Living sustainably is more popular now than it has ever been.
On social and traditional media, I’m sure you’ve seen people boasting about their sustainable lifestyles or products. In mainstream media you can see the push for living and buying sustainably. It is encouraged for others to join this trend and those who don’t are criticized.
But what is rarely addressed is that sustainable living is a self-serving privilege, not an act of environmental heroism. Sustainability is expensive and unobtainable to the majority of Earth’s population. Because of this, personal sustainability efforts will never significantly impact the environment. It won’t influence production in unsustainable markets, because there will always be a demand for cheaper, unsustainable products from those who can’t afford anything else.
Self-serving sustainability isn’t wrong; of course people can continue to alleviate their personal guilt by reducing their personal waste and only buying from fair labor practices. It’s not harming the world, but it is not saving it either. We need to realize the only significant impacts individuals can ever make on the environment and labor rights is by pushing for systematic changes through political activism. Here you can support public policy that reaches corporations—the true producers of pollution and beneficiaries of unfair and inhumane labor—and force them to adhere to sustainable methods of production and distribution. Why settle for having your own net zero household when you can strive for statewide 100% renewable energy?
If we really want to save the planet, sustainability can’t just be a consumer option; it needs to be a requirement. The only way that can be achieved is by governments forcing large exploitative corporations to change their ways.
Sufia Singh | 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 Please include your name and email address to help us verify your submission (email address will not be published).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*****@*******es.sc.
Last week’s letter writer to the Good Times (GT, 5/19) spitefully condemns Santa Cruz Greenway and the six RTC members who voted not to accept the business plan for a train.
His letter is full of untruths, innuendos and vague references to individual conspiracies and hidden agendas. I hope he doesn’t represent the majority of train supporters, because if he does, the train supporter arguments have essentially sunk into the gutter.
From its very conception, the Greenway vision has been clear and steady—railbank the corridor for a possible future train so we can start using the corridor’s full width and existing trestles for recreation and green transportation now. We have enough Measure D funds to make this a reality.
I, for one, would like to thank the six RTC members who voted correctly in putting aside the dream for a train. We can now begin to move forward with the right action of implementing a multi-use trail. This, combined with vast improvements to METRO, will bring real solutions to county transit concerns and social equity.
I am confident that the RTC staff will work diligently to come up with the best trail possible. It is a bonus that the old steel rails, which need to be removed in all future scenarios, can be sold to help finance such an endeavor. The Greenway vision is getting closer every day. Thank you commissioners!
Betsy Riker | 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*****@*******es.sc.
Some stories we report at GT just naturally have intrigue around them. If we’re investigating a scandal or public controversy, chances are we’re going to have sources who want to be off the record. I’ve met people in some pretty weird places to get information for a story, that’s for sure.
But when Erin Malsbury signed on for this week’s cover story about marine scientists’ efforts to save the black abalone, she didn’t expect to be managing intense confidentiality issues and following cars out to secret locations. This time it wasn’t the sources for her story she was protecting, though—it was the subject. Poachers have been known to break into scientific facilities to steal abalone, so researchers here keep the details of their work with black abalone, from rescues to releases to the site of the holding center itself, classified. We’ve been fascinated in the newsroom by Erin’s behind-the-scenes work on this story, and impressed by the integrity she’s demonstrated in earning the trust of the people doing this important work. The resulting story is a must-read.
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GOOD IDEA
PIER REVIEW
In an effort to spur local economic growth, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration invested $620,000 for improving the iconic Santa Cruz Wharf. The funding will go toward infrastructure improvements including replacing aging pillars, refurbishing damaged decking, reinforcing structural substrate and repairing walkways and parking.
GOOD WORK
STAGE MANAGING
Santa Cruz’s Kuumbwa Jazz is one of the recipients of new grants from the nonprofit Live Music Society. The organization is awarding a total of $2 million in grants to independent music venues across the U.S. to provide a boost as many of them struggle to reopen due to Covid-19. Another round of grants will be given out this fall.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The rarer they get, the fewer meanings animals can have. Eventually rarity is all they are made of.”
Wendy Bragg puts her hair up with a zip tie and pulls a stopper on the outside of a large tank of seawater. A chart on the tank says it holds 40 rescued black abalone, but I can only see a few stuck to the sides.
The water drains out, mimicking low tide and exposing a few large rocks and concrete blocks at the bottom of the tank. Bragg climbs inside and reaches down to pick up a cinder block, revealing a dozen abalone that have crammed themselves into the square holes.
