Page 444 – Good Times

A Visit to the Farmers’ Market Lifts the Spirits on Winter Days

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February 16, 2021

A Visit to the Farmers’ Market Lifts the Spirits on Winter Days

On a crisp February day, our farmers’ markets still bustle and crackle with good vibes and an abundance of seasonal harvests.

Granted it’s not May, but it will be soon. Meanwhile, I can see my neighbors over the long tables of citrus and pomegranates. Lots of green things, kale, brussels sprouts, spinach, and root crops flourish right now. Think beets and carrots and potatoes.

Chicories from Blue Heron and fennel from Live Earth. Mandarins from Dirty Girl. Blackberries, gorgeous crimson radishes. Colorful bags of shell beans from Pescadero’s Blue House Farm. Huge jars of organic olives from Good Faith Farm. And all manner of tangy prepared foods from preserves to chutneys. Come hungry, and you’ll find amazing items like chile rellenos and fresh-grilled naan, ready for you to grab and eat whilst strolling through the market.

The live music here goes a long way to lifting spirits tired of hunkering down. Great coffee and fresh pastries exert their siren song. We respond. I spotted a table of fresh-made charcuterie and soups from Home, and was tempted by a huge jar of bolognese sauce from the hand of Brad Briske’s Home team. Companion Bakeshop loaves perfume the air, along with the endless quiches of Adorable French Bakery.

The farmers’ market feels safe and secure these days, with clearly marked lines, entrances and exits, and masks and social distancing requirements. There are so many fresh surprises, especially at the largest Downtown Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays. By now you have your own favorite reasons to go and find ingredients for your home cooking. Flowers will be there soon!

For a complete schedule of all our local markets, go to santacruzfarmersmarket.org.

More Pandemic Dining Pro-Tips

What we do to keep things both fresh and manageable at home is to hit the aforementioned farmers’ market for seasonal veggies, with an eye to creating a big pot of stew or soup. Stew is the perfect cold weather food—my go-to trio of recipes are sausage and bean stew, chile verde, and chicken and cannellini bean with kale. Fresh carrots and canned whole tomatoes go in everything!

We dine on stew along with salad of fresh greens from the market one night, then freeze enough for two more nights (in four containers). I mix it up by getting takeout entrees from our favorite restaurants a few nights a week, often adding one of our own salads. Once a week we’ll get a piece of fresh fish (wild when available) and build around that, usually with brown rice and broccolini. And we can always make a second meal out of our restaurant entrees, usually a composed salad that refreshes the entree in a way that goes beyond the concept of leftovers.

Looking Doon

Bonny Doon Vineyard founder and perpetual Rhône Ranger Randall Grahm emails to say that he’s getting doon and dirty over at his expansive San Juan Bautista vineyard with the semi-pronounceable name, Popelouchum. With 10 acres under cultivation, including Pinot Noir and three Grenache varietals, Grahm anticipates selling his estate wines next year! This is exciting news for all of us who have trekked through Grahm’s dreams and output for lo these past three decades.

Grahm, who says that he remains involved in the Bonny Doon Vineyard wines after last year’s sale to WarRoom Ventures LLC, is also ready to invite visitors to tour and visit Popelouchum, maybe this summer if the situation allows. I’ve walked this estate with Grahm and can tell you it is gorgeous as well as viticulturally exciting. Grahm has always been an experimental sorcerer of unusual grape varietals, and there is much to check out on this estate. Stay tuned!

This Year’s Dungeness Crab Fishery a Shell of its Former Self

Erin Malsbury

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February 15, 2021

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This Year’s Dungeness Crab Fishery a Shell of its Former Self

New regulations and price strikes delayed the start of the season. Now, Dungeness crab fishermen face the worst catch numbers in decades. As challenges mount, many of them worry about the future of their fishery.

After 71 whales became entangled in fishing gear in 2016, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The settlement resulted in the Risk Assessment Management Program, known as RAMP. Under these new regulations, CDFW monitors for humpback whales, blue whales and leatherback sea turtles and can delay or halt Dungeness crab commercial fishing if they determine that the risk of entanglement is high.

That happened twice at the beginning of this season. The presence of humpback whales kept the fishermen out of the water from the originally scheduled start date of Nov. 15 until Dec. 23.

Some fishermen, like Ben Platt, president of the California Coast Crab Association, worry that the new regulations will squeeze the season into a few months every year.

“It’s going to change this fishery, especially in Central California,” he says. This is concerning, he explains, because many fishermen rely heavily on Thanksgiving markets.

Half Moon Bay-based fisherman Tim Obert agrees. “The Thanksgiving market’s huge for us,” he says. “The RAMP has taken that out.”

Fishermen are also concerned that the later start dates make the job more dangerous for smaller boats. As winter storms bring larger swells, “guys start going a little extreme to get out there when it opens,” Obert says.

Watching recreational fishing continue as normal adds to the frustration. “It’s great that they have the opportunity, but their rope is no different than my rope. Their buoy is no different than my buoy,” Obert says.

Clawing Back

The number of whale sightings that trigger a closure depends on population numbers. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates that around 2,900 humpback whales live off the west coast for part of the year — around one-fifth of what the population used to be.

But some fishermen say the numbers are outdated. They want new estimates. “We’re hopeful that triggers for closures will change based on new stock assessments for humpback whales,” Platt says.

If that doesn’t work, the California Coast Crab Association might try filing a petition to delist the species from the Endangered Species Act. “Litigation should always be the last resort,” Platt says. “But we are definitely willing to litigate if that’s what it takes to protect this fishery.”

Platt and Obert say the new regulations are unnecessary and over the top. They cite better gear management and a whale entanglement working group that began making recommendations for best practices in 2015.

“It was kind of a slap in the face for us as fishermen,” Obert says. “We had just had a great season of not interacting with these whales.” In 2019, NOAA traced three humpback whale entanglements back to commercial Dungeness crab fishing in California. The agency could not identify the source of several other entanglements.

