What once seemed to be a home decor trend is now becoming an industry standard, as sustainable is the new watchword for furniture. Sustainable furniture can be defined many ways, but essentially it is creating something that can be recycled after the piece has worn out its utility, or has been crafted from recycled or sustainable materials. When searching for sustainable—aka eco-friendly, organic or reuseable—furniture, advice from local sellers is the best first step. They can answer questions about materials, manufacturing and how long a piece will last. Identifying what is and is not sustainable can be tricky, because what it really comes down to are the individual materials. Is the manufacturer using recycled plastics or wood, as certified by the Forest Stewardship Council? What other materials are they using, and how much of them? Unfortunately, the rising popularity of sustainable furniture has led to “greenwashing,” in which marketers misrepresent their products to make them seem more environmentally friendly than they really are. That’s why having the kinds of resources we do locally—sellers who know the intricacies of the sustainability issue—is key in a community that places particular importance on environmental concerns in retail shopping. Here are some places to look for sustainable furniture in Santa Cruz:
Couch Potato
3131 Soquel Dr, Soquel Bruce Cushnir is the owner of Couch Potato, located in Soquel. The store has been open since 1998, and they focus on developing close relationships with the manufacturers they consider reliable—in fact, it’s Cushnir’s policy to work only with North American companies, so it’s easier to develop these relationships. While not all of Couch Potatoes manufacturers are 100 percent sustainable, others have eco-friendly elements. Some of the manufacturers they carry are Sphinx, Stylus, Huntington Industries, and Elite Product. To Cushnir, the environmentally sound aspect of his business is important. “We all make a footprint. Whatever we can do to make our footprint less damaging and more positive is progress for everyone,” he says.
Modern Life Home and Garden
925 41st Ave, Santa Cruz Jill Sollitto, owner of Modern Life Home and Garden, has strong opinions about why it’s important to carry sustainable furniture in her store. She believes that resources are limited and our population is increasing at a rate never seen before. As the market changes and eco-friendly furniture becomes more the norm, Sollitto is aware of the problem greenwashing has become, and wants buyers to be confident they are getting the real deal. Modern Life also carries items made from reclaimed materials like purses and candles.
SC 41
2647 41st Ave, Soquel SC 41 takes pride in carrying only sustainable furniture, like local manufacturer Maria Yee, and Comfort Designs. Michael Baetge, owner of SC 41 and Homespace in Santa Cruz, defines sustainable furniture as something that lasts and endures so in the future it can be handed down rather than ending up in a landfill. Everything from the carpet to the paint on the wall to the products they sell in the store are eco-friendly at SC 41. Today, Baetge thinks that sustainable furniture has become less of a novelty and more of a conscious goal. “Eight years ago we opened this store. At the time there were a handful of suppliers that we could purchase from,” Baetge said. “Today, we feel it has become the standard of furniture.”
Homespace
2701 41st Ave, Soquel Homespace, which is located right next to SC41 in Soquel, follows the same ethical agenda as their sister company, SC 41. Baetge purchased this store in 2012, and has since added various sustainable options.
Don’t let Del the Funky Homosapien’s name fool you; if there are aliens among us, he’s one of them. The 44-year-old Oakland rapper shows no signs of aging, and is suspiciously difficult to track down. According to his publicist, it’s normal for Del to hole up in his studio, spaceship, whatever. After weeks of isolation he finally emerged, taking time out between practicing ollies on his skateboard and collaborating with producers Domino and 9th Wonder to talk to GT about his upcoming show in Santa Cruz.
Del’s career began at 19 when he released his debut album I Wish My Brother George Was Here, with help from his cousin Ice Cube. In those days, he says, he was just “winging it,” but in the last 15 years Del has taken a more deliberate approach to writing.
“At this point, I don’t feel comfortable winging it,” he says. “As a professional, you’ve gotta generate on command. I’m always trying to strengthen my writing skills, strengthen my production skills.”
Del started studying music theory shortly before rapping on Gorillaz’ Clint Eastwood, and credits the song’s massive success to a book he was reading at the time, aptly titled How to Write a Hit Song.
The inimitable Funky Homosapien stands out with his innovative grooves, intuitive flow, quirky twists and quick wit, all adding up to unique rhymes that are sometimes goofy, sometimes mocking, always relevant. With themes that range from slamming bad hygiene to intergalactic rap battles, it’s not surprising that Del considers comedy integral to his music.
