The days are numbered for the 40-bed Page Smith Community House, which sits on the Housing Matters campus, Santa Cruz’s main shelter and services hub.
The positive news is that Housing Matters and its partner Envision Housing have much bigger plans for that site. In the coming years, it will become the home of a 120-unit permanent supportive housing complex, a game changer in terms of housing stability for the county’s most vulnerable residents.
In the nearer term, Housing Matters, and Envision Housing, a local development consultant, want to take their accessible housing mission one step further. Sibley Simon, the executive director of Envision Housing, is getting the word out that the homes that make up the Page Smith Community House are available for pickup.
Simon is hoping another group with available land will have a good use for the small houses—preferably providing a safe space to those who are unsheltered.
“The homes are owned by a nonprofit whose mission is helping people who are homeless,” says Simon, who served as board treasurer for Housing Matters. “If we can give them to a different group that is broadly within that mission, then they are preserving that mission.”
There are eight of these mobile homes, ranging in size from 1,300 square feet to 2,040 square feet. Interested parties will have until this upcoming winter to call dibs on the homes, cover the moving costs and have them hauled them away.
Housing Matters Executive Director Phil Kramer says it will take some work to disconnect the houses from some of the infrastructure, like plumbing, electricity and stairs. But it’s doable, and it will be worth it, he says.
“They could be transported off campus in a similar way that they were transported onto campus, which is on the back of a big flatbed truck. We’d really love to see them go somewhere. It would be a nominal cost for an interested nonprofit or provider,” Kramer says.
Simon says a backup plan would be to simply sell the Page Smith homes and put the proceeds toward Housing Matters and its programs, but he and Kramer would prefer to see the units remain available as housing for people experiencing homelessness somewhere in the county.
“It’s just better,” Simon says.
The supply of emergency beds for people experiencing homelessness is constantly in flux, and that’s particularly been the case this past year. The Covid-19 pandemic has created new funding challenges for social services and new constraints on shelter capacity, due to social distancing. The 32-bed River Street Shelter—which has been on the Housing Matters campus for years—closed last month, partly due to funding challenges.
At the same time, the global crisis has increased calls for compassion, as the country reevaluates how it thinks about equity and health, prompting the state to preserve lots of homelessness funding, and the federal government pitched in as well.
During the pandemic, Santa Cruz County, the city of Santa Cruz and regional nonprofits have all stepped up—adding new managed encampments, shelters and hotel rooms available for long-term stays, often with emergency funding. The longer-term outlook and money supply for many of those operations in the months ahead is uncertain, but there is more homelessness funding available than there was a couple years ago. And the county and nonprofits are working on shifting those staying at hotels and shelters into stable housing.
For more information on the small homes, call Housing Matters at 831-458-6020 and ask for Brit Charlebois or email bc*********@ho**************.org.
In celebration of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History’s (MAH) 25th anniversary, the RedBall Project, a global art installation that has been to over 30 cities since 2001, is coming to Santa Cruz County.
And now, after a countywide search by MAH staff and sculpture artist Kurt Perschke earlier this year, the exact locations of the installation have been decided.
RedBall Project has been dubbed “the world’s largest-running street art work.” The sculpture is a ball measuring 15 feet in diameter and weighing 250 pounds. It is wedged into random alleyways and on street corners, famous bridges and along picturesque beaches.
“On the surface, the experience seems to be about the ball itself as an object,” Perschke said in a press release. “But the true power of the project is what it can create for those who can experience it.”
During June 8-13, RedBall will make its way through Santa Cruz County, starting at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf. On June 9 it will move to the Del Mar Theater on Pacific Avenue, then to the Esplanade Park Bandshell near Capitola Village on June 10.
On June 11, the ball will roll into South County and be installed at the Cabrillo College Downtown Watsonville Center. It will then move back to Downtown Santa Cruz on June 12, this time at the MAH itself, before ending up back at the Wharf on June 13.
Visitors can come see and discuss the installation from 11am-6pm each day.
“The RedBall Project is a great representation of the spirit and vision of the MAH, which for 25 years has pushed beyond its four walls to be out in the community,” MAH executive director Robb Woulfe said in a press release. “It challenges us to reimagine familiar spaces and, like the MAH, meets people where they are to create new connections.”
Learn more and stay updated by following the MAH (@santacruzmah) and RedBall Project (@redballproject) on social media.
Founded in 2013, the Birchbark Foundation grew out of what local veterinarian Dr. Merrianne Burtch saw as an unmet need in the community.
Burtch noticed that pet owners were facing fixable yet unaffordable crises with their animals, which often resulted in the only option being humane euthanasia.
“Dr. Burtch saw that it was horrible for families, animals and the veterinary community,” says Michelle Frampton, executive director of the Birchbark Foundation. “There was just not a resource for saving animals and supporting the humans around them all at once.”
Birchbark’s mission is to “protect and honor the human-animal bond.” They aim to do this by offering three types of programming: financial assistance, grief support and education. The nonprofit works with more than 30 veterinarians throughout Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties, as well as numerous other community and corporate partners.
When an animal needs care, Birchbark will cover 50% of the cost, with no limit. Partners will provide an additional 25%, leaving only 25% for pet owners to pay.
There are certain financial qualifications, such as that the pet owner’s total household income be 250% of the federal poverty guidelines. However, Birchbark has adopted a “here and now” policy due to the pandemic and last year’s fires, recognizing that some may have very different incomes now than they did a year ago.
In addition to financial help, Birchbark hosts a Pet Loss and Grief Support Group, which meets every third Thursday of the month at 6pm via Zoom. They also offer one-to-one calls if needed, with certified counselors.
