Page 523 | Good Times

How Seals Are Uncovering Secrets of the Southern Ocean

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January 28, 2021

How Seals Are Uncovering Secrets of the Southern Ocean

The spirit of Antarctic collaboration is alive in Santa Cruz.

On Jan. 13, the National Science Foundation announced that it would be awarding a grant of $152,929 to Luis Huckstadt, a marine ecologist at UCSC. The grant will be used to create an open database of all oceanographic data about the Southern Ocean—things like ocean temperature, salt concentrations, and light—collected by marine mammals and birds from the past few decades.

“The idea is to make the environmental data that penguins, seals, and people have been collecting in Antarctica since the ’90s available for [scientists] to use in their research,” Huckstadt says.

Wait, what? Scientist seals?

Let me explain. In the Southern Ocean, where dense layers of ice cover the sea surface for most of the year, collecting basic information about the ocean can be almost “impossible,” Huckstadt says. But areas that are difficult to reach for humans are the everyday jaunts of some animals. By attaching so-called “animal-borne instruments,” or ABIs, to these ocean dwellers, scientists can collect data about the Southern Ocean that would otherwise be out of their reach.

Most of this data, however, is collected by scientists for specific research projects and ends up locked away in lab computers scattered across the globe. Huckstadt is working with scientists in Australia and France to gather this information in a database that all scientists can access.

To do this, Huckstadt is relying on what he calls “the collaborative spirit” of Antarctica. Scientists working on the planet’s most inhospitable continent tend to band together, says Huckstadt, who has now visited Antarctica around 10 times.

“You just reach out to other scientists and tell them: ‘Hey, we need your data to look into this question,’ and people are very willing to share. It’s all about the advancement of science,” Huckstadt says.

That’s a good thing, considering how difficult it can be to access these areas, let alone attach a gadget to a wild animal. Seals may look cute, but researchers know to take them seriously.

“These are dangerous animals,” Huckstadt says. “They’re big, with big teeth, and they can kill you.”

To attach even one ABI, scientists must first catch and sedate their target. Every capture is a precious opportunity to learn more about these creatures, so scientists first collect physical data before gluing the ABI to the animal’s fur or feathers, usually between the shoulder blades.

ABIs can stay attached to an Antarctic marine animal for up to a year. Once they fall off, scientists can pick them up and extract the data.

Already, ABIs have allowed Antarctic researchers to question basic assumptions about the Southern Ocean. Between 2005 and 2009, researchers were puzzled by ABI data showing that seals were diving below the seafloor. By tracking these seals, scientists were able to discover that the seafloor was at least 200 meters further down than previously thought.

Huckstadt says this discovery shows how little baseline information we have about the Southern Ocean. He hopes that the database can help answer some of these questions while helping scientists understand how global warming is changing the Southern Ocean.

“We know that we have a huge effect on our planet, but we haven’t been able to understand the magnitude of these changes,” Huckstadt says, adding that polar regions are changing faster than almost any other environment on Earth due to climate change. “By looking at historical data that seals have been collecting for decades, we can potentially identify how much warming is happening and how fast.”

Over the next few years, Huckstadt and his team will create and test the database. Once it’s done, the team will also use the database to create material for a K-12 curriculum that educators in Santa Cruz and across the United States can use to teach their students about the Southern Ocean.

“For everyone working in marine biology, going to Antarctica is a dream,” Huckstadt says.

Through this grant, Huckstadt may bring some of that dream to other scientists and students around the world.

Why Even Presidential Pressure Might Not Get More Vaccine to Market Faster

Kaiser Health News

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January 28, 2021

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Why Even Presidential Pressure Might Not Get More Vaccine to Market Faster

By Liz Szabo and Sarah Jane Tribble and Arthur Allen and Jay Hancock, KHN

Americans are dying of Covid-19 by the thousands, but efforts to ramp up production of potentially lifesaving vaccines are hitting a brick wall.

Vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are running their factories full tilt and are under enormous pressure to expand production or collaborate with other drug companies to set up additional assembly lines. That pressure is only growing as new viral variants of the virus threaten to launch the country into a deadlier phase of the pandemic.

President Joe Biden has said he plans to invoke the Cold War-era authority of the Defense Production Act to provide more vaccines to millions of Americans. Consumer advocates — who had called for Donald Trump to use the Defense Production Act more aggressively as president — are now asking Biden to do the same.

But even forcing companies to gear up production won’t provide much-needed doses anytime soon. Expanding production lines takes time. Establishing lines in repurposed facilities can take months.

“The big problem is that even if you can get the raw material and get the infrastructure set up, how do you get a company that is already producing at maximum capacity to go beyond that maximum capacity?” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University.

Ordering the companies to work 24/7 “would be a naïve solution,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, a senior adviser to the CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an international group that finances vaccines for emerging diseases. “They’re probably already doing that to the extent they have the raw materials.”

Lurie added, “If you completely wear people out, mistakes happen. You have to balance speed with quality and safety.”

The technological challenges involved are daunting, and the companies haven’t been forthcoming about what’s needed to overcome any supply shortfalls.

“We don’t know what the holdup is. Is it capacity? Raw materials? People? Glass vials? We just don’t know what the bottleneck is,” said Erin Fox, senior director of drug information and support services at the University of Utah Health Hospitals.

Forcing other companies to start making the vaccines might not work either, Gostin said.

“I’m not sure if Biden could require a private company to transfer its technology to another company,” Gostin said. “That is highly questionable legally. … President Biden’s room for maneuvering isn’t as great as people think.”

Drug companies define “trade secrets” broadly, Fox said. “In general, drug companies don’t have to tell me who is making their product, where it’s made, the location of the factory. … That’s considered proprietary.”

Part of the challenge relates to how these vaccines are made. The first two authorized products use lipid nanoparticles to deliver a snippet of the coronavirus’s genetic material — called messenger RNA, or mRNA — into cells. The viral genes teach our cells how to make proteins that stimulate an immune response to the novel coronavirus.

Messenger RNA is fragile and breaks down easily, so it needs to be handled with care, with specific temperatures and humidity levels.

The vaccines “are not widgets,” said Lurie, who served as assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration.

Every step, experts say, to get vaccines to market has its complexities: obtaining raw materials; building facilities to precise specifications; buying single-use products, such as tubing and plastic bags to line stainless steel bioreactors; and hiring employees with the requisite training and expertise. Companies also must pass safety and quality inspections and arrange for transportation.

The Defense Production Act, for instance, would allow the government to commandeer a plant that already has a fermenter — there are plenty in the biotech industry — to expand production. But that’s just the first stage in making an mRNA vaccine and, even then, it would take about a year to get going, said Dr. George Siber, a vaccine expert who is on the advisory board of CureVac, a German mRNA vaccine company.

Companies would first have to do a breathtakingly thorough cleaning to prevent cross-contamination, Siber said. Next, they would need to set up, calibrate and test equipment, and train scientists and engineers to run it. Finally, Siber said, unlike a drug, whose components can be tested for purity, there’s no way to be sure a vaccine produced in a new facility is what it claims to be without testing it on animals and people.

“Making vaccines is not like making cars, and quality control is paramount,” said Dr. Stanley Plotkin, a vaccine industry consultant credited with inventing the rubella vaccine. “We are expecting other vaccines in a matter of weeks, so it might be faster to bring them into use.”

However, even that will require patience. Johnson & Johnson, expected to announce clinical trial results this month, has said that it won’t be able to deliver as many shots as planned because of manufacturing delays. The company did not confirm a manufacturing delay and declined to respond to questions.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine, also funded in part by U.S. taxpayers, is in use already in the United Kingdom and India, but the Food and Drug Administration has raised questions about its late-stage trial, so it may not be available here until the spring.