They like to buddy up and sit on top of each other, she explains. The abalone spend most of their time submerged in the seawater that flows through the tanks, but “every once in a while, we get one that moves up on the shelf and decides to become a terrestrial being,” she says with a laugh, pointing to an abalone that has crept above the tank’s waterline.
As if on cue, one of the abalone in the block she’s holding makes a break for the top side. It moves fluidly and surprisingly fast for a marine snail. Bragg gently guides it back toward the others with her hand, and sets the block back down.
Bragg is an ecology and evolutionary biology Ph.D. student at UCSC. She and a team of scientists have spent the past several months rushing to rescue endangered black abalone from landslides and debris flows along the coast of Big Sur.
She walks me through the rest of the holding center, where rescued abalone live in tanks for a few months before researchers transport them to new areas. To see the tanks, I agreed to keep the location secret, driving to a nondescript pin on a map and following Bragg the rest of the way.
Except for the sound of flowing water, the scene is quiet. “It’s kind of relaxing to be here as long as nothing is going wrong,” she says. The abalone seem content, too, as they sit waiting for hand-delivered kelp.
Black abalone congregate in a cinder block inside the rescue facility. PHOTO: ERIN MALSBURY
Withering Population
California has several species of abalone—large marine snails. These grazers feed on kelp and algae, creating habitat for other species as they go.
For thousands of years, abalone played an important role in the heritage of several Indigenous coastal communities. Today, many people know them as a culinary delicacy and for their iridescent mother-of-pearl shells.
Most species live submerged in rocky cracks and crevices on the reef. Only one Californian species makes its home in the intertidal zone, or the space between high and low tides: black abalone. They spend some of their day completely underwater, and some of it totally exposed to air.
The critically endangered species used to exist from halfway down Baja up to Cape Mendocino, but over-harvesting depleted the populations in Southern California by 1980. A few years later, a disease swept through, killing most of the remaining animals in the south.
The sickness, called “withering syndrome,” prevents the abalone from digesting food. They become emaciated and eventually die.
The killer bacteria crept up the coast—likely in the warm water of El Niño events—and killed population after population of abalone.
“The disease was incredibly virulent, rapid and unrelenting,” says Peter Raimondi, a marine ecologist and evolutionary biologist at UCSC. Raimondi is heavily involved with abalone restoration efforts and leads a large-scale, long-term intertidal monitoring program called MARINe (the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network).
Researchers with MARINe routinely collect information about the species between land and sea, taking note of their numbers, sizes and health. In the ’90s, scientists noticed withering syndrome approaching the base of Monterey County.
It doesn’t seem to have moved much since then. But the remaining healthy black abalone—most of which live in Big Sur—now face a new threat.
Murky Future
Wildfires burned right to the water in parts of the Central Coast last summer, and scientists began to worry that winter rains could wash fire debris and loose earth into the ocean, burying vital habitat.
“We looked at where those fires were located, and they aligned with where 75% of the remaining healthy black abalone populations are,” says Bragg, who leads field efforts for the project.
Bragg joined a group of scientists from UCSC, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the National Marine Fisheries Service and other institutions to create a rescue plan for the worst-case scenario.
The team compared USGS debris flow maps to watershed maps to see where debris might end up. They located access points and began surveying the black abalone and habitat where they could.
Starting in October, they took photos and GPS points, recorded numbers and sizes of abalone, and measured sediment levels. Getting a sense for the population and habitat would help them figure out losses in case disaster struck. And it did.
“We were still working on that effort when the debris flows hit,” says Bragg.
In late January, heavy storms and strong winds battered the Big Sur coast. More than 10 inches of rain soaked the burned areas within a few days. The subsequent landslides dramatically changed parts of the cliffy coast. The researchers’ worries had come true.
The team waited for low enough tides and drove to Big Sur access points. They scrambled down steep trails, carrying equipment for rescuing and transporting the abalone, unsure what they would find.
“Before we even walked on to the beach, in some locations, you could smell the smell of death—that things were rotting down there,” says Bragg.
What they saw shocked them. Some areas looked so different that the scientists had trouble orienting themselves.
“It was so much worse than anyone thought,” says Raimondi. “It was catastrophic in places.”
Sand and sediment completely covered previously rocky shorelines. Tree trunks and car-sized boulders had come crashing down the slopes, crushing everything in their paths.