This is an important aspect of the organization, Frampton says, as it addresses the mental and emotional health of both pet owners and veterinarians.
“We all know that losing an animal can be as devastating as losing a person,” Frampton says. “But there’s not a lot of spaces to address that.”
Birchbark’s educational programs seek to empower people to be better caregivers and advocates for their pets. Their ongoing webinar series offers various talks led by veterinary experts. The next event is scheduled for May 11 at 6pm, and will feature Dr. Burtch explaining how to conduct daily pet wellness exams. Webinars are offered on a sliding pay scale ($10-$50).
Frampton says that fundraising is Birchbark’s biggest challenge. The organization relies solely on donations and grants, and during the pandemic this was especially difficult.
“2020 was a double-edged sword of nonprofits being needed more than ever and yet we weren’t able to fundraise or get much support,” she says. “It’s challenging at times, when basic needs are priority … things like food and shelter are funded heavily, which is great. But from our stance, the human-animal bond is also a basic need. For people who have animals in their lives, it’s now more important than ever. With the increased disconnect, oftentimes that animal relationship is their only one, or their most important one.”
Looking ahead, Birchbark is aiming to find new, more symbiotic ways of working with the public and its partners. In late July, they plan to hold their largest fundraising celebration of the year (albeit on Zoom).
“Sometimes people think, ‘Oh, they’re just saving animals.’ And for some people, that’s enough,” Frampton says. “But we’re also so much more. We’re an animal organization, but we’re also a human service organization.”
Last October, when Scotts Valley Mayor Derek Timm learned the community had been selected by Target Corp. as the site of one of its next locations, he was elated.
“I called the city manager and said, ‘You’re not going to believe this,’” he said, remembering the exchange with Tina Friend about the company deciding to move into the old Kmart building. “She was driving and she literally missed her exit.”
Now, with the Planning Commission’s remote public hearing about the project slated for 6pm on May 13, the community is gearing up to have its say on the development.
Just before the novel coronavirus arrived, in November 2019 Timm found out Kmart execs were finally pulling the plug on the 58,000 square foot Scotts Valley storefront at 270 Mount Hermon Road, which he says was neglected for years. When they shut the doors a few months later, it was the opening salvo in a painful barrage better known as the year 2020. After all, the department store was in the top 10 of all city sales tax remitters. Scotts Valley was relying on this, since it doesn’t bring in as much in property tax as other communities.
In short order, Timm was appointed to head the search for a new anchor tenant to the strip mall shopping complex.
“We were in the midst of the pandemic,” Timm said. “The one large retailer that was still expanding in the U.S. was Target.”
They knew the Minneapolis-based company would have to navigate a complex series of ownership, lease and sublease contracts for the space, but they had the enthusiastic support of owner Kevin Pratt, with Scotts Valley Phase II, LP, to make sure everything went smoothly, he said.
The community’s roller coaster ride of courting Target is a tale of two economic downturns. Target had hoped to build a 143,000-square-foot store on La Madrona Drive but pulled out in 2009, citing the subprime mortgage crisis.
Fast-forward to America’s next financial crash, and Target is in the complete opposite position. After getting to stay open while many other businesses were forced to close for much of the pandemic, Target now has $4 billion on hand to put into growth over the next few years.
“2020 was a record-breaking year thanks to the work of our team and their commitment to serving our guests amidst unprecedented demand,” Target CFO Michael Fiddelke said in a March news release. “The bold investments planned for the next few years will scale key capabilities across stores, fulfillment, and supply chain to drive deeper engagement with new and loyal guests, continued market share gains, and long-term, profitable growth.”
A report completed when Target was considering the vacant La Madrona parcel hints at the windfall the community could see from the new deal, since it estimated sales tax revenue of nearly half a million dollars a year.
A spokesperson for Target said they couldn’t be happier about their new digs.
“We’re excited to bring an easy, safe and convenient shopping experience to new guests in the community with this new Target store,” she said, adding population density and site accessibility were two factors that made the location so attractive. “We work closely with local leaders to identify locations where we can best serve a neighborhood.”
Timm says while he knew Target reps flew in over the summer to scope out the Kmart husk, he didn’t know if Scotts Valley would be selected for the multi-store purchase from Transformco Properties, the parent of Kmart and Sears.
“As a city we were not sure—until they actually closed—if the transaction was going to come together,” he said. “To land this at that moment was really uplifting for the city and the community.”
While 90% of the refurbishing cash is expected to go to interior design, Target is planning to put some money into renovating the commercial plaza, Timm said.
“This center is pretty tired from a look-and-feel perspective,” he said. “It’s going to re-energize some of the empty window fronts.”
Gibbs has been preaching the belief that Target will drive customers to Scotts Valley’s mom and pop shops, but some aren’t so sure.
Tyler Best, 41, who owns Cali Style, located in the next shopping plaza over, says the Target deal is a popular topic of conversation around the skate and apparel shop.
He’s apprehensive, to say the least, and yet he remains hopeful Gibbs’ theory will prove to be on the money.
Best and his 19-year-old employee, Wyatt Brown, agree on one thing.
“I’d rather see a Trader Joe’s,” Brown said. “At least it’s not Walmart.”
Brown concedes he’ll probably end up shopping at the Target, but wonders if the reno will mean more traffic jams.
When asked about traffic concerns Timm said he expects the Target will restore lost traffic and could even reduce Highway 1 congestion—since Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley residents won’t have to commute to Capitola or Watsonville shop at the store.
“It was one of the busiest Kmarts in the country from a sales volume perspective,” he said. “This really does serve this north end of the county.”
