How Payment Systems Can Catch Up with Our On-Demand Lives

Gambling

Rob Chalhoub

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October 29, 2025

How Payment Systems Can Catch Up with Our On-Demand Lives

Published in cooperation between CasinoBeats and Good Times

Convenience has become something most people in Santa Cruz can’t live without. Meals arrive at doors within minutes, taxis appear at the tap of a screen and streaming queues never seem to end. Life here has grown around speed and ease, yet money still moves more slowly than everything it pays for. A payment might take a day to clear, a refund may linger for a week and cross-border transfers can feel like a relic from another era. Residents notice the lag between how fast they can spend and how slowly the money moves. Despite the progress in ordering, watching and traveling, the way people actually pay often trails behind the pace of life in Santa Cruz.

People have grown used to things happening instantly. Food, entertainment and even work tasks can be completed in moments, and that expectation has extended to money as well. The same desire for speed that drives one-click ordering has created demand for faster access to funds. Options for same day withdrawals at fast withdrawal online casinos illustrate this perfectly, letting users access winnings without waiting days for processing. Players can access their money immediately, which makes handling it less stressful. They also know exactly when payments have gone through, so there’s no guesswork. The principle is simple: if entertainment and services are available instantly, financial transactions should keep pace. Residents of Santa Cruz are experiencing this expectation firsthand, and banks and payment services are having to catch up. The appeal is not just in speed but in confidence, knowing money moves when it’s needed most.

Slow payments can cause problems for everyone, not just the person waiting. A small business on the Santa Cruz pier may wait days for sales revenue, while gig workers often find themselves caught between completed jobs and pending payouts. Even everyday consumers notice the lag when refunds or transfers take longer than expected. Waiting for money can be stressful, especially in a city where almost everything else moves fast. The frustration grows sharper when everything else feels immediate. People have grown used to seamless interfaces, yet beneath that polished surface sits infrastructure built decades ago. Money often has to go through a few different banks and systems, which can take time. What once felt efficient now feels cumbersome, particularly compared with the instant services residents rely on daily. The demand for speed is no longer a luxury; it is part of daily financial life in Santa Cruz.

Financial technology has gradually responded to the pressure for instant transactions. Digital wallets, instant transfers and open banking allow money to move without delays. Local banks are testing systems that post transfers in seconds rather than hours or days, and fintech platforms are streamlining verification and settlement. Residents can use their money almost immediately, which makes handling everyday expenses much easier. Payments confirm almost instantly, so there’s no wondering whether a transfer went through. That responsiveness matters for freelancers managing multiple clients, small businesses paying suppliers or anyone juggling urgent bills. Being able to move money quickly reduces stress and makes everyday financial management simpler. Over time, people in Santa Cruz begin to expect this speed as the norm, treating instant access to funds as part of routine life rather than a rare convenience.

People have come to expect payments that feel invisible and effortless. One-tap transfers, digital wallets and automatic billing are no longer novelties; they are standard features. Users want to complete transactions without thinking, with instant confirmation and minimal friction. When payments go through smoothly, people feel confident using a service again. Even small delays can be annoying, especially for people used to things happening instantly. Residents also want to know that fast payments don’t put their money or data at risk. Payment systems are now judged as much on how easy they make life as on the services they support. People appreciate services they can trust, and providers who deliver reliability and clear information get noticed in Santa Cruz’s busy lifestyle.

Residents are beginning to expect more than speed and accessibility. Notifications, clear records and easy-to-use dashboards let people see where their money is without any special expertise. Linking accounts and services together is also becoming more common. People expect the same experience whether paying through a mobile app, a card or an online portal, without delays or inconsistencies. Attention is also growing on the environmental footprint of payment networks. Rules are keeping up to make sure quicker payments stay safe. Some services give people straightforward ways to keep track of bills and subscriptions. With faster, simpler payments, managing money in Santa Cruz feels much easier.

In Santa Cruz, people are finding it easier to pay and get paid at local businesses. Whether it’s a corner café, a farmers’ market stall or a boutique shop, apps and digital services let money move quickly and smoothly, so residents don’t have to worry about carrying cash. Mobile payments and contactless options mean residents can shop locally without needing cash, while vendors benefit from faster access to funds that keep their operations running smoothly. Some platforms let people handle payments and keep track of rewards or memberships at the same time, making it simpler to manage both without extra effort. Beyond convenience, tools that show spending in real time or offer automated savings are helping people plan their finances with less effort. Users can see exactly where their money is going, set aside funds for bills or track goals without having to log into multiple accounts. A few platforms even include guides or tips for managing money responsibly, helping residents take control of their finances without feeling overwhelmed. In a city like Santa Cruz, where community life, work and leisure move quickly, these improvements mean managing money is no longer a source of stress. People can spend more time enjoying daily life and supporting local businesses, knowing their payments go through smoothly and without hassle. Seamless payments let people enjoy life without worrying about money getting in the way. With smoother payments, Santa Cruz residents can focus on life instead of money worries.