“I feel like humor is what makes my music accessible,” he says. “You can’t expect people to sit and listen to your music if you don’t entertain them. [When I write] I’m concentrating on comedy, mostly. I have a funny way, a strange way of looking at things. So I try to cultivate that.”
In fact, Del traces his rap roots back to comics like Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor he grew up listening to in the ’70s.
“The reason I got into rap was because of humor. Rapping is a lot like performing comedy,” he says. “50 percent of comedy is wordplay, delivery.”
And he hasn’t stopped studying, these days researching to improve his lyrics: “The books I read are all technical or reference books. I’ve got books on cliches, idioms, books on comedy writing, books on Richard Pryor, books on black comedy.”
Some fans might be surprised that a rapper with such widely acknowledged gifts feels that he has to study up, but Del is all about process.
“If I can control it, instead of rolling the dice every time I go to make something, the outcome is better,” he says. This applies to producing music, too. “After studying music theory, now I know what I want to do, how to get it. I’ve got structures and styles that I can switch from.”
In 2009, Del released his Funk Man album online for free. What was a bold move seven years ago is becoming more common, as artists adapt to the music industry’s love-hate relationship with the Internet. He blames the decline in hip-hop sales on quality: “If you put out something, and it’s worth listening to, people will probably buy it. If it’s not good, they probably won’t buy it,” he says. “I think at this point the public has given up, because the industry has been bullshitting them for damn near 20 years! Puttin’ out the same garbage, thinking that people are stupid, and they just gonna buy it like they sheep. After 10 years, you’re like ‘damn, they still using Auto-Tune on every damn song?’ That shit is irritating.”
That being said, he does admit to downloading music himself. “If it’s floatin’ around, why not? But when Earl Sweatshirt came out with his album, I bought his record. Twice,” he says. “If it’s worth something to you, if it’s worth listening to, then you’ll buy it.”
As for what the industry will look like in the future? Del’s not concerned.
“I don’t even think about where the industry is going,” he says. “I’m thinking about, ‘What can I do to reach people?’ ’Cause that’s really what it’s about. When the artists start listening to the industry, doing what the industry tells them to do, that’s when they lose. It happened before with disco, and the industry crashed because of it. The public rebelled against it—you know, ‘Disco Sucks.’”
Info: 9 p.m. on Saturday, March 12 at Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz. $25 advance.
When it comes to imagining the possibilities for the human race, some science fiction writers go hopeful, others go bleak. Samuel R. Delany goes sideways.
The 73-year-old author, who speaks Thursday at UCSC, had his first science-fiction novel published in 1962, and in the half a century since has presented visions of both utopia and dystopia, which always made me wonder just where he stood on the scale of optimism-to-pessimism about the nature of humankind.
In an email exchange, I finally got to ask him, using as a recent example the remarkably upbeat shift in his last novel, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders (though I admitted to him I haven’t yet finished it) from its fantastic but almost downright depressing predecessor, Dark Reflections. (It’s worth noting that these books are very much companion pieces, despite their differences. And that at the core of Dark Reflections is the character of Arnold Hawley, a poet who, like Delany himself, is gay and African-American.)
Delany’s answer subverts the very nature of my question, which I maybe should have expected since he’s known for subverting pretty much everything he can.
“The notions of pessimism and optimism are a matter of framing,” he writes. “I think the movement from one to the other is a basically dialectical progression.”
Then he challenges the definition of the words, or the reading of them in this context, at least. “At the end of his story, who is more optimistic than Arnold Hawley, with his vision of the ‘village’ that cares for us all?” And then, a tease: “And you haven’t gotten to the end of Through the Valley, yet.” (Gah! It wasn’t easy to resist sneaking a peek at the end before I wrote this.)
One thing’s for certain: I love any writer who questions authority even when he is the authority. Delany is that kind of writer. Most readers probably discovered him, as I did, through his 1975 novel Dhalgren, a dystopian story set in the fictional American city of Bellona after a large-scale catastrophe which is never described. The hopeless scenario is sharply contrasted by the book’s gorgeously mysterious imagery and the lyrical, practically Joycean style of the narrative. Though he’s won four Nebula awards and two Hugos in his career for other novels and short stories, Dhalgren is sort of the people’s choice for his most important work: confounding, epic, frankly sexual and highly controversial, it sold over a million copies.
As with Frank Herbert’s Dune or Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Dispossessed, the popularity of Dhalgren was almost a mini-social-movement in itself, one that not even Delany saw coming.