For the last year-and-a-half, Jonny Diepersloot, 20, has been working on-and-off at the Togo’s Sandwiches location from which the sun-faded red of the Kmart sign is clearly visible.
As the son of the owner, he’s been aware of the ups-and-downs of business life in this corner of the community. And during the pandemic it got pretty dismal.
“I’m excited,” he said. “Hopefully it will bring more business into this whole area.”
He’ll probably hit the toy aisles to seek out the Lego brick sets he collects out of a sense of nostalgia for the days when his mom and dad would accidentally step on loose pieces on the floor, he says.
Over at the Capitola Target, Ben Walker, a 42-year-old teacher from Santa Cruz, says a Scotts Valley location would be nice. He imagines stopping off on his way to, or from, work in Santa Clara.
“Honestly, I don’t really love this Target,” he said, referencing what he considers to be the wonky layout of the Capitola Mall store. “I actually prefer the Watsonville Target.”
While he isn’t particularly thrilled that it’s a “big box” store making inroads in the wake of the coronavirus onset, he can definitely see why.
“There’s a part of me that’s like, ‘Do we really need three Targets in this area?’” he said. “If we keep shopping at them, they’re gonna keep coming …. My money is the one that does the talking.”
Walker also isn’t confident the local infrastructure will be able to handle all the increased action in Scotts Valley, since the community is growing.
“The thing that concerns me is, I don’t think they have a plan for all the traffic it will attract,” he said. “At some point it’s gonna be crazy.”
And while Timm pointed to the city’s recently-adopted traffic plan, the pedestrian and vehicle flow could be an important topic at the upcoming public hearing.
The meeting will be available on Zoom, via the Planning Commission Agenda at the city of Scotts Valley On-Line Agenda Center: scottsvalley.org/AgendaCenter
In the first months of the pandemic, Dientes Community Dental Care was forced to close its clinics throughout Santa Cruz County. The nonprofit, which aims to give people access to high-quality, affordable oral health care, had initially not been considered essential.
For more than two months they had to work with a skeleton crew, and only for emergency care. They lost revenue and were forced to lay off and furlough employees.
Thankfully, Dientes was eventually allowed to reopen in summer 2020. They were approved for the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program, and as of now are back to about 90% of services they had pre-Covid.
“We’ve seen an amazing outpouring of support from our community,” said Sheree Storm, Chief Development Officer for Dientes. “It’s been a tough year for everyone. But we are super happy to be back—serving patients all over the county.”
Dientes has also been able to restart its Outreach Days, which would normally be held at more than 30 locations across the county, including schools, juvenile hall and homeless shelters. Pop-up clinics are set up at the different sites, offering dental exams, X-rays, fluoride varnish, cleanings and sealants.
In addition, staff refers patients to one of the main clinics if they need additional treatments, such as for cavities.
Dientes worked closely with the County Office of Education to host two Outreach Days at Sequoia High School in Watsonville earlier this month, serving low-income students grades K-5 through pre-scheduled appointments.
“Going out to schools is so important because the kids, for many reasons, are not making it into the dentist,” Storm said. “Usually it’s about transportation. Parents just can’t get them there, or they’re working, or live far away without a car.”
Another reason is cost. Dental care is expensive and often not covered by health insurance. For instance, seniors on Medicare don’t receive dental coverage and are often burdened by costly procedures. This could be prevented, Storm said, if only they had a good foundation of oral health to start with.
“Prevention is not just about treatment,” she said. “You need to get kids early, to teach them better oral health habits … so they’re not looking back and having the same problems that seniors now face.”
The next Outreach Day is scheduled for May 8 in Santa Cruz, at Branciforte Small Schools Campus, 840 North Branciforte Ave. To make an appointment call 831-716-5926.
Dientes continues to work with dentists, educational institutions, and various organizations and agencies across the county and state, including Cabrillo College, First 5 Santa Cruz County, Salud Para La Gente and the Central California Alliance For Health. Together, they focus on campaigns to educate parents on the importance of oral health for their children, and help families better access quality services.
And soon Dientes will be able to expand their own services further. A new health and housing campus at 1500 Capitola Road will include a clinic for Dientes, a facility for Santa Cruz Community Health, along with 57 affordable housing units developed by MidPen Housing. The six-building complex is being built by Bogard Construction and designed by Wald, Ruhnke & Dost Architects.
The health facilities are expected to be completed by sometime in 2022, and the housing by 2023. Storm said they hope to break ground very soon.
“It’s really exciting,” she said. “We were expecting it to get going a year ago, but we had to pause due to Covid. Now we’re really ready.”
Dental care, Storm said, is a vital part of health care that should be accessible to everyone.
“Your mouth is an internal part of your body,” she said. “There is a direct relationship between oral and heart health. Oral health is linked to better pregnancy outcomes, to the ability to speak clearly. And it is so much about confidence, relationships with other people… Everyone deserves to have a healthy smile.”
For more information about Dientes Community Dental Care and to donate to the organization, visit dientes.org.
CINCO DE MAYO JACK O’NEILL LOUNGE Cinco de Mayo! Now open for indoor dining. Come enjoy the best of Santa Cruz dining and full ocean views. Wednesday, May 5, 5-8pm. Jack O’Neill Lounge At the Dream Inn, 175 W Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz.
COMMUNITY
HOW TO EXAMINE OUR OWN PETS How many times have you wished you knew how to examine your pet? Have you wondered about lumps and what to look for? What to not worry about? Now you can learn! Please join us virtually with Dr. Merrianne Burtch, DVM, DACVIM for an hour on “How to Examine our Own Pets.” For more information on this online event, go to birchbarkfoundation.org/education. Tuesday, May 11, 6-7pm.
