Live music highlights for the week of Oct. 10, 2018.
WEDNESDAY 10/10
ALT-ROCK
MONKS OF DOOM
Monks of Doom, an offshoot of Santa Cruz darlings Camper Van Beethoven, debuted The Brontë Pin this year, their first collection of all-new material in 25 years. Most songs are instrumental and improvisational; the heavy bass guitar is reminiscent of ’90s rock, artfully keeping things deep and dark, while King Crimson-esque drums flirt with psychedelia and guitars play coy with prog rock. There’s enough familiarity to make each jam sound almost like your favorite song from decades past. AMY BEE
Kikagaku Moyo’s music pierces illusions, goes straight for your innermost being, and expands it. That psychedelic expansiveness is baked into every moment of the band’s four albums. Songs morph organically from ethereal sitar ragas to propulsive krautrock to extended tone passages. In an interview with It’s Psychedelic Baby, drummer Go Kurosawa describes his view of music as separate from art, seeing it as “something more primitive and impulsive, something that brings pleasure to the body and soul.” MIKE HUGUENOR
Pianist/composer Ethan Iverson continues his post-Bad Plus reinvention with his only California date featuring his duo collaboration with tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. Known for spinning long, captivating lines that dart and twist in unexpected directions, Turner is one of the pervasively influential saxophonists of the past quarter-century, a supremely inventive player who has developed a sound and harmonic vocabulary deeply informed by the tradition but unlike any player before him. ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: 7 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $26.25/adv, $31.50/door. 427-2227.
FRIDAY 10/12
POP
BASIA
Did you know Polish singer Basia has an impressive three-octave vocal range? Basia who, you say? Oh, you remember that singer. She had a string of easy-listening, Latin-grooving, jazz vocaling, New Age-y pop hits in the late ’80s and early ’90s (“New Day For You,” “Cruising For Bruising,” “Drunk on Love”). The hits dried up stateside in the mid-’90s, but she’s continued to chart in Poland, including the 2018 hit “Matteo,” which made it to No. 20. But is she still churning out feel-good, romantic earworms, you ask? You better believe it. AARON CARNES
INFO: 8 p.m. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $45. 423-8209
SATURDAY 10/13
METAL
TERROR CÓSMICO
This two-piece melodic doom metal band has been sending listeners into the depths of warped-out audio intensity since 2012. On Oct. 13, long-haired heshers have the special pleasure of not only seeing the duo in a room as intimate as the Blue Lagoon, but Terror Cósmico will have some new tunes for hungry ears. Their newest album, III, was recently released in May and contains a myriad of twists and turns to delight any metalhead who enjoys an epic adventure told through heavy riffs and thunderous drums. MAT WEIR
INFO: 9 p.m. Blue Lagoon, 923 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, $8/door. 423-7117. SATURDAY 10/13
POP
ADA VOX
Ada Vox broke into the mainstream when she made it to the Top 10 of American Idol this season. What many don’t know is she originally was featured on season 12, appearing as her born personality Adam Sanders. With fabulous style, bouffant hair and the pipes of an angel, Vox charmed audience and judges alike. She will be performing at Hotel Paradox for the Diversity Center’s Moulin Rouge-themed 2018 Gala After Party. The Gala is the Diversity Center’s annual fundraiser for LGBTQ+ programs, and the After Party will also include a drag show, dance floor and performances by Pussycat Doll and Carmit Bachar. MW
African pop music in the ’60s was a revelatory mix of funk, soul, pop, and psychedelia. Modern Bay Area band Orchestra Gold, led by Malian singer Mariam Diakite, aims to keep this tradition alive, bringing the revolutionary sounds of electric Africa to modern audiences. Orchestra Gold revives the big-band movement from Mali, a time when rock instruments mingled with saxophones, wood flutes and shekeres, vocalizing the sound of a recently liberated nation. OG keep the politics of liberation at the heart of its sound, and this debut performance by the groups is sure to be a stunning one. MH
“I love the thought of being with you/Or maybe it’s the thought of not being so alone,” screams Frank Lopes (aka Hobo Johnson) with every ounce of his emotions on full display. This line from his now-viral “Peach Scone” falls somewhere between spoken-word, rap, emo and stumbling folk-punk. Before shooting the video in his friend’s backyard for the NPR Tiny Desk contest this year, maybe a handful of people outside of Sacramento knew who he was. But the success of this one video literally created his career. Now he’s toured the world and sold out everywhere he’s gone. His approach to rap or folk or indie-rock or whatever the hell he does is extremely creative and more emotionally honest than anything else you’re listening to right now. AC
Let go of harsh reality and immerse yourself in Madeline Kenney’s fuzzy, buzzy, synthy dreamscapes. Her songs are thick with sonic layers building upon themselves in a kind of structured experimentation. Kenney’s high-pitched, keening vocals cut through the dreamy haze with melodic clear-sightedness, finding secret crevices of wounds and healing them with lyrics imbued with the salve of sweet reflection. Kinney deftly turns the hard, sharp turns of adulthood into the softer beauty of the ethereal. AB
In August, Lindsie Feathers relocated to Santa Cruz from Portland, where she lived for over a decade and played many gigs. She even recorded a self-titled album with her band Neon Renaissance.
She didn’t come here to play music, but a friend who found out that Feathers would be living here invited her to open a show at the Crepe Place. Right around the same time, Feathers met Santa Cruz legend Patti Maxine, and asked if she’d sit in for this show. Just like that, Feathers was part of the local scene.
“I was like wow, Santa Cruz is really opening their arms to me in this really wonderful way. In a short amount of time, I felt really welcomed here,” Feathers says. “Every time I say, ‘Music, I’m leaving you,’ it’s like, ‘No, you’re not.’ It comes back creeping in. And I welcome it lovingly.”
Feathers’ roots go back to Illinois, where she grew up, and Chicago, where she cut her teeth playing live music. She’s gone from playing rock ’n’ roll to psychedelic to psychedelic-country to roots-Americana-influenced music.
