objectives, and it therefore minimizes the impact of the plan on the local housing market.

“I think it’s very critical that given the housing crisis in the city and the county as a whole, that the university house all new students on campus and not grow if they are not able to do that,” he says. “In other words, to tie the housing to the growth in enrollment.”

The trouble, he says, is that there are no enforcement mechanisms for either the LRDP or the EIR.

“And I think that’s the rub,” he says.

For the 1988 LRDP, UCSC had a goal of housing 75% of new students on campus. But at the end of the time period indicated in the plan, that goal had not been met. The high cost of new construction was likely a contributing factor, he says.

“It’s hard to build housing,” he says. “It’s expensive to build housing. I don’t think it was bad faith on the part of the university in not meeting the 1988 objectives.”

But in 2005, when the LRDP was challenged in court, the university agreed in a legally-binding settlement to provide housing for two-thirds of the new students. 

“And they did it,” he says. “When they had to do it they did it, and I think that’s what the issue is here. The university needs to bind itself as it did in the 2008 settlement agreement to carry out their objective.”

UCSC first-year politics major Zennon Ulyate-Crow, 19, who serves as president of the Student Housing Coalition, says that the LRDP and its associated EIR is a “good step forward” that will allow the university—and others in the UC system—to handle growing numbers of young people that are seeking a four-year degree.

“For generations moving forward, education is key for people to escape poverty,” he says. “Key to bettering themselves and making sure we can have a more globalized educated citizenry.”

Ulyate-Crow also says the plan allows the university—which has already grown from its inaugural class to 19,000 students while maintaining the natural beauty for which it is known—to continue its growth while living harmoniously with its environment.

Ulyate-Crow says that the campus already is facing a housing crisis of its own, with skyrocketing housing costs in the communities surrounding it and an increasing number of students demanding on-campus apartments. In his dorm, where the lounge was recently converted to a living space, two rooms have five occupants, he says. Addressing the problem, he says, will take a community-wide effort.

“The crisis is on an order of magnitude none of us can even begin to comprehend,” he says. “And so in that essence, it’s not really anybody’s fault. However, we all have a duty to solve it.”

Santa Cruz Mayor Donna Meyers does not think the university has adequately addressed the potential impacts the proposed growth will have on traffic, housing and water use, or the increased greenhouse gas emissions. In a 28-page letter to the UC Board of Regents, Myers says the city expressed concerns about the EIR that accompanied the plan.

“We don’t feel like we got appropriate mitigation for those things,” Myers said. “We don’t feel like the responses were adequate.”

Like Schiffrin, Meyers says that the university should tie any enrollment increases to actual housing production. But any housing projects would likely face an uphill battle, in a foundering economy where construction costs are skyrocketing and residents increasingly disfavor additional development in their communities.

It’s not clear how much say the city would have over development projects that are approved by the university and the state.

Myers says that decisions on many housing projects have been taken out of the hands of city councils, planning departments and other elected officials, thanks to California laws such as Senate Bill 35 that require a “streamlined ministerial process” to promote housing production.

Santa Cruz got its first taste of SB35 recently when the City Council rejected the inaugural project submitted under the new law because several council members believed the proposed 140-unit development at 831 Water St. was a “segregated housing proposal,” among other things.

In response, the California Department of Housing and Community Development submitted a letter to the city saying that their rejection of the project was illegal under SB35 and that it needed to work with the developer on a “speedy resolution of this matter.”

The development is expected to return to the City Council at its Nov. 23 meeting. 

“It’s really hard as an elected official to have that authority adjusted by the state,” she says. “There has been a hit to how we shape our communities from a land-use perspective.”

Myers says she hopes the upcoming talks with the university will help ameliorate the concerns over the EIR.

“We did the work to document the impact to the community, but this gives us a little more time to come to the table and try to look at those things,” she says.

Empty Home Tax Aims to Generate Funds for Low-Income Housing in Santa Cruz

-
4
Empty Home Tax Aims to Generate Funds for Low-Income Housing in Santa Cruz

On a sunny Saturday in October, about 60 people crowded onto benches and stood around Shanty Shack Brewery’s courtyard listening to Santa Cruz City Councilman Justin Cummings talk about taxing empty houses to generate revenue for low-income housing. 

Cummings was one of the speakers who took the stage to talk about the Empty Home Tax campaign that launched that day, Oct. 16. UCSC Professor Camilla Hawthorne, Santa Cruz City Councilwoman Sandy Brown and campaign volunteer Cyndi Dawson also spoke about the measure that will likely be on the ballot in 2022 for Santa Cruz voters.