Despite the frustrations, the fishermen don’t blame CDFW. “I don’t really hold it against the department so much,” Obert says. “They had their arms tied from the lawsuit with CBD [the Center for Biological Diversity].”

The fishermen remained collaborative and cooperative throughout the closures, says Ryan Bartling, a CDFW senior environmental scientist.

“There are always differing views, but during the delays and the initial surveys that ultimately resulted in the delay, we were working with the [fishing] fleet,” he says. “I think we’re on the right path, and it’s just going to take everybody working together to solve this problem.”

Even though some fishermen want the RAMP regulations to change, they say that they still want to help protect endangered species.

“We started these jobs because we love the ocean. We love the wildlife,” Obert says. He feels that fishermen often get portrayed as “people out there just taking everything we can and making money.”

But many fishermen see the occupation as a way of life rather than a job. “I always thought that I’m never going to get rich, but I’ll have a good life,” Obert says. “It’s a tough pill to swallow, to see things start crumbling to the point where you don’t know if it’s going to be able to come back.”

In a Pinch

After the two delays, the fishermen entered price negotiations with major buyers. When most of them finally made it out on the water in early January, a new challenge arose: The crabs seemed to have disappeared.

“This crab season in terms of catch is the worst one I’ve seen personally since 1999 in California,” Platt says.

Obert experienced the same. “I’ve never seen it worse than this my whole life,” he says.

Platt, who began fishing at nine years old and has owned boats for 25 years, doesn’t feel alarmed. “Most of us that have been around for a while just think were in a down-cycle year,” he says. But while populations vary naturally depending on ocean conditions, climate change and ocean acidification could make it harder for eggs and larvae to survive and weaken the stock’s ability to rebound.

Platt remains hopeful. “I’ve been hearing that it’s the end of days for commercial fishing since I was nine years old,” he says.

But he acknowledges that things are changing.

“More and more every year, we have to fight just to be able to do it,” he says. Amid new regulations and an ever-changing ocean, “we’ll have to stay engaged in this process until we hang up our boots.”

California Economy Czar Dee Dee Myers on Vaccines, Reopening

Lauren Hepler

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February 15, 2021

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California Economy Czar Dee Dee Myers on Vaccines, Reopening

Mass confusion about vaccines. Enough small business owners scrambling for state cash to crash a website. Contentious battles over COVID-19 reopening rules and getting kids back into classrooms.

All in a day’s work for Dee Dee Myers.

As 2020 came to a chaotic close, the former Warner Bros. communications executive and the country’s first female White House press secretary took over California’s faltering economic response to the pandemic. Myers joined as a senior adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development after predecessor Lenny Mendonca resigned, a high-profile recovery task force dissolved and Newsom tried to regain credibility after attending a lobbyist’s birthday party at the French Laundry.

In an interview edited for length and clarity, Myers spoke with CalMatters this week about navigating reopening conflicts, the state’s evolving COVID-19 recovery plan and why she doesn’t fear Elon Musk’s move to Texas.

Q: You started this role leading the state’s business and economic development efforts in December, right as new stay-at-home orders went into effect and the virus surged again. How did you come in and start to prioritize relief efforts in that environment?

A: I started on Dec. 15, so I did walk into a difficult situation that was yet more difficult. There was already work ongoing. The governor and the Legislature had announced at the end of November that they were going to stand up this $500 million small business grant program. It opened on Dec. 30.

At the same time, the governor and team were working on his budget, which also prioritized economic recovery more broadly. That included another round of spending on small business grants, which we’re continuing to discuss with the Legislature. It included other incentives — tax incentives, regulatory relief, other things to continue to support small businesses.

And then there are other programs, too. You know, vaccine distribution is a business-important program, right? Investments in higher education. A lot of people in economically difficult times go back to school. Job training programs. And the Golden State Stimulus, which will put $600 into the hands of millions of Californians. So all of those programs working together. And by the way, adding another dimension: education. Reopening schools has also been a priority.

Q: The second round of applications for the state’s COVID-19 small business relief grant program closed this week, and we know there were more than 330,000 applicants in the first round. How intense was the demand this time, and how much concern is there about having enough money to go around?

A: Anyone who completed an application but didn’t get a grant in the first round was automatically rolled forward into the second round. We don’t know yet what the final number will be. Grants will start going out later this week, and that will continue to roll out.

There’s obviously substantially more need than there is money at this point. The two rounds together, round one and round two, will be roughly $500 million. The governor had proposed another $575 million. I think the Legislature and the governor working together will provide substantially more than that, and we’ll see where it all lands.

Q: When it comes to the state’s reopening rules, we’ve also seen several lawsuits from businesses like salons, gyms and breweries that say the rules are too arbitrary. Do you see a scenario where those industry-specific rules change as vaccines roll out, or what’s your response to those concerns?

A: Yes. There’s so many things that have made this challenging. It’s unprecedented, it continues to change. We haven’t been operating on a static playing field. It’s a three-dimensional kind of thing where the rules change on everybody every day. That said, we will definitely try to evolve our guidance as we go forward and as circumstances on the ground change, as more people get vaccinated, as we see what happens with infection rates and other metrics.

I think on the one hand, people feel relieved to see a substantial drop in infection rates. On the other hand, there are these variants out there that are big wild cards, so nobody wants to take their foot off the brakes of social distance, wear your mask, don’t mix, be smart. So that will continue, but I mean look, ideally we want to open the economy as quickly as it’s safe to do so. The state’s and the governor’s strategy has always been health first. Until you get the pandemic under control, you can’t fully open the economy.

At the same time, the idea has always been to open what you can as soon as it’s safe. As the metrics change and things become safer, we will continue to open more businesses, and you’ve seen the dialogue around schools. The final details of that need to be negotiated with the Legislature and teachers, but hopefully we’ll be able to move toward more reopening of schools, which will ease pressure on working parents.

Q: I did have a question about schools. I mean, you wrote the book on “Why Women Should Rule the World,” but with so many schools still closed, we’re hearing anecdotally about more women being forced out of the workforce. Are there any concrete ways the state can address or reverse that impact?

