Drummer A.J. Aguayo can’t remember exactly when his reggae band Pacific Roots played its first show—he thinks it was 2015, but it might have been 2016. He does remember that the show—a local showcase—went really well. They sold $300 worth of tickets, more than any other band that night.
“We were the band that had the biggest crowd. We had a mosh pit. It was insane. It was probably one of the best shows I’ve played, and it was the first show of this band,” Aguayo says. “Right now, the gas pedal is to the floor—that’s how fast we’re moving.”
Of course, when Aguayo started the band with guitarist/vocalist Carlos Rubalcaba, he didn’t have high expectations.
“When we were first starting out, we did not think we’d be at this point where we’re at right here. When you’re starting out in a music group, you’re jamming out, it’s fun. And then we met Jake [White] and Jose [Picazo] and the structure came with it,” says Rubalcaba.
The band released its full-length debut about a year ago, which was produced by Max Peterson, the drummer in the Expendables. Aguayo reached out to him to jam, and eventually Peterson offered to record their music and make it sound “way better and for way cheaper.” Now, Peterson is the band’s manager, and he’s been scoring them some pretty great shows.
“We’re really excited about coming up with new music where all four of us are contributing,” says White. “We got some songs in the works right now that we want to record later this year, and we’re really excited about those. We’re getting really good feedback from the audience when we play them.”
INFO: 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $7/adv, $10/door. 479-1854.
Organic farming and food wasn’t always mainstream, and the documentary The Evolution of Organic is a time warp back to the late ’60s, when it was an act of rebellion to reject chemical farming and explore organic alternatives. The film tells the story of the earliest Alan Chadwick Garden farmers at UCSC, and their goal of making organic and sustainable agriculture and food accessible to everyone.
INFO: 6:30-9 p.m. Friday, April 13. Veterans Memorial Building, 846 Front St., Santa Cruz. brownpapertickets.com. $17/$20.
Joan Lowden a.k.a. “Bass Lady” is a woman of many facets. She is an encaustic artist, meaning that she works with wax and pigment to create visual art, and she is also a jazz bass musician—hence the nickname. She says jazz and encaustics go together because they are both improvisational; not surprisingly, her shows aren’t limited to just one of her artistic mediums. This show series will feature weekly themed music events, with local musicians alongside her encaustic visual art. Lowden will be playing with her jazz trio ‘Jazz With a Twist’ during the reception, to the beat of some twisted cocktails.
INFO: Reception 2-5 p.m. Sunday, April 15. Show continues through Sunday, April 22, with “Ragtime Wrap Up” from 2-5 p.m. Felix Kulpa Gallery. 107 Elm St., Santa Cruz. basslady.com. Free.
Friday 4/13
Aptos High Presents ‘Cinderella’
Everyone knows the story of Cinderella, so Aptos High School has a bit of a twist to keep things interesting. The musical production will be ’80s themed, with some seriously big hair and totally tubularcostumes—think Cinderella meets an ’80s workout video. Few things sound more entertaining than Cinderella right out of a John Hughes movie. The musical is directed by drama teacher Stacy Aronovici and Aptos High student Quinn Youngs, and features more than 50 students in the cast and crew. Puppetry and a full orchestra will add a bit more enchantment to the evening.
INFO: Opens 7 p.m. Friday, April 13 and runs through Saturday, April 21. aptoshs.net. $10/$11 general admission. $8/$9 students and seniors.
Spring is here, and for some that means a wardrobe refresher. But before you go to a department store or online, consider shopping for a cause. “Step Into Fashion” will feature more than 40 Bay Area designers selling affordable clothing, handbags, accessories, jewelry and more. Plus, a portion of all proceeds will go to Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s cancer prevention and care programs. To date, the event has raised more than $227,000 for cancer-related programs in Santa Cruz County. For fashion-forward questions, local television personality and fashion producer Joyce Anderson will talk about accessorizing, and Image Consultant Alyce Parsons will discuss incorporating the latest trends into your wardrobe.
It’s adults day everyday, so isn’t it about time we stop being so selfish and focus on the next generation of Santa Cruzans? In celebration of kids everywhere, the Downtown Association has brought back ‘Kids Day,’ a fun-filled bubble bash in downtown Santa Cruz. There will be yoga, dance, facepainting and of course tons of yummy food for even the pickiest of eaters.
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Wednesday Venus trines Mars—our relationships become most important to tend to. Simultaneously, Sun conjuncts Jupiter—we have more love and compassion for others. Friday Venus sextiles Neptune as the Moon is in Pisces.
We seek authentic and intelligent friendships, able to spot illusion and glamours quite easily. Friday is v/c (Moon void of course) all day—so we remain solitary and keenly observant. Aries Moon begins late Friday evening.
Saturday morning, just after midnight, Jupiter sextiles Pluto. We have deep and expansive dreams. In the morning Mars sextiles Neptune—the dreams come true.
Sunday, Mercury is still in the sky, preparing to move forward at 4.47 degrees Aries. Mercury doesn’t reach its retrograde shadow until May 4. So, we proceed slowly forward. The new moon occurs Sunday at 6:57 p.m. (West Coast time), at 26 degrees Aries. The Sun and Moon are together in Aries, calling forth all fiery forms from the heavens. Calling forth the Divine Mind of God to impress humanity’s minds. “I come forth and from the plane of Mind, I rule,” says Mercury.
The Lords of Fire (Agni Lords) are present during the month of Aries, especially at the New and Full Moon times. These great beings hold the archetype (pattern) for the future race of humanity with the task of producing a harmonious and peaceful world to come.