A mixture of families, students and older Santa Cruz residents nodded along to the speeches, wiping sweat from their brows and sipping on their beers. 

“Raise your hand if you know someone who has had to move because their rent was too high,” Cummings asked the crowd. Hands shot up around the courtyard.

Gillian Greensite, who has been living in Santa Cruz since the 1970s, was one of the people who raised her hand.

In the past decade, Greensite has seen multiple friends leave Santa Cruz because of high rents. As an activist in the community, she’s also seen who is disproportionately being impacted by the lack of affordable housing.

“It’s the service workers, it’s the Latinx and other minority community members,” Greensite says. “The people who are the foundation of our community are the ones who are relocating, and eventually we will see a deficit in the jobs that are the cornerstone of our society.” 

In 1977, Greensite bought her home in Santa Cruz for $70,000. There’s no way she would be able to afford current market prices and have the chance at being a homeowner, or perhaps even a renter, if she was looking today.

“The only reason I am here is because I bought my home when I did,” Greensite says. 

Greensite supports this measure because she thinks it targets people with sufficient income—the tax only applies to homeowners with a second property—and will fund housing for those who need it the most.  

“I can’t see how anyone would oppose this measure on legitimate grounds,” Greensite says.

Indeed, the campaign offers what seems like an intuitive solution to Santa Cruz’s affordable housing crisis: tax second homes that are vacant for more than eight months out of the year, and use that money to fund housing projects for low-income families. 

Proponents of the campaign think this approach kills two birds with one stone: it generates notoriously difficult-to-fund affordable housing projects, and incentivizes homeowners to rent out their second property. Fund affordable housing, create more supply for renters.

“Houses are supposed to be lived in, not used for storage,” Councilwoman Brown said to the crowd at Shanty Shack. Cheers rang out in response.

But the devil’s in the details, according to Santa Cruz Association of Realtors Director Victor Gomez, who says this tax unfairly penalizes homeowners, and has too many uncertainties to be implemented effectively. 

“Who is going to track this? How are people actually going to be aware of these issues if this law comes into play? There’s just a lot of ambiguities, a lot of unknowns, and that’s concerning,” Gomez says.

The Details  

The tax for a vacant residential property will be $6,000, and $3,000 for empty condominiums or townhomes. Properties that homeowners live on, or properties that are principal residences, will not be taxed. Properties that are occupied 120 days in a calendar year will be exempt. 

There’s also an extensive list of exemptions that give landlords a break from the tax. Some exemptions include natural disasters (wildfire season anyone?), loss of job, hospitalization and construction.

Dawson says that after the campaign interviewed experts around the world and looked at cities with similar taxes in place, 120 days seemed like a fair chunk of time to expect homeowners to rent their properties.

“We compared similar taxes that are in place in other cities to create a specific version just for Santa Cruz,” Dawson says. 

But Gomez argues that the tax rate and the expectations for homeowners are arbitrary, and don’t take into account that sometimes it’s difficult to find a renter, especially in the pandemic.  

“Why will folks who are having a hard time finding a tenant be punished? Instead of punishing people that are trying to do their best, the city should approve affordable housing projects,” Victor Gomez says. 

Perhaps the biggest question mark looming is how the tax will be enforced. The measure would require homeowners to self-report if their property is vacant or occupied, and the city will do a random audit of tax-eligible properties yearly. While the measure would reimburse the expenses the city incurs for the program up to a cap of 15% of the revenue, specific requirements for the audit are not included.

Would the audit require knocking on doors or speaking directly with property owners? Or would it instead be based on analysis of the revenues collected paired with other types of data? Santa Cruz City Communication Manager Elizabeth Smith wrote over email that it’s these details that need to be clarified, especially to estimate how much a program like this would cost the city.

Gomez agreed that the measure needs to define plans for the audits. 

“Will the local government have the authority to check to see if anybody’s living in their own home? Because that is extreme,” Gomez says. 

Case Studies

Taxing vacant homes is gaining traction in cities around the world, especially in cities that have a housing crunch and high housing costs. Los Angeles is bringing its voters a similar ballot initiative in 2022, and cities with vacant property taxes already in effect include Oakland, Washington D.C. and Vancouver. 

In the Canadian city of Vancouver, which imposed a 1% yearly vacancy tax on properties that had been vacant for six months of the year, the tax generated nearly $29 million in 2018 for affordable housing. Vacancies also went down 22%. But what the tax didn’t do was make rents more affordable. 

