Odie Leigh, known for her honest, raw and thoughtful musicianship, will be flying into the Felton Music Hall on Dec. 7 as part of her “Carrier Pigeon” tour.
Leigh began her career in music as a bet with her roommates. She’s come a long way in the last four years, from independent tracks on Tik Tok to releasing her debut album, Carrier Pigeon, in July.
Now on her third national tour, Leigh spent her early career as a photographer and filmmaker. She credits her first steps toward building a music career to the Covid pandemic, when she spent her downtime making music for herself and eventually sharing it as part of that bet which kick-started it all.
“I grew up singing in church choir and school choir but never really imagined myself as a musician. I just never really thought it was a possibility. It wasn’t until the pandemic, when I had a lot of time, that I started making songs for myself,” she says.
“At the time, I was living with these two rappers and DJs and they were doing this little game because there was nothing else to do, so we made this little bet to see who could go viral on TikTok first,” Leigh recalls. “I just posted this random song and it did well. Then another and it did even better, and then another that did even better—and now I am miraculously a musician.”
One of Leigh’s biggest influences as a “miraculous” pop/folk musician is Fiona Apple, whose conversational tone and blunt poetry she greatly admires and strives to build on through her creative process.
“I love Fiona Apple. She’s a huge influence on everything I’ve done. I remember being so blown away by her lyrics when I first heard her music. What I took away was her honesty, the conversational truths, and I took that with me through my music,” Leigh says.
Often after a triggering event we feel like we need to get our emotions out, and often we do not get them out in a healthy way. One of Leigh’s goals as a songwriter is to use music as a platform for sharing those “crazy emotions” as art without being destructive.
Songwriting “starts with an event or conversation that sparks a feeling that I need to get something out, before I’m self-destructive,” Leigh explains. “Music is a safe space for me where I can turn those crazy feelings into art rather than send a really long text.”
Leigh believes that every concert is an invitation for the audience to explore the joys of the human experience and come away from it having had a great time and feeling like they have the agency to be active in their own lives and embrace the joys of everyday life.
“I always hope I can help everyone have a good time and leave the show feeling more like themselves. My songs really romanticize the little things, and I want the audience to come away feeling like their life could be a movie,” Leigh says.
Odie Leigh plays at the Felton Music Hall, 6275 Hwy 9, on Dec. 7 at 8pm. Tickets are $22 at the door, or purchase online at feltonmusichall.com.
Blaming others for our problems is rarely helpful. If we expend emotional energy focusing on how people have offended and hurt us, we diminish our motivation to heal ourselves. We may also get distracted from changing the behavior that ushered us into the mess. So yes, it’s wise to accept responsibility for the part we have played in propagating predicaments. However, I believe it’s also counterproductive to be relentlessly serious about this or any other psychological principle. We all benefit from having mischievous fun as we rebel against tendencies we have to be dogmatic and fanatical. That’s why I am authorizing you to celebrate a good-humored Complaint Fest. For a limited time only, feel free to unleash fantasies in which you uninhibitedly and hilariously castigate everyone who has done you wrong.
TAURUS April 20-May 20
What you are experiencing may not be a major, earth-shaking rite of passage. But it’s sufficiently challenging and potentially rewarding to qualify as a pivotal breakthrough and turning point. And I’m pleased to say that any suffering you’re enduring will be constructive and educational. You may look back at this transition as a liberating initiation. You will feel deep gratification that you have clambered up to a higher level of mastery through the power of your intelligent love and feisty integrity.
GEMINI May 21-June 20
You are now about halfway between your last birthday and next birthday. In the prophecy industry, we call this your Unbirthday Season. It is usually a time when you receive an abundance of feedback—whether you want it or not. I encourage you to want it! Solicit it. Even pay for it. Not all of it will be true or useful, of course, but the part that is true and useful will be very much so. You could gather a wealth of information that will help you fine-tune your drive for success and joy in the months to come.
CANCER June 21-July 22
Legend tells us that the Buddha achieved enlightenment while meditating beneath the Bodhi Tree in Bihar, India. He was there for many weeks. At one point, a huge storm came and pelted the sacred spot with heavy rain. Just in time, the King of Serpents arrived, a giant cobra with a massive hood. He shielded the Buddha from the onslaught for the duration. Now I am predicting that you, too, will receive an unexpected form of protection and nurturing in the coming weeks. Be ready to open your mind about what help looks and feels like. It may not be entirely familiar.
LEO July 23-Aug. 22
In written form, the Japanese term oubaitori is comprised of four kanji, or characters. They denote four fruit trees that bloom in the spring: cherry, plum, peach and apricot. Each tree’s flowers blossom in their own sweet time, exactly when they are ready, neither early nor late. The poetic meaning of oubaitori is that we humans do the same: We grow and ripen at our own unique pace. That’s why it’s senseless to compare our rate of unfoldment to anyone else’s. We each have our own timing, our own rhythm. These ideas are especially apropos for you right now, Leo.
VIRGO Aug. 23-Sept. 22
I hope you will hunker down in your bunker. I hope you will junk all defunct versions of your spunky funkiness and seek out fresh forms of spunky funkiness. In other words, Virgo, I believe it’s crucial for you to get as relaxed and grounded as possible. You have a mandate to explore ultimate versions of stability and solidity. Shore up your foundations, please. Grow deeper roots. Dig down as deep as you can to strengthen and tone your relationship with the core of your being.
LIBRA Sept. 23-Oct. 22
Every one of us is a hypocrite at least some of the time. Now and then, we all ignore or outrightly violate our own high standards. We may even engage in behavior that we criticize in others. But here’s the good news for you, Libra. In the coming weeks and months, you may be as unhypocritical as you have ever been. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you are likely to be consistently faithful to your ideals. Your actual effects on people will closely match your intended effects. The American idiom is, “Do you practice what you preach?” I expect the answer to that question will be yes as it pertains to you.
SCORPIO Oct. 23-Nov. 21
Author George Orwell advised us that if we don’t analyze and understand the past, we are likely to repeat the mistakes of the past. Alas, few people take heed. Their knowledge of our collective history is meager, as is their grasp of recurring trends in their personal lives. But now here’s the good news, dear Scorpio: In the coming months, you will have exceptional power to avoid replicating past ignorance and errors—IF you meditate regularly on the lessons available through a close study of your life story.
SAGITTARIUS Nov. 22-Dec. 21
In his song “Voodoo Child,” Sagittarian musician Jimi Hendrix brags, “Well, I stand up next to a mountain / And I chop it down with the edge of my hand.” I encourage you to unleash fantasies like that in the coming days, Sagittarius. Can you shoot lightning bolts from your eyes? Sure you can. Can you change water into wine? Fly to the moon and back in a magic boat? Win the Nobel Prize for Being Yourself? In your imagination, yes you can. And these exercises will prime you for an array of more realistic escapades, like smashing a mental block, torching an outmoded fear, and demolishing an unnecessary inhibition or taboo. To supercharge your practical power, intensify your imagination’s audacity.
