Five years ago, then-Santa Cruz mayor Hilary Bryant knew that there was a healthy tech start-up culture really starting to bloom in Santa Cruz, but she didn’t feel she knew as much about it as she should have.

As a part of the city’s business retention efforts, Bryant remembers visiting the offices of Looker, the data-analytics company that today is one of Santa Cruz’s most prominent homegrown businesses.

“It was probably six or seven people in the small office in the back of the Cruzio building,” she says “I kept thinking, ‘I know you guys are doing something cool, but I have no idea exactly what you’re doing.’”

At the time, the tech industry in Santa Cruz was growing largely outside of notice, so much so that the city’s mayor had to rely on rumor and scuttlebutt to figure out who was doing what.

The timing could not have been better for Sara Isenberg, and her idea to provide centralized coverage of Santa Cruz’s tech sector at a new website she called Santa Cruz Tech Beat. Isenberg showed up at the mayor’s office with exactly the solution to her problem.

“Sara and I had a great conversation,” says Bryant. “I told her that as an elected official, I wanted to be able to tell this story and to understand this story. But I didn’t know how to tap into that community without going to a whole lot of events. And I didn’t even have the understanding to know which events to attend. And when she showed up, I was like, ‘Yes, please, how can I help you do this?’”

Bryant became one of Tech Beat’s earliest subscribers.

This summer, Santa Cruz Tech Beat is celebrating its fifth anniversary of providing a window into the world of Santa Cruz’s busy tech sector. From the beginning, Isenberg has claimed no standing as a journalist. Instead, she comes from tech herself, having graduated from UCSC with a degree in computer science and working in the computer industry since the early 1980s, most notably at Santa Cruz Operations (SCO) throughout the 1990s.

“I’m a tech person who just happened to be here and happened to pick up something I thought would be fun when my son was headed off to college,” says.

Isenberg credits her friend and fellow techie Margaret Rosas—who later introduced her to the mayor—for inspiring Tech Beat in July 2013. “The conception at the time wasn’t a grand thing,” says Isenberg. “It was just a newsletter. The people at the city were too busy with other things to know what was going on in tech, and unless if you were spending all day at NextSpace, you didn’t know what was going on.”

An ecosystem emerges

Santa Cruz Tech Beat first began collecting press releases from the entrepreneurs in town and quickly expanded to include interviews, events and job listings. It was the job postings that really attracted eyeballs to the site, and after a couple of years, Isenberg moved from a tech consultant who publishes a newsletter on the side to a publisher who does consulting on the side.

“The news on the site is a selection of curated news that’s written elsewhere, press releases, guest articles,” she says.

Santa Cruz Tech Beat soon expanded its purview and began covering the tech sector not only throughout Santa Cruz County but in Monterey and San Benito counties as well. Since then, the site has brought into sharper focus the nature of tech around the Monterey Bay, chronicling the rise of several hubs of activity—genomics, stemming from the Genomics Institute at UCSC; adventure sports and gaming; and agricultural tech. With companies such as Plantronics and Fullpower Technologies, Santa Cruz has a stake in wearable tech. Overall, it’s a thriving community that ties together the biggest players in Santa Cruz’s tech economy, from UCSC to Cruzio to ProductOps and Looker to Santa Cruz New Tech Meet Up.

Doug Erickson of New Tech MeetUp says that Isenberg and Tech Beat provide a valuable bridge in the town’s tech ecosystem. He points to studies that list critical components like institutions of higher learning, municipal support, angel investors, mentor businesspeople and incubator businesses. “You have to have all those components for a tech ecosystem to thrive,” he says, “and Tech Beat connects all those components together.”

New Tech MeetUp began 10 years ago, long before Tech Beat. And the absence of a site like Tech Beat made Erickson’s job difficult. “It was very difficult,” he says, “to find out who would be interested, what’s the history, whether anyone has tried to do this before. It was really hard to find out any of that stuff. Now, with Tech Beat, we have a record of everything that’s been going on, and that’s a very valuable thing to have.”

The tech industry’s relationship with the public has always included a degree of hype, but Isenberg makes the point to say that she is not inclined to hyperbole. “I’m just not a hyperbolic person,” she says. “I’m not a salesperson. I’m really just an introverted, geeky kind of person. When I publish, the focus I want to give is not that these companies have sexy products necessarily. It’s more that they make these kinds of products, and they were started by so-and-so. And what I’ve learned is that even though you think that tech people would value Tech Beat, it’s really the people who are around tech but not in it that are more interested. City and county leaders, university people, attorneys, commercial real-estate people, all the people who have an interest in the infrastructure around tech.

Santa Cruz Tech Beat is largely supported by the institutions and companies that it covers, allowing Isenberg to generate some income and spend her time populating the site. “It generates an income,” she says. “Not a Silicon Valley high-tech income. It’s not like having a salary. But I’m my own boss, and I can do what I want.”

