Page 596 | Good Times

Santa Cruz County Loan Recipients See Errors in Federal Data

Jacob Pierce

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August 3, 2020

Santa Cruz County Loan Recipients See Errors in Federal Data

Michael’s on Main owner Michael Harrison was relieved when his restaurant—which shut down for two months, amid the Covid-19 pandemic—pulled in a forgivable federal loan.

The cash let Harrison keep his business afloat and to continue paying his employees. “We’re moving forward and hoping for the best,” he says.

What he didn’t know was that the Small Business Administration (SBA) reported that Michael’s on Main had taken in a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of $5 million to $10 million. That number was way off.

“Oh, God, no. Ours was under $150,000,” he says.

The idea of a forgivable loan worth millions baffles Harrison.

“They’re saying I got that much money? That’s absolutely nuts. I wouldn’t have qualified for that,” he says.

Many businesses around the country have reported similar errors.

It has been difficult for journalists and members of the public scouring over the SBA data to separate fact from fiction. Here in Santa Cruz County, much of the attention has focused on the reported sizes of loans given to Michael’s on Main and to the Calvary Episcopal Church on Center Street.

According to the SBA data, the church took in a $350,000-$1 million loan. The actual size of its loan was under $50,000.

The faulty numbers were reported by GT, by Santa Cruz Local and on Santa Cruz’s subreddit. Due to the size of the loans, the SBA should not have publicly released information about either of them. The SBA was supposed to withhold the names of loan recipients who took in less than $150,000.

PICKING UP THE TAB

Harrison says he spent 60% of his loan money on payroll, with the other 40% going to other costs, like food, rent, cable, internet, PG&E and the restaurant’s information technology account. Under federal guidelines, PPP loans will be forgiven, so long as businesses spend at least 60% of the money on payroll.

Meanwhile, Harrison and his colleagues have spent the last four and a half months navigating the constantly changing nature of what businesses are and aren’t allowed to do. Right now, Michael’s on Main is open for outdoor dining, and patrons must wear masks.

FED UP

The errors in PPP data have raised eyebrows around the nation. Investigations—including ones from the Washington Post and Bloomberg—have found numerous irregularities around the PPP program.

For instance, the maximum PPP loan for a one-person enterprise was supposed to be $20,833. However, Bloomberg found that more than 75,000 loans listing one job retained had higher amounts—including 154 showing $1 million or more. Many other businesses pulled in loans that appeared too small, given the size of their payrolls. Those combined errors called into question the numbers for more than one out of every five businesses.

In its analysis, Bloomberg journalists said that the anomalies cast doubts about the accuracy of the data for the centerpiece of the $2.2 trillion relief package. They added that it’s unclear whether the program really saved 51.1 million jobs—the number reported by the feds.

Nine Women Candidates Now Running for Santa Cruz City Council

Jacob Pierce

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July 31, 2020

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Nine Women Candidates Now Running for Santa Cruz City Council

Three new candidates have stepped into the Santa Cruz City Council race. That brings the total to nine candidates—all of them women.

The new candidates are activist Alicia Kuhl, consultant Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson and plant physiology researcher Elizabeth Conlan.

Conlan, a leader of the pro-housing group Santa Cruz YIMBY, is running partly to focus the race on housing affordability, which she says is “the most critical issue facing the city.” Conlan, who works for Driscoll’s, says she is tired of politicians paying lip service on the topic and then not walking the walk.

“As a renter, I don’t have time for this slow process of creating housing that is the status quo,” she says.

Kalantari-Johnson serves on the Pajaro Valley Health Trust Board, the Central California Alliance for Health Commission, a Dignity Health advisory board and a United Way of Santa Cruz County steering committee. As a mom and an immigrant, she says she deeply values equity.

“I see a lot of opportunity and possibilities. I’m not naïve. I know it’s going to be really, really difficult. But I know I can go in with an open mind and an open heart, and I know I can build partnerships,” she says.

Alicia Khul, who is homeless and a mother to three children, grew up in a group home for foster youth. She says the city does a poor job listening to the residents who are most impacted by the crises it faces. The Covid-19 pandemic, she adds, makes those impacts all the more severe.

“I understand the struggle of families here. And I understand what happens to adults when they’re not invested in as children. I have a unique perspective to work on these challenges,” Kuhl says.

After initially pulling paperwork to explore a bid, former Councilmember Richelle Noroyan says she will not run.