CAPRICORN Dec. 22-Jan. 19
The name of my column is “Free Will Astrology” because I aspire to nurture, inspire and liberate your free will. A key component in that effort is to help you build your skills as a critical thinker. That’s why I encourage you to question everything I tell you. Don’t just assume that my counsel is always right and true for you. Likewise, I hope you are discerning in your dealings with all teachers, experts and leaders—especially in the coming weeks and months. You are in a phase of your cycle when it’s even more crucial than usual to be a good-natured skeptic who poses exuberant, penetrating questions. To serve your soul’s health, refine your practice of the art of creative rebellion.
AQUARIUS Jan. 20-Feb. 18
Be like a beautifully made fountain that people love to visit, Aquarius. Not like a metaphorical geyser or stream or waterfall out in the natural world, but a three-tiered marble fountain. What does that entail? Here are hints. The water of the fountain cascades upward, but not too high or hard, and then it showers down gently into a pool. Its flow is steady and unflagging. Its sound is mellifluous and relaxing. The endless dance of the bubbles and currents is invigorating and calming, exuberant and rejuvenating. Be like a fountain.
PISCES Feb. 19-March 20
Around this time of year, persimmon trees in my neighborhood have shed their leaves but are teeming with dazzling orange fruits. Pomegranate trees are similar. Their leaves have fallen off but their red fruits are ready to eat. I love how these rebels offer their sweet, ripe gifts as our winter season approaches. They remind me of the current state of your destiny, Pisces. Your gorgeous fertility is waxing. The blessings you have to offer are at a peak. I invite you to be extra generous as you share your gifts with those who are worthy of them—and maybe even a few who aren’t entirely worthy.
Homework: What can you make or do in 2025 that you have never made or done before? Start dreaming. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
Infamous as much for his brilliant magazine illustrations and political caricatures as he was for his white beard, Gene Holtan segued into abstract painting during his final years. The results were stunning counterpoints of expressionist marks and squiggled lines that almost resolve into recognizable entities. Yet they don’t.
With a meandering palette of pinks and hunter greens, the Santa Cruz–based artist filled the surface with forms leaning against each other, as if trying to hold each other up, shambling shapes jostling for attention while suggesting an accidental perfection lying just behind. Whatever his imagination was aiming at, Holtan got gloriously sidetracked in the foreground of his picture plane.
A fabled letter-press printer, holding forth in the seclusion of the Green Gables Victorian on Beach Hill that he shared with his beloved partner, Elizabeth Sanchez, Holtan became over the years a close friend and mentor to fellow printer and broadside poet Gary Young.
Young recalls the loquacious Holtan as having taught him “more about being a poet than any of my poetry mentors ever did.” Cherishing the words, observations and ironies of his departed friend, Young has put together a stunning collection of poems around the second oldest human condition—loss.
American Analects, the title of Young’s latest suite of 60 poems, just launched from Persea Books/New York, is exactly the right size for a book that invites long, slow sips and plenty of time to savor the sensory bouquet. Beautifully printed, it allows each crisp rectangle of words a lavish surround of white space. As always with prose poetry by this prolific craftsman, each poem pretends to be simple. Direct. Effortless to read and understand. Until you read it again and watch more meanings emerge like stars in a twilight sky.
His delicious suites of words, some only two lines long, are mercurial. And deceptive. Just when we are lulled into the word-perfect rhythm of the piece, a sudden shiver occurs. Of what? Some surreality that becomes a portal, pointing to exactly what we did not expect. “The metaphor we create for our own survival is difficult to dismantle, but not impossible.” That’s very Gary Young. Offering the brusquely unexpected wrapped up in supple images of nature, or saucy sayings of his late departed friend.
The poems seem to describe a familiar world, and yet one in which we observers have been turned inside out. How can the unexpected sound so familiar?
We are seduced over and over again, until (the poet suggests) we get it. And when we do, we are invited to throw away the bread crumbs. Just step out onto whatever is behind it all. The last words of Gene Holtan were: Follow the instructions to the door. When you get to the door, throw the instructions away.
Ultimately, while romancing death, songbirds, disappointment and the mundane mystery at the edge of each day, these poems are about resilience. See what we can enjoy? they ask. See what we can endure? they suggest. We will come, and we will go, but “The rain and the moss never tire.”
Such a pleasure it is to savor Young’s poems that one scarcely minds not entirely knowing how they cast their spell. A literary magician, this man shows but never tells. American Analects (a gloss on the Analects of Confucius) will ensnare you. Painlessly it rewards the turning of each page. Come hear Gary Young read from his new book. Doors will open.
Feasting on the World: Paintings by Gene Holtan, Poems by Gary Young. Book launch andreading by Gary Young from 3 to 5pm on Dec. 8 at the MK Contemporary Art Gallery on Front Street. An accompanying exhibition of Holtan’s drawings pops up in the MAH’s Atrium from noon to 6pm on Dec. 6-8.
Progressive quartet The Pineapple Thief has been busy. The group from Southwest England released It Leads to This, its 15th studio album, in February. Led by guitarist and songwriter Bruce Soord, the band is currently on tour in the U.S., with a December date at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz; European and UK dates will follow well into 2025. Amid all that activity, The Pineapple Thief has found time to record and release a five-song EP, Last to Run.
In the earliest days of The Pineapple Thief, the group wasn’t a group at all. Instead it was the name used to describe the music made by Soord, as featured on Abducting the Unicorn, a 1999 debut album for which he wrote all the songs, played nearly all the instruments and sang all the vocal parts. With a style that has been likened to a mashup of Porcupine Tree and Radiohead, Soord crafted an engaging set of songs. He employed the same approach for 2002’s 137 and Variations on a Dream from 2003. But shortly after the latter’s release, he made the decision to put together an actual group, one that could play live.
Over the next decade-plus, The Pineapple Thief continued to create and release well-received albums that drew on the melodic side of progressive rock, with inventive and compelling arrangements. Songs often explored themes of isolation, conflict and a melancholy air. Soord continued to write alone, and the overall character of the group’s music reflected that.
Then 2014 brought major changes to The Pineapple Thief. Drummer Gavin Harrison joined the group. Harrison’s peerless prog pedigree already included tenure with two of prog’s biggest acts: Porcupine Tree and King Crimson. And while Harrison didn’t take a major writing role in either of those groups, he would collaborate extensively with Bruce Soord.
The change showed. “For 20 years, the way I wrote music was on my own,” Soord explains. But once he engaged Harrison as a songwriting partner, the entire dynamic shifted. “When he came on board, I would work on an idea, send it to Gavin, and he’d go, ‘Oh, I like this,’” Soord says. “He’d add some ideas, chop it around, send it back to me.” There was a leisurely flow to that process. “I’d get a part from Gavin, and I’d spend the next couple of days mulling it over until I was really happy with it, then I’d send it back.”