Tech Beat also keeps the breathless “Silicon Beach” rhetoric that the local tech industry has had problems living up to in check.

“We are what we are,” says Isenberg of Santa Cruz County’s tech community, downplaying any notion that Santa Cruz might become some Next Big Thing in tech. “It’s up to individuals to start companies. I don’t think all of a sudden something big is going to happen locally. We have an ecosystem here.”

Intellectual and developmental disabilities don’t have to hinder a happy and successful life, says Anya Hobley, co-director of Camphill Community in Santa Cruz. At Camphill, workers don’t get a salary, and care doesn’t come at a financial cost. Instead, the residents work to give back to their community in order to support themselves.

“The way that people feel engaged and have a sense of purpose in the community here is different from the run-of-the-mill care,” Hobley says. “People are able to cultivate independence and sometimes it’s a shock for the families who thought that they would be dependent on them for life.”

Some of these workers and residents spend their time weaving, others on papermaking or organic biodynamic gardening. The focus of Camphill is community life, the arts, and working the land. Nestled in the Soquel hills, the community houses more than 40 friends, as residents are called, of all ages and varying special needs and abilities. Camphill staff, known as co-workers, come from all over the world to support the residents and community. The driving force behind Camphill is the idea that everyone has unique abilities and talents and can be independent regardless of mental limitations.

“Working gives everyone a sense of purpose, they are contributing to a larger whole, regardless of their limitations,” Hobley says, while Daniel, a 43-year-old resident with Fragile X Syndrome, pushes a full wheelbarrow across the garden. “It gives their life meaning.”

As with most art, the beauty is in the details. The residents weave lavender satchels, pillowcases and blankets and make recycled paper with flower petals. They grow their organic biodynamic crops from seeds and harvest their grapes as a community. Because of the diverse backgrounds of the staff, Camphill is a mash-up of cultural influences from cottage pie (a British riff on shepherd’s pie) to stories from Germany.

Hobley has been part of the Camphill movement almost all of her life. Having lived in a Camphill community in Wales and then in Ireland, she says that she feels a responsibility and passion for the meaningful work that she does within the community.

“We have the capacity to accommodate many people regardless of ability,” Hobley says. “If I went to Norway or South Africa, I know I’d have a place to stay there. It’s amazing in that aspect.”

The houses, named House of Ishi, Linden, Siiwiini, Marimi, Aulinta, Sunrose, Chrysalis and Evergreen, are each part of the Camphill Communities assisted living network, a California subcategory of the large international Camphill movement founded by Austrian pediatrician and teacher Dr. Karl König. König was influenced by the teachings of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy and the Waldorf education.

Camphill residents begin each morning with readings, often from the Bible (though the community itself has no religious affiliation), followed by a community breakfast consisting of homemade bread or granola, freshly picked fruit or veggie and egg scrambles. They enjoy three meals together daily, each one homemade from their fresh garden produce.

“To break bread or have a meal together is a bit of a foreign concept these days,” Hobley says. “Every meal we make, we cook together, we eat together, we talk together.”

While it may sound like a dreamy vacation for anyone, the residents don’t get to do exactly what they want all the time. They’re on a somewhat rigid set schedule as they give back to their little community.

Camphill also hosts festivals to celebrate holidays and the seasons. They include plays and singing, readings, dancing, and music. While it’s different for each community, the Santa Cruz Camphill relies on 80 percent state funding and the rest is donations-based. Families of those at Camphill do not have to pay for care, though many donate in some way, be it by volunteering their time or with financial support.

For the staff co-workers, working in Camphill comes with free room and board, meals, and chances to make new friends and experience new places. Many co-workers will make their way to other Camphill communities around the world, staying in one place for a year or two and then moving on. Through the Camphill Academy, co-workers in Camphill communities across North America can pursue full-time integrated studies that can culminate in a Certificate of Foundation Studies or a diploma in Curative Education or Social Therapy. Participation in the academy also makes them eligible for an extended visa so that they can continue their work within the communities beyond standard visa limits.

Despite the program’s worldwide reach, many in Santa Cruz don’t know about the community, even though it’s celebrating its 20th birthday this year. Hobley says she’s making a conscious effort to establish relationships and connections with the public locally. In particular, their upcoming farm-to-table event on Aug. 25 as well as their fairs and festivals are a way to celebrate nature connect Camphill to Santa Cruz.

“The farm-to-table dinner is really about creating community partnerships and friendships, and extending that to the local community,” Hobley says. “Unlike other farm-to-table events that are maybe a fundraiser or promote a specific farm, this is to showcase how we live and work in the community and how we can be part of the fabric of the local Santa Cruz community and beyond.”

They expect around 120 people, and while much of the food is grown on their land, they’re also getting outside help from local farms like Happy Boy and Live Earth. They are currently preparing for the dinner, and as the chickens run back and forth and residents tend to the crops, there is a certain late summer atmosphere around the garden.

