Page 390 – Good Times

SLVWD Plans $10 per Month Increase to Fund CZU Rebuild

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July 16, 2021

SLVWD Plans $10 per Month Increase to Fund CZU Rebuild

The humming, buzzing and echoing inside the Boulder Creek facility that prepares drinking water for the San Lorenzo Valley makes one feel like they’re at an aquatic center. That the San Lorenzo Valley Water District uses a chlorine disinfection process (sodium hydrochloride)—alongside the tiny plastic balls it deploys to physically remove unwanted mountainside particles—only adds to the similarities with a pool. The large pipes, twisting at 90-degree angles, suggest Super Mario could appear at any minute. And the Cold War-era backup instruments in the control room hint at design choices put in place to protect against catastrophe.

What happened there last year was as dramatic as any video game: the CZU Lightning Complex fires swept through, wiping out 50% of the site’s storage capacity, releasing toxic compounds towards nearby taps, as seven miles of pipe melted. The district took out a $9.2 million loan to tide it over until government disaster aid and hoped-for extra cash from ratepayers can start flowing. There’s so much Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) paperwork to do it’s piling up in Operations Director Rick Rogers’ truck. But he’s confident $15 million—FEMA’s 75% of the $20 million Rogers says it will take to rebuild—will be on its way, soon enough. So now, the district is working on winning support for a proposed surcharge costing the average customer about $10 per month for five years, in order to come up with the other $5 million.

Not everyone supports the idea. In a July 2 Press Banner op-ed, Bob Fultz, a water district board member, suggested ratepayers should take a fine-tooth comb to the district’s finances before moving ahead with the surcharge plan.

The ask comes as the district has just emerged from a contentious process where it looked at whether to merge with the Scotts Valley Water District or not.

“I was involved with that, but our board said ‘no’—a hard no,” Rogers said. “We were worried Scotts Valley wanted our water, you know, with all the growth that they have down there.”

Since the entire state has plunged into a drought again this year, residents fear wildfires could return and impact the underground water resource that both Scotts Valley and the San Lorenzo Valley draw from, called the Santa Margarita Groundwater Basin. San Lorenzo Valley is currently getting about 80% of its water from the basin, up from around 40% in more normal times. According to district officials, this has already started to put pressure on the aquifer that it won’t be able to handle long-term. However, they say there’s no indication below-ground source levels have been dropping—yet.

During a media day held July 7 at the Boulder Creek treatment plant, Rogers recalled the harrowing days last year when they almost lost everything.

“We monitored the fire with our consultants through satellite heat maps, and we were able to track the fire almost hourly as it got closer and closer to our facilities,” he said. “We were able to see the fire coming down to the supply line into our intakes, and that gave us the ability to shut down the treatment plant, so no contamination came in.”

*The 3 million gallon Big Lyon water storage tank is back into service after fires swept through the Boulder Creek-area property last year. — Drew Penner/Press Banner*

Two district staff members were at work, trying to help protect the community’s drinking water supply, while their homes burned down, Rogers said.

Nate Gillespie, water treatment and system supervisor, said the organization quickly issued a Do Not Drink/Do Not Boil advisory, and noted in the weeks after the fire, workers collected about 500 samples to check for potential contaminants.

“We ultimately did discover benzene in the distribution piping in Riverside Grove,” he said.

On Sept. 3, they took a reading that showed there was 42 times as much benzene as allowed in that neighborhood. By Sept. 16 it was back under the 1 part per billion limit.

In the same area, they’d also discovered some tetrachloroethylene, a volatile organic compound believed to cause cancer, but at .77 parts per billion, this was still below the legal threshold. The district continues to test at the location monthly, just to make sure levels don’t spike again. Minor detections of toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes kept showing up on samples at other locations (Pinecrest and Middleton, as well as at the Huckleberry Tank). After the district took some of its equipment out of service and flushed others, it hasn’t seen any re-contamination, a problem faced by other jurisdictions in California hit by wildfires, Gillespie said.

Christine Patracuola, co-owner of Rocky’s Café in Felton, says she believes the district did “the best it could” when it came to keeping local residents safe after the fire, even though it led to tough decisions about her business.

“We were worried,” she said. “We used bottled water during that time.”

But she says it took the district months to help her figure out why the restaurant’s bill topped $200 during the second lockdown before Christmas, despite doing less dishwashing after switching to paper plates.

“I had no idea what the heck was going on,” she said, adding business has picked up, yet she’s now being charged less after her bill suddenly plummeted again. “My concern is the overall picture.”

*Josh Wolff, the engineering manager with the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, holds up part of the outdoor piping that melted during the forest fires. — Drew Penner/Press Banner*

Rogers says he believes the Rocky’s Café situation likely represents a “unique set of circumstances,” noting workers have continued to check meters regularly. While the district did give money back to customers whose bills spiked after the fire—and shut off service for victims with torched homes—he notes they didn’t offer rebates to anyone whose water bill remained constant. And they haven’t turned off service for customers who haven’t paid during the pandemic, either, as required by law.

Patracuola says she hasn’t received a rebate.

Rogers knows there are plenty of challenges ahead for locals who want to return.

“These are all houses that burned down,” he says, while driving down the hillside past tents and campers, as a contractor arrives to fix the coating on the inside of one of their main water tanks. “This area’s going to have a hard time rebuilding because of septic compliance.”

And it’s not going to be easy for the district either, given how much of its system is in remote terrain. Josh Wolff, the district’s engineering manager, said San Mateo-based Freyer & Laureta, Inc. has been handed a nearly $250,000 contract to complete a feasibility study.

“From an engineering perspective, it’s pretty straightforward,” he said. “What we can actually do is really the question.”

Skypark Set for Needed Facelift, Could be Open Within Weeks

Drew Penner

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July 16, 2021

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Skypark Set for Needed Facelift, Could be Open Within Weeks

It’s the place President George H. W. Bush landed in Marine One after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, but it’s been largely closed over the past year.

But now, renovations have begun at Skypark, Scotts Valley’s main community green space, used for organized sports, family outings and special events.

The 17 acres of yellowed material that used to be vibrant grass became a small city last summer, as the field hosted thousands of first responders during the CZU Lightning Complex fires.

“They were on-site for about 25 days,” said City Manager Tina Friend, calling Skypark an important center of the community. “We had heavy equipment traversing it.”

Scotts Valley was spared the worst of the inferno, but that machinery left so many “ankle-twister” divots, and broke so many sprinkler heads, it would’ve been unsafe to open it to the public, according to city of Scotts Valley staff.

Thanks to the $2.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds approved for Scotts Valley—including the first chunk expected sometime this month—Interim Public Works Director Scott Hamby was able to organize a facelift for Skypark.

Watsonville-based K&D Landscaping was awarded a contract, worth around $120,000, for the job, Hamby said, noting they started work on July 7.

