This year, more than ever, GT has written about the threats facing small, locally owned businesses in Santa Cruz County, and what can be done to help them through this brutal pandemic. But why are we so focused on this issue? Why does it matter if these businesses survive, or if they all go under and are replaced by the same generic chain stores that have taken over in cities around the country?
I think the cover story this week by Hugh McCormick offers some real insight into why it’s so important to take care of our independent local businesses. Because as his story reveals, the 70-year history of Yamashita Grocery is wrapped up inextricably with the history of Watsonville, and especially the history of Japanese Americans there. This store—which doesn’t even have a sign bearing its name—is the epitome of an unassuming local treasure, and to lose it would mean losing part of our very identity as a community in this county.
Thankfully, this isn’t that type of story. Yamashita appears to be thriving, even in the pandemic, and a whole new generation of locals is discovering it. Hopefully this story will help with that, and provide some insight into the fascinating and sometimes tragic history of Japanese Americans in South County.
Any form of anti-Semitism or prejudice is unacceptable. When informed by Jewish community members that an image of John Leopold used in one of my campaign ads was offensive, I immediately removed it.
I promptly called Rabbi Shifra at Temple Beth-El to address concerns and listen to the voices of the Jewish community. We had a relevant and important conversation. I have reached out to John Leopold and apologized.
I also extend my apology to the Jewish community. I am thankful for this opportunity to increase my understanding of all forms of anti-Semitism and microaggressions. The work of creating a just and unbiased society is never done and I will take every opportunity to do better.
Manu Koenig
If Trump Won’t Leave, Carry Him Out
The latest idea put forth by Trump is this thing called “herd immunity,” which means to allow the virus to run free and see who lives and who dies. This shows that he cares little or nothing for anyone’s life but his own. He thinks that the survivors, like himself, will be immune, but immunity remains very much unproven.
So this guy, if he should have his way on this, is now threatening my life as well. I cannot know at this point whether I will be alive when he leaves the White House—or is carried out. I am an older person who would likely die if I contracted the virus. My hope is that I will be alive, as I want to see him in prison for life, having been convicted of the mass murder of thousands of the American people that he is responsible for, along with any number of his followers.
Their crimes are too numerous to cover in this letter, but among the worst is the separation and incarceration of children from their parents along the Mexican border. Things are very bad in this country, but this is one of the worst in my lifetime.
And how about finding the persons who set out the phony mail-in ballot boxes in Southern California and get them in jail ASAP?
Thomas Stumbaugh | Aptos
ONLINE COMMENTS
Re: DeCinzo Cartoons
The online battering continues apace in Facebook commentary. I am “oozing racism” if I don’t support the view that Manu is anti-Semitic if he didn’t see anti-Semitism in these cartoons. It was after all supposed to depict that on supervisor Leopold’s watch, any money we might have had for a 21st century state of the art multimodal transit corridor is being frittered away on endless studies and maintenance, by a train at any cost proponent. That’s the worst of it.
I very much appreciate this article pulling in all the different threads in a way that helps the reader glean more than a two dimensional cartoonish caricature of who did what and why. And appreciating the two comments here, so much more human than Facebook, Nextdoor and other social media platforms. Center for Humane Technology’s Tristan Harris nailed it: social media platforms are seriously undermining our democratic process.
— Corrina McFarlane
DeCinzo’s side is the reactionary conservative body politic that plagues both factions in town, be they moderate, progressive, or socialist. Believing in depopulation is typical rich people environmentalism. He owns more than one home and thinks that _others_ are taking up too much space. Consider the company you keep.
— Leonard Grif
Re: Cannabis Enforcement
Frankly I think what we’re talking about here is gross waste of police and Court resources on something that should be left alone while cops pursue violent criminals. When all violent criminals are in jail and all murders are solved then maybe go after cannabis crimes. Other than that this is just lazy cops looking for low-hanging fruit and ignoring the larger issues in our community.
— Ben James
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
Taken in the Lighthouse parking lot right before Halloween. Photograph by Ross Levoy.
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
RAIL, HOWBOUT THAT?
The Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) invites the public to provide input for Milestone 3 of the Transit Corridor Alternatives Analysis through an online public open house that will be available through Nov. 27. The analysis is a year-long study that evaluates high-capacity public transit alternatives to provide an integrated transit network for Santa Cruz County using the Santa Cruz rail corridor. Connections to Monterey, Gilroy, and the San Francisco Bay Area will be considered. For more information, visit sccrtc.org/transitcorridoraa.
GOOD WORK
TOY STAND
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Toys for Tots will not host public collection sites this year for holiday toy donations for the first time in its history. The organization has established online gift registries. Donors may also give directly to the organization. Volunteers interested in working two or more shifts can sign up by emailing T4********@***il.com or by visiting SantaCruzCounty.ToysForTots.org. For more information on the program, call 831-724-3922 or visit watsonville.salvationarmy.org/watsonville_corps.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“When we came out of [the internment] camp, that’s when I first realized that being in camp, that being Japanese-American, was something shameful.”
The deli counter that once teemed with the freshest seafood in the southern reaches of Santa Cruz County is now stocked with pickled ginger, miso paste, yan noodles, and fish cakes. But not much else has changed at Watsonville’s small, family-run Yamashita Grocery (also known as the Yamashita Market) in the past 70 years.
With moon-shaped glasses, a weathered grey fanny pack, floppy “Maui” hat, and a hidden, but clearly evident smile under his red bandana, Goro Yamashita carefully navigates through a labyrinthine maze of boxes and shelves, taking time to greet the steady stream of colorfully masked customers as they walk through the weathered metal doors of his store on Union Street.
It’s officially “Tofu Day” at Yamashita Grocery, so Goro, his two sisters , and his cousin Toshi are in a whirl of constant motion. They ring up customers on an ancient cash register, moving swiftly and in sync through a tiny space not much larger than the average garage.
