I was 15 the first time I tried European hot chocolate, in a small café tucked away off the Plaza Mayor in Madrid. From the first sip, that tiny, decadent cup changed what I thought chocolate could be. Now, Cacoco Drinking Chocolate has opened my mind again.
A 4-ounce cup of their spicy, dark Fire Walker chocolate has become my favorite afternoon pick-me-up. Naturally rich, creamy, and deeply satisfying, it also contains the undetectable additions of reishi mushroom and rhodiola root, both said to promote health and vitality—making Cacoco much more nourishing than the bar of chocolate I keep in my desk. All it needs is hot water and a good shake in a Mason jar.
By blending their minimally processed cacao with organic superfood herbs and spices, like cardamon, turmeric and maca, Cacoco moves away from confection and into the food-as-medicine realm, without sacrificing flavor or texture. Each cup is a beautiful molten delight. Cacoco also doesn’t contain any dairy, is made with a small amount of low-glycemic coconut sugar, is organic and non-GMO, gluten-free, paleo and vegan. People talk about guilt-free chocolate, but this is the real deal.
Co-owners Liam Blackmon, Tony Portugal and Erik Koon, who process and blend their cacao at a local kitchen facility, tell me that they set out “to make chocolate that makes you feel good.” “We want to bring the history and tradition of this rich, vital food into a contemporary setting,” says Portugal.
Their attention to detail extends beyond the quality of their chocolate. All avid outdoorsmen, Portugal, Blackmon and Koon apply the “leave no trace” philosophy to every aspect of their product. They visit the farms where their cacao is sourced to survey environmental factors, and their beautiful, Mayan temple-inspired packaging is made from compostable materials without adhesive—so when you’ve poured your last cup you can throw the whole thing, including the bag, into the compost.
Cacoco is launching a Kickstarter campaign on Nov. 14 to help fund the next round of packaging and to source more cacao. More info at drinkcacoco.com. Available at local natural food stores and farmers markets.
At a get-together with my Wild Wine Women group at the start of fall, we had lunch at Hunter Hill Vineyard at the invitation of Christine Slatter, co-owner of the winery with her husband Vann. It was a last hurrah for Christine as she and Vann decided some time ago to sell the winery—lock, stock and barrel.
Our chef that day was the talented Anthony Kresge, who is back in town to operate Sotola Bar & Grill in Capitola—formerly the Stockton Bridge Grille. Not only did Kresge prepare some outstanding food for us, we also had some marvelous Hunter Hill wines with every course, including Hunter Hill’s lush Estate Syrah 2013. Paired with chicken from Fogline Farms, it was a perfect match with Kresge’s culinary expertise. This estate Syrah is grown on the highest elevation of the vineyard and really shows Vann Slatter’s skills as a winemaker. We will sorely miss his Syrah—not to mention his Merlot, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay. Since the Slatters are pulling out of the business, most of these wines are for sale by the case at a huge discount on the website store. A case of the Syrah is $200. Check online for more info.
If you love a delicious mouthful of albacore, then this event is for you. The Castroville Rotary Club and the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project is putting on its 39th annual Albacore Feed starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12. There will be door prizes, a silent auction and project demonstrations. The event will be held at the Recreation Center, 11621 Crane St., Castroville. Tickets are available at the door and cost $20 (kids 12 and under $10).
Santa Cruz Wine Walk
Taste some terrific local wines as you stroll around downtown Santa Cruz for the fall Wine Walk. The event will be held rain or shine from 3-6 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 13. Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 on the day of (if not sold out). Check in is at Plaza Lane where you will be given a map of tasting locations. More info can be found at downtownsantacruz.com.
Humans are inherently communal creatures, healthiest when we have strong social support. A 2010 review published in the journal PLOS Medicine found that across 148 studies of 308,849 participants, those with strong social relationships had a 50 percent increased likelihood of survival—on par with quitting smoking and even exceeding other well-known risk factors like obesity.
In addition to receiving social support, providing it can also have a positive impact on health. A 2003 study published in Psychological Science found that mortality was significantly reduced in those who reported providing support to their spouses, friends, relatives, and neighbors. Support groups for people dealing with chronic diseases like cancer are one context where both sides of the social support benefits are realized—and a 2009 systematic review published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research found “sufficiently strong” evidence for the relationship between social support and breast cancer recovery.But sometimes one person’s story can be more moving than the results of a thousand studies. Such is the story of Santa Cruz’s Rebecca Hall Dickson, who was first diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer at the age of 25, and spent all of 2011 in treatment.
“My first diagnosis was extremely isolating,” she says. She remembers having difficulty connecting with others in her same situation. The turning point came when an organization called First Descents set her up on a week-long kayak trip with other young cancer survivors.
“It was an amazing experience for me to be around other young survivors. They felt the fear, the anxiety, and the pain because they had been through it,” she says. Dickson said this group support meant a lot to her and her battle against the disease. “First and foremost it relieved the social isolation which often accompanies cancer,” she says. “Getting through it with the help of a group is a night-and-day difference versus not having that group support.”
Getting a cancer diagnosis is like having to learn a new language, Dickson says, and group support can help someone navigate all of the different treatments, medications, and side effects. It was during treatment that Dickson really fell in love with yoga, which was one of the only physical activities she could do at the time.
“It helped me a lot mentally and gave me a lot of peace,” she recalls. After treatment, her cancer went into remission, but in 2014 it recurred and metastasized. Not even 30 years old, Dickson was now diagnosed with the most severe stage 4 breast cancer, considered incurable and requiring treatment for the rest of her life. “My second diagnosis really shook me up,” Dickson says, “but it reinforced how much I wanted to teach yoga and help other patients and survivors, because I know how much it helped me.”