The debris flows were “not just a river or a creek carrying water with some sticks in it. This is sort of like a wall of cement,” says Steve Lonhart, a research ecologist for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary who has worked on black abalone restoration efforts for over a decade.
The scientists estimate that along the Big Sur coast, tens of thousands of black abalone died. Since around 75% of the remaining populations are in that area, “you’re looking at pretty catastrophic losses for the species,” says Bragg.
Many of the surviving snails had injuries and sandblasted or broken shells from the violent event. Researchers found some of the animals stranded on rocks or patches of sand. Others were completely buried.
“It was pretty shocking to see all of the evidence of how traumatic it was,” says Bragg.
The team jumped into rescue mode, taking extreme care to remove the black abalone. The animals don’t have a clotting factor in their blood, so if they receive a bad cut, they bleed out.
But if left behind, the abalone would likely die. “It’s not risky when you remove animals that are going to die anyway,” says Raimondi. “We think of these as the living dead, meaning they would have been dead.”
Research Specialist Christy Bell of the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network passes a rescued black abalone to Wendy Bragg (crouching). The abalone will be transported to a facility where it can be cared for until it can be returned to a safe location in the wild. PHOTO: STEVE LONHART
Rescue and Release
The researchers rescued around 200 black abalone over several trips to the field. They transported the animals to a holding facility and started planning when and where to rerelease them.
The group keeps the location of the rescues, releases and holding center secret, as poaching still threatens both wild and captive abalone, says Susan Wang, the black abalone recovery coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
She recalls a case where poachers stole green abalone from a public aquarium in Southern California.
“They were raising them to help restore green abalone populations along the coast. And they had an incident where someone broke into their facility,” she says. “We just want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect them from potential poaching.”
Some 84% of the rescues have survived in their temporary home. The scientists are satisfied with the number, pointing out that several of the animals arrived injured.
“Where they were located, basically there was no way they were going to survive,” says Bragg. “So any gain is a gain. But having said that, we’ve had a really good success rate.”
Researchers weighed the animals as they arrived, collected genetic information and studied their fertility using ultrasounds.
“We’re trying to take this opportunity to grab as much data as we can, because no one has been able to collect abalone since they were listed [as endangered],” says Bragg. That happened over a decade ago.
The group worked for months before the start of the project to obtain permission from landowners and secure permits to handle the species.
Bragg wants to thank key funders and collaborators— which include the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, MARINe, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)—noting that, “this effort would be absolutely impossible without everybody having pulled together.”
“There’s very few people who have permission to even touch them, let alone to remove, bring them into a facility and then translocate them,” says Lonhart. “There’s a massive amount of regulatory paperwork and stuff that goes along with doing anything with any endangered species.”
The Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network’s Laura Anderson (left) and Wendy Bragg work to rescue buried black abalone. PHOTO: STEVE LONHART
Turning the Tide
After a few months of waiting for the debris to clear, the group decided on a new location for one group of abalone, drove down to Big Sur and made their first release. They put 10 black abalone into the intertidal zone and spent a few days monitoring them.
All of them survived.
In the next few months, the team will continue the releases and revisit old sites. Come fall and winter, they will watch the areas carefully for signs of additional threats.
Even without new fires, risks remain. In areas that experienced a complete burn, it could take a few years for the soil structure to recover. And because only one big storm came through the Central Coast, lots of debris still litters the burn scars.
“It’s very likely something like this will happen next year too,” says Raimondi. Buried habitat could become a recurring threat.
“There’s a lot of evidence that suggests these atmospheric river events—where you have a lot of water coming down in very short periods of time—is going to be more normal in our changing climate of the future,” says Lonhart.
But the scientists remain hopeful. “Seeing the resiliency of that intertidal habitat and of black abalone themselves—I think that that’s been pretty exciting,” says Lonhart.
The project might also inspire more active work in the recovery of the species.
“We’ve been of the mindset that if we leave them alone, then they will recover. And that is true for most things,” says Raimonid. “But now, there’s an impetus to start a different approach, which is more interventionist.”
In addition to the relocation efforts, the scientists have begun exploring the idea of breeding the animals in captivity.
“I think it’s really important what they’re doing,” says Kristin Aquilino, lead scientist for the White Abalone Captive Breeding Program at UC Davis. “It’s a lot easier to try to save a species before it’s really on the brink than it is to try to bring it back from the brink.”
Aquilino does not currently work with the black abalone restoration efforts, but her white abalone program might serve as a model in the future.