That’s partly what generates criticism for these types of measures: a vacancy tax won’t solve the larger issues of race and class inequality within housing economics. Proponents of the Empty Home Tax agree: this isn’t a comprehensive solution. But creating a revenue source for affordable housing is one of the most important first steps, Dawson says. 

Calculations using Census numbers estimate that the revenue from the tax could bring in millions annually. There are 2,000 units in the city that might be eligible for the tax, and if only 500 eligible homeowners paid the tax, the city would receive $3 million in funding for low-income housing projects.

Tax money will go to a designated fund that will only finance housing projects that provide housing at the lowest income brackets. An Oversight Committee made up of renters, low-income individuals, people with financial expertise and UCSC students will make recommendations to the city council on how to spend these funds. 

But funding is only part of the issue when it comes to building low-income housing. Finding the land to build these projects, in a city that is largely built out, and making sure the money doesn’t sit in a fund are other issues, wrote Smith. 

These are issues that the measure will plan for in the coming year, Dawson said.

“We know this is not a silver bullet. We know this is not going to fix affordable housing in Santa Cruz, but it is going to make a difference,” Dawson says.

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology: Nov. 17-23

-
0
Rob Brezsny’s Astrology: Nov. 17-23

Free will astrology for the week of Nov. 17

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries poet and philosopher Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843) had many ups and downs. He was one of Germany’s greatest poets and philosophers, but he also endured more emotional distress than most people. His biographer wrote, “Sometimes this genius goes dark and sinks down into the bitter well of his heart, but mostly his apocalyptic star glitters wondrously.” You may have been flirting with a milder version of a “bitter well of the heart,” Aries. But I foresee that you will soon return to a phase when your star glitters wondrously—and without the “apocalyptic” tinge that Hölderlin harbored.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author David Foster Wallace felt sad about how little of our mind’s intense activity can be shared with others. So much of what goes on inside us seems impossible to express. Or if it is possible to express, few of our listeners are receptive to it or able to fully understand it. That’s the bad news, Taurus. But here’s the good news: In the coming weeks, I believe you will experience much less of this sad problem than usual. I’m guessing you’ll be especially skilled at articulating your lush truth and will have an extra receptive audience for it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “I never resist temptation,” declared playwright George Bernard Shaw. Why did he dare to utter such an outlandish statement? “Because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me,” he said. I propose that you aspire to embody his attitude during the next eight weeks, Gemini. Make it your aspiration to cultivate a state of mind wherein you will only be tempted to engage with influences that are healthy and educational and inspiring. You can do it! I know you can!