That approach—Soord writing lyrics and working with Harrison to craft melodies—served The Pineapple Thief well; the run of albums beginning with 2018’s Dissolution onward are considered some of the group’s best work. But as they approached the making of their latest full-length release, 2024’s It Leads to This, The Pineapple Thief changed their working methods yet again.
“There’s a track on the new album called ‘Rubicon,’” Soord explains. “Gavin said to me, ‘I’ve got this rhythm.’ It’s in a quite challenging time signature, a sort of 5/4 shuffle.” They played together, and the song grew out of that spontaneous jamming. “That kind of thing is very old-school,” Soord says. “It’s a sort of ’70s mentality to writing: Put a bunch of guys in a studio, and six weeks later an album comes out.”
That method stands in stark contrast to the unhurried approach to which Soord had become accustomed. “It’s very pressured,” he admits. “For days you’re at absolutely 100% concentration: ‘I’ve got to do this, and I’ve got to get it right.’” He’s very pleased with the results as showcased on It Leads to This, and fans and critics alike tend to agree. “But it’s intense when you’re not used to it!” he admits.
Soord is now completely sold on the idea, and says that the group will use a similar approach next time they’re making an album. “And we’ll do even more with the other guys in the band—John [Sykes, bass] and Steve [Kitch, keyboards]—to get it back to that romantic vision of what a band is supposed to be,” he promises. “When you’ve been together on the road like we are now, you become close. And that really helps create the songs. You get a lot when everybody can contribute; the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”
While the methods used to create, develop and complete their albums may have changed over the years, there’s a continuity running through the group’s work. Like many albums from The Pineapple Thief, It Leads to This is a concept album. “I think all of our albums are, loosely,” Soord says. “They’re all about where I am. Lyrically there’s a lot of you and I and us.”
It Leads to This focuses on what’s happening in the world, viewed from a personal perspective and with an eye toward how it impacts individuals and relationships. “An individual grows older, has children… your sense of mortality becomes more vivid,” Soord says. He believes that writing from a personal perspective in that manner results in themes that are universal and relatable, qualities that are found throughout the Pineapple Thief’s body of work. “Because we’re all in the same boat, really. And that’s what I aim to achieve.”
The Pineapple Thief and Randy McStine play at 7:30pm on Dec. 8 at the Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $27/adv, $32/door. catalystclub.com.
PULL QUOTE: In the earliest days of The Pineapple Thief, the group wasn’t a group at all. Instead it was the name used to describe the music made by Soord, as featured on Abducting the Unicorn, a 1999 debut album for which he wrote all the songs, played nearly all the instruments and sang all the vocal parts.
Back in early August, winemakers John Locke and Alex Krause of Birichino were gearing up to start picking grapes, feeling very optimistic about the upcoming harvest. With fairly mild temperatures and plenty of spring rain, it was shaping up to be an easy crush with great quality fruit and a leisurely picking schedule. Then the heat waves started rolling in.
“The start of harvest was brutal, three night picks in a row, back to back, just because it absolutely had to happen,” Krause recalls.
“Everything just got smashed together,” Locke confirms. “That’s not the type of vintage we like, both the style of the wine it makes, and just [picking] one vineyard after another, just finding a place in the winery to put some friggin’ grapes. … It’s not ideal—for people, for wine, for plants, for anything.”
Now, as the rains return and the last of the vintage is barreled down to rest for the winter, local winemakers and vineyard managers reflect on another typical atypical harvest in California, and speculate on the impacts of climate change on the industry, the people who work in it, and the wines themselves.
HARD DAY’S NIGHT During night harvest, Ramon Moreno checks the bins at Saveria Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Photo: Prudy Foxx
Weather and Wine
Wine quality is determined in large part by the weather, and climatic conditions affect every aspect of how grapes are grown, harvested and fermented. The wine philosophy of terroir flows from the idea that it is the interaction of the weather, the vines, the soil and the myriad organisms living in the vineyard that combine to produce the character of each vintage, the “taste of place.”
Changing climate and more frequent extreme weather events will undoubtedly affect the taste of the wines we produce and necessitate adaptations in every facet of the industry. But these growing pains might also be an opportunity for consumers to gain a better understanding of how our food is grown and how interconnected we are with our environment.
California encompasses a wide range of meso- and microclimates, but on average in the last two rainy seasons the state finally saw ample precipitation after a prolonged drought as the result of the El Niño climate pattern, which brought massive storms that caused major flooding and landslides. Despite the damage, grape growers were encouraged by the free water and the long, cool spring.
The alarm bells started ringing as temperatures increased through June, leading to the hottest summer in California in 130 years, according to NOAA. More than the increase in average temperatures, it’s the increasing frequency of extreme heat events that threaten vineyards. Inland wine regions like Napa experienced startling heat waves in July that had winemakers biting their nails, but August cooled down enough to allow for the gradual maturation of the crop.
Meanwhile, Santa Cruz saw mild temperatures for most of the summer. “It’s because of the beautiful, giant bathtub that is the Monterey Bay,” says Prudy Foxx, local vine expert and founder of Foxx Viticulture. “It really helps moderate our experience of those extreme heat events.”
But the marine influence only extends so far, and even Santa Cruz is not immune to temperature extremes. The heat finally broke through in September, peaking in the first week of October, and winemakers were forced to compress their picking schedule and left scrambling to find space to ferment it all.
“It basically accelerated our whole season,” Foxx says. “Suddenly everything that was ripening gradually, really nicely, easy to plan for, became an emergency.”
Megan Bell of Margins Wine has thought a lot about how to adapt her business to the chaos and unpredictability of climate change.
“There were always outlier harvests, of course, but I think in general there was a flow of harvest that was predictable-ish every year, where I generally know how this is going to go, and I have enough equipment on hand to handle it, and now it’s not like that.”
Besides potential impacts on the quality of the fruit, heat waves can affect planning and scheduling, hiring and training of seasonal workers, and the logistics of wine production, so one of Bell’s strategies is to pick as early as possible.
Winemakers are very particular about the timing of the pick, sampling and tasting frequently as the grapes ripen to assess the development of sugars, acids, tannins, and other flavor and aromatic compounds, trying to divine the perfect moment to harvest and begin the fermentation process. But heat spikes tend to ripen the fruit very quickly, which can cause imbalances in berry chemistry, high sugar content, desiccation, sunburn and a host of other issues.
“This year is a prime example where you’ve got perfect fruit development all summer long without any real heat extremes, so that the skins have developed this really supple elasticity, but they were unprepared,” Foxx says. “If the fruit is exposed to those brutal rays, it’s like a Midwesterner in Hawaii for the first time.”
WINE FUTURES Winemaker Megan Bell inspects developing clusters at Makjavich Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains. Photo: Emma Kruch/Emma K Creative
Harvest Time
In September, as the fruit began to pour in, winemakers let out a collective sigh—it was good. “The yields were crushingly low for some, the lowest we’ve ever seen,” Krause says, “but the quality is great.”