The race’s other six candidates are Councilmember Martine Watkins, Councilmember Sandy Brown, Community Ventures Executive Director Maria Cadenas, Romero Institute Social Media Specialist Kelsey Hill, Downtown Association Operations Director Sonja Brunner and FoodWhat?! Development Director Kayla Kumar.

Local Groups Join Together to Host Virtual Pride Celebration

Johanna Miller

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July 31, 2020

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Local Groups Join Together to Host Virtual Pride Celebration

Every August for the past five years, Pajaro Valley Pride (PVP) has held an event to show support for and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in South Santa Cruz County.

But due to Covid-19, the annual march and celebration were canceled, sending organizers back to the drawing board. They began working with other groups across Monterey Bay and eventually settled on having a virtual event.

Connected in Pride brings together PVP, Salinas Valley Pride (SVP), Monterey Peninsula Pride, Rainbow Speakers and Friends, Queers and Allies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS), the Epicenter of Monterey, two groups from CSUMB and more this Saturday, Aug. 1, for an online celebration.

“We are really excited,” said Eric Mora, board secretary at SVP and graduate student at MIIS. “It’s been so interesting working together …. There is so much diversity in our organizations. We all had different perspectives.”

PVP President Jorge Guillen had similar thoughts.

“Having multiple organizations participate has really helped manage our time and effort,” Guillen said. “We made it work by figuring out how to work together.”

The three-hour Connected in Pride event will begin at noon Saturday with introductions and a drag performance. Guillen said the bulk of the event will be geared toward community engagement.

The Watsonville Film Festival will present a Q&A with the filmmakers of Libertad, which the organization is now offering free to watch through its virtual program. A screening of the award-winning film Tangerine will also be held, and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History will host a virtual tour of its Queer Santa Cruz exhibit.

Guillen said that it was important for PVP to be involved, not only because of the ongoing pandemic but also the mounting racial tensions and protests throughout the country.

“Pride began as a protest, pushing back against systems of oppression,” he said. “We want to remind people that we’re here to support anyone who is marginalized … to keep that activism alive in our community.”

The history of Pride celebrations in Watsonville is a rather recent one. While Santa Cruz has been holding marches and events since the 1970s, South County didn’t have its own until 2008.

PVP Marketing Coordinator Danielle Elizalde was on the planning committee for the very first Watsonville Pride, which was founded by local organization Somos LGBT. Elizalde and her friends heard about a meeting taking place to organize the event, and were eager to help out.

“I hadn’t seen anything like it in Watsonville,” Elizalde said. “There was an amazing turnout …. It was overwhelming to be part of something that huge. It really felt like I was taking part in history.”

PVP was eventually formed after Watsonville Pride participants decided they wanted to take things in a new direction. They held their first march and celebration in 2016. Last year, the event moved from downtown Watsonville to the YWCA.

While Connected in Pride will be a completely different sort of event, Elizalde said she is excited to participate.

“It’s a new way that Pajaro Valley Pride is showing up for the community, and maybe something we can keep doing in the future,” she said.

Organizers acknowledge that while a virtual event can reach and connect many people, there are some downsides.

“There are young people out there … who might not be in an accepting environment, who share a computer with family. Logging in would be challenging,” Mora said. “We are trying to be mindful of that … looking for alternatives so that all can participate.”

Mora added that everyone—including friends, families and other allies—is more than welcome to attend.

“Pride celebrations are for everyone,” he said. “They are great ways to learn, to show support and to expand your own humanity.”

For more information visit connectedinpride.com and pajarovalleypride.org.

Santa Cruz Harm Reduction Group Awarded $400,000

Jacob Pierce

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July 31, 2020

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Santa Cruz Harm Reduction Group Awarded $400,000

A volunteer group known for doing needle distributions in Santa Cruz County has landed grant funding to support new staff positions and stipends.

Kate Garrett, managing member for the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County (HRCSCC) announced Thursday that the group secured a portion of a new $12.2 million chunk for harm reduction programs awarded via the statewide California Harm Reduction Initiative.

The California Department of Public Health is funding the grant program, and the National Harm Reduction Coalition is administering it. The HRCSCC, which pulled in $405,000, is still waiting to hear from the Department of Public Health on the status of its application, in order to officially become a certified state-supported secondary syringe exchange program. The HRCSCC will not have access to the grant funding unless the state gives official approval to the group’s secondary exchange.

