Zameen specializes in Mediterranean fusion cuisine, with multiple locations in Santa Cruz County.
The first restaurant opened in Aptos in 2007, the iconic Pleasure Point location opened in 2017, and there are plans to open a third spot in Watsonville in the spring. Zameen at the Point is open Tuesday-Sunday, and in Aptos Thursday-Sunday, both from noon-7:30pm for takeout and limited outdoor seating. Online ordering is also available at both locations. GT talked to co-owner Ed Watson about the restaurant’s origins and their unique menu.
What does ‘Zameen’ mean, and where does the restaurant’s inspiration come from?
ED WATSON: It’s a Persian word for “land” or “earth.” My father-in-law is from Iran, and we used to have big family cookouts. He would cook a lot of lamb and beef kabobs and serve it with rice, and with a lot of shared plates. We wanted to turn this experience into a restaurant concept and saw a niche for this type of food in Santa Cruz. The Aptos location started with this style of authentic Persian cuisine, and over the years we’ve gone with a more Mediterranean menu, and added a California twist.
What sets Zameen’s cuisine apart from others?
We do a lot of prep work on salads, and there are vegetarian/vegan options as well as richer options like a lamb burger and sweet potato fries. There is something for everyone. The versatility of the menu is great: Guests can get a wrap, salad, or bowl depending on their tastes and preferences. It’s all fresh and healthy, and is a great grab-and-go option.
What are some of the most popular menu items?
The lamb/beef Euro wrap. The meat is on a vertical broiler and we slice strips of it off to order. It’s wrapped in naan bread and comes with mixed greens, pickled onions, feta cheese, tomato, and cucumber. Each wrap has a sauce: The lamb/beef one comes with tzatziki, which has cucumber, yogurt, garlic, and dill. Another great option is the red chili chicken, which can be in a bowl, salad, or wrap, and that is super popular as well, especially the salad version. We also have garlic feta fries, sweet potato fries, as well as a hummus appetizer and fried calamari.
When the news broke last week that 10 Santa Cruz correctional officers had tested positive for Covid-19 after partying with each other over the Thanksgiving weekend, in violation of both the county safety protocols and any sort of common sense, it was shocking, for sure. In the era of mind-numbing Covid fatigue, where even Gov. Gavin Newsom can try to hand-wave away his hypocrisy in violating the safety protocols that he ordered by attending a very-not-outdoor birthday celebration at a Napa Valley restaurant, it might have blown over relatively quickly. On its own, some might argue, it’s a minor incident.
But when placed in the context of a long year of scandals surrounding the Santa Cruz Main Jail, it looks quite different. Mat Weir and Jacob Pierce provide that context in their impactful cover story this week. It’s the result of months of investigation into the death of Tamario Smith, as well as several other controversies that have plagued the jail. It’s an important and informative piece, and I hope you’ll give it a read.
I also want to again highlight our Santa Cruz Gives campaign, which as of this writing has raised almost half a million dollars in just three weeks for the 40 participating Santa Cruz County nonprofits. We are only about $75,000 away from our goal, and I think by the time we finish at midnight on Dec. 31 we can even exceed it. Thank you to all of our readers for the incredible response to this year’s campaign, and if you haven’t donated yet, please go to santacruzgives.org and do it today.
Don’t know about other readers, but the article about the poet Peter McLaughlin (“The Book of Pete,” Nov. 25) left me with absolutely no desire to read or listen to his poetry. Anytime there was a mention of a woman in the poems quoted by Steve Kettmann, it was always a sexual, depersonalized and disparaging reference. Perhaps the choice of what to quote says more about Mr. Kettmann’s attitude to women than that of the poet, but I found the language regarding women offensive and juvenile, and in my opinion, an indication of some major issues. The checkers at Shoppers have “searing molten desire” as they view his “muscular back?” Dream on, guys!
Mary Ann Balian | Live Oak
Don’t Scrooge This Up
Reaching out to an older friend, a parent or a grandparent is never more meaningful than during the holiday season. It warms us, them, and bestows all with human connection, that is an essential component of health and happiness.
Covid-19 has made keeping in touch with older adults more challenging than ever. It is critical that we find ways to support seniors and ourselves with activities that create human interactions and opportunities during this holiday season. Reach out with a phone or Zoom call, a holiday card, or in other creative ways. You can help fight loneliness and isolation by engaging in some wonderful local programs that connect seniors of all ages during the holidays. If you’re not sure where to start, consider Stay Connected at the Volunteer Center; Community Bridges Senior Center without Limits; or Senior Network Services. Reach out and warm a heart; it might be your own.
Raymon Cancino, CEO Community Bridges; Clay Kempf, Executive Director Seniors Council; Pam Arnsberger, Board Chair Seniors Council
ONLINE COMMENTS
Re: Manu’s Impact
Having both won and lost at election time, I can say that it is better to win. My opponent this year offered no cogent or valid rationale why he should be reelected. He acted surprised at losing by a wide margin.
I would say to Manu: if you don’t have valid goals at the outset, you will not be successful.
I do, and the people responded. I defeated an eight-year Republican incumbent in District 7 for the Cabrillo College District Board of Trustees. This is my second term to serve in public office. I served as a member of the Santa Cruz City School District Board of Trustees from 2010 to 2014.
I established valid goals then, as well. And yes, I have an agenda. And I am proud of it.
— Steve Trujillo
Re: Pete the Poet
I was a good friend of Pete. I was his neighbor and spent a lot of hours sitting with him at the Buttery.
I am a fine art painter and used Pete in a painting called “Trestle Climbing.”
He was a great person, actually very shy and troubled. I miss him. He was also a great counselor to me in my troubled times.
