Local rapper Ezra Hapner was putting so much pressure on himself to put out great music that he was having a hard time recording any music. To get over this, he told himself that he was only recording demos. His friend/producer Lalo sent him some chill, lo-fi beats, and Ezra took verses he’d written and recorded his vocals with only one take per song. On June 17, he released At Your Leisure, his first official EP.
“I’m a major perfectionist, which is why I have a hard time releasing,” Hapner says. “The amount of work I’ve done for the amount of music I have out is ridiculous. In some ways, it was kind of a challenge to myself to do things imperfectly and get them out. It was a challenge to not do 100 takes trying to get every syllable perfect—instead, put it out as more of a raw-feeling project.”
The EP captures his easy-going, thoughtful, and often offbeat personality, while also showing off his lyrical skills and flow. Combining those different elements, he comes across as very much a regular guy, someone you probably work with or have as a next-door neighbor. However, Hapner is very serious about rapping. He’s been doing it for as long as he can remember.
“In elementary school, I loved Run DMC and Kris Kross and Beastie Boys. I used to rap at school a lot. I was the rapper kid,” Hapner says. “I would rap book reports and school projects. I would always do talent shows with my friend.”
Hapner is also an excellent drummer and has been playing for as long as he’s been rapping. Currently, he plays in Anthony Arya’s band.
Due to the isolation and extra time on his hands after Covid lockdowns began last year, Hapner began releasing periodic videos of himself rapping bars in the camera. He also shot two videos. The first, “Pink Ladies” is lo-fi, and technically just a 40-second video loop on repeat (“I walk around with the Pink Lady, real crisp.”) “Shoestrings,” a chill song with a Spanish sounding guitar sample, has a more polished, professional video, which was shot over by the lighthouse on West Cliff.
“We were waking up at sunrise for this shoot just because of better lighting, so there weren’t a ton of people,” Hapner says. “It was a little weird at first, honestly, because I was sitting in the chair in the middle of that field while we were filming. I’m like trying to look natural and rap but all these people are walking along the sidewalk watching. After we were filming for a bit it felt fine. It’s fun.”
Hapner had only met the producer of At Your Leisure, Lalo (Eddy Benkhin) once. They hit it off and started collaborating via Zoom during the pandemic.
The past year has also been an interesting time for Hapner because he’s been studying at UCLA. But since everything is being done over Zoom, he’s been living in Santa Cruz the whole time. That’s also afforded him the time and energy to be able to work on his music. With things opening back up, he wants to get out and join the scene a little bit before he has to leave it. He plans to move to L.A. in September now that attending in-person classes is an option.
“I’ve never actually done a show for my music,” Hapner says. “I really want to set up a show and bring in some friends who play as openers and do it during the summer before everyone goes back to school. I think it would be a great time now because [I’m] forming a stronger connection with people who might like my music here, and then bring it to people wherever they go in the fall.”
For more info, check out: www.instagram.com/ezrahapner.
Re: Green Issue (GT, 7/7): More evidence of Santa Cruz not keeping up: So you know how those blue and white padded plastic envelopes that Amazon uses have recycling symbols and a website address on them? Well, I went to the website and entered my zip code only to find that the nearest store with a bin to recycle those and plastic bags, cling wrap, etc. is in Watsonville at the Nob Hill store. All the rest are over the hill. Not only does our local recycling not give us compost bins to recycle our kitchen waste, but it also has narrow restrictions on what it actually recycles. Reducing our carbon footprint is essential, but our county is not keeping up. I occasionally have to buy online because our local retailers have removed variety from their shelves, opting for only those items that sell quickly and/or are corporate-generated. I would like to conscientiously dispose of the packaging, and I wonder why Santa Cruz is not providing the means to do so.
A. Ray
Santa Cruz
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Some things make so much common sense that it’s just bewildering they aren’t already happening: gun control, voting rights expansion, glyphosate ban, endangered species protection, etc. Many common sense issues used to be supported by members of both parties, but not anymore. However, now that we’re all more or less acknowledging the climate crisis and the grim future it presents without our intervention, there is one common sense solution that’s beginning to gain traction in people and organizations on both sides of the aisle—pricing carbon. Scientists and economists of all persuasions recommend almost unanimously that putting a price on CO2 is the simplest, most elegant and equitable way to bring down greenhouse gas emissions and allow us to meet the targets set by the IPCC to avoid our planet’s warming above 1.5 degrees C. In the 117th Congress, we now have four carbon pricing bills, sponsored by Dems and Republicans, vying for the administration’s attention to be fitted into the infrastructure package. It takes ten calls a day for your legislator’s office to feel public support and pressure for any given bill or approach. All you need do is make one call a week, or even a month, and spend less than 30 seconds asking your representative for this common sense solution. Carbon pricing isn’t the only solution, but it’s the most foundational kickstart to a carbon free economy and a tolerable future.
Lynda Marin
Santa Cruz
This letter does not necessarily reflect the views of Good Times. To submit a letter to the editor of Good Times: Letters should be originals—not copies of letters sent to other publications. Please include your name and email address to help us verify your submission (email address will not be published). Please be brief. Letters may be edited for length, clarity and to correct factual inaccuracies known to us. Send letters to le*****@*******es.sc.