“The roots and the Americana, the singer-songwriter style, it really resonates with me. My voice is really good in that style,” Feathers says. “I’m going through a personal transformation. My writing is shifting, my performances are different. That’s both scary and exciting.”
When we started Santa Cruz Restaurant Week 10 years ago, it was a very different time. The city was right in the thick of the Great Recession, and in some ways SCRW was more of a necessity than a luxury. It gave restaurants a way to bring in locals who were not going out as much, and it gave those same locals an affordable way to get back out to their favorite spots, or discover something new. It felt like different parts of the community helping to pull each other up in a difficult time. And it was a really fun way to do it.
Ten years later, the economic situation has changed, and Santa Cruz Restaurant Week is twice as big as it was back then, but I still love the same things about it. It’s still a great way for the community to come together, it still guarantees a lot of great meals, and it’s more fun than ever. I love to go out to the restaurants that are part of SCRW and see how busy they are over the next seven days. You can find everything you need to plan your own Restaurant Week adventures in this issue. Thanks to Lily Stoicheff for talking to every chef, restaurant owner and manager who would give her the time of day about their Restaurant Week memories and their menus for this year. Take a look, and then get out and eat! See you there!
Every single day when I leave my home in Watsonville, I see addicts walking the street aimlessly, almost getting mowed down by traffic. On Main Street from Rodriguez Street all the way to the Crossroads Shopping Center, there may be as many as a hundred addicts walking around, emerging from the bushes where they live. I happen to recognize many of these individuals, who also frequent the mental health county clinics and services. And every single day I have the same thought: these people need help. But by looking at the sheer numbers in my daily environment that help just does not seem to be arriving.
I know there’s an opioid crisis in this country because it’s parading in front of my door. Maybe if you’re not living near the areas where these addicts are living and sleeping, you might conclude we don’t have much of a problem here. But I’m telling you, we do. What are we doing here in Santa Cruz County to help these people? Have we become so jaded that they are part of the landscape?
More than 115 people in the United States die every day after overdosing on opioids, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The misuse of and addiction to opioids (heroin, prescription painkillers and fentanyl) also costs the country $78.5 billion annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 80 percent of people using heroin started their habit by first using prescription opioids, according to the National Institute of Health.
So far in 2018, Santa Cruz County ranks 16th among 58 California counties for its high opioid overdose death rate. High housing costs, homelessness, income disparity and inadequate access to treatment all contribute to this local epidemic.
I talked to several counselors at Se Si Puede who said there are a couple of things the ordinary citizen can do. For starters, we can advocate for affordable housing. Secondly, we can help educate people about the challenges of addiction. Maybe most important is training ourselves not to prejudge addicts and make them feel invisible; they already feel out of place.
Some years back there was an assigned county mobile unit, which would provide basic curbside medical and/or mental health screening, basic hygiene items, and when appropriate, referral services for addicts, homeless, and people with mental health needs. This mobile unit would focus on specific crisis areas of the community in Watsonville. I’m not sure where the mobile unit has gone, but we need it now more than ever before.
Treatment is one-third the cost of incarceration. More than 90 percent of Santa Cruz County residents who need treatment for substance use disorder do not receive it, according to my friend who works at Janus.
The impacts of this unaddressed epidemic are profound. The local justice system reports that 60 percent of all bookings in 2015 were related to drugs or alcohol. I bet that number is even higher today. It is estimated that substance use disorders and treatment cost Santa Cruz County about $207 million per year. So please, can we all come together to help our neighbors?
Jaime Molina | Watsonville
Re: William McCarthy
We were lucky enough to see Billy play an intimate pop-up gig in a village pub in Yorkshire (U.K.) around two months ago. Having seen him play with Augustines more than a dozen times between 2012 and 2016, it was a night of complete and utter joy to witness him, sitting right in front of just 30 of us, singing his heart out as though performing in front of 3,000. He is, as the band was, the best live act we will ever see, and we cannot wait to see the film.
— Phil Dodsworth
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GOOD IDEA
Local voters may now cast their ballot in the upcoming Nov. 6 general election at the County Elections Department, located at 701 Ocean St., Room 310 in Santa Cruz, and in the Watsonville City Clerk’s Office, located at 275 Main St. in Watsonville on the fourth floor, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Voters must complete an application for a ballot, and will receive a vote-by-mail ballot, which they may cast there or take home.
GOOD WORK
Wage growth over the hill has been slow and stagnant, according to a new UCSC report. Nine out of 10 Silicon Valley jobs pay less than they did 20 years ago, as reported by Chris Benner, professor of sociology and environmental studies. Benner found that most of the region’s workers are scraping by on their salaries, while venture capitalists eat up the gains. The findings implore techies to give the tenets of their new economy another look.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Sharp knives, of course are the secret of a successful restaurant.”
Armed with the Tony-award-winning play Red, director Wilma Marcus Chandler has injected her considerable dramatic savvy into an intense theater experience.
An actor’s feast, the two-man exploration of the psychology and genius of painter Mark Rothko gives the audience a crash course in modern art history. Admittedly, viewers with a background in the rich ego-driven debates of Abstract Expressionism will be most captivated. Those for whom the names Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Roy Lichtenstein are rather vague might find the name-dropping texture of Red a bit more of an art history lesson than a living drama.
The play by John Logan depends entirely upon the push and pull between visionary, hard-drinking, angst-ridden Rothko (played to the hilt by Martin Sampad Kachuck) and his young, overwhelmed studio assistant Ken (played with earnest fervor by Robert Gerbode). Their dynamic doesn’t merely drive the play, it is the play. And for a brisk hour and a half, the master and assistant represent not only the Dionysian and Apollonian archetypes of chaos and order, but also the Old Guard reluctant to give way to the Next Wave in visual culture. Freud on steroids!