Friend, the city manager, said additional Skypark upgrades, including a poured-in-place surface instead of wood chips, will come from Prop 68 money, but notes the deadline to submit paperwork for that has been pushed back to Dec. 31.

Jessica Boschen, a mom who lives in the Skypark neighborhood, said before the coronavirus showed up, she would walk the dog through the park every day. She was out in the playground area of Skypark on Tuesday watching one of her boys run after a baseball as it rolled down uneven terrain.

“It’s not flat,” she said, lamenting the various levels of fencing Skypark has seen over the course of the pandemic and fire season. “The entire park was shut down.”

At least her two kids could play along the greenbelt, she mused, as three K&D workers installed the purple-colored piping that transports reclaimed water to irrigate Skypark on the other side of the fence.

With so much dead grass, Boschen said she’s excited to hear the sprinkler system is being fixed.

“I look forward to it being open,” she said.

Tech Workers Swore Off the Bay Area. Now They’re Coming Back.

Local News

The New York Times and GT Staff

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July 16, 2021

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Tech Workers Swore Off the Bay Area. Now They’re Coming Back.

by Kellen Browning, The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Last year, Greg Osuri decided he had had enough of the Bay Area. Between smoke-choked air from nearby wildfires and the coronavirus lockdown, it felt as if the walls of his apartment in San Francisco’s Twin Peaks neighborhood were closing in on him.

“It was just a hellhole living here,” said Osuri, 38, founder and chief executive of a cloud-computing company called Akash Network. He decamped for his sister’s roomy town house in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, joining an exodus of technology workers from the crowded Bay Area.

But by March, Osuri was itching to return. He missed the serendipity of city life: meeting new people, running into acquaintances on the street and getting drinks with colleagues. “The city is full of that — opportunities that you may never have expected would come your way,” Osuri said. He moved back to San Francisco in April.

The pandemic was supposed to lead to a great tech diaspora. Freed of their offices and after-work klatches, the Bay Area’s tech workers were said to be roaming America, searching for a better life in cities like Miami and Austin, Texas — where the weather is warmer, the homes are cheaper and state income taxes do not exist.

But dire warnings over the past year that tech was done with the Bay Area because of a high cost of living, homelessness, crowding and crime are looking overheated. Osuri is one of a growing number of industry workers already trickling back as a healthy local rate of coronavirus vaccinations makes fall return-to-office dates for many companies look likely.

“I think people were pretty noisy about quitting the Bay Area,” said Eric Bahn, a co-founder of an early-stage Palo Alto investment firm, Hustle Fund. “But they’ve been very quiet in admitting they want to move back.”

Bumper-to-bumper traffic has returned to the region’s bridges and freeways. Tech commuter buses are reappearing on the roads. Rents are spiking, especially in San Francisco neighborhoods where tech employees often live.

And Monday, Twitter reopened its office, becoming one of the first big tech companies to welcome more than skeleton crews of employees back to the workplace. Twitter employees wearing backpacks and puffy jackets on a cold San Francisco summer morning greeted old friends and explored a space redesigned to accommodate social distancing measures.

No one is quite ready to declare that things have returned to normal. Ridership on Bay Area Rapid Transit remains low, and nearly half of San Francisco’s small businesses are still closed. Office vacancy rates are high. The city’s downtown is still largely empty on weekdays.

But recent data supports the notion that tech workers are coming back. In an area near San Francisco’s Financial District, where tech workers tend to cluster, average apartment rental prices dropped more than 20% in 2020, according to census and Zillow data compiled by the city. That area saw the biggest price jumps in the city in the first five months of 2021.

In the bayside ZIP code surrounding the San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park, where nearly 15% of residents worked in tech, average monthly rental prices dropped from $3,956 in February 2020 to about $3,000 a year later. They rose to $3,312 in May, according to Zillow data.

“This could mean that tech workers are coming back, although it could also mean that other people, who also value those areas, are taking advantage of the lower rents to move in,” said Ted Egan, San Francisco’s chief economist.

Median San Francisco home prices, which bottomed out at a still-jarring $1.58 million for a single-family home in December, recently hit $1.9 million, according to the California Association of Realtors. That is higher than before the pandemic.

Nearly 1.4 million cars drove across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco in May, the most since February 2020, and afternoon freeway speeds have dropped to about 30 mph, which was the pre-pandemic norm, according to city data. Some types of crime are close to pre-pandemic levels.

Rizal Wong, a junior associate at the tech and business communications firm Sard Verbinnen and Co., left the Bay Area in December, trading a studio apartment in Oakland for a cheaper one-bedroom in his hometown, Sacramento, close to his family. But after getting vaccinated, he moved to San Francisco in April.

“I felt like I was getting back to my life,” said Wong, 22. “Meeting up with co-workers who were also vaccinated and getting drinks after work, it definitely makes it feel more normal.”

Wong, like many who left the Bay Area, did not go very far. Of the more than 170,000 people who moved from the vicinity of San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland in 2020, the vast majority relocated elsewhere in California, according to U.S. Postal Service change-of-address data analyzed by Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis, or CBRE, a real estate company.

About 20,000 moved to the San Jose area, for example. A further 16,000 went to Los Angeles, nearly 15,000 to Sacramento and 8,000 to Stockton, in California’s Central Valley. The more than 77,000 people who left the San Jose metro area, a proxy for Silicon Valley, went to similar places: San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. In February, The San Francisco Chronicle reported similar numbers using Postal Service data.

The net migration out of the San Francisco and San Jose regions — that takes into account people who moved in — was about 116,000 last year, up from about 64,000 in 2019, according to the CBRE analysis of the Postal Service data.

Nearly every year for several decades, thousands more residents have left Silicon Valley and San Francisco than moved in, according to state data. Often, this movement is offset by an influx of immigrants from other countries — which was limited during the pandemic.

The majority of those who left the Bay last year, CBRE found, were young, affluent and highly educated — a demography that describes many tech workers. It is a group that wants urban amenities like bars, restaurants and retail shopping, said Eric Willett, CBRE’s director of research.

“That’s the group that left urban centers in large numbers,” he said. It is also the group “that we are increasingly seeing move back.”

There were some prominent industry defections from the Bay Area over the last 18 months. Oracle and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise moved their headquarters to Texas. Software-maker Palantir moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to Colorado. Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, said he was moving to Austin.

“CA has the winning-for-too-long problem,” Musk wrote on Twitter in October. “Like a sports team with many championships, it is increasingly difficult to avoid complacency & a sense of entitlement.”

Miami’s mayor, Francis Suarez, campaigned to lure tech workers to his city, and he was joined by some high-profile investors who said they had found a better life in South Florida. But CBRE’s research found that Austin was the 13th-most-popular destination for people leaving San Francisco. Miami was 22nd.

Also not as well noticed in the exodus headlines: Oracle and HPE told most Bay Area employees that they would not need to leave.