A: Yeah, it’s something we’re very concerned about. You saw last week as the federal government announced the new unemployment numbers, there was like a five-fold impact on women leaving the workforce or losing jobs. I think that’s why there are a lot of supports in the programs that we’ve already rolled out. The small business grants targeting women, reopening the schools to help parents.

One of the priority areas for the grant program is daycare. It’s very hard for parents that do want to go back to work to find daycare if they have younger kids who aren’t in school. I do think we’ll continue to discuss, as we come through this, how do we get people back to work, including women who have been disproportionately impacted and industries that have many women in them, like care work? How can we support their return to work in a safe and equitable way? There’s a lot to do going forward on that.

Q: On the issue of going back to work, you said when you started that “job one is distributing that vaccine.” The state has moved toward age-based vaccination after essential workers. So how are you communicating with businesses about when employees might be able to go back in person, versus this bigger issue of how much remote work might continue?

A: That’s going to be a sector-by-sector, business-by-business kind of decision. We’ve already seen just in the kind of anecdotal response that there’s a range. Some businesses are saying we can’t wait to get back to everybody being together. Others are saying it’s up to employees. Many are somewhere in between. That is definitely going to affect just the way work works going forward. I don’t think any of us know at this point how it’s going to look.

In the meantime, job one is to get everybody who wants a vaccine vaccinated. And to encourage everyone to want one — working with employers so that they will encourage their workers to get vaccinated, making sure they have time off if that’s what they need. There will be some on-site vaccinating. We’re still trying to figure that out. The bottleneck continues to be the supply of vaccine.

Employers will have to decide whether they want to require a vaccine for people going back to work. I don’t think that’s a state question. At least it’s not so far. It’s going to be interesting. It’s accelerated things that were happening in the economy by, like, five years.

Q: For people out of work, long unemployment delays continue to be a problem, and the state is just starting to confront $11 billion and counting in unemployment fraud. On the business side, we obviously have to think about the state unemployment fund paid for by employer taxes. Who is ultimately responsible for ensuring that workers are made whole and the state’s unemployment fund is sustainable?

A: You know, that’s not a conversation that I’m involved in right now, but I do think it’s one that’s important.

Q: Two other big labor shifts during the pandemic were the explosion of delivery services, then voters approving Prop 22 to revert on-demand workers to independent contractors. At this point, are you involved in conversations about potential federal changes on this issue, or what does the administration see as the path forward on gig work?

A: That’s an ongoing conversation, and it’s not one I’ve been super involved in in the midst of the pandemic. But what is a quality job? What kind of benefits should they attach to the job? Those are some of the longer-term questions that the state is grappling with. The governor stood up the Future of Work commission 18 months ago to grapple with some of that. There will be a report coming out relatively soon about that, and really trying to create a process.

You know, there are no short-term answers to this. There’s no silver bullet, and there are a lot of stakeholders: business, labor, consumers, employees. And there are many, many sectors it affects. Coming from Warner Bros., musicians were an interesting subset. I think that’s a longer-term conversation.

Q: The other thing we’re hearing a lot of are these really familiar frustrations with the state’s high costs and strict regulations, pushing some businesses and residents to look at moving out of state. Do you think talk of a California exodus is overblown, or are there ways that you’re currently working to head off that migration?

A: Yes and yes (laughs). I think it’s overblown. My husband is a journalist. I’ve said this a million times, but he always says in journalism three’s a trend. You get HPE, Elon (Musk) and Larry Ellison, and all of a sudden, everyone’s leaving California, but there still somehow manages to be almost 40 million people who are still here. But look, that said, they’re not the only ones.

The tax question is an interesting one. First of all, the governor has said he’s not gonna raise personal income taxes. There will be no wealth tax. No increase in corporate taxes this year. Off the table. That’s not something that has seemed to penetrate. The other thing is this idea that California taxes are so high. Well, the top marginal rate is high. But the actual tax burden for the average person is like 10th-lowest in the country.

I think we need to both address the things that make it difficult for businesses and remind people why certain things are the way they are. Business, I mean, they get it. They don’t need us to tell them about the advantage of being here. They wouldn’t be here. That’s not to say there aren’t other challenges. The cost of housing is high. We need to continue to address that. Transportation is something we all think about. Continuing to dig into those problems and try to figure out new solutions, creative solutions, is really important.

On bigger issues like housing construction and electric vehicle infrastructure, those are both included in the governor’s budget proposal for economic recovery. But some business owners I talk to say those aren’t things that will help businesses directly right now. How do you think about balancing the short-term needs during a crisis, versus these longer-term trends that are playing out?

You do absolutely have to do both. For the short-term, that’s why you see $4.5 billion in the governor’s budget for immediate relief. It’s really helpful that the federal government is also prioritizing that they also want to go to 100% clean energy. It’s like great, we’re in, let us show you some of the things that we’ve learned, and why don’t you invest some more of that money here?

In the short term, we have learned that there’s an additional $10 billion in surplus. Some of it’s earmarked for other things, but the rest of that money will go to helping in the immediate term to restart the economy and to get us through the pandemic. Longer term, there’s also things in the budget and in the governor’s plans, (including) $1.5 billion for zero-emissions vehicles, which creates jobs and creates opportunities but also meets our climate goals.

Communicating public health guidance that’s constantly changing isn’t easy, but the governor has developed a unique vernacular for doing it. Do you think California is meeting the moment in this respect, or are there ways the state could do this more effectively?

You can always improve, right? But I think on balance, California is doing better than maybe the public realizes. Not that there haven’t been some stumbles and missteps, but we’ve now distributed 5 million vaccines. That’s substantially more than any other state. That’s one good example of how I think the governor’s meeting the moment.