Instead of letting her second diagnosis break her, Dickson defied it, and altered her life path to help others. She combined her love of yoga, nature, and group support by starting her own business, Santa Cruz Nature Yoga, which places an emphasis on the rejuvenating benefits of practicing yoga outside. She now offers one free group class per month and one free private session per client through WomenCARE, a local nonprofit that provides support to cancer patients.
Currently, Dickson says her health is good and she’s responding well to treatment. “Given that I’m stage 4, I’m doing extremely well,” she says, adding that even though stage 4 is the one that actually kills, it is also the one often neglected in terms of resources, education, and research funding.
Looking to the future, Dickson is encouraged by the growing cancer support community, especially for younger survivors. In addition to WomenCARE and First Descents, Dickson’s friend April Stearns, another young breast cancer survivor from Santa Cruz, founded Wildfire Magazine (wildfirecommunity.org), a digital publication tailored specifically to young breast cancer patients and survivors.
Dickson notes that social media is also a great source of group support. “I’ve turned more recently to social media, because my situation is so rare for my age,” she says. “It helps me not feel alone and gives me hope. In-person support is best, but the power of social media allows a worldwide sense of community. It is amazing to feel connected to hundreds of others in my same situation.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Now and then you display an excessive egotism that pushes people away. But during the next six weeks you will have an excellent chance to shed some of that tendency, even as you build more of the healthy pride that attracts help and support. So be alert for a steady flow of intuitions that will instruct you on how to elude overconfidence and instead cultivate more of the warm, radiant charisma that is your birthright. You came here to planet Earth not just to show off your bright beauty, but also to wield it as a source of inspiration and motivation for those whose lives you touch.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else,” said inventor Buckminster Fuller. I don’t fully endorse that perspective. For example, when I said goodbye to North Carolina with the intention to make Northern California my new home, Northern California is exactly where I ended up and stayed. Having said that, however, I suspect that the coming months could be one of those times when Fuller’s formula applies to you. Your ultimate destination may turn out to be different from your original plan. But here’s the tricky part: If you do want to eventually be led to the situation that’s right for you, you have to be specific about setting a goal that seems right for now.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If you were an obscenely rich plutocrat, you might have a pool table on your super yacht. And to ensure that you and your buddies could play pool even in a storm that rocked your boat, you would have a special gyroscopic instrument installed to keep your pool table steady and stable. But I doubt you have such luxury at your disposal. You’re just not that wealthy or decadent. You could have something even better, however: metaphorical gyroscopes that will keep you steady and stable as you navigate your way through unusual weather. Do you know what I’m referring to? If not, meditate on the three people or influences that might best help you stay grounded. Then make sure you snuggle up close to those people and influences during the next two weeks.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): The coming weeks will be a good time to fill your bed with rose petals and sleep with their aroma caressing your dreams. You should also consider the following acts of intimate revolution: listening to sexy spiritual flute music while carrying on scintillating conversations with interesting allies . . . sharing gourmet meals in which you and your sensual companions use your fingers to slowly devour your delectable food . . . dancing naked in semi-darkness as you imagine your happiest possible future. Do you catch my drift, Cancerian? You’re due for a series of appointments with savvy bliss and wild splendor.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “I have always wanted . . . my mouth full of strange sunlight,” writes Leo poet Michael Dickman in his poem “My Honeybee.” In another piece, while describing an outdoor scene from childhood, he innocently asks, “What kind of light is that?” Elsewhere he confesses, “What I want more than anything is to get down on paper what the shining looks like.” In accordance with the astrological omens, Leo, I suggest you follow Dickman’s lead in the coming weeks. You will receive soulful teachings if you pay special attention to both the qualities of the light you see with your eyes and the inner light that wells up in your heart.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The Passage du Gois is a 2.8-mile causeway that runs between the western French town of Beauvoir-sur-Mer and the island of Noirmoutier in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s only usable twice a day when the tide goes out, and even then for just an hour or two. The rest of the time it’s under water. If you hope to walk or bike or drive across, you must accommodate yourself to nature’s rhythms. I suspect there’s a metaphorically similar phenomenon in your life, Virgo. To get to where you want to go next, you can’t necessarily travel exactly when you feel like it. The path will be open and available for brief periods. But it will be open and available.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Modern toilet paper appeared in 1901, when a company in Green Bay, Wisconsin began to market “sanitary tissue” to the public. The product had a small problem, however. Since the manufacturing process wasn’t perfect, wood chips sometimes remained embedded in the paper. It was not until 1934 that the product was offered as officially “splinter-free.” I mention this, Libra, because I suspect that you are not yet in the splinter-free phase of the promising possibility you’re working on. Keep at it. Hold steady. Eventually you’ll purge the glitches.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Don’t be someone that searches, finds, and then runs away,” advises novelist Paulo Coelho. I’m tempted to add this caveat: “Don’t be someone that searches, finds, and then runs away—unless you really do need to run away for a while to get better prepared for the reward you have summoned . . . and then return to fully embrace it.” After studying the astrological omens, Scorpio, I’m guessing you can benefit from hearing this information.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Go ahead and howl a celebratory “goodbye!” to any triviality that has distracted you from your worthy goals, to any mean little ghost that has shadowed your good intentions, and to any faded fantasy that has clogged up the flow of your psychic energy. I also recommend that you whisper “welcome!” to open secrets that have somehow remained hidden from you, to simple lessons you haven’t been simple enough to learn before now, and to breathtaking escapes you have only recently earned. P.S.: You are authorized to refer to the coming weeks as a watershed.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Musician and visual artist Brian Eno loves to dream up innovative products. In 2006, he published a DVD called 77 Million Paintings, which uses technological trickery to generate 77 million different series of images. To watch the entire thing would take 9,000 years. In my opinion, it’s an interesting but gimmicky novelty—not particularly deep or meaningful. During the next nine months, Capricorn, I suggest that you attempt a far more impressive feat: a richly complex creation that will provide you with growth-inducing value for years to come.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Do you know about the Lords of Shouting? According to Christian and Jewish mythology, they’re a gang of 15.5 million angels that greet each day with vigorous songs of praise and blessing. Most people are too preoccupied with their own mind chatter to pay attention to them, let alone hear their melodious offerings. But I suspect you may be an exception to that rule in the coming weeks. According to my reading of the astrological omens, you’ll be exceptionally alert for and receptive to glad tidings. You may be able to spot opportunities that others are blind to, including the chants of the Lords of Shouting and many other potential blessings. Take advantage of your aptitude!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Greenland sharks live a long time—up to 400 years, according to researchers at the University of Copenhagen. The females of the species don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re 150. I wouldn’t normally compare you Pisceans to these creatures, but my reading of the astrological omens suggests that the coming months will be a time when at long last you will reach your full sexual ripeness. It’s true that you’ve been capable of generating new human beings for quite some time. But your erotic wisdom has lagged behind. Now that’s going to change. Your ability to harness your libidinous power will soon start to increase. As it does, you’ll gain new access to primal creativity.