Ink and Insight

A&E
Art

John Koenig

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October 25, 2025

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When two of the most influential storytellers in modern comics decide to team up, you pay attention. Bookshop Santa Cruz is bringing that dream collaboration to the Rio Theatre this week, hosting The Cartoonists’ Club—a new book and a family-friendly live event from New York Times best-selling creators Scott McCloud and Raina Telgemeier.

For parents who came of age reading McCloud’s Understanding Comics or Telgemeier’s Smile, this pairing is something like seeing Lennon and McCartney pick up pencils instead of guitars. The result is a richly illustrated invitation into the art and heart of making comics. It’s a guide for young creators that demystifies how pictures and words can spark emotion, humor and empathy.

Years in the Making

Telgemeier conceived the project after realizing how many of her young readers were hungry to learn how comics work. Her own creative awakening had come years earlier through McCloud’s landmark 1993 analysis of the medium, a book that treated panels, gutters and speech balloons as elements of a sophisticated visual language. She’d long wished she could hand a version of that book to the nine-year-olds who lined up at her signings. Eventually, she decided to make it herself and to ask the man who had inspired her to join in.

The collaboration took roughly five years to complete. Both artists poured their experience into characters designed to mirror the discovery and vulnerability of early creativity. The story follows four kids—Michaela, Howard, Art and Linda—each drawn to comics for different reasons: curiosity, self-expression, connection or the simple thrill of drawing worlds that didn’t exist yesterday.

The Spirit of the Book

McCloud sees a bit of himself in Art, the inquisitive experimenter who wants to test everything. As a boy, he treated comics as a laboratory for ideas, a mix of science, art and storytelling that felt infinite in scope. Telgemeier gravitates toward Linda, the shy artist who hesitates to share her sketchbook until she finds the courage to show her work. Through that act of opening up, she discovers both friends and a voice.

That dynamic—the moment a child’s private imagination becomes a shared language—sits at the center of The Cartoonists’ Club. The book gently encourages kids to let their creativity be seen, to take risks, and to understand that art becomes powerful when it connects one person’s inner world to another’s.

McCloud calls that courage “the real magic trick” of art: when curiosity and vulnerability combine. Telgemeier frames it as an invitation for young storytellers to find the version of themselves that draws from joy rather than fear. The tone throughout is playful, visual, and full of practical examples that make even complex ideas like perspective, pacing and composition feel accessible to a grade-schooler.

What to Expect at the Rio

The Santa Cruz stop promises more than a routine reading. McCloud and Telgemeier are known for turning presentations into performance art. Expect a kinetic slideshow that unspools like an animated comic strip, with panels sliding and morphing in sync to their narration. Telgemeier will do live drawing on stage, showing kids how a blank page turns into a character before their eyes. McCloud, ever the theorist, plans to punctuate the visuals with interactive games that let the audience test how pictures and words work together.

It’s part classroom, part comedy, part creative pep talk, and a chance for kids to see that the people who make books are still playing, experimenting and sometimes making mistakes on purpose just to see what happens next.

Parents will recognize a second layer here: this is a conversation between two generations of comics thinkers. McCloud spent decades convincing the world that comics were serious art. Telgemeier spent the last 20 years proving that they could also be intimate, funny and emotionally true. In doing so, she brought a new wave of readers into the medium. Their partnership closes that circle, offering the next generation both a toolbox and a reason to use it.

The Event

For Santa Cruz families, the event promises to be a night of big screens, fast sketches and creative energy in motion. Telgemeier and McCloud will be affirming to Santa Cruz kids that stories still start simply, with pencils, paper and a willingness to share what’s inside. The Cartoonists’ Club itself is less a manual than a gentle reminder that art isn’t about talent so much as imagination, persistence and play.

Bookshop Santa Cruz’s presentation at the Rio Theatre will bring that message to life for one evening and show how comics come alive when passed from hand to hand, generation to generation, panel by panel.

Tickets for the Bookshop Santa Cruz event are $22.99 per person, which covers everything—tax, fees, and a copy of The Cartoonists’ Club. Each attendee, adults and kids alike, will need their own ticket. Every ticket comes with two barcodes: one grants entry to the Rio Theatre program; the other is redeemed for the complimentary book.

The evening includes a 45-minute visual presentation and conversation with the creators, followed by a live audience Q&A and a photo opportunity—one picture per ticketholder—with Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud. Attendees also receive an exclusive signed bookplate and a free tote bag as keepsakes from the event.

Scott McCloud and Raina Telgemeier and The Cartoonists Club: 6pm on Oct. 28 at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. Tickets: $22.99. bookshopsantacruz.com

Weighing in at the State of the Region

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October 24, 2025

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Government, business and nonprofit leaders around Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito counties staged the 2025 State of the Region Oct. 17 at CSU Monterey Bay to discuss a vast list of topics from health care and air mobility to hospitality, tourism, advances in the agriculture, industry, climate issues and housing.