We’re in, I don’t know, the fifth inning of this? The sixth inning? At the end of the game, there will be a score. Judge us by that.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

County Health Director Urges Prioritization of Older Adults for Vaccines

Tony Nuñez

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February 12, 2021

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County Health Director Urges Prioritization of Older Adults for Vaccines

Less than four days before Santa Cruz County was set to inoculate 1,000 people in a mass Covid-19 vaccination clinic at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, county health officials canceled every appointment on the docket.

They did so because about two-thirds of those who had signed up to receive the shot had found out how to “game the system,” County Health Services Agency Director Mimi Hall said at Thursday’s press conference. More than half were under 65 years old. Others were from outside the county—Hall says line jumpers from as far as Los Angeles and Yolo County took vaccination slots away from the area’s older adults, the target demographic of the weekly fairgrounds clinic.

The county health department and the dozens of Watsonville community-based organizations that it has worked hand-in-hand with since the start of the pandemic scrambled to call back the 300 county residents that did qualify for Wednesday’s vaccination. They also managed to fill several slots in the hours leading up to the clinic.

In all, the county distributed about 500 doses of vaccine. The other 500 earmarked for the clinic, says Hall, were preserved for future distributions and not wasted.

“That’s not 500 doses wasted. It’s 500 doses saved for someone who truly needs it,” Hall said.

That incident was a microcosm of California’s hectic and ever-changing first two months of vaccine distribution. Since the state began administering the vaccine in December, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health have altered their vaccination plan multiple times, struggled to quickly distribute doses—the state was dead last in vaccination rates last month—and favored large health care providers such as Dignity Health and Sutter over county health departments in its dispersal of the vaccine.

As a result, Santa Cruz County has been overwhelmed at times while trying to follow Phase 1B of its vaccination plan. Chief of Public Health Jennifer Herrera said the county has been “building the [plane] as we fly.”

“That has been the story of this pandemic,” Herrera said.

Phase 1B prioritizes people over the age of 65, the demographic that is most at risk of falling seriously ill and overwhelming the health care system, Hall says.

All told, the county of roughly 270,000 residents is near the top of the state in doses administered per population and has inoculated about 23,000 residents as of Thursday. Still, there are hundreds of thousands of county residents awaiting their vaccine, including about 35,000 people over the age of 65.

It is not known when the county will be done vaccinating older adults—Deputy County Health Officer Dr. David Ghilarducci has said June, but County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel has said it will happen sooner—and Hall says they are in a “race against time” to vaccinate as many people in that population as possible before a predicted surge in cases next month.

Not helping the cause, Hall says, are incidents such as Wednesday’s mix-up and deals between employers and health care providers that are not prioritizing those 65 and older.

“Our call to action to everyone who is listening is if you’re an employer, if you’re an employee, if you’re part of a certain sector, please be patient,” she said. “If you somehow have the opportunity to get a vaccine and you don’t happen to be high-risk, and you’re not a health care worker and you’re not over 65, even though you have the opportunity to do it … think about it. Everyone who waits for their turn and saves the vaccine that we have right now for as many people over 65 as possible is going to be part of that collective effort to save more lives in our county.”

According to county data, 166 of the more than 14,000 county residents that have tested positive for Covid-19 have died. All but nine deaths were in people aged 60 and above, underscoring the risk older adults have faced over the past eight months.

OLD FASHIONED

The novel coronavirus has heavily impacted Watsonville, which has accounted for more than half of the county’s Covid-19 cases. As such, the county has prioritized its limited vaccine supply to older adults in its southernmost city. Along with its weekly vaccine clinic at the fairgrounds, a vaccination center funded by the state and run by OptumServe at the old Watsonville City Hall, 250 Main St., is administering 210 doses a day Thursday through Monday.

Those eligible include people in Phase 1A, all county residents aged 75 and older and residents 65 and older from the 95019, 95076 and 95077 zip codes.

To make sure doses are indeed going to Watsonville residents, the county sets aside a few dozen slots every day for the city of Watsonville. Senior Center staff, headed up by Older Adult Services Supervisor Katie Nunez, have helped coordinate vaccination appointments for about 270 older adults since Feb. 6.

They’ve done so the old fashioned way, says Watsonville Assistant City Manager Tamara Vides, calling the older adults who before the pandemic used to spend their day at the Senior Center. They’ve also started dropping off informational flyers in neighborhoods around the city with high populations of older adults, reaching out to Spanish speaking churches and working with nonprofits that serve older adults. The hope is to connect with people who have been traditionally hard to reach because of the digital divide and language barrier, an even tougher task today because of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, Vides said.

Vides encouraged Watsonville’s older adults to call the Senior Center at 831-768-3279 to set up an appointment. Those appointments, Vides said, are important because they are “low barrier.”

“It doesn’t require that a senior has internet access, a computer or computer skills for that matter,” she said. “Our Senior Center staff are able to sign them up… The system really, really works to lower the barriers of accessing the vaccine.”

In all, the OptumServe site has administered about 950 vaccines since opening on Feb. 6. Non-Watsonville residents can make appointments at myoptumserve.com/covid19 or by calling 877-218-0381.

FINDING EQUITY

According to data presented by Ghilarducci at Thursday’s press conference, about 7,000 people of Latinx descent have received at least one vaccine dose in the county. That’s compared to roughly 37,000 residents of different ethnicities. The number, Ghilarducci said, is skewed because of the large number of non-Latinx residents working on the front lines of the health care system that were prioritized in Phase 1A. That trend, however, has recently “improved,” says Ghilarducci.

“Our communities that have traditional difficulties accessing health care and also happened to have a disproportionate impact from this disease, it’s super important that we continue to reach out to them,” he said.

Organizations such as Community Bridges are trying to reach those communities in several ways, CEO Raymon Cancino says. That includes hosting a multilingual community forum on Covid-19 vaccine safety, effectiveness and distribution on Feb. 23. The free forum will be presented in Spanish with real-time translation in English, Mixteco and Trique—languages spoken by the Trique people of the Mexican states of Oaxaca and the state of Baja California. It will be available online or via phone. To register visit communitybridges.org/events. The forum begins at 6pm.