— Burt Levitsky
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
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
INVEST WISHES
For decades, only accredited investors were able to reap the benefits of investing in startups. But a new funding model called Regulation Crowdfunding enables anyone to invest in their favorite startup for as little as $100. On Thursday, Dec. 10, Santa Cruz Works and Sail Community Capital will showcase four local startups seeking funding: Parallel Flight Technologies, New Way Homes, California Farmlink, and Carnot Compression. Each startup will have five minutes to pitch their company. There will be time for questions. For event registration and details, visit bit.ly/funFunding.
GOOD WORK
THINKING BIG
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Cruz County, one of the nonprofits participating in this year’s Santa Cruz Gives, is awarding the 2020 Match of the Year to Little Brother Albert and Big Brother John Stenderup. Albert, who was enrolled in the program by his mother, did not have a male mentor in his life until he was matched with Stenderup in January 2016. The two had similar upbringings. Over the years, they shared special moments, like attending a Star Wars premiere in San Francisco, golfing and kayaking. For them, Covid-19 opened up new conversations about mental health.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails.”
On May 10, Tamario Smith spent all but four hours alone in the single-person cell he had requested in the Santa Cruz Main Jail on Water Street. Smith, who had been in the jail for four months, left his cell to get a haircut. Video surveillance footage showed him in good spirits, according to a report from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office.
Other aspects of his behavior came across as more peculiar. A fellow inmate later reported that Smith said he was thinking of drinking cleaning fluid “to clean out his stomach,” and he also filled up a bottle with pink liquid from the mop bucket, according to footage. A diagnosed schizophrenic, Smith was responding to hallucinations he heard talking to him, according to the report.
It was Mother’s Day, and at 5:52pm, correctional officers found him face down in a pool of watery, odorless vomit during a routine check. Little is known surrounding Smith’s death, which was ruled a sudden cardiac arrest due to hyponatremia, or low sodium—an electrolyte imbalance from overconsumption of water. Smith’s family and their attorney have doubts about the official cause of death and have been trying to get more information out of Sheriff Jim Hart’s office.
Tamario’s mother Felicia Smith says her son had hoped to one day be a foster counselor because of a stint he spent in the foster care system. Those who knew Tamario, she says, remember him as a music lover, a beautiful singer and a loyal guardian to his twin sister.
“Even though he and Tamia were only 10 minutes apart, he felt like he had to be the protector over her and the other siblings,” Felicia says with a sigh. “He had a big heart.”
The death of Tamario Smith, a Santa Cruz County inmate, coincided with Black Lives Matter protests in the spring. PHOTO: MAT WEIR
JAIL FORCE
Tamario, who was Black, died two weeks before Minnesota man George Floyd was choked to death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.
Although the circumstances were different, Tamario’s death resonated across Santa Cruz County partly because it coincided with a national reckoning around human rights and inequities in the criminal justice system that erupted in the wake of Floyd’s death. For critics of the correctional system and of Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart, the incident fit a familiar theme—one that predates Hart’s tenure as the county’s highest-ranking law enforcement official. Before Hart’s 2015 swearing-in, the Santa Cruz Main Jail saw five inmate deaths over 11 months between 2012-2013. For a soon-to-be-filed federal complaint against the county, the Smith family has two lawyers—partners Jonathan Gettleman and Elizabeth Caballero. The two defense attorneys have been involved in a few cases against the county, also helping to represent the family of Amanda Sloan, who died at the jail in 2013, netting a $1 million settlement.
Hart says he made changes, including implementing a new treatment program and installing a body scanner.
The rate of deaths has fallen since the particularly bad stretch before Hart took office. But since fall 2019, there have been four more deaths: Tamario’s death, two suicides and a homicide.
Meanwhile, there have been other issues as well.
For starters, correctional officers have recently been getting arrested on felony charges. One was arrested and convicted in 2018 for sexual relations with an inmate. Three other correctional officers have been arrested since September—two on a variety of felony charges, including sex with inmates, and a third for domestic violence and robbery charges. Hart, who’s running for reelection in 2022, fired all three officers. Also, the Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury has released investigations into local correctional facilities in six of the past eight years—on everything from a power failure at the jail to inmate safety and health care.
On top of that, 10 correctional officers tested positive Covid-19 in the last week, likely in connection with a large, unsanctioned party that happened over Thanksgiving weekend. Hart says his office is still investigating the circumstances surrounding the gathering, but he feels confident that contact tracers have identified all staff in attendance. He says he doesn’t yet know where the party was or who else attended.
He calls the party “a mistake,” but it’s one that he compares to errors in judgement made by politicians across the country who have taken heat for personally flouting social distancing guidelines.
“We’re in month nine of this pandemic. The community in general is getting tired and mistakes are being made,” he says.
BAR WITNESS
The string of controversies at the jail this year began with Smith’s death. After jail employees saw him responding to auditory hallucinations early in the year, a jail psychologist diagnosed him with schizophrenia and substance abuse in February. The courts determined him unfit for trial a month later.
Officers had arrested Smith in January for a probation violation following a domestic violence arrest. In the weeks before he died, Tamario was seen by medical staff at least twice. The first was at his request on April 21, after complaining of a headache. He was noticeably perspiring. But with his vital signs looking normal, he was diagnosed with dehydration and was advised to drink at least five cups of water a day.
Tamario’s second request came one week later, on the morning of April 28, when nurses handing out medication noticed he displayed a lack of motor skills, particularly in his right arm. Once again, they took his vitals and after a while, he appeared to be acting normal, so they thought nothing of it. However, the symptoms he displayed can be signs of hyponatremia, notes defense attorney Jonathan Gettleman. Along with his partner Elizabeth Caballero, Gettleman is representing the Smith family in an upcoming federal complaint for a lawsuit against the county. Surveillance footage from the day he died shows him filling up his water cup several times, according to the autopsy report, Gettleman says.
“That is a devastating failure of basic standards of medical and institutional conduct. Where is the accountability?” he asks.
Felicia says she didn’t hear of Tamario’s diagnosis with schizophrenia until June 18, when the coroner’s office called her with Tamario’s cause of death.