The Lords of Fire participated in our initial creation, but for most of humanity, their work lies still in the future. The fires (Fohat) of their nature produce a purifying and illumined consciousness. This illumination ignites the presently sleeping original Divine Spark, or inner fire, of each individual, creating a burning ground that clears the illusions, mental distortions, and emotional fugues that are the barriers to clear perception to the Raincloud of Knowable Things (world of wisdom and intuition). These fires produce the discriminating personality, the illumined consciousness, and a fiery force field of radiation needed in our ascent, or resurrection, of consciousness back toward the Source.
ARIES: What are your financial realities and perspectives, how are they faring, are they safe, are they budgeted, and do you tithe? These are some of the monetary questions coming into focus. Also, of importance is the review, revision and recognition of your true values. What and whom do you value? Do you consider yourself as valuable? How? These days and nights shed light upon your true Aries self.
TAURUS: There could be confusion in communication with close friends, partners, friends, associates and intimates. There could also be questions concerning your possessions and their maintenance. Something important for day to day living may have stopped working. It’s possible that someone close may not understand you. There won’t be any compromise. Our life changes through the decisions we make, and often through what we can’t quite see yet.
GEMINI: Revelations may appear as your mind has an inner focus, quite compassionate at times, yet it could turn quickly to a Virgo criticalness. Be aware of this. Study the religious and/or spiritual. Alice Bailey’s book Service (a compilation) is good at this time. Have the intention for fairness, for non-judgment, clarity and “Let reality guide my every thought and Truth be Master of my Life.”
CANCER: During this time, we’ve all been returning to the past, to friends and/or family close to us, to those we need, love and cherish. Our family is our first and foremost experience of community and group work, where we grow, encounter and learn life’s lessons. Should sad or lamenting thoughts appear, think on them with forgiveness and begin writing them down in longhand. Eventually, healing takes place.
LEO: Communication confusions could have occurred at work, with colleagues, superiors, and others working around you. Awareness of this allows you to make concessions when speaking in the future. The focus for three weeks was on critical judgments concerning your work and other people’s work, everything professional and most importantly your life path. Shift the critical judgements to praise.
VIRGO: What are you thinking about in terms of education, travel, legal affairs and all communications with co-workers? Have there been delays in many areas of your life recently? Things will ease soon. Be very clear when discussing joint finances and decisions with professionals. Know that you may be hidden for a while, your actions therefore must be explained to others so they are understood. Use few precise words.
LIBRA: Be careful with resources, values, money and finances. Be acutely aware of where your money is being used, how much and when it’s coming in, and carefully jot down what you do with it (your money). Consider investments at this time in gold and silver, especially gold. Carefully assess your money as it finances your future. Tithe often … giving to those in need, in the clear light of day.
SCORPIO: One-on-one communication needs deep awareness, care and kindness. Previous partnership issues, concerning constancy, safety, money and security, arise once again, for re-evaluation. Messages may continue to be mixed. Be aware of this. Disputes call for negotiation. Perhaps this is too difficult for you. Make no decision till after Mercury’s shadow. Simply observe. Then follow the beauty, the bliss, the heart and your intuition.
SAGITTARIUS; You’re more sensitive than usual. Is that possible? Yes. Healthwise, for the next several weeks, it’s best to create daily routines that strengthen your well-being. Maintain a non-judgmental response to everyone, lest falling into old criticisms and sarcasms occurs. Criticism separates us. Then an existential loneliness emerges. Find silence, beauty, a sanctuary, an ashram, a sangha. Rest in one from new moon to full to new again.
CAPRICORN: Observe children, family and loved ones during these Mercury shadow days. Children and elders are especially sensitive to transits. In your observations, what do you see in terms of their ability to communicate, maneuver in their world of friends, school and studies? Help them (with you, too), create a Mercury Retrograde and Shadow Journal for later use. Observe yourself during these times, too. What are you remembering these days?
AQUARIUS: Things, thoughts, events are occurring about home. They have roots from many months ago. There’s a shift about what home means, and what you consider your personal foundation. This has been a time for assessment, review, re-evaluation and revelations concerning home—what you need, where and what home is for you. Assess how family can assist with your plans for a home. Ask them. They want to help.
PISCES: You will find that only patience assists at this time. It seems that emptiness has come to roost in all parts of your life and it is very hard to understand. Stand with that emptiness, become empty yourself, allow life to flow through you. Many will not understand this part of your life. It’s an initiation, very valuable, extremely difficult. You stand alone. No matter your actions, the emptiness remains. Expect nothing. Be still like nothing at all. Good.
Free Will astrology for the week of April 11, 2018.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries statesman Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States. He wrote one of history’s most famous documents, the Declaration of Independence. He was an architect, violinist, inventor, and linguist who spoke numerous languages, as well as a philosopher who was knowledgeable about mathematics, surveying, and horticulture. But his most laudable success came in 1789, when he procured the French recipe for macaroni and cheese while living in France, and thereafter introduced the dish into American cuisine. JUST KIDDING! I’m making this little joke in the hope that it will encourage you to keep people focused on your most important qualities, and not get distracted by less essential parts of you.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In the early 1990s, Australian electrical engineer John O’Sullivan toiled on a research project with a team of radio astronomers. Their goal was to find exploding mini black holes in the distant voids of outer space. The quest failed. But in the process of doing their experiments, they developed technology that became a key component now used in Wi-Fi. Your digital devices work so well in part because his frustrating misadventure led to a happy accident. According to my reading of your astrological omens, Taurus, we may soon be able to make a comparable conclusion about events in your life.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In the fictional world created by DC Comics, the superhero Superman has a secret identity as a modest journalist named Clark Kent. Or is it the other way around? Does the modest journalist Clark Kent have a secret identity as the superhero Superman? Only a few people realize the two of them are the same. I suspect there is an equally small number of allies who know who you really are beneath your “disguises,” Gemini. But upcoming astrological omens suggest that could change. Are you ready to reveal more about your true selves? Would you consider expanding the circle that is allowed to see and appreciate your full range and depth?