The interactive event will address vaccine hesitancy, identify myths and provide information on how to get the vaccine. Attendees will be able to ask questions of the expert panelists, including Dr. Newel and Dr. Oscar Gantes of Saluda Para La Gente, and five $100 raffle prizes will be awarded.

“We’re trying to really extend and focus on seniors 65 and older and really having a hyperfocus on identifying Latinx folks,” he said.

Cancino says grassroots phone banking systems similar to the Watsonville Senior Center will likely be the best way to connect with hard-to-reach older adults for vaccine appointments.

Community Bridges, a countywide nonprofit, recently established a helpline of its own—831-219-8607—in hopes of helping older adults navigate what Cancino called a “fragmented” vaccine distribution system.

The so-called four-legged stool is more like an eight-legged table, Cancino argues, as large health care providers, small federally-recognized clinics and multiple agencies working with the county all have different numbers, websites and standards to qualify for the vaccine.

“It’s really hard for seniors to navigate that, especially people that have low digital literacy rate, don’t have access to the internet, don’t have access to hardware to access some of these things,” he said.

The phone line, Cancino said, is not only helping older adults set up appointments, but it is also sending them down the correct path to hopefully avoid another predicament similar to Wednesday’s vaccination clinic. Community Bridges and the county are working with large health care providers to make sure the county’s vaccine doses are used solely for the hard-to-reach communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Callers that receive their health care from Dignity or Sutter are forwarded there. The same goes for callers that have gone to clinics such Salud Para La Gente in Watsonville.

Cancino said that in its first eight hours in service, the helpline had already received 65 messages from older adults asking for assistance.

“We’re all just coordinating as best as possible,” Cancino said. “It’s been a lot of work, a lot of volunteer work, a lot of donated time and a lot of great partners….It’s been really great to see the traditional partners of nonprofits and new patterns coming in and stepping up.”

The Journey to Unionization at Bookshop Santa Cruz

Mat Weir

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February 12, 2021

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The Journey to Unionization at Bookshop Santa Cruz

Roughly thirty people gathered in the sunshine in front of the Tom Scribner statue in downtown Santa Cruz on Saturday, Feb. 6. Masked and many dressed in red, they congregated and cheered in celebration of the recent vote to unionize Bookshop Santa Cruz workers.

“Bookshop Santa Cruz has long touted itself as a progressive business,” committee organizer and five-year Bookshop employee Molly Schrank told the crowd.

Organizers like Schrank believe this is part of a growing trend toward more workers-rights policies and socialist-based groups such as the Democratic Socialists of America, whose Santa Cruz chapter has some 300 members (including this writer).

“Now is a time to stand up to those claims by demonstrating what progress truly looks like,” Schrank said at the rally. “Now is the time for Bookshop to lead the way, forging a path for all Santa Cruz workers to rise up and stand together fighting for a Santa Cruz that is vibrant, equitable and sustainable.”

The vote passed 18-10 on Feb. 3 after the effort to unionize was first publicly announced Dec. 11. The booksellers—of which there are about 40 total—will be represented by the Communications Workers of America Local 9423. They are part of a growing number of unionized bookstore employees including at Green Apple Books in San Francisco, Powell’s Books in Portland, and Strand Book Store in New York.

Celeste Orlosky, another member of the organizing committee, says the vote represents the culmination of a nine-month effort by employees to organize a collective bargaining group. It all began when the store furloughed employees at the beginning of the pandemic, last March. Orlosky tells Good Times that a companywide email was sent informing staff when they could come back. If they choose not to, it would be viewed as voluntary termination, leaving the person ineligible for unemployment benefits. She says that while it was not the best option, it was “understandable.”

“However, what was missing from that correspondence were any measurable protections when we were back in the store,” she says.

That’s when Orlosky and others decided to write an email to Protti, outlining 10 key issues the employees wanted to see addressed moving forward, like putting up Plexiglas barriers and having someone be a greeter with the store’s Covid-19 regulations at the front entrance. The pandemic also pushed workers to unionize for health care benefits.

“It organically formed out of realizing if we wanted safety protection we would have to push for it every step of the way,” Schrank tells GT.

Orlosky hopes the move will help streamline and update certain features of working at the store, like switching from a work schedule written on Google Docs to a more concrete medium. Since California has at-will employment—meaning employees can generally be fired without cause or notice—Orlosky also believes unionizing will set in place the proper procedures if someone needs to be terminated.

“Bookshop is not necessarily a business that tries to fire people,” she says. “But if there are workers who aren’t working cooperatively, there are procedures for that situation. So it benefits both us and the employer.”

Contract negotiations often can be a long, drawn-out process. Workers hope to include more transparency in pay rates between the different departments, de-escalation tactics for dealing with hostile—often anti-mask—customers, and guaranteed annual or semi-annual raises.

When asked if working conditions at the local shop were hostile, Orlosky denied this, saying the choice to unionize sprung more out of giving the employees a collective voice. Schrank described working conditions as “usually pretty good.”

Another organizer and rally speaker, M.J. Jennings, agrees more transparency is needed and sees the unionization effort based on communication issues.

“Bookshop has seen exponential growth, which is great,” says Jennings. “But when you get that growth and that many added people in the mix there’s just not the level of communication infrastructure between coworkers and management that you need.”

Bookshop owner Casey Coonerty Protti says the company plans to enter “good faith bargaining” to meet the needs of employees and the store alike. However, the vote to unionize—and the demands surrounding the effort—caught her by surprise.

“Up until they served the union papers, I didn’t have a single employee ever come to me and ask for employer-based health care or ask why we didn’t provide it,” she explains.

In fact, the store provided health care through 2010 until premiums grew so high they decided to instead take the money and redistribute it to employees. Protti says at the time they also added an additional $50,000, which allowed the store to give a $2 an hour raise to its staff.