“I didn’t think a lot of people were going to be interested in it,” he tells me, relaying how a young editor at Doubleday bought the book through Delany’s agent on a Friday, and then was forced by higher-ups to “un-buy” it by Tuesday of the next week. “The people who overrode him never read a page of it, I gather. They read some reader synopsis which said, ‘Too long for a SF novel,’ and ‘Full of sex and strange writing.’ ‘It has no plot.’ I’d worked hard on it for five years. When it was actually published and went into five printings in the first three months, I was a very surprised writer. Happy. But surprised.”
I’ve always considered Delany to be one of a few writers in the 1970s who was able to take the most radical experimentation in science fiction and bring it to the mainstream. LeGuin and Harlan Ellison are two others, so it’s no surprise that he says he has a great respect for their work. I was, however, surprised to learn that Philip K. Dick was said to hate Delany’s style, and that the feeling is mutual. “Dick, I always found unreadable—so I’m not surprised he found me pretty much the same,” Delany says.
The release this year of High-Rise, the film adaptation of a famed 1975 novel by another experimental science fiction writer, J.G. Ballard, raises the question of whether Dhalgren could ever make it onto the big screen. Delany seems open to it, saying he was pleased with both the opera and the theater piece adapted from it—though he’s more immediately consumed with Dover Books’ upcoming reprint of Dark Reflections, along with the first volume of his journals.
“There have been tickles of interest,” says Delany of a big-screen Dhalgren. “There’s always a chance for anything.”
Samuel R. Delany will read from his work and participate in a Q&A at the Music Recital Hall at UCSC at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 10. Free.
It was less than a year ago that fans of KUSP 88.9 FM worried that the radio station would get sold to a group in Southern California.
Since then, the long-established radio station has undergone a massive—if not entirely seamless—reorganization. After 12 years, KUSP General Manager Terry Green was laid off in September, replaced by interim GM Lee Ferraro, who stayed with the station for five months. After restructuring KUSP’s programming to a music-based format, Ferraro stepped down as interim general manager in January. Bonnie Jean Primbsch, a longtime host and volunteer, was announced as the new interim GM on March 1.
Over the past half-decade, community concern has been the only constant for a station that has cut local programming, twice changed formatting and undergone leadership changes. It’s been palpable in board meetings, in which the direction of the station has come under criticism from several former KUSP hosts, journalists and volunteers.
Rachel Goodman, a Peabody Award-winning journalist, was with KUSP for 13 years as a programmer and as a host of Talk of the Bay and Coastal Ridge Ramble. Although the station appears to be improving its standing, she says that many ardent supporters of the station often feel out of the loop and that KUSP going $700,000 into debt last September could have been avoided.
“It’s a massive hole to get out of,” says Goodman. “But I know the board is trying.”
Homogeny Killed the Radio Star
Since 1971, KUSP stood as a beacon for Santa Cruz, providing music, reporting and specialized shows, all with a community spin. But in recent years, the nonprofit station became mired in financial stress.
Most sources agree that the bulk of the trouble began in 2008 when the publicly funded station increased its NPR content, in an effort to compete with rival station KAZU, which is based at Cal State Monterey Bay. The original hope was for KAZU to eventually buy out or merge with KUSP, but no deal was ever struck.
“In 2008, when they doubled-down on NPR, many of us said ‘don’t do this,’” Goodman remembers. “That’s when it lost any local identity.”
The station continued to buy up expensive programming as longtime fans expressed disappointment. Still, KUSP’s Board of Directors stayed the course, keeping their faith in the then-GM Green.
“Terry is a good guy and a dedicated man, but the board allowed his view to prevail for too long,” says KUSP Board President Kelly O’Brien.
O’Brien, an environmental journalist—and another ex-host of Talk of the Bay—has spent the last decade on the station’s board, serving as president for the last four. She admits that the board bears responsibility for creating a situation with “two stations—not more than 25 miles apart as the crow flies—broadcasting the same information only a second apart and a few clicks of the dial from each other.”
With a dwindling listener base and growing debt, the board continued to explore offers to sell, most notably to Santa-Monica-based KCRW or the Classical Public Radio Network (CPRN) based out of the University of Southern California.
Not surprisingly, fans of Santa Cruz radio were opposed to selling the station. It was then that Goodman and others formed KUSP Forward, a group of past and present KUSP staff members, volunteers, board members, and listeners concerned with losing the station’s license to outside sources.