This week’s cover story by Liza Monroy demonstrates that you can’t contain a great idea. I think it’s both remarkable and yet somehow not at all surprising that the Rise Together group originally came together to handle a very specific task for the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County—helping decide how $350,000 in funding would be distributed—and ended up creating a set of goals like “Change policies, structures, and systems at the root level with people of color-led solutions, representation, and power to increase equity and anti-racist policy.” I mean, that is high-level stuff to jump to from “where should this money go?” But again, it’s not surprising when you look at who is actually part of this group. They’re many of the most influential community leaders in Santa Cruz County—you probably recognized a lot of their faces on the cover. When you put that kind of experience and smarts and vision in one room, things are going to happen that you couldn’t have foreseen.
Another thing I really enjoy about Monroy’s piece is reading about how the Rise Together members re-examined every part of their process. They brought change not only to the outcome, but also to the system that produces the outcome. Next time you hear someone cynically suggest that inclusion and racial representation are just abstract ideas or numbers games, I’d suggest sending them this article.
I wonder if the Judge, DA’s office and SCPD would have allowed an abusive woman out of jail, if she had repeatedly beaten/stalked her police officer boyfriend while also repeatedly ignoring restraining orders? This was an avoidable murder. As a Commissioner on CPVAW we need community support to help us hold the powers that be accountable, else tragedies like this will keep happening again and again.
— Ann Simonton
This is shameful on the part of our judicial system. They failed Meisenheimer miserably. Their life is gone because he was let go free. This is beyond infuriating, and completely outrageous.
Rachel “Elias” Meisenheimer lost their precious life thru an avoidable situation. Shame on those that allowed this to happen.
— Clara
Re: Sales Tax
The minority council have really revealed themselves in this vote, their support of selling city land to a luxury hotel developer instead of give it to a nonprofit affordable housing developer (like New Way Homes), and their absolute commitment to passing an unconstitutional ban of folks living in tents and RVs. This is perhaps the most immoral and destructive Santa Cruz city council in history.
— Reggie Meisler
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
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GOOD IDEA
GIVING ART A SHOT
Get vaccinated and cultured at the same time this Friday at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH). From noon-4pm, Santa Cruz County Public Health will present a community-based, no-cost vaccination clinic at the MAH. While receiving a Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccine, attendees will have the chance to hear and share stories from the pandemic. The event will also have a Tree of Hope, where patrons can fill out a slip of paper with the prompt “I hope…”, whether or not they receive a vaccine. The papers will be hung on the tree outside the Secret Garden for public viewing.
GOOD WORK
THE PIPES ARE CALLING
Soquel Creek Water District is completely reliant on groundwater from the Santa Cruz Mid-County Groundwater Basin for its water supply—but Pure Water Soquel is working to create a supplemental water source. Garney Construction is working weekdays from 7 am to 4 pm installing pipelines for the project. The eight-mile-long pipelines—which are being installed on California Street to Laurel Street and Broadway now through November—will provide supplemental, recycled water for the community and prevent groundwater contamination.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
At the apex of last year’s crisis points—the pandemic, George Floyd’s murder, police violence against Black citizens—a circle of brilliant minds in Santa Cruz County were brought together to try to change the system from within. The group consists of leaders across the gender spectrum, spanning five decades in age. They encompass Black, Latinx, Indigenous and mixed races as well as allies. They’re working together to create anti-racist policy through grant funding, representation, and equity locally.
They are Rise Together, and while this didn’t start out as a movement, over the past year it has become one. And they’re just getting started.
The initial push that started off a domino effect came from the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County. The Foundation, which matches donors to local projects and causes that align with their visions, allows those seeking to take positive action to put money where it matters, whether it’s “to have a strong arts community, support pregnant moms, send kids to college,” says Community Foundation CEO Susan True.
True defines the work as aiming for “incredible action being taken,” with tangible, demonstrable results. “We are bound by the geography of this community,” she says. “This community’s leaders are even more crucial to anything we do being successful.”
However, as True explains, white-led philanthropy mirrors wealth inequality. Just 7% of philanthropic dollars across our country are given to organizations led by and for people of color. That mirroring means that “incredible people with incredible ability to make social impact have been left outside of the ability to direct those dollars, and often those dollars have not been directed to their efforts.” So when the opportunity arose to distribute $350,000 in funding in support of BILPOC (Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and People of Color)-led organizations benefiting BILPOC communities of Santa Cruz County to provide relief during the Covid-19 pandemic, True and her team decided to seek input from BILPOC community leaders to make collaborative decisions about how best to distribute the funds.
Though the Community Foundation has a decades-long history of supplying funding to organizations led by and serving people of color, such as a low-interest loan program supporting access to capital among entrepreneurs of color, it was an important time to start sharing governance of the community’s resources.
The money was to be used to ensure essential services were delivered, as well as address barriers and improve well-being for people of color in light of renewed racial reckonings: working conditions of migrant farmworkers during Covid and the fires, for instance, and police violence against Black people, which was brought to the forefront of national consciousness by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
For True, the national tragedy hit particularly close to home. “I’m from South Minneapolis,” she says. “George Floyd was murdered a few blocks from my high school. I have activist friends who were there and were on the streets. My parents’ pastor was with the [Floyd] family for days and days. I was wrapped up in what’s actually happening.”
True and Community Foundation staff including Engagement Officer Stacey Marie Garcia reached out to 17 Santa Cruz County BILPOC leaders and emerging leaders and asked them for two Zoom meetings to decide how the funds would best be spent, from the people who best understood their organizations and communities’ needs.
A Call to Action
Garcia, formerly of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, brought in several of the leaders through pre-existing relationships. “We invited strong, loving leaders that we and many people of color in our community respected, trusted, and admired,” Garcia explains on the process of identifying who to reach out to. “We wanted leaders who had a strong history of relationship building, collaborating effectively and openly, taking action to make change, and have a bold vision for a more just and equitable Santa Cruz County.”