Homework: Compare the person you are now with who you were two years ago. Make a list of three important differences. Testify at freewillastrology.com.
Driving from Northern California to Southern California for a short vacation in July, it seemed like the entire state was on fire. The Soberanes blaze that started north of Big Sur burned more than 100,000 acres, and the Sand fire that had just started north of Los Angeles—and would go on to burn nearly 50,000 acres—had us fleeing Interstate 5 for the windy cliff roads above Santa Clarita. Skies were dark from the smoke along parts of the freeway.
I’ve had plenty of experience with wildfires in California—including watching a 10-foot wall of flames come over the top of the hill behind my family’s home on the Central Coast as a kid—but the sheer scope of what happened this summer was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
I heard and read a lot of people blaming it all on the drought in a very unspecific, unscientific way, as if it was enough to say that less rain equals more fire. Personally, I wanted to understand the real reasons—why exactly has the drought made our fire seasons so much worse—and now that I’ve read Kara Guzman’s cover story this week, I do. I hope that you’ll read it, as well, as it’s the single best story I’ve read on the new reality we’re facing with wildfires both here in Santa Cruz County and around the state.
The campaign to pass Measure D reports raising more than $380,000. As far as I know, that’s a historic high for spending on a Santa Cruz County ballot measure. Ninety-eight percent of these funds come from contributions of $1,000 or more.
Nearly a quarter of Measure D funds would go to widen Highway 1 for auxiliary lanes. So it makes sense that half of Yes on D funds come from construction interests. Topping the list of contributors is the “California Alliance for Jobs,” which describes itself as representing “more than 2,000 heavy construction companies.”
I was flabbergasted to read the Yes on D mailer make the claim that “This is not about widening Highway 1.” The mailer also claims that auxiliary lanes on Highway 1 will reduce congestion. But Big Money can’t change last year’s Caltrans report that any congestion relief would be “very slight.” See WideningWontWork.org for details.
Rick Longinotti | CAMPAIGN FOR SENSIBLE TRANSPORTATION
Measure D Boosts Vital Services
As the Board of Directors of Community Bridges, we are imploring you to vote “yes” on Measure D.
Why? It is the bridge that helps provide the vital transit services for our seniors and people with disabilities. Transportation services like “Lift Line,” one of the many life-sustaining programs under Community Bridges, will be able to continue and expand the vital services that currently ensure more than 80,000 paratransit medical door-to-door rides annually free of charge. Your half-penny increase will go toward not only improving our local roads and light rail system, but also enabling increased transportation services for our populations of seniors, people with disabilities, and our infirmed—without which many of them would miss life-saving medical appointments or remain homebound, feeling desperate in their isolation. Your support for Measure D will generate about $500 million over the next 30 years; it will alleviate our congested roadways; it will invest in the public process to determine if rail service is a good fit for our community; and most importantly, it will expand transportation for the elderly and the disabled. So what can half of a penny do? It will save lives and it will buy personal dignity and life-saving independence for our mothers, our brothers and our neighbors.
There does exist a segment of our community that opposes any type of increase. As board members, we know it is our obligation to extend our hands to help serve those most in need and we seek to reach out to those community members who will simply oppose because it’s an increase with the following plea: We know what can be done. We know what should be done. It is up to each and every one of us to do it.
Please join our board by voting “yes” on Measure D in November!
Linda Fawcett | BOARD OF Directors, Community Bridges
Reasons for D
I want to live in a way that honors the oneness that connects people, the planet and our fellow species. To achieve this, we need to shift how we live and work. We as individuals have incredible power to create such change. That is why I’m excited to support Measure D, the greenest transportation measure on the California ballot this year. More than 30 percent of Santa Cruz residents do not drive; Measure D will prevent cuts to Metro bus service and expand Lift Line services that keep seniors connected with family, grocery and medical services. Mountain lions and other wildlife need a safe way across Highway 17, which Measure D will fund. And, last but not least, more than 60 percent of Measure D funds will go to bicycle, pedestrian and other sustainable transportation projects, which will empower each of us to make safer, healthier and (honestly) more fun choices for ourselves and the planet.