CANCER (June 21-July 22): While still a teenager, Cancerian cowboy Slim Pickens (1919–1983) competed in the rodeo, a sporting event in which brave athletes tangle with aggressive broncos and bulls. When America entered World War II, Pickens went to a recruiting office to sign up for the military. When asked about his profession, Pickens said “rodeo.” The clerk misheard and instead wrote “radio.” Pickens was assigned to work at an armed forces radio station in the American Midwest, where he spent the entire war. It was a safe and secure place for him to be. I foresee a lucky mistake like that in your near future, Cancerian. Maybe more than one lucky mistake. Be alert.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): To create your horoscope, I’ve borrowed ideas from four famous Leos. They all address your current astrological needs. First, here’s Leo author P. L. Travers: “More and more I’ve become convinced that the great treasure to possess is the unknown.” Second, here’s Leo author Sue Monk Kidd: “There is no place so awake and alive as the edge of becoming.” Third, Leo poet Philip Larkin: “Originality is being different from oneself, not others.” Finally, Leo author Susan Cheever: “There is no such thing as expecting too much.”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I encourage you to adopt the perspective expressed by spiritual author Ann Voskamp. She wrote, “I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in the daily, the moments before I sleep.” I understand that taking this assignment seriously could be a challenging exercise. Most of us are quick to spot flaws and awfulness, but few have been trained to be alert for elegance and splendor and wondrousness. Are you willing to try out this approach? Experiment with it. Treat it as an opportunity to reprogram your perceptual faculties. Three weeks from now, your eyes and ears could be attuned to marvels they had previously missed.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran educator and anthropologist Johnnetta Cole wrote, “The first sign of an educated person is that she asks more questions than she delivers answers.” I agree and would also say this: A prime attribute of an intelligent, eager-to-learn person is that she asks more questions than she delivers answers. I encourage you to be like that during the coming weeks, Libra. According to my astrological estimation, you are scheduled to boost your intelligence and raise your curiosity. An excellent way to meet your appointments with destiny will be to have fun dreaming up interesting questions.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Some people become so expert at reading between the lines they don’t read the lines,” wrote author Margaret Millar. That’s not a common problem for you Scorpios. You are an expert at reading between the lines, but that doesn’t cause you to miss the simple facts. Better than any other sign of the zodiac, you are skilled at seeing both secret and obvious things. Given the astrological omens that will be active for you during the rest of 2021, I suspect this skill of yours will be a virtual superpower. And even more than usual, the people in your life will benefit from your skill at naming the truth.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Storyteller and mythologist Michael Meade believes that each of us has an inner indigenous person—a part of our psyche that can love and learn from nature, that’s inclined to revere and commune with the ancestors, that seeks holiness in the familiar delights of the earth. The coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to cultivate your relationship with your inner indigenous person. What other experiences might be available to you as you align your personal rhythms with the rhythms of the earth? What joys might emerge as you strive to connect on deeper levels with animals and plants and natural forces?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn novelist Haruki Murakami writes, “I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it—to be fed so much love I couldn’t take any more. Just once.” Most of us feel that longing, although few of us admit it. But I will urge you to place this desire in the front of your awareness during the next two weeks. I’ll encourage you to treat your yearning for maximum love as a sacred strength, a virtue to nurture and be proud of. I’ll even suggest you let people know that’s what you want. Doing so may not result in a total satisfaction of the longing, but who knows? Maybe it will. If there will ever be a time when such fulfillment could occur, it will be soon.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): An article published in the journal Scientific American declared, “Most people don’t know when to stop talking.” Conversations between strangers and between friends typically go on too long. A mere two percent of all dialogs finish when both parties want them to. That’s the bad news, Aquarius. The good news is that in the coming weeks, your sensitivity about this issue will be more acute than usual. As a result, your talk will be extra concise and effective—more persuasive, more interesting, and more influential. Take advantage of this subtle superpower! (Further info: tinyurl.com/WhenToStop)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Since 1996, Ira Glass has produced the renowned radio series This American Life. In 2013, as a reward for his excellence, he was offered a raise in his annual salary from $170,000 to $278,000. He accepted it for one year, but then asked that it be lowered to $146,000. He described the large increase in pay as “unseemly.” What?! I appreciate his modesty, but I disapprove. I’m always rooting for Pisceans like Ira Glass to embrace the fullness of their worth and to be aggressive about gathering all the rewards they’re offered. So I’m inclined, especially right now, to urge you NOT to be like Glass. Please swoop up all the kudos, benefits, and blessings you deserve.

Homework. Tell how everyone in the world should be more like you. https://Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

Nicholson Vineyards’ 2019 Brooks Block Pinot Noir is a Flavorful, Dark Delight

-
0
Nicholson Vineyards’ 2019 Brooks Block Pinot Noir is a Flavorful, Dark Delight

Nicholson Vineyards, established in 2004, makes superb wines.

Their 2019 Brooks Block Estate Pinot Noir ($55) is a dark and flavor-packed beauty that will delight you straight out of the gate. Intense aromas of wild raspberry and blackberries lead to a soft palate of cremini mushrooms and mature tannins.
“It is a wine that represents the uniqueness of the terroir and the climate of sun, soil and early-morning ocean mist that create exceptional fruit,” owners Marguerite and Brian Nicholson say. And with the holidays coming right up, you can’t go wrong with this Pinot; it’s well made, it’s local and it’s delicious.  

Years ago, when the Nicholsons were first getting their property up and running, they saw wild peacocks roaming the grounds and came upon a collection of feathers. Admiring their beauty, they opted for a colorful peacock feather on every label, including this 2019 Pinot Noir.

Nicholson Vineyards also produces a rich Il Boschetto olive oil from their estate trees. It comes with gorgeous flavors of green leaf, lemongrass and black pepper spice and is available at their lovely tasting room.

Nicholson Vineyards, 2800 Pleasant Valley Road, Aptos, 831-724-7071. Nicholsonvineyards.com

Stockwell Cellars Fall Case Sale

For $150, create your own mix-and-match case from various goodies: 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, 2018 Pinot Gris, 2018 Rosé of Pinot Noir, 2016 Pinot Noir, 2016 Merlot. Cost: $150 per case. Wednesday, Nov. 24, is Thanksgiving Retail Day. You’ll be able to pick out your favorite wines for all of your holiday dinners. (No wine tasting that day.)
Stockwell Cellars, 1100 Fair Ave., Santa Cruz. 831-818-9075. stockwellcellars.com.

