Page 668 – Good Times

Fight Over Rent Control, Evictions Comes to Santa Cruz

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September 4, 2018

Fight Over Rent Control, Evictions Comes to Santa Cruz

On a clear Wednesday evening in late August, around 170 landlords and homeowners—and even a few renters—gathered at the Westside tasting room of Stockwell Cellars. Set amid rustic wine barrels and industrial-chic chandeliers, the event marked the launch of a campaign against Santa Cruz rent control initiative Measure M, which will be decided by local voters this fall after a recent wave of similar efforts in other California cities.

As the anti-rent-control kickoff went on inside, a small protest just outside the winery’s outdoor patio went live on Facebook. Young speakers who had organized a “Vigil for the Displaced of Santa Cruz” passed a bullhorn a few feet away from their opposition, separated only by a thin strip of gravel lined with drought-resistant plants.

“Oh, I’d love to give a story,” one rent-control opponent broke in, interrupting a protester mid-speech. “Can I give a story?”

“No!” the protestors replied. As the man walked away, one protestor yelled after him: “I hope you like the fart noise I left on your voicemail!”

While campaign mudslinging is par for the course, the battle over Measure M is getting particularly intense, as record housing prices collide with sharp generational divides and anxiety about widening economic inequality. The oddest part about the rent-control controversy: almost everyone agrees that rents do need some control as they climb precariously high.

“Most people don’t object to limiting rent increases,” said Lynn Renshaw, who owns multiple properties in Santa Cruz, and is a lead organizer of the anti-rent-control group Santa Cruz Together.

Renshaw says she would support a City Council draft ordinance that would limit rent increases to 10 percent a year, or 15 percent over two years. Measure M would limit annual rent increases to the rate of inflation of the Consumer Price Index, which rose about 2 percent each of the last two years.

The rent-control supporters who authored Measure M and collected more than 5,000 valid signatures to get it on the ballot argue that capping big, sudden rent hikes isn’t enough. “Unless there are protections against evictions without cause, a landlord can just evict somebody and jack the rents up to whatever they want,” says Zav Hershfield, a local renter and organizer with the Santa Cruz Tenant Organizing Committee.

Among the most controversial changes proposed in Measure M are new rules for “just-cause eviction,” which stipulate that a landlord can only kick tenants out for specific reasons like failure to pay rent, nuisance, or an owner move-in to the property. Though other recently approved rent control ordinances in Oakland, Mountain View and Richmond include similar rules, the Santa Cruz measure would require a larger-than-average relocation payment—the equivalent of six months of market-rate rent, well over $10,000 for larger units—from landlords who order tenants to leave for reasons unrelated to tenant conduct.

Hershfield draws from personal experience to explain the importance of such rules. He says he was evicted from an older house he shared with several roommates earlier this year with 120 days’ notice and no reason given.

“It was a scramble and a half to find something. We were looking for three months,” he says. “It’s stressful. I have to work.”

Rent control opponent Peter Cook, a real estate agent and property manager who oversees rentals to some 500 UCSC students, said red tape can already make it difficult and costly to evict tenants accused of illegal or dangerous behavior. Santa Cruz Together has seized on this idea to warn on its website that “Your neighborhood will deteriorate.”

Cook also questions who will benefit from rent control. In Santa Monica, he points out, a 2016 city report estimated that just 4 percent of rent-controlled units were occupied by working-class renters. The report adds that California’s Costa-Hawkins Act—which is up for repeal in November with the statewide Proposition 10—allows landlords to reset rents each time a tenant moves out, raising the prices of rent-controlled units over time.

“If I have a line of people, I’m not going to take a chance on a low-income person,” Cook says of the many choices landlords currently have in popular areas like Santa Cruz. “There’s a few lucky ones who will be, you know, dug in an apartment until their death.”

Clashing Activists

“I got really excited about Bernie Sanders’ campaign,” says Jeffrey Smedberg, a retired Santa Cruz County recycling coordinator and rent-control advocate, remembering what inspired him to become politically active.

Answering Sanders’ call to stay involved locally after the 2016 presidential election was a driving force behind Smedberg getting involved first in a challenge to the city’s camping ban impacting homeless residents and now rent control. Though Smedberg owns a home with a group of co-owners, he supports rent control because “homeowners really have the bulk of the power” in the city.

Renshaw, who works in software marketing, also cites 2016 as a turning point in her political activism. “I really got engaged as an activist after Trump’s election,” she says. “Working on local politics, you can tell you’re actually moving the needle.”

For Renshaw, the brand of further-left politics espoused by pro-rent control campaigners at events like the winery protest come off as “weak.” Cook, a Santa Cruz Together board member, frames rent control as one front in a broader local culture war.

“These folks are really trying to establish their vision of social justice on our city and California by forcing rent control,” Cook says. He’s critical of the role statewide tenant groups like San Francisco-based Tenants Together have had in shaping Measure M.

Hershfield says that while the campaign sought legal advice from Bay Area-based attorneys to craft the specifics of Measure M, it’s “hilarious” to characterize the pro-rent control campaign as a well-heeled political machine. Instead, he points to the $60,000 his opponents have raised so far, as well as to the outsized role realtor associations and the California Apartment Association have played in other rent-control races, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into 2016 elections in Mountain View, Burlingame and elsewhere.