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, May 6, 7am. California Grey Bears, 2710 Chanticleer Ave., Santa Cruz.
ZOOM Q&A: BECOME A HOSPICE VOLUNTEER VISITOR Join us for an informational Q&A session about becoming a volunteer visitor with Hospice of Santa Cruz County. Forbes Ellis, our director of volunteer services, will be available to answer any questions you may have, as well as provide more information on what you can expect during your training. Volunteer visitors provide companionship to hospice patients in their homes or in the residential care facilities where they reside. As a willing listener and supportive presence, these special volunteers are vital members of the hospice team. During shelter in place, volunteer visitors are supporting patients while social distancing via Zoom visits, letter writing, and running errands. Register at hospicesantacruz.org/event/vol-vis-2021. Monday, May 10, 1pm.
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: salsagente.com. Thursday, May 6, 7pm.
TENANTS’ RIGHTS HELP Tenant Sanctuary is open to renters living in the city of Santa Cruz with questions about their tenants’ rights. Volunteer counselors staff the telephones on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from 10am-2pm. Tenant Sanctuary works to empower tenants by educating them on their rights and providing the tools to pursue those rights. Tenant Sanctuary and their program attorney host free legal clinics for tenants in the city of Santa Cruz. Due to Covid-19 concerns, all services are currently by telephone, email or Zoom. For more information visit tenantsanctuary.org or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/tenantsanctuary. 831-200-0740. Thursday, May 6, 10am-2pm. Sunday, May 9, 10am-2pm. Tuesday, May 11, 10am-2pm. Tenant Sanctuary, 703 Pacific Ave., 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. Who may benefit from participating in the support group? Family caregivers who care for persons with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia, those who would like to talk to others in similar situations and those who need more information, additional support and caregiving strategies. To register or questions please call 800-272-3900. Wednesday, May 5, 5:30pm. Saturday, May 8, 10-11:30am.
COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS OF SANTA CRUZ Parents of a child who died at any age, from any cause, any length of time ago, are invited to join The Compassionate Friends of Santa Cruz for our monthly grief support meeting. Opening circle followed by smaller connection groups. Sharing is optional. Grief materials are available. Bereaved grandparents and adult siblings also welcome. Nonreligious. Monday, May 10, 7-8:30pm. Quaker Meeting House, 225 Rooney 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 831-761-3973. Friday, May 7, 6pm. WomenCARE, 2901 Park Ave., Suite A1, Soquel.
OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS All our OA meetings have switched to being online. 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! Sunday, May 9, 9:05-10:15am.
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; contact WomenCARE at 831-457-2273. All services are free. For more information visit womencaresantacruz.org. Monday, May 10, 12:30pm.
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; contact WomenCARE at 831-457-2273. Tuesday, May 11, 12:30-2pm.
WOMENCARE: LAUGHTER YOGA Laughter yoga for women with a cancer diagnosis. Meets every Wednesday, currently via Zoom. Registration required; contact WomenCARE at 831-457-2273. Wednesday, May 5, 3:30-4:30pm.
OUTDOOR
FLORA AND FAUNA High school art competition exhibit opening at Iveta Cafe and Gallery. Please join us to celebrate the finalist and awards ceremony for these emerging young artists. Saturday, May 8, noon. Iveta Cafe, 2125 Delaware Ave., Santa Cruz.
MEMBER MEETUP: WILDFLOWERS AT MIMA MEADOW Member meetups are small group get-togethers for Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History members where we learn from each other while exploring Santa Cruz’s diverse natural spaces. Spring is in full swing in Santa Cruz! Some may say that wildflower season begins to wind down in May, but that’s also when we start to see some exciting species like the yellow mariposa lily. For this month’s meetup, we will be on the hunt for many of our area’s most sought-after wildflowers, from the harlequin lotus to the Monterey mariposa lily. Please review the following details prior to registering: wear a mask at all times; if you feel sick, stay home; maintain at least six feet of distance from others. We are limiting the number of members who can join us to 15 individuals. Further instructions will be shared upon registration: santacruzmuseum.org. Saturday, May 8, 10am-noon.
ROCKIN’ POP-UP: GREAT GEOLOGIC LANDMARKS Tourist season is upon us, the time when people pick up and travel the world in search of new experiences, lasting memories, and unbelievable views. For this month’s Rockin’ Pop-Up, we’ll be taking a roadtrip through some of the great geologic landmarks of the United States, from Yellowstone to Yosemite, and Carlsbad Caverns to our own Pinnacles. Join the Geology Gents, Gavin and Graham, for monthly conversations about rocks live on Facebook. Each month we’ll explore a different geologic topic, from Santa Cruz formations to tips for being a more effective rockhound. Graham Edwards and Gavin Piccione are Ph.D. candidates in geochronology with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UCSC. Visit santacruzmuseum.org for more information. Wednesday, May 5, 3-3:30pm.
VIRTUAL MOTHER’S DAY RUN & WALK Outrun family homelessness this Mother’s Day: Join the 2021 Virtual Mother’s Day Run and Walk benefiting children and their parents at Pajaro Valley Shelter Services (PVSS). At PVSS, families are working harder than ever before to outrun the pandemic—facing increased financial hardship and housing insecurity head-on. This year’s virtual event will support the growing needs of families experiencing homelessness in the Pajaro Valley. Join us in building hopeful family futures! Help PVSS raise $80,000 by Mother’s Day. Sustain the hope and efforts of the 136 children and their parents in PVSS’ care. Self-sufficient families are the backbone of our community. Let’s keep our community strong! Register, sponsor, donate at pvshelter.org to outrun family homelessness. Grab your family and register to run or walk the 10K/5K/1K—anytime, anywhere. Visit pvshelter.org/mothers-day-runwalk-for-pv-shelter for more information. Sunday, May 9, 7am. Ramsey Park, 1301 Main St., Watsonville.