Allen Radner, president and CEO of Salinas Valley Health, was the keynote speaker, charging head-on into the array of health care challenges set forth by the Trump Administration, his “One Big Beautiful Bill” and the ongoing government shutdown.

Headed up by the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership, the eight-hour event featured more than three dozen speakers and panelists.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas told the crowd that this past year has been “the most challenging year in my time in office.”

“I have made it my mission to ensure that regions like ours just don’t survive but that they thrive, that all Californians, from farmworkers to entrepreneurs, that everyone has a fair shot at opportunity,” Rivas said.

Rivas also touched on poverty and lack of affordable housing, and people who can’t afford to live near their jobs.

This year, Rivas helped streamline the largest expansion of housing opportunities in decades.

“Our job isn’t just pushing back on Donald Trump, but about making real progress for California,” he said. “As California Democrats, we have to do a much better job at improving the lives of the residents who live here.”

Sen. John Laird told the crowd he wanted to look back over the year and “look forward to some of the challenges.” He touched on several major accomplishments, including the recent groundbreaking of the 670-bed student housing project at Cabrillo College, the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency’s College Lake Pipeline Project, and improvements to the Pajaro River Levee improvement project.

He also mentioned the completion of improvements to Highway 156 between San Juan Bautista and Hollister.

On the subject of medical issues, Laird mentioned stepping in to help Watsonville Community Hospital.

“We are going to make sure that we do what it takes to keep our hospitals financially sound and operating,” he said.

Supervisors Table Kratom Ban

Todd Guild

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October 24, 2025

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The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 21 tabled an ordinance that would have banned the sale of kratom, opting instead for a watered-down version that prohibits the sale to anyone under 21 but includes a public education component.

Kratom is a plant grown in Southeast Asia and widely sold in various forms throughout the U.S. by retail establishments such as gas stations and smoke shops.

Ingested by mouth, it is hailed by users and industry insiders as a reliever of anxiety and pain—as well as a natural way to ease opioid withdrawal.

It has taken root in communities throughout the country and has garnered an estimated 12,000 users in Santa Cruz County and 15 million nationwide.

But to medical professionals, the plant—dubbed “gas station heroin” by detractors—is more dangerous than users realize. The active ingredient, 7-hydroxyitragynine, is more potent than morphine, and in fact affects the same brain receptors, said Supervisor Kim De Serpa, who brought the ordinance to the board.

“This is a substance that is not good for people, and certainly not good for our youth,” she said. “It is a gateway drug to get kids hooked.”

And because the $1.5 billion industry is unregulated by local, state or federal governments, the substance has no age restrictions and is available to virtually anyone, said De Serpa, who has spent her career as a medical social worker.

Use can cause dependence and addiction, liver injury, hypothyroidism, kidney failure, abnormal heart rhythm, seizures, nausea and vomiting, she said.

“I have seen many people, including youth, come in overdosed on kratom and in fact have lost a couple of those patients,” she said.

The proposal was the second proposed by De Serpa that targets uncommon—but commonly abused—substances.

In September, the board approved a ban on the sale of recreational nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas.

Casey Grover, a Monterey-based physician who specializes in substance use disorders, said he has treated several people who have used kratom.

“The vast majority of my patients say something to the effect of, ‘if I had known what this stuff was, I never would have started it,’” he said.

Santa Cruz County Public Health Officer Lisa Hernandez said that a 2019 survey showed that 62% of smoke shops have it for sale. It can also be purchased both online and in health stores.

“Taking action now is something that can help prevent kratom from becoming even more of a public health and substance use issue, especially in the setting of a community that is impacted by the opioid epidemic,” Hernandez said.

Link to Creative Commons license for image

But numerous public speakers addressed the board, saying that they use the substance to deal with pain and addiction and asking the board to impose regulations rather than a ban.

A man named Anthony called in to say that kratom is the only thing that keeps him from lapsing back to alcoholism.

“Don’t punish responsible users,” he said.

Supervisor Monica Monica Martinez said she was listening to the medical professionals who spoke on the hazards of the plant.

“As a county, it’s our job to set policies that protect the public health of our residents,” she said. “It’s pretty simple.”

Supervisor Justin Cummings said that the majority of people who spoke were concerned about the highly concentrated potent synthetic products, not the natural plant form.

“If we ban this, we’re really just creating a black market where there is no regulation,” he said.

“I think we should not be cutting off the opportunity for people to access those naturally occurring substances that are sold in natural forms in a healthy way.”

The ordinance will be retooled and brought back to the board at a later date.

Anatomical Study

Literature

DNA

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October 22, 2025

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Mary Roach, who’s made it onto the The New York Times Best Seller list seven times, has a new book, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, which she’ll dissect at an Oct. 23 talk and book-signing at the London Nelson Community Center. The new tome is available at Bookshop Santa Cruz, which is cosponsoring the event with the Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz.