While the campaigns for Measure M, a $140 million county affordable housing bond, and the statewide Proposition 10 play out this fall, one question is whether housing prices will increase, decrease or stay at their current level near historic highs in the meantime.

Santa Cruz, like many area cities, has failed to meet its state-ordered number of new housing units for much of the last few decades, creating a scenario where demand is high and supply is low. Realtor.com lists a total of 336 properties for sale in Santa Cruz at a median $995,000 as of early September. The cheapest non-mobile-home or non-senior housing listed is a $419,500, one-bedroom condo on River Street. Those who do buy a house are purchasing them for an average 130 percent of the list price.

While Cook says rent control would not “crater the housing market” due to strong demand from reliable groups like Silicon Valley retirees, he said some landlords are already considering selling off rental units. It might not make for the catchiest campaign slogan, but the San Francisco native points to his hometown—currently one of the most expensive markets in the world—to argue that rent control is a bridge too far.

“My chant is like, ‘It’s better to have an expensive rental than no rental,’” he says. “That’s the unfortunate reality right now.”

What’s in Measure M?

– Maximum annual rent increase: Equal to annual increase in inflation (Consumer Price Index), which rose about 2 percent each of the last two years.

– Rent rollback: Baseline rents would revert to Oct. 19, 2017.

– Evictions: New “just cause” eviction rule would prohibit landlords from making tenants leave without a specific reason, including: failure to pay rent, nuisance, need for substantial repairs, owner move-ins, or to remove property from the rental market.

– Relocation fees: In the event of an eviction unrelated to tenant’s conduct, landlord would pay a minimum of six months rent for relocation assistance.

– Subleases and additional tenants: Landlords would not be allowed to evict tenants for subleasing rental units, so long as the primary tenant remains in the unit and the new tenant replaces an existing tenant. Landlords would also be barred from evicting tenants for moving in a spouse or partner, a child, a parent, a grandchild, a grandparent, a sibling, or those relatives’ spouses, so long as housing code limits on occupancy are not exceeded.

– Types of properties exempted: Hospitals, transient occupancies and room rentals where tenant shares kitchen and bathroom. Single-family homes, condos and new units built after 1995 would also be exempt from rent limits (but not just-cause eviction rules), unless state Proposition 10 passes and repeals the longstanding Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act.

– Oversight: New rent board, initially appointed by the city and then elected, would settle petitions or disputes. Measure would be an amendment to city charter, requiring voter approval for repeal or future amendments.

Full ballot measure: votescount.com.

The Price of Parking: 600-Space Downtown Project Faces New Scrutiny

Jacob Pierce

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September 4, 2018

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The Price of Parking: 600-Space Downtown Project Faces New Scrutiny

[Editor’s note: This is the second part in a two-part series on the issues surrounding parking downtown. Read part 1 here.]

A former planning consultant has leveled a serious allegation against Santa Cruz city staff and future plans to build more downtown parking.

Economist and transportation planner Patrick Siegman spent more than a year working on the Economics of Parking study at the tail end of his 15 years with Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates. He claims that city staffers have predicated their plans for a 600-space mixed-use garage on faulty math.

“I don’t say that lightly. I was really disturbed by it,” adds Siegman, who was laid off this past spring. Siegman, who now runs his own firm, says that years of repetitive stress slowed his work habits, and he harbored no hard feelings over the layoff. Two of his projects, including his work on the parking study, ran over budget, he says. Nelson\Nygaard officials did not return GT’s calls about Siegman’s termination.

Earlier this year, Jim Burr, the city’s transportation manager, began working on the model started by Nelson\Nygaard, and Burr says that he and other staffers did so “in a professional manner.”

“It’s our job to let decision makers here in the city know about our best picture of what the future’s gonna be for downtown parking, and that’s what we did,” Burr says. “That’s a very serious allegation, and I’ve been doing this for a long time. I take it very seriously, and I’m quite offended by Patrick.”

Most of the spots in the garage would be replacement parking for redeveloped lots in other blocks, according to city projections. The garage would be combined with a new public library and some housing or office spaces.

GT spoke with two former colleagues, who vouched for Siegman’s work but asked to remain anonymous.

“He’s a very upstanding guy. I’ve never heard of him speaking out against a client or former client,” one former coworker said. “He’s certainly very passionate about sustainable transportation, but I’ve worked closely with him on some projects, and he’s always very fact-based.”

Siegman says that part of what initially perturbed him was that Burr said in a presentation to the Downtown Commission that parking demand necessitated a new garage, based on modeling from Nelson\Nygaard. But Siegman says he did not hear any mention of city staff modifying the firm’s model. (Burr says he is certain he mentioned it in either his talk or in the staff report.)

In his original version, Burr assumed that an off-street parking garage was effectively full when it reached 80 percent capacity. Siegman, however, had created his earlier model with the assumption that a parking garage is effectively full when it reaches 90 percent capacity.

Burr later changed the city’s downtown parking model to have a 90 percent full rate for later meetings, and he says the parking models still penciled out, as he had presented. He also clarified Nelson\Nygaard’s role in the process.

There is still disagreement on many of the key issues around parking demand, including the impact of raising parking rates and fees.

Siegman has observed that raising parking rates—which the city of Santa Cruz plans to do in order to pay for the garage—has created a decrease in demand in other cities. Siegman’s model assumed that Santa Cruz would be no different.

Siegman believes the garage may never make enough money to break even—a notion that Burr sees as ridiculous.