“It’s a really good year for red grapes,” Locke says. “I think the whites are a little heavy. … A lot of the things we get are in places that are hot, and they’re all adapted [to that climate]. Contra Costa—the old-vine cinsault looked great at harvest … the carignane out in Lodi looked like it was friggin’ just born out of a Botticelli clamshell opening up.”
Bell managed to pick all but one of the vineyards she works with before the last heat wave hit: Santa Cruz Mountains cabernet franc and merlot, two heavier red varietals that were taking their time to ripen. Letting it hang through a nine-day heat wave was risky, but the sugar content was still way lower than she wanted, and she waited until the last day of the heat wave to pick it.
“That was a really hard decision,” she says. “The risk isn’t letting it get too ripe; the risk is the part of the berry that’s connected to the stem becoming disconnected due to intense and quick dehydration, and once that connection’s gone, it’s gone. So it might basically desiccate from heat without gaining any sugar.”
When heat threatens the crop, it is the harvest workers who suffer. Picking crews routinely start work between 3 to 5am to beat the heat and preserve the chemistry of the fruit, hustling under mobile LEDs to reap each succulent cluster. Cellar workers often pull marathon shifts day in and day out to manage the delicate alchemy of fermentation. And when the pressure is on, the work only gets more intense.
As in all agriculture in California, these skilled laborers are largely undocumented immigrants from Latin America who often perform dangerous and backbreaking seasonal work in brutal conditions with little protection or support, all for wages that many citizens would find insulting. This is one of the ways in which climate change disproportionately affects marginalized communities. We would do well to remember them every time we raise a glass.
Art of Winemaking
Wines are so diverse that it’s impossible to make generalizations about how they express their characters in different climates. That said, in cooler climates, grapes ripen more slowly, producing less sugar and preserving their acids better. These wines tend to be more tart, aromatic and lower in alcohol, while grapes from warmer climates tend to have more sugar and less acids, and are often characterized by bolder ripe fruit flavors, leaning into the tropical fruits as the temperature increases.
As the climate grows warmer, winemakers anticipate the character of their wines to shift in that direction, for better or worse. So what happens when the fruit comes in overripe, or low in acids or nutrients, or half shriveled up like raisins? Then it’s up to the winemaker to adapt, adjust—or go with the flow.
High sugar content means more food for the yeast, which means high alcohol content, and although winemakers are loath to admit it, sometimes all they can do is water it back to the desired levels and add tartaric acid and coloring to balance it out—a common practice in many fine wines, they hasten to add.
Fermentation management techniques also include the use of sulfur to control unwanted bacteria and yeast, inoculating with specialized lab-grown yeasts, controlling temperature and exposure to oxygen, and adding nutrients, tannins and a range of other compounds for fining, clarification and stabilization.
Other winemakers, like Bell, Krause and Locke, believe that minimal intervention in the winery lets the essence of the fruit come forward. “We really just have what nature made,” Bell says. “So it needs to be watched closer.”
“Our personal stylistic preference is to find vineyards and sites that express their character … at more modest degrees of ripeness,” Krause says, “but sometimes you get a year like this where it’s just not going to happen at 12% alcohol, or even 13, and there’s no sense in fighting that.”
“It just seems like those types of vintages are going to be more common, and I don’t know that we’ve quite gotten our hands around how we’re going to react to that,” Locke adds.
Challenges
Beyond warming average temperatures and more frequent heat waves, climatologists predict that California will experience more frequent and severe wildfires, storms, droughts and other climatic events, all of which will impact viticulture and enology.
FIRE SEASON Smoky skies over semillon in Napa Valley’s Yount Mills Vineyard during 2020. Photo: Alex Krause
Wildfires like the CZU Lightning Complex fires of 2020 are one of the biggest concerns, directly threatening vineyards and farm workers as well as spoiling the fruit. “Smoke taint” is a winemaker’s nightmare, a nasty residue left on grape skins that can mask the natural fruit flavors and even, in the worst-case scenario, come out tasting like an ashtray, a fate they’ll do anything to avoid.
“We didn’t pick things, we blended things, we made a lot of rosé,” Krause says of the 2020 vintage. “We didn’t have anything that tasted like mesquite barbecue, but we did have a mild cork taint, is how I would describe it—it just seemed like there was nothing like the aromatic expressiveness of the variety, it was just like anonymous red wine.”
Drought is another ongoing challenge. Ken Swegles, founder of Rhizos Viticulture and manager of about 50 vineyards in the area, says he irrigated everything he could this year, even dry-farmed and well-established old vineyards that have never needed water before, just to get them through the heat waves, but doing so is costly and creates problems of its own.
Swegles says he’s seeing increased pressure from animals like gophers, moles and nematodes in the vineyards he is irrigating. To combat them he’s started grafting vines onto a particular native rootstock that is deeper rooted, more drought-tolerant and less susceptible to these pests. He also incorporates raptor perches and bird boxes for western bluebirds to attract these obligate predators to help with pest management.
Increasing organic matter in the soil is great for the vines, but it also helps retain water, sequester carbon and increase beneficial soil microbes. To this end, Swegles tills as little as possible, builds compost on-site, and uses extensive cover-cropping, incorporating animals like ducks, geese and chickens wherever he can for free weeding.
“We’re trying to plant cover crops that are more native and drought tolerant,” he says. “Things that can last longer in the vineyard and provide organic matter, beneficial insect attraction, and microbial, mycorrhizal and arbuscular communication for longer.”
The vineyard is part of a complex ecological web, and as the balance shifts, farmers will have to challenge many preconceived notions in order to adapt.
Varietals
Thousands of wine grape varietals have been cultivated throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East over thousands of years, each adapted to the specific microclimate and soils in which it evolved. As Europeans colonized the world, they brought grapes with them, learning purely by trial and error which ones thrived and where.
Conquistador Hernán Cortés decreed that mission grapes be planted at every Spanish settlement in the New World to make the sacrament. Padre Junípero Serra planted the first cuttings in Alta California in 1769. After the Mexican-American war, wine varietals proliferated throughout the new US state, until the Phylloxera aphid blight decimated vineyards and Prohibition halted the fledgling industry.
After Prohibition, interest in and demand for wine skyrocketed again, and two UC Davis professors saw the promise of California as a world-class wine-growing region. Albert Winkler and Maynard Amerine created the Winkler Index, a system for categorizing wine-growing areas into five climatic regions based on a measure of heat accumulation throughout the growing season. They also analyzed thousands of grape samples from all over the state to recommend which varietals were best suited to each region.
Winkler and Amerine’s work has become gospel for the last 70 years. But most viticulture experts today agree that the Winkler Index has never been particularly accurate. Their methodology was too crude to explore the nuanced relationship between wine and climate, and with the climate becoming less predictable, the Index is looking less and less useful.