In Replaceable You, Roach takes us step by step through her firsthand research on the nitty and deliriously gritty details involved in such things as making a vagina out of intestines, the applicability of getting skin grafts from frogs, and harvesting usable 3D-printed body parts.

Roach’s honed literary style surgically removes the fiction out of sci-fi, and serves the science with shards of skin-crawling details, historical facts and needed humor.

We are surfing during an interestingly odd moment in the technological tidal wave. Even the Jetsons didn’t have synthetic androids with lifelike skin and brimming with the Neuralink consciousness of Elon Musk. Rosey the Robot was built out of nuts and bolts and spoke conversationally, with a droll and depressed tone (one of out two?).

You would think that with the leaps and the bounds that science takes every day, replacing our body parts must be right around the corner, right? Not quite.

Due to the stickiness of the human body, our meat suits do not neatly dovetail with things like new brains, skin or eyes. We know this because Roach cozies up right next to the dreaming innovators and the brightest and most beleaguered scientists. She’s constantly taking mental notes, asking pointed questions and ingratiating herself into arenas never really seen before, or at least never noticed in such detail.

The 20th century’s George Plimpton was famously known as a “participatory journalist.” Someone who cribbed from the first-person perspective of a “regular Joe,” wedging himself into professional baseball, boxing, acting stand-up comedy, and playing with a world-class orchestra.

But here’s one thing Plimpton never did, which Roach delightfully relates. “I did this column on a ‘Bashful Bladder’ for Salon,” Roach begins from her home in the Bay Area. “You know what that is? Paruresis. It’s a thing where it affects mostly, if not entirely, men. Where you can’t get started if you’re peeing in public, like in a urinal situation. Or the ballpark, where it’s a freaking trough.

“So there’s a treatment for that, which is kind of like the treatment for getting over the fear of spiders—where you just inch closer and closer,” she explains, “I was somebody’s pee buddy. What that means is I start out on the other end of the house. I say, “Okay, I’m over in the living room.” And the guy would drink a gallon of water. And then I would get closer and closer, and finally I was like, “I’m outside the door.” Roach is quick to point out that she “didn’t go into the bathroom with him.”

Roach, by all accounts, is an even-keeled persona, with an East Coast edge, a prolific writer by hook or crook, and someone who has been called “a humorous science author” by almost every major publication. You can also find other choice words like “wry” and “weird” in many descriptions of her.

So consider that when you take only the first word of her award-winning book titles—Stiff, Spook, Bonk, Gulp, Grunt and Fuzz—it sounds like the Seven Dwarfs’ Canadian cousins.

But don’t let that fool you into thinking these are just cutely titled books. What you get are deep spelunking explorations into the history of cadavers (Stiff), science’s hot takes on the afterlife (Spook), the study of sexual physiology (Bonk), the digestive tract and how digestion works (Gulp), how humans survive war (Grunt), and when nature breaks the law (Fuzz).

How does an author dive into so many diverse subjects?

“I would say to new writers, follow your curiosity,” Roach says. “Also, if something isn’t really interesting to you, you’re going to regret deciding to spend two years looking into it, because two years is a long time.”

Mary Roach will appear at 7pm on Thursday, Oct. 23 at London Nelson Community Center, 301 Center St., Santa Cruz. Tickets are $37 and include entry and a hardcover book. More info at bookshopsantacruz.com.

Off the Road

Music

Bill Kopp

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October 22, 2025

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When guitarist Eddie Roberts and drummer Simon Allen launched the New Mastersounds in Leeds, England, in 1999, it never occurred to them that the band would thrive for more than a quarter decade. Growing out of an earlier band called the Mastersounds, their soul/funk/jazz hybrid was an immediate hit in clubs throughout the UK. And thanks to the group’s winning, signature sound—rounded out by bassist Pete Shand and organist Joe Tatton—the New Mastersounds gained a loyal following thrilled by dynamic live shows and top-notch studio releases.

In the group’s early years, the New Mastersounds collaborated with a number of big names: Corinne Bailey Rae sang on 2003’s “Your Love is Mine,” and the group cut a live album with soul jazz legend Lou Donaldson in 2004. But the band remained primarily a UK phenomenon. “We never thought we’d play in America,” Roberts says, “let alone play in America for 21 years.” But they did, starting in ’04, becoming a hit with jazz and jam band fans alike.

These days, Roberts is based in Denver, while the other members of the group are at home across the Atlantic. Shand lives on Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands off Spain’s south coast. Tatton is based in Manchester, England. “And Simon is still in Leeds, where the band started,” Roberts says.