“We have this method to reproduce abalone in captivity where we put them in this love potion of hydrogen peroxide, and hopefully they give us whatever gametes they have,” she says. But black abalone prove harder to breed than any other Californian species.
Wang says the same, noting that she knows of only one documented success. But, “there hasn’t been as much work and focus on black abalone,” she says. “I think working together, we can really still be successful in recovering black abalone.”
Communicating the effects of climate change such as sea level rise can be a daunting task, especially when the change is gradual and the most severe impacts are still years away.
It may seem like the most effective way to convince community leaders and the public to take action is to time travel into the future and show the damages to come.
Now, researchers have worked together to provide the next best thing: using virtual reality to show the residents of coastal cities, including Santa Cruz, the fate of their home as a result of sea level rise.
The team—including researchers from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, the Lemann Center at Stanford, the Nature Conservancy, the city of Santa Cruz and Virtual Planet Technologies—explored virtual reality as a tool for communicating the challenges of sea level rise. They published their research on May 13 in the peer-reviewed journal Water.
“This is the first time that people can actually see and experience what the future of their communities could look like in a way that can help inform a conversation about the future,” says Juliano Calil, senior research fellow at Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ Center for the Blue Economy and lead researcher on the project.
Calil started off his career as an IT consultant. Eventually, he began to desire a more fulfilling career path that would benefit the planet. He quit his job to pursue a Ph.D. in ocean sciences at UCSC. While flying drones to study how king tides affect Santa Cruz for his research, he realized he could use the high-quality visuals from the drone to communicate sea level rise to the community.
“Through the Ph.D. program, I found the need for a different way to communicate some of the complex issues related to climate change,” he says.
His time as a Ph.D. student and passion for technology inspired him to start Virtual Planet Technologies. This climate communication startup, based in Santa Cruz, develops immersive and innovative ways to inspire people to have conversations about issues such as sea level rise. It also led to the creation of the Sea Level Rise Explorer Framework, a virtual reality experience of various coastal cities around the U.S., including Long Beach and Santa Cruz.
For the Santa Cruz project, Calil teamed up with Tiffany Wise-West. She is the program manager for the Resilient Coast Santa Cruz initiative, which focuses on ways to adapt the Santa Cruz coastline to address the impacts of climate change. In addition to its coastal management efforts, the initiative involves robust community engagement—and using virtual reality proved to be a powerful communication tool.
“It’s an immersive and tangible way to make concepts like climate change real for people,” Wise-West says.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF VIRTUAL PLANET
The Santa Cruz team organized more than 50 events that led to some 1,500 conversations with city residents and stakeholders. Through virtual reality headsets, participants became immersed in a hyper-realistic future Santa Cruz that has been affected by sea level rise.
The visuals were created using 360° aerial images of beaches and West Cliff Drive, layered with the projected shoreline changes for these areas. In addition to viewing the city’s potential future, participants learned about the problems sea level rise creates and potential solutions for addressing them. After the experience, they were asked to complete a brief exit survey to help researchers better understand the participants’ awareness of sea level rise and their preferences for various coastal management solutions.
“There was a huge difference between how people were talking about [sea level rise] and how engaged they were after seeing things in virtual reality,” says Calil.
The team also set up a virtual reality exhibit at the downtown branch of the Santa Cruz Public Library in November 2019. The exhibit reached about 250 people before the library closed three months later due to Covid-19.
According to librarian Bjorn Jones, the most exciting part for library staff was seeing the reaction participants had when they returned to the front desk and shared their experience.
“People were excited about trying the new technology and were quite surprised at the information they were receiving through the program,” he says.
Jones agrees that the exhibit had a powerful impact, and the data supports this. The first question on the exit survey, for example, asked participants to rate how their awareness of sea level rise has changed as a result of the experience, with four being the most significant change. Out of more than 160 exit surveys, the average change was 3.1.
Although the pandemic put a temporary halt on in-person outreach events, the team developed mobile phone and web-based applications to continue bringing the virtual reality experience to people.
Santa Cruz is already experiencing substantial damages from sea level rise. Parts of the scenic West Cliff drive, for instance, are rapidly eroding into the Pacific, and strong El Niño years can leave coastal roads under water for weeks.
If left unchecked, scientists predict that the effects of sea level rise on Santa Cruz will be extensive and costly—the city will need to replace its coastal armoring by 2060, for example, to hold back the sea and protect its $1 billion of at-risk property and infrastructure. Statewide, sea level rise and erosion could swallow 67% of California’s beaches.