As for the email sent to employees about returning during the early stages of the pandemic last year, Protti says many of the safety demands made by the organizers were already in motion. She says things like the Plexiglas barriers were already ordered and the store had been working “almost 24 hours a day nonstop” to prepare for opening, including organizing future safety meetings. Still, she wanted to know the exact number of employees committed to returning prior to divulging the changes that would take place. It’s a decision she now regrets.

“It was my mistake doing it the opposite way,” she says. “But [concerning] the demands they sent me, half of them were already done.”

Protti prides herself in having an “open door” policy with employees, welcoming them to bring any concerns or grievances to her and management. The store has a standing policy of staff liaisons as an avenue for anonymous feedback, which she prioritizes. They have also held staff-led diversity committees and conducted an anonymous survey surrounding concerns about race, equity and inclusion any Bookshop employees may have had.

She says the business not only addresses all matters raised but actively tries to implement change concerning any issues communicated through these avenues. Moving forward, what most concerns Protti will be the lack of individual needs being met.

“Now all of that will happen through a process where they are relying on union representatives and we’re relying on lawyers,” she says. “It seems like a very formalized, expensive approach to something we’ve always done side-by-side with each other.”

Negotiating committees do consist of union reps and individual employees.

Still, it’s a major concern shared by one long-term employee who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from co-workers. They say in their five-year tenure they’ve seen the open-door policy in place and feel the company actively works to respond to employees needs.They fear a union will only fracture these bonds instead of strengthening them.

“It’s created a divide that wasn’t there before,” they say, expressing much of the push seems to be coming from younger staff members, with participation phasing out among older employees. They believe unionizing was less about the context of the situation and more about the ideology of collective bargaining in general.

“The idea of unions really applies to people whose jobs are putting them at risk, and for them the need for unions is a real thing,” they say. “But is that applicable to a small, family business? And could those concerns have been solved with better communication or even mediation?”

Protti says, “There’s not a lot of hidden money sitting around. But we’re open to hearing what the union is interested in and how they might prioritize how we spend money in terms of wages and benefits.”

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the business of bookselling was already under strain.

According to the American Booksellers Association, most independent bookstores operate within a 2% margin of profitability. Protti says much of that is due to publishers and vendors setting the price of books, not the individual stores like other business models. So as overhead costs increase, while profits don’t.

Despite that slim margin, whenever it was known Bookshop would make a profit, Protti says that money went back into the store—primarily for salaries. For her part, she decided not to take a salary all of last year in an effort to cut costs for the business which saw anywhere from 15-50% revenue loss each month of 2020.

“Ownership didn’t take any money out of the store,” Protti says. “It all went back straight into the store to allow it to survive and ensure the employees could make a living wage as best as we could provide.”

Organizer Orlosky acknowledges the stress of the pandemic has been taxing on Protti and staff alike and hopes this next chapter will be seen as an effort to grow the business.

“The intention, of course, is not to close Bookshop. We can include provisions for, as an example, during a pandemic,” she says. “Everything in the contract is up for negotiation, and we certainly do not want to harm Bookshop in any way, shape or form.”

Volunteers Needed to Help Landscape New Ramsay Park Pumptrack

Tarmo Hannula

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February 12, 2021

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Volunteers Needed to Help Landscape New Ramsay Park Pumptrack

Work continues on the new Ramsay Park Pumptrack, including the addition of a layer of asphalt to the lumpy bicycle and skate course.

Being built by Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBOSC), crews are currently installing new split rail fencing. When completed, the park will provide an arena for bicycling, skating, rollerblading and scootering for all ages in a landscaped setting.

“We’re looking at an early March opening,” said MBOSC spokeswoman Katie Poniatowski. “We’re hoping folks come out and help put on the final touch of this great project with volunteering in our landscape effort. It’s the perfect opportunity to help beautify their community and learn as much as possible about this project.”

Sierra Azul of Watsonville is helping supply plants for the project while Delta Blue is supplying grass sod that will punctuate the track.

“(The sod) will look really nice; it’s a great final touch,” Poniatowski said.

The pump track, which replaces the old skatepark at the rear of Ramsay Park, will be the largest in Santa Cruz County.

Due to ongoing pandemic safety restrictions, Poniatowski said a grand opening event will take place virtually.

The project is the first paved pump track built by the MBOSC team, and will feature nearly 20,000 square feet of pristine rollers, berms and jumps. The park is designed to be nearly maintenance-free, with underground storm drainage and native and drought-tolerant plants.

Organizers are reaching out to the community for help with the landscaping phase of the project. People can sign up for any of these slots:

Feb. 16, 3-5pm
Feb. 18, 3-5pm
Feb. 21, 9am-noon and 12:30pm-3:30pm
Feb. 23, 3-5pm
Feb. 25, 3-5pm
Feb. 28 9am-noon and 12:30pm-3:30pm

For more information, visit mbosc.org/watsonville-pumptrack.

Pedestrian Struck and Killed by Semi in Santa Cruz

Todd Guild

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February 11, 2021

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Pedestrian Struck and Killed by Semi in Santa Cruz

A woman was killed Wednesday afternoon when she was struck by a semi near the intersection of River and Water streets, the Santa Cruz Police Department announced.

Witnesses said the woman was walking a dog around 3:15pm when she was struck. The driver stopped and was cooperating with police. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Her identity was not available Wednesday evening.

There have been several pedestrian fatalities locally in recent years, and pedestrian fatalities in the U.S. have skyrocketed by 46% since 2009, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Allison Endert, who worked for county Supervisor Ryan Coonerty, was struck by an allegedly intoxicated driver and killed on an afternoon walk in Seabright on June 15, 2020.

In December 2019, former San Jose City Council candidate and Bay Area Women’s March founder Jenny Higgins Bradanini was driving to a doctor’s appointment in Los Gatos when she hit 66-year-old Timothy Starkey on the 900 block of Blossom Hill Road in Los Gatos, according to police reports. Authorities pronounced Starkey dead at the scene.