Now some companies are expanding their Bay Area footprints. Google said in March that it would spend $1 billion on California developments this year, including two office complexes in Mountain View. The company is also building a massive, mixed-use development that includes a 7.3-million-square-foot office space in San Jose. In September, Google will reopen its doors to employees. Most will come in three days a week.

Twitter is also opening a 30,000-square-foot office in San Jose’s Santana Row this fall and an Oakland building next year, said Jennifer Christie, the company’s chief human resources officer.

The share of Twitter’s workforce in San Francisco declined to 35% last month, from 45% a year earlier, as the company grew quickly elsewhere, Christie said. But the total number of Bay Area employees is similar: about 2,200, compared with 2,300 last year.

About 45% of employees at Twitter said they wanted to return to the office at least part time, Christie said, but she expects that number to grow. “I do think there’s a good number of people who still want to be in the San Francisco area,” she said.

At Cisco Systems, a tech gear maker that is one of San Jose’s biggest employers, just 23% of employees want to return to the office three or more days each week. But many who prefer to work remotely will do so from nearby, said Fran Katsoudas, the company’s chief people officer. People have expressed a desire for work flexibility “more than a desire to have a different location,” she said.

Some tech workers have found compromises — or at least a way to avoid long commutes. Annette Nguyen, 23, who works for Google’s ad marketing team, appreciated the outdoor space and lack of a commute when she moved from San Francisco last year to live with her parents in Irvine, California. She plans to return to the Bay Area in August but will live near her office in Silicon Valley.

“I couldn’t imagine spending three hours a day commuting anymore like I used to,” she said.

Of course, some of the people who moved away are gone for good. Others are still in the process of leaving.

Steve Wozniak, who founded Apple with Steve Jobs, said he and his wife had recently bought a house in a Denver suburb, Castle Pines, and would likely live there at least part time. He was eager, he said, to fulfill a lifelong dream of living close to the Colorado snow and away from the California crowds.

“I don’t think people want to go back full time when they have the sort of job that can work well from home,” Wozniak, who currently lives in Los Gatos, California, said in an interview. “We’ve learned something that you really can’t take back.”

What Should Watsonville Look Like in 2040? Voters Might Get a Say in 2022

Tony Nuñez

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July 16, 2021

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What Should Watsonville Look Like in 2040? Voters Might Get a Say in 2022

A group of about 25 farmers, environmentalists and community leaders gathered at the Watsonville Nature Center on July 8 to officially kick off a campaign to renew a landmark Watsonville ballot measure passed in 2002.

The Committee for Planned Growth and Farmland Protection recently filed a petition to the City Clerk’s office that seeks to extend Measure U through 2040. The measure put limits on where and how the city could expand in an effort to protect the Pajaro Valley’s rich agricultural land and wetlands.

Some of the measure’s limits are set to expire in 2022, and the rest will expire five years later. But the committee wants the city’s urban line limits to stay where they are to limit urban sprawl and encourage developers to renovate blighted areas within city limits.

Committee member Sam Earnshaw in his statements during the July 8 press conference said much of Watsonville wants the same. The farmer turned environmentalist cited a citywide survey in which 95% of respondents said the city should create additional jobs and housing near already existing infrastructure to help preserve natural and agricultural land.

“City residents don‘t want more traffic and sprawl, they don’t want gentrification or us becoming a bedroom community for Santa Cruz, San Jose, Salinas and Gilroy,” Earnshaw said. “Measure U has served the community well.”

Earnshaw and Co. will have until Dec. 15 to gather the roughly 2,200 signatures—or 10% of Watsonville’s voting body—needed to put the item before voters next November.

Watsonville Wetlands Watch board members Bob Culbertson and Karina Moreno, Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau President Arnett Young and two local farmers also spoke at the July 8 press conference.

*Organizer Adam Bolaños-Scow hands the mic to committee member Bob Culbertson during the July 8 press conference. — Tony Nuñez/The Pajaronian*

Measuring up

Measure U’s roots can be traced back to a public battle over roughly 1,000 acres of farmland and wetlands in the late 1990s.

Environmentalists and farmers fought the city when it tried to expand its sphere of influence to eventually annex properties on the west side of the city so that it could build housing and bring light industrial jobs such as packaging and food processing.

The city was in the midst of housing affordability and unemployment crises after roughly 3,000 jobs, mostly middle-class gigs in the canning industry, were shipped out of the country as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement’s implementation in 1994. Trying to spark economic growth, the city sought to expand its footprint in the hopes of luring other large employers to replace the blue-collared professions that had fled.

In one instance, according to a news report from 1997, dozens of former farmworkers and cannery workers pleaded to the City Council to annex the land to bring roughly 1,200 new jobs.

“We talk about opportunity through diversity,” one unemployed farm worker said, citing the city’s motto—opportunity through diversity; unity through cooperation. “But for opportunity, we must sacrifice so the economy can grow. We ask the council to move quickly to improve the future for us and our children.”

Environmentalists, however, said the city’s outward expansion, especially to the west of Highway 1, would ultimately lead to urban sprawl and the end of the Pajaro Valley’s place as an agricultural giant.

After nearly two years of meetings and lawsuits, the city’s annexation plans hit a brick wall. But out of that defeat arose Action Pajaro Valley, a nonprofit that brought together government leaders, farming giants, environmentalists and business owners to help create a long-term plan of how Watsonville would grow and meet the myriad of challenges the city then faced.

Former Watsonville City Manager Carlos Palacios, now Santa Cruz County’s administrative officer, and West Marine founder Randy Repass co-chaired Action Pajaro Valley, which received funding from the David and Lucile Packard and James Irvine foundations to conduct a yearlong community visioning process.

The end result was Measure U, an amendment to the city’s 2005 General Plan. In 2002 Watsonville’s voting body approved it with 60% of the vote. It had the support of the City Council, Farm Bureau and Watsonville Wetlands Watch as well as several other county and state agencies.

Game plan

Compromise was at the heart of Measure U, Palacios says. Watsonville would give up most of its annexation plans to the east and west, and would instead focus its efforts to the north in the Buena Vista area. There, roughly 2,200 homes would be built in three phases over 20 years.

In addition, the city would also develop the Manabe-Ow property (then the Manabe-Burgstrom) for industrial use, provide more senior housing on the southeast side of the city by expanding the villages and eventually annex property off Atkinson Lane to build needed affordable housing.

“Everybody [in Action Pajaro Valley] agreed that we needed more housing, we needed more affordable housing,” Palacios said in an interview for this article.

Some of these concessions have been realized today. FedEx currently calls the Manabe-Ow property home, and the senior villages have been built off of Bridge Street. In addition, Pippin Orchards on Atkinson Lane was completed in 2019, setting the stage for further affordable housing developments just behind it.

But Buena Vista has sat undeveloped for the last 20 years thanks, mostly, to land-use restrictions related to nearby Watsonville Municipal Airport that were solidified by a 2010 lawsuit from the Watsonville Pilots Association.