“They told me all this that morning. I was in shock,” she remembers.
Felicia found the timing of the information release odd, as it came out the same day that activists were going to march in Tamario’s name and demand accountability. She believes Hart was strategically trying to deflect a mounting sense of frustration aimed at his leadership.
Hart says that wasn’t his intention, and that there was nothing calculated about the release.
“We received the results from the coroner, and we put the information out there. It certainly was not meant to show any disrespect to Mr. Smith or to his family,” he says.
With much of the country still in the midst of civil unrest following Floyd’s death, protesters still took to the streets that evening, toting signs that asked, “What Happened to Tamario Smith?” Six months later, signs displaying Tamario’s name still sit in front of the downtown clock tower, a quarter of a mile from the jail, along with pictures and chalk-written messages on the sidewalk.
Some unanswered questions remain about what exactly happened May 10.
Felicia remembers, prior to the autopsy’s official release, a sheriff’s office employee calling her and mentioning, “We don’t know if he could’ve gotten into some cleaning products laying around.”
Felicia explains, “My niece took the phone and asked, ‘You think he got into some cleaning products?’ They responded, ‘We don’t know, he could’ve.’”
The autopsy notes that there is the video of Tamario scooping out a cup of liquid from a mop bucket. However, the responding pathologist Dr. Stephany Fiore wrote in Smith’s autopsy report that “none of his behavior seemed alarming.”
Gettleman, for his part, says he was particularly alarmed by something else.
“What’s alarming to me is they didn’t test the contents of his stomach at all,” he says.
He and Caballero found a lab at UC San Francisco that was willing to analyze the contents, but without a judge’s order, the Sheriff’s Office has refused to hand over the sample. Gettleman says they’ve asked the jail to preserve the stomach’s contents, but the sheriff’s office has not turned anything over.
“They won’t give us any information unless compelled by the judicial system,” he explains.
When asked, Hart won’t tell GT whether his office bothered to test Tamario’s stomach—or whether his office still has the contents on file.
Citing pending litigation, Hart says he won’t comment on the Tamario Smith case or ones like it.
Gettleman and Caballero—who are also husband and wife—believe Sheriff Hart’s strategy is to try and keep a low profile, hoping his office’s controversies stay out of the public sphere.
“It’s very troubling,” Caballero says. “It demonstrates a lack of oversight and a culture of lawlessness that exists there.”
Hart says talk about a culture problem is all hyperbole to him. Although he says the Main Jail’s 40-year-old age comes with challenges, he feels it’s well-managed.
“The jail is very organized,” he says.
Partners in business and in life, local attorneys Jonathan Gettleman and Elizabeth Caballero say the county should create a new committee to manage oversight of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office and the jail. PHOTO: TARMNO HANNULA
CONCRETE EXAMPLES
The county’s correctional system, which also includes the Rountree Medium Facility and the Blaine Street Women’s Facility, has dealt with broader concerns as well.
Two challenges that have dogged the sheriff’s office for years are its limited personnel and high rate of vacancies. Those factors prompt sheriff leadership to force officers into serving mandatory overtime, as noted in the Grand Jury’s 2018-2019 Detention Facilities Inspection Report.
Hart says it continues to make things difficult, although the outlook has improved.
“Earlier this year we were at 100% full staffing,” he states. “Now we have nine vacancies and some mandatory overtime, but nothing like it was before March.”
With 17 officers currently out on leave due to either a positive Covid-19 test or isolating in quarantine from possible exposure to the disease, the limited workforce has created a new strain. But Hart says his office was able to fill all the hours with voluntary, not mandatory, overtime this time.
Over the years, the facility has also often seen crowding, partly exacerbated by broader reforms at the state level that pushed criminals out of state prisons. To offset the shift, local jails, like Santa Cruz County’s, expanded their Custody Alternative Programs, placing more inmates under house arrest with ankle monitors. Still, according to the 2018-2019 Detention Facilities Inspection Report, it recently had a daily average of 375 inmates. That’s 17.5% above the jail’s official capacity of 319.
Recently, that trend has reversed, however. Due to the pandemic, the jail’s population is down to 227 inmates, at 71% capacity.
In accordance with state policy, the jail has been turning away everyone except serious and violent offenders. In light of Covid-19, the jail has been taking special precautions for people age 65 and older.
In a year when Covid-19 has turned many jails and prisons across the country into humanitarian disasters, the county’s correctional system has still yet to have its first Covid-19 case among the inmate population.
FAIL CELL
Inmate German Carrillo was allegedly strangled to death by his two cellmates, likely from behind, on Oct. 12, 2019.
The cell was originally intended for two people but overcrowding found Carrillo taking the makeshift bed. Both of his cellmates were known violent criminals, Caballero says.
His body was on its right side of the cell, facing the wall and covered with a blanket, according to his autopsy. Fibers found in his teeth suggest he was gagged. Although asphyxiation was the cause of death, he had four puncture wounds in his abdomen that didn’t break through the muscle layer. Bruises and abrasions riddled his body from his face to his knees.
Carrillo’s exact time of death is unknown because his body was not discovered until more than 36 hours later on the morning of Oct. 14, despite being in bed the entire time. Dr. Fiore was once again the responding pathologist and in her report noted “a rectangular piece of brown fabric” was attached to the inside of the cell door along the lower border of the window, partially obstructing outside visibility.
The jail is supposed to have an emergency button in each cell to allow inmates to call for help.
In a complaint filed against Santa Cruz County, Sheriff Hart and a chief deputy, Caballero and Gettleman claim that many of the emergency buttons inside the Main Jail cells are non-operational. The complaint also asserts the buttons “have not worked for so long” that inmates no longer rely on them, a fact well known to staff and any inmate looking for a fight, it says.
A correctional officer who spoke to GT on the condition of anonymity confirms that the problem of broken emergency buttons goes back to 2014.
“Possibly even longer,” he says, estimating 30-40% of the buttons are currently broken.