That spread-out quality means that it’s a logistical challenge to assemble the group for recording dates and live shows, much less multi-city tours. And so after 25 years, the New Mastersounds are—after a fashion—calling it quits. “We’ve decided that it’s better to retire gracefully than continue to slog ourselves on the road,” Roberts explains. “Pete is 64. I’m 54, and the others are shortly behind me,” he says. “After 26 years on the road, we’ve paid our dues.”

But the band’s current tour—dubbed “Ta Ta for Now”—doesn’t quite spell the end for the popular foursome. “It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to play anymore,” Roberts says. It’s simply that the infrastructure required to make touring a going concern for the band requires at least 200 live dates annually. “And that’s not something that we can do at this point in our lives and career,” Roberts says. “It’s not like we hate each other,” he says with a chuckle. “It’s really that we’re retiring from touring.”

Roberts clarifies that the New Mastersounds aren’t quitting as a band. “We’ll probably play some shows in Menorca every summer, because Pete’s there; we can go hang out with him,” Roberts says with a smile. “And we may do the odd show here and there.”

Recording and album releases will continue, Roberts promises. In fact, immediately before the band’s date at Moe’s Alley, they’ll be cutting a new album at the newly reopened Record Plant in Sausalito. “We’re going to rehearse a bit, cut some new tunes and get some new material to play,” he says. “And we’ll get a couple of guests to sing with us.”

Future albums from the group are likely to be released by Color Red Records, the label Roberts founded in 2018. In addition to his role as the band’s guitarist, he also runs the label and manages other artists. Color Red has released titles from the Polyrhythmics, Breakestra, Geoff Mann and many others; in less than a decade the label has put out about 70 albums. “We released a single a week for the first three years,” Roberts says.

The label’s Vinyl Club program has served as a successful launching pad for many acts. “We put out a brand-new original album every month,” Roberts explains. “That really gives us strength in numbers; we know we’re going to sell a certain amount on the first day, which makes it an attractive proposal for independent artists. It’s a really good platform for making new music.”

Building on the Color Red Vinyl Club’s stateside success, Robert has his eye on expansion. “We want to launch it in Europe,” he says. “And my grand scheme is to get it going in Japan as well. It’s a tricky market, but I think it could work.”

Even with the New Mastersounds winding down their touring schedule, Roberts is busier than ever. Beyond Color Red and management duties, he’s active with his other band, the Lucky Strokes. He’s also scheduled to cut an album in New Orleans with Robert Walter and Stanton Moore. And in between all that, Roberts—a licensed sea captain—leads musical cruises in the Mediterranean, joined by musical co-hosts like Walter and New Mastersounds bandmate Joe Tatton. “We charter a 50-foot catamaran and take people out from Croatia; we do six or eight trips a year,” Roberts says.

But right now Eddie Roberts is focused on the upcoming recording session and the Moe’s Alley show that follows it—the very first night of a 24-city tour. “We may even go into the studio that morning,” Roberts says. “So we’re going to be fresh, and we’re going to be on.”

Leavening the bittersweet news of his band closing its touring years, Roberts shares some tantalizing news: “I expect that Santa Cruz will be the first audience to hear a bunch of brand-new material.”

The New Mastersounds play at 8pm on Oct. 23 at Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $40.61. moesalley.com

The Editor’s Desk

Editor’s Note

Brad Kava

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October 22, 2025

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Santa Cruz California editor of good times news media print and web — **Brad Kava** | Good Times Editor

The chefs at our top-tier restaurants love fall, the harvest season. For Restaurant Week they are bringing out the freshest crops and featuring special weeklong recipes with the area’s finest homegrown offerings.

Don’t read our cover story on an empty stomach. It will make you really hungry. Or do, but have a phone or computer handy to make reservations.

The only frustration is that you can hit just so many great eateries in a week, but the hope is that once you’ve tried some special, well-priced meals, you’ll want to go back for more the rest of the year.

“I love cooking with squash in the fall—it’s such a versatile ingredient, says Avanti Restaurant owner Tatiana Glass, who has a surfeit of specials for the week. “We make fresh butternut squash ravioli and butternut squash soup, and we also find ways to incorporate it into other dishes throughout the menu. I also love the atmosphere this season brings. As the weather cools, the restaurant feels especially warm and inviting. We host more private events this time of year, which I really enjoy—from designing the menus to seeing our guests so happy during their celebrations.”

This is our season to reclaim not only our beaches and Boardwalk, but our restaurants, which go out of their way to make locals feel special in the off-season.

As Makai Island Kitchen & Groggery owner Peter Drobak told me, while giving a lecture on his 650 types of rum (!!!) on the Wharf, the only way for restaurants to survive in a tourist town like Santa Cruz during the long winter is to take really good care of the locals all year round. (Makai’s Pumpkin Curry Noodle Bowl is pictured on the cover.)

And Restaurant Week is the kickoff, with plenty of great reasons to get out of the house and dine out.

Then there’s Gabriella Cafe downtown: “We’re not particularly a tourist restaurant in the summer, so in the fall we tend to get a little busier,” says owner Paul Cocking. “UCSC, our biggest employer, comes back. People seem to come out more, want to be inside eating at a cozy restaurant like mine.”