Wrights Station Winery’s Black FridayBlack Friday is White Weekend at Wrights Station. All white wines will be 50% off Nov. 26-28. Join them Sunday, Dec.12, for their Holiday Open House. The local Mattia Pizza Truck will be onsite selling their mouth-watering pies. Everyone is welcome, but wine club members receive additional benefits and discounts.
Wrights Station Winery, 24250 Loma Prieta Ave., Los Gatos, 408-560-9343. wrightsstation.com.

Trestles Delivers a Whirlwind of Culinary Innovation to Capitola Village

-
1
Trestles Delivers a Whirlwind of Culinary Innovation to Capitola Village

Nick Sherman defines his newly opened Trestles as fun, approachable, lively and above all, creative. Sherman—both owner and chef—says that the most popular dishes on the eclectic menu are the most innovative. Diners can’t get enough of the crispy pork belly appetizer served with soy ginger glaze, jalapeño vinaigrette and compressed watermelon. As for entrées, the brick-oven chicken with butternut curry, couscous and chermoula is a culinary fiesta for the tastebuds. And there’s nothing like a well-prepared New York steak, especially on a plate with truffle fries and Swiss chard. The warm brownie with vanilla ice cream dessert may not sound groundbreaking, but sometimes simple done right works very well.
Sherman grew up working in local restaurants and then attended culinary school in Napa, where he began his career as a professional chef. He credits his family for helping make Trestles a reality. It’s open 4-9pm, Wednesday-Sunday. Sherman recently spoke about how he named the restaurant and what drew him to the culinary world. 

How did you decide to name the restaurant Trestles?

NICK SHERMAN: For one, you can view the iconic Capitola trestle from right below the restaurant. And also, my two brothers and I independently thought of the name and brought the idea to each other, so it just felt right. Growing up locally, I would walk across the trestle often to go surf or hang out with friends. It was a big part of my childhood, and it’s kind of a full-circle moment being able to own a restaurant named after it and cook near it every day. I appreciate being back in town and part of the community.

How did you get your start as a chef?

I was drawn to the organized chaos of the kitchen environment, and I seemed to thrive in it and felt like it would be a better fit for me than a 9-5 office desk job. I knew that I could make it as a chef when I went to culinary school and caught on quickly. I graduated at the top of my class, and right after, I got an internship at a hot local restaurant in Napa. And beyond that, I’ve just kept my head down, worked hard and good opportunities have presented themselves to me.

316 Capitola Ave., Capitola, 831-854-2728; trestlesrestaurant.com.

Bad Animal Blends 1960s Greenwich Village with Adventurous Cuisine

-
0
Bad Animal Blends 1960s Greenwich Village with Adventurous Cuisine

From its William Blake prints to its wraparound poetry, Bad Animal is a haven for retro chic unlike anything else in Santa Cruz. For one thing, the playlist last Thursday night of David Bowie, Lou Reed, Warren Zevon, Bob Dylan. Excellent. Keeping them company, a wall of handprinted broadsides, Impressionist paintings in thick gold frames, crystal chandeliers and a snug elbow of banquettes filled with an appropriately chic clientele. All those Evergreen Reviews, the New Directions existential classics, the tiny wine bar. I’m transported to  Greenwich Village circa 1960, waiting for new arrivals to the Beat Generation to order a glass of orange wine and wander through the Camus and Bukowski. And this is all by careful design, as is the stuffed badger head gazing across the polished floor at a wooden mallard in flight. Tables quickly acquired human animals, talking of Michelangelo. The walls are loaded with serious reading—Adrienne Rich, Shakespeare, DH Lawrence, Jonathan Franzen, histories, philosophy, criticism. Enfolded into this salon of ideas, backed by an early punk rock soundtrack, is a tiny kitchen and an eccentric wine list, long on bottles and curiously short on wines by the glass. Bad Animal is doing its own thing while still exploring its culinary/oenological mission. After choosing glasses of a Chilean orange ($14) and a Spanish grenache ($13) from the edgy varietals from Italy, Alsace, Moravia, Serbia, and Greece, we roamed the tempting floor to ceiling bookshelves. Distracted by “Rebel, Rebel,” I decided to order food. And so we joined a group of fellow diners negotiating their dinner plans at the bar. The deal is you choose, order, and if you want, pay up front. How do I tip for service and meal not yet received? I sipped my orange wine as I pondered this and wondered whether I’m too binary for this glamorous scene. 