VIRTUAL YOUNGER LAGOON RESERVE TOURS Younger Lagoon Reserve is now offering a virtual tour in both English and Spanish. This virtual tour follows the same stops as the Seymour Marine Discovery Center’s docent-led, in-person hiking tour, and is led by a UCSC student! Virtual Younger Lagoon Reserve tours are free and open to the public. Part of the University of California Natural Reserve System, Younger Lagoon Reserve contains diverse coastal habitats and is home to birds of prey, migrating sea birds, bobcats, and other wildlife. See what scientists are doing to track local mammals, restore native habitat and learn about the workings of one of California’s rare coastal lagoons. Access the tours at seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/visit/behind-the-scenes-tours/#youngerlagoon. Sunday, May 9, 10:30am.
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, May 7, 11am. Sunday, May 9, 11am.
Locals River van den Berghe and Colin Burris met at the Teen Center behind the former site of Saturn Cafe years ago. Van den Berghe was 12 and played in the band DogBone. Burris was 13, had a mohawk, and was there to see his older brother’s band, the Lost Boys. They saw a lot of each other at shows at the 418 Project and the Vets Hall, then started their own band.
Some years later, as San Francisco State University (SFSU) students, their musical relationship picked back up. Now their current indie rock group Pardoner is set to release its third full-length, Came Down Different, on Bar None Records, to a lot of buzz from media outlets like Rolling Stone, Paste and NPR.
“We started playing music together again, jamming, hanging out, always playing music together in one way or another,” Burris says.
Starting in 2015, the original lineup of Pardoner included Max Freeland (guitar/vocals), Trey Flanigan (guitar/vocals), Will Mervau (bass) and van den Berghe (drums). The members all knew each other from attending SFSU. Van den Bergh and Freeland were playing with Burris in a punk band, but spent a lot of time listening to dissonant, angular bands like Polvo, which inspired them to write material for Pardoner.
With Pardoner, they found a sweet spot of catchy hooks, discordant riffs and punchy, groove-based beats. There’s a push and pull to Pardoner’s music that feels like it’s ripping apart and melding back together at the same time. That’s continued with Burris, who took over from Mervau in 2019. Each member of the band puts a unique stamp on every tune, which is why the songs feel so complex and layered. There’s almost an internal competition occurring within the notes. Sometimes members will hear what everyone else is contributing to the song, imagine a strange idea that shouldn’t work, and see if they can pull it off, adding something new to the symphony of sounds.
“Everybody puts their own little twist on the song, whoever’s idea it was,” says Freeland. “I feel like even when the song starts out one person’s idea, definitely everybody has their own thing in it.”
The group gigged as much as they could in the Bay Area. After a steady stream of gigs and a few DIY tours, indie label Father/Daughter took an interest in the group. They released the group’s 2017 album Uncontrollable Salvation, giving Pardoner its first dose of media attention. Given the meaning behind the group’s name (a pardoner is a medieval term for the person that grants church pardons) and Freeland making a few references to “going to hell” in his lyrics, several music bloggers defined them as obsessed with religion. But Came Down Different, which has songs about being frustrated at bosses and other topics, makes it clear they’ve got a broader range of concerns.
“It’s classic young guy stuff,” Freeland explains.
Came Down Different was written with more separation. Freeland and his wife had moved up to Canada. He and Flanagan wrote much of the material on their own in 2019. At the end of the year, Freeland came down to the Bay so the group could flesh out the tunes in the same room. In February 2020, they recorded them at Atomic Gardens in Oakland.
It was going to be a big year; they had a spring tour booked with the band Dumb. At the end of the tour, the group would drop off Freeland in Canada and then head back to the Bay Area. But with Covid-19, not only was their tour canceled, but Freeland was also stuck in the U.S. until August due to travel restrictions.
“It was probably like the smoothest tour planning I’ve ever done. It was so sick,” Freeland says. “It just all fell apart. We had a ton of really cool shows lined up and that was kind of sad.”
So, in a way, Covid-19 didn’t impact the group as much as it did others, since Freeland was already living far away from the other members, which showed them that they needed to focus more on tours and records.
“I miss playing shows,” Freeland says. “But it’s like, dude, we were playing entirely too often.”
‘Came Down Different’ will be released on May 14. For more information, check out facebook.com/pardoner2.
Re: “Constructive Arguments” (GT, 4/21): Branciforte and Water Street is not a properly thought-out location for such a project—just build housing anywhere?
One of these developers has ideas and plans taken from a large metropolitan city—stackable garage with a bar on top? Are those low-income families and 18-year-olds who want affordable housing going to get drunk every night at a bar in their own building? How about the rampant theft, drug deals and vandalism already happening in our neighborhood? Do we want to add more problematic situations in “our own backyards?” I think we have had enough of that already.
This housing project is literally crammed into a small area where emergency vehicles will have problems turning around. The unstable cliff for this project is composed of organic material that was under the ocean decades ago. Occasionally the remnants of the cliff crumble and fall below onto the sidewalk. Do you really want to put a heavy building on that cliff along with a strip mall? These big builders have big expansive ideas.
With this project going through to completion, we will need more grocery stores, physicians and new hospitals that all bring with them problems of waiting in lines for doctors and appointments. A lot of people already go over the hill to get medical care. We just don’t have the physicians here to help everyone. Several of my physicians have already moved on. How much can you cram into a neighborhood?