City officials see the increased parking rates having little to no impact on demand. Economic Development Director Bonnie Lipscomb says that even though the city would more than double its hourly rates to $1.25, prices would have to go much higher before they would have any impact on demand. Burr notes that less than a decade ago many lots were free, and demand didn’t change at all when they became pay lots.

Santa Cruz officials—including Lipscomb, City Manager Martín Bernal, and Public Works Director Mark Dettle—are standing by the city’s calculations.

“We’re still working with Nelson\Nygaard,” Bernal says, “and they’re completing the study, so it’s not like the project was completed, and we threw it out.”

WHEN YOU’RE DOWNTOWN

Even if the proposed increased parking rates sound relatively low, it’s hard to know exactly what effect they’ll have on workers. Many downtown businesses already have a difficult time recruiting employees and holding on to them—partly because of the town’s high housing costs. It isn’t hard to imagine increased rates putting an additional squeeze on many downtown workers. Such questions aren’t new.

In Santa Cruz City Council meetings over the years, Chip, the executive director of the Downtown Association, has pushed for creative solutions to parking problems and encouraged councilmembers to consider options carefully. Even the monthly parking passes, which are more affordable than hour rates, can be steep for some workers.

According to the city’s projections, parking passes would be going up also, to $75 a month.

The potential impact on workers has been on Lipscomb’s mind.

“It’s definitely a concern,” she says. “That’s part of the conversation that we’ve been having with some of the businesses—looking at the proposed parking rate structure and working with the businesses to come up with some programs. We’re going to be able to do some of that.”

There has been a push from the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation to provide free or substantially reduced-cost bus passes to workers, arguing that it would be a better way to spend revenue from increased parking rates. At a June 19 council meeting, Brett Garrett challenged notions that Santa Cruz cannot have a parking shortage, given that New York City and San Francisco both do. He noted that both cities also have great transit, which is what he would like to see Santa Cruz prioritize. “And then, if we have enough money left over, we’ll think about whether or not we have enough parking,” he says.

Lipscomb says the city is “totally supportive” of distributing such downtown bus passes. “We want to make sure we’re matching the bus passes to those who will use them,” she says.

A city survey of downtown commuters found that 24 percent of downtown workers would use such a pass if it were available to them.

Chip tells GT that increased public transit can only have so much of an impact. “A lot of the places where people live, there isn’t a bus,” he says. “We can’t just pretend that employees don’t park downtown.”

BOULDER PUSH

After last week’s story (“Levels in the Details,” GT, 8/29) ran, sustainable transportation activist Rick Longinotti wrote to remind us about downtown commuter surveys. He suggested the information could be a more effective method to measure how people get around than the census data which had been used prior.

Downtown commuter information isn’t readily available for as many communities for a wide-ranging side-by-side comparison. But the city of Boulder conducted one in 2014, as did the city of Santa Cruz in 2017. Unlike census data, the surveys show the workers who come downtown. It also shows a bigger gap between the two towns than indicated in the census data.

Santa Cruz’s commuter results were similar to the census numbers, and still impressive: the drive-alone rate was 58 percent, less than 2 percent higher than shown in the census data. Boulder’s was far lower, coming in at 43 percent, highlighting why activists see it as a dream scenario.

Even so, Downtown Commissioner Zachary Davis tells GT that when he went with the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce on a trip to Boulder in 2014, he was struck by how long community members have been working on creating multimodal transportation in and around Boulder—a history documented in two papers, one on the history of Boulder transportation from 1858-1984, and another on transportation from 1984-2017. While it’s the more recent paper that illustrates the focus of getting people out of single-occupant vehicles, Davis argues that both papers demonstrate the depth of engagement Boulder has had with regional transportation planning, as well as its willingness to document efforts made and lessons learned over the years.

“From my perspective, what Boulder has achieved has taken decades of far-reaching vision, consistency and political will,” Davis, who co-owns the Penny Ice Creamery, writes in an email. “Not something easily replicated.”

Preview: Aki Kumar Brings Bollywood Blues to Michael’s on Main

Andrew Gilbert

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September 4, 2018

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Preview: Aki Kumar Brings Bollywood Blues to Michael’s on Main

Aki Kumar has been a regular presence on the Santa Cruz blues scene in recent years, but you’ve never seen him quite like this.

The San Jose vocalist and harmonica ace can often be found playing in an acoustic duo with guitarist Jon Lawton at Aptos St. BBQ, a stripped-down setting for his disparate repertoire of folky country blues, sinewy Delta boogies, and searing Chicago anthems. But when Kumar takes the stage Friday at Michael’s on Main, he’s stepping into a role for which he was born. Literally.

In an inspired cultural mashup, Kumar blends the blues he came to love after moving to the South Bay with the Bollywood themes that filled his home growing up in Mumbai. The result is Aki Goes to Bollywood, a deliriously inspired act that marries propulsive blues and R&B grooves to soaring melodies from some of Indian cinema’s best-loved scenes.

“All the songs I cover are songs I grew up with, part of my musical upbringing,” says Kumar. “And while it might seem like these are totally different styles, there are a lot of parallels. There’s one Hindi song I do, ‘Sajan Re Jhoot Mat Bolo,’ about how we’re all going back to Mother Earth. What could be more blues than that? I had to include it, but it had to have a very big blues signature, so I set it to this Bo Diddley groove. The whole concept is progressing more and more, representing what’s in my head.”