Some of these leaders had pre-existing relationships—to one another, the Community Foundation, or both—while others did not. “We were intentional about inviting leaders working in different parts of the county, from different cultures, across sectors, and from different generations,” Garcia says.
During that first online meeting, something remarkable happened—the group’s perspectives revealed much deeper and wider purposes for coming together, an opportunity that the original purpose of distributing funds couldn’t have encompassed on its own.
“Group members had radically different perspectives,” True says. “There were perspectives around, ‘We just need our voices elevated,’ there were perspectives around, ‘We need seats of power and representation,’ there were voices that were all around essential basic needs like food, rent. There was such a desire to learn, grow, and leverage each other’s knowledge. It was pretty amazing.”
It rapidly became clear that while distributing the $350,000 in funding was part of the project, it wasn’t enough. The real anti-racist work that could be done, as gathered leaders posed, was to give the powerful group the Community Foundation had assembled a long-term seat at the table.
But they weren’t just given a seat. They were given the table.
Two meetings turned into two meetings per month on an ongoing basis. The group was recently able to have their first in-person gathering.
“To have transcended the limits of tech and to form heart connections with people I’ve never met in person says something about the spirit of this work,” says member MariaElena de la Garza, Executive Director of the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County (CAB), which works to eliminate poverty and create social change. “It shows where we are as a community. I know them, trust them, love them, and feel connected to them—that’s huge. And I know they have my back. They have my back like I have theirs.”
Defining a Movement
Rise Together’s structure—bringing BILPOC leaders together, and ensuring their voices were not only present, but had primary decision-making power and influence—could be a model for reenvisioning how philanthropy is done, how decisions for funding particular communities can be led by members of the communities they serve.
Building trust amongst all members of the circle was of the essence to ensure an equal and fair playing field. “Continuously cultivating trust amongst all 21 of us was essential for us to create shared goals, and will continue to be as we take action together,” Garcia says. Together, they identified five goals to guide their ongoing work around racial equity:
Increase upward economic mobility and sustainable local career pathways for current and next generation leaders of color and community networks.
Amplify, value, celebrate, and preserve people of color’s stories, arts, culture, and community events.
Change policies, structures, and systems at the root level with people of color-led solutions, representation, and power to increase equity and anti-racist policy.
Deliver essential services, address barriers, and build community capacity to fight racial disparities to improve well-being for people of color to prosper.
Continuously give and grow sustained funding for communities of color.
With their purpose articulated, Rise Together grew into a powerhouse of an initiative. “The experience of building Rise Together allowed for new things,” de la Garza says. “Opportunities many of us had never had before. The space was safe enough to talk about discomfort, hesitation and excitement about being given a new opportunity no one had ever given me before. There’s beauty in that.”
Rise Together portraits by Devi Pride
A New Kind of Space
Some of “the circle,” as they call it, are locally famous names: former Santa Cruz mayor Justin Cummings, Cat Willis of the Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center and Black Health Matters, Jacob Martinez of Digital NEST. Others are emerging leaders, including Ashlyn N. Adams, who serves on the Justice And Gender county commission, and is Interim Co-Director and Youth Program Coordinator at the Diversity Center of Santa Cruz County; and Helen Aldana, President of Senderos and Outreach Coordinator at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.
“Stacey was very welcoming,” says Aldana, who received a grant to fund Senderos, a nonprofit to create pathways to success for the Latinx community. “She welcomed me into the group, even as I was having doubts, like, ‘Am I a leader?’ She said, ‘Yes, you are, join the group.’ By them making the space for us to do that was a lot, because the initial email was a funding opportunity to invest in community-led solutions.”
Aldana recalls the moment when things shifted from the original vision of distributing a set amount of funds. “The whole cohort, the whole group just responded, saying this needs to be a long-term relationship, a long-term investment. We can’t just distribute $350,000 in two meetings. That’s been the problem to begin with—acting in urgent ways when there are urgent matters. We need to address impacts of Covid and racism by doing anti-racist work, and that’s investing time and energy into these organizations and people. That shifted the tone of the meeting, and a year and three months later we’re still talking and building these steps: What can people do to make these changes? How can the Community Foundation invest in this type of work and the things we do?”
Aldana was impressed that the Community Foundation was immediately onboard.
“They had agency to say, ‘No we are not gonna do that.’ They could easily have said no. And they said, ‘Okay, we’ll keep going.’”
Rise Together members collaboratively created a safe space to “focus on what leaders of colors were experiencing,” says de la Garza. Rise Together seeks to address the “impact of the pandemic on organizations being led by and that service people of color, bringing us together in action around issues of equity,” de la Garza says. She also points to another layer—“the subtle layer,” as she calls it. “The Community Foundation created a space where leaders of color were seen and heard in ways that had not been available to us.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by several leaders in the circle. Ruby Vasquez, founder of the Watsonville Campesino Appreciation Caravan, Assistant Director of Mexican folkloric dance group Estrellas del Valle, and the founder of the kids’ folkloric dance group Estrellas de Esperanza, recalls the experience of being invited in.
“I went to the first meeting and it was a great group of people [the Community Foundation] brought together,” she says. “I was born and raised in Watsonville, and never had the opportunity to be involved with a group primarily made of people of color. As an educator and in other things I am involved with, folks of color tend to be not present, not invited to the table. It was awesome to be in that virtual space with Black leaders in our county I had never met before. We’ve grown together as a group and gotten to know each other and the passion we all have to support the community.”