“Without such vocal community outcry, the station would have been sold,” Goodman says. “So that was a huge victory.”
Their suggestions for alternative plans seemed to fall on deaf ears—that is, until the board hired Public Media Company (PMC), a nonprofit consulting group based out of Colorado, last year. PMC’s chief executive officer and co-founder, Marc Hand, is an ex-KUSP volunteer. (O’Brien is adamant that this did not create a conflict of interest. She concedes PMC could have made money helping with a buy-out or merge, but this didn’t turn out to be the case.)
That’s when the changes began.
After laying off Green, KUSP immediately announced Lee Ferraro, who came from Pittsburgh-based WYEP, as interim general manager.
Under Ferraro’s direction, the station revamped its programming, adopting what the industry calls a “Triple-A” format (AAA, for “Adult Album Alternative”), based on PMC’s recommendation. Triple-A’s emphasis is on “music discovery,” bringing new sounds to new ears.
Just when everything seemed to be getting back on track, Ferraro signed-off from KUSP in mid-January of this year, after only five months in the position and with no successor. His sudden departure confused many outsiders, but Ferraro insists that there is no bad blood and that he left to return home to his family in Wisconsin.
“The original ‘gig’ at KUSP was thought to be for three months,” he tells GT via email. “But I stayed on nearly five months due to the dedication of the board and the tremendous goodwill I found for KUSP in the community.”
Calling Card
Last week, the station announced that another ex-KUSP host and staff member, Bonnie Jean Primbsch, will succeed Ferraro and continue down the same AAA path.
It’s still too early to say what the future of KUSP is and how viable it will be. Its last listenership report took place during the programming transition, forcing the station to rely on pledge drives and listener feedback to determine if they tuned in with the community’s needs.
“Today, the product is much more listener-oriented than it was,” says O’Brien. “Stopping competition with KAZU was probably the smartest thing we’ve ever done, and we could’ve done it sooner.”
Last year’s three-day end-of-the-year pledge drive brought in more than $15,000 in donations, much more than the station had projected. Primbsch believes that listeners are responding positively to the music format, because music is an artistic medium that helps people make sense of their world.
“Music can be an escape or a balm,” she explains. “But a lyric can catch you and make you think, ‘Gosh that’s like my life right now’ and help you understand things in a transformative way.”
Local radio historian Matthew Lasar has been paying attention and is appreciating the new focus. “I listen to it all the time and I really love it,” says Lasar, a UCSC lecturer and teacher of History and Radio Media. “I love the format change, and personally I get a lot out of it.”
Primbsch says KUSP has lowered its debt to roughly $500,000 and that the station is currently working with NPR to have those bills at least partially forgiven. Still, she admits, “We’re not out of the woods, yet.”
Lasar says that in order to survive, KUSP will have to carve out a niche and continue creating an identity.
“What KUSP really wants at this point is to be listened to,” he says. “They have to build an audience for a certain kind of music.”
Ana Rasmussen, longtime resident of a downtown Santa Cruz mobile home park, remembers waiting three years for a community garden plot for her family. “I remember thinking, I bet there are other people like me who would like a garden but don’t have a place. That’s how this whole thing got started,” says Rasmussen. Before she founded Mesa Verde Gardens, a nonprofit bringing shared vegetable gardens to low-income Pajaro Valley neighborhoods, Rasmussen was a social worker for two decades. Ready for a career change and with her sons grown, she apprenticed at Oakland’s City Slicker Farms and UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems in 2009 and 2010. In early 2010, Rasmussen began Mesa Verde’s first project—10 gardens at Watsonville preschools, introducing students to organic produce. After talking to parents, she realized a deeper demand: families already wanted vegetable gardens, but most lived in low-income apartments without access to soil. Rasmussen pivoted. In 2011, Mesa Verde opened the first of eight community gardens—seven in Pajaro Valley and one in Live Oak. Families pay $8 per month for a 180-square-foot plot, which yields around 50 pounds of organic produce each month. Today, the organization serves 270 families. “It’s like 1,000 new organic eaters in the community that weren’t there before, so I feel really good about that,” Rasmussen says.