Thankfully, Beth Forrestel, assistant professor of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis, is in the process of developing a new Index to help growers decide what to plant in the era of climate change. She envisions it as more of an algorithm than a fixed chart, using more sophisticated technology and robust data sets to measure environmental parameters and quantify wine quality.
Demand
However, climate is not the only factor that winegrowers must take into account when deciding what to plant; they must also consider what sells. According to Swegles, consumer demand is just as much a driving force behind the choice of varietals.
America is a largely uninformed and unadventurous wine market dominated by a few well-known varietals. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s 2023 Grape Report, the state has an estimated 610,000 acres planted to wine grapes; cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay each account for about 15% by acre, and the top eight varietals combined account for about half of the total area.
Consumer tastes can be fickle, which Locke says can contribute to the “manic, cyclical, boom-and-bust nature of the industry.” For example, when the movie Sideways (2004) highlighted pinot noir as a delicate, temperamental, yet elegant varietal, it launched a craze that caused pinot acreage to increase by 50% over the next five years and double by the present. “Now there’s a glut, it’s overplanted,” Swegles says.
As a winemaker, one of Bell’s missions is to highlight lesser-known varietals that are “on the margins,” and she says that only planting well-known varietals is a limitation and a mistake.
“It makes us so much less resilient, because we don’t know all the challenges that are coming as a result of chaos in our climate,” Bell says. “We have pinot noir and chardonnay instead of the dozens, hundreds, of other cold-climate varietals that are delicious and definitely should have and could have been planted here.”
Locke and Krause say they’ve been seeing their grenache, mourvèdre, carignane and cinsault thriving in these conditions, all warm-climate reds from the south of France, Spain and Italy.
There is at least a small segment of consumers who are branching out beyond the “Big Six” varietals and trying new things. “I think it is changing a bit,” Swegles says, “I think the next generation is expanding and broadening their horizons—they’re trying natural wines, getting turned onto new varietals that they’ve never heard of—which is cool, but unfortunately, it’s a very small percentage of the population.”
Industry in Turmoil
Global demand for wine has been declining for years, sending the California wine industry into turmoil.
Grapes are the second biggest agricultural commodity in California, behind only milk and dairy products. The wine industry generated $73 billion in economic activity in the state alone and $170.5 billion in the US economy as a whole in 2022 (Wine Institute). But despite all this activity, growers and winemakers are increasingly panicking that the bubble is about to burst, driven by lower spending on luxury goods and moderation in alcohol consumption.
Lower demand means a decline in production, and many growers this year struggled to find winemakers to buy their grapes and were forced to slash their prices. Swegles says this was the first year that he couldn’t quite sell all his clients’ fruit. “I know people who left over ten tons hanging in their vineyard. Couldn’t even give it away.”
Add these pressures to the rising cost of labor and falling yields, and it’s getting harder and harder to make ends meet, especially for small organic farms. “It’s led some of our friends to just retire or abandon their vineyards,” Swegles says.
On the bright side, Swegles sees an opportunity in the growing market for natural wine. “Luckily for us, we are selling out most of our inventory, but it’s just because we’re doing all organic farming, low-alcohol wines, interesting varietals, and trying to fill that niche in the market that has less supply and therefore more demand.”
And as the wine industry adapts to the changing climate, Foxx sees an even bigger opportunity: for the concept of terroir to act as a gateway to environmental consciousness.
As wine lovers discover the real story of how the vineyard’s response to its climate, soils and living community contributes to the unique expression of the place and vintage, Foxx hopes they may gain a better understanding of our interdependence with nature.
“The really cool thing about it is, it also translates into other food,” Foxx says. “I mean when you really start to respect the contribution of the vineyard to the wine, you start to realize that all food that is produced has that contribution to what you’re eating … I think it helps us all have more respect on a deeper level for how all things grow.”
OLD VINES Dry-farmed mourvèdre planted in 1922 still endure at Enz Vineyards, in the Gabilan Range near Hollister. PHOTO: Alex Krause
Biblical scholars debate over the locale of the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:10–14 lists four rivers in association with Eden, and scholars only guess where it might have been. It turns out that the Garden of Eden is near the town of Felton in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.
This swimming hole is part of the San Lorenzo River that winds through the park. You can start from the Rincon Parking Lot on Highway 9 and walk about .5 mile to turn right down the steep path down to the pool. Or start from the Ox Trail parking lot further up Highway 9 toward Felton, from that direction and you’ll walk along the tracks for about a mile. Either way, your trip to the Garden of Eden will make you a cross-tie walker.
Got no sand in my pocket, you know I ain’t tied down Ain’t no sand in my pocket, never do sit down I’m just a cross-tie walker, where the freight trains run
—“Cross-Tie Walker,” Creedence Clearwater Revival
You’ve got your choices of what to walk on when following a railroad line. I wear a size 13 sneaker (Hokas!), and for me to walk on top of the steel track is no small feat. The steel rail is so narrow it’s hard to balance on. My legs wobble.
The warning signs are where you head down the mountain to the Garden of Eden swimming hole, but first you must walk along the railroad tracks.
Legendary Santa Cruz movement guru Laurie Broderick-Burr tells me to embrace my wobbles: “We acknowledge the choice to work with them rather than be afraid of them or battle them.”
Broderick-Burr says that learning to maintain balance means we must lose balance: “Balance can be defined as the capacity to maintain the line of gravity within the base of support. We could also think of balance as maintenance. It’s important for us to lose our balance to grow our balance skills. Neurons that fire together wire together.”
She says that we can bend the aging curve, but it takes embracing the wobbles.
So, I try to walk on the rails. I do more falling off than stepping forward and finally walk the cross-ties. My stride never fits the distance of the ties, and every third or fourth step I’ve got to step on the gravel between ties and my gait stumbles forward.
A mile of three long steps and one short throws me in a bit of a neurological seizure. I try walking the bed of crushed rock next to the rails, and for a while it is a relief to crunch over the gravel. Crunch stepping soon becomes annoying and I step off the gravel onto the dirt path. I’m a dirt kind of guy; it’s soft, it gives, it makes me feel connected to the earth. I can walk a long way on dirt with no pain.
The Big Trees and Pacific Train, run by Roaring Camp Railroads, can run daily during the summer, not so much in the winter. Walking the tracks from the Rincon parking lot, I was on a trestle when the train came by, but it moved slowly, and it was easy to get out of its way.
One of the most famous cross-tie walkers, Neal Cassady, was a brakeman, a Merry Prankster and the inspiration for Jack Kerouac’s stream-of-consciousness prose. A 16,000-word handwritten letter from Cassady about his sexploits is said to have given Kerouac his writing style.
Cassady never stopped walking, dancing, cavorting or running off into the wind. He loved to dance the mambo with locals in Santa Cruz and died in 1968 while walking along a railroad track in Mexico.