Katherine O’Dea, executive director for the nonprofit Save Our Shores, says that taking action to adapt the shoreline and make it more resilient is essential for conserving California’s coast. Using virtual reality, she adds, is an effective way to promote this message.
“If you watch the experience and see what’s happening, particularly around Main Beach, it’s alarming,” says O’Dea. “It’s hard for people not to become aware, seeing it visually.”
Experience the Sea Level Rise Explorer and see how sea level rise will affect Santa Cruz at virtualplanet.tech/santa-cruz.
The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (METRO) Board of Directors at its May 21 virtual meeting unanimously approved a contract extension with CEO and General Manager Alex Clifford that will keep him at the head of the transportation agency through May 6, 2025.
The decision came despite calls from two unions representing various METRO employees—including bus operators—for the board to part ways with Clifford because of “serious concerns” about his behavior as CEO, according to an email sent to the board on May 20 obtained by this publication.
More than 80% of local Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation (SMART) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members said in a survey that they have “no confidence” in Clifford’s leadership, the email shows.
That vote reflects, the email states, Clifford’s unwillingness to work with the unions in various capacities. That includes failing to meet with union officers to ease tensions around Covid-19 safety precautions and possible layoffs, requiring that all METRO employees return to the office with “no flexibility for remote work whatsoever,” and entering into pricey arbitration with employees, according to documents attached to the email.
“We need someone that can respect our hard work, and sees our unions as allies rather than enemies,” the email states.
James Sandoval, who sent the email to the board on behalf of the two unions, declined to comment for this story.
The unions also called into question Clifford’s steadily rising salary since his hiring in 2014, including a “step increase” approved by the board on May 21 that moved his monthly pay to roughly $22,000—about $5,000 more than his starting salary seven years ago. The step increase was included in Clifford’s prior contract renewal, which was set to expire in 2022. So long as he did a “satisfactory” job, Clifford would receive an annual step increase to a higher salary.
Under the new contract—presented in excerpts to the public at the May 21 meeting—Clifford will now have to meet a set of “metrics” defined by the board in order to receive an annual 5% pay increase.
What those metrics will be are still to be determined, board chair Donna Lind said in an interview Monday. She said she expects the board will establish a committee at an upcoming meeting that will determine what metrics Clifford will have to meet to receive the pay increase and stick around as CEO/GM.
“[The board feels] he’s done a good job—a great job, really—but when there’s nothing really established, no goals that we can show the public he’s met, you can’t really say how he’s addressed several issues,” said Lind, also a Scotts Valley City Councilwoman.
It is not the first time that a union has raised concerns about Clifford’s salary. In 2017, SEIU Local 521 members protested a 10% salary increase saying that the agency was not in a financial position to give pay raises to its top brass after making a 12% cut in service just a year prior. Board members then also said the salary bump was not a pay raise, but rather a step increase included in Clifford’s contract.
The May 20 email, as union members argued back in 2017, states that there was no transparency with that step increase and that Clifford moved up two “steps” after deferring an increase the year prior. In addition, the email states, Clifford started a new step increase plan that would net him a 30% raise over five years.
But Lind said that Clifford’s leadership has helped the agency regain its fiscal footing after facing dire times before he arrived in 2014.
Under Clifford, Lind said, the agency helped pass Measure D in 2016, and has since replaced roughly 30 of the 63 buses that were breaking down. She also highlighted Clifford’s efforts in moving the agency’s fleet to more environmentally friendly buses, improving METRO’s marketing and starting new programs through various grants.
“He’s fiscally turned METRO around from approaching bankruptcy to being fiscally strong,” Lind said.
She also notes that METRO was the only transportation agency that did not receive any complaints or suggestions from Cal/OSHA when officials from that office reviewed their Covid-19 precautions. In addition, Clifford helped fend off layoffs during the pandemic despite a large drop in ridership because of social distancing restrictions, Lind said.
“That’s because of Alex’s leadership,” she said. “It’s because he went above and beyond with [Covid-19] precautions.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Open your mouth only if what you are going to say is more beautiful than silence,” declares an Arab proverb. That’s a high standard to aspire to. Even at our very best, when we’re soaring with articulate vitality, it’s hard to be more beautiful than silence for more than, say, 50% of the time. But here’s a nice surprise: You could exceed that benchmark during the next three weeks. You’re primed to be extra expressive and interesting. When you speak, you could be more beautiful than silence as much as 80% of the time.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Here’s the definition of an emotional support animal: “a companion animal that provides therapeutic benefit to a person with a mental or psychiatric disability.” I don’t mean to be flippant, but I think every one of us has at least one mental or psychiatric disability that would benefit from the company of an emotional support animal. If you were ever going to acquire such an ally, the coming weeks would be prime time to do so. I encourage you to also seek out other kinds of help and guidance and stimulation that you’d benefit from having. It’s the resource-gathering phase of your cycle. (P.S.: Cesar Chavez said: “You are never strong enough that you don’t need help.”)