Watsonville City Manager Matt Huffaker said in an email that the development of the Buena Vista area is most likely “no longer feasible” because of this reason.

The city has tried to offset that defeat by instead becoming more densely populated, encouraging housing developers to be innovative and build upward. It is also undergoing a planning process to rezone swaths of downtown so that more units can be built there. But the statewide housing crisis has hit the compact city hard, and housing affordability “is more challenging today than ever,” Huffaker wrote.

If the committee does indeed collect the needed signatures, voters will not only be tasked with determining how the city can address its slice of the statewide housing crisis, but also what the vision for Watsonville—employment, recreation, transportation, just to name a few—will be for the next 20 years.

“The implications of this measure are far reaching and can’t be overstated, it will chart a course for the future of Watsonville for decades to come,” Huffaker wrote.

The Committee For Planned Growth and Farmland Protection showcased these vacant lots across the city as potential sites for redevelopment. At least three of these sites are already in some stage of housing development. — Tony Nuñez/The Pajaronian

Moving forward

The Watsonville City Council at its July 6 meeting passed a resolution asking staff to prepare a report about the impact Measure U’s extension would have on the city.

That report will include, among other things, its potential impact on traffic, housing availability and the city’s ability to meet growing state-mandated housing goals. It will also study the extension’s potential impact on attracting and retaining businesses.

It is not clear when the report will be ready.

Most council members were already worried that the conversation around the extension was getting away from them. City Councilwoman Rebecca J. Garcia asked Huffaker to include in the report a study of how the extension would impact “sensitive environmental areas,” but Mayor Jimmy Dutra asked if staff could completely remove that portion from the report “since no one probably wants to pave over any of that.”

“People are going to try to be focusing on our sloughs when that’s not going to be the issue,” Dutra said. “How do we avoid people trying to move the conversation to what it’s not?”

Huffaker, however, ultimately left in the study on the “sensitive environmental areas” but emphasized that the city has no plans to develop over that land.

“They’re zoned to ensure that they’re protected for future generations, so I don’t anticipate that needing a significant amount of review, but it is an element to this so I don’t see any harm in including it,” he said.

City Councilman Eduardo Montesino in his comments called the early call to action from proponents of the extension “propaganda.”

“The word is already out that we’re trying to build on the sloughs,” he said. “We need this report now. We need to put out the facts.”

The Committee for Planned Growth and Farmland Protection is planning to host a launch event at the Slough Brewing Collective on Hangar Way on Friday. For information, visit watsonvilleplannedgrowth.org.

Former St. Francis Teammates Selected in MLB Draft

Juan Reyes

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July 15, 2021

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Former St. Francis Teammates Selected in MLB Draft

Ruben Ibarra and Chase Watkins used to be teammates on the St. Francis High baseball team, leading the Sharks to back-to-back Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League titles and three straight Central Coast Section playoff appearances.

The Watsonville natives continued their journey together on Monday. They were both selected on Day 2 of the 2021 MLB Amateur Draft.

Ibarra, a junior infielder at San Jose State, was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the fourth round, and Watkins, a sophomore pitcher at Oregon State, was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the ninth round.

Ibarra was still speechless hours after his name was called on the MLB Network, telling him that he was the 119th overall pick in this year’s draft.

“Luckily it worked out and the Reds want to give me an opportunity to be, hopefully, the face of the franchise pretty soon,” he said. “I’m going to represent the organization as well as I can and I’m going to work my tail [off] day in and day out, nothing’s changed from the work ethic, so let’s get after it.”

Watkins said the fact that they both were drafted on Day 2 is neat because this year’s pool of players was one of the deepest ever, and they came from a high school of a little more than 200 kids.

“I think it’s a cool thing for the kids that are in the South County area to see that it’s definitely possible if you put your nose to the grindstone and work hard,” he said. “You can have a shot, it’s not like you have to go to Archbishop Mitty or Valley Christian to be considered for these things.”

St. Francis baseball coach Ken Nakagawa said it was a special day to be part of and that he’s happy to see his former players move up in the ranks.

“Very well deserved for both of them,” he said. “I’m just glad that I was a part of their chapters and a part of their road … It’s been a good journey for both of them.”

Ibarra and Watkins were reunited recently at a pre-MLB Draft workout camp with the St. Louis Cardinals. The two bounced energy off of each other as they did during their days at St. Francis, where they also led the basketball team to a state championship game appearance and Northern California and CCS titles in 2017.

Ibarra said the scouts began to take notice, wondering how two future prospects connected so well on the field.

“They had forgotten a little detail about the hometown kids coming out to St. Louis and taking over,” he said.

*St. Francis High alumni Ruben Ibarra, right, and Chase Watkins were at a pre-draft workout camp hosted by the St. Louis Cardinals days prior to the 2021 MLB Amateur Draft. Photo: Juan Reyes*

Ibarra said getting drafted on the same day with his former teammate was a blessing in disguise, and it’s part of a plan bigger than theirs. He knew they had the capability and talent, which is why they worked well together.

Ibarra received All-Mountain West recognition for the 2021 season as he led San Jose State with a .381 batting average and led the Spartans and conference in several other offensive categories.

He finished as the national runner-up with an .850 slugging percentage and his 14 home runs this season moved him to second on the program’s single-season leaderboard, finishing just one shy of tying the school record despite playing in 25 fewer games.

Watkins appeared in 25 games as a relief pitcher for the Beavers in 2021. He finished the season with a 3-4 record and 4.88 earned run average, recording 38 strikeouts in 31 and 1/3 innings.

The left-handed pitcher was named to the Fort Worth Regional All-Tournament Team after striking out six in six innings in the postseason.

Watkins is heading to Chicago on Wednesday for a post-draft physical and he believes he has a legitimate shot at a starting position with the organization.

The Sharks have now produced three potential major leaguers under Nakagawa’s tenure. Sahid Valenzuela was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 13th round of the 2019 draft.

“Who would’ve thunk in this little school of 200 kids, right?” Nakagawa said. “I can’t even say when the last time two high school teammates got drafted in the top-10 rounds in the same year.”

Draft Day

Ibarra admitted that he didn’t put his heart and soul into the draft just because there was always that 1% chance that he wouldn’t get selected.

“You just have to mentally prepare yourself for the worst and be extremely grateful for the blessings and opportunities that come,” he said.

But, Ibarra received a phone call Monday morning telling him to be ready to roll in the fifth or sixth round, which was still a good spot for him.

“I was just over the suspense, I was like, ‘Who wants to take the big fella?’” he said.

By the end of the third round, Ibarra’s advisor called him and told him that he had a deal locked in with the Reds. He said he could’ve gotten more in the later rounds but it was a gamble he didn’t want to take.

Ibarra was the highest selected Spartan baseball player since Matt Durkin went 44th overall to the New York Mets in the 2004 MLB Draft.