Post-pandemic, Bad Animal has acquired the expert cooking skills of The Midway (chef Catherine Stern’s latest project). Her menu is artful—and short. Two snacks, two salads, two entrees, and two desserts. The tagliatelle verde ($19), with squash and nettles sounded tempting, as did the other entree of Fogline Farm chicken with miso, sweet potato and pickled daikon ($24). I found myself fantasizing over the no-longer-on-the-menu Manresa sourdough with salted butter from pre-pandemic days. Our entrees came to our table in handsome deep white bowls. Perfect for my pasta, but challenging for cutting the roasted chicken breast. I loved the crisp nettles lacing the pale green pasta. The chef likes to push sweet against salty, a strategy that adorned both our dishes. Salty miso and sweet yam. I was slowing down on my generous bowl of pasta and asked for a to-go box, as I picked at a few choice strands of tagliatelle. Immediately our dessert arrived, along with the to-go box. As I mentioned, a few kinks are still being ironed out—I was given a fork to scoop up the pasta, and we were given spoons for our beautiful dessert of chocolate ginger cake ($10). Even though it was awkward to eat without forks, this was a masterful dish. Luscious, ginger-scented barely sweetened chocolate cake was topped with unsweetened whipped cream. Black sesame seeds dotted the ethereal cream and cake. Encircling the plate were slices of poached quince and fig. A ravishing cascade of flavors. Chocolate, cream, quince, and fig. Bad Animal is a terrific scene, loaded with food for thought and exotic wines. Check out the desserts while you’re there. badanimalbooks.com  1011 Cedar St., Open Wed noon-9; bar & kitchen 5-9. No res.

Palace Art & Office Supply to Remain Open Under New Ownership

-
2
Palace Art & Office Supply to Remain Open Under New Ownership

Palace Art & Office Supply, which was previously set to close, will remain open under new ownership by a local family.

The announcement came three months after the previous owners announced the last location in Capitola would close.

Charles Maier along with his wife, Al-lee Gottlieb and their four children, are the new owners of the beloved retail store. 

“We’re excited to carry on this legacy and help preserve what the community has always loved about Palace,” Maier stated in a press release. “Everyone can expect to be able to get the same great products and the same service from the same friendly staff.”

Maier also owns the Crow’s Nest, Gildas on the Wharf and Santa Cruz Diner.

Palace will continue to operate out of its longtime location at 1501-K 41st Avenue in Capitola. 

Palace Business Solutions—the Central Coast’s largest independent dealer of office products, school supplies, cleaning supplies, and office and school furniture—will remain under original ownership.

“When we made the decision earlier this year to end our retail journey, we didn’t imagine this turn of events,” says Roy Trowbridge, whose father originally purchased Palace in 1949. “We are honored that the Palace retail store will live on with another local family.”

Volunteer Firefighters Recall Harrowing Dixie Days

-
0
Volunteer Firefighters Recall Harrowing Dixie Days

When Zayante firefighters got the call at 7:11pm on Aug. 4 that their services were needed on the Dixie Fire, they had just hours to pack and deploy.

It would be two weeks of grueling attacks, sleepless nights and ever-present danger, battling what would turn out to be the biggest non-complex fire in California history.

“You’re driving up to these neighborhoods and both sides of the road are on fire,” said Zayante Fire Protection District Capt. John Amadeo, who served as an engineer on the mission. “It is always such an ominous feeling.”

The Dixie Fire sparked on July 13—possibly due to vegetation connecting with power lines—and began burning through Butte, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties. It merged with the Fly Fire, which started July 22, fueled by the state-wide drought, hot weather and windy conditions.

Over 103 days the Dixie Fire would burn more than 963,000 acres. But when the volunteer crew from one of the state’s tiniest departments set out, they didn’t know they were about to become part of history. They weren’t unaware of the risks, either.

Joining Amadeo were two other Zayante firefighters, all three operating under Capt. Todd Kraft, who’s been with the department since 2010.

Together, with other departments from around the region, they formed “XCZ-2326-C”—the Santa Cruz County strike team—which included crews from Watsonville, Santa Cruz, Aptos and La Selva Beach, with Josh Coleman, of the Santa Cruz Fire Department, in command.