The show belongs to Rothko and from the start, as we first see the painter smoking in his studio, transfixed by his latest work, Kachuck hits the stage running. Energy surges from his body, his face, and his impressive vocal range—the actor is one with his character. And one suspects he also believes in the primal vision of Rothko, considered one of the mystic giants of modern art. Defying any genre label—although Abstract Expressionism eventually stuck—Rothko railed against the cheap popularity of some of his colleagues, and lamented even more the pop art celebrity of Warhol and Rauschenberg pushing his own fame to the sidelines.
During the period covered by Logan’s script—the very late ’50s—Rothko has become the cranky deity of pure abstraction. Agonizing over the creation of each large canvas—“10 percent is putting paint on the canvas, the rest is waiting”—Rothko begins an intellectual struggle to indoctrinate his new assistant into the inner mysteries of painting. What ensues is a master class in 20th century psychoanalysis, 19th century philosophy, and an often very funny verbal exploration about the nature of paintings. “They move, they change, they pulse—there’s tragedy in every brushstroke,” Rothko insists to his perplexed assistant. The play’s juicy love letter to Matisse’s Red Studio is breathtaking.
The play moves forward in time briskly. Rothko and Ken seem to work smoothly together, yet their back and forth dialectic grows louder, and digs deeper, eventually teasing out a personal tragedy buried in Ken’s unconscious (one of the playwright’s missteps). Essentially, the play is a one-man drama, with the assistant an externalization of Rothko’s own pedantic persona, as well as Greek chorus and devil’s advocate. The two final scenes focus on Rothko’s ambivalence toward an infamous commission he has accepted, to paint a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York’s Seagram Building. Rothko’s love for these paintings, their vulnerability, and his fatherly despair about their well-being, are all revealed in Logan’s poetry. And yet the playwright seems unclear as to where and when the play should end. Opening night’s final scene felt more like an addendum, rather than the denouement of the emotional arc.
Nonetheless, Red’s writing is so kinetic and rich, so illuminating of the artistic process—certainly Rothko’s—that we can practically chew on the lines cut, hewn, and shaped by the eminently watchable and listenable Kachuck.
Anyone who paints, or grasps the ambivalence of authentic artistic creation will be enthralled by the scripted pyrotechnics. Kudos to Chandler, who understands how to move her actors around the stage, and through the script—and then step back and let them work. And praise for evocative lighting by Carina Swanberg and the spot-on set design by Skip Epperson, who has created a complete studio in which any painter would feel at home.
Red will whet the viewer’s appetite for Rothko’s work and his eccentric grand vision, all the more compelling in a non-visionary 21st century. It’s a crisp, challenging bit of theater.
‘Red’ by John Logan, will be presented by Santa Cruz Actors’ Theatre at the Center Stage Theater, 1001 Center St., Santa Cruz through Oct. 21. sccat.org.
I’ve never felt more conflicted about covering a culinary business in this town than I do about Tacos El Chuy.
After eating dozens of Jesus Falcon’s tacos over many months, it still wasn’t an easy decision to write about them. Because, here’s the thing—Tacos El Chuy are the best. They’re so good that I want to keep them all to myself.
Approach his operation at a local brewery, and you’ll be confronted with a white-board menu of half a dozen options for fillings ranging from $2.50 to $3. I always order the al pastor. The marinated pork, topped with a whole pineapple, roasts nearby on a vertical spit, and as Falcon prepares the tacos he slices off bits of the caramelized meat, tosses it on a griddled tortilla and finishes it with a warm, juicy slice of pineapple, finely diced onions, cilantro and grilled onions.
It’s incredible as is, but if you’re not afraid of a little spice, the flavors are enhanced by the nearby house-made condiments. I add one or two of Falcon’s green and red salsas and a generous sprinkling of escabeche, but be careful—the slivers of orange in the pickled onion mixture are habanero pepper. Too much of a good thing can lead to an eye-watering, mouth-numbing experience.
Falcon’s tacos are the kind of good that makes you close your eyes and feel the stress of the day leave your shoulders. I eat them every week instead of going to yoga, and I swear I have reached the same meditative state.
Falcon learned how to make them in his home state of Querétaro, Mexico, where he says “Each and every person has their own recipe and way to make them.”
When he arrived in the U.S. two years ago, he tried different recipes and eventually decided to use his own. On their journey, says Falcon, he met two “angels,” Pepe Palacios and Emily Thomas, a brewer and the owner of Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, which hosts Tacos El Chuy every Tuesday and Saturday night. “They gave me the opportunity to really bring up my business,” he says.
Falcon will soon be upgrading Tacos El Chuy from a pop-up to a food truck.
The transition between late summer and early fall may be the best time to eat in Santa Cruz County. Berries, tomatoes, stone fruit, and hot and sweet peppers still crowd the tables at the farmers market, but by the beginning of October they are joined by a supporting cast of figs, apples, pears, and all manner of squash. While there’s still ample sunshine, there’s also a crispness in the air that invites friends and family to gather and feast.
It’s the perfect time to celebrate Santa Cruz County’s culinary scene, and for 10 years Santa Cruz Restaurant Week has done just that.
Each participating restaurant offers their take on a three-course fixed price menu, which evens the playing field and invites each chef and restaurateur to showcase their skills within the event’s format. In the last decade, I have been blown away by their creativity and passion. Many guests visit a different restaurant every night of the event—although with almost 40 participating restaurants this year, it would be difficult to visit all of them without a time machine or multiple stomachs. (For those tempted to try, there are still a few online giveaways for $25 and $35 gift cards to participating restaurants).
We asked each restaurant about their approach to this year’s menu, and why guests should make an effort to visit their establishment. It’s clear that each takes pride in offering a special experience for both new guests and faithful customers, and in supporting locally and sustainably grown ingredients. We also asked them what makes Santa Cruz Restaurant Week such an enduring community event, and some of their answers are quite moving.
Here’s to another 10 years!
Why should guests choose your restaurant to visit during Santa Cruz Restaurant Week?
“We are using Santa Cruz Restaurant Week as the launch for our new fall menu, so guests will get a sneak preview at all of our tasty new offerings.”