Public health studies have shown that exchanges of clean syringes reduce the risk of preventable infections and other health problems, including the spread of disease. County Chief of Public Health Jen Herrera recently told GT that some evidence has also shown that exchanges correlate with lower rates of syringe litter.

But skeptics say cleanups have been turning up overwhelming numbers of littered dirty syringes in public spaces. They blame the HRCSCC’s work, and some support strict rules around the county-run Syringe Services Program, which supplies syringes both to the HRCSCC and to injection drug users directly.

Last year, the county Board of Supervisors limited the number of syringes a group or individual may collect at a time. The Board of Supervisors opposes the HRCSCC’s application to the state, as does Santa Cruz Police Chief Andy Mills and Sheriff Jim Hart. Santa Cruz Mayor Justin Cummings supports the group’s application.

Garrett, the HRCSCC managing member, thinks the new grant funding bodes well for the group’s state application.

“We’re taking the fact that we got this money as a sign that authorization is coming,” she says.

The statewide money is California’s first staffing support for harm reduction programs in the state in 10 years, according to information from the national Harm Reduction Coalition.

In addition to syringes, the HRCSCC distributes other supplies like alcohol swabs and the overdose-reducing substance Narcan. If the group secures final approval from the state, the HRCSCC would use the cash to fund two new staff positions—one for Garrett and another for fellow volunteer organizer Dani Drysdale—over a three-year period. The rest of the money would go to participants who assist with the program, in the form of stipends. Garrett says the HRCSCC will be receptive to suggestions on how to spend that portion of the cash.

”We’ll be open to ideas from participants,” she says.

Parking-Lot Comedy Offers Laughs in the Time of Covid-19

Wallace Baine

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July 30, 2020

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Parking-Lot Comedy Offers Laughs in the Time of Covid-19

It sounds like a gag from Pixar’s Cars that ended up on the cutting-room floor: A comedian stands on a tiny stage in a parking lot, looking out over an audience not of human faces but of Toyotas, Subarus and Ford F-150s. The punch line comes and there are no laughs, but headlights flicker in a gesture of approval.

When it comes to so many realms of public life, Covid-19 is making the rules, and this is what the virus has made of stand-up comedy. For the past three months, a small cadre of local stand-up comedians have taken their acts to the top level of the parking structure on Church Street in downtown Santa Cruz to perform for audiences who arrive in their cars and stay there, in a kind of bizarro-world mix of a comedy club and a drive-in movie.

A year ago, things were looking pretty rosy for the Santa Cruz comedy scene, thanks largely to the opening of DNA’s Comedy Lab in the old Riverfront Twin movie theater. Fast forward to 2020, and the pandemic has closed DNA’s Comedy Lab, at least temporarily, and comics are now telling jokes to grills and windshields.

“It’s kind of like the idea behind Twitter where you only have a certain amount of characters,” says Sam Weber, one of the organizers of the weekly outdoor comedy show. “People get creative with the limitations they have. We had an off-brand FM transmitter that you can plug into your cigarette lighter in your car. This one happens to shoot a signal about a hundred yards in every direction. All you have to do is plug a microphone into that, and you turn everyone’s car into your amplifier.”

Every Friday evening at 8pm, three or four comics, including a headliner, climb onto a small makeshift stage to perform for an audience of automobiles. It’s a veritable model of social distancing.

“It’s fun,” says Weber, who co-produces the event with fellow comics Natasha Collier and Brian Snyder. “People will bring a car full of friends; they’ll be in their cars eating a poke bowl. It’s just before sunset. The show’s a little more than an hour.”

In lieu of a cover charge or a tip jar, comics ask for donations through Venmo to pay the performers and to help with fundraising efforts for DNA’s Comedy Lab. Weber says the show raises between $150 and $300 each night, from an average audience of around 45 to 80 people.

Of course, comedians need laughs like flowers need rain. A few parking-lot comedy shows in other parts of the country opted to have their audiences tap their car horns as a signal for laughter. But the Santa Cruz comics settled on a quieter strategy: flashing headlights.

The plan, however, turned out to be problematic. Weber says that during earlier performances, some cars flashed their lights so much that they drained their batteries, and he was jumping cars into the night.

“Now, we do an intermission before the headliner and tell everybody to start their engines because I don’t want to have to jump your car,” Weber says.