Do these builders, architects and advocates for affordable housing and growth ever think of these problems at all, or do they just want to plug in people anywhere they can squeeze them in?
Michele Philibosian | Branciforte Neighborhood, Santa Cruz
This letter does not necessarily reflect the views of Good Times.
To submit a letter to the editor of Good Times: Letters should be originals—not copies of letters sent to other publications. Please include your name and email address to help us verify your submission (email address will not be published). Please be brief. Letters may be edited for length, clarity and to correct factual inaccuracies known to us. Send letters to le*****@go*******.sc.
I’ve been editing Aaron Carnes’ music writing for more than a decade, so I feel qualified to say this: If anyone should be writing the book on ska, it’s him. Not just because he has such a passion for the music, which is evident in every page of his new book, In Defense of Ska, but also because he’s a skilled and thoughtful music writer who always brings a genuine understanding of the music he’s writing about to his work. And no genre needs some understanding right now quite like ska. That’s obvious from the title of his book, and he gets into why ska deserves to be defended—and why it needs defending in the first place—in the excerpt that is this week’s cover story.
Of particular interest to fans of the ’90s music scene in Santa Cruz will be his revisiting of the strange story of Slow Gherkin, one of my favorite Santa Cruz bands ever. I loved their crazy string of sold-out Catalyst shows in the late ’90s, and I wrote a lot of stories about them back then, but it definitely got to be bittersweet as they searched for an identity on 2002’s Run Screaming (a hugely underappreciated record), and finally broke up. I remember how uncomfortable the band seemed with the ska genre by the time I did my last cover story on them around that time, so it’s really interesting to read singer-guitarist James Rickman’s reflections on that era in this excerpt.
More than that, though, I think this week’s story will give you a sense of how much fun Carnes’ book is, and we’ll talk about its many quirks (and the great interviews he got) when I interview him about it for a virtual Bookshop Santa Cruz event on Monday, May 10, at 7pm. Hope you’ll join us!
I am not for or against the trail. However, it is imperative that you think extremely carefully about its location and the many habitats you destroy. We are blessed to have many animals and birds, rare and near-extinct, call this area home. Are we so arrogant as to think the trail is more important than nesting bald eagles, osprey, orioles, owls, hummingbirds? Not to mention all the varied bugs, fish, animals and the plants, trees, shrubs on which they depend?
Many of these trees and shrubs are also being destroyed by people using the limbs to find & fish, which is also destroying the habitat even further!
See for yourself—take a trip to the end of Harkins Slough past the dump, at the locked gate, where it flooded out back in the 1990s.
Please, do not sacrifice these spaces and habitats. Many species are living on the edge already. Would you want bikes, runners, screaming people walking through your yard dumping trash at all hours of the day and night? The climate crisis is a battle we may or may not win, what about this crisis? Planet Earth & Mother Nature exists based on a very delicate balance.
— Sharon
Well Connected
Re: “Signing On” (GT, 4/28): What a great story, and kudos to everyone who helped make it possible. As a teacher in PVUSD, I know connectivity issues are a thing and have worked with my students all year long to create workarounds and understandings so they can still participate. I am so stoked that people are doing something about this, and this will only benefit the community more and more as we look out for our friends and neighbors. Si se puede, folks.
Sandino Gomez | Santa Cruz
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
Submit to ph****@go*******.sc. Include information (location, etc.) and your name. Photos may be cropped. Preferably, photos should be 4 inches by 4 inches and minimum 250dpi.
GOOD IDEA
GREETINGS FROM CAMP SCOTTS VALLEY
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Cruz County and the city of Scotts Valley are joining forces to offer “Camp Scotts Valley,” a summer camp program open to kids ages 6-18. It will be held at the Scotts Valley Community Center and run weekdays, June 14 through Aug. 6, from 9am-5pm. Camp registration will be open to families on May 10.
“We are excited to be partnering with the Boys and Girls Clubs to ensure that kids and families in our community have a fun and safe place to go during summer vacation,” says Scotts Valley Mayor Derek Timm.
GOOD WORK
RENTING REIMAGINED
Even in the pandemic, ReImagine Santa Cruz is moving forward the conversation on housing. In February, the group held a conference on affordable housing, and on May 12 and 13 from 5-7pm it will virtually host “A Conference For Renters.” Sessions with government officials, nonprofit representatives and advocates will explore how renting in Santa Cruz can be made more equitable and affordable. Registration for the Zoom sessions in both English and Spanish is available at the group’s website, reimaginesantacruz.com.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“About 50 percent of the songs on the radio are like, ‘Live like tomorrow doesn’t exist, like it’s my birthday, like it’s the last day of my life.’ Such a large percentage of pop music is really about party time.”
In this excerpt from the new book ‘In Defense of Ska,’ the author explains why ska needs defending, and how Santa Cruz’s most popular ’90s ska band, Slow Gherkin, lost its way.
Believe it or not, there was a time when being in a ska band was considered embarrassing. I know, crazy huh! You should’ve heard the wild accusations people made: Every song sounds the same!Out of tune marching band horns over pop-punk riffs! Nothing but silly songs about food!
OK, that last one is sort of true, at least for my band Flat Planet. We had a song that was an ode to cheese, but sung in Spanish. (“Queso en el dia, Queso en el Noche! Queso! Queso! Dame Mas!”)