Kumar introduced the project on 2016’s Aki Goes to Bollywood, one of the first albums released by the Little Village Foundation, a nonprofit label created by veteran blues keyboardist Jim Pugh—who spent three decades on the road with Etta James and Robert Cray—that has already become an invaluable outlet for roots music, with 22 releases by overlooked artists in gospel, blues, mariachi, country music, and beyond.

Kumar recently released his second album for the label, Hindi Man Blues, and he’s been delighted with the response from audiences. While the blues scene can be a provincial realm where people expend a lot of energy policing the borders, he’s found freedom in forging a sound that reflects his reality, rather than pursuing someone else’s notion of authenticity.

“I’m a guy from India who really loves the blues,” Kumar says. “I listen to the music all the time, and love learning new songs. But at the end of the day I’m not from Mississippi Delta. My formative experiences are from India, and I’m never going to be African-American. Sometimes we put this shell around ourselves trying to force-feed the tradition. There needs to be an acknowledgement that while we love blues, we need to infuse our own identity into our music.”

While Aki Goes to Bollywood is Kumar’s most vivid and visible project—he’s performing with the band at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass on Oct. 7—many of his gigs are straight-ahead blues. Dedicated to building the Bay Area scene, he runs a Tuesday night jam session at San Jose’s Poor House Bistro and a Thursday night session at Little Lou’s BBQ in Fremont.

For Friday’s show, he’s joined by a killer band that reflects the far-flung reach of the blues. Drummer June Core is a well-traveled veteran who was hired by heavyweights such as Robert Lockwood Jr., Johnny Shines, James Cotton, and LaVern Baker before putting in a 14-year stint with Charlie Musselwhite. Bassist Vance Ellers has toured with blues harp greats Mark Hummel and Rick Estrin. The wild card is 23-year-old Mountain View guitarist Rome Yamilov.

“He’s one of the newest voices on the Bay Area scene, and he hasn’t been playing blues that long compared to some, but the kid has more talent than just about anybody I’ve met,” Kumar says. “He’s not only taken to straight traditional blues, he picked up my Bollywood material really quickly. He went from helping me set up gear a year ago to being my second guitar player to being the only guitar player, playing lead and rhythm.”

INFO: 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7, Michael’s On Main, 2591 S Main St., Soquel. $10. 479-9777.

Ocean Film Tour’s New Wave Cinema Rolls into Rio Theatre

Wallace Baine

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September 4, 2018

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Ocean Film Tour’s New Wave Cinema Rolls into Rio Theatre

Nobody in Santa Cruz County needs to be sold on the majesty and the beauty of the ocean. All of our lives are oriented to one degree or another toward the mighty Pacific.

That means the upcoming International Ocean Film Tour at the Rio Theatre is already working with some “you-had-me-at-hello” appeal. At the same time, the ocean itself is a pretty intimidating distraction. The only question remaining is whether sitting in a darkened theater with this collection of short films is a more awe-inspiring experience than a couple of hours sitting on the sand at Its Beach.

The Ocean Film Tour is a package of seven short films strung together in one two-hour-plus program. In terms of mood, the films range from the meditative to the methodical, from the inspiring to the informational. And, yes, there’s some big-wave surfing, too.

According to tour producer Henry Lystad, there are only two elements that all of the films have in common: the ocean and general excellence. “To tie the films together, you’d have to have quite a long cord,” says Lystad. “The thing that holds this whole program together is that we really feel that these are the seven best ocean films of the year. The key to this being a successful annual program is the fact that we go out and source films regardless of whether they are shorts or feature-length films.”

Putting together a single program of the best films on any given subject, regardless of length, means that you can end up with a program nine hours long—which is not all that practical.

“We create edits of lengthy films that otherwise wouldn’t fit into a program,” says Lystad. “We create edits that keep audiences on the edge of their seats and really cut through the fog of things that sometimes make feature films untenable.”

Of the seven films to be presented Sept. 8 at the Rio Theatre, four are edited-down versions of films that were originally 60 minutes or longer. Individually, the films range from five minutes to 35 minutes.

To take one example, Paradigm Lost is a portrait of waterman Kai Lenny and his talent at riding waves on just about every board imaginable (kiteboarding, windsurfing, paddle-boards, big-wave surfing). As a stand-alone, Paradigm weighs in at just over an hour. As part of this program, it’s a 14-minute distillation.

“It’s a totally different experience,” said Lystad of the new edit. “You never change the story in documentary film, but you can change the flow—as long as you’re not changing the original intent of the filmmaker.”

One man’s relationship with the ocean is also the theme of The Ocean Rider, a Swiss film about a sailor named Yvan Bourgnon and his insane effort to sail around the world alone on a catamaran with no cockpit—“not an ocean-going vessel in any way, shape or form,” says Lystad—facing storms, pirates and other horrors along the way.

The magnificence of coral reefs is the subject of Vamizi, a Swedish doc that explores one of the world’s oldest coral reefs (a “mother reef” as it’s called) off the coast of Mozambique in southeastern Africa. Another short film, Water II, is a lush, visually rich look at waves from under the surface using a high-contrast, slow-motion camera.