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Playwright Tennessee Williams once spent an evening trying to coax a depressed friend out of his depression. It inspired him to write a poem that began like this: “I want to infect you with the tremendous excitement of living, because I believe that you have the strength to bear it.” Now I address you with the same message, Cancerian. Judging from the astrological omens, I’m convinced you currently have more strength than ever before to bear the tremendous excitement of living. I hope this news will encourage you to potentize your ability to welcome and embrace the interesting puzzles that will come your way in the weeks ahead.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Are you finished dealing with spacious places and vast vistas and expansive longings? I hope not. I hope you will continue to explore big, bold, blooming schemes and wild, free, booming dreams until at least April 25. In my astrological opinion, you have a sacred duty to keep outstripping your previous efforts. You have a mandate to go further, deeper, and braver as you break out of shrunken expectations and push beyond comfortable limitations. The unknown is still more inviting and fertile than you can imagine.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Between Dec. 5 and 9, 1952, London was beset with heavy fog blended with thick smog. Visibility was low. Traffic slowed and events were postponed. In a few places, people couldn’t see their own feet. According to some reports, blind people, who had a facility for moving around without the aid of sight, assisted pedestrians in making their way through the streets. I suspect that a metaphorically comparable phenomenon may soon arise in your sphere, Virgo. Qualities that might customarily be regarded as liabilities could at least temporarily become assets.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Your allies are always important, but in the coming weeks they will be even more so. I suspect they will be your salvation, your deliverance, and your treasure. So why not treat them like angels or celebrities or celebrity angels? Buy them ice cream and concert tickets and fun surprises. Tell them secrets about their beauty that no one has ever expressed before. Listen to them in ways that will awaken their dormant potentials. I bet that what you receive in return will inspire you to be a better ally to yourself.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the coming weeks, I suspect you will be able to find what you need in places that are seemingly devoid of what you need. You can locate the possible in the midst of what’s apparently impossible. I further surmise that you will summon a rebellious resourcefulness akin to that of Scorpio writer Albert Camus, who said, “In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. No matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger—something better, pushing right back.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In 1936, Herbert C. Brown graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in science. His girlfriend Sarah Baylen rewarded him with the gift of a two-dollar book about the elements boron and silicon. Both he and she were quite poor; she couldn’t afford a more expensive gift. Brown didn’t read the book for a while, but once he did, he decided to make its subject the core of his own research project. Many years later, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discoveries about the role of boron in organic chemistry. And it all began with that two-dollar book. I bring this story to your attention, Sagittarius, because I foresee you, too, stumbling upon a modest beginning that eventually yields breakthrough results.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In 20 B.C., Rome’s most famous poet was Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known to us today as Horace. He prided himself on his meticulous craftsmanship, and advised other writers to be equally scrupulous. Once you compose a poem, he declared, you should put it aside for nine years before deciding whether to publish it. That’s the best way to get proper perspective on its worth. Personally, I think that’s too demanding, although I appreciate the power that can come from marshalling so much conscientiousness. And that brings me to a meditation on your current state, Capricorn. From what I can tell, you may be at risk of being too risk-averse; you could be on the verge of waiting too long and being too cautious. Please consider naming a not-too-distant release date.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Luckily, you have an inventive mind and an aptitude for experimentation. These will be key assets as you dream up creative ways to do the hard work ahead of you. Your labors may not come naturally, but I bet you’ll be surprised at how engaging they’ll become and how useful the rewards will be. Here’s a tip on how to ensure you will cultivate the best possible attitude: Assume that you now have the power to change stale patterns that have previously been resistant to change.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): May I suggest that you get a lesson in holy gluttony from a Taurus? Or perhaps pick up some pointers in enlightened self-interest from a Scorpio? New potential resources are available, but you haven’t reeled them in with sufficient alacrity. Why? Why oh why oh why?! Maybe you should ask yourself whether you’re asking enough. Maybe you should give yourself permission to beam with majestic self-confidence. Picture this: Your posture is regal, your voice is authoritative, your sovereignty is radiant. You have identified precisely what it is you need and want, and you have formulated a pragmatic plan to get it.
Homework: In what circumstances do you tend to be smartest? When do you tend to be dumbest? Testify at Freewillastrology.com.
[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ven 25 years ago, Santa Cruz fire officials were worried about the Prospect Heights neighborhood that adjoins the overgrown eucalyptus stands in DeLaveaga Park. In a newspaper article at the time, then-Fire Chief Ron Prince expressed concern that brush, downed trees and fallen limbs were four feet deep in some areas.
In the parlance of veteran firefighters, these accumulations of downed vegetation are called “fuel,” and they help a small ground fire crown into the treetops when the worst conditions align. A walk through the forest there today reveals it is still just as fuel-rich.
One of those veteran firefighters is Cap Pennell, who worked for 34 seasons with Cal Fire, mostly around Santa Cruz, and who retired from the state firefighting agency 15 years ago. He recalls the gallows humor in the fire stations about the fire that might start in Boulder Creek and get pushed by strong offshore winds down the San Lorenzo canyon, all the way to the Boardwalk.
The counter-argument to that particularly bleak outlook on the state of fire safety, Pennell recalls, was that there was a crossroad every quarter-mile which would stop such a blaze. The idea that this imaginary hedge would stop the spread of a major wildfire was proven wrong once again, he says, when the most recent fires in Santa Barbara and Santa Rosa crossed roads and even a six-lane freeway. A six-lane freeway, by the way, is all that separates Pennell’s home from the endangered Prospect Heights—a gap he knows could be easily closed by a fire pushed by strong winds.
“Convection and radiation usually makes fire go uphill,” says Pennell, “but the other factor would be adiabatic, where the winds come downhill. They are warm and dry, and they cause more extreme fire behavior.”