Putting the Fun in Funding
With a shared decision-making process, Rise Together’s members weren’t beholden to traditional paperwork-heavy, impersonal grant-writing. Organizations could submit video, slides, a presentation—a process validating to nonprofits that don’t have the staff and resources to engage in complex, institutional grant-writing processes. Members shared their proposals with the group, and funding decisions were made together. Ultimately, each proposal got the requested amount, with $27,000 left over to invest in future grants.
Vasquez was surprised and impressed in how applications for funding were approached. “When I read the application could be a writeup—a paragraph, a page—or a video or slide presentation about what you want and what you’d do with it, I thought, ‘It’d be dumb not to apply for this money!’ I applied for the Campesino Appreciation Caravan and children’s dance group Estrellas de Esperanza. Both got funded. It was so validating. Somebody finally was validating and recognizing that in order to do [most grant applications] you need a person dedicating their time to doing it. So many participating in Rise Together don’t have that.”
The Community Foundation received new contributions that allowed for a total of $423,000 combined in grants and toward continued sustained funding.
“It’s amazing,” says Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center founder Cat Willis. “This is historic because, as we know, on a national scale community-based organizations have been chronically under-resourced. That’s been part of the system of how white supremacy works. For all of us, coming into the same room and sharing stories, and the Community Foundation to be in the circle with us and privy to our stories—it’s historic in my eyes. We are really shifting here. It’s a different model, a different conversation. You can write a million grants, but it isn’t the same thing when you walk into an organization on a Saturday afternoon and to see what an organization is. That level of understanding, that’s been significant.”
Over a year since its inception, the Rise Together group is official, with the newly launched website risetogetherscc.org encapsulating their mission, telling their stories, and offering ways to take action and donate. The “Team” page features Rise Together’s members’ portraits by local photographer Devi Pride along with bios that don’t merely list accomplishments but properly narrate their stories and visions.
While for some of the leaders, having a headshot and bio was de rigueur, for others, such as de la Garza, it was a first.
“I’ve never been given the opportunity and investment to write my bio,” she says. “For someone else what may have been normal business, business as usual…that’s investment in our leadership.”
Along with de la Garza, Vasquez notes how what could be hegemonically perceived as seemingly minor details make a large difference and represent the way everything in Rise Together is conducted.
“It just so happens I have the logo in front of me because they gave us stickers the other day,” she says during our call, in response to a question about how the circle operates. “Even the logo was a group effort. It wasn’t someone at the foundation saying, ‘there’s the logo.’ Everybody had input. We got the first draft and said, ‘No it’s not conveying what the group is about.’ They got more input and it’s what we have now. It’s things like that. People may think it’s a little thing, but as a member, I want to really identify with that logo. Something as little as that was huge.”
Whether creating a logo or engaging the process of giving grants to fellow members’ organizations, everything Rise Together does results from collaboration, elevated to a level of visible systemic change.
If the work sounds serious and challenging, it is also approached joyfully. Anti-racist work, as Rise Together demonstrates, doesn’t mean it can’t also be done in that spirit, True points out. “There is such a joy about supporting each other and dreaming of this community. That is super special given how hard these conversations are. People are afraid to have these conversations. But what if we deeply connect? What if change and growth is through relationship? What if trust creates the foundation for us to do better? Humans grow in relationship.”
The underlying themes of trust and relationship-building emerge again and again in the Rise Together story. Reflecting on the journey so far and his own participation, Justin Cummings appreciates the group being able to take the time to get to know one another, and “that the foundation wasn’t only like, ‘We are gonna give you money’ but rather, ‘How can we get better about giving?’ We set trust with one another. People doing this work came from families in which they were instilled with values around helping your community. That’s why all of us so strongly came together to support communities that are disadvantaged in our county.”
As Rise Together celebrates its official launch, first round of grants awarded, and accomplishments with an event featuring performances by Estrellas de Esperanza and the TWDCC at the Community Foundation’s Aptos headquarters the evening of Friday, July 23rd, a new stage of the initiative is only just beginning. The collaborative effort has come so much farther than founding members could have imagined going in. It’s become a movement, and, if it catches on nationally, could even become a model.
“The commitment to emerging leaders of color means it doesn’t end with us,” de la Garza says. “The ripple gets bigger and bigger. To me, that’s legacy work. That’s systemic change and legacy work that will impact the children of the children of the children of the people that we serve.”
As the 2020-21 school year neared its conclusion, Laura Arnow, a fifth-grade teacher at Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD), returned to the classroom. Her school—and the rest of the district—transitioned to a hybrid model in which online morning classes are followed by in-person afternoon periods attended by small, alternating cohorts of students. Some students in younger grades were in the classroom four days a week. But before Arnow returned to in-person instruction, she wanted to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19—as soon as possible.
Fortunately, Arnow’s district, and many others in Santa Cruz County, made getting vaccinated a breeze. Partnering with Dignity Health, PVUSD ran a huge vaccination clinic for all of its educators.
Arnow says that her “streamlined and super easy” experience was a world apart from that of her husband, a teacher in the neighboring Monterey County. He was offered no assistance making an appointment from his district or the county. He instead scheduled an appointment through his own doctor’s office, and received his first jab one month later than his wife.
Santa Cruz schools boast high vaccination rates—92% of the 6,000 school staff members in Santa Cruz County had opted to receive the vaccine as of June 30. Districts in neighboring Monterey County, by contrast, mostly lack data on the number of educators vaccinated. Interviews with superintendents, union leaders and educators in both counties reveal that the high vaccination rate and data availability were driven largely by the proactive measures Santa Cruz schools took to get teachers safely back into the classroom.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed for California schools to reopen, with a goal of a full return across the state by the fall. Statewide, there are currently no mandates requiring K-12 educators to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. But Santa Cruz County was the first county in the state to offer vaccinations to all school staff.