Novavax, another U.S.-funded vaccine maker, has been plagued by delays and only recently began recruiting volunteers for its big trial. Merck, the most recent company to get federal support for Covid vaccines, announced Monday it was scrapping its two candidates after they failed to produce adequate immune response in early tests.

“None of the vaccine makers are manufacturing at the volume they ultimately want to be at,” Lurie said. “They all have manufacturing delays.”

Pfizer, which has committed 200 million doses to the U.S. government by the end of July, said last week it expected “no interruptions” in shipments from its primary U.S. Covid manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Pfizer spokesperson Sharon Castillo said the company has expanded manufacturing facilities and added more suppliers and contract manufacturers. Those efforts, and the company’s announcement that its five-dose vials actually contain an extra dose, mean “we can potentially deliver approximately 2 billion doses worldwide by the end of 2021.”

The U.S. government also has an option to acquire another 400 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, though the company declined to provide details on that option when asked.

But countries around the world are competing for the same supplies and raw materials, Gostin said.

Biden could use the Defense Production Act “to force Pfizer to prioritize U.S. contracts, but that would be politically risky,” given that other countries could retaliate by hoarding supplies. Although Pfizer is an American company, it has partnered with BioNTech, of Germany, to make its Covid vaccine. “That would lead to a global mess.”

Trying to corner the world market on vaccine ingredients or supplies would look bad, experts say, given that the United States just this week joined Covax, an international venture to source and distribute vaccines, in an effort to ensure poor countries aren’t left behind.

Paradoxically, the rush to get vaccines to market may have resulted in a less efficient manufacturing process.

Vaccine companies typically spend months making their factories run as efficiently as possible, as well as finding an ideal dose and the most effective interval between doses, Lurie said. Given the urgency of the pandemic, however, they delayed parts of this process and launched straight into mass production.

Pfizer angered European countries last week when it paused vaccine production at a Belgian plant to upgrade its capacity. Pfizer said the weeklong closure would decrease vaccine deliveries to Europe for three to four weeks before boosting supplies in February. The move doesn’t affect U.S. vaccine supplies.

“The U.S can’t necessarily readily access stuff that’s being held for vaccines in other countries,” Lurie said.

And forcing other companies to make Covid vaccines could jeopardize production of other important shots, such as measles, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Routine childhood immunization rates have fallen during the pandemic, raising the risk of epidemics.

Using the act to prioritize Covid vaccine manufacturing has already disrupted supplies of at least one drug, Fox noted. In December, Horizon Therapeutics warned doctors and patients to expect a shortage of a drug called Tepezza, used to treat thyroid-related eye disease, because its manufacturer was ordered to prioritize Covid shots.

Lawmakers and consumer advocates such as Public Citizen called on the government to use the Defense Production Act more aggressively. In a letter sent earlier this month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) said Moderna should share its technique for stabilizing its vaccine at normal refrigerator temperatures, without “ultracold” freezers.

Moderna officials have said the intrinsic differences in the two companies’ mRNA material make that technology hard to share. Besides, they say, Pfizer has declined to share data with Moderna. Pfizer has declined to comment on the issue.

Since Moderna’s effort is federally funded, the government presumably has march-in rights and could take over production, said Mike Watson, former president of Moderna subsidiary Valera, in an email. “The reality is that however far you push production capacity, you sooner or later reach a bottleneck.”

Experts say it’s not as simple as demanding that glassmaker Corning step up and make glass vials, for example. Of course, the vials will need to meet rigorous requirements. But there’s also this: The U.S. is facing a shortage of mined sand, the main component needed to make glass vials.

Educators, Food Workers Join California’s Priority List for Vaccines

GT Staff

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January 28, 2021

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Educators, Food Workers Join California’s Priority List for Vaccines

Educators, childcare workers, food and farm workers and first responders will join Californians age 65 and over who have priority to qualify for the coronavirus vaccine, state officials announced Tuesday.

After that large group is vaccinated, the next priority group will be based on age — and middle-aged Californians are likely to be next in line.

The new statewide standard takes effect mid-February and will apply to all 58 counties in an effort to accelerate California’s low vaccination rate. It’s unclear how long it will take to vaccinate this new group, but the announcement dovetails with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s effort to reopen schools and small businesses.

California’s leaders hope the new system will simplify a confusing and chaotic county-by-county vaccine rollout that has deeply frustrated millions of Californians vying for still-scant supplies.

Counties will “move in unison,” according to state officials, and have much less leeway than they did to set eligibility criteria. Some counties allow people 65 and older to be vaccinated, while others still restrict it to those 75 or older.

More than 2.5 million people in California have been vaccinated in the past seven weeks, and about 125,000 now are receiving doses each day, the state’s top health official, Dr. Mark Ghaly, said at a briefing today. About 6.2 million people in California are 65 or older.

“At this moment of scarcity, we need to make sure vaccine is not just used to get to herd immunity, but to ensure that our most vulnerable” people are protected from severe COVID-19 illness, hospitalization or even death, Ghaly said.

Federal officials told the nation’s governors today that they can expect about a 16% rise in their weekly allotments over the next three weeks. But state and county health officials still cannot plan more than a week ahead for how many doses they’ll be able to administer, Yolanda Richardson, secretary of the Government Operations Agency, said at the briefing.

The new system emphasizes age rather than people with chronic medical conditions that make them vulnerable to severe effects of COVID-19. As a result, someone younger than 65 with a condition such as diabetes, heart disease, an organ transplant, or cancer will not be prioritized for weeks, even months.

“I am 22, disabled, and immunocompromised. Because of the pandemic, I no longer have access to regular medical care, and COVID-19 could kill me if I got it,” Stanford University student Ariela Algaze wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “Gavin Newsom just sent me to the back of the line to get vaccinated.”

The standards upend months of careful planning by a working group of experts convened by state health officials to develop statewide eligibility rules for counties. The group sought to develop a distribution order that balanced competing aims: vaccinating as many people as possible as quickly as possible, keeping society functioning by protecting essential workers first and assuring fairness in distribution.

“In a well-meaning effort to achieve equity, we are creating systems so complex and messy that they can thwart the goal of equity. Simpler is better,” said Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, who has advocated for a vaccine eligibility system based on age. “People at the highest risk of dying should come first.”

Some health advocates worry that vaccine doses won’t go first to the people most at risk of contracting COVID-19 – primarily lower-income Latino and Black Californians – but rather to the wealthy and powerful.

Ghaly said today that the state would continue to focus on equity issues to make sure vaccine gets to the communities “ravaged” by COVID-19. But there were few details about what that means in practice.

The state’s vaccine working group early on had proposed allocating vaccine doses first to communities scoring low on the state’s Healthy Places Index, which evaluates income, insurance coverage, education, pollution, density and other factors affecting residents’ health. After Newsom announced that people 65 and older were eligible, however, the group suggested that only 20 percent of doses go to those low-scoring communities, with the remaining vaccine earmarked depending only on age.

The advocates’ concerns appear to be warranted: Racial disparities in vaccination rates have emerged nationwide, although it’s impossible to tell whether such disparities are occurring in California. The state has not publicly released vaccination rates by county, race or age, although it is required to report that data to the federal government.

Variety, an entertainment trade publication, reported that Hollywood elites have jetted to Florida where eligibility criteria are less strict, or sought vaccinations from pricey “concierge” doctors. In the California desert city of Rancho Mirage, Eisenhower Medical Center invited wealthy donors – albeit over 65 – to be vaccinated at a “test clinic” not open to the public, the Desert Sun reported.