Hart denies that problem, saying that, as far as he knows, all the emergency buttons are working.
As with Smith’s death, there are a lot of unknown factors around the murder of Carrillo.
“There is a protective order in that case, too,” Caballero says. “So getting access to those records is virtually impossible.”
She and Gettleman recently filed a wrongful death complaint in court against Hart and the county on behalf of the Carrillo family.
When asked why a protective order is in place, Hart says the matter was not his jurisdiction.
“That’s something you’re going to have to ask the County Attorneys,” he says. “That’s out of my hands.”
District Attorney Jeff Rossell’s office did not return an email seeking comment for this story.
COURTING DISASTER
At 24 years old, Carrillo had already spent more than a quarter of his life behind bars, between the Santa Cruz County Juvenile Hall and the Main Jail, for allegedly aiding and abetting a 2013 homicide—a crime he swore until his death that he didn’t commit. He was scheduled to appear in court this past January.
Caballero says Carrillo, then 17, was basically in the wrong place at the wrong time. It started when Caballero was playing handball with several school friends in 2013.
Two of those friends, who ended up being Carrillo’s co-defendants in a murder case, were Norteno gang members. Carrillo, on the other hand, had no gang tattoos and before his arrest he had no prior gang associations or criminal record, Caballero says. She says Carrillo rode with his friends to a convenience store, where the friends saw an adversary of theirs, who they started arguing with. A fight broke out, and the other young man got stabbed, but Caballero says security footage showed Carrillo running separately from the murder suspects, and there was no direct link to Carrillo as the stabber, he says.
Despite this, he remained in pre-trial detention for six years.
During that time, Carrillo’s sister Tania says he got his GED diploma, took college courses, and was helping other inmates further their education. She says at the time of his death he was working on a paralegal degree.
Correctional officers placed Carrillo in a remote wing of the jail, where inmates must stay locked up for 23 hours a day and where the security buttons didn’t work, according to Gettleman and the complaint.
According to protocol, inmates must be checked on every hour, and the responding officer must mark it in a log. People must be seen breathing and officers must see an individual’s skin, like their face or their head. That clearly didn’t happen.
Tania notes that the guards didn’t try to rouse her brother for his 5am shower. “Or at 8am for breakfast, or later for dinner,” she says, “or for his break when he would call us.”
The Carrillo complaint alleges that his body was only discovered because of the “overwhelming” stench coming from his cell.
“It’s the jail’s responsibility to care for individuals in their custody,” Gettleman says.
OVERSEE HERE
Although Hart faces criticism, he has gained defenders over the years, including when it comes to liberal causes like immigration.
Three years ago, Hart stuck his neck out to become the first law enforcement official to endorse a state sanctuary bill forbidding many state agencies from assisting in immigration investigations and enforcement. Hart also wrote a letter in support of the bill, which then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law that year. After it took effect, Hart changed protocols, easing off certain policies and halting cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) altogether.
Nonetheless, Gettleman and Caballero argue that, along with systematic change, the sheriff’s office would benefit from some new oversight.
They note that such a change could soon be possible, thanks to Assembly Bill 1185, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law this past September.
The new law allows counties to create new oversight committees that would be armed with subpoena power, in order to keep an eye on their local sheriff’s offices. In cases like Tamario’s and Carrillo’s, this would mean easier access for their families and attorneys to any information that the sheriff’s office could be sitting on.
A county board of supervisors can create such a committee—as can a county’s voters, via a ballot measure. But it isn’t a sure thing.
None of the county supervisors were aware of AB 1185 before hearing from GT.
When asked, however, incoming 1st District Santa Cruz County Supervisor Manu Koenig says he would be open to exploring the idea. Current county supervisors Bruce McPherson, Greg Caput and Ryan Coonerty don’t think such a committee is necessary, adding that they think Hart’s doing a pretty good job. Supervisor Zach Friend says he would have to learn more about the new law, and outgoing 1st District Supervisor John Lepold did not respond to our requests, other than to say he’s been busy with nonstop meetings the past several days.
In general, Supervisor Friend lauds the sheriff’s office for preventing Covid-19 from entering the system’s inmate population. The correctional system, he says, is an area where understandably no one gets credit for their successes because every slipup can be tragic. Friend, a former spokesperson for the Santa Cruz Police Department, says that counties everywhere are generally in need of a combination of criminal justice reforms—ones for law enforcement, for the courts and for their correctional facilities.
Friend says it isn’t always easy to pinpoint exactly where a failure has happened when tragedy strikes. “We’ve got a long way to go as a country to reimagine how this system works,” he says.
Hart, for his part, says he doesn’t think a new committee would be necessary.
Between the state and the county, Hart believes his office currently has the appropriate level of oversight. But if the county created a new committee, Hart stresses that the decision isn’t his to make. If the county created a new committee, his department would certainly cooperate.
As it stands, Gettleman and Caballero are working to build a coalition of community members, businesses and nonprofits to raise awareness for AB 1185 and the potential it creates for change and increased transparency.
“One of the big problems we have now is there’s no information reaching the public about any of this,” Gettleman says. “And because that’s the case, the sheriff always has the advantage to put their spin on whatever happens, so they don’t look like the responsible party.”
The Central Coast was battered with big south swell over the weekend as Steamer Lane hosted the 2020 Adaptive Surf League (ASL) World Championships and Wheelchair Big Wave contest. Santa Cruz surfer and Chilean Paralympics hopeful Claudio Morales rode a custom-made Pearsons to a clean sweep of the contest for his first World Title, also winning the Big Wave competition on Friday.
This year’s Paralympics were disrupted by the pandemic, impacting the field by taking away a chance to compete on the biggest stage. More importantly for ASL athletes, each contest represents a chance to share their stories of athleticism and overcoming adversity.