Generally, the comedy shows have been a success, he says, though one incident tainted an otherwise fine show the Friday before the July Fourth weekend. Weber reports that an unknown someone planted an M-80 explosive in an old shoe on the level directly below the comedians’ stage.

“In the middle of somebody’s punch line, there’s this pink flash, loud boom and tons of smoke,” says Weber, who started running down the ramp to find out what had happened, only to fall and tear some ligaments in his hand.

“In my ten years of doing comedy,” he says, “I’ve seen every kind of bombing at comedy shoes—now, even shoe bombing.”

The weekly comedy show has taken place so far without permits or official permission. Once, Weber says, a police vehicle joined the crowd of cars deep into the set. The comics abruptly interrupted the show and quickly dispersed. “The next day, somebody texted one of the performers and said that they were friends with that particular cop. Apparently, the cop just wanted to see the show.”

How long the event lasts is still to be determined.

“We’re not trying to push our luck,” Weber says. “Ultimately, it’s a confluence of good and bad fortunes. It’s really unfortunate dealing with all the unfolding nightmares. But it’s a comedy show and a beautiful sunset. Not bad.”

Santa Cruz in Photos: Food Trucks at Lighthouse Point

Tarmo Hannula

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July 30, 2020

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Santa Cruz in Photos: Food Trucks at Lighthouse Point

People lined up for an early dinner July 18 at Lighthouse Point in Santa Cruz, where five food trucks offered a variety of prepared foods.

The gathering was part of the West Cliff Food Truck Summer Series. Organized by Kathryn Walsh, the 5-hour event on July 18 drew hundreds. Precautions were in place to follow the current guidelines for slowing the spread of Covid-19.

Several of the trucks came from as far away as Watsonville, and a tent was sent up for Penny Ice Creamery. Diners were able to spread out on the lighthouse lawn or enjoy their meals on the surrounding cliffs.

The next such events run Aug. 14 and Sept. 18. Learn more about the events here.

See more from the Santa Cruz in Photos series.

Santa Cruz in Photos: Outdoor Dining With a View at Crow’s Nest

Tarmo Hannula

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July 29, 2020

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Santa Cruz in Photos: Outdoor Dining With a View at Crow’s Nest

In a sweeping change to keep up with the Covid-19 orders, the Crow’s Nest restaurant in the Santa Cruz Harbor has opened two new outdoor seating areas.

The first new outdoor dining spot is near the entrance, offering views of the harbor channel and all boat traffic. The second is a huge white tent stationed out back on the sand, just yards from the shoreline with views of the harbor channel, the Walton Lighthouse and, of course, the Pacific Ocean.

Crow’s Nest has also kept their permanent outdoor patio open for dining.

Restaurants statewide had to close their indoor dining after Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations started surging across California. Additional rollbacks on other sectors across Santa Cruz County went into effect Tuesday due to the surge of cases locally.

There have been 1,030 known Covid-19 cases in the county, according to data last updated Tuesday by county health officials. More than 70 of those people have required hospitalization while they were sick with Covid-19.

Amid the pandemic, many restaurants have instituted non-negotiable protocols—most set by the state—for social distancing and masks. Most customers, local servers say, have been supportive of this new normal.

With indoor dining unavailable for now, the Santa Cruz dining scene is offering up plenty of things to anticipate and enjoy outdoors or for takeout.

See more from the Santa Cruz in Photos series.

Roudon-Smith Winery’s Tasty Cuvée Red Wine 2013

Josie Cowden

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July 29, 2020

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Roudon-Smith Winery’s Tasty Cuvée Red Wine 2013

For around $20 you can get yourself a pretty good bottle of red wine from New Leaf. And that would be Roudon-Smith’s Cuvée—a red blend made up primarily of Syrah and Grenache and a touch of Petite Sirah.

Black plum, smoke and allspice on the nose lead to flavors of smoked meat, red currant, spice, and mesquite. This tasty blend was a bronze medal winner at the 2017 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition; it obviously impressed the judges. Well-balanced with some “dusty tannins that will let the wine further develop over the next 5 years,” here’s a wine to keep on hand.

Roudon-Smith has a lot of history behind it. Founded in 1972 by Bob and Anna-Marie Roudon, and Jim and June Smith, the foursome set up a winery and tasting room in Scotts Valley. Over time, the tasting room was remodeled and is currently occupied by Pelican Ranch Winery.