The eligibility guidelines come a day after Newsom ended the virtually statewide stay-at-home order and returned to the color-coded county reopening system launched last summer.

Outdoor dining, outdoor gym workouts, hotels and haircuts may soon resume operations in some counties, depending on the orders issued by local public health officers. Monday’s announcement took many business owners — and state lawmakers — by surprise.

For weeks, Newsom and other state officials have drawn withering criticism for a chaotic vaccine rollout in which they largely deferred logistics and eligibility decisions to counties.

Californians spent hours fruitlessly navigating online registration and notification systems managed by county and city governments, hospitals and even supermarkets — only to find there were no vaccine appointments available. Some online platforms have buckled under the strain, going dark for hours at a time.

Earlier this month, state officials quietly launched a statewide vaccine registration website called MyTurn (myturn.ca.gov) allowing Californians to sign up to be notified when they are eligible for vaccination, and in some cases, register for an appointment. For now, the site is in pilot mode. While residents in some counties now can register to be notified of their turn, the site only allows appointment sign-ups in Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

“The biggest problem we have is lack of supply. That has highlighted all the flaws in delivering the vaccine,” said Leah Russin, co-founder of the advocacy group Vaccinate California. “We have consistently overpromised and under-delivered, and we should be doing the opposite.”

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

Beauregard Vineyards’ Chardonnay 2018 Worthy of a Special Occasion

Josie Cowden

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January 27, 2021

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Beauregard Vineyards’ Chardonnay 2018 Worthy of a Special Occasion

Want to treat your sweetie to a wonderful bottle of wine for Valentine’s Day? Then look no further than Beauregard’s Chardonnay. Owner and winemaker Ryan Beauregard has made a wine par excellence—he never fails to produce outstanding-quality elixirs.

Native yeast fermented and aged in 20% new French oak barrels, 500 cases were produced of the Bald Mountain Chardonnay ($55), so I would say there’s a good chance there’s still some around, even though Beauregard wines sell like wildfire. (A good place to find Beauregard wines is Shopper’s Corner.) Planted in 1990, the vineyard of Bald Mountain in Bonny Doon is owned and farmed by Beauregard Vineyards.

You will love the Chardonnay’s nose of “white flowers, honeysuckle, yellow apple, Meyer lemon, stirred lees, and raw hazelnut—with a touch of oyster shells and wet white rocks.” For sure you’ll be smitten when you taste its refreshing acidity and flavors of “crunchy Asian pear, lime pith, lemon blossoms and yellow apples.” This is a wonderful Chardonnay that’s worthy of a special occasion. If you get some for Valentine’s Day, your sweetheart will love you all the more!

“This vintage is remarkable,” says Beauregard, “and my team put in 110% effort to craft the best wines that can be made from our family estate. I have selected rare and unusual barrels constructed in France, which will hone these wine gems while they mature into wines I will be proud to put my family’s name on.”

Beauregard Vineyards, 10 Pine Flat Road, Bonny Doon. 831-425-7777, beauregardvineyards.com.

Safe Catch Tuna

I love tuna in a sandwich or salad. A good brand I recommend is Safe Catch—one reason being that their Pure Wild Tuna and Wild Albacore Tuna are thoroughly tested for mercury. There’s a lot of junky food out there, so it’s important to check labels for content. Safe Catch is also 100% sustainably caught, and you can find it locally at Zoccoli’s Deli, New Leaf, Shopper’s Corner, Aldo’s Italian Bakery in Soquel, Deluxe Foods in Aptos, and others. Safe Catch is based in Sausalito. Visit safecatch.com for more info.

Things To Do in Santa Cruz: Jan. 27 – Feb. 2

GT Staff

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January 27, 2021

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Things To Do in Santa Cruz: Jan. 27 – Feb. 2

A weekly guide to what’s happening.

ARTS AND MUSIC

BANFF CENTRE MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL VIRTUAL FESTIVAL This year, bring the adventure home! Fluff up your couch cushions, grab a snack of choice, and make sure you have a good internet connection, because the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour is going virtual! For the first time ever, travel to breathtaking destinations, embark on daring expeditions, and celebrate some of the most remarkable outdoor achievements, all from the comforts of your living room. The Covid-19 pandemic has created extraordinary circumstances around the world, and many of our live World Tour screenings have been postponed or canceled. While we can’t replicate the experience of seeing the Banff films on the big screen of your local theatre, surrounded by friends and your community, these curated programs of amazing outdoor films will inspire you to live life to the fullest, however that looks these days! Please visit riotheatre.com for more information about the online programs and how you can support your local screening.

CALL FOR COLLABORATION: MLK DAY JUSTICE JOURNAL Share your dreams and submit a page into a community journal in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. You can write and draw your responses by hand or digitally. Written responses can be of any language. Submitted pages must fit within 10 inches by 10 inches. Per submission, please include a note with your name, address, email or phone number, and selected prompt available on the event page. At the end of February, all the submissions will be compiled and pieced together. The completed journal will be displayed the week of March 1 as a close to Black History Month and continuation of a Black future. Submissions accepted through Feb. 19., Guidelines can be accessed on the event page: santacruzmah.org/events/justice-journal.

VIRTUAL PARENTING WORKSHOP (BILINGUAL): ENCOURAGING CREATIVITY WITH FAMILY ART ACTIVITIES January is Positive Parenting Awareness Month! Triple P Workshops cover practical tips and strategies for handling specific parenting questions and challenges. Attend this free virtual parenting workshop with your kids to learn how art, music, dance, performance, and other creative activities promote children’s learning, development, and well-being and participate in family art activities with local bilingual teaching artists! Presented in English and Spanish with interpretation on Zoom by Janet Dollar of Community Bridges’ Live Oak Community Resources, with Nessa Ledesma and Adrian Torres, bilingual teaching artists, in collaboration with the Arts Council Santa Cruz County. Register by Jan. 22 to get the Zoom meeting link and art materials for this virtual workshop: bit.ly/Creativity-Jan27_Creatividad-27enero. Got questions? Contact Triple P Santa Cruz at 465-2217. New to Zoom? Visit Zoom’s Help Center at support.zoom.us/hc/en-us. Los talleres de Triple P ofrecen consejos prácticos y estrategias para manejar las preguntas y desafíos de crianza específicas. Asista a este taller de crianza virtual gratis con sus hijos para aprenda cómo el arte, la música, el baile, la actuación y otras actividades creativas promueven el aprendizaje, desarrollo y bienestar de los niños. ¡Participe en actividades de arte familiares con artistas maestros bilingües locales! Presentado en español y inglés con interpretación por Zoom por: Janet Dollar, Puentes de la Comunidad – Live Oak Recursos Comunitarios, con Nessa Ledesma y Adrian Torres, artistas maestros bilingües, en colaboración con el Consejo de las Artes del Condado de Santa Cruz. Vea el volante bilingüe. Inscríbase antes del 22 de enero para conseguir el enlace de Zoom y materiales de arte parta el taller: bit.ly/Creativity-Jan27_Creatividad-27enero ¡En enero celebramos el Mes de la Crianza Positiva! Asista a clases de Triple P en enero para recibir una bolsa de regalo y su nombre también será incluido en una rifa. ¡Más clases = más oportunidades para ganar premios! Wednesday, Jan. 27, 3-4:30pm.