“No one plans on being in a tragic accident,” says Morales, a regular at surf breaks in this area, who gets around in a wheelchair and surfs lying down on his board. “No one grows up dreaming of this happening to them, but [my accident] wasn’t the end, it was the beginning of something new. To get the chance to be here with my fiance and with my amazing support team of Rob Crompton, Hank Skipp, Jason Shepardson, Scott Dust Marty, and Kyle Marty is sweet. Thank you to all my competitors, and the ASL, for pushing me.”
Photographers like Ben Ingram and Nick Betts came to help capture the moment with drone pilot Ernest Smith. Multiple veteran publications sent journalists to cover riders like Jose Martinez, an Olympic hopeful and big-wave surfer who lost three limbs in Afghanistan.
“This is a huge leap forward for the ASL,” Martinez, an ASL board member, says. “Did you see those waves out there this weekend? It was crazy, the biggest conditions most of us have ever surfed, definitely the biggest waves this contest has ever seen. To ride a world-class surf break on a world-class day, and to get to be on Surfline the whole time, it was firing, man! This wasn’t an epic adaptive surf contest—this was an epic surf contest that adaptive people competed in.”
After the contest wrapped up, Martinez headed home to pack for a big-game bow hunting trip he is scheduled to go on in Texas this weekend.
The ASL managed to snake through a multitude of shutdowns around the state under the California professional athlete exception. With a $1,000 prize on the line, multiple adaptive surfers competed under the watchful eye of support teams and water rescue professionals on Jet Skis.
Since its inception, the ASL has sought to bring the sport into the professional space by offering riders the chance to earn money from sponsorships and contest prizes. Partnering with the International Surfing Association, the two leagues have worked in tandem to make surfing more inclusive while still giving adaptive athletes a place to be celebrated.
“What an amazing weekend, I am so happy everyone got to compete in that amazing swell,” says contest organizer Jeff Munson. “Most of these athletes had their training schedules disrupted over the year, so to come out and go headfirst into huge waves shows you the kind of competitors we’ve got. We are all extremely grateful for the water rescue professionals who provided ski and swimmer support, to the locals who shared their wave with us for a few days, and to the city of Santa Cruz for letting us put on a show.”
Adding to the special vibe is the fact that the contest happened in Santa Cruz, a town with a growing adaptive surf community, much of it organized by veterans.
Army veteran and Santa Cruz local Arturo Ayala has been a vanguard of the movement, hosting monthly surf meetups and facilitating the acquisition of adaptive surf equipment for those who need it. Attendees range in age from their early twenties to late sixties. They all share in open conversations about their experiences in and out of the doctor’s office.
For beginner surfers, groups like Ayala’s One More Wave club represent a whole new world of physical and mental health.
“Surfing, especially in Santa Cruz, can be intimidating,” he says. “We surf as a family and help mentor new surfers in the ways of the wave. Surfing saved my life: It helped me bring fitness back into my life, and it’s been a lifeline in these dark times. Our mission was focused on developing adaptive equipment in the beginning, but now we have dropped in on building veteran surfing communities around the country. Sadly, demand is way higher than availability at this time, so we are trying to give vets somewhere to go check back in with nature.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19): According to Taoist scholar Chad Hansen, “Western philosophers have endlessly analyzed and dissected a cluster of terms thought to be central to our thinking,” such as truth, beauty, reason, knowledge, belief, mind and goodness. But he reports that they’ve never turned their attention to a central concept of Chinese philosophy: the Tao, which might be defined as the natural, unpredictable flow of life’s ever-changing rhythms. I think that you Aries people, more than any other sign of the zodiac, have the greatest potential to cultivate an intuitive sense of how to align yourselves vigorously with the Tao. And you’re in prime time to do just that.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): What’s the cause of the rumbling at the core of your soul? How do we explain the smoke and steam that are rising from the lower depths? From what I can discern, the fire down below and the water down below are interacting to produce an almost supernatural state of volatile yet numinous grace. This is a good thing! You may soon begin having visions of eerie loveliness and earth-shaking peace. The clarity that will eventually emerge may at first seem dark, but if you maintain your poise it will bloom like a thousand moons.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Author and student Raquel Isabelle de Alderete writes wittily about her paradoxical desires and contradictory qualities. In accordance with current astrological omens, I encourage you to ruminate about your own. For inspiration, read her testimony: “I want to be untouchably beautiful but I also don’t want to care about how I look. I want to be at the top of my class but I also just want to do as best as I can without driving myself to the edge. I want to be a mystery that’s open to everybody. A romantic that never falls in love. Both the bird and the cat.”