Kirsten Liske | Live Oak
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
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GOOD IDEA
SOCIAL SERVICE
As locals grapple with how to address homelessness, the Calvary Episcopal Church will host a discussion on the subject. The red church on Center Street downtown has long been known for supporting the homeless, whether with food distribution or a warm place to sleep on frigid nights. The chat at the church’s Parish Hall from to 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12 will include a short video and stories from former homeless people. Space is limited.
GOOD WORK
PARTY POOPERS
From our Working On It, But Not Quite There Department: Cowell Beach topped Heal the Bay’s list of dirty California Beach Bummers once again, but this year bacteria was 50 percent lower than last year, city and environmental leaders have announced. They attribute the drop to efforts from the Seaside Company and the City of Santa Cruz to cut back on waste and reduce the amount of bird poop entering the water.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I’d rather fight 100 structure fires than a wildfire. With a structure fire you know where your flames are, but in the woods it can move anywhere; it can come right up behind you.â€
On the afternoon of Sept. 26, Santa Cruz County residents watched in horror as a thin smoke plume at the Summit became an ominous mushroom cloud that was visible for miles.
For two weeks, the Santa Cruz Mountain peak looked like an erupting volcano as the Loma fire burned 4,474 acres and destroyed 12 homes and 16 other buildings. Hundreds were evacuated.
At its height, more than 2,000 personnel battled the fire day and night, from the air and on land. The Loma fire was contained on Oct. 10, but firefighters are still at the scene, finishing repairs. Not including damages, more than $17 million has been spent so far to control it, according to Cal Fire staff.
In fact, much of California was ablaze this summer. In August, the Blue Cut fire near Los Angeles burned more than 36,000 acres. The Soberanes fire in Big Sur, which began July 22, burned for nearly three months, consuming 132,127 acres. Last month, the state had 43 wildfires. And yet, fire season is just beginning—in the Santa Cruz Mountains, fall brings prime conditions for wildfires—parched vegetation, less fog and dry north winds.
It’s not just the number of wildfires that’s startling, but also their intensity. Wildfires now burn twice as many acres as they did 30 years ago, and scientists expect that figure to double again in the next 30 years. Fire seasons are also three months longer than they were in the 1970s, according to a 2015 U.S. Forest Service report. As California’s wildfires grow bigger and hotter, this summer’s explosive blazes may be a sign of what’s to come.
THE NEW NORMAL
SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT The Sand fire on July 22. The blaze engulfed thousands of acres near Santa Clarita in Southern California. PHOTO: PEIEQ/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
The two largest fires ever recorded on the Central Coast both happened in the last decade. One of them, the Zaca fire near Santa Barbara in 2007, was particularly intense, burning all vegetation to the ground and leaving nothing over roughly 170,000 acres, says Chris Potter, a research scientist at NASA who studies wildfires and the Santa Cruz Mountain forests.
“So if that’s an indicator or representative of what’s to come for the kind of fires we’re going to have in the future, they’re going to be difficult to control, burning larger areas, in really remote kinds of terrain that makes it very difficult for firefighters,” Potter says.
All the research points to a single overwhelming factor behind the frequency and size of California’s wildfires, says Potter: air temperature. Hot days often come with low humidity and wind, which makes flames burn hotter and faster. And only a few hot, dry days are needed to prime an ignition.
“It’s just perfect for spreading fire. Hot, and then a little bit of wind, and you’ve got yourself a huge problem,” Potter says.
Climate change from fossil fuels and the buildup of greenhouse gases is making wildfires more dangerous, he says. The warming trend has already increased the frequency of fires on the Central Coast. Huge wildfires like the Soberanes fire used to occur every 25 to 30 years. Now they come once a decade.
“Because we’ve changed the climate here, that’s our new normal. That’s what you have to expect, and what you have to prepare for,” Potter says. “Not only will they be bigger than ever, but they’ll burn hotter, with more severity. So it will be hard to save structures that are within their pathway. We’re already spending $1 billion per year to control fire in the state. So the more you can do to not stay in the way and not build in remote places, the better off we’ll be in protecting what we have in the mountains.”
CHANGING SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAIN FORESTS
Hot, dry days prime the ignition, but it’s vegetation that fuels wildfires. And over the past century, the plant communities of the Santa Cruz Mountains have seen drastic change.
If left unchecked, Santa Cruz Mountains grassland turns to shrubland, then to increasingly thick forest. Wildfires and grazing animals, and later, people, have kept the balance for most of the mountains’ history. First came the mastodons and mammoths—giant tusked beasts—which ate grass and leaves. Then for thousands of years, Native Americans managed the land with prescribed burns. In the 1800s, the timber and farming industries began thinning the forests, also with prescribed burns.
So historically, when wildfires started, as is natural for this region, they mostly burned a small area and died on their own, since they had relatively little fuel.
But since the 1900s, the Santa Cruz Mountains have been mostly unmanaged for the first time in history, creating a different, thicker forest, says David Van Lennep, a local forester for the Redwood Empire lumber company. Not only have prescribed burns become rare, but any wildfire that pops up is immediately suppressed.
“There’s more flammable material in the mountains now than there has been in past years. The fires that we’ve seen starting in 2008 in the Santa Cruz Mountains are kind of a new phenomenon,” Van Lennep says.
All the research points to a single overwhelming factor behind the frequency and size of California’s wildfires: air temperature.
The Summit fire near Corralitos in 2008 was the last significant wildfire in the region, scorching 4,270 acres. It burned some dense areas that hadn’t seen fire in almost a century. Roughly 40 percent of the Santa Cruz Mountains is public land that is mostly unmanaged, said Van Lennep.