He was also Santa Cruz County’s highest draft selection since Scotts Valley High pitcher Robbie Erlin went 93rd overall to the Texas Rangers in 2009.

Other local talent selected in the MLB Draft includes San Lorenzo Valley High alumnus Tanner Murray, who was selected 125th overall to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020, and Santa Cruz High alumnus Glenallen Hill Jr., who went 122nd to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2019.

Watkins was the fourth Beaver selected by the Cubs all-time and the first since Kevin Rhoderick in 2010.

“It’s a moment that you work for your whole life. It’s pretty cool,” Watkins said.

He was told two minutes before getting drafted that he was going to get taken in that spot. However, a few rounds prior he was talking to a coach on the San Diego Padres, which put Watkins in a pool of players.

“You just have to wait and see if they pick you, which is frustrating because you don’t know,” he said. “It was getting close to the end of Day 2, so it was nice to get that done so I didn’t have to go to bed kind of wondering and waiting.”

The next goal for them is to get promoted through the ranks and hopefully within two to three years get called to play in the “Big Show.”

“Maintain my hope, maintain my faith and know that there’s a process, trust the process and just continue to grind,” Ibarra said.

Two Watsonville Dispensaries Receive Planning Commission Approval

Tony Nuñez

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July 15, 2021

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Two Watsonville Dispensaries Receive Planning Commission Approval

Watsonville will soon see its first cannabis dispensaries set up shop after two businesses received planning commission approval at Tuesday night’s virtual meeting.

Berryessa Holdings, LLC and Charlie Mike, Inc. both got the green light by a unanimous vote. The former will serve customers at 11 Hangar Way and the latter will open a location at 274 Kearney St.

Both businesses already have ongoing cannabis-related operations at their respective locations that date back to 2016.

The approvals come roughly a year after the Watsonville City Council last June OK’d wholesale changes to its cannabis rules, allowing three retail businesses, and increasing the number of licenses in cultivation (6), manufacturing (15), distribution (2) and delivery (7). The city also now allows an unlimited number of testing licenses.

Before the dispensaries came to the Planning Commission they went through a four-step pre-application process in which city staff and cannabis consultant HdL Companies scored applicants on various aspects of their business, including how they would benefit the community and their overall business plan.

Applicants were graded on both their submitted written proposals and in-person interviews.

Berryessa Holdings and Charlie Mike, also known as Santa Cruz Veterans Alliance, placed 1-2 in the pre-application process conducted earlier this year, beating out 13 other dispensaries hoping to land in Watsonville’s growing cannabis industry.

On Tuesday, Bryce Berryessa presented for Berryessa Holdings, and Jason Sweatt was on hand for Santa Cruz Veterans Alliance.

Berryessa is a member of the Santa Cruz County Business Council, and also the owner and co-founder of Treehouse in Soquel and The Hook Outlet in Santa Cruz, the latter of which prides itself on offering the “most affordable cannabis in Santa Cruz County,” according to its website.

Berryessa said the new location would be called The Hook Watsonville.

Sweatt, the CEO and co-founder of the Santa Cruz Veterans Alliance, said his business prides itself on supporting vets through its Veteran Compassion Program, which gives free medical cannabis for those who have served, especially those with service-related disabilities.

Both Berryessa and Sweatt were largely lauded by the Planning Commission for their upstanding business practices over the last five years.

Nobody spoke during the public comment period of either presentation.

A third dispensary submitted plans to the city, but they were not complete, Watsonville Associate Planner Ivan Carmona said. That proposed business is expected to come to the planning commission at its next meeting in September.

The Hook Watsonville will renovate a 3,000-square-foot building on Hangar Way that most recently housed Wargin Wines.

The Santa Cruz Veterans Alliance dispensary will be roughly 1,460 square feet. It will be in an office building abutting the business’ cultivation and manufacturing operations.

As required by Watsonville’s cannabis ordinance, the two businesses will need to comply with several video surveillance and other safety measures that will be reviewed by Watsonville Police Department.

The approvals will return to the Planning Commission every year for review.

Man Arrested at U.S.-Mexico Border Prime Suspect in Watsonville Homicide Investigation

Tarmo Hannula

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July 15, 2021

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Man Arrested at U.S.-Mexico Border Prime Suspect in Watsonville Homicide Investigation

A Santa Cruz man has been arrested on suspicion of killing his reported girlfriend at an apartment complex on the 300 block of Clifford Avenue Tuesday evening.

Watsonville Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said Mexican authorities near the San Luis, Ariz. border crossing to Mexico detained Alberto Scalant, 33, at a routine checkpoint late Tuesday after WPD detectives issued a nationwide and international alert to law enforcement agencies.

WPD detectives traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border early Wednesday to begin the extradition process, which could take several days. Once in Santa Cruz County, Scalant will face murder charges for the death of 32-year-old Robin Kern who police say was his significant other, Pulido said.

*Alberto Scalant. — photo courtesy of WPD*

Scalant has a lengthy criminal history and has served a prison sentence for previous domestic violence charges, Pulido said. At the time of the homicide, he was on parole for domestic violence.

“This is the second time in less than a year that we have tragically lost a young mother to domestic violence,” said Pulido, referring to the death of Brenda Becerra, who police say was killed by her husband last October. “Our partners at Monarch Services are available 24/7 to talk confidentially with anyone experiencing domestic violence, seeking resources or information, or questioning unhealthy aspects of their relationship.”

A call went out around 6:45pm Tuesday of a report of a woman down inside an apartment at the sprawling complex on Clifford Avenue. When police arrived they found Kern dead from stab wounds.

Investigators established a crime scene with lengths of yellow tape cordoning off a swath of the parking lot, a part of an adjoining field, an enclosed dumpster area and an apartment.

Scalant has been identified as the prime suspect in the homicide investigation, Pulido said.

The investigation unraveled through the night, and on Wednesday it had expanded to include more surrounding property.

Swarms of curious neighbors gathered in small groups as twilight fell, some hugging one another and others openly weeping.

The Monarch Services 24-Hour Crisis Hotline phone number is 1-888-900-4232.

Watsonville Sets New Net-negative Carbon Emissions Goal: 2030

Johanna Miller

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July 15, 2021

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Watsonville Sets New Net-negative Carbon Emissions Goal: 2030

The Watsonville City Council on July 6 approved a resolution to move up its goal of reaching net-negative carbon emissions from 2045 to 2030.

To reach net-negative emissions, an entity must reduce its carbon footprint to less than neutral, so that it is removing more C02 from the atmosphere than it emits.

In 2015, Watsonville approved its Climate Action Plan, now the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP). Its goals were based on state legislation as well as California Executive Order B-55-18, which aimed for carbon neutrality by 2045.