Of course, it’s extremely unwise—maybe even illegal—to screen a seafaring film festival without some surfing. The Ocean Film Tour doesn’t disappoint, with an edited-down distillation of The Big Wave Project—Band of Brothers, a documentary which follows three surfers as they attempt to navigate the waves at Nazaré, off the coast of Portugal. It’s a place, says Lystad, where “the world’s largest surfable—or maybe not surfable—waves are found.”

The festival will also include a surprise film or two.

“What you’re getting,” said Lystad, “is this chance to buckle in, and we’re going to take you around the world several times as we criss cross the oceans.”

INFO: The International Ocean Film Tour will be presented at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 8, at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $16. riotheatre.com.

Film Review: ‘Searching’

Richard von Busack

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September 4, 2018

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It’s neither the first nor the best movie about living (and dying) online, but San Jose-raised filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty’s thriller Searching is an absorbing picture constructed of Windows and iPhone shots, of Google searches and live-streaming of TV news websites.

We see the Santa Clara Valley girl Margot grow up via home movie footage—she’s played by several actresses, finally in adolescence by Michelle La. When she’s 15 going on 16, she vanishes one weekend, even as her clueless dad is hounding her with snapshots of the trash she forgot to take out before she left. Her widowed Korean-American father David Kim (a harsh, dogged John Cho) is a high-tech executive who may have been too distracted to notice her pain. Now he has to hunt for leads on the laptop she left behind.

It’s more than just the dropped references to the tech companies that make this seem based in the Bay Area; perhaps it was all inspired by the Sierra LaMar murder case. Chaganty scans “San Jose Fins” hockey jerseys and the “Silicon Valley Police Department” while hunting for Margot, and the finale is set at fictional Barbosa Lake up in the mountains west of Gilroy. An unscrubbed reference to Evergreen hides in the margins, but the gone girl is a student at “Evercreek High School,” home of the Evercreek Catfish football team. Catfish, a clue! True, most of the fish here are red herrings.

Chaganty masters the technical challenge of making every shot an electronic transmission without making what we see visually boring. When we think we’ve gone live, as when a news bulletin comes in, we pull back to reveal yet another computer screen. Searching’s not a cheat, either; among these glanced-at suspects, the person responsible for Margot’s disappearance is there for us to see.

Searching’s view of the internet includes the swine who come out when they smell disaster. Social media posters weigh in on the idea that David was responsible: hashtags #parentfail and #daddidit. While it’s mostly humorless, there are a few bleak laughs, Heathers-style. An Evercreek student who first claimed not to know Margot is later seen sobbing on Skype, wailing “She was my best friend,” and accepting all the condolences from people touched for a nanosecond or two on Facebook. Beyond the thoughts-and-prayers emotional bilge is the viciousness of kids hiding behind pseudonyms. Since actress La excels at emoting loneliness, the cutting remarks do sting—as when some anonymous person Margot is pouring her heart to online responds “BOOBIES PLZ.”

Chaganty won the NEXT award at Sundance; he’d previously directed Seeds on Google Glass, which went viral on YouTube; thus he was invited to become one of the “Google Five” making commercials in New York. Searching may be the next step beyond Google-goggles POV, perhaps indicating what post-cinema will look like, a hypertextual storm of popups and open windows.

You can’t expect a young filmmaker to be as pessimistic as Brian De Palma, who collaged footage from CCTV, smart phones and web pages into Redacted (2007). But Searching’s unrealistically positive ending matches some unfortunate acting choices by Debra Messing as Rosemary Vick, the detective on the case. While we later learn a reason for her emotions, the throbbing broken-hearted approach to playing a cop at a press conference sticks out like a sore thumb.

Worse, Searching’s beginning and end reflect Chaganty’s experience as a maker of commercials. It’s a genuine skill to conjure up instant emotions, as a commercial must, in the service of getting clients sniffling in 60 seconds flat. This rabbit punch straight in the feels contradicts the critical side of Searching. It touches on the sinister side of the internet and then retreats into warmth. You leave a little bewildered, marvelling at how we entered this electronic panopticon of our own free will, and how it’s easier to get in than to get out.

Searching

Directed by Aneesh Chaganty. Starring John Cho, Michelle La and Debra Messing. PG-13. 102 mins.

Festival fever: Mole & Mariachi, Greek Festival converge on Santa Cruz

Christina Waters

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September 4, 2018

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Festival fever: Mole & Mariachi, Greek Festival converge on Santa Cruz

Live like a Greek! Or at least dance, eat, drink, and party like one at the Santa Cruz Greek Festival, Sept. 7, 8 and 9th.

The aroma of oregano and the taste of ouzo always transport me back to Crete, where I spent some time a while back savoring the joyful Greek approach to life. Slightly closer to home is the annual Greek Festival here, on the grounds of the Prophet Elias Church in downtown Santa Cruz. And if you have never taken in the sights, sounds and fabulous aromas of this wildly (justly!) popular street festival, now’s your chance. Greek folk dancing by costumed young performers accompanied by live music from the Spartan Band, the kind that Zorba loved. Trust me, you’ll join in after that first glass of Metaxa. And you can comb through the Greek agora filled with gorgeous ethnic pottery, clothing and jewelry for sale.