There are swimming holes up and down the San Lorenzo River, but I did not find a path down from the tracks that felt safe until I got to the warning signs above the Garden of Eden.
This is an amazing place to swim, refresh and restore in the San Lorenzo River. It’s got clear, blue-green water flowing over rocks, into swimming pools, by sandy beaches, all between steep, redwood-covered banks. Some people choose the clothing optional option, no fig leaf required.
If you go on the weekend in warm weather, it will be packed. Any other time, you may find yourself there alone. If it is crowded, you can walk upstream to find your own Eden-esque pool. It can be a pack-your-lunch kind of day, but no barbecue or fires.
In warm weather the Garden of Eden is about as cool as swimming in the redwoods gets. I’ve heard warnings not to head-first dive or to use the rope swing: There are rocks beneath the surface. Please check out where the rocks are before launching your body over the water.
Directions
There are two ways to get there by car.
The Ox Trail Method: From Santa Cruz, drive three miles up Highway 9, past the South Entrance to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, until you see the sign for the North Entrance to the park and a large dirt lot to your right with two green metal gates. A sign will say Ox Trail. If you reach Toll House Resort, you’ve gone too far.
Enter through the southernmost gate and follow a wide trail down the hill. At the fork, follow the path to the right and continue another quarter mile or so until you reach the railroad tracks. Turn right at the tracks and follow them for about a mile until you see a “No Campfire” and “No Alcoholic Beverages” sign on your left. Follow the steep trail down to the Garden of Eden swimming hole.
From the Rincon parking lot, take the short path down to the tracks shown here, and then turn left. Keep going for a half-mile until you see warning signs on the right. That’s the steep path down to the Garden of Eden.
The Rincon Way: Stop at the Rincon parking Lot, navigate down to the railroad tracks and turn left. This way is about a half of a mile of cross-tie walking. You will walk over a short trestle with No Trespassing signs, but the train that uses this track crawls along and since I was able to get out of the way, I’m pretty sure you can too. You can’t see the Garden of Eden from the railroad tracks but look for the famous warning signs at the head of the path down to the pool.
No-Car Directions
One UCSC student reports that he goes to the Garden of Eden on his mountain bike. He uses the Emma McCrary and U-con trails, or the UCSC fire roads, to get to the railroad tracks. If this sounds like you, remember to lock your bike to a tree at the head of the final path down to the swimming hole.
Published in cooperation between Sheinthecle and Good Times
Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. election will significantly impact key sectors through changes in economic policy, regulation and global trade. Here is an in-depth look at how major sectors may experience these shifts:
Financial and Cryptocurrency Markets
Trump’s presidency could drive major shifts in financial markets, especially benefiting cryptocurrency. His advocacy for digital assets—including a proposed national Bitcoin reserve—has energized the crypto sector. With potential pro-crypto regulators at the SEC, streamlined regulations may lower innovation barriers for crypto and fintech firms.
A U.S. pro-crypto stance could set a global example, encouraging widespread adoption of digital currencies across industries. Retail, real estate and gaming stand to benefit, with online casinos increasingly leveraging crypto for fast, secure transactions. For example, some of the casino sites recommended by Shein Thecle accept up to 150 cryptocurrencies, allowing players to spend as much as they like without the limitations of fiat currencies that many casinos impose. Overall, embracing cryptocurrency could foster efficient user experiences and support the broader adoption of digital currencies.
Energy Sector
Trump’s stance on energy policy will likely favor traditional fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas. He aims to roll back existing climate regulations, which could lift restrictions on drilling and mining and incentivize investments in oil and gas production. The plan to rescind funds from the Inflation Reduction Act could halt incentives for renewable energy initiatives, potentially stalling progress in solar and wind sectors. While this deregulatory approach may boost profits for fossil fuel companies, it could slow the transition to renewable energy, affecting environmental and sustainability goals.
Trade and Manufacturing
The Trump administration is expected to reintroduce a more protectionist trade policy, possibly reigniting trade tensions, particularly with China. A return to tariffs and increased trade restrictions could disrupt global supply chains, impacting costs for businesses that rely on imported materials or manufacturing. This could lead to higher prices for consumers and potential retaliatory tariffs from other nations, affecting export-driven sectors like agriculture and technology. While Trump’s trade approach might offer short-term gains for domestic manufacturers, the potential for trade disputes could harm long-term global economic relationships and stability.
Technology Sector
Deregulation under Trump may allow greater operational flexibility for tech companies by lowering regulatory constraints. However, a continuation of tariffs or restrictive trade policies on Chinese goods may disrupt supply chains for tech giants reliant on China for manufacturing. Such disruptions could impact product costs and innovation. Furthermore, Trump’s stance on data privacy and internet regulation may diverge from current trends toward stricter regulation in tech, leaving tech firms with fewer compliance burdens but posing data privacy concerns for consumers.
Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals
Trump’s return to office could revive efforts to dismantle or significantly alter the AffordableCare Act (ACA). If successful, changes in health coverage policies could impact millions of Americans, as well as hospitals and insurers, which might have to adjust to new patient pools and reimbursement structures. Pharmaceutical companies, however, may benefit from a more hands-off regulatory approach, potentially speeding up drug approvals and increasing profitability. Yet, healthcare costs and accessibility could become a growing concern for consumers if coverage protections under the ACA are reduced or repealed.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Sustainable Investing
Trump’s anti-regulatory agenda is likely to decrease emphasis on ESG investing by reversing green mandates and minimizing climate-focused policies. This would impact companies that prioritize environmental responsibility and may lead to shifts in the investment landscape, as companies with higher environmental footprints see fewer regulatory penalties. The potential rollback of green regulations could deter sustainable investment, affecting the growth of eco-friendly industries and possibly leading investors to favor traditional sectors like energy over renewable resources.
Broader Economic Outlook
Trump’s approach to fiscal policy is expected to include corporate and income tax cuts aimed at stimulating investment. While these tax cuts may encourage short-term economic growth, they also risk expanding the federal deficit, which could create financial instability in the longer term. Reduced tax revenue might limit government spending on infrastructure, education and healthcare, potentially widening income inequality. Additionally, deregulation across sectors may lower compliance costs, benefiting businesses, but could also increase environmental and financial risks if checks on corporate activities are weakened.
In summary, Trump’s presidency will likely result in substantial shifts across major sectors through deregulation, tax cuts and protectionist trade policies. While certain industries, particularly fossil fuels and financial services, stand to benefit from decreased regulatory burdens, the broader economic landscape may see increased volatility, environmental risks and shifts in global economic relationships.
In the vibrant tapestry of Santa Cruz County’s nonprofit community, Eat for the Earth—one of 63 organizations selected for the annual Santa Cruz Gives donation drive—stands out as an organization with a mission as bold as it is necessary: to transform the way we eat to protect the planet. This vibrant grassroots movement is not only addressing personal health but also tackling one of the most pressing issues of our time—climate change.