But natural disasters such as wildfires and the ongoing “mega-drought” continue to intensify. In fact, Director of Public Works & Utilities Steve Palmisano said, scientists are predicting that by 2027, parts of the state could face conditions similar to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, when severe dust storms greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of North American prairies.

The United Nations had sent out a global call to not increase the temperature of the planet by more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit—but, unfortunately, Palmisano said, it looks like it is already on track to exceed those predictions.

“We are literally running out of time,” he said at the meeting.

The push for carbon neutrality by 2030 is part of an effort by science-based nonprofit The Climate Center. Their Climate-Safe California platform is built on a suite of policies aiming to address the climate crisis.

“This is actually a statewide, and, ultimately, global initiative that is asking the state of California to step forward and set more ambitious goals around greenhouse gas emissions and climate change,” Palmisano said. “It’s getting us caught up to what the rest of the world is doing, and putting California back into a leadership position.”

In Watsonville, Climate-Safe California’s goal of 2030 was initiated by the City Council Climate Committee, which includes council members Aurelio Gonzalez, Rebecca J. Garcia and Francisco “Paco” Estrada.

“We are nearly past the point of no return,” Estrada said. “We knew what was at stake for decades, what was coming. Finally, people are accepting and are aware of what we should be doing to reverse it.”

Estrada said that disadvantaged communities such as Watsonville are often the first ones to feel the effects of climate change.

“We are trying to secure our future—where we’ll be able to farm, to live,” he said. “I want my daughter to grow up healthy and have a summer without so much worry about fires and drought … climate change is very personal for Watsonville.”

Palmisano said that there are many pieces of Climate-Safe California’s plan that will need to be addressed at the state and regional levels. This includes transportation and natural gas heating in homes, which are the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gasses.

“We need to get people into electric cars, to create a better charging infrastructure,” he said, “and to help businesses and residents move from gas heating to clean energy.”

On the local level, Watsonville’s CAAP includes things such as habitat restoration and tree planting, which are effective ways to take carbon out of the air. They are also looking into a micro-grid system similar to the one that was installed in Gonzales this year.

Everything, of course, comes down to funding. Climate-Safe California is asking for $20 billion to implement new policies.

For comparison, Palmisano cited the $150 billion in damage caused by wildfires in 2018 and the $80 billion in 2019.

“If we took, say, $80 billion of that and put it towards green jobs—that could create about 725,000 jobs in California,” he said.

A just transition for fossil fuel workers into green jobs is part of Climate-Safe California’s guiding principles, which also include prioritizing climate justice, ensuring lower-income communities with Black and Indigenous people of color are protected and have access to green solutions.

“Green business … supports Watsonville in a very direct way,” Palmisano said. “We are well-positioned to take advantage of the new green economy.”

The July 6 virtual meeting saw multiple public comments from residents of all ages, who were all in support of moving Watsonville’s climate goals to 2030. One caller was Nancy Faulstich, executive director of Regeneración-Pajaro Valley Climate Action.

“Now we’re talking,” she said. “This is the thing to do. Think about the name: Who doesn’t want to stand for a Climate-Safe California? We know that this is doing the right thing. Investing money in this ahead of time is going to save so much money down the road.”

Estrada said he was “very happy” to hear people from South County being so supportive at the meeting.

“There’s definitely this idea that Watsonville gets the short end of everything … We sort of have a chip on our shoulder,” he said. “So the fact that so many people understand that climate change goes beyond everything … It’s about our health, safety and securing a future for the next generation.”

For information about Watsonville’s CAAP, visit bit.ly/3kjqdun. Learn more about Climate-Safe California at theclimatecenter.org.

Things To Do in Santa Cruz: July 14-20

GT Staff

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July 14, 2021

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A weekly guide to what’s happening.

ARTS AND MUSIC

BANFF CENTRE MOUNTAIN FILM VIRTUAL FESTIVAL All the programs! If you’ve been too busy getting after it outdoors, or just haven’t made the time yet, now’s your chance to catch all our Virtual World Tour Programs. Join us online for a mixed program of award winners from the 2020, 2019 and 2018 Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festivals. Catch up on missed films or relive some of the best that Banff has to offer. For more information and tickets, visit riotheatre.com or call 831-423-8209. Wednesday, July 14-Tuesday, July 20.

COMMUNITY DRUMMING WITH JIM GREINER IN PERSON Percussionist/Educator Jim Greiner will conduct the next in his monthly Third Friday series of community drumming sessions at the Inner Light Center in Soquel in-person from 6 to 7:30pm. The cost is $10. Masks and social distancing requirements will be honored. Jim makes it fun and easy for people from all walks of life to play drums and hand percussion to release stress, to uplift and energize yourself, and to reinforce positive life rhythms through percussion playing. Friday, July 16, 6-7:30pm. Inner Light Center, 5630 Soquel Drive, Soquel.

GREATER PURPOSE COMEDY NIGHT Every Friday night at Greater Purpose Brewing it’s the Greater Purpose Comedy Show hosted by DNA and Chree Powell. This show features the best of California comedy. The show is 90 minutes long; doors at 7pm, show at 7:30pm. Admission is $10 and we strongly suggest buying your tickets on Eventbrite in advance at eventbrite.com/e/greater-purpose-comedy-tickets-156589496399. Show is for ages 16+. Friday, July 16, 7-9pm. East Cliff Brewing Co., 21517 E Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz.

SANTA CRUZ SHAKESPEARE: THE AGITATORS This play tells the story of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. Over the 45 volatile years they knew one another, they were friends, allies and adversaries. Their hopes and dreams for equality brought them to common ground and political battlefields. As agitators, they were not content to let either our nation or each other rest in complacency, and their respective fights for racial justice and gender equity continue to this day. Santa Cruz Shakespeare performances take place in The Audrey Stanley Grove (The Grove) at Upper DeLaveaga Park in Santa Cruz. With a “safety first” mantra, Santa Cruz Shakespeare has implemented numerous Covid-19 safety protocols for its 2021 season, including a revised seating layout that ensures adequate space and comfort for patrons. Due to limited capacity at the venue, people are encouraged to purchase tickets early. Tuesday, July 20, 2pm. The Grove at DeLaveaga Park, 501 Upper Park Road, Santa Cruz.

COMMUNITY

SEVENTH ANNUAL BOB MORESCO MEMORIAL BBQ Order of Sons & Daughters of Italy Watsonville Lodge’s 7th Annual Bob Moresco BBQ is Sunday, July 18 from noon-4pm. Tickets: adults $30; children 6-12 $10, children under six are free. Menu: BBQ half chicken, beans, salad, Italian bread roll and dessert. No host bar. Raffle. Contact Janey Malatesta Leonardich for more information or tickets. 831-722-7958. RSVP by Sunday, July 11, No tickets sold at event. Sunday, July 18, noon-4pm. Corralitos Padres, 33 Browns Valley Road, Corralitos.