Prospect Heights isn’t the only neighborhood considered to be at great risk. The bottom line is that Santa Cruz firemen have long worried about the windy-day fire that would start in the forested hills and sweep down toward the urban flats—exactly what happened in Santa Rosa and Santa Barbara—and they say it’s more critical than ever that residents prepare for that possibility.
WIND FACTOR
The Bear Fire started in the steep San Lorenzo uplands on Oct. 18, 10 days after the start of the Santa Rosa fires. By then, the north winds had died down, so crews were able to contain it in 10 days. Rich Sampson, a Cal Fire division chief based in Felton, says that if the Bear Fire had started at the same time as Santa Rosa’s wildfires, the winds would have blown flames down to Boulder Creek and Ben Lomond, a particularly dangerous situation because so much of Cal Fire’s crew had already been sent up to Santa Rosa.
Sampson says similar risks exist for canyons with a north-south alignment above Aptos, Corralitos and Watsonville, where a fire could begin in the drier elevations above the inversion layer and pick up speed when it gets fanned by an offshore wind. Normally, at higher altitude, the temperature decreases due to the changes in air pressure. But in an inversion, instead of getting cooler, it is actually warmer at higher elevation. The flames would rush downhill, an example of the adiabatic fire behavior Pennell described.
The flushes of heavy rain in March and April have barely moved this season’s precipitation needle to 65 percent of normal, and the more generous rain last winter may have made things even more flammable, Sampson says. This was because the heavy rain last year was not enough to wet the bigger fuels after many years of drought and, besides, it stimulated the growth of lots of fine fuels—weeds and grass—which also dry out quickly.
EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES An air drop during the Santa Rosa fire. Normal firefighting methods can become impossible in wind-driven fires. PHOTO: JON LOHNE
As evidence, he cites 20-30 acres of intentional prescribed burning that Cal Fire had just completed to reduce hazardous fuel buildups near UCSC. The timing for the burn—in the middle of the winter—would never have been possible before the drought.
Jake Hess, a Cal Fire deputy chief based in Felton, says firefighters routinely sample fuels for moisture in their work, and are finding that, although heavy rainfall in 2017 had refilled reservoirs, a lot of the live fuels were clearly weakened, but not killed, and had not bounced back to their typical moisture level after one good year.
Hess says he’s seen every fire season outpace the previous year’s fires, and Cal Fire has moved more funding to each unit for increased protective fuels reduction. In the Santa Cruz area, this will mean two full engine crews doing this pre-fire work, six days a week.
Hess agrees that winds can be a dominant factor in fire behavior and said the 2008 Summit Fire between Santa Cruz and Los Gatos had winds so strong—80 miles per hour—that firefighting aircraft had to be grounded. Hess was headed to the Santa Rosa Fire when he got orders to turn around and head home to the Bear Fire.
He says strong wind is such a big factor in fire behavior that his agency increases crew strength whenever it is forecast. As fuel moistures have continued to drop from lack of rain and lack of snowpack every year, the fire season for Cal Fire Southern Region is all year now. Big fires late in the year in 2005 seemed an anomaly at first, but Hess says that lately they’ve added “a new mental component that our employees are having to deal with: burnout. I don’t see it changing; all the science says this is the new normal, and will increase.”
A NEW KIND OF FIRE
Tim Chavez, a Cal Fire field battalion chief from the Riverside area, was on the Thomas Fire near Santa Barbara for 16 days, and he remembers the offshore winds. “They came for 13 days straight. Usually they get them for three days, then the fog comes in and the fire stops spreading,” he says.
It would be hard to overstate the catastrophe of the wind-driven fires in the Santa Barbara and Santa Rosa areas. The Tubbs Fire in Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties had burned 36,807 acres by its containment on Oct. 31, 2017, and caused 22 deaths by fire. It burned 5,643 structures including 2,800 homes in the city of Santa Rosa, 5 percent of the city’s housing stock, with an estimated $1.2 billion of damage. It was the most destructive wildfire in California history.
The Thomas Fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties started Dec. 4, 2017, and burned 281,893 acres, becoming the largest wildfire in modern California history. It destroyed 1,063 structures and was linked to the deaths of one firefighter and one civilian before it was contained on Jan. 12 of this year. Another 20 people subsequently died when rainstorms triggered mud and debris flows in the burn area.
One Northern California insurance broker says insurance companies are looking closely at brush and slope in issuing new fire policies and reassessing existing ones. He says the companies were “getting off a lot of their risks, even policies that they’ve held for 20 or 30 years. Fire with a wind, you aren’t going to stop it. We’re seeing policies that cost $1,000 a year coming back for $1,800, two grand.”
Many instructional materials for fire protection are designed for homes built in forested areas—what firefighters call the Wildland/Urban Interface, or WUI. These materials suggest clearing or seriously reducing vegetation and other fuels accumulations around a residence within a 100-foot perimeter. In most of the less-wildland neighborhoods of Santa Cruz County, this would amount to removing the next two houses on every side of your house.
Chief Hess observes that the wind-driven fire in Santa Rosa found fuel not just in trees but in buildings and vehicles, with embers from torched houses flying as far as a half mile in front of the advancing fire.
In conditions like those, ordinary firefighting becomes impossible, and the main strategy becomes evacuation. Jim Frawley, the chief of the Santa Cruz Fire Department, told a recent community meeting at DeLaveaga School that residents need to make themselves, their homes and their community better prepared for the catastrophic possibilities.
As part of his department’s fire-readiness campaign, representatives are going out into neighborhoods to form a Firewise Community, starting with the people who live near DeLaveaga Park. Materials aiding people and neighborhoods to prepare are available at https://goo.gl/oQ5k55.
Frawley says that at any given moment, his department has 17 firefighters on duty—enough for one house on fire. So, in the case of a wind-driven fire, it’s the preparation that comes beforehand—investment in non-combustible roofs, clearing rain gutters of debris so they are less flammable, and other actions aimed at fireproofing. Much of that information is available at the Ready, Set, Go program. See https://goo.gl/Tphe6w.