“Akira Aptos is a new restaurant. We just hit the one-year mark at the end of September and haven’t done Restaurant Week since our first year open at our original location in Seabright, so we wanted to offer a fun menu using some products that no other Japanese/sushi restaurants are featuring.”
“Aquarius and Jack O’Neill Lounge is the hangout for the best views of the ocean, West Cliff and Municipal Wharf. We are one of the only restaurants in Santa Cruz that offers free valet parking. Perfect for the family, date night or stopping in for dinner.”
TACO TIME A colorful dish at Aquarius restaurant at the Dream Inn, which overlooks the Monterey Bay.
“We have been focusing on excellent customer service as well as our fresh and delicious food. We also have a new local wine list that is very good. We take pride in our speed and accuracy of dishes coming from the kitchen. We have a beautiful modern dining room and bar, with many TVs for sports lovers of all kinds. It is also a great time to check out our banquet facility and dream about your next event.”
“We purchased Bruno’s a little over a year ago, and we’ve taken it to a new level. Delicious food, friendly staff and fun is our motto. Restaurant Week will be an opportunity for us to connect with members of the community who haven’t come in since the change and sample some of our new recipes.”
“Part of the reason I think it’s a different experience here at Chocolate, apart from the really pleasant environment we offer—like our heated outdoor patio—is that we are focused on pleasing our customers during Restaurant Week beyond what the price point would normally allow. When we create our menus, we’re thinking of new customers and also about creating a special experience for customers that already come here. For us, that means using the best of the season of what we have at the farmers market and really doing something above and beyond.”
“We are serving farm-to-table, organic ingredients and humanely raised, grass-fed, grass-finished beef. We have a wide variety of vegan options to satisfy everyone in the group!”
“One of the things that Hindquarter does is create a menu that’s totally representative of what they serve in normal times. There are no compromises. Whatever you order is what they’d put on the table any other night so you can enjoy the full Hindquarter experience. Hindquarter traditionally serves really good-sized portions, and they try to be consistent with that.”
“It’s been 10 years now in the making, and every year we try to provide something that is seasonal and an expression of what we call ‘real Italian food.’ We try to source most of the produce and fish locally. We try to allow people to sample a variety of items of that aren’t necessarily on the menu. It’s an expression of what of we believe is a great Italian experience.”
“I worked with Joe Martin, our talented Chef de Cuisine, to make a menu that celebrates the fall harvest season, and all of the fantastic produce available from our local farms right now. We also wanted to showcase our housemade preserves and pickles from the summer harvest, and honor the Latin and Asian cultural influences around us. Finally, we wanted to make a menu which is fun and exciting, something new for our regular guests and Santa Cruz locals who have been visiting Linwood’s for years.”
“Our Restaurant Week menu is styled upon a goal of offering dishes that best represent our flavors while offering a variety inclusive to both adventurous and cautious palates.”
PITA PROS Authentic Mediterranean and Middle Eastern eats are the focus at downtown’s Mozaic.
“We always try to discount offerings that we already have. We’ve been here since 1995. Our current owners have been here since 1998. We like to remind people what they can get here every day, and reward regular customers with their favorites at a discount. That way if they love it, they can come back and get it again.”
“Everything we do at Soif is seasonal and locally sourced, and that’s exactly how we approached the menu for Restaurant Week. Course by course, our guests are getting the freshest product, and tasting dishes that might not necessarily be on the menu in a few weeks.”
“Our Restaurant Week menu will showcase some of the dishes we will have on our upcoming seasonal menu. The timing is perfect to utilize late summer and fall ingredients like sweet corn, chilis, butternut squash and apples. This is a perfect way for customers to get a good taste of what’s new at Süda.”
“Restaurant Week is an opportunity to highlight the beginning of the change of seasons on the coast—to play with local honey and wild mushrooms, to give folks a chance to be exposed to our menu in a different way—with familiar preparations accompanied by bright and diverse flavors that aren’t provided year ’round, and which the kitchen excitedly gets to play with as the farms and sea shift gears.”
“They’re an introduction to the new fall menu and feature items that we don’t usually do. For appetizers, we have a burrata salad and a quinoa salad with fall ingredients. We’re doing something fun with an empanada with confit chicken. Last year we did seared diver scallops that were really popular, so we’re doing that again with different sides. We’re doing our beer-braised short ribs, which we’ve done before. This time it’s Colorado-style with white cheddar white corn grits, panca chili and masa-fried buttermilk onions. We have a version of our Thai curry, this time with roasted red peppers that’s vegan and gluten-free. For dessert we have our cider donuts, which are very popular, and a vegan and gluten-free panna cotta.”
“To showcase what Solaire does and what it can do. Our menu is inspired by nature in the Santa Cruz style, and we’re trying to do things that are fresh and local while putting a spin on them—like our yuba noodles with kohlrabi slaw and green curry. We’re also featuring a Seaquoia seaweed salad. The seaweed is from a local guy, Ian O’Holleran, who harvests it locally. We’re serving it with kelp noodles, mizuna and honey from our rooftop made into a ginger dressing. We only change our menu twice a year, so this is what’s going to be on our menu this winter. We also have a vegan nacho made with cashew cream and Okinawan sweet potatoes. It’s a really great dish, something easy to share while sitting by the pool.”
“We chose some of our most popular items and others that we have gotten good feedback on. We’re also providing new items that our customers have requested that we put on the menu to try them out and see what people think.”
Restaurant Week is now in its 10th year. What do you think has made it an enduring community event?
“Life is busy, especially the fall. School is back in session, and many people are busy getting ready for the numerous holidays approaching while juggling kids and activities. Dining out tends to slide to the back burner. I think Santa Cruz Restaurant Week encourages everyone to take time to enjoy a great meal and try something new.”
“I believe this is a great chance for members of our community to get out and experience the best restaurants in our area, and at a set price that is simply a terrific value. It just gets better every year.”