I’m drooling reading the specials these chefs are promising to deliver this week, and it will be a challenge to pick which ones to visit. They all look great. Let us know your favorites and your reviews of what you ate and what you would like to see the chefs carry forward to the rest of the year. Drop a line to ed****@*****ys.com.

I always tell my out-of-town friends to visit us in the late fall. Not only is the weather the best and the beaches relatively empty, but with Restaurant Week you won’t find better food anywhere in the world.

Thanks for eating.

Brad Kava | Editor

PHOTO CONTEST

STAND TALL “No Kings” march started with Lady Liberty, created by Artists Respond Resist Together and highlighted with bubbles from demonstrators. The spirit of Santa Cruz was palpable. Photograph by Ali Eppy.

GOOD IDEA

Cabrillo College celebrates the 50th year of its stroke center. Founded in 1975, and the only program of its kind to be integrated with a community college, the Cabrillo College Stroke and Disability Learning Center has been a vital resource for adults in Santa Cruz County recovering from life-altering events, including injuries and strokes, that result in functional changes. The center provides individualized instruction, adaptive technology and peer support that helps students regain skills, independence and confidence through education.

“For 50 years, the Stroke and Disability Learning Center has embodied the heart of Cabrillo’s mission—transforming lives through learning,” said Sally Weiss, director of the Stroke and Disability Learning Center. “We’ve supported thousands of students on their journeys toward healing, growth and renewed purpose.”

GOOD WORK

The Santa Cruz City Council approved the Anadromous Salmonid Habitat Conservation Plan, a comprehensive strategy to support the recovery of two special-status fish species, coho salmon and steelhead trout, while providing long-term regulatory assurances for Santa Cruz’s water supply and flood control operations.

Building on more than 25 years of research, the plan represents a major investment in habitat restoration and includes significant modifications to the city’s water rights. These changes are designed to improve stream flows for fish and facilitate the implementation of water supply augmentation projects to maintain a reliable water supply for the community.

For more information: cityofsantacruz.com/government/city-departments/water/habitat-conservation-plan.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

‘Great. I love Hitler’
—Peter Giunta, former chair of the New York State Young Republicans in an online chat.

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

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October 22, 2025

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SAVE THE EARTH

Governor Gavin Newsom recently vetoed a bill that would have required data centers to disclose the amount of water they use. But there’s an even thirstier culprit: animal agriculture. Raising, feeding, watering and cleaning filthy factory farms consumes trillions of gallons of water annually. So let’s make a difference right now by going vegan.

According to some reports, the meat and dairy industries account for an estimated 47% of California’s water footprint. And California’s mega-dairies use an estimated 152 million gallons of water each day—more than enough to meet the indoor water needs for every resident of San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose combined. By comparison, California’s data centers look like a drop in the bucket. Plus, waste from factory farms pollutes rivers with nitrates, ammonia and E. coli, posing a threat to both animals in nature and human health.

If we’re serious about conserving water and protecting the planet, we can’t keep raising, exploiting and killing animals for food. So, please, let’s go vegan.

Rebecca Libauskas | The PETA Foundation

SWEET 50

We’re having a celebration for Polar Bear Ice Cream’s 50th anniversary. The celebration will be at the Capitola Village Polar Bear store on Saturday, Oct. 25 and the Ice Cream on Fair store on Sunday, Oct. 26. We’ll be bringing back some legacy flavors, giving out promotional cups, and selling commemorative hoodies.

In addition, I’m working on a longer-term project of collecting history and stories of ice cream in Santa Cruz for both Marianne’s and Polar Bear.

Thanks so much!!

Jasmine | Event Coordinator | SweetSurf Catering Co.

NO KINGS MARCH

The No Kings protest gathering here in Santa Cruz was wonderful. Ten thousand people, maybe more, just as promised by Buffalo Springfield, but this was a calm, cheerful crowd.

Perfect weather helped: sunny, about 70°, very light breeze. We had a lot more young people than in June, when we seemed to have more elderly hippies than young people. We gray-haired people had attended protests in the ’60s and ’70s—we feel comfortable exercising freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. Maybe younger people saw grandmas and grandpas marching in June and figured it’s safe enough to participate.

It seemed that about two-thirds of people this time had signs, maybe because people with signs are more visible, but it does indicate a greater sense of involvement, since sign-making requires planning and doing. Virtually all the signs were home-made and showed a wide array of thoughts. One said, “TOO MANY REASONS TO LIST HERE.”

The only police I saw were just directing traffic, and the only drama I saw was EMTs caring for an elderly man who appeared very tired.

I saw the F word written more times than in the past five years combined, which means people are upset, but they’re directing their anger calmly and appropriately.

Though I arrived alone, I eventually came across two friends, so we chatted for a few minutes.