The Yamashita clan—tight-knit as ever—has been doing the same thing, the same way, for their entire lives.
“Customers have been coming to us for fresh tofu, mochi, manju, and fish for decades,” says Goro, who adds that 95% is what they sell is Japanese.
Goro, the proud owner of Yamashita Grocery, has spent his entire life in Watsonville. He grew up helping his mother, who was born locally, and his father, who emigrated from Japan at age 13, at the store each day after school at Watsonville High.
“My dad, being the oldest child, felt like it was his responsibility to take care of things and run the grocery,” Goro says as he expertly cuts through a thick block of milky white tofu. “He loved this store. Number one was the store, number two was his bonsai plants, and number three was his family. It’s been important to us all to keep the store going.”
The store is a holdout—one of the few Japanese businesses in a city rich with Japanese history and tradition.
“We’re the last family-owned Japanese store around,” Goro said. “Other stores are more Americanized … like little Safeways. There used to be many, many more mom-and-pop Japanese businesses in Watsonville. But we’re the only one now. It’s sad.”
Growing California
Japanese immigrants arrived in Watsonville as early as 1892. California was rapidly becoming the fruit and vegetable basket of the U.S., and cheap farm labor was needed to keep the immensely profitable ag machine running. A paltry 4% of fruit and vegetable crops originated in California in 1879. Three decades later, the Golden State was pumping out over half of the nation’s produce.
Pajaro Valley’s white farmers relied on Chinese field workers, who worked for a pittance for decades. But the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 forced farmers to find alternative sources of field labor, and ended up opening the door for thousands of Japanese immigrants.
A trickle, and then a wave, of Japanese workers—mostly young, unmarried men from small farms and villages—began arriving in the Pajaro Valley around the turn of the century. Chasing the American Dream in the area’s lush fields and vibrant orchards, Japanese workers quickly earned a reputation as industrious, hardworking, and reliable. Tending mostly apples, strawberries and sugar beets, the Japanese transplants filled the labor vacuum left by the Chinese.
Japanese immigrants played a pivotal role in creating today’s “Salad Bowl of the World.” They provided not only cheap and necessary labor, but also a unique agricultural approach—with expertise and ingenuity in areas such as irrigation, mulching, seed selection and soil preparation. Japanese immigrants were able to cultivate small acreages intensively, with impressive per-acre yields and returns.
Pajaro Valley’s impressive strawberry cultivation, as it stands today, owes much to the creativity, flexibility and cooperation of Japanese immigrants.
Close to 700 Japanese called Watsonville home in 1910. Many lived in Japan Town—a vibrant community south of the Pajaro Bridge complete with bath houses, labor clubs, two churches, a laundry, medical doctors, a shoe store, photo studios, and general merchandise and grocery stores.
Outside the Buddhist temple that was formerly on Union Street in Watsonville. Japanese Americans thrived in the city before World War II. PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE PAJARO VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Branded the Enemy
By 1940, Watsonville’s “Nihonmachi,” centered along Union and Main Streets, had become a hotbed of Japanese culture, catering to local Nikkei (Japanese emigrants and their descendants who reside in a foreign country) farm workers and their families. There were kendo and judo dojos, boarding houses, a community center (Toyo Hall), a Buddhist temple, Japanese-language schools, a popular baseball field, and a variety of shops, laundries and markets, including humble Yamashita Grocery.
Then disaster struck, erasing decades of progress almost overnight. On Feb. 19, 1942, President Roosevelt released Executive Order 9066, calling for the immediate roundup and internment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans. The U.S. was at war with Japan, and all people of Japanese ethnicity were deemed the enemy.
Forced to quickly liquidate everything they could not carry with them—including homes, cars, land, farms and much more—close to 1,300 Nikkei and their families living in Santa Cruz County were forcibly relocated and interned in a temporary camp on the Rodeo Grounds in Salinas, and later moved to Arizona’s Poston Camp II.
In the early months of 1942, there was a whirl of frenetic activity, and at times panic, as Pajaro Valley’s Japanese population prepared to move to a then-unknown destination. There was a massive surge in marriage license and birth certificate requests as families did anything and everything they could to ensure they stayed together. Vultures (not the animal kind) hovered around Watsonville, snapping up goods and precious heirlooms for pennies on the dollar. With no idea where they were heading, many Japanese families used the little money they could scrape together to buy warm clothing. As it turns out, there would be little need for sweaters and long underwear in dusty and desolate Arizona.
The decline of Pajaro Valley’s once-flourishing Japanese community was precipitous and brutal. Almost overnight, they were stripped of any and all rights they once possessed, and most of their belongings. Businesses closed, clubs disbanded, churches emptied, and families had to make quick but incredibly difficult decisions about what to keep and carry with them into their incarceration.
Besides property and rights, Japanese-Americans also lost family histories, irreplaceable photos, and historical artifacts during the war. Some families actually destroyed them themselves, burning piles of journals, photos, and other documents to avoid unwanted future attention from the U.S. government and FBI.
In its April 30, 1942, issue, the Register-Pajaronian reported, “By noon Thursday, no person of Japanese ancestry remained in Santa Cruz County for the first time in more than a half century.”
There were no trials, no lawyers, and no due process of law—despite the fact that 71% of the Japanese were U.S. citizens.
Conditions at the “temporary detention center” on Salinas’s Rodeo Grounds were appalling. The stench was unbearable. With no formal restrooms, raw sewage flowed freely in open trenches throughout the camp. Families huddled together in hastily constructed wooden barracks, or in tenements formerly used for livestock. Cold showers were available, but men, women, and children were forced to bathe together in military-style gang units. The Wartime Civil Control Administration, the agency in charge of the Assembly Center’s day-to-day operations, made it a mission to keep personal privacy—and hope—to a minimum.
A few months later, the WCCA announced that the new inmates would be shipped to southwestern Arizona, to one of the 10 “relocation centers” the U.S. government constructed to house the Japanese for the duration of the war.