COMMUNITY

EIGHT-WEEK VIRTUAL PARENTING GROUP: FOR FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN 2-12 YEARS OLD January is Positive Parenting Awareness Month! Join us for an eight-week virtual Triple P Group for families with children 2-12 years old, held Thursdays, Jan. 7 – Feb. 25. Individuals, couples, and any friends or family members who are helping raise children are welcome to attend. Participants will meet other families and learn simple strategies to help you strengthen relationships in your family, encourage positive behaviors, teach your child new skills and behaviors, handle disruptive or challenging behaviors with greater confidence, and take care of yourself as a parent. Presented in English on Zoom by Cori Burt, of Community Bridges’ Mountain Community Resources. To register, contact Cori Burt at 831-335-6600, ext. 6605, or visit bit.ly/TripleP-Group-Jan2021. Participants must register and attend the second session on Jan. 14 in order to participate in the group. If the group is already in session and you would like more information about another upcoming eight-week Triple P group, please contact First 5 at 831-465-2217. Thursday, Jan. 28, 5-6:30pm.

ASK ME ANYTHING: CONVERSATIONS FROM THE FRONT LINE OF HOMELESSNESS Join Housing Matters’ Programs Staff in their newest webinar: “Ask Me Anything: Conversations from the Front Line Of Homelessness”. This is your opportunity to hear what is going on every single day to solve homelessness and ask all the questions you have about working to solve homelessness in our community. Thursday, Jan. 28, 11am.

VOLUNTEER FOR BIG BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY January is National Mentoring Month, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Cruz County is celebrating those who are already volunteering as mentors, “Bigs,” and recruiting volunteers. Our volunteers defend, ignite and empower youth so they reach their promise and potential. Every January, the news is full of the same stories: people are trying to eat more healthfully, hit the gym more often. Since 2020 was so unique, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Cruz County is changing that story and asking: What if this year, you could resolve to do something more important, more impactful? The isolation and social distancing due to the pandemic has been difficult for all of us – especially children. Mentoring offers connection and support and can even be done virtually. In 2021, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Cruz County is asking people throughout the county to resolve to be “Big” by becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister. Santa Cruz County residents can get involved with National Mentoring Month by going to santacruzmentor.org and clicking on the “Volunteer” tab. We invite you to join our agency by becoming a virtual or in-person Big in 2021. We will be holding a Zoom Recruitment Meeting. for more information and to sign up, please contact Juan Castillo at ju**@*************or.org to sign up today. Friday, Jan. 29, noon-12:30pm.

SALSA SUELTA FREE ZOOM SESSION SALSA SUELTA FREE ZOOM SESSION Keep in shape! Weekly online session in Cuban-style Salsa Suelta for experienced beginners and up. May include Mambo, ChaChaCha, Afro-Cuban Rumba, Orisha, Son Montuno. No partner required, ages 14+. Contact to get the link. salsagente.com. Thursday, Jan. 28, 7pm.

VIRTUAL PARENTING SEMINAR: RAISING CONFIDENT, COMPETENT CHILDREN January is Positive Parenting Awareness Month! This Triple P seminar for families with children ages 2-12 years old is presented in English on Zoom by Dr. Heather Thomsen, PhD. Raising Confident, Competent Children covers social and emotional skills that children need in order to thrive at home, in school and throughout life. Register to get the Zoom link for each Seminar: bit.ly/Confident-Children-Jan31. Got questions? Contact First 5 at 831-465-2217. Attend Triple P classes in January to receive a gift bag and be entered into a raffle drawing. More classes means more chances to win prizes!. Sunday, Jan. 31, 1-3pm.

VIRTUAL PARENTING WORKSHOP: FAMILY MEETINGS January is Positive Parenting Awareness Month! Triple P Workshops cover practical tips and strategies for handling specific parenting questions and challenges. Attend this free virtual parenting workshop to learn how to hold family meetings to reconnect, discuss family rules, and solve problems together and plan a meeting for your family. Presented in English with Spanish interpretation on Zoom by Sandra Rodelo, of Community Bridges – La Manzana Community Resources. Register to get the Zoom meeting link for this virtual workshop: bit.ly/Family-Meetings-Jan28. Attend Triple P classes in January to receive a gift bag and be entered into a raffle drawing. More classes means more chances to win prizes! Got questions? Contact Sandra Rodelo at 831-724-2997, ext. 211, or contact Triple P Santa Cruz at 831-465-2217. Los talleres de Triple P ofrecen consejos prácticos y estrategias para manejar las preguntas y desafíos de crianza específicas. Asista a este taller crianza virtual gratispara aprenda cómo tener reuniones familiares para reconectar, hablar sobre las reglas familiares, y resolver problemas juntos planifique una reunión para su familia. Presentado en inglés con interpretación en español por Zoom por: Sandra Rodelo, Puentes de la Comunidad – La Manzana Recursos Comunitarios. Vea el volante bilingue. Inscríbase para conseguir la información para participar en este taller por Zoom: bit.ly/Family-Meetings-Jan28 . ¡En enero celebramos el Mes de la Crianza Positiva! Asista a clases de Triple P en enero para recibir una bolsa de regalo y su nombre también será incluido en una rifa. ¡Más clases = más oportunidades para ganar premios! ¿No conoce Zoom? Visite el Centro de Ayuda de Zoom en support.zoom.us/hc/es. Thursday, Jan. 28, 6-7:30pm.

GROUPS

ENTRE NOSOTRAS GRUPO DE APOYO Entre Nosotras support group for Spanish- speaking women with a cancer diagnosis. Meets twice monthly. Registration required: Contact Entre Nosotras at 831-761-3973. Friday, Jan. 29, 6pm.

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS All our OA meetings have switched to being online. Please call 831-429-7906 for meeting information. Do you have a problem with food? Drop into a free, friendly Overeaters Anonymous 12-Step meeting. All are welcome! Sunday, Jan. 31, 9:05-10:15am.

WOMENCARE ARM-IN-ARM Cancer support group for women with advanced, recurrent, or metastatic cancer. Meets every Monday at 12:30pm via Zoom. All services are free. Registration required. Contact WomenCARE at 831-457-2273 or online at womencaresantacruz.org. Monday, Feb. 1, 12:30pm.

WOMENCARE TUESDAY SUPPORT GROUP WomenCARE Tuesday Cancer support group for women newly diagnosed and through their treatment. Meets every Tuesday at 12:30pm. via Zoom. Registration required by contacting 831-457-2273. Tuesday, Feb. 2, 12:30-2pm.

WOMENCARE: LAUGHTER YOGA Laughter yoga for women with a cancer diagnosis. Meets every Wednesday at 3:30 via Zoom. Registration required by contacting 831-457-2273. Wednesday, Jan. 27, 3:30-4:30pm.

OUTDOOR

COMMUNITY PERMACULTURE CALLS WINTER 2021 Practice permaculture each week at our ‘village campfire’ of ongoing interactive group calls. Hosted by experienced permaculture mentors including Santa Cruz Permaculture founder David Shaw, Lydia Neilsen of Rehydrate the Earth, and John Valenzuela of Cornucopia Food Forests. The goal of this program is to create thriving and resilient individuals and communities. We do this through supporting people to connect with nature, community, and themselves more deeply, and use permaculture as the vehicle for doing so. Each call includes a keynote talk on a relevant and seasonal topic. This is followed by a small group conversation for reflection, and a whole group conversation and Q&A. We close the calls with invitations for how you can apply what you’ve learned in your home and community. The next call begins with a check-in about how it went applying what you learned. Our curriculum is ever-evolving, changing with the seasons, and influenced by the topics people want to cover. It is dialogical and co-creative. We include and also transcend the topics covered in our permaculture design course, listed here just to get the flavor of typical topics. For example, during a 10-week cohort, we may spend two weeks on composting (home or commercial), two weeks on no-till agroecology and food forests, a week on habitat and pollinators, a week on designing disaster resilience (personal and neighborhood), a week on economics and right livelihood, and a week on policies to support ecological living. Overall, our goal is to help you and your community thrive using a community-based approach to permaculture as the means. Winter cohort topics include winter pruning, grafting, observing water, greenhouses and composting. Learn more about and register for the 10-week call series at santacruzpermaculture.com/communitypermaculture. $25 per call, $250 for the series. Tuesday, Feb. 2, 7-8:30pm.