My sign got approving thumbs-up from several people. I’m pleased with how well my sign turned out—I used durable fabric so it’ll be ready for next time. It said, “REAL PATRIOTS RESIST TYRANTS” on one side, “RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES” on the other, and had two American flags.

What we did not have: There were no guillotines, no zip ties, no ropes, no tear gas, no flash-bangs, no fires, no blood, no stampede, no troops, no visible weapons, no boarded-up stores, no cigarette smoke, and scarcely any pot smoke.

We did have lots of American flags, people who were veterans, several fun costumes, hundreds of people taking photos with their cell phones, some live music, some chanting, some number of people in wheelchairs, several strollers, plus people lining the route.

The mood overall was cheerful and friendly, pretty much like Santa Cruz any day of the week. I’m so glad to live here!

Susan McLean | Santa Cruz

ONLINE COMMENTS

RE: NO KINGS

Fantastic! A bunch of morons with little knowledge of the US Constitution have prevented someone, not sure who, King Charles? from becoming a king here in the US. It worked! No kings!

Guy Dagar | Goodtimes.sc

Free Will Astrology

Astrology

Rob Brezsny

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October 22, 2025

0

ARIES March 21-April 19

I bet your upcoming night dreams will include marriages, mating dances and sacramental unions. Even if you are not planning deeper mergers with trustworthy allies in your waking life, your subconscious mind is musing on such possibilities. I hope this horoscope inspires you to make such fantasies more conscious. What collaborations and blends would serve you well? Give your imagination permission to ponder new and exciting connections. Visualize yourself thriving amidst new connections.

TAURUS April 20-May 20

In winemaking, malolactic fermentation softens a wine’s tart malic acid into gentler lactic acid. This process imparts a creamier and rounder mouthfeel, while preserving the wine’s structure. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to adopt this as your metaphor of power. See if you can refine your intensity without losing your integrity. Keep things interesting but soften the edges a bit. Introduce warmth and steadiness into provocative situations so they’re free of irritation and easier to engage with, but still enriching.

GEMINI May 21-June 20

The coming weeks will be an excellent time to practice the art of strategic disruption. One way to do it is to interrupt your patterns so they don’t calcify and obstruct you. Just for fun, you could eat breakfast for dinner. Take a different route to a familiar place. Talk to a person you would usually avoid. Say no when you’d normally say yes, or vice versa. Part of your brain loves efficiency, habits and well-worn grooves. But grooves can become ruts. As a rousing spiritual experiment, you could do things differently for no reason except to prove to yourself that you can. Playful chaos can be a form of prayer. Messing with your standard approaches will unleash your creativity.

CANCER June 21-July 22

In Shinto mythology, Ame-no-Uzume is the goddess of mirth and revelry. In one story, she seduces the sun out of its hiding place by performing a humorous and provocative dance. I am sending her over to your sphere right now in the hope that she will coax you out of your comfort zone of retreat, control and self-protection. While I’m glad you have taken this break to recharge your spiritual batteries, I think it’s time to come out and play. You have done important work to nurture and process your deep feelings. Now we would love you to express what you’ve learned with freewheeling panache.

LEO July 23-Aug. 22

Ancient cultures in Sumeria, Egypt and China used willow bark as a pain reliever. Many centuries later, in 1828, European scientists isolated the chemical salicin from the bark and used it to create aspirin. What had been a folk remedy became a widely used medicine all over the planet. Is there a metaphorically comparable development unfolding in your life? I think so. Something you’ve known or practiced could be evolving into its next form. The world may finally be ready to receive wisdom, a technique or an insight you’ve used for a long time. Consider refining and upgrading it. Share it in ways that meet the present moment’s specific need.

VIRGO Aug. 23-Sept. 22

In honor of your special needs right now, Virgo, I am coining a new English word: edge-ucation. It’s like “education” but with an extra edge. Though book-learning is included in its purview, it also requires you to seek out raw teaching in all possible ways: on the streets, the bedroom, the natural world, everywhere. To properly pursue your higher edge-education, you must hunt down provocative influences, thought-provoking adventures and unfamiliar stimulation. Make the whole world your laboratory and classroom.

LIBRA Sept. 23-Oct. 22

When I began writing horoscopes years ago, I had greater empathy with some of the signs than with others. But I worked hard to overcome this bias, and now I truly love and understand every tribe of the zodiac equally. I attribute this accomplishment to the fact that I have three Libra planets in my natal chart. They have propelled me to develop a warm, affectionate, fair-minded objectivity. I have a deeply honed capacity for seeing and liking people as they genuinely are, without imposing my expectations and projections onto them. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to tap into these qualities in yourself, dear Libra.