Scotts Valley Weighs Whether to Curb ‘Targeted Picketing’

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February 11, 2021

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Scotts Valley Weighs Whether to Curb ‘Targeted Picketing’

The Scotts Valley City Council will weigh whether to halt “targeted picketing” within 300 feet of a particular person’s residence at its Feb. 17 meeting.

At the Feb. 3 City Council meeting, City Attorney Kirsten Powell introduced Ordinance No. 197, which prohibits picketing within a football field’s length of a person’s home and makes the action punishable with up to “six-month imprisonment and/or a fine up to $1,000.”

The ordinance would go into effect March 19, if adopted by the city council next week.

It shares many similarities with ordinances in other jurisdictions, according to Vice-Mayor Jim Reed.

“We didn’t try to reinvent the wheel,” he said. “We used language similar to other ordinances that have been regularly upheld in court.”

In the council meeting Attorney Powell said, “The ordinance as drafted is narrowly tailored to protect the safety and tranquility of residents while leaving open ample alternative channels of communication.”

The proposed ordinance was originally suggested by Reed, who also serves as the chief of staff for San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. After witnessing protests escalate and involve neighbors outside of the mayor’s home in San Jose, Reed proposed the ordinance.

“Mayor Liccardo has had quite an issue with protests in his neighborhood,” he said. “There are protestors but also blatant vandalism and flag burning …. It’s not just impacting him, it’s impacting his neighbors. They’re getting vandalized as well, at times assaulted.”

Reed said he does not expect similar incidents in Scotts Valley, but he supports adoption as a preventative measure.

“I don’t think for a second that the kind of activity we’re seeing in San Jose is likely to happen in Scotts Valley,” he said. “At the same time, the quality of political discourse is seemingly degraded by the day. People can debate whether elected officials should have protests at their homes, but neighbors shouldn’t have to pay a price for that.”

Reed also said it is the right time to adopt this ordinance.

“If one were to pass an ordinance like this, after regular specific picketing, groups can contest that they were singled out,” he said. “If you pass it now, when things are quiet, then that gives a tool. Protest as much as you want but do it at a public forum, not in a residential neighborhood in the middle of the night.”

Although city officials don’t expect to enforce the ordinance soon, incidents of targeted picketing have previously occurred in Scotts Valley. In 2006, Dene Bustichi was targeted due to his position on the Transit District Board during a bus drivers’ union strike. About 30-40 protestors picketed outside his residence throughout the evening. Coincidentally, Vice-Mayor Reed covered the incident for the Press Banner.

“The daughter [of Bustichi] was very traumatized by it,” Councilmember Donna Lind said at the Feb. 3 meeting. “You don’t want children and families to be hurt by this, so I thank the Vice-Mayor for bringing this up.”

To comment on proposed ordinance No. 197, attend the next virtual Scotts Valley City Council meeting on Feb. 17.

Santa Cruz Groups Support Older Adults During Pandemic

Johanna Miller

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February 11, 2021

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Santa Cruz Groups Support Older Adults During Pandemic

Earlier this month, Santa Cruz County announced the opening of a new mass vaccination center in downtown Watsonville, and officially welcomed residents 65 years and older to sign up for their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

The new OptumServe site, located at the old City Hall at 250 Main St. in Watsonville, will be open Thursday through Monday from 9am-6pm and aims to vaccinate up to 210 people per day. An appointment is necessary to receive a vaccination.

It was created in partnership with the Santa Cruz Public Health Division and the City of Watsonville.

“We are extremely excited about this continued partnership,” said Jen Herrera, chief of Public Health.

Eligibility now includes people in Phase 1A, all county residents age 75 and older, and residents 65 and older who reside in the 95019, 95076 and 95077 zip codes, three areas of the county that have been heavily impacted by the pandemic.

English and Spanish speakers who meet eligibility criteria can make appointments at myoptumserve.com/covid19 or by calling 877-218-0381. Residents 75 and above must bring proof of their date of birth. Those 65 and older must also have a proof of residence.

Both Herrera and County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel emphasized the importance of getting vaccines to the county’s older adult community.

“Older folks are much more likely to be hospitalized, and die if they get [the virus],” Newel said at last week’s press conference. “We feel strongly that this is the most important group to prioritize.”

“Vaccines administered to elderly residents are 300 times more likely to save a life than one administered to healthy adults under age 50,” county spokesman Jason Hoppin said in a press release. “Due to ongoing vaccine scarcity, vaccines administered out of order delay the delivery of vaccines to vulnerable populations, risking further loss of life.”

With nearly everyone sheltering at home to slow the spread of Covid-19, older adults have been more isolated from the community than ever. Lois Sones, Director of Elderday Adult Day Health Care, says she has seen a major decline in local older adult’s conditions during the pandemic.

“Senior isolation was already a problem before Covid,” Sones said. “But it’s quite shocking to see how many of our participants have declined in the past year. Not to mention, we’ve lost a number of people …. It’s very discouraging, heartbreaking.”

Sones and her team at Elderday, a program of Community Bridges, have been looking for ways to help. Last summer they launched the Senior Center Without Limits (SCWL), a program offering older adults free virtual classes, workshops and support.

The program recently received a $25,000 grant from the Joseph and Vera Long Foundation, which will help them expand their services, creating new classes and reaching more participants. A couple months ago, they also received a grant from the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County to purchase more hardware, such as Amazon Fire tablets for residents.

Overcoming the digital divide is one of the main goals of the Senior Center Without Limits. The program aims to make things as accessible as possible, but it has been a challenge.

“We’ve had lots of issues,” Sones said. “Many people don’t even have internet connection …. Some people who get so angry with the devices. It takes a lot of time and patience for everyone.”

Once a participant joins, they can sign in to a multitude of classes, from cooking and tai chi to art workshops and sing-alongs. The physical classes are especially imperative, Sones said, as older adults who are normally limited in their mobility are now even more inactive.

“They are stuck at home, they aren’t getting out and moving,” she said. “They aren’t able to do that small bit of activity they usually would.”

Tim Brattan, executive director of Grey Bears, a 48-year-old organization based in Santa Cruz, said he has also noticed the community struggling.