At its peak, the Poston Internment Center housed over 17,000 inmates, making it the third largest “city” in Arizona. In terms of area, Poston was the largest concentration camp operated by the War Relocation Authority during World War II. The sprawling complex was divided into three separate mini-camps—nicknamed Dustin, Toastin, and Roasten by its inmates. Hastily constructed, uninsulated barracks made of tar paper and redwood cracked and shrank under the desert sun.
Each relocation center functioned as its own town, with a post office, schools, and farmland for keeping livestock and growing food. But there was a constant shortage of basic supplies—including lumber, food, and clothing. Without adequate nutrition, many inmates at Poston began to lose weight and wither away upon arrival. Outbreaks of disease, including tuberculosis, were common occurrences in the concentration camp. Periodic dust storms brought with them fainting spells, bloody noses, and heat rashes. With limited access to medical supplies, many Japanese inmates died of preventable causes.
Just a month after President Franklin Roosevelt announced that the “military necessity” of camps like Poston no longer existed (in December of 1944), the United States Supreme Court issued a formal ruling—Endo v. the United States—which would lead to their permanent closures.
Following that decision, Supreme Court Justice William Francis Murphy voiced his criticism of the Japanese internment, writing, “I am of the view that the detention in Relocation Centers of persons of Japanese ancestry regardless of loyalty is not only unauthorized by Congress or the Executive, but is another example of the unconstitutional resort to racism inherent in the evacuation program.”
In the early months of 1945, after three long years of living in an atmosphere of fear, despair, and suspicion—behind razor wire and under constant armed guard—Pajaro Valley’s Japanese population were released.
A photo from the Poston War Relocation Camp II, from sometime between 1942 and 1946. PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE PAJARO VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Bittersweet Homecoming
The suffering of Japanese Americans didn’t end there, however. Families who returned to the Pajaro Velley faced bitter racism and rampant discrimination, and found a city in chaos. Much of their hard-earned land (and agricultural leases), farm equipment and possessions were gone: either sold to the highest bidder for pennies on the dollar or simply taken. Many formerly well-to-do Japanese business owners returned to Watsonville with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
“Some found their belongings, which had been stored by churches or trusted neighbors, while others discovered their homes in disarray, their things stolen or broken,” reported the Register-Pajaronian on Sept. 8, 1945.
According to the head of the local War Relocation Authority (WRA), an organization set up to assist persons of Japanese descent in resettling, “The biggest problem facing local WRA representatives is housing. Hostels will have to be established throughout the area to house the returning Japanese.” Some Japanese families were able to stay at hastily constructed hostels, while others spent their nights on the floor of the Buddhist temple on Union street.
One the largest economic impacts on Japanese Americans during World War II was the reassignment or cancelation of agricultural leases. An agent from the Farm Security Administration swept into the Pajaro Valley just days after local Japanese American citizens were taken to the Salinas Assembly Center. His sole job was to assist anyone (non-Japanese) wanting to farm the land of those who had been interred. Close to 70% of the land tended by Japanese Americans was leased, often with the help of the U.S. government. During the war, the majority of the leases were terminated, leaving many returning families landless and destitute.
Pajaro Valley’s Japanese community lost other economic niches during the war, too. During their internment in Arizona, a law was passed that barred all those of Japanese ancestry from acquiring commercial fishing licenses. The once flourishing Japanese abalone and sardine industry was eliminated almost overnight.
Following their three-year incarceration, Japanese Americans faced the most hate and animosity in agricultural valleys, where people feared competition from returning farmers. Salinas was one of the least receptive areas on the Central Coast. “No Japs Wanted” signs were a common sight, and many Japanese Americans were unwelcome at barber shops and gas stations. It was difficult for some to separate them from the Japanese Army in the Pacific.
“There was so much hate and discrimination here after the war. We all felt it. People were stuck in their ways. Watsonville was never the same for us. I remember my mom dealing with it. People would see her and refuse to sell to her. Like butter and things she really needed,” Goro says.
Rebuilding
World War II marked the end of regional Japantowns like Watsonville’s “Nihonmachi.” Not a single one of the once-vibrant cultural and business centers survived Japanese internment.
Many Japanese emigrants threw in the proverbial towel—fleeing the Pajaro Valley for greener and more welcoming pastures. It’s estimated that only one-third of Japanese American residents living in the region returned after the war. The congregation of Watsonville’s Buddhist temple that numbered in the hundreds in 1940 dropped to dozens in 1945. The families who did come back, like the Yamashitas, struggled to start over, and desperately tried to regain their footing in an unwelcoming climate.
During the Japanese internment, the produce giants of Pajaro Valley scrambled to find workers for their fields. The valley’s agricultural machine attracted thousands of Mexican migrant workers. And just like the Chinese and Japanese emigrants of decades prior, the Mexicans who settled in Watsonville made it their own. Today, the population of Watsonville is mostly Latinx—close to 85% according to recent census data.
“Most of the Japanese people in Watsonville—adults and kids—are gone. They just moved on. They needed or wanted to leave the area. Or didn’t want to go into agriculture or farming. They moved and didn’t come back,” Goro said. “I was one of the only Japanese students at Watsonville High. At one time local schools were full of Japanese kids like me.”
New Generation
With a weathered facade—peeling pinkish paint, rusty brown screen doors, and a small paper American flag in the window—Yamashita Grocery has no signage whatsoever. You could easily drive by its Union Street location hundreds of times without noticing it was there.
Through sheer force of will, and a little luck, Goro’s uncle was able to piece together a “new” Yamashita Grocery following World War II—in its current location. The tiny operation has survived by word-of-mouth, and customers have been coming to the Yamashita family for their tofu, noodles, mochi, vegetables, sake, natto, and Japanese sweets for decades.
But recently, a new generation of (Yelp-and-Google-driven) hipsters has discovered the market.