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): A blogger named Valentine Cassius reports, “A tiny old woman came into the deli where I work and ordered a ‘wonderful turkey sandwich.’ When asked what she wanted on the sandwich other than turkey, she said, ‘All of your most wonderful toppings.’” Here’s my response to that: The tiny old woman’s approach usually isn’t very effective. It’s almost always preferable to be very specific in knowing what you want and asking for it. But given the current astrological omens, I’ll make an exception for you in the next three weeks. I think you should be like the tiny old woman: Ask life, fate, people, spirits and gods to bring you all of their most wonderful toppings.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): “I am tired of trying to hold things together that cannot be held,” testifies Cancerian novelist Erin Morgenstern. “Tired of trying to control what cannot be controlled.” Here’s good news for her and all Cancerians. You have cosmic permission to surrender—to no longer try to hold things together that can’t be held or try to control what can’t be controlled. Maybe in a few weeks you will have gained so much relaxed new wisdom that you’ll be inspired to make fresh attempts at holding together and controlling. But that’s not for you to worry and wonder about right now. Your assignment is to nurture your psychological and spiritual health by letting go.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Philosopher Georges Bataille wrote, “The lesson of Wuthering Heights, of Greek tragedy and, ultimately, of all religions, is that there is an instinctive tendency towards divine intoxication which the rational world of calculation cannot bear. This tendency is the opposite of Good. Good is based on common interest, which entails consideration of the future.” I’m going to dissent from Bataille’s view. I agree that we all have an instinctive longing for divine intoxication, but I believe that the rational world needs us to periodically fulfill our longing for divine intoxication. In fact, the rational world grows stale and begins to decay without these interludes. So the truth is that divine intoxication is crucial for the common good. I’m telling you this, Leo, because I think the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to claim a healthy dose of divine intoxication.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo actor Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982) won the most prestigious awards possible for her work in films, TV and theater: Oscars, Emmys and a Tony. She was intelligent, talented and beautiful. Life was a challenge when she was growing up, though. She testified, “I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me that wouldn’t shut up.” If you have a sleeping lion inside you, Virgo, I expect it to wake up soon. And if your inner lion is already wide awake and you have a decent relationship with it, I suspect it may soon begin to come into its fuller glory.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author Antonio Tabucchi described the frame of mind I recommend for you in the coming days. I hope you’ll be eager to embrace his far-reaching empathy. Like him, I trust you will expand your capacity to regard the whole world as your home. Here’s Tabucchi’s declaration: “Like a blazing comet, I’ve traversed infinite nights, interstellar spaces of the imagination, voluptuousness and fear. I’ve been a man, a woman, an old person, a little girl, I’ve been the crowds on the grand boulevards of the capital cities of the West, I’ve been the serene Buddha of the East. I’ve been the sun and the moon.”
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Author James Frey writes, “I used to think I was tough, but then I realized I wasn’t. I was fragile and I wore thick armor. And I hurt people so they couldn’t hurt me. And I thought that was what being tough was, but it isn’t.” I agree with Frey. The behavior he describes has nothing to do with being tough. So what does? That’s important for you to think about, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to be tough in the best senses of the word. Here are my definitions: Being tough means never letting people disrespect you or abuse you, even as you cultivate empathy for how wounded everyone is. Being tough means loving yourself with such unconditional grace that you never act unkind out of a neurotic need to over-defend yourself. Being tough means being a compassionate truth-teller.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Fragile intensity or intense fragility? Ferocious gentleness or gentle ferocity? Vulnerable strength or strong vulnerability? I suspect these will be some of the paradoxical themes with which you’ll be delicately wrestling in the coming days. Other possibilities: sensitive audacity or audacious sensitivity; fluidic fire or fiery fluidity; crazy wisdom or wise craziness; penetrating softness or soft penetration; shaky poise or poised shakiness. My advice is to regard rich complexities like these as blessings, not confusions or inconveniences.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Birds that live in cities have come up with an ingenious adaptation. They use humans’ abandoned cigarette butts to build their nests. Somehow they discovered that nicotine is an insecticide that dispels pests like fleas, lice and mites. Given your current astrological aspects, I’m guessing you could make metaphorically comparable adjustments in your own life. Are there ways you could use scraps and discards to your benefit?