“Food brings people together. This event is an opportunity to satiate curiosity about new restaurants, an opportunity to reconnect with old friends, an excuse for many to get out and try new things and have fun. Restaurant Week attracts attention from locals and tourists alike. We get people from all over the country and the world coming to dine during this event. I have the experience of a beautiful food festival. Special thanks to Good Times for putting this together and keeping it going, creating many wonderful experiences and memories.”
WINE WITH THAT? Diners at Sri Lankan restaurant Pearl of the Ocean have their choice of custom wine offerings.
“Restaurant Week is such a successful event because the community can try incredible culinary offeringsat amazing prices. Ultimately, this encourages locals to try places they normally wouldn’t, and really gives back to the community by driving business to restaurants. For us here at Severino’s Bar & Grill, we genuinely look forward to Santa Cruz Restaurant Week each year. We enjoy seeing new folks coming in to try us for the first time, and it’s a great opportunity for us to introduce fresh new ideas, while not forgetting the signature dishes that got us where we are today.”
“I think it has lasted and will continue to go on because it has everything to do with supporting each other and our local businesses. I myself have attended different restaurants and enjoyed their menu options during Restaurant Week. This year I’m proud of being on the other side of it and hope for people to come out and enjoy a good meal!”
“Restaurant Week has been an awesome addition to the Santa Cruz community. It’s something where everyone can go out to enjoy themselves and just try out new places. Growing up in Santa Cruz, I have learned that we are super big on supporting local businesses, which to me is awesome! Who wouldn’t want to do that? Restaurant Week, along with other things like Burger Week, are what make up Santa Cruz—supporting the local businesses.”
“Each year, Your Place-Farm to Table anticipates Restaurant Week like Christmas. We can’t wait to offer our community that loves us all year some love right back! We use this awesome deal to go all out and spoil Santa Cruz with beautiful food and harmony on a plate. As history buffs, being both part of the Good Times’ history and our customers’ personal histories is truly an honor.”
“One of the reasons Restaurant Week has been going so well for us is because people try restaurants they wouldn’t normally try. I went to four different places last year myself. And instead of a big menu with a lot of different options, the restaurant week menu showcases the best of what those restaurants have to offer.”
“Restaurant Week is so popular because of Santa Cruz. It’s an amazing place to be. You have the beautiful beaches and the mountains—you’re surrounded by beauty. The culture is very chill, and in the last few years Santa Cruz has grown so much with people from so many different cultures, it’s becoming international and cosmopolitan. And that includes delicious restaurants.”
When UCSC students made their way around Santa Cruz to conduct a survey about housing, some residents slammed the door in their faces. They got a similarly chilly response during community meetings, while conducting research for the latest installment of a university project to assess the effects of the housing crisis. That they hoped to contribute to a solution didn’t sway many locals who believe UCSC students are part of the problem.
While there is widespread agreement that more needs to be done in Santa Cruz County to make it an affordable place to live for people of all income levels, there’s a simmering disagreement about the dynamics of the problem and how to best address it. While some encourage construction of all types as a starting point to help boost the overall housing supply, others say the focus of any new development should be affordable housing.
The co-leads of the UCSC “No Place Like Home” study believe their data can help create a more informed conversation around these issues. Last year’s study, which focused on renters, highlighted issues around rent burden, forced moves and more. This year’s study includes findings from both renters and homeowners. Students surveyed nearly 500 city and county employees, as well as employees of Community Bridges and Salud Para la Gente, two of the largest local nonprofits. The UCSC team collaborated with Service Employees International Union Local 521 on the research.
The goal is to make the research relevant for students and the community, say project co-leads Miriam Greenberg, a UCSC sociology professor, and Steve McKay, an associate sociology professor.
They’ll share the results at the free event “No Place Like Home: Building Local Housing Solutions for All” on Oct. 18 at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, which will include a panel discussion of the findings and cap off a week of Affordable Housing Week gatherings.
The study found that more than 60 percent of renters and half of homeowners surveyed spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Nearly half say they’ve had difficulty paying their rent or mortgage in the last five years, and half of those individuals say they skipped buying food or medicine to make their housing payments.
Possible ways to address those issues include expanding social services and exploring the need for the production of new affordable housing, the preservation of existing affordable housing, and the protection of tenants and renters, Greenberg says.
In addition to two ambitious statewide initiatives, there are two housing-related local measures on the Nov. 6 ballot. The first is a contentious citywide Santa Cruz rent control measure, Measure M, which has garnered high-profile opposition, although Greenberg and McKay both support it. The second, Measure H, is a countywide bond measure with wide-ranging support—but also opposition from a few homeowners—which requires support from two-thirds of voters in order for it to pass. The measure would fund assistance for first-time homebuyers and put money toward homeless facilities and more than 1,000 new affordable units. Such homes are badly needed, according to data collected statewide.
One thing that’s clear is that there’s likely no silver bullet to the complex crisis. “These kinds of things should be thought of holistically; they should be thought of in connection with one another,” Greenberg says. “We need to both be thinking long-term [about] really expanding the supply, and at the same time protecting folks who are desperately trying to hold on right now.”
LARGER LAG
The issues in the Santa Cruz region reflect a larger problem: a dearth of housing statewide, with the number of new homes failing to keep pace with population growth. State housing department data from June showed 96 percent of California’s 539 local governments are not meeting their housing goals as set by the Regional Housing Needs Assessment. That includes Santa Cruz County and its four cities.
That data shows that the pace of affordable housing, in particular, has failed to meet expectations locally.
The state and the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments set goals for the total number of housing units that must be added from 2014-2023 to meet the needs of people at different income levels locally, including a total target of 3,044 units in Santa Cruz County, 747 units in the city of Santa Cruz, 700 in Watsonville, 143 in Capitola and 140 in Scotts Valley.
The disparity in the affordability of that housing is clear: While the city of Santa Cruz issued permits to meet 79 percent of its goal for above moderate-income housing, and 141 percent of its goal for moderate-income housing, it only issued permits for 30 percent of its low income housing goal and 14 percent of its very low-income housing goal.