The “Go” step is evacuation. More than 100,000 residents were evacuated during the Thomas Fire. Frawley says that in a worst-case fire starting in the Eucalyptus groves, Branciforte Avenue and Morrissey Boulevard would be converted to one-way evacuation routes headed toward the ocean.
The fire districts in the county have cooperative agreements with Cal Fire to respond jointly to fires too big for any one department. Frawley says that the city government has also budgeted $100,000 per year to help reduce fuel buildups in overgrown areas like Delaveaga Park. His department is working with the city parks department to prioritize the work and to enlist other groups for resources that can help prepare for the next fire.
The county Fire-Safe Council has funds to bring in a chipper to chew up unwanted brush after it’s removed, and Cal Fire can supply convict crews to help handle the accumulations of fallen trees, branches and brush.
Frawley was a firefighter in Southern California before he came to Santa Cruz three years ago, and he says that dryness and wind conditions are not as bad in Santa Cruz as in Santa Rosa or Santa Barbara, but adds, “To say ‘never’ is wrong. So we need to be aware of it, to plan for it and to bring in the community.”
As a step in that direction he moderated the well-attended meeting in November at Delaveaga School. The neighborhood had already had an early warning when a fire broke out near DeLaveaga Golf Course in early July.
Ed Silveira from Friends of DeLaveaga Park, welcomed the fuels treatment in the park to reduce fire danger, but also questioned the amount of money being appropriated for the job. “It’s interesting that the City Council came up with close to $300,000 to remodel the city golf course restaurant, but the fire chief only gets $100,000 for public safety in this area.”
Bill Maxfield, another homeowner near the park, said, “Besides the terrible fires in Sonoma, Napa, Ventura and Santa Barbara, we’ve had a couple of scares in DeLaveaga Park, including one in 2017 that required helicopter drops [of water and fire retardant] and a small fire within the last couple of weeks that happening during a rainstorm—both are thought to be human-caused. I’m really thankful that city leaders are paying attention to this issue. The question is, what can the city do to help, and how can neighbors participate in a solution that cuts the fuel load and helps us prepare our homes and families in the case of a major fire in the park? I’m optimistic that it can be done. Clearly the interest is there.”
Cal Fire and local firefighting groups called another public meeting since then to study lessons learned from the Bear Fire above Boulder Creek, which burned nearly 400 acres before containment. It was a mountainous, heavily forested area with less housing but more vegetation. Joe Christie from the Santa Cruz Fire Safe Council says 80 people attended.
Christie says that prevention efforts in the area are complicated by the network of access roads, overgrown by vegetation, and by rural residents who value privacy and are concerned with the prospect of increased code enforcement.
The lack of egress is a problem, not just on a neighborhood level. It is a similar challenge on a larger scale for fire managers in Santa Cruz and across the West. There’s no easy way out of this expanding fire risk; fuel buildup, drought and climate change have all been piling up for decades. It’s especially a problem when strong winds shift the main fire response strategy to flight, rather than fight.
Stuart Carlson worked 35 seasons for Cal Fire before recently retiring as a station captain in Corralitos. He says the reality of fire danger in Santa Cruz County is part of California’s natural landscape, and will require continually evolving vigilance.
“The Lockheed and Summit fires were wind-driven fires initially, also the Oakland Hills Fire in 1991,” says Carlson. “These areas have histories of burns, these are areas where plants are adapted to fire—knobcone pines, called fire pines, manzanita—fire is a part of their ecology. And part of it is that we live in these areas.”
Malcolm Terence has been a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service and a reporter for the ‘Los Angeles Times’ and other papers in California. His new book, ‘Beginner’s Luck, Dispatches from the Klamath Mountains,’ is being published by Oregon State University Press next month.
In a county that was once almost as well-known for drugs as it was for anything else, statistics show that many drug-related deaths have decreased in recent years. That means Santa Cruz County is bucking a larger trend—in much of the nation, things are moving in a more troubling direction.
There were 63,600 drug-related deaths in the U.S. in 2016, the most recent year with data available. Around 66 percent of those Americans—some 42,000 people—died from opioid use, making it the worst year on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Those deaths were a major part of the fact that 2016 was the second consecutive year that Americans’ life expectancy fell, and the first time since the early 1960s that the United States had seen life expectancy drop for two years in a row.
As health officials continue to see the opioid crisis take its toll, the Trump Administration held a summit last month to discuss how to combat it. Meanwhile, a new local coalition has joined a larger effort to create a safety net and hopefully save lives.
Opioids include a variety of substances, like heroin, prescription painkillers, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a new drug on the market which can be 50 times stronger than heroin. Fentanyl is often used by dealers to cut street opioids, in order to make as much profit from their product as possible. However, dealers are now also using it to cut other drugs, including stimulants like cocaine, law enforcement officials say. Connecticut has seen a 420 percent increase in fentanyl-laced cocaine over the last three years.
At this point, however, fentanyl seems to be more of a problem on the East Coast. Dr. Stephany Fiore, the sheriff forensic pathologist, says that while Santa Cruz County does see fentanyl overdoses, “it’s very minor compared to everything else.”
In defiance of national trends, Fiore says, the county has actually seen a decrease in both overall drug deaths and opioid-related ones. In 2017, there were 32 accidental drug-related deaths, down from 56 in 2014. But the county’s overdose rate is still more than three times the state average. Nineteen of last year’s drug deaths were stimulant-related, which is the highest number in the last five years—as far back as the county’s data goes.
The Midwest and East Coast have been hit harder by fentanyl imported from China, the number one producer of the drug, Fiore explains.