“Since sushi got more popular, a lot more non-Asian people are shopping here,” Goro says. “They want to make Japanese noodles and their own sushi themselves. A lot of non-Japanese are buying Japanese goods. Hispanic, white … eating habits have changed. People crave variety. Something different. So they come to us. We’re seeing a younger, hipper crowd.”
For decades, the Yamashitas relied on a local tofu company named Murata—one of the last four remaining Japanese family-run businesses in the area (there was Murata, Yamashita, Wada and Bridge Street Grocery)—for its fresh product.
“Murata and the other businesses closed down, sadly,” Goro says. “They had no kids or relatives who wanted to take over their operations. Now, we’re the last ones here.”
With Murata closed, Yamashita Market had to scramble to find a new supplier—one that could match Murata’s delicate (but not mushy) texture and consistency. The artisan tofu from Sunnyvale’s Gombei Tofu fit the bill nicely.
“Once a week, as we have done for decades, we offer our customers the freshest, finest tofu around,” Goro says. “People call ahead and pre-order their week’s supply and pick it up each Thursday. The tofu is sold in blocks and made the same day. There can be lines and it sells out quickly.”
Like everyone else these days, Yamashita Grocery has had to change and adapt in the face of Covid-19. Customers are asked to wear masks when they enter, and only a certain number of shoppers are allowed in the already-cramped space at a time.
With more and more customers deciding to “shop local,” the Yamashita family has struggled to keep up with rising demand for some Japanese staples. Signs are posted limiting the types and quantities of ramen, soba and udon noodles people can buy each day.
“We were seeing panic buying here. People were going crazy. Things have cooled off a little, but now, people don’t want to drive large distances—like over the hill. So we’re seeing quite a few new customers. Lots of ‘I didn’t know you were here’ stuff. Our business has picked up,” Goro says.
Sonja Brunner, the Downtown Association’s operations director, is ready to get to work on the Santa Cruz City Council.
Although votes are still being counted, the most recent returns have Brunner in first place in the race for four seats. If Brunner stays in first place, she’ll likely be chosen to serve a one-year term as mayor. In the November election, she admits to even outperforming her own expectations.
“I was really surprised that I was at the top of the votes. To me, it just shows my 28 years in Santa Cruz and my connections in many different circles and communities,” she says. “I’ve worked and served many different people over the years.”
According to the most recent returns, Councilmember Martine Watkins is in second place, Councilmember Sandy Brown is third and Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson is fourth. (Nonprofit executive Kayla Kumar is in fifth.) Watkins and Brown are both within striking distance of the top spot, but Brunner will undoubtedly finish in the top four. Brunner has begun the onboarding process, talking to City Manager Martín Bernal’s office about training and protocols.
Brunner’s election to the City Council was more than unlikely. It was practically miraculous.
Just over three years ago, a drunk driver crashed into Brunner’s car in a collision that she thought was going to kill her. The June 2017 crash left Brunner with lacerated organs, a broken pelvis and a fractured spine. That summer, she transitioned from being in a wheelchair to walking with a walker to walking with a cane. Before long, Brunner was back to her old hobbies of stand-up paddle boarding and roller skating.
Brunner also remembers feeling heartbroken when the drunk driver had to have his leg amputated in the aftermath of the crash and then died one month later from a resulting infection. The whole terrifying experience changed everything for Brunner.
“That accident really shifted my mindset. If you’re thinking about doing something, go for it. Give it your all,” she says.
Across the nation, record numbers of voters cast their ballots this year. Locally, at least 84% of registered Santa Cruz County voters cast their ballots.
The results created a few shakeups.
Among them, three longtime incumbents—Santa Cruz County Supervisor John Leopold, Santa Cruz County School Board Trustee Dana Sales and Cabrillo Board Trustee Ed Banks—were ousted by challengers.
Not only that, but each of those three challengers ended up winning by wide margins.
SUPERVISE ON THE PRIZE
John Leopold has been a county supervisor since 2008. He says he was disappointed by the loss, in which Manu Koenig garnered more than 56% of 30,218 votes.
By midday Wednesday, Nov. 4, Leopold had already called Koenig to congratulate him.
“I let him know that the voters spoke clearly, and I want to assist him with the transition to meet the needs of the residents of the 1st District,” Leopold says.
He says his loss during 2020’s “change election” likely came from voters looking to remold both local and national politics.
Leopold added that he is proud of his work during his time on the board, which includes creating the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Cruz County and the LEO’s Haven inclusive playground. He also pointed to his work with land-use policies such as vacation rentals and addressing sea-level rise.
Koenig called his numbers “phenomenal,” and says they reflected what he and his team have been hearing on the campaign trail.
“I want to express my deep gratitude to the voters for their trust,” Koenig says. “And I look forward to getting to work for them.”
He was celebrating on election night at home with his parents, his fiancée and two friends. He attributes his high numbers to a desire from the public for change, on issues such as homelessness and the high cost of living.
“We’ve seen that people are frustrated with the way things are in the nation, but on the county level as well,” he says.
LEARNING CURVE
The county’s education races were not immune to landslides.
Dana Sales, who’s served as a school board member with Pajaro Valley Unified School District and the County Office of Education for a total of 35 years, lost overwhelmingly to Ed Acosta, who received 75% of 7,689 votes.
Sales has served on the county board since 1992. He says that his tenure on the board may have been a contributing factor in his loss.
“I think the fact that I’ve been a trustee for so long was held against me,” he says.
Sales says his loss likely came in part after he decided not to take his campaign into neighborhoods because of Covid-19 fears. He believes Acosta was very effective in going door to door. “It was probably a big mistake, but I still think it was the right thing to do,” Sales says.
Sales, a realtor, says he plans to stay active in the community.
Ed Acosta says his success came from months of hard work that included his entire family and many friends. It also came from voters hoping for change, he says. He says his fluency in Spanish likely helped him connect with constituents.
A lifelong Watsonville resident, Acosta says he is looking forward to getting to work for his community.
It wasn’t the only shakeup in the education races.