Capitola issued permits for 38 percent of above moderate-income housing but only 4 percent of moderate-income housing, and nothing for low and very low-income tiers.
Watsonville issued permits for 4.5 percent of its low-income housing goal and 14 percent of its very low-income housing goal. In unincorporated Santa Cruz County, those numbers were 11 percent and 10 percent respectively.
Scotts Valley has not submitted any annual progress reports to the state. (The city did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it has the data on its housing development by income tier.)
The numbers collected by the state reflect building permits issued for housing, not the number of building permits where construction is finished. That housing may never be built for a variety of reasons, even though it’s counted for now as if it will be.
NAIL ON THE HEAD
In the city of Santa Cruz, staff are well aware of the progress that still needs to be made on affordable housing.
One challenge, planners say, has been recovering from the elimination in early 2012 of the state’s more than 400 redevelopment agencies. Those agencies collected around $5 billion per year statewide, a portion of which was targeted at building low-income housing.
“A lot of times that was our tool to be able to develop those types of housing which may not be as lucrative for a developer,” says Sarah Fleming, principal planner in the city of Santa Cruz Department of Planning and Community Development. “Without those tools, we’re looking at additional ways to do that.”
That involves changing rules to encourage more development of accessory dwelling units and more inclusionary housing to help generate affordable units.
“It is very much on the radar—how do we address that very low-income need without the tools that we had in the days of yore?” Fleming says.
A number of local groups have sprung up in recent years to present their own ideas.
Santa Cruz YIMBY, which stands for “Yes in My Backyard,” formed last year with the goal of educating people on housing policy and getting them involved by going to city council and planning commission meetings.
Jamileh Cannon, founder of Santa Cruz-based development, design and construction company Workbench, is part of the local YIMBY group.
“Housing is a basic right,” she says. It disturbs her to know that, while the greater Bay Area is thriving economically, housing can easily eat up half of a resident’s income.
In addition to being active with YIMBY, Cannon is taking direct action through her company. Workbench owns a property in Soquel, where it hopes to start construction on 16 new townhomes, including four affordable units, next year.
“It is not adding a giant number of units to the housing stock, but it is something,” she says. It’s important that families, seniors, people on fixed income and others are able to stay in their communities, she adds, and that means building a variety of kinds of housing.
Groups like Save Santa Cruz take the stance that affordable housing, and not just any housing, should be the priority.
“This housing crisis has linked any housing with the idea that any housing is good,” says Candace Brown, a longtime East Morrissey resident and steering committee member of Save Santa Cruz, which formed in opposition to the corridor zoning update, a policy idea that the City Council has back-burnered for now. That plan calls for increased density and taller buildings on Santa Cruz’s busiest streets.
Brown doesn’t believe building market-rate housing will have any impact on affordability.
“No Place Like Home” researchers hope to see housing get dissected from a number of different angles at their Oct. 18 event.
“We know we don’t all agree,” UCSC’s McKay says, “but we think it is really important that we talk to each other.”
‘No Place Like Home’ will be 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 18 in the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. Affordable Housing Week begins on Saturday, Oct. 13 at 9:30 a.m with Measure H Canvass and Volunteer Party, located at the campaign kickoff at 115 River St., Santa Cruz. For a full list of the week’s events, visit santacruzcommunitycalendar.org.
Update, Oct. 11: A previous version of this story misreported the address of the Measure H campaign office.
We have begun many months of planetary (Venus and Mercury) retrogrades. Venus, the Evening then Morning Star, has retrograded in Scorpio. Venus began its retrograde Oct. 5 (11 degrees Scorpio) and continues until Nov. 15 (when Mercury begins its retrograde). Venus retrogrades every 20 months for about 40 days and nights.
When planets retrograde, the past reappears, decisions are delayed, plans are set aside for reflection and assessment and all areas and subjects associated with the retrograde planets are reviewed in order to either renew, revitalize or set them aside forever.
With Venus retrograde we assess what we love, our intelligence, money, relationships (lovers, partnerships, friends), possessions and values. With Venus in Scorpio retrograde, we review what we share with others. Venus represents the intelligent heart, and the emergence of the Love principle. Venus turns knowledge (Jupiter, the Father) into intuition and wisdom (Pallas Athena, emerging knowledge, the mind of her father, Jupiter).
Venus resolves duality (through right knowledge), promotes diplomacy (Libra) and establishes Right Human Relations, created through intentions for Goodwill. Venus coordinates our intelligence so that we can choose acts of Goodwill, which creates Right Relations. This is a new concept of Love for humanity.
Two notes… when Venus is retrograde the value of things is confused. Prices may be too high or too low. Again, discernment is needed in all interactions. Also, the midterm elections (Nov. 6) will occur during this Venus retrograde cycle. When public events occur during retrograde times, we are often surprised by the outcomes. Venus governs unity and harmony, love and wisdom, values and Right Human Relations (Venus ruling Libra). Let’s watch what happens.
ARIES: You will assess and reassess your professional life and work in the world. Be sure not to do less than is expected. Pay attention and complete all tasks. This isn’t your greatest strength but it’s important now that projects be on time, that negotiations go smoothly, that you do your very best and more the next several months. Review goals. Do you like your work? Are you challenged? Are you dutiful? These are important questions.
TAURUS: Venus is your guardian angel (also for Gemini, Capricorn and Pisces). But Venus likes you best. Sh, don’t tell! On your mind are ways to safeguard your future, visions and dreams of creating a refuge, teaching and creating realities that are new. Consider how your values and beliefs affect relationships. Do they help or hinder? Do they include others’ thoughts, ideas and needs? Building a fence around a garden may be a necessity.
GEMINI: You may be concerned with resources, values and sharing thoughts, ideas and feelings. Nothing about this Venus retrograde is light for you. Love calls you to be kind and patient. To be honest about finances, resources, desires, intimacy and relationships. Are you studying the mysteries yet? At some point you will commit to this. Then your life will change. You may look back for a while. Remembering things past. Then they fly away.