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A blogger named Raven testifies, “My heart is a toddler throwing a tantrum in a store and my brain is the parent who continues to shop.” I’m pleased to inform you, Aquarius, that your heart will not act like that toddler in the coming weeks. In fact, I believe your heart will be like a sage elder with growing wisdom in the arts of intimacy and tenderness. In my vision of your life, your heart will guide you better than maybe it ever has. Now here’s a message to your brain: Listen to your heart!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Voyager 1 space probe, launched by NASA in 1977, is now more than 14 billion miles from Earth. In contrast, the farthest humans have ever penetrated into the ground is 7.62 miles. It’s the Kola Superdeep Borehole in northwest Russia. Metaphorically speaking, these facts provide an evocative metaphor for the following truth: Most humans feel more confident and expansive about exploring the outer world than their inner realms. But I hope that in the coming weeks you will buck that trend, as you break all previous records for curious and luxurious exploration into your deepest psychic depths.
Homework: What image or symbol represents the fulfillment of your noble desires? freewillastrology.com.
Yet another wonderful Rosé this way comes—and perfect timing as the weather leaves spring behind and inches into summer.
Grown, produced and bottled by Alfaro Family Vineyards, the 2020 Rosé of Pinot Noir is light and refreshing—and good value for $25 at the winery. Grapes are sourced entirely from Alfaro’s estate vineyard in Corralitos, with fruit whole-cluster pressed into a steel tank to undergo fermentation and then aged in neutral oak.
This delightful Rosé, with its bright acidity and subtle aromas of watermelon, strawberries and raspberries, pairs well with salmon, other seafood, and veggie skewers on the barbecue. I enjoyed it with some Camembert and Saint André cheese on plain crackers, which enables the wine to reveal all its nuances. Only 250 cases were made of this very drinkable Rosé. You deserve some!
Alfaro Family Vineyard and Winery, 420 Hames Road, Watsonville. 831-728-5172, alfarowine.com.
Twisted Roots Vineyard Music on the Patio
Twisted Roots in Carmel Valley is launching its Summer Music on the Patio series over Memorial Day weekend, May 28-31, running through Labor Day on Sept. 6. Visit twistedrootsvineyard.com/events for details and musical performers.
Taste of Terroir Dinner Series
A special farm-to-table dinner at Big Basin Vineyards, featuring their wines, will be prepared by Brad Briske of Home restaurant on June 27. Tickets are $145 (or $135 prior to June 1). This is the first of the Taste of Terroir dinner series. The others are July 24 at Wrights Station Vineyard, Aug. 29 at Lester Estate and Nov. 6 at Eden Estate. Visit scmwa.com/tasteofterroir for info.
Let There Be Gyro!
Let there be gyro—and spanakopita, dolmathes and baklava, and other delicious Greek food, including lamb gyro and beef gyro. It’s all coming to Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church in downtown Santa Cruz on Saturday, May 29. Food will be cooked and ready to go, so you can preorder online and simply pick it up. And why not get some Greek beer to go with your order? Visit the website at livelikeagreek.com.
Wylder Space in Felton offers a boutique dining experience in a setting that inspires the feeling of being in a best friend’s backyard.
Current hours are 3-7pm Wednesday-Thursday, 3-8pm Friday, 9am-8pm Saturday, and 9am-6pm Sunday. Owner Molly Bravo opened Wylder Space in July 2020 as a showcase for her catering business of the same name, and it soon morphed into a restaurant. She recently hired an executive chef, and their seasonally rotating menu features ingredients that are sourced entirely hyper-local. GT asked Bravo about her restaurant’s menu and their signature one-of-a-kind brunch phenomenon.
What is Wylder Space’s claim to fame?
MOLLY BRAVO: Our weekend brunches are definitely the most fun. We bring in live music and a DJ every Sunday and have free-flowing mimosas. The menu is small, seasonal, and everything is made from scratch. A couple of our most popular items are our classic eggs benedict with housemade hollandaise sauce served on local Kelly’s sourdough bread with thick-cut bacon and locally sourced chicken and duck eggs. We also do a really good crunchy cinnamon French toast with corn-flake crust, seasonal berries and fresh whipped cream. Our French press coffee is very popular, too. It really wakes you up. It’s small batch and hand-roasted, and it really is the best coffee you’ll ever taste, hands down.