LABSIDE CHATS: A CONVERSATION WITH A SCIENTIST, FEATURING MICHAEL BECK, PH.D. Tune in for the Seymour Center’s next Labside Chat with Michael Beck, research professor with the Institute of Marine Sciences at UCSC, on Thursday, Jan. 28, as we explore how natural habitats provide coastal resilience that reduce risks to people, property, and nature. Discover why ecosystems such as coral reefs, coastal wetlands, and mangroves may help to reduce flooding and dissipate strong storm events. Join the conversation! Submit your questions in advance for Mike, then watch the conversation to hear the answers during the live chat. Help us put together questions such as: Why are coastal ecosystems such as coral reefs or wetlands considered important barriers against strong storm surges? How is economic value assigned to natural ecosystems? Is climate change or other human disturbances to coral reefs or wetlands causing a decline in how effective they are as natural storm barriers? How are policymakers and stakeholders using information learned from this research to make decisions? Visit the Seymour Center’s website to submit your questions and to watch the live conversation: seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/learn/ongoing-education/labside-chats. Thursday, Jan. 28, 11-11:30am.

Showtime Pizzeria Dishes Up Fresh, Unique Pizza in Aptos

Andrew Steingrube

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January 27, 2021

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Showtime Pizzeria Dishes Up Fresh, Unique Pizza in Aptos

At Showtime Pizzeria in Aptos, it’s less about “lights, camera, action” and more about reasonably priced, delicious pizza and other Italian favorites.

They are open seven days a week from 11am-8:30pm (8pm on Sundays). Van Luna, who grew up in Aptos, started there as a silent partner 12 years ago and has been the primary owner for the last three. It’s a totally family-run business—Luna’s son, two uncles, two brothers, and two cousins all help him run the place. He recently spoke to GT about Showtime’s showstopping and savory menu.

What makes your pizzas distinctive, and what are a couple of your house specialties?

VAN LUNA: For one, our fresh produce and meats, all of which are bought locally. I also think what separates us is how fresh our dough is. We handmake it fresh once a day and sometimes twice a day. We’re known for our thin-crust New York-style pizza, but we also serve a deep dish. One really popular option is our pesto and ricotta cheese pizza. A lot of places only use pesto, but we get a lot of positive feedback from guests about the combination with the ricotta cheese. One of our most unique offerings is the chorizo, cilantro, jalapeño, and onion pizza. It’s kind of a pizza with a Mexican twist; people love that it’s something they’ve never had before. It’s definitely a crowd pleaser. Guests often come to our restaurant just to try it.

What are some of your best non-pizza items?

We make a great Corralitos sausage sandwich with locally sourced cheesy Bavarian jalapeño sausage. It comes with onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, and mozzarella cheese on a white roll from a local bakery. Our lasagna is also really delicious. It has a lot of fresh local produce—tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms. It comes with ground beef, ricotta cheese, and a layer of pesto. It’s a hearty portion; it’s layered pretty thick, and people really love the fresh taste. One of our house-specialty pasta dishes is our fettuccine with creamy pesto. Our pesto is pretty traditional but has a few secret family recipe ingredients added. The dish has a little cream, as well as artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and bacon, and guests can add chicken too, if they like.

7960 Soquel Dr. Suite E, Aptos. 831-662-3362, showtimepizzeria.com.

Letter to the Editor: River Trashed

Letters to the Editor

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January 27, 2021

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Just today it was announced—even further decline and extinction of salmon is expected on Western waters. We cannot let any of this happen anymore.

We need to get all of this trash out of the river immediately. This is seriously trashing and polluting critical habitat for threatened Steelhead and endangered Coho Salmon.

I don’t care where this stuff goes. Just keep it all 100 feet away from the river.

This is the worst I’ve ever seen the San Lorenzo, and at a time when the Steelhead and Coho (if there are any) and all the other species that live there need our help.

And please help me get to who is responsible for tilling the river bed like this. All of this sandy silt will end up in the estuary and contributes to a totally unnatural and terrific amount of build up in the lower section of the river and river mouth.

We need to get everyone involved and get this off the river. Before it rains. Spread the word—I’m willing to help do the work.

Somebody get us in front of the Federal Judge (Susan van Keulen) so we can remind her this is the destruction of critical habitat and hazardous materials that will end up in a National Marine Sanctuary.

Tom Hogye | President, Santa Cruz Fly Fishermen

This letter does not necessarily reflect the views of Good Times.

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Opinion: Exploring Running’s Popularity Boom and Health Benefits

Steve Palopoli

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January 27, 2021

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Opinion: Exploring Running’s Popularity Boom and Health Benefits

EDITOR’S NOTE

I didn’t plan to run a marathon last year, and I certainly didn’t expect to win one. But 2020, as we all know, had no one end of bizarre twists, and for me, this was a big one. Like the first runner you’ll meet in my cover story for the Health and Fitness Issue this week, I am not an elite runner in any way, but quarantine pushed both of us to push our running goals beyond what we once thought possible.

For me, it was gradually more ambitious long runs every weekend—14, 15, 16—miles that made me think, “Hmm, maybe I can do a 20-mile run.” When I told a friend of mine this, she said, “Well, if you’re going to run 20 miles, you might as well run a marathon.” I had my doubts, since there hadn’t been any in-person races since March. But after her story about once running a marathon on her own with the assistance of nothing but a Tiger’s Milk bar, I thought, OK, maybe I can run one of these virtual marathons.”

I signed up for the Coastal Marathon, which is usually run in San Francisco every year, but last year was a “virtual race”—which, as you’ll read in my story, means you create your own course, run it in a certain window of time, and submit your smartwatch results to the organizers. I picked up a copy of Hal Higdon’s Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide from Bookshop Santa Cruz, and eventually mapped out a 26.2-mile course along the Los Gatos Creek Trail, with lots of weird doubling-back and side routes. Even weirder was when I had to sneak around Vasona Park the night before to hide Gatorade along my planned path. But even though my legs hurt for a couple of days afterward, actually running the marathon was a crazy thrill. I was shocked to discover when the results were posted that I’d actually finished with the best time—I guarantee this is the only time in history that a 4:37 marathon led to a first-place finish, but hey, there were only six entrants. (As you’ll also discover in my story, runners are mixed on the virtual-run idea.)

It was an honor to get to talk to Higdon himself, whose book (which is basically the bible of marathon training) I credit with getting me through the race without wrecking myself, for this story. And I hope this article, besides exploring running’s popularity boom, also puts to rest some of the exaggerated health safety concerns I’ve heard about outdoor exercise during the pandemic.

One more thing: This is the absolute last week to get your vote in for the Best of Santa Cruz County, so drop everything except getting (or giving!) vaccinations to go to goodtimes.sc and vote today!

STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Read the latest letters to the editor here.

ONLINE COMMENTS

Re: Mass Vaccination Site

This article is very helpful. I’m healthcare provider in the area and simply haven’t known what to say to my most at-risk senior patients. I’m glad I’ve been telling most of them to call their PCPs as it seems most will be able to get it there. Thanks for writing this article.

— Lanie Saunders

Re: Streaming Swindle

You neglected to mention that David Lowery also teaches about music and is a professor, and has his Ph.D. The man is smarter than a whip.