A Connection to the Land
KALE TALES Many Mesa Verde gardeners report that their plots have changed the way their families eat, replacing fast food with fresh, organic vegetables. PHOTO: KEANA PARKER The gardens are popular in south county, and new members join every spring. The nonprofit also runs three community orchards, a total of 125 fruit trees for garden members. Last year Mesa Verde added two gardens at Watsonville middle schools, for the parents of children at those schools, thanks to a partnership with Pajaro Valley Unified School District allowing free access to the land. In March, the nonprofit will add a garden next to Watsonville’s Starlight Elementary. At first, Rasmussen thought she would help people learn organic practices, but quickly realized that her members were already experts. Around 80 percent of Mesa Verde members have at least one farmworker in the family, which makes Pajaro Valley community gardens much different from community gardens in San Francisco or Silicon Valley, she says. “I think of ourselves as the bridge between the land and the people who would like to use it,” she says. “It’s really about providing the place. Then we just step back because they’re really good at growing food.” In Mesa Verde surveys, the top reason members say they want garden plots is to feed their families organic produce, which is too expensive to buy otherwise. Many members have been exposed to pesticides in the fields, and know first-hand why organic produce is healthier, Rasmussen says.
Kale? What is That?
Angelica Ortega began renting her plot at Mi Jardín Verde garden, located at Watsonville’s All Saints Episcopal Church, five years ago. The three-quarter-acre garden is the nonprofit’s largest, and includes a common corn patch, fruit tree nursery and orchard and picnic area. Ortega, who lives with her two children (ages 9 and 21) and grandchild, said the garden changed her family’s diet drastically, from pasta and fast food to fresh, organic vegetables. Ortega now shares three plots with her children and four sisters. One plot is dedicated solely to tomatoes, which Ortega cans each fall, yielding around 200 jars last season. “I use it for soup, for chiles, for salsas, for everything, and plus I give some for my other sisters,” she says. From other plot renters, Ortega has learned to grow new vegetables. “My sisters, too, they changed their diet. They didn’t like to eat the kale. They were looking at me eating kale and they were making faces, like ‘What are you eating?’ but I made recipes and made it nice.” “And the collards too, is that what you call it? So we are trying new vegetables that we didn’t know in Mexico,” Ortega says.
Around 80 percent of Mesa Verde members have at least one farmworker in the family, which makes Pajaro Valley community gardens much different from community gardens in San Francisco or Silicon Valley.
In December, Ortega became the newest of the nonprofit’s five staff members, and is now an outreach coordinator. “Sometimes we are so busy in our lives that we don’t even realize that we can do a lot in a little plot and make a big change in our life. So to take an hour working in the garden, you can do a lot, instead of being here in the house watching TV,” Ortega says.
Cooperative Support
Member dues cover around 10 percent of Mesa Verde’s $173,000 budget. Around 75 percent of funding comes from foundations and the rest from individuals and businesses. Last year, local philanthropists Rowland and Pat Rebele announced an annual $20,000 five-year matching grant to benefit Mesa Verde. So far, the nonprofit has raised $15,000 in individual donations. If it can raise an additional $5,000 by March 31, then Mesa Verde will receive $40,000, says Rasmussen. Rasmussen said the matching grant would be a game-changer, and allow the nonprofit to plan in new ways. “Gardening is the original local food,” she says. “Before CSAs, before farmers markets, before Whole Foods, people were growing food for themselves, and we’re just trying to bring that back.”
With the rains of December and January, my yard—and most of Santa Cruz—is looking greener than it has in years. But now that we’ve got rain, what are we going to do with it? Rainwater harvesting is a way to collect and store it instead of allowing it to run off. In a healthy ecosystem, rain percolates through soil to recharge streams, reservoirs and aquifers. Excessive runoff can create a whole suite of environmental issues, like stream-bank erosion, habitat degradation and flooding. “The problems started when we paved so much land,” says Lydia Nielsen, owner of Rehydrate the Earth, a landscaping company that focuses on eliminating runoff. One popular technique for rainwater harvesting is rain catchment—catching rainwater off of roofs in cisterns, and then using it to irrigate one’s yard. These cisterns can be small—about 50 gallons—or as big as wine barrel, and up to 10,000 gallons. Golden Love, owner of Love’s Gardens, which builds water-neutral gardens, has worked extensively installing rain barrels, sometimes burying several of the larger tanks to store tens of thousands of gallons. On top of providing irrigation, these tanks have been successful in mitigating some large water issues, like depleted wells or saltwater intrusion. But, in his own yard, he has a smaller system that he uses to water annual vegetables. Even through the past years of drought, Love was able to maintain a vibrant garden with annual vegetables, flowers and fruit trees, thanks in part to his water catchment systems. Between 50-70 percent of home water use is generally for irrigation, meaning harvesting rainwater can improve water conservation dramatically. Of course, these tanks can be pricey and not everyone wants to fill their yard with giant plastic barrels. In that case, another option for gardeners interested in capturing rainwater is passive rainwater harvesting, which involves sculpting the land to absorb more water—or, as enthusiasts like to say, “Slow it, spread it, sink it.”