But as far as I’m concerned the big draw during this three-day adventure in Grecophilia is the food! Greek pastries are fine, delicate, and intensely flavorful, baked by members of the Prophet Elias congregation. Moussaka that is to die for is only one of the savory specialties you’ll want to surrender to. Roasted lamb, calamari, gyro, souvlaki, spanakopita, and all of this tastes even better once you have stopped by the on-site Taverna and ordered a glass of authentic ouzo or that rich and bracing Greek brandy, Metaxa. The Greek Festival is your quick trip to Mediterranean party consciousness. Do not miss this event of lavish sensory proportions. Bring your friends. Stay all day. Put down your cell phone and dance! Friday, Sept. 7 from 5-10 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 8 from 11 a.m.-10 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 9 from noon to 7 p.m. Admission is free. 223 Church St., Santa Cruz. Details at livelikeagreek.com.

Festival Fever

The sixth annual Mole & Mariachi Festival returns to the beautiful Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park on Saturday, Sept. 8, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. And the name of the game is the glorious Mexican mole in all of its complex deliciousness. Music, margaritas, My Mom’s Mole, plus lots more. Admission is free and mole tasting kits are available for purchase. The Festival is a benefit for nonprofit Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, and event proceeds fund educational programs, visitor services and restoration at the Mission.

New Food Updates

Chef David Kinch, who has famously embarked on a dining venture in the new Aptos Village complex, emailed me admitting that there’s “not much to say right now about the project,” but headed, “I am truly excited to be finally doing something on this side of the hill.” Kinch’s three-star Michelin restaurant Manresa experienced a recent fire, and Kinch says the renowned Los Gatos restaurant plans to reopen around Sept. 19. Chef/Owner Jeffrey Wall of the downtown Santa Cruz restaurant-in-progress Alderwood emailed me to confirm the debut is still scheduled for this fall, although there is “no firm opening date yet.” Ditto for the always almost Barceloneta tapas establishment. Erin Hempel tells me that her Aptos Companion Bakeshop should be ready to open Octoberish.

Wine of the Week

From the fabled bargain wine shelf at Shopper’s Corner, I recently scored a bottle of 2013 McHenry Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir, marked down from $34 to $19.99. Yes, this is a big deal. The 13.4 percent alcohol wine shows off the terroir of the Bonny Doon estate’s 2-acre, 1,800-foot-elevation vineyard. An elegantly-structured Pinot, the McHenry opens with mint, blueberries, and a generous nose of bay leaves. The finish offers a distinctive suggestion of orange and mystery spice. Firm tannins. We have enjoyed this wine for two nights, first with Thai curry carry-out from Sabieng, and then with local king salmon from Shopper’s.

Opinion: August 29, 2018

Steve Palopoli

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September 2, 2018

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EDITOR’S NOTE

World Cup fever came and went again this year, without appearing to make much of a lasting shift in how soccer is viewed in this country. A decade ago, soccer fans believed Americans would be joining the rest of the world in truly embracing their sport any time now, but that’s never really happened. Every four years there’s a spike in interest here when the World Cup rolls around, but it doesn’t stick.

Cultural referees are constantly arguing about the reasons why, but I think this year it had a lot to do with the fact that the U.S. men’s national team didn’t qualify for the first time since 1990. People like to have a home team to root for; they want to feel an emotional connection to what’s happening. That’s why the closest soccer has come to a real pop-culture breakthrough in the U.S. was probably 2004, when the American women’s team improbably won their second Olympic gold medal with a performance in Athens that stunned the world.

It’s also why this semi-pro team that Lauren Hepler writes about in our cover story this week, Ville FC, has potential to affect how a lot of people in Santa Cruz County feel about soccer—and they haven’t even played a game yet! You’ll have to read the story to understand why; it’s full of interesting characters, raw talent, compelling stories and crazy dreams. And if that isn’t the best reason to follow soccer—or any sport—I don’t know what is.

STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Read the latest letters to the editor here.

Re: “Trestle Mania” (GT, 8/22):

Bud Culligan, Miles Reiter and William Ow—Greenway backers—financially supported the Capitola initiative to undermine the current rail trail project. Why scrap the current plan and start from the beginning, wasting all the time and money already put into this project, costing millions of dollars more, and likely never getting a trail at all? This makes absolutely no sense.

Why would a rich organization, Greenway, suddenly appear in our community with one purpose: kill rail-with-trail that has been in the planning for almost 20 years with groundbreaking on the first segment within months? Especially when the current rail-trail plan essentially builds one half of the unapproved, unfunded Greenway “concept plan” with walk and bike use beginning for all of us soon! Then I read articles in the New York Times and L.A. Times in June, which outlined how the Koch brothers’ organization is winning and removing rails against communities’ desires to keep them. The big money backing removal of rails is called “Americans for Prosperity” and is a Koch-financed conservative group. This very rich and powerful organization has been successful in removing rails all over the country and they focus on areas like ours. Koch companies produce gasoline, asphalt, seat belts, tires and other automotive parts. I wonder if our local individuals are being used by the Kochs.

Mary Murray
Santa Cruz

Re: KSCO

Uh oh, it’s the Thought Police! I remember around a year ago when the same naive “journalist” proudly bragged about getting KSCO to no longer discuss such crazy things as white genocide. Now, it’s in the news daily. Speak your truth. Quit trying to make others be silent. Being a beta male doesn’t mean you can’t be a bully.

— Tommy

Re: KSCO

I am so disgusted over Zwerling’s coddling of racism and bigotry. I really enjoy Rosie & Rick in the morning, but supporting the likes of Georgia is not something I can do. Charlie is bad enough, but Georgia is an outright bigot. I am going to have to boycott the station until she is fired. It is disgusting that MZ allows it to happen. He’s as bad as his Mother was!