Steve Trujillo won his bid for the Trustee Area 7 seat of the Cabrillo College Governing Board, beating out Ed Banks, who held the seat since 2012.
“It’s been a long time coming,” says Trujillo, who lost a bid for Watsonville City Council in 2018 and previously served on the Santa Cruz City School Board.
Trujillo says he is looking forward to renaming Cabrillo—a movement that started in July after a group of activists said that the college should not be named for infamous explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, known for brutalizing the native people who lived here before his arrival.
“Cabrillo was a horrific, evil despot,” Trujillo says.
Trujillo attributed his success in part to local media, which he says helped get his name and his policies into the public view.
Ed Banks, who thought the final result would be closer, says the returns from the election surprised him.
“I thought in my mind, in my heart, I was doing a good job on behalf of the trustee area I represent. If it wasn’t that way, the election showed that, at least in the voters’ minds.”
Santa Cruz County on Tuesday moved back to the more restrictive Red Tier of the state’s Covid-19 reopening plan, meaning many businesses must once again reduce their services and the number of customers they can allow in.
According to Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel, the county on Sunday reported 109 new cases after days of averaging only 20 new cases per day.
“That’s a huge increase for us,” she said. “It’s a true spike.”
Santa Cruz County is one of 11 counties statewide that moved to a more restrictive tier, Newel said.
“That vaccine is only one part of a community strategy to keep Covid under control,” Hall said.
Marm Kilpatrick, a UCSC epidemiology professor, said that the spike could have been the result of the recent relaxation of restrictions, which could have caused people to relax their safety practices and subsequently led to a spike.
The increased numbers could also have come from the businesses reopening, Kilpatrick added.
One of the biggest challenges, he said, is the social awkwardness that comes from asking friends and family to wear a mask or practice social distancing protocol.
“You don’t want to be giving them the stiff-arm or pushing them off when you’re really excited to see them,” he said. “So I feel like there is a really giant need for some way, in a non-rejecting kind of way, to ask for that space or a mask or both, or to move the interaction to a safe place.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Love can’t always do work,” wrote novelist Iris Murdoch. “Sometimes it just has to look into the darkness.” From what I can tell, you’ve been doing that recently: looking into the darkness for love’s sake. That’s a good thing! You have been the beneficiary of the blessings that come through the contemplation of mysteries and enigmas. You’ve been recalibrating your capacity to feel love and tenderness in the midst of uncertainty. I suspect that it will soon be time to shift course, however. You’re almost ready to engage in the intimate work that has been made possible by your time looking into the darkness.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author Barbara Kingsolver says, “Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.” That’s always valuable advice, but it’ll be especially useful to keep in mind during the coming weeks. You’re probably going to feel more pressure than usual to tell others what they wish you would tell them; you may experience some guilt or worry about being different from their expectations of you. Here’s the good news: I’m pretty certain you can be true to yourself without seeming like a jerk to anyone or damaging your long-term interests. So you might as well say and do exactly what’s real and genuine.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks,” wrote playwright Tennessee Williams. I think that’s a poetic but accurate description of the feat you’ve been working on lately, Gemini. You’re gently smashing through stony obstructions. You’ve been calling on your irrepressible will to enjoy life as you have outsmarted the rugged, jagged difficulties. You’re relying on beauty and love to power your efforts to escape a seemingly no-win situation. Congratulations! Keep up the good work!
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian rapper Vince Staples says, “I feel like it’s impossible to be completely yourself.” Why? Because ideally we’re always outgrowing who we have become; we’re moving beyond the successes we have already achieved. There is no final, whole, ideal “self” to inhabit and express—only more and more of our selfness to create. Staples suggests we’d get bored if we reached a mythical point where we had figured out exactly who we are and embodied it with utter purity. We always have a mandate to transform into a new version of our mystery. Sounds like fun! Everything I just said, Cancerian, is an empowering meditation for you right now.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “I am my own sanctuary and I can be reborn as many times as I choose throughout my life.” Singer-songwriter Lady Gaga said that, and now I offer it to you to use as your motto. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, it’s a fabulous time to be your own sanctuary. I invite you to rebirth yourself at least twice between now and the end of November. What’s the first step you’ll take to get started?
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The National Football League is a giant socialist enterprise. It earns billions of dollars of revenue, and shares it equally with each of its 32 teams. So the team in Green Bay, Wisconsin, population 105,000, receives the same payout as the team in Chicago, population 2.7 million. I advocate a comparable approach for you in the coming weeks. Just for now, distribute your blessings and attention and favors as evenly as possible, showing no favoritism toward a particular child or friend or pet or loved one or influence. Be an impartial observer, as well. Try to restrain biases and preferential treatment as you act with even-handed fair-mindedness. Don’t worry: You can eventually go back to being a subjective partisan if you want. For the foreseeable future, your well-being requires cordial neutrality.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Who is to decide between ‘Let it be’ and ‘Force it’?” asked Libran author Katherine Mansfield. I mention this because you’re now hanging out in the limbo zone between “Let it be” and “Force it.” But very soon—I’m sure you’ll have a clear intuition about when—you’ll figure out how to make a decisive move that synthesizes the two. You will find a way to include elements of both “Let it be” and “Force it.”
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me,” wrote Scorpio poet Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) in a letter to a friend. That sounds like a lot of energy to manage! And he didn’t always do a good job at it—although he did at times tap into his primal wellspring to create some interesting poetry. I’m going to use Thomas’ words in your horoscope, because I think that in the coming weeks you can be a subtle, refined and mature blend of a beast, angel and madperson. Be your wisest wild self, dear Scorpio!