‘Leadership Matters’
After the first phase of vaccination—in which only healthcare workers were eligible—was completed on Jan. 13, Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah reached out to local public health officials about moving forward with the vaccination of educators. At that time, however, the governor had announced individuals 65 and older would be prioritized. Local officials told Sabbah that vaccination of school staff wouldn’t begin until all of those 65 and older had a chance first.
“We were concerned about that, because [individuals 65 and older] represented about a third of the population of Santa Cruz County,” Sabbah says. If they waited, he says, it could have been weeks or even months before they could begin vaccinating educators.
So Sabbah began advocating for allowing both individuals 65 and older and essential workers—including teachers—to begin receiving vaccines at the same time by approaching multi-county entities such as Dominican Hospital. Because these entities had a separate supply of vaccines, they were able to offer vaccinations under their own prioritization system. Sabbah originally proposed to the president of Dominican to help them begin vaccinating kindergarten staff so that they could reopen schools for the county’s youngest students.
“She later told me that she thought that was a good deal, because who could say no to wanting kindergartners going back to school,” he says.
By the end of February, the County Office of Education teamed up with Dominican to start their first clinics for vaccinating educators for the youngest students. The County Office of Education took charge of organizational efforts—creating Google forms for registering educators for clinics, designing an appointment system and using text messages and emails to communicate with school staff.
By also working with Kaiser, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Dignity Health, CVS and Safeway, the county was able to offer all Santa Cruz school staff—teachers, support staff, office staff, janitors and bus staff—vaccinations by the end of March. The vaccination drive also included educators at Cabrillo College and private schools in the county, as well as teachers who lived in Santa Cruz County but worked elsewhere.
“This is where leadership matters,” says Mountain Elementary School District Superintendent Diane Morgenstern, who attributes Santa Cruz’s lead to its many partnerships. “No one of [these agencies] could have vaccinated us all.”
Sarah Rominger, a math teacher at Soquel High School in Santa Cruz, found the process of signing up for a vaccine accessible and painless.
“It was just as easy as filling out a form, making an appointment online, and showing up at the right time and place,” she says.
Rominger says that the general consensus among teachers at her school was that they wanted to be vaccinated before resuming in-person instruction.
“It seemed to me an irresponsible decision to put myself in a situation where I’m around students, their families and their communities if I am still at a high risk of transmitting or getting the virus,” she says.
Mary Maleta-Wright is a parent of four young children attending Soquel Union Elementary School District. She says that vaccine accessibility efforts for educators is important to her if “that’s what’s important to the teachers for them to feel comfortable going back to school in-person.”
“I want our teachers to feel safe, respected and like they are being treated like the essential workers that they are,” she says.
Of the roughly 5,000 school staff members in Santa Cruz County that were offered the Covid-19 vaccine, just 8% declined as of May 5. Anecdotally, it seemed that employees in South County were more resistant at first, says County Office of Education Safety Officer Jennifer Buesing. Over time, however, that resistance seems to have subsided, she says, and the numbers are fairly consistent throughout the county.
Good Times reached out to Santa Cruz County school districts to learn more about the number of school staff vaccinated in each district. Santa Cruz City (92-95%), Bonny Doon Elementary (92%), Happy Valley Elementary (100%), PVUSD (91%) and Pacific Elementary (94%) have vaccinated the vast majority of their staff. Mountain Elementary and Soquel Union only provided the countywide vaccination figure, and Live Oak, San Lorenzo Valley and Scotts Valley Unified declined to respond.
County Line
The County Office of Education continued to host vaccination clinics every weekend for teaching staff, childcare providers and spouses. To reduce vaccine hesitancy, the County Office of Education has also hosted town halls targeting school staff with a local pediatrician.
“There was a lot of false information out there,” says Buesing. “We spent a lot of time doing meetings, education and town halls to really get the accurate information out there.”
Of those that declined, she adds, some were holding out for the rollout of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, while others wanted to “wait and see,” she says. She hopes that as more and more school staff get vaccinated, this hesitancy will continue to decline.
Because the county was in charge of the scheduling process, they could see what percentage of slots were unused after they were allocated. This process gave them an estimate of the numbers of educators who had opted for the vaccine. In contrast, in Monterey County teachers ended up accessing vaccines through a variety of providers once Monterey’s Phase 1B of the vaccination process began. This made it much harder to determine how many teachers had been vaccinated.
Good Times filed California public records requests with all of the public school districts in Monterey County, asking for data on the current percentage of teachers vaccinated. None provided that information, although two districts provided survey data that revealed the outlook of teachers earlier on in the vaccination process.
Greenfield Elementary School District issued an online survey on Jan. 15 to its employees asking about interest in the vaccine: 74% of employees expressed interest in vaccination, 16% were unsure and 10% had no interest.
Santa Rita Union Elementary School District said that as of March 2, 0.4% of its teachers had already been vaccinated, and the number of employees who wished to be vaccinated immediately was 92.8%. Another 4.6% expressed potential interest in vaccination at a later date, and only 2.1% of employees were not interested.
No other Monterey County districts responded with data in time for the publication of this article. According to the Monterey County Office of Education, there are 17,663 education employees in the county. These include staff at the Office of Education, charter schools, public school districts, higher education, and substitute teachers.
“We don’t collect data on who has been vaccinated,” said Jessica Hull, Monterey County Office of Education spokesperson. “But I can say that every education employee who’s desired a vaccine has received one.”