— Nanci

Re: KSCO

With all these double standards (when it comes to the hosts and what is allowed and not allowed), it appears as if there is an agenda at KKKSCO. How can all of Georgia’s anti-American rhetoric go ignored and unrecognized as such, but Billy gets fired for pointing out the obvious?

Georgia gets to say that America is a nation based on heritage and culture, which she defines as race specific. She even parts ways with the MAGA movement and claims that America IS NOT AN IDEA. So this un-American wannabe Nazi is allowed to continue to be on the air and further confuse some, encourage others, and disgust the rest. What do you do?

KSCO: Listen, and be herded … to the slaughter… by this Judas goat.

— William Milton

Re: KSCO

Thank you Jacob for this article. I have filed an “Out of Bounds” report on the KSCO website. My complaint is based upon today’s “Georgia Peach” show. I believe that the verbiage and statements that she shares on the airwaves are far more detrimental than the two hosts that were fired. I do not understand why she is still on the air at KSCO.

— Marilyn Theresa Rockey

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

Submit to ph****@go*******.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

The Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County is organizing a vigil on International Overdose Awareness Day, the evening of Friday, Aug. 31, to honor and remember community members who died of overdose. Coalition supporters will gather on the Santa Cruz County courthouse steps at 5:30 p.m. and walk to San Lorenzo Park. Signs and photographs are welcome. The group will host guest speakers, share training information and distribute Naloxone as well as Fentanyl test strips. For more information, email hr******@gm***.com.

GOOD WORK

The Santa Cruz Chamber Board of Directors has selected the 2018 Gala Award Honorees. During its Oct. 25 gala at the Cocoanut Grove, the local economic partnership will honor Carrie Birkhofer, president and CEO of Bay Federal Credit Union; Duf Fischer, chamber ambassador chair; Santa Cruz County Bank and the Downtown Streets Team. Special Legacy Awards will go to Dan Haifley and Gary Griggs for their lifetime contributions toward promoting and protecting the Monterey Bay’s ocean waters and the environmental health of our region.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Soccer isn’t the same as Bach or Buddhism. But it is often more deeply felt than religion, and just as much a part of the community’s fabric, a repository of traditions.”
-Franklin Foer

Be Our Guest: Dean Ween Group

Cat Johnson

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August 30, 2018

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One half of alt-rock outfit Ween, Dean Ween (aka Michael Melchiondo, Jr.) has carried a torch for catchy underground music since way back in the 1980s when he and Gene Ween started making music together.

He has since worked on dozens of projects with a variety of artists, including Queens of the Stone Age and Yoko Ono. These days, Dean also leads the Dean Ween Group, which released its sophomore album, Rock2, earlier this year. The record is described by Dean as representing the first time he was able to take what the band does on stage and put it on a record. “Every little thing I’ve ever learned is somewhere on here somewhere. Maybe you can find a little piece of it that means as much to you as it does to me.”

INFO: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $25/adv, $30/door. 423-1338.

WANT TO GO?

Go to santacruz.com/giveaways before 11 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 10 to find out how you could win a pair of tickets to the show.

Music Picks: August 29-September 4

Aaron Carnes

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August 30, 2018

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Live music highlights for the week of August 29, 2018.

WEDNESDAY 8/29

INDIE-POP

BAD BAD HATS

Can you describe your band in three words or less? Minneapolis trio Bad Bad Hat can; they call it “sweet and sour.” In other words, ultra-catchy pop songs that straddle the line between innocent, feel good melodies and sad, reflective lyrics. It’s a combination not too uncommon with indie-pop bands, but when a band like Bad Bad Hat gets it right, it makes you feel all the feels. The band’s latest record, Lightning Round, is simultaneously more polished and looser than the one before it. It’s like a whole different category of sweet and sour. AARON CARNES

INFO: 9 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $12/adv, $14/door. 429-4135.

THURSDAY 8/30

ROCK

DANGALEROS

If the Dangaleros backstory is to be believed, the “despicable six” members were so isolated in rural Mexico that they had to form their own rock band to have something to do. And these six couldn’t be more different: border patrol agents, outlaws, cartel members, etc. You know the desire to rock was high if these guys could set aside their differences! Sure, this might all be fabricated, but in any case this six-piece puts on a fun show with a rock-oriented sound that dips into punk, funk, and spaghetti Western desert rock. AC

INFO: 7:30 p.m. Flynn’s Cabaret & Steakhouse, 6275 Hwy. 9, Felton. $15/adv, $18/door. 335-2800.

THURSDAY 8/30

JAZZ

STEVE WILSON & MONTEREY ALL-STARS

Santa Cruz trombonist/vocalist Steve Wilson, a key part of Cabrillo College’s jazz program for four decades, presents a prodigious band as part of Kuumbwa’s Live & Local series. Featuring well-traveled bassist Steve Uccello, Los Angeles-transplant Gary Meek on saxophones and piano, and veteran drummer Andy Weis (who leads a larger version of this ensemble at the Monterey Jazz Festival next month), the Monterey All-Stars combo lives up to its name. A versatile multi-instrumentalist who has toured and recorded with powerhouse drummer Dave Weckl and Brazilian stars such as Flora Purim, Airto, and Oscar Castro-Neves, Meek has added a vivifying jolt of energy to the Monterey Bay scene since relocating here in 2009. ANDREW GILBERT

INFO: 7 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $21/adv, $26.25/door. 427-2227.