DOWNTOWN SANTA CRUZ MAKERS MARKET Come on out and support local makers and artists at the Downtown Santa Cruz Makers Market every third Sunday of the month! We are now on the 1100 block of Pacific Ave. between Cathcart and Lincoln Streets near New Leaf and alongside so many amazing downtown restaurants. Support local and shop small with over 30 Santa Cruz County artists and makers! Don’t forget to stop in and visit the downtown merchants and grab a bite to eat from the downtown restaurants. Remember to social distance as you shop and wear your mask. If you’re not feeling well, please stay home. There will be hand sanitizing stations at the market and signs to remind you about all these things! Friendly leashed pups are welcome at this free event! Sunday, July 18, 10am-5pm. Downtown Santa Cruz Makers Market, Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz.

FREE URBAN CYCLING WORKSHOP – GO SANTA CRUZ Are you curious about how to ride your bike safely and confidently around town? Want to learn the rules of the road and how you fit in as a cyclist? How about gear selection, avoiding bike theft, summer riding, or choosing a low-traffic route? Get answers to these questions and more at this urban cycling workshop. Ecology Action staff will run through all the basics of urban cycling and guide curious cyclists of all levels and backgrounds. Free bike lights and helmets for attendees. For more information on the GO Santa Cruz program and available benefits, visit cityofsantacruz.com/gosantacruz. This free workshop is offered to all downtown Santa Cruz employees as part of GO Santa Cruz, a transportation program that provides downtown employees with commute alternatives to single-occupant car trips. Note, you must be an employee of a business in the Downtown Santa Cruz Parking District and enrolled in GO Santa Cruz on my.cruz511.org/s/gosantacruz. Thursday, July 15, noon-1pm.

GREY BEARS BROWN BAG LINE If you are able-bodied and love to work fast, this is for you! Grey Bears could use more help with their brown bag production line on Thursday and Friday mornings. As a token of our thanks, we make you breakfast and give you a bag of food if wanted. Be at the warehouse with a mask and gloves at 7am, and we will put you to work until at least 9am! Call ahead if you would like to know more: 831-479-1055, greybears.org. Thursday, July 15, 7am. California Grey Bears, 2710 Chanticleer Ave., Santa Cruz.

SALSA SUELTA FREE ZOOM SESSION Keep in shape! Weekly online session in Cuban-style Salsa Suelta for experienced beginners and up. May include mambo, chachacha, Afro-Cuban rumba, orisha, son montuno. No partner required, ages 14 and older. Contact to get the link; visit salsagente.com. Thursday, July 15, 7pm. Louden Nelson Community Center, 301 Center St., Santa Cruz.

GROUPS

CAREGIVER SUPPORT GROUP – VIA ZOOM Support groups create a safe, confidential, supportive environment or community and a chance for family caregivers to develop informal mutual support and social relationships as well as discover more effective ways to cope with and care for your loved one. Meeting via Zoom and phone. To register or questions please call 800-272-3900. Wednesday, July 14, 2pm. Alzheimer’s Association, 550 Water St., Santa Cruz.

ENTRE NOSOTRAS GRUPO DE APOYO Entre Nosotras support group for Spanish-speaking women with a cancer diagnosis. Meets twice monthly. Registration required: call Entre Nosotras at 831-761-3973. Friday, July 16, 6pm. WomenCARE, 2901 Park Ave., Suite A1, Soquel.

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS All our OA meetings have switched to being online due to sheltering in place. Please call 831-429-7906 for meeting information. Do you have a problem with food? Drop into a free, friendly Overeaters Anonymous 12-Step meeting. All are welcome! Thursday, July 15, 1-2pm.

WOMENCARE ARM-IN-ARM WomenCARE ARM-IN-ARM Cancer support group for women with advanced, recurrent, or metastatic cancer. Meets every Monday at WomenCARE’s office. Currently on Zoom. Registration required, call WomenCARE at 831-457-2273. All services are free. For more information visit womencaresantacruz.org. Monday, July 19, 12:30pm.

WOMENCARE MINDFULNESS MEDITATION Mindfulness Meditation for women with a cancer diagnosis. Meets the first and third Friday, currently on Zoom. Registration required, call WomenCARE 831 457-2273. Friday, July 16, 11am-noon.

WOMENCARE TUESDAY SUPPORT GROUP WomenCARE Tuesday Cancer support group for women newly diagnosed and through their treatment. Meets every Tuesday currently on Zoom. Registration required, call WomenCARE 831-457-2273. Tuesday, July 20, 12:30-2pm. WomenCARE, 2901 Park Ave., Suite A1, Soquel.

WOMENCARE: LAUGHTER YOGA Laughter yoga for women with a cancer diagnosis. Meets every Wednesday, currently via Zoom. Registration required, call WomenCARE at 831-457-2273. Wednesday, July 14, 3:30-4:30pm.

OUTDOOR

BUILDING WITH PURPOSE PART ONE: PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING 101 Housing Matters is building a five-story permanent supportive housing building on our campus, here in Santa Cruz County. This building will include 120 new units of low-income housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness as well as an expanded recuperative care center and medical clinic. Whew! That’s a lot of jargon. Let’s break it down…in part one of this two-part webinar series, Tom Stagg, Director of Programs, and Evyn Simpson, Assistant Director of Programs, will walk you through permanent supportive housing as a solution to homelessness and why this approach works. More information at eventbrite.com/e/building-with-purpose-part-1-permanent-supportive-housing-101-tickets-145935736717. Tuesday, July 20, Noon-1pm.

CASFS FARMSTAND Organic vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers are sold weekly at the CASFS Farmstand, starting June 15 and continuing through Nov. 23. Proceeds support experiential education programs at the UCSC Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems. Friday, July 16, noon-6pm. Tuesday, July 20, noon-6pm. Cowell Ranch Historic Hay Barn, Ranch View Road, Santa Cruz.

HISTORIC RANCH GROUND TOUR Discover what life was like a century ago on this innovative dairy ranch. This hour-long tour includes the 1896 water-powered machine shop, barns and other historic buildings. The vehicle day-use fee is $10. For more information, call 831-426-0505. Spaces are limited and early pre-registration is recommended. Attendees are required to self-screen for Covid-19 symptoms when pre-registering. Masks and social distancing are also required at all programs. To register, visit santacruzstateparks.as.me/schedule.php. Saturday, July 17, 1pm. Sunday, July 18, 1pm. Wilder Ranch State Park, 1401 Coast Road, Santa Cruz.

NEW BRIGHTON JUNIOR RANGERS This fun one-hour program offers kids, ages 7-12, an opportunity to earn prizes while learning about birds, sea life, and local park animals, playing games, and doing arts and crafts. Meet at the campground Ramada. For more information, call 831-685-6444. Spaces are limited and early pre-registration is recommended. Attendees are required to self-screen for Covid-19 symptoms when pre-registering. Masks and social distancing are also required at all programs. To register, visit santacruzstateparks.as.me/schedule.php. Friday, July 16, 3pm. Saturday, July 17, 3pm. New Brighton Beach, 1500 Park Ave., Capitola.