The larger county was slower to vaccinate its teachers than its northern neighbor. According to Monterey County Superintendent Deneen Guss, early on the state delivered fewer vaccines to Monterey County than Santa Cruz County, because the state granted more vaccines to counties with “multi-serving agencies” like Kaiser. “The supply that we were getting in those early months was very limited,” says Guss.
When Santa Cruz County was first opening clinics for teachers to receive vaccinations, Monterey County teachers could only look to their healthcare providers, who prioritized vaccinating clients 65 years and older. It wasn’t until Monterey County began opening vaccine appointments during Phase 1B of its vaccination process that educators could access the vaccine. During Phase 1B, educators could obtain vaccines through their own healthcare providers and when available at county-coordinated clinics. This included Arnow’s husband, a teacher in the Salinas Union Valley District.
“We didn’t have a district coordinated program … to aggressively vaccinate the teachers,” he says. “But I was vaccinated before I had to go back into the classroom.”
The first of the clinics coordinated by Monterey County for educators began on March 3 at Soledad Community Health Care District. The county connected school districts to healthcare providers to coordinate clinics at locations like Natividad, Soledad Community Health Care District and Mee Memorial.
According to Guss, Santa Cruz County also assisted in the vaccination of Monterey educators. When Monterey County reached out to Santa Cruz, the northern neighbor offered up open vaccination slots to the southern county. “When they had some additional vaccine supplies that they could help us with, [Santa Cruz County] actually did allow some of our educators to take some of their [vaccine appointments] so that we could get some of our educators vaccinated,” says Guss.
Looking Forward
Over the year to come, the challenge of distributing booster shots will arise in both Santa Cruz County and Monterey County, says Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers President Kati Bassler. She hopes for a smoother rollout in Monterey County when boosters are due. “We’ve gotten through this storm, now we have to look for what’s next,” Bassler says.
Now that all educators in Santa Cruz County have been offered a vaccination, Dr. Sabbah has set his sights on encouraging students to follow in their teachers’ footsteps. Unlike staff, he says, convincing students to attend one of the district’s vaccine clinics has been more challenging—based on the same process they used for teachers, he estimates that only 30-40% of students have opted to sign up for a vaccine appointment. He plans to get youth excited about the vaccine by increasing the appeal of the clinics—by providing cookies and boba, playing music and offering selfie opportunities with a life-sized Anthony Fauci cutout. The district also plans to launch a social media campaign to get parents on board with youth vaccinations. According to Guss, Monterey County educators are taking similar steps to encourage youth vaccinations.
Santa Cruz parent Mary Maleta-Wright says she is grateful for the steps Santa Cruz County has taken so far. She says she feels “extremely safe” sending her children back into the classrooms. In addition to vaccinated staff, Maleta Wright says she appreciates the additional safety precautions her school takes such as requiring masks, taking temperatures and staggering dropoff and pickup times.
“I would like to tell teachers how grateful we are for everything that they have been through in the past year,” she says. “They showed flexibility and positivity through it all.”
A week before leaving office in January 2017, President Barack Obama designated Cotoni-Coast Dairies, a property on the north end of Santa Cruz County, as a national monument.
The designation, which was possible due to a campaign led by the Sempervirens Fund, brought with it not only federal recognition of the property’s unique ecology and cultural history, but also distinct conservation status.
And now, after a finalized management plan was released by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in late June, it is one step closer to being open to the public.
By early summer 2022, locals and visitors could finally have access to the property. Hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders will be able to enjoy the region’s rolling hills, redwood groves, terraces bisected by streams, and sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean.
“We are very excited to move on to the next phase of this project,” says Ben Blom, field manager for the Central Coast Field Office of the BLM. “It was a long haul, with lots of public meetings, comments with stakeholders, partners … everyone under the sun. It’s incredible to see the level of interest and passion for the future of this place.”
In 2014, the Trust for Public Land gave the BLM 5,800 acres on the site after purchasing the property from Coast Dairies & Land Company in 1998. The Trust purchased the land to save it from developers who for decades had tried to convert it into luxury home developments and a power plant.
BLM has since worked with a number of agencies and organizations, and local communities in order to open the area to the public.
“The plan is to create a good balance of conservation and access,” Blom says. “And to be good neighbors to the folks most impacted. We can do it in a way that’s respectful to everyone.”
The idea of opening Cotoni-Coast Dairies to visitors has been controversial with local residents, who say they are worried about their sleepy seaside community being overrun by tourists and cars. Representatives of the Davenport North Coast Association expressed concerns early on about the lack of parking lots, trails, bathrooms and more.
Blom says that the BLM is committed to working with Davenport and Bonny Doon residents. They plan on providing the aforementioned resources, he says, and then some.
“We know they have concerns, and our plan can help with that,” he says. “We’ll provide parking, toilets, trash collection. We recognize there will be lots of visitors. We will work with them as best we can. It’ll be an ongoing thing.”
Half of the land will have no trails and limited access. BLM and its partners will manage resources, setting aside areas for scientific research and education purposes, as well as for local Indigenous tribes to carry out cultural practices.
The property was originally inhabited by the indigenous Cotoni (Cho-toe-knee), who were part of the greater Ohlone tribes of the Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay regions. There are still ancestral sites on the property, and Blom says that preserving those sites and working with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is a major part of their plan.
“Our Native American partners have a long history with this place, so it’s very important,” Blom says. “We care very deeply about that.”