THURSDAY 8/30

HIP-HOP

ROTATIONS

Khan is a local hip-hop artist who’s been putting out EPs and mixtapes for years now. His latest EP, Occupied—a collaboration with Santa Cruz producer Ghost Hour—is sublime boom-bap. Khan has put together an evening of hip-hop/soul at the Crepe Place called “Rotations” that includes Gilroy “femcee” 1 .A.M., spinner of old-school rap DJ Los the Nexus, sweet soul singer Genoa T. Brown, and poet-turned-rapper Joseph Jason Santiago Lacour. Word on the street is there’ll be a secret surprise guest as well. AC

INFO: 9 p.m. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $8. 429-6994

THURSDAY 8/30

PUNK

REGRETTES

Since last December, Lin-Manuel Miranda has been dropping monthly singles for his project Hamildrops, which are basically covers of songs from the Hamilton soundtrack. This March, L.A. pop-punk band the Regrettes released their rendition of “Helpless” which is so far one of the best contributions. Like the rest of the Regrettes songs, it’s got both attitude and vulnerability. This is most apparent on the group’s debut album, Feel Your Feelings Fool. Earlier this year, the group released the more all-over-the-place, but still awesome EP Attention Seeker.

INFO: 8 p.m. Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $14/adv, $16/door. 429-4135.

FRIDAY 8/31

REGGAE

ISRAEL VIBRATION

Are you ready to see two legendary reggae groups Voltron into one and then blow your mind away? Israel Vibration is a classic roots reggae singing group that formed in 1970 and started releasing classic Rastafarian albums in the late ’70s. The Roots Radics are a backing band that have played with everyone (Bunny Wailer, Eek-A-Mouse, Gregory Isaacs, etc). They’ve backed Israel Vibration on a couple of albums. And now—lucky you—they are backing the group live in concert. This will be the most reggae thing you do this week. AC

INFO: 9 p.m. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $35/adv, $40/door. 479-1854.

SUNDAY 9/2

INDIE-FOLK

THE JELLYMAN’S DAUGHTER

Hailing from the foothills of Edinburgh, the Jellyman’s Daughter is a duo that blends American indie-rock à la Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Andrew Bird with the Scottish twang of their homeland. Comprising Emily Kelly and Graham Coe, the duo is currently touring its forthcoming album, Dead Reckoning, which drops Sept. 21. The release has already garnered praise as an album that “evokes the misted plains of Great Britain … [and] remains loyal to the tradition of their homeland while expertly combining these sensibilities with a modern indie-folk twist.” CAT JOHNSON

INFO: 8 p.m. Lille Aeske, 13160 Hwy. 9, Boulder Creek. $10-$20. 703-4183.

TUESDAY 9/4

FOLK-ROCK

WILLY PORTER

An indie-folk rocker with finger-picking guitar skills to boot, Willy Porter has been holding down a quiet corner of the music world since his 1994 breakthrough album, Dog Eared Dream. Born in Mequon, Wisconsin, Porter garners comparison to guitar great Leo Kottke and was described by the Village Voice as capturing “the street corner ethic of acoustic performance perfectly.” In addition to boasting serious guitar chops, Porter is a thoughtful songwriter and an engaging performer. CJ

INFO: 7:30 p.m. Michael’s on Main, 2591 Main St., Soquel. $17/adv, $20/door. 479-9777.

Love Your Local Band: Little Petie and the Mean Old Men

Aaron Carnes

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August 30, 2018

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Love Your Local Band: Little Petie and the Mean Old Men

When Peter Michael was a kid, his family called him “Little Petie.” His dad was Peter and his grandfather was Pete, so the nickname sort of made sense.

But he hated it.

As he’s gotten older, though, he’s reconsidered. In fact, he’s using it for his latest musical project, Little Petie and the Mean Old Men. And the once-hated nickname has become a bit of an alter ego.

“He’s a little more happy-go-lucky and perhaps intentionally naïve,” Michael says. “There are times when I’m writing songs that I think, ‘Yeah, Little Petie wouldn’t say that.’ It has created a lens through which the songs are delivered.”

Michael spent his younger years playing in an intense punk band, and then became a serious, contemplative singer-songwriter. Ultimately, he wanted to have more fun.

“I enjoyed presenting those songs in the past, but there was an emotional cost that after a while I just got tired of paying,” Michael says. “I decided I would write songs that were up-tempo and catchy, not really thinky or heartbreaky.”

Now he’s having a great time playing good old-fashioned riff-heavy rock music.

“Our songs are in a style that is already familiar to people,” Michael says. “We’re not reinventing rock ’n’ roll. There’s nothing that’s gimmicky. It’s straightforward. I think once people start to familiarize themselves with our songs, they really appreciate and enjoy them.”

INFO: 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31. Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $10. 429-6994.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PHOTO CONTEST WINNER

GOOD IDEA

GOOD WORK

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

WANT TO GO?

BAD BAD HATS

DANGALEROS

STEVE WILSON & MONTEREY ALL-STARS

ROTATIONS

REGRETTES

ISRAEL VIBRATION

THE JELLYMAN’S DAUGHTER

WILLY PORTER