Reverend Beth Love, the executive director and driving force behind Eat for the Earth, is committed to advancing the practice of sustainable living. A longtime Santa Cruz resident, Love combines deep expertise in plant-based nutrition with a passion for environmental stewardship. Her leadership has helped establish Eat for the Earth as a necessary local resource, empowering individuals and organizations to make food choices that are healthier for both people and the planet.
Seed of an Idea
Love recalls the genesis of Eat for the Earth as a moment of clarity in 2019. “I realized how intertwined our eating habits are with the health of the environment,” she explains. She says the science is clear: Our food system, particularly industrial animal agriculture, is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and water pollution. The solution is equally clear: Shifting toward plant-based diets can significantly reduce our ecological footprint.
What started as a grassroots effort quickly grew into a movement. Love and colleague Dr. Maria Jose Hummel began hosting workshops, cooking demonstrations and community events aimed at educating people about the environmental benefits of plant-based eating. With the support of a group of volunteers and like-minded partners, they developed resources to help families, schools and workplaces transition toward more sustainable food practices.
Roots of the Problem
The organization recognizes that many barriers exist, from cultural habits to economic challenges, that make dietary change difficult. That’s why Eat for the Earth takes a holistic approach, offering not just education but also practical tools and ongoing support.
One of their flagship initiatives is helping businesses and institutions adopt plant-based options in their cafeterias and catering menus. “If we can influence the default food options in large settings, the ripple effect is enormous,” Love explains. These efforts are complemented by partnerships with local farms and food producers to promote access to fresh, plant-based ingredients.
DRIVING FORCE Reverend Beth Love (left) is the executive director of the nonprofit group. PHOTO: Eat for the Earth
In just a few years, Eat for the Earth has achieved impressive milestones. Their outreach programs have engaged thousands of local residents, and their advocacy has inspired several organizations to commit to sustainable food policies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they pivoted to offer virtual workshops and online resources, ensuring that their mission continued to grow even during challenging times.
Program coordinator Hummel has been an instrumental part of this work, after decades of seeing first hand how Latinos suffer disproportionately from chronic diseases related to nutrition.
Despite many social and environmental factors, Hummel says, “with education and motivation, people within marginalized and underserved communities can see amazing transformations in their health. I have seen dramatic improvements in health outcomes that are not commonly seen in clinical practice. This continues to inspire me.”
Hummel points out that the potential for decreased access to healthcare in the next few years renders this kind of work even more important.
Love is particularly proud of the connections they’ve fostered within the community. “This work is only possible because of the incredible support we’ve received—from volunteers, donors, and our partners. It’s truly a collective effort,” she says.
Looking to the Future
As Eat for the Earth organizers look ahead, their vision is both ambitious and inspiring. Love envisions a future where plant-based eating is the norm rather than the exception. “We want to create a culture where sustainable food choices are accessible, celebrated and supported by policies at every level,” she says.
Members of Eat for the Earth at the Santa Cruz County VegFest. PHOTO: Eat for the Earth
One of their long-term goals is to establish a dedicated education and resource center in Santa Cruz County—a space where people can learn about plant-based cooking, sustainable agriculture, and the intersection of food and climate. They also aim to expand their advocacy efforts, working with policymakers to encourage systemic changes that support plant-based diets.
Eat for the Earth thrives on community support, and there are many ways to get involved. Whether it’s volunteering at events or donating to sustain programs, every contribution makes a difference.
As Love puts it, “The future of our planet depends on the choices we make today. Together, we can create a world where everyone can thrive—starting with what’s on our plates.”
Giving Time
From now until the end of the year, readers of Good Times can open their hearts and their pocketbooks to donate to these groups and help fund projects in 2025. The program is funded by the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County, Community Foundation Santa Cruz County, Applewood Foundation, Joe Collins, Driscoll’s, Inc., Monterey Peninsula Foundation, 1440 Foundation, Santa Cruz County Bank, Wynn Capital Management, as well as the generosity of the readers of Good Times, Pajaronian and Press Banner.
This week, in addition to Eat for the Earth, we salute the work of these organizations dedicated to improving the health of local residents.
Dientes Community Dental Care offers free services and affordable sliding-scale fees to those in the community who need it most.
Hospice of Santa Cruz County works to ensure that patients receive end-of-life care that honors their goals, values and choices.
Jacob’s Heart offers Forever Loved Grief Retreats to bereaved families, creating an environment for them to explore, feel and release grief.
Monarch Services provides support to survivors and allies of youth who have experienced violence.
Motion Pacific offers free weekly classes for those diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte looks to go beyond reproductive health care to provide comprehensive sex education, youth development programs and community outreach.
Teen Kitchen Project seeks $25,000 to purchase a refrigerated van to serve an additional 100 clients weekly with medically tailored meal delivery.
To donate any time now through Dec. 31, visit SantaCruzGives.org.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) people across Santa Cruz County are concerned about how their rights will be impacted by the incoming Trump administration. High school, college students, educators and seasoned politicians said they were disappointed that so many people in the United States voted for the Republican presidential candidate. Many LGBTQ+ residents are fearful and still processing the election by avoiding the news, talking with people in their networks, and gathering with friends and family.
One 14-year-old high school student, who identifies as transgender, remarked that they were considering moving out of the country where they have relatives because they are not sure how safe they will feel in the coming year. They commented, “I’m just a 14-year-old, I don’t know all the laws we have in Santa Cruz or California that may protect me.”
Trans people are especially vulnerable, said queer transgender college graduate Levi Kriesa, 22, who recently completed a political science degree at UC Davis.
“We will continue to be another minority to blame for problems that aren’t the fault of trans people and at greatest risk for discrimination. I worry about how all of the people who supported Trump will feel empowered to do violence and there won’t be any repercussions for their actions.”
What will the future hold for the LGBTQ+ community? LGBTQ+ residents, politicians, educators and students in Santa Cruz County have suggestions about how to prepare for the second Trump presidency.
‘Don’t Grieve, Organize’
Senator John Laird, 74, was one of the first openly gay U.S. mayors when elected in Santa Cruz in 1983. He was a speaker at the Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil coordinated by the Santa Cruz Diversity Center on Nov. 20.
“Don’t grieve, organize,” he said there. “The fight for equality is never totally won,” he added. “I frequently tell the story that I had just become a teenager when the (1964) Civil Rights Bill was passed, and I thought oh, thank God we solved that. That’s what a 14-year-old would think.
“Every generation has new issues where they have to make sure that civil rights are understood and protected.”
Laird pointed out that “we locked marriage equality into the state constitution (via Proposition 3) in the election this month, which means we have protected Californians in marriage equality. Overall, we have to make sure we execute it here and make sure that California is a beacon for other states on what they can do to protect their own citizens. All people should deal with their fear by affirmatively organizing, and affirmatively reading, and affirmatively talking to their family, their teachers, their neighbors, and their friends.”