SCORPIO Oct. 23-Nov. 21

Many cultures regard obsidian as having protective powers against negative energy. This makes it popular for healing talismans. Obsidian mirrors have often been used to scry for visions and prophecies. Because obsidian is so sharp, ancient peoples incorporated it into tools used to hunt for food, like knives and arrowheads. In modern times, obsidian is used for its beauty in tabletops, tiles and architectural components. Do you know how this precious substance is formed? It’s born in the shock between elements: molten lava meets water or cool air and hardens so quickly that crystals can’t form, trapping a mirror-dark clarity in volcanic glass. I propose we make it your symbolic power object in the coming months, Scorpio.

SAGITTARIUS Nov. 22-Dec. 21

Medieval alchemists engaged in literal laboratory work as they attempted to create elixirs of immortality, concoct medicines to heal diseases, and metamorphose lead into gold. But the modern practice of alchemy is primarily a psychological effort to achieve awakening and enlightenment. In the early stages of the work, the seeker experiences the metaphorical “black sun.” It’s a dark radiance, the beginning of creative decay, that fuels the coming transformation. I suspect you now have the potential to call on this potent asset, Sagittarius. It’s wild, though. You must proceed with caution and discernment. What worn-out aspects of yourself are you ready to let rot, thereby fertilizing future growth?

CAPRICORN Dec. 22-Jan. 19

In Japan, shakkei refers to the practice of “borrowed scenery.” The idea is to create a garden so that surrounding features become part of its expansive context: distant mountains, an expanse of sky or a nearby body of water. The artistry lies in allowing the horizon to merge gracefully with what’s close at hand. I recommend this approach to you, Capricorn. Frame your current project with a backdrop that enlarges it. Partner with places, influences or long-view purposes that augment your meaning and enhance your beauty. Align your personal actions with a vast story so they send even more potent ripples out into the world.

AQUARIUS Jan. 20-Feb. 18

Computer scientist Radia Perlman is the “Mother of the Internet.” She invented the Spanning Tree Protocol, a component that’s essential for the flow of online data. Despite her work’s splashy importance, hardly anyone knows of her. With that in mind, I remind you: Some revolutions unfold with little fanfare; positive transformations may be inconspicuous. How does that relate to you? I suspect the next beautiful or useful thing you contribute may also be veiled and underestimated, at least at first. And yet it may ultimately generate a shift more significant than you can now imagine. My advice is to trust the long game. You’re doing good work, though its recognition may be late in arriving.

PISCES Feb. 19-March 20

The mystical Persian poet Hafez wrote, “Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I’d like to see you living in better conditions.” Picture that shabby room, Pisces: cramped, dim, damp. Now imagine you have resolved to never again live in such a place. In fact, sometime soon you will move, metaphorically speaking, into a spacious, high-ceilinged place with wide windows and skylights, fresh air flooding through. I believe life will conspire on your behalf if you initiate this bold move. You now have extra power to exorcize at least some of your angsts and embrace liberating joy.

Homework: Is it important to distinguish what you need from what you want? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

Going Dark

Vine & Dine

Josie Cowden

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October 22, 2025

0

Tannat is not that easy to come by for some reason. It doesn’t roll off a wine lover’s tongue easily. But it’s a dark and sturdy wine that is becoming more popular.

Tannat originated in the Basque region of southwestern France, but Uruguay is probably best known for growing this bold red wine grape. It has high tannins, full body and rich flavors that range from blackcurrant to licorice and smoked meat.

The good news is that the tannat grape is also grown in California. Opaque Wines in Paso Robles makes an outstanding tannat for about $30. Opaque’s 2022 Tannat, produced under the Earth Elements label, comes with notes of dark chocolate—dark being a key word.

“Aged in the utter darkness of our French oak barrels,” says Opaque, “and emerging into the light with deep, dark, and rich flavors, Opaque redefines what it means to drink red wines.”

To taste Opaque Wines, visit Riboli Family of San Antonio Winery, 2610 Buena Vista Drive, Paso Robles, 805-977-6269. Sanantoniowinery.com

Catering for the Holidays

Heavenly Roadside Café, voted Best Breakfast in Scotts Valley in Good Times’ Best Of Santa Cruz issue, is now taking reservations and catering orders for holiday parties. Enjoy a stress-free holiday season by letting expert caterers do the cooking. Call 831-335-1210 or email he******************@***il.com for catering inquiries.

Tricks and Treats

Looking for a howlingly good time before the Big Day of Halloween? Head to Chaminade Resort & Spa for the 21-plus Vampire Ball. It includes drinks, a heavy bites station (bring your fangs), a vampire DJ, dancing, a costume contest, photo ops and fire dancers. Sure sounds like blood-curdling fun! The event is 8–11:30pm Friday, Oct. 24. Tickets are $45. Chaminade.com

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Free Will Astrology

Going Dark

How Payment Systems Can Catch Up with Our On-Demand Lives

Ink and Insight

Weighing in at the State of the Region

Supervisors Table Kratom Ban

Anatomical Study

Off the Road

The Editor’s Desk

Letters

Free Will Astrology

Going Dark