CANCER (June 21-July 22): What would it take for you to muster just a bit more courage so as to change what needs to be changed? How could you summon the extra excitement and willpower necessary to finally make progress on a dilemma that has stumped you? I’m happy to inform you that cosmic rhythms will soon be shifting in such a way as to make these breakthroughs more possible. For best results, shed any tendencies you might have to feel sorry for yourself or to believe you’re powerless.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Novelist Tom Robbins says you have the power to change how you perceive the world. You can change reality—and how reality responds to you—by the way you look at it and interpret it. This counsel is especially useful for you right now, Leo. You have an unparalleled opportunity to reconfigure the way you apprehend things, and thereby transform the world you live in. So I suggest you set your intention. Vow that for the next two weeks, every experience will bring you a fresh invitation to find out something you didn’t know before.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was reelected in 2019. During his campaign, the Virgo-born politician arranged to be photographed while wearing the saffron robes of a Hindu priest and meditating in an austere Himalayan cave. Why did he do it? To appeal to religious voters. But later it was revealed that the “cave” was in a cozy retreat center that provides regular meals, electricity, phone service and attentive attendants. It will be crucial for you to shun this type of fakery in 2021, Virgo. Your success will depend on you being as authentic, genuine and honest as you can possibly be. Now is an excellent time to set your intention and start getting yourself in that pure frame of mind.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): When author Ernest Hemingway was working on the manuscript for his novel A Farewell to Arms, he asked his colleague F. Scott Fitzgerald to offer critique. Fitzgerald obliged with a 10-page analysis that advised a different ending, among other suggestions. Hemingway wasn’t pleased. “Kiss my ass,” he wrote back to Fitzgerald. I suggest a different approach for you, Libra. In my view, now is a good time to solicit feedback and mirroring from trusted allies. What do they think and how do they feel about the current state of your life and work? If they do respond, take at least some of it to heart.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Mistletoe is a parasite that grows on trees, weakening them. On the other hand, it has been a sacred plant in European tradition. People once thought it conferred magical protection. It was called “all-heal” and regarded as a medicine that could cure numerous illnesses. Even today, it’s used in Europe as a remedy for colon cancer. And of course mistletoe is also an icon meant to encourage kissing. After studying your astrological potentials, I’m proposing that mistletoe serve as one of your symbolic power objects in the coming months. Why? Because I suspect you will regularly deal with potencies and energies that could potentially be either problematic or regenerative. You’ll have to be alert to ensure that they express primarily as healing agents.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I’m envisioning a scene in which you’re sitting on a chair at a kitchen table. At the center of the table is a white vase holding 18 long-stemmed red roses. The rest of the table’s surface is filled with piles of money, which you have just unloaded from five mysterious suitcases you found at your front door. All of that cash is yours, having been given to you no-strings-attached by an anonymous donor. You’re in joyful shock as you contemplate the implications of this miraculous gift. Your imagination floods with fantasies about how different your life can become. Now, Sagittarius, I invite you to dream up at least three further wonderfully positive fantasies involving good financial luck. That’s the medicine you need right now.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Boisterous Capricorn novelist Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) once made the following New Year’s Eve Toast: “To all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle—may they never give me peace.” Right now I suspect you may be tempted to make a similar toast. As crazy-making as your current challenges are, they are entertaining and growth-inducing. You may even have become a bit addicted to them. But in the interests of your long-term sanity, I will ask you to cut back on your “enjoyment” of all this uproar. Please consider a retreat into an intense self-nurturing phase.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the French city of Strasbourg, there’s a wine cellar built in the year 1395. Among its treasures is a barrel filled with 450 liters of wine that was originally produced in 1472. According to legend, this ancient beverage has been tasted on just three occasions. The last time was to celebrate the French army’s liberation of Strasbourg from German occupation in 1944. If I had the power, I would propose serving it to you Aquarians in honor of your tribe’s heroic efforts to survive—and even thrive—during the ordeals of 2020. I’m predicting that life in 2021 will have more grace and progress because of how you have dealt with this year’s challenges.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): There are too many authorities, experts, know-it-alls and arrogant ideologues trying to tell us all what to do and how to do it. Fortunately, the cosmic rhythms are now aligned in such a way as to help you free yourself from those despots and bullies. Here’s more good news: Cosmic rhythms are also aligned to free you from the nagging voices in your own head that harass you with fearful fantasies and threaten you with punishment if you aren’t perfect.
Homework: What’s the one thing you don’t have that would help you make the biggest improvement in your life? freewillastrology.com.
Be Natural Music is a local company that specializes in teaching kids how to play their instruments.
But also, and perhaps more importantly, it teaches kids how to be in a band, as a group. The pinnacle of this is the concerts they put on that give their students the chance to feel what it’s like to be on stage with their bands. It also doubles as a fundraiser, to help pay for scholarships for kids who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford music lessons.
This year has been rough, but Be Natural has adapted. In October, they put on four concerts. Two of them were in their parking lot with masks required and social-distancing measures taken so a live audience could attend. The other two were held at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH) with no audiences. All four concerts were broadcast with multiple camera angles.
“It was amazing to see these kids perform. Having those shows and allowing the kids to be able to be who they are as musicians,” says Mathew Pinck, music director for Be Natural Music. “The kids get a lot from those shows.”
When the shelter-in-place orders were first enacted in March, Be Natural was only allowed to teach via Zoom, and they couldn’t do their normal fundraising concerts in the spring. It was a huge challenge, but they worked through both technical glitches and the loss of about a quarter of their clients. They even continued to do full band rehearsals, which was extremely difficult to do online.
“We definitely drank a lot more at that time. We were exhausted being in different rooms, zooming and keeping the kids engaged, and making sure they had focus,” Pinck says.
In June, Be Natural was allowed to teach onsite again, which was a particular boon for the kids who were in full bands, as they were still struggling with latency issues. Kids now come in with masks on, get their temperatures taken, and play in larger spaces that are separated by glass shields to keep them safe. The Be Natural staff sanitizes everything between bands. The kids are able to get the rocking-out experience without putting themselves at risk of contracting Covid-19.
“We follow the rules. The evidence speaks for itself. We have not had any issues, which is pretty amazing,” Pinck says.
As the summer has progressed, and Be Natural has adapted, they’ve managed to get back clients. They’re buzzing along well. However, they’ve fallen short of their fundraising goals.
To help make up the difference, they’re fundraising the entire month of December, with a goal of $15,000. On Saturday, Dec. 5, they started auctioning off some instruments. They also released a podcast, something new for them, that they hope will get the message out about how much what they do means to their students. Pinck sat down and did one-on-one conversations with different students, both scholarship recipients and regular students, about their experiences.
“I wanted to interview these kids, like what really pulls you in? Just a heart-to-heart,” Pinck says. “I really wanted to know why these kids got into music and their love for music.”
Even after Covid-19 is no longer a serious issue, they want to keep doing many of the new things they’ve done this year, like keeping Zoom lessons an option, and doing the same high-quality multi-camera broadcast shoots for their concerts. The podcast, too. It’s something really special to Pinck that he wants to keep going.
“The Covid virus sped certain things up. Now we can teach all around the world. Now, the sky’s the limit, as long as the person wants to take lessons and follow the rules. We can do that,” Pinck says. “We’re getting ready for next spring. We’re going have our spring shows and broadcast them. We want better equipment. We want better cameras. Honestly, we want to make these into TV shows.”