— Lisa

Re: Rail Trail

I think the RTC is doing a great job on our Coastal Rail Trail. We love the Westside section and look forward to the upcoming openings. It takes patience to implement large infrastructure projects, especially when sales taxes yet to be collected are a significant funding source and the engineering requirements are complex and varied. The RTC has evaluated a myriad of options and focused in on the most important characteristics of each—economics, efficiency, ecology and equity. (The “4 e’s”—you can use that). We must keep the rails to ensure we have a coherent trail from Davenport to Watsonville or large swaths of the land will become windfall gains to those with easements and their developers, at the expense of all county residents. I don’t think identity politics are at play. I think it’s a difference of views and the majority of Santa Cruz County wants rail alongside the trail. Let’s move forward.

— Dan Dion

Santa Cruz can’t afford to fix our potholes. Where will the County come up with the money to maintain rails, trestles, etc? Not to mention the misery for those living next to the tracks. I am not anti-train, my father was a career RR worker. Rather I have a realistic idea of the expense involved with maintaining a safe railway.

Aside from all of that, the tracks don’t go anywhere near most of the employment centers in the county, I believe it will be underused… actually I believe the technical term is “boondoggle”.

— Robyn Marks

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

A rainbow over Wilder Ranch last week. Photograph by Jan Gitler.

Submit to ph****@*******es.sc. Include information (location, etc.) and your name. Photos may be cropped. Preferably, photos should be 4 inches by 4 inches and minimum 250dpi.

GOOD IDEA

PLASTIC LIFE

Plastic packaging is a part of our day-to-day lives. But what exactly is plastic, and what happens to it after we throw it into the recycling? Open Farm Tours answers these questions and more in a free two-hour webinar on Thursday, Feb. 4, at 6:30pm. Join eight local waste management and sustainable-packaging industry professionals as they explore the life cycle of plastic around Monterey Bay. Find more information and registration at eventbrite.com/e/plastics-in-packaging-tickets-135829839707.

GOOD WORK

TRAVEL BY CELLO

The Distinguished Artist Concert Series hosted Amit Peled for a virtual one-man classical concert on Jan. 17. That concert is now available for free for a limited time on the organization’s website. Peled invites his audience to join him from his home in Baltimore on a charming 44-minute musical journey across Europe with his trust cello Shoko, Hebrew for “hot chocolate”. To watch the performance, visit distinguishedartists.org.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I’ll be happy if running and I can grow old together.”
-Haruki Murakami

Running Experiences Huge Surge in Popularity During Pandemic

Steve Palopoli

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January 26, 2021

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Running Experiences Huge Surge in Popularity During Pandemic

If our lives have been defined by Covid-19 over the last year, our health has been defined by what’s become known as “Covid-15”—a joking reference to the pounds that many people have put on while living with quarantine, working from home and generally social distancing since last March.

But for Iraj Zarrinnaal of San Jose, it’s more like Covid-13.1—as in 13.1 miles—considering the number of half-marathons he ran last year. Zarrinnaal did 28 in all, including 17 consecutive weekends of them, on his way to running a total of 2,020 miles in 2020.

Zarrinnaal says he “by no means” considers himself an elite runner. But during the pandemic, his running went absolutely nuts. He usually does about five half-marathons per year, and before March, he hadn’t planned on more than quintupling that number, or on running 48 miles per week for the rest of 2020. But like everyone else, his extracurricular schedule during quarantine centered around outdoor activity—because what else was there for any of us to do?—and gradually his goals started getting a lot more ambitious.

“I thought, ‘What I’ll do is run a few 10Ks a week, a long run on Saturday, and do three or four days of not running—maybe hiking or walking,” he says. “That’s the plan that started forming.”

A cancer survivor he met in Team in Training, which organizes running groups to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, had a goal of running a half-marathon every week, and Zarrinnaal decided he’d join in on a “few” of those. He did the “California 500” Challenge dreamed up for pandemic running by J.T. Service of Run Local Bay Area, which produces the Silicon Valley Half Marathon, the East Bay 510, and the San Francisco Across the Bay 12K and 415K: 500 miles between June 8 and Sept. 7. He went out with friends on 25K trail runs, despite the fact that he’d never been a trail runner himself. In addition to his own half-marathons, he paced other members of his running groups who had qualified for the Boston Marathon, New York Marathon and more—running half their courses.

After March, none of these races were the kind runners were used to, pre-pandemic; from the huge marathons down to Santa Cruz’s venerable Wharf to Wharf 10K, nearly every annual race that wasn’t cancelled became a “virtual run,” usually meaning that participants set their own course and run it within a certain calendar window, submitting the results from their smart watches and running apps to race organizers. The in-person events featuring dozens, hundreds or even thousands of runners crowding the streets, waiting for the starting gun, have all but disappeared over the last 10 months. Here in the Bay Area, where Covid-19 safety regulations have been particularly strict, they are not likely to return until—well, no one has any idea when, other than a vague notion that eventually enough people will have received the vaccine that popular races won’t seem like superspreader events waiting to happen.

But that has done nothing to dampen the enthusiasm for running—in fact, the pandemic has been a boom time for the sport. And it’s not just longtime runners pushing themselves beyond what they thought possible. A combination of the need for a low-risk excuse to get out of the house and a growing understanding of the health benefits of outdoor activity during the pandemic has led to the increased popularity of everything from walking to hiking to cycling—and a huge new crop of runners.

Lacing Up

Hal Higdon, a contributing editor to Runner’s World magazine and one of the country’s foremost running gurus thanks to his book Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, was surprised by these developments last year, at least as far as they pertained to the custom training plans he offers on his app Run With Hal, which are focused specifically on helping runners train for their goal distances.

“We had an uptick in the number of people buying my training programs,” he tells me. “Normally I would have expected there to be a pretty significant drop in sales, because there weren’t any races to train for. I guess we just happened to have a product that was good for people if you’re just training for the pure joy of running itself.”

In the small community he lives in near Lake Michigan, he says he first noticed the new influx of runners last summer. “It seemed like the pandemic doubled the number of runners on Lake Shore Drive this summer; new runners who used the sport to keep from going crazy while stuck at home,” he says. “Not merely on the weekends, when there’s usually a lot of foot traffic and bike traffic, but also in the middle of the week, when people are usually working.”

In Santa Cruz, all you have to do is look around West Cliff Drive, Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, or pretty much anywhere else to see it, says Diane Delucchi, vice-president of the Santa Cruz Track Club.

“I’ve seen a lot more people running. I’ve noticed it in the parks, and even on the streets and beaches,” she says.

The hard data is just starting to be collected on this running surge, but it would seem to bear out the anecdotal evidence. In April of last year, just after the pandemic began to shut things down, the running app Runkeeper reported a 252% increase in registrations and a 44% increase in monthly active users compared to 2019, as well as a 62% spike around the world in people heading out for a weekly run.

Meanwhile, running shoe company ASICS did a study in June that revealed that 62% of those who had taken up running during the pandemic planned to stick with it in the future. The study, which interviewed 14,000 subjects in 12 countries, found that 79% of runners said their running was helping them “feel saner and more in control” during the pandemic, 65% of runners said it provides them more mental benefits than any other form of physical exercise, and 73% of runners plan to keep running as much as they are now after the pandemic ends.

For Zarrinnaal, the proof of the new dedication to running is even simpler than that. “When I get up at 5am to go to a 6am run, I look out the window and I see people running in the neighborhood in the dark,” he says. “Those people weren’t there before the pandemic.”