We also had a song about Taco Bravo, our favorite late-night dive in San Jose. It was the go-to place for bands of every genre. And jocks. And just plain ol’ drunks. Many fights ensued alongside absurdly heaping Super Nachos and refried bean-stuffed Taco Delights. The Taco Bravo staff served everything with a superabundance of cheese and treated you like garbage, which was a major part of the appeal. Whenever Flat Planet showed up after a gig or band practice, the late-night manager would shake his head and say, “You guys again … don’t you have lives?” “No,” we’d proclaim, shoving crumpled dollar bills in the tip jar, asking for even more cheese, as the ashes from the staff’s cigarettes fell into the beans. We were so obsessed with Taco Bravo—and always talking about it—my mom decided to go there to see what all the hubbub was. She ordered a decaf coffee with her meal. When they handed it to her, she confirmed, “This is decaf, right?” The guy told her, “Yes … it’s coffee.” She couldn’t sleep that night, wired from having caffeine for the first time in a decade.
Our songs were influenced by the general silliness that defined a lot of the ’90s ska scene, which I know people hate. Let’s defend “ska silliness” for a minute and describe what it was like to be in a ’90s ska band.
In 1993, the San Jose music scene consisted of bands playing grunge, dreary alt-rock and, worse, rap-metal. There were maybe three ska bands in the whole city. This scene took itself seriously. Too seriously. I can’t tell you how many times some shitty rock band was on stage at the local 18-and-older venue, Cactus Club, acting like disaffected rock stars to a crowd of 20 people who cared more about their ice-cold beer than the cool poses of random local bands.
For us, getting on stage and giving our set a considerable dose of silliness was a fuck you to the self-indulgent, pretentious rock star bullshit we saw at the Cactus Club and on MTV. When we played in front of 20 people, we weren’t trying to be cool or get signed. We wanted to make everyone in the venue smile despite themselves. Yes, it was also an outlet for all our crazy, awkward energy, but we were trying to get people to join us and have a fun night, not admire our cool threads and perfectly disheveled hairdos.
Ashamed To Be a Ska
In the early ’90s, most ska bands weren’t riding the silly-train. The priority was to play danceable music with creative hooks and unique song structures that kept things interesting. People in this era liked the clothing, the dancing, and usually understood basic ska history, like how 2 Tone was born from British punks and Caribbean immigrants combining forces to make an exciting new musical style with a strong anti-racist message.
The Pacers formed in 1990 and built an impressive scene in Milwaukee, their hometown, and later Minneapolis, where they would relocate, as well as several nearby Midwest cities where they regularly gigged. They weren’t Milwaukee’s first ska band. Bands that predated them were International Jet Set, Invaders, Wild Kingdom, all of whom started in the late ’80s. These were popular local bands, but the Pacers applied some business smarts by pushing shows to be all-ages. They went to the Unicorn, a local 21-and-older club, and told the venue owner if they let them play an all-ages show, they would draw 300 kids. The club owner agreed to it reluctantly. It was a success, but due to some disagreements, the relationship didn’t last. The Pacers took the same deal over to Peter Jest at the Shank Hall, and that started a three-to-four year run of really packed, successful shows. It was a captive and consistent audience. The band was making a couple thousand dollars a show just because they recognized how eager kids were to go out and dance.
“We never wanted to be a group where everybody showed up in Fred Perrys. We also weren’t skate punks either. We wanted to be popular with kids our age,” Pacers bassist Andy Noble says. The Pacers didn’t play punky sounding ska songs or dress in wacky costumes. They were closer to a 2 Tone sound, with mid-tempo upbeats and Specials’ style grooves that were mixed with subtle rock and soul beats and some New Wave melodies influencing the group’s intricate sound.
By the mid-90s, the Pacers were witnessing a shift happen as younger bands joined the scene. It wasn’t a shift they liked.
“We were extremely ashamed to be a ska band,” Noble says. “When we started, we were really proud of it. We thought we were the only motherfuckers on to that stuff. We had this pride of ownership. By the time we were done, we perceived the music to be jazz band nerds wearing mismatched suits, recruited by one guy who realized he could have a popular group.”
They weren’t too stoked by the growing number of ska bands in the Midwest, either. Or how those bands were making the genre look like nothing but a bunch of kids spazzing out at Chuck E. Cheese on a permanent sugar high.
“The first time we saw Skankin’ Pickle, we all thought it was really funny. Two years later it was like every ska band was a joke novelty band. We were not proud to be part of that scene anymore. We thought it was nerdy,” Noble says. By 1994, because of this and some other internal band factors, the band lost steam and broke up.
Ska had a moment in the mainstream a few years later, which softened the “nerd” vibe temporarily. It also validated the wackiness. Suddenly, bands on TV were wearing colorful shirts, checkered shorts, and pork pie hats. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones showed off their plaid suits in Clueless; Reel Big Fish sported cabbie hats and colorful, tucked-in button-up shirts in BASEketball. Save Ferris represented the rainbow’s full spectrum with their members’ bold single-color t-shirts and laid-back skater shorts in their “Come On Eileen” video. When ska fell out of its short-lived favor, all those offbeat checkered V-neck sweaters and bowling suspenders were as mortifying as MC Hammer parachute pants.
Gherkin at the Catalyst in 1998, at the height of their fame in Santa Cruz. As they became known for their unpredictable live shows—which were high-energy even for ska—they sold out the venue time and again. PHOTO: DAVE TISDALE
Slow Gherkin Sheds Ska
James Rickman of Santa Cruz band Slow Gherkin tells me about his experience living through the peculiar era of ska during the late ’90s.
“We felt like we were just the lamest guys around all of a sudden,” he says.