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Activist and author Rebecca Solnit writes, “The grounds of my hope have always been that history is wilder than our imagination of it and that the unexpected shows up far more regularly than we ever dream.” In my astrological estimation, her grounds for hope should also be yours in the coming weeks. The future is more wide-open than you might think. The apparent limitations of the past are at least temporarily suspended and irrelevant. Your fate is purged of some of your old conditioning and the inertia of tradition. I encourage you to make a break for freedom. Head in the direction of the beautiful unknown.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The famous Leaning Tower of Pisa doesn’t stand straight, but tilts at an angle. Why? The soil it was built on is soft on one side. So the marble-and-limestone structure began to tip even before it was finished. That’s the weird news. The good news is that the tower has remained standing for more than eight centuries—and has stayed intact even though four major earthquakes have rolled through the area. Why? A research team of engineers determined it’s because of the soft foundation soil, which prevents the tower from resonating violently with the temblors. So the very factor that makes it odd is what keeps it strong. Is there a comparable phenomenon in your life? I believe there is. Now is a good time to acknowledge this blessing—and enhance your use of it.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Even if you tend to pay more attention to what’s going wrong than what’s going right, I ask you to change your attitude for the next three weeks. Even if you believe that cynicism is an intelligent perspective and a positive attitude is a wasteful indulgence, I encourage you to suspend those beliefs. As an experiment—and in accordance with astrological potentials—I invite you to adopt the words of activist Helen Keller as your keynote: “Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the world at a standstill. The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation is the same as in the life of the individual. Pessimism kills the instinct that urges people to struggle against poverty, ignorance and crime, and dries up all the fountains of joy in the world.”
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Researchers in the UK found that 62% of the adult population brags that they’ve read classic books that they have not in fact read. Why? Mostly to impress others. George Orwell’s 1984 is the top-rated book for fake claims, followed by Tolstoy’s War and Peace, James Joyce’s Ulysses, and the Bible. I hope you won’t engage in anything like that type of behavior during the weeks ahead. In my opinion, it’s even more crucial than usual for you to be honest and authentic about who you are and what you do. Lying about it might seem to be to your advantage in the short run, but I guarantee it won’t be.
Homework: What’s the one thing you have never said to your best friend that you really should say? freewillastrology.com.
It’s not easy to tell stories without words, but that’s exactly what local, mostly instrumental electronic artist Hex Wolves does.
He listens to the shapes, sounds and textures of the music he’s creating, and hears what it’s trying to communicate so he can sculpt it to have a beginning, middle and end, like any other story.
For his song “No Other Choice,” off his recently released album Center Remained As Ice, he found himself drawn to the slow, large cavernous sounds he was creating. It felt like a foreboding crawl with an implication of hope, but no guarantee. He leaned into this vibe, and the story that emerged was of a character moving toward the light at the end of the tunnel with optimism—but as they reach the end, the light isn’t there. Everything is closing in on them as they slide into nothingness.
It doesn’t matter that there’s no words to convey this story; the feeling of unease and trepidation is still felt on a visceral level.
“It’s really important to tell a story. That’s all music is,” Hex Wolves says. “That’s what separates an artist from a great artist—the ability to clearly convey that message in the story, and open people’s minds to that perspective. It’s not easy.”
Center Remained As Ice has a single story at its core that is both very specific, and vague enough to be open to interpretation. It’s about a main character’s journey, full of choices and consequences. The process of accepting them makes the main character appear to others to be cold and calculating, when in fact they have just let go.
The music on Center Remained As Ice evokes a cold tension, with grimy, retro electro-sounds—layered, but still minimalistic. The lo-fi quasi-techno beats and ethereal, even sinister synths bleed with constantly shifting emotions. As you listen, you feel a constant sense that the other shoe is about to drop.
It is soundtrack music for a movie that doesn’t exist. And it’s best experienced as a whole, with the listener taking in the movements and allowing the imagery to fill their brains with experimental electronic arrangements, noises and washes of robotic sounds. Hex Wolves always focuses on the big picture, never on flash or gimmick.
“I can get hung up on a sound that I think is really cool. You have to learn how to kill your darlings, and I’ve gotten really good at that,” Hex Wolves says. “It’s not good enough to be like, ‘That’s a great sound,’ if it’s not telling the story. That’s why I don’t work with the traditional song-making formulas. I don’t make pop music, which I totally respect. Pop music writing requires a very strong specific skill set.”
Originally from Seattle, he moved to L.A. and became an active part of the underground dark ambient abrasive lo-fi electro-scene there. Since late 2015, he’s been working with DTH X CMP records, owned by Nick Viola. The label has been putting out his music, but Hex Wolves also helps out—when he can—with building a collective around the label, mostly of the artists doing similarly experimental electronic music on the West Coast.
Earlier in his career, Hex Wolves would throw electronic shows in standard venues, but he quickly learned that this music worked better in off-the-radar, DIY warehouse spaces, where everything could be a little more unhinged and a little bit more punk rock, since this wasn’t exactly big house EDM. A half-serious motto at DTH X CAMP is “This is not for you.”
He moved to Santa Cruz late last year, hoping to get involved in the music scene, but was shut down from any kind of networking when the pandemic hit in March. Fortunately, he had such a large backlog of unreleased music, he’s been focusing on releasing tunes all year. He’s got his eye on bringing that grimy, punk-electronic scene to Santa Cruz when things open back up.
“It would be interesting to see who comes out of the woodwork in Santa Cruz,” he says. “I plan on bringing some people from the L.A. scene, test the waters and see who’s out and about. If they’re into worshipping machines or not. If they are, then they’re good people.”
Two great innovators—California cuisine pioneer Alice Waters and our own Homeless Garden Project—join forces again for the second Sustain in Place video event.
One of the ingenious “at-home tasting” experiences, this encounter unfolds on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 6:30pm. Renowned restaurateur, author, and sustainable food innovator Waters will present a digital keynote talk for you to pair with chocolate truffles, wine, and other sensory pleasures from the HGP gift shop.
Few diners in the United States are strangers to the reputation Waters enjoys as a leader of the farm to table movement, and many of us lucky enough to live in the Bay Area treasure our memories of special dinners at her impeccable dining spot, Chez Panisse.