“We’ve always had a difference in drug use on the different coasts,” she says. Black tar heroin has always been found primarily on the West Coast, Fiore adds, whereas “China white” has been more popular in the Eastern U.S. Still, she says there were nine cases of fentanyl deaths in the county in 2015, spread between various forms of fake prescription pills—like street-made versions of Xanax—along with cocaine and heroin.
Fentanyl testing is one of the services a new partnership called the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County will be supporting, along with syringe access, drug treatment methods, mental health counseling, and housing assistance. Harm reduction also includes ensuring access to naloxone, a substance that prevents fatal overdoses.
Grey skies and the threat of rain didn’t stop a group of roughly 30 people from gathering outside the Santa Cruz County Courthouse steps on Thursday, April 5 to announce the newly formed coalition. “Harm Reduction understands a particular behavior will occur, regardless, and we take steps to minimize impact on individuals and the community,” said Denise Elerick, one of the coalition’s founders.
Teaming up with similar harm-reduction chapters throughout the state and around the world, the local partnership wants to “promote evidence-based approaches” to supporting those suffering from substance disorders. Elerick hopes it will be an inclusive group, offering a space for anyone concerned about opioid issues—both legal and illicit—and their impact on the community. The larger Harm Reduction Coalition, founded in 1993, is now an international organization. Last month, Elerick and other locals met with representatives from Oakland who showed them the steps to launching the Santa Cruz chapter. Elerick, a dental hygienist, says that harm reduction is not a new concept, and that the group is “not trying to reinvent the wheel.”
City and county health officials attended the announcement, which was held during National Public Health Week, as did state Assemblymember Mark Stone and County Supervisor John Leopold.
“Too often we try to solve a complex problem with a simple solution,” Stone told audiences. “A Harm Reduction Coalition and a multi-jurisdictional approach is the right way to educate the community.”
Some elements of harm reduction best practices have seen their share of opposition. A few years ago, needle exchange practices came under fire from public safety activists, largely out of a concern that they create an environment where syringes end up strewn about. Many called for either abolishing the practice or the creation of a strict one-for-one exchange, where intravenous drug users get only as many needles as they give back, instead of the “needs-based” model that’s in place in counties like San Francisco and Los Angeles. But studies have shown that neither model results in more hazardous waste or drug use than the other.
“In fact, the California Department of Public Health is no longer issuing permits for programs that are not needs-based,” Elerick says. “They do not advocate or support one-for-one exchange.”
Elerick remembers Austin, Indiana making headlines in 2015, while under the leadership of then-Gov. Mike Pence, who opposed needle exchanges. With a population of 5,000—just slightly larger than Felton—an HIV outbreak among intravenous drug users left more than 200 people infected with the disease, and 95 percent of the infected also tested positive for Hepatitis C. After a long struggle with Pence, public health experts and state legislatures were able to convince him to lift the state’s ban on the program.
The data supports the trend too. A recent study by the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) found that the number of people who shared syringes has dropped 52 percent since the exchange was implemented. The study also found proper disposal of used syringes went from 18 percent to 82 percent.
But the debate over drug-use services isn’t over. Last year, many residents were shocked to learn that Santa Cruz County had been placed on a list of eight counties marked for possible “safe injection sites.” These are supervised facilities where users can have access to a clean facility to inject with clean materials, minimizing the spread of disease and personal damage. It’s a practice found throughout Europe and one that was instrumental in drastically reducing heroin use and harm in Portugal, once a capital in Europe’s drug consumption.
Authored by Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman of Fresno and Senator Scott Weiner from San Francisco, AB 186 stated that the program was completely voluntary, not mandatory, but it, too, ignited local concern over public safety, prompting the county’s removal from the bill.
Assemblymember Stone—who voted for the bill, which failed to pass the senate—is hopeful it will be revised and reintroduced.
“The messaging from the backlash was very one-way,” he tells GT. He believes Santa Cruz should take another look at safe injection sites, possibly once more data has been collected. “I think having a broader conversation about the complexities of the issue is what the Harm Reduction Coalition is all about. Looking at real solutions.”
The Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County’s next meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 19 in the Capitola City Hall community room and is open to the public.
Like many of us, artist Victor Cartagena has a favorite internet meme.
It’s a two-picture panel; in the top photo, a white family sits at the dinner table, their eyes closed in prayer. The caption reads, “Thanks, Jesus, for this food.” In the bottom photo, a Latino man in a hoodie is standing in a strawberry field, holding a flat of berries. His caption? “De nada.”
Cartagena’s new exhibit at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz, titled “We Feed You,” takes on the same theme in a more expansive—if less Reddit-friendly—way. The new show attempts to address some of the uncomfortable truths about our agricultural industry in often provocative, even satirical ways.
For example, in the center of the MAH’s third-floor gallery is a handsomely appointed dinner table that the San Francisco-based artist has titled “La Santa Cena (The Last Supper).” On the table, glowing yellow in condiment bottles, are samples of sulphur, which is so ubiquitous as a pesticide in the fields that it often ends up in the food (as well as on the clothes and the bodies) of the migrant workers at the end of a long day. “The people picking your food can’t even enjoy their own food,” says Cartagena.
“We Feed You” is largely the same show that Cartagena brought to the San Jose Museum of Art in 2017. That show was tailored to the exhibition space in San Jose, and the new show is similarly designed to fit into the MAH. An 80-foot-long mural of charcoal sketches, for example, has been cut and pasted into an entirely different context in Santa Cruz. The sketches feature an unsettling collection of figure studies mixing human and donkey characteristics to form a satire of bureaucracy called, in a Spanish-flavored pun, the “Burrocracia.” More haunting (but no less punny) is an enormous cascade of tea bags, each containing a photo of a migrant worker, titled “Labor Tea.”
“The connection is they use you, they suck all the good out of you, and when there’s no more to get from you, they throw you away,” says Cartagena.
A native of El Salvador, Cartagena came to California as a young man during the Salvadoran civil war in the mid-1980s. His work has never shied away from the political, but he had never addressed the policies of the U.S. food production system until this show.