Tim Hyland, senior environmental scientist for the Santa Cruz district of California State Parks, says prescribed burns occur in less than 1 percent of the 65,000 acres of state land in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.
Prescribed burns are difficult in the Santa Cruz Mountains. For one, the Clean Air Act limits the amount of smoke that can be produced. Also, as more people move into the mountains, there’s a smaller area that can be burned safely, Hyland says.
A DISRUPTED CYCLE
Natural wildfires and prescribed burns used to reset the landscape, creating patches where plants would clear then return, says Ed Orre, forester and division chief of Cal Fire’s Santa Clara unit.
That’s no longer the case. Fires are now extinguished as fast as possible.
“Because we’ve suppressed fire for so long, everything’s built up across the landscape, and now we have large expanses of heavy fuels and dry vegetation,” Orre says. “And so we’re not getting those smaller patch burns and maintaining that mosaic on the landscape. We’re getting bigger, larger fires. And when the weather is really hot and dry and the fire starts, it’s really difficult to catch.”
Orre started with Cal Fire in 2000, in the San Mateo-Santa Cruz unit. Within his first few years, he had already participated in eight of California’s top 20 most expensive and largest fires in history at the time, he says.
Orre said the Loma fire luckily had no significant wind, otherwise it would have grown much larger.
The Santa Cruz Mountains are being swallowed by invasive plants, many of which are flammable.
“It was a fuel-driven fire,” says Orre. “It was a very hot, dry day [when it started] and the fire was burning daytime and nighttime, very aggressively. We were very successful at keeping it from getting any bigger than it was, but it was a tough fire to put out, until the weather changed.”
The peak of the Santa Cruz Mountains fire season is only beginning, Orre says. Recent rains wet the grass, but were not enough to rehydrate the larger, thicker plants, which can still fuel fire, he says.
A NEW FOREST
Change how fires spread, and you change the plant community, says Hyland.
For example, the Santa Cruz Mountains are being swallowed by invasive plants, many of which are flammable. After the 2008 Summit fire, stinkwort and French broom took over places where they didn’t grow before. These invasive weeds specialize in spreading to newly burned places, and beat out the native species, says Hyland.
“They’re not good habitat for all the animal species. I like to refer to them as ‘empty calories’ in the ecosystem,” Hyland says. “They take up space, but they don’t contribute to the food pyramid.”
“So that’s really an issue. If we start seeing increased fires, which seems almost certain that we will and already are, then that puts us at risk for all these weeds to win out after the fires.”
The Santa Cruz Mountains are also overwhelmed by Douglas firs, says Hyland. These trees are flammable and historically have been controlled by wildfires. But because of fire suppression, Douglas firs are spreading at incredible rates, swamping out rare plant communities.
Forest managers are now removing Douglas firs and trying to preserve oaks, which are more fire resistant. The hope is that when fires become more frequent and intense, the forest will be more resilient, says Hyland.
Another problem facing forest managers is sudden oak death, which is widespread in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It’s a disease caused by a water mold, and has flared up in the last five years, says Shannon Lynch, a UCSC doctoral student studying tree disease. She says it’s unclear how many oak trees are affected, but sudden oak death is the primary disease affecting local forests.
Contrary to the name, “it’s not a sudden death,” says Lynch. “It takes an estimated five years for a tree to actually die. When it’s attacked, it’s just those last several months that the tree appears healthy, apart from some bleeding symptoms on the trunk. But within a couple of weeks, all of a sudden the canopy changes, but it’s been running its course for a number of years on the tree,” Lynch says.
As sudden oak death kills more trees, it creates more possible fuel for fires, says Orre.
He urges Santa Cruz Mountains residents to “harden their homes” to fire. Homes are usually damaged by falling embers, not racing flames, he says. Orre recommends that they also install fireproof roofs and siding, keep gutters clean, cover chimneys and vents with metal mesh, replace single-paned and large windows with stronger ones, equip garages with fire extinguishers, and post address signs so they’re clearly visible from the road. Residents should clear a perimeter around their houses, he says.
“If people are going to be living in the wildland or on the edge of the wildland, they need to be as prepared as they can for the eventuality of a fire coming through,” Orre says.
As it’s drawn up, a trail along the rail corridor will hug the Santa Cruz coastline, ribboning under eucalyptus groves and linking Davenport to South County.
“This is going to be something that draws people from around the country, from around the state, around the world,” says Amelia Conlen, transportation coordinator for the City of Santa Cruz and the outgoing executive director for the nonprofit Bike Santa Cruz County. “The end goal is to connect it up to the Monterey bike path, so that it’s completely encircling the Monterey Bay.”
The Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail—often called the Coastal Rail Trail or rail with trail—has been rolling ahead faster than many thought possible three years ago, when it got approval from the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC).
It’s also a hot item this election season.
Although the trail has not broken ground yet, about a third of the 32-mile trail has secured some funding, and about a quarter has been funded through construction. Conlen calls the fundraising achievements “incredible” so far. And a measure on this year’s ballot promises about $85 million more.
“If Measure D passes, then we’ll have a pot of construction money ready to go,” says Conlen, who has still been filling in one day a week at the nonprofit, while it searches for its next executive director.
Funding so far has been raised by advocacy groups like Friends of the Rail Trail, Bike Santa Cruz County and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County—all of which have thrown their support behind Measure D—and RTC staff helped secure additional federal funding for a trail that some environmentalists think could be a keystone for the area.
“You go to so many places in California or in Colorado or even on the East Coast, and they have these bike features on the rivers or the rail line,” says Piet Canin, vice president of transportation for Ecology Action and a board member for Friends of the Rail Trail, both of which have endorsed Measure D.