Now owned by Al Drewke, Roudon-Smith continues to produce fine wines—with winemaker Mikael Wargin (of Wargin Wines in Soquel) at its helm.

Roudon-Smith Winery, 14572 Big Basin Way, Saratoga. 408-313-5229. roudonsmith.com.

Zizzo’s Coffeehouse and Wine Bar

Zizzo’s is a family-style coffee and wine bar locally owned by Karen and Scott Hoogner. As of press time, they’re open 7am to 2pm, but hope to extend hours soon.

Coffee is freshly roasted by Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting, and most of Zizzo’s delicious pastries are made in-house by Karen. There’s plenty of outdoor seating, and it’s a good spot to enjoy a glass of wine from Zizzo’s varied list. Wine is also available for purchase by the bottle.

We can look forward to their featured music nights coming up—and they also host events. As they say on their website, “Isn’t it time to support a local, independent coffeehouse that only cares about your happiness?” The answer is yes! And the good news is they do happy hour wine specials all day, with house wine and bubbles for $6 per glass.

Zizzo’s Coffeehouse and Wine Bar, 3555 Clares St., Suite PP, Capitola. 831-477-0680. zizzoscoffee.com.

Things To Do (Virtually) in Santa Cruz: July 29 – Aug. 4

GT Staff

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July 29, 2020

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Things To Do (Virtually) in Santa Cruz: July 29 – Aug. 4

Because many in-person events across Santa Cruz County have been canceled or postponed during the pandemic, Good Times is compiling a weekly list of virtual events hosted by local nonprofits, artists, fitness instructors and businesses. To submit your virtual event, send an email to ca******@*******es.sc.

ARTS AND MUSIC

CABRILLO MUSIC FESTIVAL The virtual Cabrillo Music Festival runs July 27-Aug. 9. All events are free and accessible on the festival’s website, cabrillomusic.org.

TOM NODDY’S BUBBLE MAGIC Tom has taken his uniquely warm and charming sense of wonder and delight in soap bubbles to audiences around the world. The bubbles are truly exquisite, and Tom’s lively humor and engaging sense of fun leave his audiences both delighted and intrigued. Free all ages library Summer Reading Program: santacruzpl.org/pages/srp. Register online: santacruzpl.libcal.com/event/6741448. Thursday, July 30, 1pm.

GHOST LIGHT THEATER Mountain Community Theater presents a digital festival, “Ghost Light Theater,” named for the safety light that theaters place on the stage between performances. The festival so far has posted five productions, with new ones being added almost every week. They include short plays, monologues, and videos of past productions. Future works will include radio plays, musical performances, behind-the-scenes interviews and panels with theater professionals, and even a participatory writers’ workshop. You can see everything at mctshows.org and on MCT’s YouTube channel. To receive notifications of new productions as they are posted, go to mctshows.org and sign up for the mailing list. We hope to see you again in person in 2021!

SPEED SKETCHING Come with paper and pencil and try your hand at speed sketching: All artistic experience is welcome. Prior to beginning the program, please select an object in your home and place it in view of your computer’s camera, and let’s have fun together and see who can draw the silliest, stylish, true to life, or abstract interpretation of it. Every Tuesday afternoon at 2pm, take a break out of your day for some fun! Register for Zoom at: santacruzpl.libcal.com/event/6780189.

CLASSES

TECH TALKS: NAVIGATING NEWS AND DISINFORMATION The online information ecosystem is polluted and polarized. It seems to be contributing to social demoralization and destabilization. We’ll discuss the primary types of disinformation and share the tools and strategies for critically examining sources of online information. Tech Talks are not your typical computer class. These are hands-on workshops that help us better understand our mobile devices. This event will be taking place online using Zoom. Registrants will receive an email with the Zoom meeting link immediately upon registering for the event. Register online: santacruzpl.libcal.com/event/6813535. Thursday, July 30, 11am.

SEVEN SIMPLE TIPS FOR CREATING YOUR SUCCESSFUL EVENT Join us for a one-hour event to learn seven simple tips for creating, promoting, inviting to, and holding your successful webinar or workshop, in person or online! Tuesday, August 4, at 1pm on Zoom. Learn more: gatherinsantacruz.com.

SALSA SUELTA IN PLACE: Free weekly online session in Cuban-style Salsa Suelta for experienced beginners and up. Contact to get a Zoom link. Thursdays at 7pm. salsagente.com.

COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY RESILIENCE PROJECT: GAINING GROUND FILM DISCUSSION The Santa Cruz Public Libraries continues its monthly discussion series intended to help build resiliency within our community. The next event in the series, Gaining Ground, takes place at 6pm on Thursday, July 30, via Zoom. Register here to participate: santacruzpl.libcal.com/event/6856867. In this event, all are invited to join Michael Watkins and Zach Friend for a discussion about the film Gaining Ground: Building Community on Dudley Street, available on Kanopy, the library’s online video streaming service. It is not necessary to watch the film beforehand but if you’d like to check it out, follow this link: santacruzpl.kanopy.com/video/gaining-ground-building-community-dudley-street. This event is brought to you by The Friends of Santa Cruz Public Libraries.

THE VIRTUAL DICKENS UNIVERSE While the originally planned program focusing on ‘David Copperfield’ and ‘Iola Leroy’ will still take place in 2021, this week of online programming will feature a range of conversations that discuss the occasion of the pair and the insights that bringing them together can offer. Over the week, scholars from Victorian studies and early African American studies will discuss linkages between their respective fields, approaches for addressing race and racism in the classroom, and productive ways to engage with Black studies in the 19th century and its transatlantic contexts. We hope that this will generate excitement to read these two novels over the next year and to join us in Santa Cruz for the full Dickens Universe conference. We hope that this week will provide some useful context for these two novels, as we read them together over the next year. In addition to providing some critical background for France E. W. Harper’s career and ‘Iola Leroy,’ it will also help place her alongside Dickens as one of the most important and prolific writers of the nineteenth century. Like Dickens, Harper was a master of many literary genres (including fiction, prose, and poetry), was deeply involved in nineteenth-century print and periodical cultures. She was a virtuoso public speaker and an activist in the anti-slavery, suffrage, temperance, and post-emancipation racial justice movements. Participation is free, but registration is required. ucsc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VI_xnJrWSw6E-CgXK7bMBA.

LUMA BOOK CLUB This is a time of seismic shift, and yet also one of opportunity. Luma Yoga is a community center operating on principles of inclusion, compassion, and, yes, reflection, but make no mistake—also of action. The first step in effective action is gaining knowledge. To this end, Luma is hosting a book club on the topic of racism and social justice issues. The reading groups will be held remotely (for now) over Zoom Thursday nights 7-8:15pm. The purpose of the groups is to learn the endless shapes oppression can take in the world, to recognize our own biases within ourselves, and to move from discomfort to action in support of Black and non-white POC. The groups will be facilitated by Steven Macramalla, a professor of psychology at SJSU. The Club will work on a 3- to 4-week cycle, reading one book per cycle, with several chapters covered each week. For more info visit lumayoga.com. Thursdays at 7pm.

2020 SUMMER LUNCH PROGRAM Children and youth aged 18 and under can get free lunches this summer at 12 sites throughout Santa Cruz County! The annual Summer Lunch program, sponsored by La Manzana Community Resources, a program of Community Bridges, combats food insecurity and supports good nutritional habits. The Summer Lunch program serves lunch Monday through Friday from 12-1pm. Free meals will be provided to all children, without eligibility documentation, who are 18 years of age and younger. For more info visit communitybridges.org/lmcr.

TALES TO TAILS GOES VIRTUAL Tales to Tails goes virtual to create a comfortable, neutral, and fun reading experience. Bring some books, a stuffed animal or your own pet, and come read with us! This is a YouTube livestream event so you might be reading to up to six animals at once. Woo hoo! Caregivers, you can post your child’s first name and city in the comments section, along with the book they are reading, and we’ll read off as many of those names as we can, live, during the break we need to give the dogs. Each week you register we’ll send you your dog bone “punch cards.” These will be dated dog bones your child can color and email to us. The following week, we’ll display them live on the feed. This will also be recorded so if you can’t make it live, the dogs will still be there for you. Every Wednesday, 10-11am. Learn more at santacruzpl.libcal.com/event/6764929.

GROUPS

SUNSET BEACH BOWLS Experience the tranquility, peace and calmness as the ocean waves harmonize with the sound of Crystal Bowls. Every Tuesday at 7:45pm. Moran Lake Park.