CANCER: Many people passed your way and left an indelible mark on your heart. You will remember relationships, past and present, assessing their goodness, value, what you learned, gave and received. All relationships help us learn how to be in them. Then one day we’re ready and the real relationship comes along. Your practicality creates a solid foundation of trust. Your nurturance helps people grow strong.
LEO: Evaluating daily tasks, you ask are they effective and efficient? Increased technical work skills affect work routines. Expect challenges in communication and understanding due to Venus retrograde. Notice if animals begin to feel unease, agitated or become ill. Look after your health. Go slower than usual. Know that rest is good and all that happened in your past also was good. There was love.
VIRGO: Creating a winter garden, beginning a creative project, visiting museums and galleries, choosing to be playful instead of serious, remembering generous moments from the past, reconnecting with loved ones—these and more are part of your life the next several months. They have already begun, actually. Consider changing the way you ask for affection. Expressing it more is one way.
LIBRA: You will experience an interesting state of insulation the next several months. You will ponder upon many things—the state of your home, the foundations of your life, your parents, especially mother. You’re both mental and sentimental. As you sustain and nourish others you’ll need to hide away, hibernate a bit for study, retreat, warmth and comfort. Tranquility will be your aim. Forgiveness the outcome.
SCORPIO: Your mind expands exponentially through study, training, travel, culture and the mysteries. One study particularly important is the Electric Universe. It seems our present scientific systems are all wrong. Gravity isn’t holding us together. Electricity is. Studying this subject of the electrical universe places you on the very edge of the new reality. Continue to visualize your dream/vision. It comes quietly on little cat’s feet.
SAGITTARIUS: Feelings of nobility within solitude appear. You’ve been mentally active, engaged, diligent and industrious for so long. Now it’s time to retreat a bit, have late afternoon tea, cultivate trusting friendships, and assess resources slowly and cautiously with a sense of gratitude. An internal shift eventually rebalances your energy, helps organize your future. You will see goals clearly and visualize how to reach those goals. Learn archery.
CAPRICORN: At times you feel restless, realizing something’s changing foundationally in your life, perhaps your self-identity and your usual ways of being. You will experience your natural and familiar winter identity as Persephone (both female and male Capricorns) underground in the world of Pluto. You’re deeply internal. Make sure you have baskets and baskets of pomegranates. They keep you alive and well and in touch with the Mother.
AQUARIUS: There are four rulers of Aquarius. The dour strict rule-oriented Saturn (old ruler) who criticizes a lot. The revolutionary Tesla-like newbie Uranus creating new rhythms and the Aquarian Age. The loving wise teacher, Jupiter. And the lightning-like revelatory genius Uranus (again). Which would you like to be? Knowing the rulers of each sign and what their tasks are allows us to assume different identities. Blending Uranus and Jupiter is good. When we’re Saturn we scare everyone. Jupiter loves you.
PISCES: Be caring and kind to everyone. Have intentions to bring harmony to all relationships and interactions. This is to be your goal. You may reconnect with past friends and lovers. There are several you would like to see, talk with, create new friendships with. This may or may not happen. Many are on another path. Be generous, helping those in need. Everyone is in need of something sometime. Discover it. Offer it. Have patience and faith. Protect yourself in all ways, more so than usual.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In his book The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen describes his quest to glimpse the elusive and rarely seen creature in the Himalayas. “Its uncompromising yellow eyes, wired into the depths of its unfathomable spirit,” he writes, give it a “terrible beauty” that is “the very stuff of human longing.” He loves the snow leopard so much, he says, that it is the animal he “would most like to be eaten by.” I bring this up, Aries, because now would be a good time, astrologically speaking, for you to identify what animal you would most like to be eaten by. In other words, what creature would you most like to learn from and be inspired by? What beautiful beast has the most to give you?
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Richard Nelson is an anthropologist who has lived for years with the indigenous Koyukon people of Alaska. He lauds their “careful watching of the same events in the same place” over long periods of time, noting how this enables them to cultivate a rich relationship with their surroundings that is incomprehensible to us civilized Westerners. He concludes, “There may be more to learn by climbing the same mountain a hundred times than by climbing a hundred different mountains.” I think that’s excellent counsel for you to employ in the coming weeks.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “It is sad that unless you are born a god, your life, from its very beginning, is a mystery to you,” writes Gemini author Jamaica Kincaid. I disagree with her because she implies that if you’re human, your life is a complete and utter mystery; whereas my observation has been that for most of us, our lives are no more than 80 percent mystery. Some lucky ones have even deciphered as much as 65 percent, leaving only 35 percent mystery. What’s your percentage? I expect that between now and Nov. 1, you can increase your understanding by at least 10 percent.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): You Cancerians may not possess the mental dexterity of Virgos or the acute cleverness of Geminis, but you have the most soulful intelligence in the zodiac. Your empathic intuition is among your greatest treasures. Your capacity to feel deeply gives you the ability to intensely understand the inner workings of life. Sometimes you take this subtle acumen for granted. It may be hard for you to believe that others are stuck at a high-school level of emotional skill when you have the equivalent of a PhD. Everything I just said is a prelude to my advice. In the coming weeks, I doubt you can solve your big riddle through rational analysis. Your best strategy is to deeply experience all the interesting feelings that are rising up in you.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Do you ever experience stress from having to be so interesting and attractive all the time? It may on occasion feel like an onerous responsibility to be the only artful egomaniac amidst swarms of amateur egomaniacs. I have a suggestion that might help. Twice a year, celebrate a holiday I call Dare to Be Boring Week. During these periods of release and relief, you won’t live up to people’s expectations that you keep them amused and excited. You’ll be free to be solely focused on amusing and exciting yourself, even if that means they’ll think you’re dull. Now is an excellent time to observe Dare to Be Boring Week.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): A Chinese proverb says, “Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.” I’m happy to let you know that you are currently more receptive to this truth than maybe you have ever been. Furthermore, you have more power than usual to change your life in ways that incorporate this truth. To get started, meditate on the hypothesis that you can get more good work done if you’re calm and composed than if you’re agitated and trying too hard.