The $500 million in the hotly contested Measure D, which is on the Nov. 8 ballot, would come from a half-cent sales tax. The tax would replace a quarter-cent sales tax, amounting to a 25 percent increase over current levels. The text of the measure divides the money into five projects, the biggest being “neighborhood projects” with about $135 million going to local road improvements and bike lanes and $15 million more split between improvements in the San Lorenzo Valley and a wildlife crossing over Highway 17.
Measure D promises 25 percent, or about $125 million, of the money for highway improvements, the most controversial part of the measure. Some of that would pay for bicycle and pedestrian bridges over Highway 1, but most of it would fund auxiliary lanes, which would run from onramp to off-ramp from Santa Cruz south to State Park Drive.
Activist Rick Longinotti notes that a CalTrans environmental analysis of highway widening found that there would be negligible improvement in traffic reduction, despite the fact that the document was looking at a more comprehensive approach than what the measure would fund. The impact from Measure D, he argues, would be even smaller.
“Auxiliary lanes do a real disservice to the people in Aptos because it’s not going to do the job that’s promised to reduce congestion,” Longinotti says.
The rest of the money is slated for buses, Lift Line services, the rail trail, and an analysis of options for the rail corridor, including a look at possible passenger services.
Getting a Handle
Mindy White, a doctor working in internal medicine in Capitola, loves taking short bike rides around town with her daughters, ages 6 and 9.
“We do a lot of biking, and I love the idea of a trail. I think making it easier and safer for people to bike with more bike lanes, better marked—I think that’s super important,” says White, a Measure D supporter who says that she and her husband Boone love to take their daughters cycling down the Arana Gulch Multi-Use Trail, which opened last year. “It makes biking much less nerve-racking. And then, I do support the highway widening. I support the auxiliary lanes. I think they have done something. Traffic is at a crisis point. And if we don’t do something about traffic, people will just cut through neighborhoods.”
Although she generally tries hard to avoid rush hour traffic, White, who lives in Seabright, says the auxiliary lanes from Ocean Street to Soquel Avenue have already sped up traffic, and she hopes extending them would help even more. Still, she hasn’t been able to convince everyone in her house that the measure would change streets any noticeable amount. Her husband Boone calls the whole plan a scattered “shotgun approach” that won’t make a difference in any one area.
IN ROADS Boon and Mindy White, who love to go cycling with their two daughters, can’t agree on whether a sales tax measure would improve traffic. PHOTO: KEANA PARKER
With the amount of growth county and city leaders expect, he says, the new merge lanes would clog up with as much traffic as ever in no time.
“It’s just putting a Band-Aid on a problem that’s probably not going to be helped by a Band-Aid. It’s not going to accommodate those people,” says Boone, a lawyer who bikes into work on Ocean Street everyday.
He isn’t exactly sure how he’d like to fix congestion, but it would probably involve a bigger investment in public transportation, he says.
Longinotti—the leading activist who convinced the city to put a desalination plant on hold—hopes that if he and others can now block highway widening, it will force government leaders to re-think how to approach transportation.
RTC officials say that a balanced measure with something for everyone has the best shot at passing. But activists would like to see something come back without the highway in it and with more funding for METRO buses, which recently scaled back service and isn’t sure how much they could restore under Measure D.
It would mean at least two years of deeper cuts to METRO, a gamble Longinotti’s willing to take if it might mean a more robust system in a few years.
It’s anyone’s guess when the next vote would be. The last time a transportation measure was on the ballot was 12 years ago, when voters defeated a more lopsided measure aiming to spend $360 million on highway widening. Since then, experts, politicians and pollsters spent years weighing in on how to create a measure with more balance.
Meanwhile, the county’s roads are falling apart quickly, with the county’s newly released pavement condition index ranked 50th out of 58 counties. And according to a chart from the county’s public works, the cost of major road rehabilitation once a road has begun deteriorating can run five to eight times more expensive than more routine restoration.
D and Health
Stephen Gray, the chief administrative officer at Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center of Santa Cruz, says he has decided to support Measure D partly because of traffic congestion, and partly because of the problem traffic congestion can cause for doctors and patients in an emergency.
“My doctors don’t have sirens on their cars, so they can’t get through when they’ve been called. Certain specialty positions could be in an office seeing a patient, and then they need to get into a hospital if there’s an emergency. If it takes a lot of extra time because of traffic, that can be a real concern,” says Gray, who adds that any improvement in flow would also help ambulances get through more quickly as well.
He also hopes that more sidewalks and better bike lanes would keep locals safer. The new bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, he says, would also create a healthier, more active county.
Mindy White says she too wants to see the measure pass to make people’s lives a little healthier and a little happier.
“That’s my big thing. Quality of life. We just work so hard,” she says. “Everyone spends so much time working. If you have kids, there’s so little time for a social life. If you’re spending all that time in the car everyday, it’s a huge bummer, it’s a huge loss.”
After preparing her children for school early each morning, Juanita, a single mother of four, spends 10 hours picking strawberries in Watsonville for about $10 an hour.
“People don’t know the sacrifice it takes to bring that piece of fruit to your table,” she says, speaking through an interpreter at a friend’s house. “I’ve felt discriminated against and dismissed as a human being without feelings, as an animal in the mud, just because I don’t have papers.”
With an estimated 83 percent of the county’s farmworkers undocumented, Juanita says employees like herself don’t feel safe to speak up about poor working conditions and hazards like pesticide use.
“They spray pesticides in front and around us without any regard to the harms that come from it,” says Juanita, who asked not to use her real name. As the rain trickles behind the living room door of her friend’s home, she shares stories of coworkers vomiting and even fainting from the fumes.