Even through the past years of drought, Love was able to maintain a vibrant garden with annual vegetables, flowers and fruit trees, thanks in part to his water catchment systems.
A common technique for passive harvesting is to use infiltration basins. These are basins dug into the soil about 2-3 feet deep, then filled with wood chips or gravel. Water flows into the basins, where it has the opportunity to sink into the soil. Soil can hold up to three times its weight in water and supply steady irrigation to deeply rooted plants. I met Nielsen at a site where she had installed three basins, placed where water typically pools during rain. Nielsen has interconnected the three basins so that if one fills up, it spills into the next. She designed a garden around the basins so that, eventually, the plants will be able to survive through the dry season without irrigation. WELL SPRING Rain barrels, especially if combined with passive harvesting and drought-resistant plants, can keep a water-neutral garden lush. These basins produce quite a bit of soil, which Nielsen turned into another passive harvesting technique: a berm—essentially a long mound which stops and absorbs potential run off. Berms are often employed in conjunction with swales, which are trenches dug on a contour with the land’s slope as a place for water to sink in. Even with the abundance of rain from El Niño, Californians should still lean toward water-wise gardening techniques such as rainwater harvesting, as the state has had one of the longest dry seasons on record. And with the uncertain future of climate change, we may have more drought ahead of us. “I want this place to be lush,” says Love, who also uses passive water harvesting in his quest for water-neutral gardens. “We need to have habitat for the bees and the birds—and for humans, too.” While sculpting land or installing rain barrels may be intimidating, Nielsen explains that it is not as hard as it sounds. “If it is just you and your friend and some shovels, how much trouble can you get into?” she asks. “But if you come in with a bulldozer and start digging out land, then, yes, you could get yourself into trouble.” She also mentions that anyone who lives on a sloped site should consult a professional. But for anyone else, as long as they start small, rainwater harvesting can be very simple. There are plenty of resources out there. Nielsen and Love both teach classes, which you can find on their websites (RehydrateTheEarth.us and LovesGardens.com, respectively). Also the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County has a free booklet, Slow it, Spread it, Sink it! A Homeowner’s Greening Stormwater Runoff. Nielsen also recommends the book Rainwater Harvesting for Dryland and Beyond by Brad Lancaster. Rainwater harvesting is just one technique in a suite of water-wise options. Another common one is installing a graywater system, which redirects water draining from showers or laundry for irrigation. And, of course, choosing the right plants is of the utmost importance. Love focuses on low-water, food-producing perennials such as fruit trees. He was able to water his dozens of fruit trees through the drought with just the water from his laundry. There is also much to be said for clever design. Love’s backyard has an outdoor shower next to his fruit trees. “I take my shower out here, and it waters the plum tree,” he says.
I remember running a story about the mysterious “disappearance” of bees way back in 2005, when beekeepers first started reporting it. It was called a disappearance then, though it quickly became clear that what they were dealing with was a mass die-off. What wasn’t clear was pretty much everything else—what was causing it, how many hives it was affecting or what could be done about it.
It’s remarkable that 10 years later, there still aren’t many concrete answers to these questions. No one even knows for sure how many honeybees are dying every year, but the best estimates are shocking. Henry Houskeeper talks about those numbers this week, and what scientists believe the solution to this decade-old mystery might be.
But just because we don’t know for sure what’s causing the problem doesn’t mean that no one is doing anything about it—and that’s where Houskeeper reveals a whole new wrinkle in the story. The hobbyist beekeepers who are rallying to sustain the bee population—a new breed of local heroes—are at the heart of his cover story, and for that reason it’s the most hopeful story I’ve read on the topic yet.
STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Spare the Routes
Re: “Cuts Loom for METRO”: Santa Cruzans love to complain about how there is no parking downtown, or how it’s too expensive, or the carbon footprint blah blah blah, but many would never consider taking a bus. What if the reason METRO ticket sales are flat is that the system doesn’t serve the needs of those who would really use it? Rather than cutting service, perhaps it ought to be expanded.