“Change is hard, but especially when you’re older,” Brattan said. “You’re set in your ways, you have a routine … and suddenly you can’t do those things. It’s a big concern.”

Grey Bears aims to improve the health and well-being of older adults in the community through food distribution, voluntarism, resource conservation and recycling. At first it sounds an unlikely combination, but Brattan explains that the focuses do intersect.

For instance, the food the organization distributes is “rescued” from local markets and bakeries, orchards and gardens, and food banks. Any food they don’t use, they turn into compost, which they sell at the Grey Bears Thrift Store. In addition, they help refurbish old computers and other technology, reselling them at much cheaper prices.

“It’s about sustaining our community and preserving items that would otherwise go to waste,” Brattan said.

Grey Bears distributes about 36,000 meals a year. Its Healthy Food for Seniors program has about 55 driver routes throughout the county, sending food to about 1,400 older adults. People can also visit the headquarters to pick up bags of food and other items.

They have started online classes, too, some being their own and others with partner organizations. Their chair yoga classes, Brattan says, are especially popular—at least 150 people participate every week.

Brattan says the classes are vital to keeping people connected.

“The isolation happening is hard on everyone, let’s face it—it’s not good at any age,” he said. “But particularly for our aging community. We’re seeing unprecedented levels of depression, a lack of hope. That’s why having some sort of social connection is so important.”

Brattan invites anyone who is interested to reach out to Grey Bears if they need anything.

“We’ve been here for 48 years now, we’re still going to be here tomorrow,” he said. “You can come here and feel safe, with distancing and masking, come if you want to volunteer, or just have lunch …. We’re here for you.”

With the vaccine continuing to roll out in Santa Cruz County, Sones said she sees a “light at the end of the tunnel,” but knows it will be a while before everyone can return to the Elderday center. Next month they are planning a drive-thru “friendship parade” and are currently accepting more people to their general program.

“Our goal is to keep people as engaged as possible, physically and mentally,” she said. “To give them hope.”

UCSC Researchers Win Grant to Develop More Sustainable Aquaculture

Erin Malsbury

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February 11, 2021

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UCSC Researchers Win Grant to Develop More Sustainable Aquaculture

New vegetarians often get asked where they get their protein. The U.S. Department of Agriculture just gave two UCSC professors half a million dollars to answer that question for farmed trout.

Their project involves creating algae-based fish feed for aquaculture and recycling wastewater to grow vegetables. If successful, it could offer sustainable solutions for one of the largest food sectors.

“Aquaculture is the world’s fastest-growing food sector and has been for at least the last couple decades,” says Anne Kapuscinski, one of the project leaders and a professor of environmental studies and director of the coastal science and policy program at UCSC.

Farmed fish are raised in captivity, but their feed contains fish meal and fish oil made from small, wild-caught fish like anchovies, herring and mackerel. These smaller species—called forage fish—make up an important part of the marine food web. Seabirds, larger fish and even humpback whales depend on them.

“A lot of those marine organisms are themselves already endangered or their populations are declining. And with climate change starting to have impacts on our oceans, there is a growing concern and uncertainty,” Kapuscinski says. “It’s really not wise to be taking a bunch of those fish.”

Aquaculture is the largest consumer of fish meal and fish oil in the world. Over 19 million tons of forage fish are harvested for it each year.

“These are highly unsustainable practices,” says Pallab Sarker, an environmental studies associate research professor and aquaculture expert at UCSC who is leading the project with Kapuscinski. “It’s our obligation to do better for our planet.”

*UCSC scientists Pallab Sarker and Anne Kapuscinski working on their previous tilapia project. Photo: Devin Fitzgerald*

Fish in a Barrel

Sarker and Kapuscinski won the grant for their novel research into creating fish feed using microalgae—single-celled marine organisms also called phytoplankton that make up the base of the food web in all aquatic ecosystems.

“What we want to do is allow aquaculture to develop in a more sustainable way and uncouple it from this fish meal and fish oil,” Kapuscinski says.

The scientists will develop and process their own fish feed using a small-scale version of commercial feed mills.

“It’s like making fancy spaghetti and then cutting it up and drying it,” Kapuscinski says. The researchers and their students will then feed groups of trout different formulas and monitor their health and growth.

The project builds on previous work that Sarker and Kapusckinski led, where they focused on tilapia. But while tilapia already feed on algae in the wild, trout eat insects and other fish. This makes it harder to create nutritious and palatable feed for them using the single-celled phytoplankton.

“We’re confident that we could eliminate the oil, or at least a lot of it,” Kapuscinski says. “It may be a little harder to eliminate all the fish meal. But part of why we won this grant is because we have some innovative ideas for how to blend different microalgae.”

The researchers chose trout for their study, but they plan to apply what they learn to salmon farming as well. The two species have similar food needs and make up a large portion of the aquaculture sector.

“This is a really exciting opportunity,” Sarker says. “I’m optimistic that we could develop a more ocean-friendly feed formula.”

Farmed Fish as Farmers

The scientists will take their sustainable aquaculture plans a step further than just shifting the feed of farmed fish. They also plan to recycle their water. The system will circulate water through the tanks several times before the runoff goes to grow organic vegetables at the UCSC F arm.

The wastewater from aquaculture contains nitrogen and phosphorus that plants need. “Instead of treating it as a waste, we have to think of it as a resource out of place,” Kapuscinski says. And by creating a closed-loop system, the researchers minimize the risk that runoff will create algal blooms or throw off the balance in natural ecosystems.

Kapuscinski and Sarker’s trout will be the first fish at UCSC’s new aquaculture facility. The pandemic delayed the start of the project and made finding trout for the experiment difficult. But the scientists plan to begin in the next few weeks. They expect the project to last a few years and hope to use it to teach students and community members about sustainable fish farming.

“[Aquaculture] is going to remain an important part of the human food system,” Kapuscinski says. “So we have to steer it in an environmentally sustainable as well as socially-just direction.”

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