What are a few highlights from the dinner menu?
We have a Wyld Pot, which is a poutine-style dish. It’s made with deep-fried Russet potatoes, a housemade Fogline Farm chicken gravy, and is topped with goat cheese crumbles and fresh herbs. That’s a real crowd-pleasing appetizer. One of our main entrées is a bavette steak served with parsnip puree, seasonal vegetables, and finished with housemade demi-glace. The steak is from the Markegard family and is grass fed. We pan sear it, and it tastes the way beef should taste: savory and flavorful. Another entrée we feature is a vegetable roulade wrapped in puff pastry that we make in house, which is very unique. It’s served with basil pesto and is awesome for our vegetarian guests. Even the meat eaters love it. My favorite dessert right now is our vegan panna cotta made with creamy coconut milk, agar agar, and topped with seasonal berries from Dirty Girl Farm and finished with fresh mint. It’s a very simple dish with super clean summer flavors.
General Manager Chris Sullivan emailed me with the long-awaited news that Mentone’s dining room will be reopening this weekend. Or maybe that should be “opening,” since last spring’s closure happened almost the instant David Kinch’s new Mediterranean eatery made its debut.
The quick pivot was to open carryout and al fresco seating options. “Little Beach got us through to where we are,” says Sullivan. Now, indoor dining at Mentone begins on May 28. “At that point we will be offering dining room seating only, Wednesday-Sunday, 5-9pm, with the bar open until 10pm on weekends.” And you’ll be happy to know reservations will also be available starting this weekend.
Mentone chef and founder Kinch, whose three-star Manresa in Los Gatos also just reopened for indoor dining, told me he’s “looking forward to spring and summer ingredients, everything that inspires us in our connection of California with the Riviera. Look for inspired takes on farinata, our salad Niçoise, ratatouille, pissaladiere, and lots of others.” Oh, and that incredible pizza itself! Do not miss the Pizza Quattro Formaggi. Utterly amazing.
Ser Tasting Room is offering special plates created by the incomparable Katherine Stern, whose new startup Midway has been pleasing crowds recently at various farmers markets. Stern’s open-air cuisine was the perfect midway point between her longtime gig as chef at La Posta and the next chapter in her career. Now she brings her cuisine on Thursdays, in one of those creative collaborations that popped up so brilliantly during the year of lockdown, with Nicole Walsh’s Ser Tasting Room.
Newly opened indoors for tastings, the Ser facility will host such Stern specialties as cheese and olive finger foods, curried red lentil soup, candy cap panna cotta, and various crostati from 3-7pm on Thursdays. Perfect fare to accompany Walsh’s line of ingenious wines—don’t miss her 2020 Dry Orange Muscat!
Ser Winery Tasting Room, 10 Parade St., Aptos Village. serwinery.com.
Hail to Hallcrest!
Hallcrest Vineyards released its first vintage 80 years ago in 1941, and now it is time to celebrate at the historic vineyard that launched the very idea of Santa Cruz mountains wines! The action up at the panoramic estate will continue throughout the summer, but it all starts this coming Memorial Day weekend. Two days of action 10am-6:30pm May 29-30 to include many groups performing live music, local foods and lots of luscious Hallcrest wines. Think of it as “a socially distanced, picnic-style, limited-capacity event.” Hallcrest Vineyards is located on the hillside overlooking town at 379 Felton Empire Road. For tickets ($89/$160) and more information, visit eventbrite.com.
Big Basin Vineyards’ new tasting room, with spacious outdoor patio seating, will be opening this summer at 525 Pacific Ave. in Santa Cruz. Founding winemaker Bradley Brown is looking forward to the expanded space, with indoor and outdoor tasting areas that will offer some fresh culinary ideas to pair with the winery’s bold varietals.
“We are still working on putting in place our various relationships with farmers and artisan providers of foods. We are seeking out locals and will be curating European culinary options partnering with a local chef,” says Brown, adding there will be more details closer to the opening, “probably sometime in July.” Following recent toe surgery, I pampered myself with a gorgeous pot of chicken soup from Gayle’s. Comforting and authentic, the beautiful broth was filled with luscious bits of chicken, carrots, celery, onions and noodles. Light yet rich. Just what the doctor ordered! $8.95/pint. You know where Gayle’s is: Bay and Capitola avenues in Capitola. gaylesbakery.com.