The management plan includes mitigating fire danger by keeping livestock, conducting prescribed burns, creating fuel breaks and removing non-native species—which will also lead to more restoration opportunities. The property is home to a number of critical wet areas which support sensitive species such the California red-legged frog.
“It’s just a fantastic, spectacular natural area, a beautiful property,” says Matt DeYoung, executive director of the Santa Cruz Mountain Trail Stewardship (SCMTS). “That’s the most exciting thing for me. There’s such a rich cultural and natural history out there. The trails are going to be a great way to highlight that.”
SCMTS has been heavily involved in the public planning process of the Dairies, which began in 2019. They took the lead on trail construction and implementation, planning to build the property’s entire network of trails. Currently, they are trying to raise $3 million, which will fund the entire first phase, which includes 17 miles of trails for bikes, pedestrians, equestrian and disabled access. SCMTS’ professional trail crew will lead the work, and there will be many opportunities for volunteer involvement, DeYoung says.
“It’s a big project,” he says. “We’re about a third of the way to our fundraising goal. We’ve got some grants and donations secured, and are hoping to close the gap soon.”
BLM’s partners also include the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, California Coastal Commission, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, CalFire, California State Parks, Caltrans, Davenport North Coast Association, Friends of the North Coast, Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, NOAA-National Marine Fisheries Service, Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission, Sempervirens Fund and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“It takes a village to do these things,” DeYoung said. “There have been so many people who have been instrumental in making this happen.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Author Valerie Andrews reminds us that as children, we all had the “magical capacity to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unselfconsciously to the soughing of the trees.” Oh, how I would love you to be able to recover even a fraction of those talents in the coming days. My reading of the current astrological potentials tells me that your chances of doing so are much better than usual. Your ability to connect with the eternal child and wise animal within you is at a peak.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus singer Barbara Streisand has a shopping mall built below her large home. Its purpose isn’t to sell consumer goods to strangers, but rather to stash her precious belongings and show them off when friends come over. Among the storefronts are an antique store, a doll shop, a costume shop and a candy store. The coming weeks would be an excellent time for you to start building a shopping mall beneath your home, too, Taurus. If that’s too expensive or complicated, here are alternatives: 1. Revitalize your appreciation for your treasured possessions. 2. Acquire a new treasured possession or two that will inspire you to love your life even more than you already do. 3. Reacquaint yourself with the spiritual powers that your treasured possessions arouse in you.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The Dalai Lama says there are core similarities between science and Buddhism. Both keep searching for ever-more complete versions of the truth. Both employ firsthand observation and experimentation to do that noble work. If they find new information that contradicts previously held versions of the truth, both are willing to discard them. Now that you Geminis are entering the Deep Questioning Phase of your astrological cycle, I’d love you to make generous use of the Buddhist/Scientific approach. More complete versions of the truth will be available in abundance in the coming weeks—if you’re alert for them.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1656) achieved the impossible: She became a supremely skilled and renowned painter in an era when women had virtually no opportunities to become artists. Many aspects of her work distinguished her from other painters. For example, she depicted women as having strong, agile hands and arms. In Artemisia’s world, the power of women’s wrists, forearms and fingers signifies their ability to put their mark upon the world, to accomplish strenuous practical tasks with grace and flair. If I were going to paint images of you in the coming weeks, I would also portray you as having strong, agile hands and arms. I suspect you’ll have potent agency to get things done—to adeptly manipulate the material world to serve your ideals. (Thoughts about Artemisia’s hands come from art historian Mary D. Garrard.)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “Once upon a time”: That’s your phrase of power these days. What do I mean by that? I’m suggesting that you will strengthen your problem-solving abilities by engaging in playful pretending for the sheer fun of it. I’m predicting that you will boost your confidence by dreaming up amusing magical stories in which you endure heroic tests and achieve epic feats. And I’m proposing that you will fine-tune your ability to accomplish practical feats if you regard your robust imagination as crucial to your success.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo singer-songwriter Fiona Apple says she’s not religious. On the other hand, she regularly kneels on the ground and announces to whatever great power might be listening, “Thank you for my problems, and I send my love everywhere.” She’s sincere. She regards her sadness and her challenges as being equally important to her happiness and success. The difficulties teach her what she didn’t even realize she needed to know, and make her appreciate the good times more intensely. I suggest you borrow from her approach right now.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Nobel Prize-winning author Albert Camus wrote, “Great feelings bring with them their own universe”—which he said may either be degraded or splendid, selfish or generous. I love that he allowed for the possibility that great feelings could be positive and noble. So many renowned thinkers focus on negative and ignoble states of mind. In accordance with current astrological potentials, Libra, your task is to cultivate feelings that are splendid and generous. These sentiments should exalt you, uplift you and empower you to spread transformative benevolence to those whose lives you touch.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “How can you hold on to something that won’t hold still?” asked Scorpio poet Benjamin Fondane. In general, you Scorpios have more talent than every other sign of the zodiac at doing just that: corralling wiggly, slippery things and making them work for you. And I expect this skill will be especially in play for you during the coming weeks. Your grasp on the elusive assets won’t ever be perfect, but it will be sufficiently effective to accomplish small wonders.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian Calvin Trillin is a witty writer with a good imagination and a flair for inventive language. But back in school, he confesses, “Math was always my bad subject. I couldn’t convince my teachers that many of my answers were meant ironically.” You Sagittarians are authorized by the cosmic powers-that-be to borrow your style and attitude from Trillin in the coming weeks. So you shouldn’t be fixated on mathematical precision and fastidious logic; your task is not to be conceptually impeccable and scrupulously sensible. Rather, you have a license to be extra lyrical and lush and rhapsodic and humorous and irrepressible.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In 2011, an eBay seller produced a 19th-century photo that he said proved Capricorn actor Nicholas Cage is a time-traveling vampire. Although the character in the image did indeed resemble the Oscar-winning star, Cage rejected the theory and emphatically declared that he is not a time-traveling vampire. Maybe that all sounds absurd, but I must tell you that you may soon have to deal with people’s equally inaccurate and off-kilter theories about you. My advice: Don’t take it personally. Simply correct others’ misimpressions, and rely solely on yourself for definitive ideas about who you are.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I’ve assembled excerpts of love poems for your inspiration. Why? Because you’re entering the Intensified Intimacy Phase of your astrological cycle. Consider using the following riffs as inspiration when you interact with loved ones. 1. “I profess the religion of love; it’s the belief, the faith I keep.” 2. “Holding your hand, I can hear your bones singing into mine and feel the moon as it rolls through you.” 3. “Raw light spills from your eyes, utterly naked, awakening an intoxicating shimmer of adventure.” 4. “I ask you please to speak to me forever.” (Poem fragments are from Ibn ‘Arabi, Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi, Herman Hesse, Sara Eliza Johnson, Alejandra Pizarnik.)