Supervisor-elect Monica Martinez, 42, the first openly lesbian official in that position, was disappointed that an overqualified female wasn’t elected president.
“However, my focus is to ensure that everybody feels safe to access services they are entitled to across Santa Cruz County,” she said. “That includes emergency, law enforcement, health and food services that everyone should feel welcomed and included no matter who they are regardless of their citizenship status, race or gender.”
‘Our Values Will Prevail’
Martinez was attending the California State Association of Counties last week in Los Angeles, where she said there were many conversations about how to respond to the Trump administration. “Everyone can agree that we don’t want funding pulled for our programs in California,” she said.
“I think it is important to think locally and remember that our values will prevail in the long run. Pay attention to what happens at the local and state level and most importantly, take care of yourself and your mental health, and check in with your family and friends. Overall we need to work together to support the existing organizations out there to support LGBTQ+ organizations, and remember that everybody is welcome in schools, healthcare, and neighborhoods.”
Similar thoughts were echoed by Rabbi Eli Cohen, 64, an out gay man who serves as spiritual leader of Chadeish Yameinu the Jewish Renewal of Santa Cruz. “Someone once said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. As a Jewish person, I can’t help but remember our history. Hitler stated his intentions in the book, Mein Kampf, and people didn’t pay attention. He was elected in a democratic election. In the U.S. in the 1950s there were Communist witch hunts and people lost their jobs because they were accused of being Communist, and the same thing happened to queer people.”
He added: “I think the most important thing to do is to get involved in liberal or progressive causes and do the work in our community. Already, there are a lot of interfaith discussions taking place and a number of our congregants are involved in organizations that provide legal assistance for undocumented people as well as helping with practical things like getting an apartment, purchasing food, and knowing about healthcare.”
‘Stay Educated’
Cabrillo College students Mars Redmon, 19, and Grayson Hutchinson, 19, are co-leaders of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at Cabrillo College. “For students who are working, then join a union and talk about why LGBTQ issues are important. At school, stay educated about the issues and keep up to date with the news and know your rights and especially your local rights and state rights,” said Redmon.
“We have been through this before when similar things happened around the Briggs Initiative in 1978 (that would have barred gay or lesbian teachers from teaching),” said Cabrillo College instructor and long-time LGBTQ+ activist Patrick Meyer, 64. “People need to know who we are and recognize the fact that we’re not the demons that they make us out to be. It is important to be out and be open.”
Cabrillo College Trustee Adam Spickler, 54, the first out trans man elected to a political office in California, provided other insights about what to do next: “We, in communities that it’s been made explicit we are going to be targets, we would be smart to treat this as a keep your friends close and keep your enemies closer. I hate framing this as an enemies situation, but it is a useful analogy. I need to understand what they are thinking. We all need to read a copy of Project 2025 and get aware of the specifics of what to potentially expect and then get in conversation with folks who can help us think of what are the ideas we need to be thinking of to get in front of what may be coming.”
Delfin Bautista, 43, is the director of the Lionel Cantu Queer Resource Center at UC Santa Cruz and identifies as queer, trans and Latina/Latinx. They are working with their team to “think through what are the potential impacts. There are a lot of unknowns. In addition to our LGBTQ+ folks, we are being mindful of people of color, undocumented people, immigration issues…we need an intersectional approach to whatever is to come. Our national organizations are in the process of putting out guides about how trans people can be prepared for the next presidency. We are compiling them and will be sharing them soon for our college as well as high school and middle school students. We will be making the resources accessible in many ways.”
Bautista offered some reminders to young people, “it is important for every young person to know they are not alone. Young folks, especially high school, middle school and college students should know the power that they have. For folks under the age of 18, they may not be able to vote, but that does not mean they can’t organize in other ways—that doesn’t mean that can’t spark change in social media, and if we look at a lot of the different hashtag movements over the last few years, a lot of them are from high school students who are claiming their voice, claiming their power and making change.”
Look for Allies
“There is a lot of fear and sadness among many young queer people,” said Meggie Pina, 39, who identifies as a queer bisexual woman and is the senior manager of Wellbeing Programs at the Santa Cruz Diversity Center.
However, Pina also believes there is an opportunity for community right now. “It is important for everyone to think about how they can contribute to the well-being of their community,” she said. “There is an opportunity for people to do that here at the Diversity Center. Wherever people are feeling fear, there is an opportunity to reach out to contribute to the well-being of their community, whether at Barrios Unidos or in businesses or in schools. Focus on the opportunities to volunteer and be part of our community and focus on that.”
Pina suggested that students in schools should look for their allies, get connected to student groups at the Diversity Center, or check out the GSA or QSA on their campus. “It is important for students to educate themselves about their rights. Once you know what your rights are, it actually gives you more confidence to advocate for yourself.
“Students have a right to not experience any form of discrimination at school and if they are experiencing that, they have a right to complain about that and they really need to make their voices known,” she said.
An important resource for students is the website titled “My School My Rights” developed by the ACLU which provides factual information about the rights of California students.
Rabbi Eli talked about the importance of remembering that “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” That quote was originally spoken in 1852 by Wendell Phillips, an abolitionist, speaking to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.
Pina sums up the next steps like this: “There is a need for people to get off of their phones and off of their screens and get into their communities. It is important to focus on that.”
Senator Laird, upon hearing about young people’s response to the election remarked, “That 14-year-old who is thinking about moving out of the country will at some point be a 70-year-old, and they will look back on this and think, well, that was rough, but we made it.”
The City of Capitola is considering replacing the heavily traveled Stockton Avenue Bridge that spans Soquel Creek in the heart of the village.
Constructed in 1934, the beam bridge with three openings and two support piers is prone to trap large woody debris during heavy rainfall, which historically causes flooding by blocking the bridge.
Public Works Director Jessica Kahn said that unlike the upstream bridges at Soquel Drive and Highway 1, the Stockton Bridge has smaller spans, increasing the risk of debris accumulation and flooding.
Due to its vulnerability, it has now been identified as a critical at-risk facility in the city’s 2013 Local Hazard Mitigation Plan. In 2016, city officials completed a study to assess the potential impact of debris flow on the bridge during a catastrophic flooding event. The memorandum recommended the installation of debris fins to guide debris through the larger center span of the bridge.
The Department of Water Resources has allocated funding in the Budget Act of 2022 to the city to assist in financing the design, permitting and construction of debris diverters on the Stockton Avenue Bridge.
A chief goal, if the city decides to move ahead with a replacement, is to develop a bridge that does not rely on piers that stand in the creek.
Published in cooperation between Sheinthecle and Good Times
Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 U.S. election will significantly impact key sectors through changes in economic policy, regulation and global trade. Here is an in-depth look at how major sectors may experience these shifts:
Financial and Cryptocurrency Markets
Trump’s presidency could drive major shifts in financial markets, especially benefiting cryptocurrency. His advocacy for...