Guests will also have the opportunity to pick up a gift bag of New Leaf’s private label Common Vines wine, bottled locally by Bargetto, delicious truffles from Mutari Chocolate and HGP’s own hand-dipped beeswax candles, in a reusable tote bag.
A quick refresher on Waters, easily one of the most influential American chefs of the late 20th century. The founder of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse, the original home of California cuisine, Waters is the author of eight books inspired by organic ingredients and robust flavors. Waters advocates for natural and organic foods, and champions the importance of locally grown and fresh ingredients. Her Edible Schoolyard program was integrated into the Berkeley school system and attracted nationwide attention.
By stressing the importance of wholesome foods as an important part of creating a more just and sustainable world, she helped reshape the conversation in the U.S. about corporate-controlled fast-foods. Waters’ remarks have been recorded exclusively for this HGP event. Details about the event and all its delicious accompaniments are available at the eventbrite ticket site (see below).
Guests can pick up bags from HGP’s downtown store, at 1338 Pacific Ave. in Santa Cruz, anytime from noon-6pm on Friday, Nov. 13, and Saturday, Nov. 14. A link will be sent exclusively to attendees for the Nov. 14 online event. Ticket holders may also watch the presentation at their convenience any time after that. For tickets, go to the Homeless Garden Project website or eventbrite.com/e/a-sweet-event-with-alice-waters-tickets-124359644043.
Thanksgiving Wines
A few wine strategies for the Thanksgiving table. Turkey loves a crisp white wine. Something like a Chardonnay made by Ryan Beauregard. Or a rosé from Nicole Walsh’s Ser Winery. On the other hand, it can also love Grenache—as in Birichino and Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard. I have a bottle of crisp, Burgundian-style Beauregard Vineyard Chardonnay 2015 from the estate ranch lined up to go with my turkey dinner. Neutral oak allows this beautifully-made white wine to express the terroir of Ben Lomond Mountain, from tones of citrus and chalk to fresh mountain minerals. More suggestions next week.
Tidbits
Big Basin Vineyards is moving its tasting room to Santa Cruz this spring. Exciting news! The pop-up market at Mentone in Aptos offers the luxurious breads and pastries of Manresa Bread every Saturday throughout this year, 9am-1pm.
Also check out the Pearl Alley Outdoor Market this coming Saturday, Nov. 14, for Manresa Breads and other fresh ideas.
A fond farewell to Rosie McCann’s, a lively Santa Cruz pub, saloon, and gathering place for more than 20 years. We’ll hoist a pint in your honor!
After months of delays, a county commission assembled to study harm reduction in the county will start meeting this week.
It was more than a year ago now that the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors first approved a commission tasked with taking a close look at the county’s Syringe Services Program. Needle exchanges, like the county-run Syringe Services Program, reduce the spread of disease among injection drug users, research has shown. Some research has also shown that even the most permissive exchanges don’t correlate with increased litter. Additionally, activists believe that implications of increasingly tight restrictions on the county’s needle exchange may actually contribute to needle waste.
But after the public safety activists pushed the county to do something about needle waste in the county, the board decided that a body of community members should study the issues—in addition to passing new regulatory measures on the exchange.
The commission was originally scheduled to start meeting this past spring, under the oversight of the county’s Health Services Agency (HSA). But the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic sucked up pretty much all of the HSA’s resources and put plans for the commission on hold. The advisory body will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 6pm.
The makeup of the body was not without some debate. Angry public commenters at county meetings often paint needle exchanges as enabling drug addiction. Activists from the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County contend that needle exchanges get addicts to take care of themselves—an important first step forward for an individual in a county that does not have enough drug treatment options in the first place.
Notably, 1st District County Supervisor John Leopold suggested at a meeting in October 2019 that the board should require that all members of the body believe in the virtues of needle exchanges.
Third District County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty, who represents the city of Santa Cruz and supported the commission, thought such a requirement would go too far.
Leopold, who ended up losing a reelection bid this month, suggested that, at a minimum, board should state that the commission will recognize the value of syringe exchanges in public health.
“People are going to appoint who they want, but we should be clear that this isn’t about denying the decades of research at every level about the efficacy of this public health practice,” he said at last year’s meeting.
Neither Coonerty nor 5th District County Supervisor Bruce McPherson wanted to accept Leopold’s revised amendment.
“I appreciate your concern, but I think we’re well aware of that on the board. I don’t want to accept the amendment,” McPherson said at the time.
The advisory commission has seven members—five members appointed by each of the county supervisors and two more at-large members approved by the board as a whole.
Commissioners include Damon Bruder, a frequent needle exchange critic, who was appointed by Coonerty.
Second District Supervisor Zach Friend, for his pick, appointed Sheriff Jim Hart, who opposed a recent application by the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County to become a certified secondary exchange of syringes.
Despite that controversy, the California Department of Public Health subsequently approved the coalition’s application and chipped in $400,000, granting it the authority to expand its syringe program.
The Harm Reduction Coalition’s own state-sanctioned program does not fall under the jurisdiction of the county and is thus outside the purview of the new commission.
The air was electric Saturday afternoon and an infectious mood swept through people as they poured onto Pacific Avenue Saturday afternoon following the announcement of the election of former Vice President Joe Biden to the presidency of the United States.
An impromptu dance party broke out as activist Curtis Reliford’s Peace Truck blasted Cajun-style zydeco music over the speakers, echoing down the corridor.
“I’m happy! I’m happy,” Reliford repeatedly told the crowd, as he knelt down on one knee. Each time the crowd responded with louder and louder cheers.
The celebration began early Saturday afternoon at the clocktower. As the crowd grew, it drew more honks from the passing traffic. The celebration began moving down Pacific, eventually landing in front of the Regal 9 cinema, dissipating sometime after 3pm.