Slow Gherkin formed in 1993 and were an underrated band that never reached a large audience outside of their hometown, where they would sell out the largest venues. On tour, they’d draw anywhere between 50-150 people. Not bad, but not enough to give them the satisfaction of quitting their day jobs. As they pushed forward, they were handicapped by ska’s rise and fall in the mainstream.
In 1998, they released their brilliant Squeeze-meets-Nick Lowe-infused, peppy, rock-ska sophomore album, Shed Some Skin. It still holds up as a unique record during a year when one-thousand ska records were released. They’d gone on multiple tours that year and were rehearsing daily to make something happen.
And then in late 1998, just after their record released, they were approached at a show in New York by John Avila, bassist for Oingo Boingo and producer of Reel Big Fish’s Turn The Radio Off. Gherkin was playing their final show on the Independent’s Day tour with the Toasters, Edna’s Goldfish, and Skoidats. (The band The Independents was unfortunately not on that tour. They were the answer to the question: What would the Misfits sound like if they played ska?). Avila asked the band to send him some new songs. One of Avila’s kids was a Gherkin fan who liked the band’s catchy, New Wave-y sound.
It seemed entirely possible Slow Gherkin could gain a wider audience if they had just the right push. They were great pop songwriters. But it took the band a good six months to demo two new songs (“Tap Dancing” and “Salsipuedes”). By then, now 1999, they’d lost a few members, which sucked momentum from the group, and Avila never got back to them. They grew frustrated with pushing hard and living life on the road, eating nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and unhealthy portions of Waffle House, all while still having to maintain shitty day jobs. Not to mention they were starting to feel their first few waves of ska-shame, which would only grow in the coming years.
Mike Park, who ran Asian Man Records—the label that released Gherkin’s first album and already agreed to release its second—was already feeling ska trepidation by early 1998 as Slow Gherkin was recording Shed Some Skin. It was clear to Park the ska boom was not going to last much longer. But the band was already set to record in the lovely 24-track studio SoundTek and had a thick 24-page booklet planned for the album release. Rickman tells me that Park would show up in the studio as they were recording, pace back and forth and say, “No one is going to buy this record,” and then leave.
Park’s nervous foresight turned out to be correct. The album sold less than the band’s debut record. The tides were changing in pop culture, and Slow Gherkin looked on, suffering a band identity crisis. By the end of the century, post-Shed Some Skin, they were writing songs deliberately lacking upbeats, as if to signal to the world they, too, were no longer part of that horrid ska scene. Other bands did the same. Orange County ska band the Hippos released their major label debut Heads Are Gonna Roll in 1999, now as a ska-free, synth-rock band, with an album cover fabricated to look like a hip ’60s rock ’n’ roll group, a la The Kinks. In subsequent years, the Hippos singer/guitarist Ariel Rechtshaid furthered his cold-hearted ska abandonment by carving out a hipster producer career, working with artists like Vampire Weekend, HAIM, Adele, and Charli XCX.
“We did what so many other ska bands did, which was suddenly get totally self-conscious. That was the real sell out moment, I think. All ska bands got mocked all of a sudden, and we were like, ‘Abandon ship!’” Rickman says. “I like Run Screaming [the band’s third album]. We wrote great songs, but it’s not a ska album. It’s a pretty chickenshit move. On one hand, we were getting to be a better band, but we were having a total identity meltdown right in the middle of that.”
Ska may have dropped in popularity, but trying to pretend you never were a ska band only brought on greater ridicule. 2002’s Run Screaming was Slow Gherkin’s lowest selling album. Only 2,000 copies were pressed, and not all of them sold.
The last Gherkin lineup in the early 2000s. Says singer and guitarist James Rickman (third from right), ‘We did what so many other ska bands did, which was suddenly get totally self-conscious.’ PHOTO: SARA SANGER
Ska’s Legacy
Ska’s never been as hated as it was in the early 2000s, but since then it’s never lost its stigma. Even now, if you tell people you like ska, you must do so with a big fat asterisk, acknowledging all the bad, bad ska bands out there before admitting to the ones you like. Ska seems more than any other genre to be defined by its worst bands and least creative tendencies.
The problem with ska in the ’90s is only a few bands reached mainstream audiences, so the general music loving population never received proper exposure to the genre. Trying to explain to the average music listener why ska is one of the most diverse musical styles out there requires a couple of pie charts, a lengthy powerpoint presentation and a history lesson that spans several decades. To most people, all ska sounds the same.
“I hope at our best we shined through that [third wave] and sounded different,” Noble says, reflecting on his time in the ska scene with the Pacers. “Now the huge bulk of what people think of as ’90s ska is background music for Food Network shows. We did not want to sound like that. That’s for sure. But we probably did sometimes.”
It’s so entrenched in culture to make fun of ska as wacky nerd music, no one questions why nerdy music is such a bad thing. Are we also throwing They Might Be Giants, Weird Al, and Devo under the bus, because last time I checked, they were some of the best artists to come out in the past 40 years. Besides, if I had to choose between some douchebag rock star flexing his muscles on stage while playing an uninspired guitar solo to woo groupies to his hotel room later that night, or some silly kids who spent hours discussing the pentatonic scale and all the tacos they want to eat after the show, I say long live band nerds, and pass me a taco.
Excerpted from Aaron Carnes’ new book ‘In Defense of Ska,’ published May 4 by Clash Books. Carnes will be signing copies of the book at Streetlight Records, 939 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, on Friday, May 7, from 4pm-7pm. Bookshop Santa Cruz will be hosting a free virtual event featuring the author in conversation with Good Times Editor Steve Palopoli on May 10 at 7pm. For more information, go to bookshopsantacruz.com/ska.