They set out into the night toward Chico, arriving at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, in Butte County, hours later. They had a window of three hours to sleep, before rising to receive their directive in the morning.

“You’re waking up not quite knowing what you’re going to have in front of you for the day,” Kraft recalled. “For many, there’s a nervousness, and yet excitement at the same time.”

XCZ-2326-C was sent to the northern section of the expanding fire mass, termed “Division Lima.”

At first, the Zayante team was assigned to protect structures and patrol vulnerable areas. They removed weeds from around houses, took loose firewood from decks and re-stacked it in a safer location, and reorganized furniture that could be an ignition site if an ember were to land. Meteorologists were predicting extreme fire activity.

Duties in the overarching battle against one of nature’s more potent forces are often mundane, and when you’re successful, and fire is beaten back, it’s usually not very dramatic.

In the face of Dixie’s overwhelming vigor, the Zayante crew set to the daily grind of structure protection, stringing hose along mountainous terrain and cleaning up after triumphs.

“You don’t always see the fire, but you can hear it,” Kraft said. “It sounds like a roaring train.”

One day, about a week into their deployment, the crew was assigned to protect a group of remote houses in a valley surrounded by plenty of dry fuel that could easily burst into flames.

As the engineer, Amadeo set to pumping water from a 4,000-gallon water hauler into an orange-hued 3,000-gallon receptacle called “the pumpkin”—and onto their 500-gallon engine.

He stopped counting after dispensing 20,000 gallons.

“The water I was pumping was to put out the edge of the fire,” he said. “The fire was coming over and burning down towards us, and there were a bunch of houses in that vicinity.”

Meanwhile, firefighters launched a “backburn,” ignited controlled burns in tiers, starting at the top of the hillside.

“We were able to burn out the fuels behind these houses,” Kraft said. “We were fighting fire with fire.”

After working through the night, they swapped out with another crew. Flames ultimately did end up sweeping through the area, but while plenty of structures were devoured, the cabins and houses the Zayante crew helped fortify, ended up surviving, Kraft said.

“If we had not done that, the fire would have come down the mountain and taken out these houses and cabins,” he said.

In another assignment, the crew was sent to roll out hoses down steep terrain.

It was nighttime and an inversion layer had compacted smoke into the valley.

Kraft remembers the menacing sound of the trees falling all around them.

“It’s not the ones you can see; it’s the ones you can’t see that are scary,” he said. “You hear them hitting the ground with a thunderous roar, and you’re just hoping none of your crew are nearby.”

At one point a tree collapsed just yards away, and they had to use chainsaws to clear the way forward.

“Where the apprehension comes in is when the tree actually falls on the trail in front of you,” Amadeo said. “You’re worried about Tree No. 2.”

Seemingly no sooner than they’d laid out all that hose, they were asked to collect it—another result of successful fire suppression. But just because the fire had receded, that didn’t mean things weren’t dangerous.

“There’s always the threat of trees falling—always,” Amadeo said, adding fire-weakened trees can tumble at a moment’s notice, forcing firefighters to keep their head on a swivel. “That’s why they call them ‘widow-makers,’ because they land on you.”

Luckily, no errant trunks or branches hit the crew members.

However, one Zayante firefighter sprained his ankle while restocking the truck.

Because the district has so few volunteers, they weren’t able to replenish their ranks up north. So, Felton Fire Protection District sent a firefighter to the historic wildfire fight.

As they were nearing the end of their two-week stretch, lightning zapped land just beyond the northern perimeter of the Dixie Fire, and the strike team was diverted.

“There were tons and tons of houses right at the bottom of that hill—beautiful houses,” Amadeo remembered, showing a stunning video of a sea of flames rippling through a thick forest. “It was gnarly. You don’t go shovel to flame, or nozzle to flame, on that, because it’s just not happening.”

Thankfully, helicopters were available that day to assist with air attacks.

“The day after that we got reassigned to the Caldor Fire,” Amadeo said. “They said, ‘Caldor’s blowing up; you need to go.’”

He wondered if that meant, instead of heading home, they might have to stay away from the San Lorenzo Valley for another two weeks.

The team drove 500 miles, through Nevada, and made it to the South Lake Tahoe area just as wildland-assault puzzle pieces were being assembled. The Zayante crew eventually learned a team from Scotts Valley Fire Protection District would come to relieve them.

The Santa Cruz County strike team—XCZ-2326-C—would remain on the Caldor Fire for an entire month.