But it isn’t just farmworkers facing the consequences of harmful pesticides—their children are also at risk. California’s Latino school children are 91 percent more likely than white children to attend school near the heaviest use of the most hazardous pesticides, and in Monterey County the number is 320 percent, according to a 2014 California Department of Public Health study.
“This situation is exactly like Flint, Michigan, only the agent is different and the population is all Latino. It’s environmental racism,” says Dr. Ann Lopez, an environmental scientist and executive director of the Center for Farmworker Families (CFF), based in Felton.
Concerns over pesticide applications expressed by groups like CFF led the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to propose a new regulation last month looking to give nearby schools an extra layer of protection.
The proposal would prohibit pesticide applications within a quarter mile of public K-12 schools and child day-care facilities from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and would require growers to send advance notification when pesticides are applied.
Leaders at organizations like the CFF and Californians for Pesticide Reform doubt that the regulation is truly protective, and have instead been calling for a one-mile buffer zone, and an end to pesticide applications on weekdays.
A study from UC Berkeley took a close look at farmworker families in Salinas and found hundreds of children with health effects linked to pesticides. The study found chlorpyrifos contamination, a potent neurotoxin, in homes up to 1.8 miles from treated fields. And a 2014 UC Davis study found that pregnant women who lived within one mile of fields on which pesticides like chlorpyrifos were used had a 60 percent increased risk of having children with autism spectrum disorder. A 2011 Environmental Health Perspectives report found elevated pesticide concentrations in homes 0.75 miles from the application sites.
Another study from five years ago published by Environmental Health Perspectives looked at 1,565 nonoccupational pesticide drift cases, the technical term for when the chemicals spread from a farm. Eighty-five percent of the cases, according to the report, occurred within one mile of the source, while 51 percent occurred between a quarter mile and one mile. This suggests, activists argue, that the quarter-mile buffer would have only protected a mere 34 percent of these people.
Eight of the 10 most heavily used pesticides near schools persist in the environment for more than a week, according to a 2014 California Environmental Health Tracking Program report.
“This stuff sits in the field and just waits for the next air current to be blown into schools or residences. Children are constantly being exposed,” says Lopez. She adds that children are more susceptible to the negative effects of pesticides like chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxin banned in 2001 by the Environmental Protection Agency for all residential use—but not agricultural use.
Last year, the DPR held a series of workshops around the state asking for input prior to drafting the regulation. Three were in the Monterey area, including in Salinas. The DPR has extended the deadline for public input to December of 2017, and it plans to host a workshop in Salinas this December. As of now, state pesticide regulators have rejected calls for a one-mile buffer zone.
“We considered the one-mile buffer zone and looked at what the activist groups had to show, and concluded that a quarter-mile is safe, and addressed their concerns,” says Charlotte Fadipe, assistant director of communications for the DPR.
Juan Hidalgo, Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner, agrees with the DPR that a quarter-mile buffer is sufficient. “This regulation actually does a lot, it goes beyond additional requirements we currently have,” he says. “It does a lot to prevent concerns from school teachers.”
Last month, he says, all local growers within a quarter-mile of schools verbally agreed to use fumigants on weekends only, after a meeting with teachers and parents. (Fumigants are a specific type of pesticide that are typically injected one foot into the soil and covered in a plastic tarp, however, the injected fumigant can still drift.) This year, there have only been five actions that have resulted in fines to growers for violations of pesticide use laws and regulations, says Hidalgo. “Growers here are quite proactive, most farms near schools try and do them outside of school hours or weekends,” he says.
Francisco Rodriguez, president of the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, joins Lopez and other activists in calling for the one-mile buffer. Their main concern, he says, is with two fumigants, chloropicrin and telone, both known toxins. He adds that within the past month, the union has been more proactive about directly notifying parents when there is a scheduled application.
There is just one DPR-funded air monitoring machine in his district, leaving most schools unable to tell parents exactly what their children are being exposed to.
“We’re concerned with longer term exposure and what that does to the development of the child,” he says. Union leaders, he adds, have supported legislation this year providing incentives to growers around schools that move toward safer, organic farming—namely California Senate Bill 1247, or “Agricultural Innovation Zones: Voluntary Incentive Program.” Introduced by state Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara, the bill died before reaching a vote, and there are no plans to bring it back to the table. Still, activists like Lopez continue to call for a shift away from pesticides.
“The ideal is the transformation of agriculture,” says Lopez. “It’s completely unsustainable to allow the release of any of the toxic chemicals into the environment.”
If you do a google search for Har Mar Superstar, chances are you’ll see him in his underwear, most likely holding a couple of puppies. This is an image he’d like to move past.
When Sean Tillman started playing shows as Har Mar Superstar in the late ’90s, he hit the punk circuit pretty hard, from a completely different angle than anyone else out there. He played irony-drenched R&B tracks, just him and backing tracks, singing lyrics like “Baby do you like my clothes?/’Cause I sure don’t like yours/Unless they’re lying on the floor/With your body next to me, baby.”
The only other person in the DIY scene at the time doing solo dance tunes, Tillman says, was Peaches. That was when Har Mar Superstar earned his reputation for stripping down to his underwear, because it was an unusual and memorable gimmick, but it really wasn’t Tillman’s thing. What he did best was bust the best dance moves you’d ever seen, and sing in people’s faces. Anyone who saw Har Mar Superstar back in the day likely considers it one of the best shows they’ve ever seen, and that’s because Tillman knew that everything in that scene was stacked up against him, so he went big.
“You have to come at people full on so that they’re caught off guard more than you are. Everyone is like, ‘OK, we’re having fun. That really weird looking guy made a fucking party happen,” Tillman says.