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): My astrological analysis suggests that life is conspiring to render you extra excited and unusually animated and highly motivated. I bet that if you cooperate with the natural rhythms, you will feel stirred, playful, and delighted. So how can you best use this gift? How might you take maximum advantage of the lucky breaks and bursts of grace that will be arriving? Here’s my opinion: be more focused on discovering possibilities than making final decisions. Feed your sense of wonder and awe rather than your drive to figure everything out. Give more power to what you can imagine than to what you already know. Being practical is fine as long as you’re idealistically practical.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): How far is it from the Land of the Lost to the Land of the Lost and Found? What’s the best route to take? Who and what are likely to provide the best help? If you approach those questions with a crisply optimistic attitude, you can gather a wealth of useful information in a relatively short time. The more research you do about the journey, the faster it will go and the more painless it will be. Here’s another fertile question to meditate on: is there a smart and kind way to give up your attachment to a supposedly important thing that is actually quite burdensome?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In her only novel, Save Me the Waltz, Zelda Fitzgerald described her main character like this: “She quietly expected great things to happen to her, and no doubt that’s one of the reasons why they did.” That’s a bit too much like fairy-tale wisdom for me to endorse it unconditionally. But I do believe it may sometimes be a valid hypothesis—especially for you Sagittarians in the coming months. Your faith in yourself and your desire to have interesting fun will be even more important than usual in determining what adventures you will have. I suggest you start now to lay the groundwork for this exhilarating challenge.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Russian philosopher George Gurdjieff taught that most people are virtually sleepwalking even during the day. He said we’re permanently stuck on automatic pilot, prone to reacting in mechanical ways to every event that comes our way. Psychology pioneer Sigmund Freud had an equally dim view of us humans. He believed that it’s our normal state to be neurotic; that most of us are chronically out of sync with our surroundings. Now here’s the good news, Capricorn. You’re at least temporarily in a favorable position to refute both men’s theories. In fact, I’ll boldly predict that in the next three weeks you’ll be as authentic and awake and at peace as you’ve been in years.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the late 19th-century, American botanist George Washington Carver began to champion the nutritional value of peanuts. His influence led to the plant being grown and used more extensively. Although he accomplished many other innovations, including techniques for enhancing depleted soils, he became famous as the Peanut Man. Later in life, he told the story that while young he had prayed to God to show him the mystery of the universe, but God turned him down, saying, “That’s for me alone.” So George asked God to show him the mystery of the peanut, and God agreed, saying, “that’s more nearly your size.” The coming weeks will be a great time for you to seek a comparable revelation, Aquarius.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Every year, people discard 3.3 million pounds of chewing gum on the streets of Amsterdam. A company named Gumdrop has begun to harvest that waste and use it to make soles for its new brand of sneakers, Gumshoe. A spokesperson said the intention was to “create a product people actually want from something no one cares about.” I’d love it if you were inspired by this visionary act of recycling, Pisces. According to my reading of the cosmic omens, you now have exceptional powers to transform something you don’t want into something you do want.
Homework: Name 10 personal possessions you’d put in a time capsule to be opened by your descendants in 200 years. Testify at Freewillastrology.com.
The highly anticipated Unified Corridor Study is out—and everybody’s arguing about what it means.
The newUnified Corridor Study (UCS) analysis represents a big step forward, said Capitola City Councilmember Ed Bottorff at the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) meeting last Thursday.
Staff and consultants made the 200-plus-page document as complete as possible, said Bottorff. Experts surveyed the best ways to get from one end of the county to the other. The most closely watched portionof the analysis has been the question of what to do with one of the three major north/south avenues—the county’s coastal freight rail corridor. The document has a lot of numbers and estimates, some of them open to interpretation.
The costs are estimates, and many of the calculations are moving targets, said Bottorff. “As we’ve all learned in construction, some projects may seem like they cost a certain amount, and most likely, they’re gonna cost more,” he said. “So I think everyone should just take that into consideration when they look at this.”
Friends of the Rail and Trail tout the analysis as proof that a train is not only feasible, but also the best use for the corridor. Members of Greenway and Trail Now, who want the corridor used for a wider trail with no train, say that the estimates have a pro-rail bias and are further proof that the whole process has been unfair.
There will be two public meetings this month on the UCS analysis, one in Live Oak and another in Watsonville. Staff will present a recommendation on a preferred scenario on Nov. 15. The commission may vote and take action no sooner than Dec. 6. (That date would be three days after the RTC’s next executive director is expected to take over for George Dondero, who is retiring.)
Eachscenario outlined in the study has a mixture of different options. The first one features carpool lanes, additional auxiliary lanes, on-ramp metering, intersection improvements, and a form of bus rapid transit—as well as a bike/pedestrian rail trail, but no train.
Commissioner Randy Johnson, a Scotts Valley city councilmember, compared the various scenarios to four pre-made pizzas. Furthering his metaphor, Johnson suggested the commission should take a more central role in building its own pizza, although the commission did approve the chosen scenarios last year.
Johnson also felt that the consultants should have updated commissioners as they worked on their study.
Commissioner Andy Schiffrin, who is a staffer for Supervisor Ryan Coonerty, said the consultants never talked to him—and he’s glad they didn’t. Schiffrin said if critics believe the study is just a sham, meddling from the commission would only contribute to that perception.
“What we wanted was an independent analysis, and an independent analysis doesn’t mean you asked people along the way what they were doing,” Schiffrin said. “What it means is you wait until the end, and then you get mad.”
There will be two public meetings on the UCS analysis. The first is 6-7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 15 at Live Oak Elementary School’s multi-purpose room. The second will be 6-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 16, in the Watsonville Civic Plaza Community Room A, on the fourth floor of the City Hall building. Input can also be emailed to uc*@sc****.org, or mailed to the RTC at 1523 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, 95062.