Although Biden had been leading in the returns for a few days, political enthusiasts nervously awaited the official announcements on razors’ edge, as election departments in key states continued counting ballots. Major news outlets like the Associated Press, the New York Times and Fox News each made the call Saturday morning. The election marks a historical moment, as Biden’s running mate Sen. Kamala Harris will be the first woman, the first Black person and the first Asian American to serve as the country’s vice president.
“We’re here to celebrate freedom, democracy, equal rights, social justice, everything,” said Lena Fancher, who held up a sign that read “Go Joe!”
Ballots are still being counted, but Biden won over 79% in heavily Democratic Santa Cruz County, according to the most recent returns
For Fancher, the election went beyond politics. Biden, she believed, would make the nation’s government function better.
Longtime Santa Cruz resident Sally Benyola said there had been so much at stake for the country in the election.
“The whole world is celebrating right now,” she said.
Benyola and her sister, Sherree Nicholas, both voted for Biden in the election, and they quickly came downtown when they heard the news. They are ready to see the country move in a new direction that focuses on equality, empathy and science, they said.
“Biden believes in climate change,” Nicholas said. “And let’s not forget we’re in the middle of a global pandemic, which Biden said will be the first thing he addresses.”
It’s a claim the president-elect referenced again later that evening.
During his acceptance speech Saturday night, Biden told Americans he would announce a team on Nov. 9 to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. “It will be built on a bedrock of science,” he said.
Despite all the celebrating, Santa Cruzans said they know the work of a democracy is never finished. Fancher, a Bernie Sanders supporter who voted for Biden, said that, although she enjoyed the win, now is not the time to feel a false sense of security.
“My hope is he begins to work on social justice, healthcare, and LGBTQ+ rights, which is personal for me,” Fancher explained, adding that she will use protests to hold Biden accountable.
For others, the worry lies not in what Biden will do, but in the damage Trump has already caused.
Going forward, Benyola worried Trump supporters may riot. “He incites his base,” she said.
“And that this feeling of elation will die to be replaced with negativity and fighting again,” Nicholas added.
But the air was still filled with joy as Santa Cruzans rejoiced and let loose.
“It’s felt like the last four years I’ve been wearing a weighted blanket and now I can take it off,” Fancher summed up with an elated sigh. “Now I can breathe.”
PHOTO: MAT WEIR PHOTO: MAT WEIR PHOTO: MAT WEIR PHOTO: MAT WEIR
In times when the “fake news” slur is deployed with regularity to discredit the media’s reporting, maintaining a news organization’s credibility is a baseline responsibility. So what does it mean if a journalistic enterprise’s founding mission is based on a bald-faced lie?
Media pundit Ken Doctor has raised $2.5 million by shopping a false narrative that Santa Cruz is a “news desert”—a community without reporting, one that’s uninformed and parched for news. It is anything but.
For decades, Santa Cruz County has been a hotbed of competitive newspapering. Even with print’s well-documented decline, Santa Cruz defies the trend, supporting multiple sources of local information.
Although its newsroom staffing has suffered under the ownership of a Manhattan hedge fund, Santa Cruz still has a daily newspaper—unlike many communities of its size. The weekly of which I’m publisher, Good Times, has triple the daily’s circulation and this year was selected as the best weekly in the state, winning the California Journalism Awards’ coveted General Excellence Award.
But wait, there’s more. The county is also home to Watsonville’s 152-year-old Pajaronian, which back in the day won a Pulitzer Prize and has been modernized since its purchase by Good Times last year. Likewise, the Press Banner, serving the communities of the Santa Cruz Mountains and San Lorenzo Valley, continues a proud 60-year legacy. Tiny Aptos, Doctor’s hometown, has competing community newspapers. And the all-digital Santa Cruz Local has gained traction with solid reporting and a bootstrapped community engagement model.
To characterize Santa Cruz as a news desert insults the amazing work being done by local writers and editors who have been covering devastating wildfires and an unprecedented health crisis under the most adverse conditions ever.
How did the Knight Foundation and the Google News Initiative take Ken Doctor at his word that Santa Cruz was a community that was without civic reporting? As they spend hundreds of millions on news experiments around the world, it’s difficult to do due diligence and fact check every claim of news desertification in grant applications.
These well-intentioned media funders are trying to help save local news, but instead could wind up destroying the last of the authentic community voices.
Lookout Local imports expensive Big City talent, such as the Chicago Sun-Times’ top editor. Doctor has also used his fat checkbook to raid the talent of local newsrooms, including Good Times and the Santa Cruz Sentinel, at a particularly fragile time, as newspapers struggle to survive the worst-ever advertising drop with so many businesses closing or operating at reduced capacity.
I’ve watched digital news sites with similar funders cozy up to special interests rather than hold them accountable. They generally cover the obvious stories—such as crimes, press releases, dining news and scheduled government meetings—while chasing search terms in hopes of boosting traffic. They sometimes lock their premium content behind a paywall and use advanced tools cooked up in media labs to monetize their content.
The albeit idiosyncratic nature of a small business-supported news model ensures independence, a variety of voices and is sustainable provided there isn’t subsidized competition to divide the traffic, drive up costs, strip-mine talent and undermine the marketing channels on which local businesses depend.
Independent local media has historically given voice to emerging journalists rather than get in bidding wars for established marquee names. Our company, which traces its origins to Santa Cruz in the 1980s, invests in the communities where we operate. We buy and renovate old buildings, start Restaurant Weeks, Burger Weeks and Beer Weeks to help the local restaurateurs, and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for nonprofits through our Santa Cruz Gives initiative.
If Mr. Doctor wants to make a genuine social contribution by erasing news deserts, he should take his millions and move to a real one. There are 188 counties in America without a local newspaper, according to the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media at the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Media.
Of course, that would take some real pioneering.
Most of them are poor and landlocked, too far away to listen to the seals bark on West Cliff Drive or gaze over pinot noir vineyards in the Corralitos hills.
Dan Pulcrano is the publisher of Good Times and the CEO of the alternative media group Weeklys.