City Council Meeting Again About Interim City Manager Position

-
0
City Council Meeting Again About Interim City Manager Position

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville City Council has scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday morning to discuss the appointment of an interim city manager that will take the reigns from outgoing chief executive Matt Huffaker.

It will be the third time the City Council has met in closed session about the position. It met on Nov. 3 in a special meeting with two City Council members absent and debated the item in closed session again at its regularly scheduled Nov. 9 meeting.

Wednesday’s meeting is set to begin at 8am.

At the Nov. 3 meeting, the City Council directed staff to search for two companies that would spearhead the city’s efforts to find a new city manager. One company would be in charge of finding a permanent replacement for Huffaker, and the other for identifying a person to fill the position in the interim.

It took no final action on the matter in its Nov. 9 meeting.

Huffaker, the city manager in Santa Cruz County’s southernmost city for three years, was appointed as Santa Cruz’s chief executive on Nov. 9 by the Santa Cruz City Council. He is slated to start his new position on Jan. 3, 2022.

The appointment of an interim city manager has drawn concerns from people who claim they are city of Watsonville employees that have flooded the Watsonville City Council’s email with pleas that it look outward for a replacement. Specifically, those people say that Assistant City Manager Tamara Vides is not qualified for the position.

Only one city employee has come forward against Vides’ possible appointment on the record.

Vides, at the Nov. 3 special meeting, received a show of support from interim police chief Tom Sims and fire chief Rudy Lopez and the directors of the parks, development and finance departments.

Santa Cruz Gives Kicks Off Its Biggest Campaign Ever

After upsurge in donations in 2020, the number of participating groups doubles to 80
Read more

UCSC Unveils ‘Blueprint’ for Long Range Development Plan

University Chancellor Cynthia Larive expects enrollment to double over the next 20 years
Read more

Empty Home Tax Aims to Generate Funds for Low-Income Housing in Santa Cruz

empty-home-tax
Opponents say measure unfairly penalizes homeowners
Read more

Rob Brezsny’s Astrology: Nov. 17-23

Astrology, Horoscope, Stars, Zodiac Signs
Free will astrology for the week of Nov. 17
Read more

Nicholson Vineyards’ 2019 Brooks Block Pinot Noir is a Flavorful, Dark Delight

nicholson-vineyards
Plus, Stockwell Cellars case sale and Wrights Station Winery gears up for Black Friday
Read more

Trestles Delivers a Whirlwind of Culinary Innovation to Capitola Village

Trestles Capitola Village
Chef Nick Sherman’s new spot offers an inspired and eclectic menu
Read more

Bad Animal Blends 1960s Greenwich Village with Adventurous Cuisine

Bad Animal
Santa Cruz’s wonderful oddity brings books, wine, food and culture together
Read more

Palace Art & Office Supply to Remain Open Under New Ownership

palace-arts-to-close
Palace Art & Office Supply, which was previously set to close, will remain open under new ownership by a local family.
Read more

Volunteer Firefighters Recall Harrowing Dixie Days

The Dixie Fire would burn more than 963,000 acres over a 103-day period
Read more

City Council Meeting Again About Interim City Manager Position

It will be the third time the Watsonville City Council has met in closed session about the position
Read more
1...365366367...1,000Page 366 of 1,000
17,623FansLike
8,845FollowersFollow
good times santa cruz logo
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
East Bay Express cover
East Bay Express cover
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
Newsletters Subscribe Advertise About Us Contact Us Letter to the Editor Press Release Obituaries Writing an Obituary Archives Find a Paper Distribute Good Times Vote for Best Of Plaques & Banners
contests, giveaways, enter to win, free
California News Coronavirus Environment National News Local News Cover Stories
Art Dance Film Literature Music Music Picks Stage
Astrology Letters to the Editor Opinion Wellness
Dining Reviews Foodie File Vine & Dine
Profiles
All Upcoming Events Today's Events Submit an Event Promote Your Event Things to Do This Week Clubgrid
This Week's Issue Last Week's Issue Flip-Through Editions Special Publications
weeklys california local media group logo

FOLLOW US

Copyright © Weeklys All rights reserved.

OUR PUBLICATIONS

ADVERTISING Advertise Ad Planner/Issue Schedule Legal Submit an Obituary Legal NoticesFictitious Business Name (FBN) StatementsDoing Business As (DBA) NoticesTrustee Sale Notices

COMPANY INFO Job Opportunities Journalism Awards Privacy Policy Terms of Service

Support Local Journalism