VIRTUAL YOUNG ADULT (18-30) TRANSGENDER SUPPORT GROUP A weekly peer support group for young adults aged 18-25 who identify as transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, agender, or any other non-cisgender identity. This is a social group where we meet and chat among ourselves, sharing our experiences and thoughts in a warm, welcoming setting. Our meetings will be held on Discord during the shelter-in-place order. For more info, contact Ezra Bowen at tr***@*************er.org.

LGBTQNBI+ SUPPORT GROUP FOR CORONAVIRUS STRESS This weekly LGBTQNBI+ support group is being offered to help us all deal with stress during the shelter-in-place situation that we are experiencing from the coronavirus. Feel free to bring your lunch and chat together to get support. This group is offered at no cost and will be facilitated by licensed therapists Shane Hill, Ph.D., and Melissa Bernstein, LMFT #52524. Learn how to join the Zoom support group at diversitycenter.org/community-calendar.

OUTDOOR

LABSIDE CHATS: A CONVERSATION WITH A SCIENTIST Tune in for the next Labside Chat with Mark Carr, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz, on Thursday, July 30, at 11am, to explore the structure and dynamics of nearshore marine ecosystems. Join the conversation! Submit your questions in advance for Mark, then watch the conversation to hear the answers during the live chat. Visit the Seymour Center’s website to submit your questions in advance and to access the livestream: seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/learn/ongoing-education/labside-chats. Virtual Labside Chats are offered at no charge. Please support the Seymour Center by becoming a member or making a donation today: seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/get-involved/join.

OWLS ON THE PROWL Local California State Parks in Santa Cruz County are offering virtual junior ranger programs for children ages 7-12 during the Covid-19 pandemic. These fun, free Zoom webinars are scheduled on Mondays and Fridays at 10am each week in July. Children receive a digital stamp for each program they attend; after receiving a certain number of stamps, they can earn prizes! Do you hear owls at night? Who are they hooting at? Swoop in for a bird’s eye look into the incredible world of owls. This interactive program will be broadcast as a Zoom webinar. Registration is required. To register, visit tinyurl.com/SantaCruzJuniorRangers. Free event. Friday, July 31, 10am.

S’MORES AT THE SHORE Join us for a sweet educational campfire as we learn more about the creatures found at Sunset State Beach and play some of our favorite campfire games! Like our Facebook page to receive a notification when this pre-recorded program is premiered: facebook.com/SunsetManresaSB. Viewers will be able to post questions and comments during the premiere for a state park interpreter to answer. The program will also be available for later viewing. Free event. Friday, July 31, 7pm.

NATURALIST NIGHT: SANTA CRUZ HABITATS AND HISTORY Santa Cruz Public Libraries and the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History have partnered to bring you Naturalist Night! Join fellow nature enthusiasts for monthly explorations of the biodiversity of Santa Cruz County. Each month, Marisa Gomez from the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History will share the stories of a specific Santa Cruz habitat as we develop our skills as naturalists. This series will feature a presentation as well as an interactive session. This program occurs monthly on the fourth Tuesday from 6-7 pm. Registration is required for Zoom access link. Your registration confirmation email will have the Zoom link in it. Register online: santacruzpl.libcal.com/event/6857442.

Opinion: July 29, 2020

Steve Palopoli

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July 29, 2020

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Jana Marcus has the Good Times covers she’s been on over the years hanging on the wall of her office. The very first one is from almost 25 years ago, and it was written by … me. In fact, if I remember right, it was the first cover story I ever wrote for GT. It was a profile of both her and her father Morton Marcus, and while interviewing them together I was entertained by their dry banter and moved by the deep affection and respect they so obviously shared for each other.

So I’ve known Jana a long time, but if you had asked me then why she would be on the GT cover in 2020, I would not have guessed a true-crime book. I love that you can never really predict what she’ll be up to next, whether it’s as an author or photographer. Still, as Wallace Baine’s cover story wonderfully lays out, Jana’s core artistic values are the same now as they were back when I first wrote about her—Mort is a big part of this book, and it turns out that the mob murder at its core is part of a family secret she’s been obsessed with for decades. It’s a fascinating story with some crazy twists, and I’m pleased to bring Jana back to our cover to explore it with our readers.

STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Read the latest letters to the editor here.

No Time to Congratulate Ourselves

Re: “Youth Movement” (GT, 7/15): As nationwide protests erupted in response to police violence against people of color, thousands marched in Santa Cruz to express their solidarity. Even the police chief knelt down with protesters, much as the SCPD has paraded with community members to celebrate the Martin Luther King holiday.