Restaurateurs Elan and Brett Emerson closed their San Francisco eatery Contigo and opened the tapas-driven Barceloneta in Santa Cruz a mere year before having to shut down. Since then, they’ve fed firefighters and those made homeless by wildfires, and three days a week they offer a small but glorious menu for takeout as well as keeping up with corporate catering gigs.
While I can’t wait for the full menu to return, I was blown away by the stunning carryout meal we had last week. Plump slabs of short ribs braised in sweet Pedro Ximenez sherry and red wine arrived in a deep oval to-go container filled with succulent beef on a cushion of pureed potato and celery root, with a potent green horseradish sauce on the side ($22). The accompanying wine reduction was delicious on the root veggies and spooned over the succulent beef—beef that might have done honor to an old world kitchen presided over by a very savvy culinary grandma.
I couldn’t resist Barceloneta’s signature Ibiza Hippie Salad which, for a mere $14, provides a thrilling bounty of shredded kale tossed with preserved lemons, chickpeas so light and crunchy they might as well be infant pistachios. Kale has never been this exciting. Cubes of yams inflected with black mustard seeds and Urfa pepper added sweet spice, and the delightful freekeh “pasta” underlay the entire delicious concoction. Sunflower seeds too, hence the “hippie” in the salad’s name. Something wonderful in the way of a vinegreta made with liquified carrots and ginger, plus some unidentifiable but definitely not Anglican top note of seasoning added depth when applied to the amazing kale. Bay leaves? God this food is incredible! Pickled onions doing something tangy on top of everything.
The salad is nothing short of a revelation of spices and ingredients that flirt with the Canary Islands and Morocco. Ibiza, that high-life, laid-back island off the coast of Spain, is a beach-lover’s paradise. Mine too, if these flavors are any indication.
Cured Spanish serrano ham sliced paper thin and utterly incredible ($15) was part of our order. We sampled a few slices during dinner, along with the cheeses we like to have at the end of our meals, and saved the rest for lunch the next day. Needing the sort of comfort that only a creamy dessert can supply (under the heading of “self care”) we also shared outrageous salted caramel ice cream with the texture of X-rated gelato ($5.50/half pint). Sin at the dinner table; nothing less. A gorgeous, rich, creamy creation that matched even my memories of Barceloneta’s wicked vanilla soft ice cream with olive oil.
Lucky us that the Emersons decided to ply their culinary skills and generosity in our town. Every time you patronize a worthy restaurant right now you’re investing in more life for their business. Take nothing for granted!
Barceloneta, 1541 Pacific Ave., Suite B, Santa Cruz. Thursday-Saturday, 4-8pm. 831-900-5222, eatbarceloneta.square.site.
Farmers Market Update
While the Felton and Scotts Valley Farmers’ Markets are now closed for the season (they’ll be back in May 2021), fans of our top local organic produce, pastries, specialty foods, and other purveyors can take comfort in the winter offerings of the Downtown, Westside and Live Oak Farmers’ Markets staying open all year-round. Now’s the time to check out the pop-up stylings of Full Steam Dumplings, the pies of Beckmann’s Bakery, and the fresh pastas and sausages from Home Away.
See your friends and neighbors at a safe but friendly distance, and keep all your favorite farmers going through this weird moment in history. Visit santacruzfarmersmarket.org for more information.
Santa Cruz County officials are expected to discuss on Tuesday whether the county will join five other Bay Area counties in preemptively adhering to the regional stay-at-home order recently issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Although the item is not agendized for the Tuesday, Dec. 8, Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Zach Friend said the board would likely study the item during closed session.
“We could make a decision tomorrow or we could not,” he said. “Saying that we’re going to announce something would be premature.”
Santa Cruz County spokesman Jason Hoppin said County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel has not made a decision as to whether the county will join San Francisco, Santa Clara, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties in closing before the region’s projected trigger date of Dec. 14.
The county could adopt the order as is, or, Hoppin said, it could decide to adopt an alternative order that would allow some outdoor services such as outdoor dining and outdoor playgrounds to remain open until the region eventually closes.
It could also do nothing, and wait until the region, which includes Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, is forced to close by state health officials.
The order comes with more stringent restrictions for businesses amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Outdoor dining and other services will be forbidden, and retail businesses will be reduced to 20% capacity.
The state implemented the restrictions, Newsom said, because Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed capacity was falling across the state as more Californians were testing positive for Covid-19 than in recent weeks.
The state on Monday reported more than 24,000 new cases, and 59 new deaths. The day prior, there were a record 30,075 new cases.
There have been roughly 1.3 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 in California. ICU bed capacity in the Bay Area region, which also includes Solano, San Mateo and Sonoma counties, was at 25.7% on Monday.
In a prepared statement, San Mateo County Health Officer Scott Morrow said that the county would not adopt the order early because he did not believe it would help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and that “the new State framework is rife with inexplicable inconsistencies of logic.”
“I certainly understand reasonable people trying different approaches to the unimaginable dilemmas that face us,” he said. “And I have no intent to fault the State on their impossible task. They have an even more complex task than do the locals. But I’m not managing the State. I’m trying to make the best public health decisions for all of you.”
What does the order mean?
The following sectors will have modifications in addition to masking and physical distancing:
Outdoor recreational facilities: Allow outdoor operation only for the purpose of facilitating physically distanced personal health and wellness through outdoor exercise, without any food, drink or alcohol sales. Additionally, overnight stays at campgrounds will not be permitted.
Retail: Allow indoor operation at 20% capacity, and 35% of capacity for standalone grocery stores, with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.
Shopping centers: Allow indoor access at 20% capacity with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.
Hotels and lodging: Allow for Covid-19 mitigation and containment measures, treatment measures, provide accommodation for essential workers, or providing housing solutions, including measures to protect homeless populations.