“I never quite understood what the campesinos were going through until this project,” says Cartagena. “It’s one of those things that I never experienced for myself. Even if you hear stories about how life is for the campesinos in the field, you don’t really pay attention to it.”
His muse in the “We Feed You” project was a 102-year-old Salinas man who stood alongside Cesar Chavez in the United Food Workers movement, Maurilio Maravilla. Maravilla not only embodies many of the workers’ rights issues that Cartagena illustrates in the show, he’s also the direct subject for the show’s most visceral component. Inspired by Maravilla’s stories of sucking on sugar cane to maintain energy for a long day’s work, “Sugar Face” features a dozen casts of Maravilla’s face, each made of sugar. The masks are designed to decay and melt over the course of the four-month show.
“They start to disintegrate pretty quickly,” says the artist. “Each one is made a little differently, so one will decay faster than another. And eventually, they’ll all disappear.”
One of the show’s biggest challenges, says Cartagena, was casting a life mask on a 102-year-old man, who had to sit still with his face in plaster for 20 minutes. “I was afraid he was going to fall asleep or something. We recorded the whole thing, and at the end, we asked him what was the most difficult thing about it, and he said, ‘You kept asking me if I was OK. I’ve been through so much in my life. This is nothing.’”
‘We Feed You: Works by Victor Cartagena’ runs through July 22 at the Museum of Art & History, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. santacruzmah.org.
Molly Rankin, the guitarist and lead singer for Canada’s breakout dream-pop band Alvvays doesn’t mind that the group’s most beloved single, “Archie, Marry Me” has been so thoroughly misunderstood.
Most fans and critics, including me, hear a song that embraces domestic life in the face of youth and rebellion—or at least hear the singer pleading with a lover who expressed “contempt for matrimony” to give marriage a shot. The music’s wispy, distorted ’90s indie-pop sound fits this interpretation.
But in fact, its intended meaning was the exact opposite. The earworm chorus: “Hey, hey, marry me, Archie” was written ironically.
“I was at an age of seeing some of our friends leaping into cubicles and marriage, and I was afraid of that. I value being in the moment, staying up late and enjoying my youth. It was never about a plea to be wed,” Rankin says. “I kind of like the other life it’s taken on. I’m happy that people gleaned different things from it.”
The video for “Archie, Marry Me,” which was released in 2014, is approaching 4 million views on YouTube. It’s the kind of poppy song that gets stuck in your head, but doesn’t wear out its welcome when it gets there. I’ve probably listened to it 50 times myself.
Despite its success, however, the band didn’t catch fire overnight. When Alvvays recorded the song, they weren’t even a band yet—it was a solo project for Rankin, with the other members “helping out.”
It was the producer that saw that there was something special about what they were doing. “When he had signed on for the project, he thought I was a singer-songwriter, and then when we showed up it was a lot more than that,” says Rankin. “He was like, ‘you guys should have told me you were a band.’ We took that advice.”
It took a while to find a label interested in releasing their debut album. One night, opening for Yuck in New York, they met some people from Polyvinyl Records who were interested.
It was another three years before they released a follow-up album, Antisocialites, which came out last September.
“The first record grew and kept growing. So we had to keep on playing shows due to that growth, which was a very gradual thing,” Rankin says.
It seems to me that the sound of the new record is a little less hazy and distortion-filled, and a little softer and morose than Alvvays’ debut—but Rankin disagrees.
“I feel like the second record is more distorted, and has a little bit more energy,” she says, although she doesn’t mind my interpretation. “That’s cool, because it’s a subjective thing.”
However you hear the album, the content is darker. She refers to it as a “fantasy breakup album,” a loose concept album documenting the various aspects related to a break up. The fantasy part is that it’s not based on her life.
“The record goes through a lot of the different stages: separation, self-preservation, and hitting one’s stride after the fact. It was fun to follow a little bit of that arc, because there were so many aspects to separation and being with somebody,” Rankin says. “I’m not very good at writing about my own life. I like lonely solitary characters. I typically read books that have that sort of premise.”
There are still catchy hooks that permeate every corner of these songs, and soften the melancholy vibe. Rankin writes not as personal catharsis, but rather as an opportunity to spin stories the way a novelist would.
“I’m very intrigued by space and tuning out and creating my own little planet,” she says. “With everything going on in the world right now, I think it’s also channeled a little bit of that escapism.”
Alvvays plays at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 11, at the Catalyst, 1011 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $20/adv, $25/door. 429-4135.
The fourth annual May Flower Festival and Feast on May 27 benefits the aromatic work of the College of Botanical Healing Arts, which is dedicated to research in plant-based medicine. This year’s festival happens up at the hummingbird-intensive UCSC Arboretum.
The culinary skills of the Teen Kitchen Project, working with chef Rebecca Mastoris, will create a vegetarian essential oil infused cuisine to stimulate the senses. In keeping with the intriguing gardens and flowering vistas of the never-better Arboretum, the event’s menu will offer a menu filled with edible flowers such as nasturtiums, borage, lavender, and pansies. It sounds like the sort of menu that would have pleased Shakespeare and other Elizabethan pleasure-seekers from long-ago gardens and far-away feasts. Eating a garden on a plate, while actually surrounded by a garden, makes a sort of surrealist magic, and also takes full advantage of the vivacious new developments up at UCSC’s surprising collection of rare plants. Mastoris, a wizard of vibrant menus featuring seasonal ingredients, regularly caters events at Live Earth Farms and is thinking along these lines. A main dish lasagna of stuffed Portobello mushrooms with preserved lemon will be joined by a side of garlicky kale with pine nuts, currants, lemon, and pickled onions. Dessert of lavender honey tea cakes will round out this late spring menu. The fourth annual Flower Festival unfolds on Sunday, May 27 from noon to 5 p.m., and the meal will be joined by live jazz and bossa nova classics by Trio Passarim. There will be demonstrations and a garden walk, plus the chance to savor an essential oil blending bar, as well as a silent auction. Guest speaker Karl Maret, M.D. is an expert on developments in the field of subtle energy medicine. This is a lot of sensory wisdom, experimentation, and enjoyment for $100 per person ticket. To purchase, go to cobha.org or call 462-1807.