Building Immunity

The health benefits of running during the pandemic may go well beyond the mental benefits that the runners in ASICS’ study perceived—and even beyond the typical physical benefits we associate with getting in shape. In an article published last July in the journal Clinical and Experimental Medicine, titled “Physical Exercise as a Tool to Help the Immune System against Covid-19: An Integrative Review of the Current Literature,” the authors—while admitting much about the subject is still unknown—write that “During and after physical exercise, pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines are released, lymphocyte circulation increases, as well as cell recruitment. Such practice has an effect on the lower incidence, intensity of symptoms and mortality in viral infections observed in people who practice physical activity regularly.”

They conclude that “the benefits of exercise—regular and at appropriate intensity levels—for the immune system in respiratory infections such as Covid-19 include increased immunovigilance and improved immune competence, which help in the control of pathogens.” It’s a typically academic way of saying that regular, moderately intense exercise like running seems to help us get respiratory infections like Covid-19 less often, and have less severe symptoms when we do.

Crowd Control

But what about the Covid-19 risks? Nearly all of the runners I spoke to for this story said they were concerned about the crowds that the increase in outdoor activity has led to on popular local routes. Willie Harmatz, who co-owns the Los Gatos running store Athletic Performance, says he hears complaints about it from runners literally every day in his store. Having coached students from local high schools for decades, he wonders why more schools aren’t opening their tracks for recreation to provide some additional space when so many runners of all ages are being pushed onto the most popular trails.

“I’ve been telling the administrations at all these schools it’s safer if you open up the track—which is wide open, you’ve got eight or nine lanes,” Harmatz says. “They always say, ‘Well, we have to keep our kids safe at our school, that’s our number one priority. I go, ‘Wait a second, if you keep the community safe, that in turn keeps the students safe.’ The more facilities that are open for jogging or running, which is safe during the pandemic, the better, so why not open them up?”

Those administrators may be falling prey to a common notion about running and outdoor exercise in general during the pandemic—one which health officials in Santa Cruz County bought into for a long time as well when they closed the beaches on and off for months: That any number of people exercising near others outdoors creates a high risk of Covid-19 transmission.

Based on the science we know so far, that’s simply not the case, says UCSC professor and infectious disease expert A. Marm Kilpatrick. There are three ways we understand Covid-19 to be transmitted, he explains—physical contact, which can be reduced to zero risk while exercising by simply not touching anyone you run or walk near; the “ballistic” effect of larger droplets being propelled from one person that can end up in another person’s nose, mouth or eyes; and the so-called aerosol transmission via very tiny droplets that can hang in the air before falling to the ground.

“The ballistic part is low-risk, unless as you’re running by someone they sneeze or cough or talk right in your face,” Kilpatrick says. “So I think even a minimal amount of space between people can make that really low. And then the aerosol risk is extremely low unless there’s a substantial amount of time spent in someone else’s space, primarily because those aerosols get diluted. You can imagine it as an expanding gas, so the fact that there’s a more-or-less infinite amount of space around all of us outdoors, you would have to have a really, really calm setting and have to be in someone else’s space for a substantial amount of time—like several minutes would be a higher risk. So unless you’re running near somebody you don’t know, and you’re right on their butt, tailing them for several minutes, exactly getting their airstream, the risks are super, super low.”

The bottom line, he says, is that the risk of Covid-19 transmission from running or other outdoor exercise—while certainly not zero—is minimal.

“The risks are so, so much higher in all these other settings. Let’s say there’s 50,000 Covid cases in California today. Maybe one or two of those might be caused by exercise-related outdoor activities, and the other 49,998 are caused by other stuff,” he says. “If someone is a really high-risk person and they want to keep their risk to an absolute minimum, should they go on trails—hiking or walking or whatever they’re doing—that are less crowded? Sure. Should they wear a mask that reduces their risk further? Totally. And would it help a little bit if the runners were also doing that? Yes. But again, if you’re taking the risk from 1-in-10,000 to 1-in-50,000, it’s definitely lower, but the change is so small that I think those consequences are not super clear.”

Kilpatrick is a runner himself, and he does do certain things to be as safe and courteous as possible, such as looking away from other runners as they pass, and not running too close to those running in the same direction.

“The science suggests that just a small amount of decency and respect among people—not breathing or coughing or sneezing in people’s faces when you’re walking or running—can take the risk down to such a small number that that’s not where we should even focus our attention,” he says.

Making Adjustments

Still, Covid-19 is a cluster-loving virus, which of course is what led to the cancelling of almost all in-person races. There are exceptions here and there—the Boulder Creek Recreation and Park District’s BCRD Foundation, for instance, held its annual Reindeer Run 5K fundraiser through downtown Boulder Creek in late December, turning it into a series of run days to space out runners and observe Covid-19 protocols.

For most race organizers, however, that wasn’t possible, so they cancelled their events entirely in 2020, or chose the virtual option. Not all runners are fans of the latter, including Runners’ World founder Bob Anderson.

“I always run at least 20 races per year,” says Anderson, who lives in Los Altos. “In 2020, I ran three. My last race was March 6. There have been a lot of virtual races, but how fun is that?”

Still, Delucchi says that while the virtual version of the Santa Cruz Track Club’s Turkey Trot didn’t draw as many runners as in other years, she felt it was important to keep it going in some way.

“I said, ‘You know what, let’s just do it and see how it turns out.’ We had about 90 runners, and they had a time period to do it. I sent out their shirt and the finisher medals, and they were able to have their shirt before Thanksgiving so they could wear it if they wanted to do a run Thanksgiving Day,” she says. “I wanted people to know there was still something that was still kind of normal—‘The Turkey Trot’s still going to happen; it’s going to be virtual, but it’s still going to be here.’”

Like many running groups, the members of the Santa Cruz Track Club have also changed how they run with each other and coach.

“It’s kind of sad because we’re not running as a big group, and we usually have Sunday runs and our normal workouts during the weekdays,” Delucchi says. “But then you create these little Covid pods. So I have a running pod, and I have a cycling pod. And there are hiking pods too, but the hiking pods are kind of the runners and the cyclists together.”

The data reported by activity tracker Strava in its “Year in Sport” report for 2020 suggests that despite all this, running groups are only getting more popular—though, like races, many people are now doing them virtually. The company reported that 172,000 new clubs were created on its platform last year.

Zarrinnaal started running in 2012, but didn’t take on half-marathons or marathons until he hooked up with Team in Training. He then later found a free running group led by San Jose’s Too Legit Fitness, which he calls his “running family,” and under the guidance of Bertrand “Coach B” Newsom, gradually began improving his Personal Record (PR) for half-marathons, his distance of choice. Though the group has altered its gatherings due to Covid-19, he credits his socially distanced runs with other members of the group with inspiring his remarkable running year. In the last week of December, many of the group members whose virtual runs he had paced during the year came together to pace him for the Santa Barbara Virtual Half Marathon. He wanted to run it in under 1:47, a time he had wanted to get under for a while.

“I told my friends I was going to try to PR. And the day I did it, many people showed up to pace me and help me,” he remembers. “The last mile I said, ‘How are we doing?’ And they said, ‘Well, you’re doing a PR, but we’re not telling you how fast.’ So I started sprinting on the last stretch, and finished at 1:46.”

The finish line for that race was also the 2,020th mile he’d run in 2020—putting him exactly at his goal.

“It was great to finish the year with a PR,” he says. “That was a good culmination of my year of running.”

Will Coastal Commission Block Affordable Housing in Santa Cruz?

Jacob Pierce

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January 26, 2021

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Will Coastal Commission Block Affordable Housing in Santa Cruz?

It was well over a year ago now that the Santa Cruz City Council approved an 89-unit condominium complex, complete with eight very-low-income homes and two other affordable ones, to go with dining and shopping on the first floor.