Almost as soon as people started talking about his amazing, personal-space-invading shows, he tried to shed the ironic-pop-star image, but it took a while. He was able to really pull it off on 2013’s Bye Bye 17, a record that is both a clear throwback to Motown, and pretty serious. For those previously unable to get past the irony, the record was a chance to hear his incredible voice for what it really was.
“It was a big risk, and a lot of people were like, ‘I don’t know if you should do that man,’” Tillman says. “Bye Bye 17 is the one my fans played for their friends, and they’d say ‘see, this is the one. This is what I’ve been talking about. Now you’re into it, too.’”
His latest album, Best Summer Ever, was produced by the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, and is easily his most diverse to date. He describes it as a concept record of his “greatest hits from 1950-1985—an era that I largely didn’t live in.”
Musically, it’s an extension of the more earnest side of Tillman that he started exploring on Bye Bye 17. Because his fans were so willing to take him seriously on that album, he felt liberated to do whatever he wanted on this one.
“I just got into not hiding behind irony anymore,” Tillman says. “I like to have humor, and some fun involved, but I think the tongue isn’t in the cheek with these, even if I’m doing super-’80s sax solos that sound like something off of the Jewel of the Nile soundtrack.”
As Tillman tours to promote Best Summer Ever, he comes armed with a six-piece live band: guitars, drums, synths, horns. “I’ve always wanted to have a live band. The success of Bye Bye 17, after touring that for a long time, building the momentum, it made it financially feasible. Crowds were bigger. It just made more sense to take the step and do it,” he says.
As for his current live show, it’s unlikely that he’ll be stripping down to his underwear. He puts on a high-energy set by dancing in the crowd, doing handstands while singing and just utilizing the space however he can.
“I feel like there’s not enough energetic shows out there. I would love to be surprised by someone that I haven’t seen before that just turns up the energy, gets you out of your comfort zone,” Tillman says. “The older you get, the more curmudgeonly you get. It’s fun to harness that energy, like a thing that permeates the room. I’m entertaining myself just as much as I’m entertaining everyone else.”
Katie Griffin doesn’t like to let a lot of people in, she explains with a half-laugh. That, she says, is why her long-in-development new solo dance show evolved into a tribute to those she has.
“It’s an ode to the people who are closest to me and know me best,” says Griffin, whose show opens Nov. 4 at Motion Pacific.
Griffin was chosen to be this year’s Incubator Artist for Motion Pacific, an emerging choreographer program that offers resources, mentorship and advocacy. It was the perfect kick to get her into gear, and with it she fleshed out the final pieces of I looked and I saw you… theRedchairdiaries, a work that has been in progress for years.
“Three years ago I turned 30, and was like ‘Alright, you’re going to give yourself three years to do this,” she says.
Incorporating bits and pieces from her own life, and the lives of her friends and relatives—her mom’s red chair, her grandmother’s petticoats—Redchairdiaries is a gestural dance poured from Griffin’s heart. It’s sprinkled with some original music by Voidflesh, some rap, some classical, and “a bunch of Tom Waits.”
“For me, it’s important—a color, a piece of music, even one movement. It’s helped shape what this journey has become.” — Kate Griffin
“I had this thing where I started exploring performance art, bringing improvisation and props and more imagery into what I’ve presented,” she says.
The 40-minute show builds on works she’s done over the past few years: six installations in six locations that include bits she’s taken and put into the multimedia show, from one vignette with war paint to a photo series of everyday items to a duet series with local dancer Molly Katzman. It’s multimedia and multifaceted, building on Griffin’s desire to transform space.
The show is a culmination of a lifetime of dance; growing up, Griffin did everything from hip-hop to tap, and they all show up in Redchairdiaries, in a way, says Griffin.
The show’s title is a reference to those who’ve had an impact on her, especially Tony Brintzenhoff, who photographed her years ago. She’d brought a red chair with her for a photo shoot in his garage, and he ended up naming the series The Red Chair Diary.
“That really struck me,” says Griffin. “I emailed out a blast for a recent project, he was in my email list, and his wife responded that he’d passed away. That was really special that he gave me … almost an identity, in some ways.”
Sometimes we forget how people in our lives shape our experience of the world and development as people, says Griffin. Redchairdiaries is a way for her to say thank you to those in hers—like her girlfriend of 11 years, Yvonne M. Portra, who’s collaborated as photographer, and modern choreographer Keith Johnson.
“I’ve been wanting to commission him or work for him as a dancer for the past 14 years since I went to school in Long Beach[where he runs a company]. I’ve always been terrified—just, you know, self-doubt and not thinking I was good enough. But he also had one of the strongest impacts on me in my training in terms of aesthetic, how he approaches movement,” says Griffin. “For years I taught my classes modelled after parts of his. So I finally got the guts to ask him to be involved in this project.”
It was a dream come true, says Griffin, to collaborate with Johnson on the final piece of her show, which they did via internet. The process, aided by her friends, was a major growing up process.
It’s also changed what she wants her dance to mean, says Griffin.
“Originally as a dancer, I wanted to dance for companies, but that sort of shifted in terms of culture—that’s not really a realistic goal for me,” says Griffin. “I want to use dance as a way for healing and bring it to different audiences.”
And while the influences might not be immediately readable to the audience, says Griffin, she carries their stories through movement.
“For me, it’s important—a color, a piece of music, even one movement. It’s helped shape what this journey has become.I didn’t set out to make it a dedication, but they are why I am where I’m at,” says Griffin. “Through their histories and stories, why I’ve connected to them and carried them along with me, my life has become little bit more clear.”