”It’s about honoring each person’s abilities, rather than being a care provider or a friend,” Hobley says. “Sometimes when new co-workers come in, the friends know more about weaving than they do, and they can teach them. It’s a really amazing balance.”

For more information about Camphill Community in Santa Cruz or volunteer or purchase tickets to their events, visit camphillca.org.

Scotts Valley City Councilmember Donna Lind is approaching a big half-century milestone.

The small-town politician will be celebrating 50 years with the city on Sunday, Aug. 12. She began working for Scotts Valley in 1968 as a recent high school graduate, when she took a job as a secretary and became City Hall’s fourth staffer.

The city had only been incorporated two years earlier. The offices were in a two-story house, she recalls. The police department was downstairs, and the City Hall was upstairs.

After about a year, Lind began working as a dispatcher for the police, where she rose through the ranks to sergeant during her 39-year career with the department. In 2008, she retired from the force and ran for the Scotts Valley City Council, where she’s served ever since.

She remembers Scotts Valley’s time as an especially quiet town with lots of fruit stands. There was a lumberyard where the Kmart is now. She remembers President George Bush landing at Sky Park, which she describes as more of a hassle than anything else.

When Lind began, she says Scotts Valley only had 4,400 residents. It now has about 12,000.

How has Scotts Valley changed in your time there?

DONNA LIND: In those early days, kids rode horses on Scotts Valley Drive. I had a horse and rode in the Scotts Valley Days Parade. When I first started working, there were no stoplights in Scotts Valley at all.

I remember when the first stoplight went in at Mt. Hermon Road and Scotts Valley Drive. We thought, “Wow, we’re a real city! We’ve got a stop light!” Pretty famous people, like Alfred Hitchcock, flew in and out of Sky Park. We would see him drive down.

I was gonna ask if you ever saw Hitchcock, who spent much of his time in Scotts Valley.

There would be police calls I went to at his house for trespassing. He wasn’t there, but his caregiver and other people were. Since then, I’ve gotten to know his family members. He was somewhat reclusive, but he would come down. He usually had someone driving him. It was such a cool community. And yet along the way a lot of high-tech companies, like Netflix, started in Scotts Valley.

But in the early days, Santa’s Village was here. We had the Barn, a theater, where the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, very famous rock bands, played. Back in the ’60s, there was a lot of LSD, many residents weren’t thrilled. They talked about beatniks hanging out there. Later, the Smothers Brothers had their vineyards up on Vine Hill. A police partner and I stopped Dickie Smothers on Highway 17 and Granite Creek Road and investigated him for a DUI and ended up following him home.

Was he over the limit?

No, he was not. We just said, ‘We’ll follow you to your exit.’ It was a mile away, and we made sure he got there OK. He was very friendly and cooperative. It was our way of saying, “Stay safe and be careful.”

What is it like being on the force?

I remember the first time I went to a call in uniform in a police car. The man, when I got there, said “I called for a police officer.”

When I tell the story, people ask, “Well, did you get mad?” I go, “No, I probably would’ve asked for the male cop, too.” I was small and young-looking, and you couldn’t get upset or take it personally. I just said, “Would you see if I could help you?” As it turned out, he ended up going around town bragging he was my first call.

You couldn’t have thin skin. No one was used to seeing a 5-foot-3, 110-pound female in uniform. I had to learn to do things differently. You learn to use verbal skills. And I was gymnast. I worked out hard.

It sounds like, as the city’s first woman police officer, you weren’t too troubled by the sexism you experienced at the time. Looking back now, does it seem unfair?

There were times—I hated this—when I would stop someone, and they would say, “Hey sweetie, what do you want?” That was demeaning. Officers would joke that they would roll around and back me up. They would tease. I would feel disrespected, but I came up at a time when I really learned to handle it. My first chief was like a father figure, and he made a clear message that he would not tolerate it within the department.

The big policy item in Scotts Valley over the past decade has been the Town Center project. The City Council picked a developer last year. Has the plan been hurt by the decline in retail across the United States, and what challenge does that pose going forward?

There’s been talk for over 20 years. I remember saying, “I’m never gonna see this,” and then, when I got elected in 2008, I said, “Wow, it’s really gonna happen! This is cool.” I thought about how cool it would be to be a part of the Town Center, and then the economy crashed. The developer walked away, and it fell through. Then several years ago, there was another offer that looked like it started to come together. Some of it has been the economy. Some of it has been the change in retail. Some of it has been because the city of Santa Cruz owns part of that land, and the developer has to negotiate with them and with us. There have also been some issues with soil contamination from decades in the past that had to be dealt with and cleaned up.

Now the proposal for a current Town Center is very different. Personally, I’m not sure if this is the right direction, but we’re in the early stages of the plan. We’re having community meetings and working with the developer. But if we’re not happy as a community and a council, we can continue to wait. We can walk away. It’s nice to see a developer that’s had some success locally, but again, with the change in retail, we’re gonna need to go slow and make sure we work out something. This is not a done deal.