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): An Australian witch named Michelle Clinton praises the joys of a “moon garden.” It features flowers and plants that reveal their full beauty after dark. Among the flowers that bloom at night are evening primrose, angel’s trumpet and Dutchman’s pipe cactus. As for the flowers whose aromas are most potent after the sun sets: night-blooming jasmine, garden heliotrope and honeysuckle. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will have resemblances to a moon garden in the near future, Pisces. Be alert for opportunities to glow and grow in the dark. (More: tinyurl.com/LunarGarden)
One of my favorite restaurants in Santa Cruz is Lago di Como. Named for Lake Como in Italy from which owner/chef Giovanni Spanu hails, their cuisine is authentic and delicious. My husband and I met there with friends recently for a lengthy dinner of all things Italian and some good local wine. Our cheerful server opened up my bottle of 2020 Aptos Vineyard Rosé of Pinot Noir which I had taken along to share.
I was thrilled when I found out that Aptos Vineyard had been reborn. It had lain dormant for some time after the death of Judge John Marlow, who started the vineyard in 1974 with his wife Patti. Now operated by Judge Marlo’s friend James Baker and his family, we can look forward to many more outstanding wines.
We all agreed that this excellent Rosé ($28) is worthy of high praise. With its floral notes and touches of vanilla and strawberries, the finish has a beautiful fresh dryness on the back of the tongue. But with the magic touch of winemaker John Benedetti (of Sante Arcangeli Family Wines), it is bound to be a sure-fire success.
“This dry-style Rosé is low-acid, allowing it to be paired with a range of foods or good conversation,” write the Bakers. And they’re right! It was perfect to pair with our plates of superb Italian food as we chatted away over this delightful bottle of wine!
Visit aptosvineyard.com for more info, or call 831-706-6090. Lagodicomoristorante.com.
Reem’s Cuisine
Reem Bitar and her husband Sam Bitar are experts at cooking up flavorful Mediterranean food. Hailing from Syria, their cuisine has zesty influences of the Levant—following recipes that go back to ancient times. These tasty dishes made by the Bitars include Kibbeh, Tabouli, Shawarma, Falafel and Kabobs, with a good selection of beer and wine. The Bitars have set up a small café in Seascape Sports Club (1505 Seascape Blvd., Aptos) on weekends (11am to 6pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday). Or you can order takeout by calling Sam at 805-302-4242.
El Jardin is a Midtown restaurant and bar that features local Mexican cuisine paired with family ambiance and warm, friendly service. Open seven days a week from 11am-9pm (Fri-Sat until 9:30pm), they have indoor and outdoor dining with a new rooftop patio that is dog-friendly and offers both sun and shade—and even a dog menu. Owner Manuel Rangel originally started as a busser, then became a server and then a manager before buying El Jardin four years ago. He spoke to GT recently about his restaurant.
What sets your menu apart?
MANUEL RANGEL: Several things. For one, whereas most Mexican restaurants offer corn tortilla chips and salsa, we offer corn and flour chips, as well as a housemade bean dip that is complimentary for the first round. It has refried beans, house spices, and is topped with green tomatillo salsa, jack and cotija cheese, and sour cream. It’s amazing—it’s memorably delicious, and people often come just for it. And the same goes for our flour chips. And also, our margaritas are always made with fresh lime juice and agave nectar. We never use mix—even our happy hour lime margaritas have all fresh ingredients—and we have a great selection of tequilas, too.
What are a few of your flagship dishes?
Definitely the mole. It’s a family recipe that has a slight spicy sweetness and flavor of its own, and is like a big helping of love. It’s a brown mole poblano and we have two serving options, one on top of corn enchiladas filled with chicken breast and the second over grilled chicken breast. Our tortilla soup is also very popular; guests often say it’s the best they’ve ever had. It has chicken broth, rice, house red salsa, and tortilla chips and is topped with guacamole, sour cream, and jack and cotija cheese. It also has big chunks of shredded chicken thigh, and is very rich in flavor. And if you’re into spicy food, try our Camarones Diablos. It comes with big shrimp sautéed in our Diablo sauce, which is fire roasted chilis in a garlic buttery tomato sauce. It is so good and very popular with our customers, many put it on whatever they order and it goes well with everything on the menu.
655 Capitola Road Suite 102, Santa Cruz, 831-477-9384; eljardinrestaurant.net.