Wine of the Week
Versatile to the max is the Altocedro Malbec 2016 currently sitting pretty on the Gabriella wine list ($30). We split a bottle at Easter dinner, and the deep crimson wine from the splendid province of Mendoza proved a sensitive partner to duck, lamb and fish. Yes, that’s what I said. Graced with enough tobacco, leather, and mystery spice to handle the red meats, this Malbec was restrained enough to allow the soft perfume of rock cod to expand. Give it a try at your next visit to Gabriella. I’m betting that whatever you order, this wine will do the trick.
Dessert of the Week
Strawberry Cheesecake, also at Gabriella. When you’re hot, you’re hot. The impact of absolutely perfect fresh strawberries topping a barely sweet, very light cheesecake sided with whipped cream, mint and candied hazelnuts, well, you can imagine. Tasting even better than it sounds, this Easter week dessert created by pastry chef Krista Pollack was itself miraculous. You know those times when you say to yourself, dammit, I’m an adult and I can skip the main course and just eat dessert? Well, for those times, there’s the pastry menu at Gabriella Cafe. Trust me.
Homeless Activism Soupline
Here’s a fundraiser we can all endorse. On Thursday, April 19, join the community enjoying a meal of specialty soups, salads, artisan breads and desserts created by more than 50 of our best restaurants. Local community leaders will be on hand to serve up these always unusual and delicious specialty soups. The supper runs from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Boardwalk’s Cocoanut Grove. Last year’s event helped to raise more than $80,000 to help those in need find safe and permanent homes. $20-$50.souplinesupper.org.
As rents go sky high, experts from around the county are looking to strengthen the foundations of the local housing market and make living here more affordable.
The newly launched Affordable Housing Santa Cruz County (AFSCC) campaign announced yesterday that they will be exploring public opinion on a possible $250 million bond measure for the November ballot.
AFSCC will hold five public meetings, one in each Santa Cruz County supervisorial district, to get community feedback. The tax would show up on the bill of Santa Cruz County property owners, although organizers haven’t yet determined what the rate will be.
“We are here today, and we are going to continue our work in the months to come, because there is a housing crisis in Santa Cruz, and it’s time to make a big move and find real solutions,” former Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane told a crowd of more than two dozen gathered in front of the Santa Cruz Courthouse for the announcement.
Lane said that housing costs exceed 50 percent of household income for more than a fifth of county residents, acknowledging that rates are much higher in some neighborhoods. A report out last month from Apartment List found that the cost of housing has risen 4 percent in the last year, with the average two-bedroom apartment going for $2,420.
Lane says the new measure would fund housing, particularly for lower-income renters—service and farm workers, teachers, veterans, the homeless and those with disabilities. “Families are being forced to spend less on basic necessities like food and health care simply because they spend so much on housing,” he added.
Community Foundation Santa Cruz County CEO Susan True and Watsonville Councilmember Rebecca Garcia both presented and voiced their support for the potential measure.
If it passes, the measure will prioritize four major areas: affordable housing, first-time home buyers’ assistance, facilities to address homelessness and the preservation of existing affordable housing sites.
But before it can get on the ballot, the bond measure will appear before the Board of Supervisors in June, where it would need support from four out of five supervisors to pass. After that, it would need a two-thirds majority from county voters—hence the need for a broad base of support with the community.
“Most important, today we are proposing that people from Santa Cruz County participate with us in refining and changing the details of this proposal,” Lane says. “We want and need more community input and participation so that we get it just right.”
For more information, visit affordablehousingscc.org. The dates for the public meetings will be:
5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, April 11. Twin Lakes Church, 2701 Cabrillo College Drive, Aptos.
7-8:30 p.m.Tuesday, April 17. Simpkins Family Swim Center, 979 17 Ave., Santa Cruz.
5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, April 19. Watsonville Civic Plaza Community Room, 275 Main St., Fourth Floor, Watsonville.
5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, April 26, Santa Cruz Police Community Room, 155 Center St., Santa Cruz.
5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, May 2. Felton Community Hall. 6191 Hwy 9. Felton.
Organic farming and food wasn’t always mainstream, and the documentary 
Joan Lowden a.k.a. “Bass Lady” is a woman of many facets. She is an encaustic artist, meaning that she works with wax and pigment to create visual art, and she is also a jazz bass musician—hence the nickname. She says jazz and encaustics go together because they are both improvisational; not surprisingly, her shows aren’t limited to just one of her artistic mediums. This show series will feature weekly themed music events, with local musicians alongside her encaustic visual art. Lowden will be playing with her jazz trio ‘Jazz With a Twist’ during the reception, to the beat of some twisted cocktails. 
Everyone knows the story of Cinderella, so Aptos High School has a bit of a twist to keep things interesting. The musical production will be ’80s themed, with some seriously big hair and totally tubular
Spring is here, and for some that means a wardrobe refresher. But before you go to a department store or online, consider shopping for a cause. “Step Into Fashion” will feature more than 40 Bay Area designers selling affordable clothing, handbags, accessories, jewelry and more. Plus, a portion of all proceeds will go to Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s cancer prevention and care programs. To date, the event has raised more than $227,000 for cancer-related programs in Santa Cruz County. For fashion-forward questions, local television personality and fashion producer Joyce Anderson will talk about accessorizing, and Image Consultant Alyce Parsons will discuss incorporating the latest trends into your wardrobe. 