Restaurants: Allow only for take out or delivery.
Offices: Allow remote only except for critical infrastructure sectors where remote working is not possible.
Places of worship and political expression: Allow outdoor activities only.
Entertainment production: Industries, studios, and other related establishments such as establishments that provide content for professional broadcast can operate without live audiences.
The regional order will force the following sectors to close (except to the extent that their operations fall within critical infrastructure):
At its Tuesday, Dec. 8 meeting, the Santa Cruz City Council is expected to appoint Vice Mayor Donna Meyers as its next mayor. The occasion will mark an important moment in LGBTQ rights, as Meyers will be the city’s first lesbian mayor, and the significance is not lost on her.
“Communities are made up of diversity,” Meyers told my colleague Johanna Miller last month. “It is so important to have all perspectives … to identify the needs of everyone.”
Meyers’ shift from vice mayor to mayor will bring Mayor Justin Cummings’ one-year term at the helm of the city to an end. And based on discussions with current and incoming councilmembers, the council will likely appoint Sonja Brunner, the top vote getter in the 2020 election, to be the next vice mayor.
Brunner’s likely appointment will leave the sequence of mayors still off by one year, at least by historical (i.e. pre-2018) standards. Normally, Cummings, the top vote getter in the 2018 election, would now be transitioning from vice mayor to mayor. And Meyers would be just getting ready to assume the vice mayor role.
The old sequence of mayors ruptured two years ago, when Councilmember Cynthia Mathews, the second-highest vote-getter in 2016, was thought to be next in line for the vice mayor spot and for the mayor’s seat after that.
However, then-City Councilmember Chris Krohn, a critic of fellow Councilmember Mathews, instead nominated Cummings to serve as vice mayor. That kicked off Cummings’ appointment to vice mayor in 2019, one year earlier than expected, followed by his one-year term as mayor, which is just wrapping up.
Mathews says she has no hard feelings about how things transpired, as she has immense respect for Cummings. She actually withdrew her name from consideration in 2018—right after Meyers nominated her. Mathews says she read the writing on the wall at the time and surmised she wouldn’t have had the votes to be confirmed, given the makeup of the council.
In any case, Mathews says that Cummings, serving as the city’s first Black male mayor, did a great job in 2020—a year in which racial and economic disparities have been a central concern in Santa Cruz County and across the nation.
“As the fates would have it, we were very lucky to have him serving in that role this year. And he acted proactively and very responsibly and listened to community voices and to the police—and was reaching out to community groups as well,” says Mathews, who adds that she won’t run for reelection to a seventh possible term when she’s eligible in 2022.
Anyway, the upshot of the new sequence is that, if nothing changes, new Santa Cruz mayors will likely be a little less experienced in the future than they otherwise would have been. But it isn’t clear that Santa Cruz will go back to the previous sequence anytime soon, and no one seems particularly concerned about the new order.
If it chose to, the City Council could always get things back on their typical track to the previous setup at some point. The council could, for instance, nominate someone who wasn’t in the normal queue to be mayor. Or it could have one mayor serve two one-year terms back to back.
But there’s no indication of when either of those things might happen.
After being nominated last year, Councilmember Sandy Brown withdrew her name from consideration for the vice mayor seat. (Brown was the fourth-highest vote getter in 2016.) And Cummings told me last month that, as much as he’s enjoyed his term as mayor, he doesn’t think he would be able to financially afford to do it two years in a row. In spite of its heavy workload, the mayorship pays more or less like a part-time job.
It may very well be that Santa Cruzans will one day view the change in the order as more of an arcane piece of local political trivia than, not any kind of procedural glitch.
As it stands now, Brunner sure isn’t sweating the current setup. She says her one year as vice mayor should be plenty of time and get ready for her presumed year as mayor in 2022, and she can hardly wait.
“I am really excited and looking forward,” she tells Good Times. “I’m honored and ready.”
The opening of the new Two Birds Books in Pleasure Point this Friday is a surprise for plenty of reasons. First and foremost, we’re in the middle of a pandemic which has made it tough for any business to open.
Second, even if this wasn’t a pandemic, independent bookstores are increasingly rare, even in lit-loving Santa Cruz County, and 41st Avenue hasn’t had one since the Capitola Book Café closed in 2014.
But that, in a way, is exactly why Aptos couple Gary Butler and Denise Silva are so intent on opening one. Both have lived in this area for the better part of two decades, and their first place together was in Live Oak. They were fans of the Capitola Book Café—and every other local bookstore past and present—and want to keep the bookstore tradition alive on the East Side.
“We’re both completely obsessed with books,” says Silva. She’s a longtime lecturer in the UCSC Writing Program and a freelance book editor.
As for Butler, who most recently worked for a mental health
provider in Santa Cruz, he grew up spending so much time in the local used
bookstore in his home town of Longmont, Colorado (which was, by the way, named
“The Used Bookstore”) that the owner gave him a couch when he went away for
college.
Butler’s experience is a big part of why Two Birds will sell
both new and used books.
As for the pandemic part, the couple simply felt the space was perfect, and after putting off their plans all year because of Covid-19, they didn’t want to wait any longer.
“We thought, ‘Maybe we should just go for it,’” says Silva.
They weren’t under any illusions that it would be an easy time to start a
bookstore. But after securing the space in mid-October, they’re feeling at home
in it.
“We knew what we were getting into,” she says. “It’s scary,
of course. But we’re starting to feel we made the right decision.”
For Butler, it’s a childhood dream realized—and a mission,
too.
“This is what I’ve wanted to so ever since I was a kid,” he
says. “We want to spread the word of book culture. We want people to know print
books are alive.”
Two Birds Books will have their “cozy opening” (not so much “grand,” say the owners, because of Covid-19 restrictions) on Friday, Dec. 11. The store will be open every day from 10am-6pm. Find them at 881 41st Ave., Santa Cruz. 831-900-5588, twobirdsbooks.com.