While these are certainly nice gestures, it strikes me that for many white liberals, this is more an exercise in patting oneself on the back, rather than seeking to understand and eradicate racism and injustice. Santa Cruz likes to imagine itself a special place, so tolerant and open, yet in many ways we are subject to the same tendencies as the rest of the country.

In 2007, the only nonwhite City Council member, Tony Madrigal, raised concern about an incident of racial profiling he’d witnessed. Rather than taking the opportunity for discussion, or launching an investigation, the white establishment attacked Madrigal. The Sentinel ran an editorial calling for him to resign, while fellow council members Reilly, Mathews, Coonerty, and Robinson—all Democrats—signed a statement saying that Madrigal’s allegation, “has been demoralizing to the department and harmful to its reputation.”

The council remained almost entirely white until 2018, when voters elected two young black men. Cummings and Glover won in part due to their support for rent control, which lost at the ballot, but turned out thousands of voters. Yet within days of their swearing-in, the overwhelmingly white landlord lobby began threatening a recall. Sure enough, they eventually used leftover real estate money raised to fight rent control to fund a spurious recall campaign, based largely on the narrative of Glover—a large black man—as intimidating and “bullying” to (white) women on staff.

Although an $18,000 investigation failed to substantiate all but one trivial claim, and urged Council members to resolve conflicts internally, the white liberals on council continued to play up ugly stereotypes of the intimidating black man—even as Myers herself came unhinged, shouting angrily at Glover at a meeting and pounding her fist, in behavior far worse than his alleged wrongdoings.

The real reason for the ouster of Glover, a Kingian nonviolence trainer, is that like King and many others in the movements for black liberation, he acted as a champion for the poor and marginalized, including renters and the unhoused. While these are not strictly racial issues, race plays a huge role in who owns land and wealth, due to factors ranging from redlining to inequalities in education.

It’s easy to walk down West Cliff and say one opposes racism, but it’s harder for Santa Cruz to grapple with that we allowed a group of landlords, almost all white, to buy a recall election, replacing a progressive black man who has long championed the very issues central to the current protests with a white landlord who was a lifelong Republican until last election cycle.

Similarly, Santa Cruz has a hard time considering that our police might be subject to the same problems that plague other departments. Yet SCPD shot and killed Sean Arlt, a young father experiencing a mental health crisis, for wielding a garden rake. A SCPD officer brutalized Richard Hardy, a homeless man they found passed out drunk downtown. Although he was harming no one, they roused him, cuffed him, and then when he resisted being pushed into the car, they slammed him head-first into a curb.

SCPD officials admit that law enforcement is not a solution to homelessness, yet continue to criminalize the poor, destroying camps and ticketing RVs, without offering anywhere else for people to go. Police have also spied on people organizing a parade, lied about protests, and a deputy chief went on TV to smear a progressive candidate as “a dangerous anarchist” for hanging a banner at a protest.

Santa Cruz, let’s move past gestures and work to end institutional racism and problematic policing.

Steve Schnaar | Santa Cruz

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

RINGING ENDORSEMENT

The city of Santa Cruz has five sister cities, including the Japanese city of Shingu. In early August, the sister city committees of Santa Cruz and Shingu will host two virtual events to recognize the bombs dropped at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, as well the efforts toward peace. Anyone can participate by observing 30 seconds of silence, followed by 75 seconds of bell ringing on Wednesday, Aug. 5 at 4:15pm and Saturday, Aug. 8 at 7:02pm. Use hashtag #USJapanBells when sharing photos and videos on social media.

Mar 27, 2020 – UPDATE, Aug. 3, 6pm: A previous version of this story misreported the hashtag for the bell ringing in memory of the atomic bombs that the U.S. military dropped on Japan.

GOOD WORK

FOOT FORWARD

Santa Cruz began construction on a citywide Pedestrian Crossing Improvement Project on Monday. The project, expected to be completed in December, will include new ADA-accessible curb ramps, pedestrian-activated beacons, traffic striping, pavement markings and regulatory and warning signs. Construction will occur on weekdays from 7am-4pm. The project’s goal is to increase walking and cycling safety throughout the city. The project’s $1 million price tag is fully funded through a Highway Safety Improvement Program grant. Any concerns or questions may go to Project Manager Dan Estranero at de********@*************uz.com or 831-420-5189.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Mysteries abound where most we seek for answers.”
-Ray Bradbury

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