NEW BRIGHTON LITTLE RANGERS Any and all 3-6 year-olds are invited to play games, listen to stories and songs, and learn about nature! Smiles, laughter, and good times abound at this program, and it’s a fantastic way to begin your morning in the park. Meet at the campground Ramada. For more information, call 831-685-6444. Spaces are limited and early pre-registration is recommended. Attendees are required to self-screen for Covid-19 symptoms when pre-registering. Masks and social distancing are also required at all programs. To register, visit santacruzstateparks.as.me/schedule.php. Friday, July 16, 11-11:30am. Saturday, July 17, 11-11:30am. New Brighton Beach, 1500 Park Ave., Capitola.

PARADIGM SPORT SUMMER BASEBALL CAMP Come to the Paradigm Sport baseball camp and experience the best baseball camp on the Central Coast. Over the course of a fun week with friends and teammates, kids get coached up by our staff of current and former pros on the skills, knowledge and mental approach they need to be strong, all-around players. Areas of focus include hitting, pitching, infield and outfield play, base running and more. At Paradigm Sport, our goal is to provide young players in and around Santa Cruz County with the highest-quality baseball instruction possible. Our summer camp is one of our favorite ways to do it! Wednesday, July 14, 9am-2pm. Thursday, July 15, 9am-2pm. Friday, July 16, 9am-2pm. Paradigm Sport, 120 Dubois St., Santa Cruz.

SLIM CHANCE OUTDOORS EVENT AT HARVEY WEST PARK Hilarious and inspiring family entertainment, Slim Chance’s Circus of Possibilities is the perfect blend of thrills and skills to delight audiences of all ages. This 30-minute show combines classic circus, vaudeville and slapstick comedy into a multitude of magical moments and surprises. Saturday, July 17, 2-3pm. Harvey West Park, 326 Evergreen St., Santa Cruz.

SUNSET BEACH BOWLS Experience the tranquility, peace and calmness as the ocean waves harmonize with the sound of Crystal Bowls raising your vibration and energy levels. Every Tuesday one hour before sunset at Moran Lake Beach. Call 831-333-6736 for more details. Tuesday, July 20, 7:15-8:15pm. Moran Lake Park & Beach, East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz.
YOU PICK ROSES We are growing over 300 roses, deeply fragrant, lush and in every color, and we want to share them with you! Get out of the house and enjoy cutting a bucket of roses for your own pleasure or to share with family and friends. Once you have made a purchase, you will be sent a calendar link to pick a time for your reservation and directions to our farm in Watsonville. Visit birdsongorchards.com/store/you-pick-roses for more information. Friday, July 16, 11am. Sunday, July 18, 11am.

Paul Skenazy’s New Book ‘Still Life’ is a Story of Art and Obsession

Christina Waters

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July 14, 2021

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Paul Skenazy’s New Book ‘Still Life’ is a Story of Art and Obsession

In Paul Skenazy’s new novel Still Life, new widower Will Moran makes tentative, seemingly aimless moves to rebuild his world. Gathering rocks and odd throwaways, he starts to draw and then paint these unlikely subjects. Obsessed with this project, he lets his house fall into bohemian disarray as unexpected intruders—some welcome, some questionable—disturb his solitude. Filled with sparkling dialogue, obsessive discoveries and a few flings, Still Life offers readers unexpected epiphanies.

What kick-started your latest book project?

PAUL SKENAZY: There are a lot of different elements that converged into what eventually became this novel. In 1978, I went to an exhibit of Georgio Morandi’s lithographs and watercolors. I remember it was on the top floor of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. I bought a poster from that exhibit that I still have on a wall in my living room. That began a lifelong obsession with Morandi’s work, and that’s where my protagonist, Will, came from. His last name, Moran, is my thank you to, and private joke about, Morandi. It has over the years made me think about obsessions—which ones we follow, and what they do to and for us. I started to imagine a book with almost no backstory: a guy locks himself away and starts to paint pictures on the walls of his house. Why? I didn’t want to know. Until eventually the character forced me to think about that. Which launched me into learning what story I had to tell.

Do you see ‘Still Life’ as a parable, a realist novella, or both?

I’m very much a realist in my thinking; almost a pedant about it. I can’t create a scene without a sense of the objects in the room, or in a park, or on a walk. If this novel is a parable, that’s a side effect. Still Life doesn’t have a moral, or point. It’s a story of one man in one town at a certain moment in time—a cranky, likable but at times unpleasant man who is in pain from his wife’s death—what he does to avoid that pain and how what he does transforms him.

Will, your protagonist, keeps a notebook into which he pours the puzzles that emerge as he rebuilds his life and embarks on obsessive/compulsive behavior. Do you keep a notebook?

I’ve tried to keep a notebook all my life. When I taught writing, I sometimes required, sometimes encouraged students to keep notebooks. But I’m erratic, always trying unsuccessfully to get myself back into one habit or another, like keeping a notebook. Will’s notebook came to me as a device to convey Will’s inner life while keeping much of it hidden—and also a way to muse about art more generally. It’s not a surrogate for me, except in that way that what we write always changes us. In retrospect, I realize that the deep substructure of Still Life comes from me thinking about aging, loss, grief, and what it means to live while others around you don’t. But saying that makes the book sound more maudlin and darker than it is. To me it’s a funny novel, built on awkward encounters that keep Will stumbling along and learning each time he falls and gets himself up—the way we do if we’re lucky enough to have experiences, and people around us to help us.

This book contains a rich sense of Santa Cruz as a place. Tell us about some of these settings.

There’s a way that place inhabits you as you inhabit it. Eudora Welty calls place in writing the “heart’s field.” I love Santa Cruz; it’s one of those great accidents of my life that I’ve had a chance to live here since 1971.

When you write about a place, you want to represent it in all its actuality. But you also want to explore its mystery, that feeling it provides that is unlike any other home ground. And exploring that mystery, you want to discover something new about where you are that you didn’t know before.

Kierkegaard wrote ‘Stages on Life’s Way.’ Your book might be seen as ‘Stages on Life’s Reawakening.’

I resist generalizing about life as a journey, or stages in our development, or even the sense that we move from path to path as we live. I am not who I was in my twenties or thirties, nor who I imagined I might be in my seventies. But I also don’t think I’ve made peace with those earlier mes, or with my present self. Maybe Will does, for a moment. It’s one of the gifts of art that it offers form and shape while life, at least as I know it, doesn’t. All I can do is try to tell Will’s story—offer a reader this particular adventure—and step aside.

Skenazy will read from ‘Still Life’ (Angel Press, 2021) on Zoom Forward Friday, July 16, with Ray Daniels and Thad Nodine (https://mailchi.mp/santacruzwrites/zoomforward to sign up).

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