The new complex should transform Bay Street and West Cliff Drive, reshaping a single-story parking lot into an epicenter of activity, and linking Beach Street to the Westside. In meetings, some neighbors worried it would tower over the area, including a trailer park next door. But given the project’s affordable units, the project qualified for a density bonus and a relatively streamlined approval process. State lawmakers had laid all of that out in recent state laws aimed at curbing California’s housing shortage, especially in expensive communities like Santa Cruz.

That’s why anyone who walks, bikes and drives by the site now might find it odd not to see a single shovel in the ground. Not only that, but the developer, Ensemble Real Estate Investments, has not yet been able to finish the design plans. That’s because—streamlining aside—the developer is actually still waiting for an additional green light from a state agency on a project that the City Council approved in October 2019.

The staff for the California Coastal Commission are currently studying four housing projects, including 190 West Cliff and two 100% affordable projects—all of them in various stages of approval and planning. The commission has received four appeals over the project. And given that the density bonus laws are relatively new, the state commission’s staffers admit they’re in uncharted waters.

“It’s a new analysis for us,” says Ryan Moroney, the Coastal Commission’s Central Coast District supervisor.

The Coastal Commission, which takes its authority from the California Coastal Act of 1976, is a powerful land-use body, although its jurisdiction covers only the Coastal Zone, an area that sits between the state’s coast and a zigzagging boundary that was drawn decades ago.

Staffers are looking at how to reconcile the state density bonuses with the California Coastal Act and Santa Cruz’s Local Coastal Plan. Critics, meanwhile, worry the commission is standing in the way of critical affordable housing construction.

Ensemble Principal Tyson Sayles, who works on multi-family and mixed-use developments, says the delays have frustrated him.

Moroney points out that Ensemble did waive its right to a 49-day review period, paving the way for a slower, more deliberative process.

In a 2019 email obtained by GT, Moroney told Sayles that, if they did not agree to the waiver, staff would not have time to vet the appeals and would likely recommend that the commission seek to overrule the city’s approval of his housing project. After he signed the waiver, Sayles hoped that the commission would approve his project by February of last year, but the delays kept piling up.

Moroney says the Covid-19 pandemic introduced new challenges, including staff furloughs. Moroney tells me that he hopes that the 190 West Cliff project can have its public hearing in front of the California Coastal Commission before the summer. Then Sayles would know if he can move forward.

Eager to get started on construction, Sayles wonders how many more months he’ll be waiting.

“These kinds of delays kill projects and cause them to go bankrupt,” he says. “Thankfully, we’re able to be more patient than a lot of developers, because our parcel is a parking lot and not a vacant property that we’re having to pay off. But it’s expensive. At some point in time, the delays do create all kinds of challenges. Building codes change. Markets change. In the meanwhile, there’s no housing being built. There are people who would like to live in these units. And there’s workers that don’t have the economic benefit of consistent work. It’s just a shame to see a 49-day timeline expand to 18-month-plus waiting period, especially in a housing crisis.”

ON COMMISSION

The Coastal Commission’s most well-known mission centers on protecting public access to beaches.

But the commission, with guidance from its staff, has other roles and votes on development projects within the coastal zone—which, in Santa Cruz, extends into the southern portion of downtown. The commission will weigh whether such projects align with a Local Coastal Plan or with the Coastal Act. The charge is for the commission to protect “coastal resources.” Those resources do include coastal access, Moroney says, as well as recreational opportunities. Staff additionally study areas that local governments also study, like water quality and potential geological hazards. On top of that, there are standards that are less objective, like the aesthetics of a proposed development and community character.

It’s unclear how easily the coastal rules mandating certain guidelines can coexist with the recent state laws aimed at reducing housing costs in the most expensive areas, many of which are along the coast.

In an unrelated presentation from January 2020, a Santa Cruz County planner advised the Board of Supervisors that the Coastal Act actually supersedes the state’s new laws.

Although he and his colleagues are still studying the issues, he says staff’s goal will be to harmonize the various laws as much as possible.

RECORD TIME

It isn’t only developers who sweat the mounting delays.

A public records request filed by the housing advocacy group Santa Cruz YIMBY with the Coastal Commission returned troves of email correspondence and draft analyses about the housing issues that staff are studying. Included were several emails sent early last year by neighbors of the West Cliff project, who oppose the project but want to have the public hearing, so they can put the saga behind them. (Moroney says the frequent emails from neighbors don’t influence staff’s interpretation of the coastal law, although sometimes they call attention to a violation or raise points worth hearing.)

Kyle Kelley, a leader of Santa Cruz YIMBY, says that if these trends of long delays continue, large out-of-town developers will have an easier time weathering the uncertainty than small-time local ones ever could.

He would also like to see California and its cities make it easier to build 100% affordable housing complexes, and he worries that isn’t happening.

The Bay Area affordable housing developer Midpen Housing was recently in a holding pattern, while awaiting word from commission staff about whether it had to file a special local coastal permit to build an all-affordable complex in the Lower Ocean neighborhood. The developer was simultaneously getting ready to apply for state funding. Commission spokesperson Noaki Schwartz says staff have determined that the developer will, in fact, need a permit.

Kelley says the state should be tearing down whatever barriers it can when it comes to affordable housing construction, including these permit requirements. If such a project were a few blocks farther north, he notes, it would not need a permit.

Moroney says staff supports affordable housing, but he adds that they can’t change the requirements.

“Even though we support a project and it has great benefits and potentially not a lot of coastal resource impacts, we can’t circumvent the law,” he says.

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There are other projects that the Coastal Commission could impact.

The public records requested by Santa Cruz YIMBY show the commission is studying the Pacific Station South, a proposed all-affordable housing development for the Coastal Zone.

And then there’s the proposed Riverfront housing project, recently greenlit by the City Council, pending Coastal Commission approval. Santa Cruz Planning Director Lee Butler says the project, which would overlook the San Lorenzo River, offers enough very-low-income units to allow it to rise up to 78 feet in height, in accordance with state law.

Some activists and planning commissioners want the city to fight developer Owen Lawlor and try to force him to make more condominiums affordable, even if it means getting sued in court—an expensive legal battle that Santa Cruz leaders and consultants insist the city would lose. Lawlor also says it could sink his project, which doesn’t have any organized opposition.

The coastal impacts, laid out by Moroney in this case, are mostly visual.

Although the state passed its density bonus laws in the name of increasing housing affordability, Moroney isn’t sure if the level of affordability outweighs the downsides of having such a tall building so close to the river—about a mile’s walk from the beach, down the San Lorenzo Riverwalk levee paths.

Against the backdrop of all this, there has already been something of an awkward standoff between the city and the Coastal Commission staff over the Riverfront project. When the project went to the City Council in November, commission staff didn’t submit a letter of concern until after the meeting had started, and the letter had at least one factual error. The letter’s timing elicited tough words from city councilmembers, who felt forced to delay their vote at the last minute until January, when they ultimately gave it their support, pending Coastal Commission approval.

Moroney says Coastal Commission staff isn’t opposed to upzoning for greater density, but he adds that it needs to be done in a way that preserves “coastal resources,” including the aesthetics of the river.

Kelley, of Santa Cruz YIMBY, counters that the state’s housing crisis has become a humanitarian problem.

As the sprawling state of California grows only more expensive and hotter, he says it would be wise and energy-efficient to plan for more growth near the state’s coast—close enough to the ocean breezes and far enough from the rising tides.

“When does the Coastal Commission see that with urgency? Because right now, in those emails, there is no urgency,” he says. “They could keep waiting.”

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