There are many routes that don’t run frequently or late enough to be of good use to those who need them most; for instance from Portola to and from downtown, and to and from the Capitola Mall. Not everyone has a car or can ride a bicycle, and low-wage workers (such as those who work on either end of these routes) can’t afford Uber.
I have been in Santa Cruz for 10 years, and relied on public transportation for eight of those years when I lived downtown and had no car. I have watched the deepening service cuts with great concern. Currently I’m right on a bus line that I would love to be able to use more frequently, except I would have no way to get back home in the evenings without huge expense. For me, it is an inconvenience, but there are low-income folks, the disabled and seniors, who are much more adversely impacted. In addition, the economy of our county is at risk when people can’t get to and from work, shop, or grab a bite after 6 p.m.
Here’s public input, Mr. Emerson: spare all the routes, and improve service in underserved areas. Work on educating the public about how important it is for growing cities to have good public transportation and why they can benefit by using it.
The city, county, business community and citizenry should be concerned about further cutbacks and work with METRO to find solutions that are for the common good.
Carol L. Skolnick
Santa Cruz
Radical Memories
Re: “Acid Test”: Thanks to Geoffrey Dunn for the memories of the mid-’60s in Santa Cruz. My husband and I and young children moved to Santa Cruz in 1962. We were thinking of moving to Australia or New Zealand because of the increasing militarization in our country. We met some folks from Santa Cruz at a Humanist Conference in San Francisco. Al Johnsen, Manny and Alice Santana, and some others urged us to move to Santa Cruz to help organize what they called an active liberals group to counter the active conservatives who had formed a John Birch group. So we did, and joined the establishment of the Santa Cruz ACLU chapter.
Soon the Peace Center and a draft information center to help young men were organized. (The Resource Center for Nonviolence came later.) Also, a branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom was organized.
Bill Stewart from Monterey stirred up the old established Democratic Party system when he ran for the House of Representatives as a peace candidate in a primary.
Later in the 1960s, another peace candidate stirred up the old established Democratic Central Committee by running for representative, and urged our group of anti-war, anti-draft, pro-farm-worker-union-and-civil-rights advocates to run for membership in the Democratic Central Committee. A few of us, including me, said, “Sure. Uh … what is the Democratic Central Committee?”
Our chosen candidate, Richard Miller from Pacific Grove, was a history professor at the San Francisco Art Institute, so he explained the importance of becoming a member of that establishment political power.
During the course of Richard Miller’s campaign, a fund-raiser was held. The location was the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, and the most popular of the music groups to play was Jefferson Airplane. A light show was done by Dick Smith, a dentist from Felton who was good friends with some of the Merry Pranksters. The light show stirred up the fears of the influential, who considered such things to be conducive to all sorts of misbehavior. An effort was made to not allow the affair because there were too many people. But some of the organizers who were upstanding citizens of the community and were on good terms with the chief of police talked with the chief, and the event went on.
Of course, Richard Miller did not win in the primary. But his campaign was a valuable part of the changes that happened in the ’60s: the civil rights movement. The farm workers strike. The anti-war, anti-draft actions.
I remember the unveiling of Ron Boise’s statue, and the supportive speech made by the mayor. The Mothers for Morality formed to fight such sinful art. Their leader said that sins made dents on the brain. Even naughty little babies who threw their food on the floor would get dents on their brains. The dents would be there until Jesus washed them away.
I can still see Lee Quarnstrom roller skating in the aisles of the Hip Pocket book store when he was working there.
Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters were a valuable part of all this.
Pat Miller
Santa Cruz
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GOOD IDEA
SURE FOOTING
The Pajaro Valley Shelter is gearing up for the 32nd Annual Mother’s Day Run/Walk at Ramsay Park. Both the 5K and 10K events benefit homeless women and children. The gathering includes T-shirts, a continental breakfast, a DJ, roses for mothers, and medals for winners. Last year’s event saw 700 runners and 84 sponsors. For more information on fees and how to register, visit pvshelter.org.
GOOD WORK
ENTER STAGE LEFT
After seeing how Santa Cruz Shakespeare was burned by UCSC, it’s exciting to see the city of Santa Cruz throwing its weight behind the iconic local group, as it welcomes SCS to its new home at the equally beautiful DeLaveaga Park. The festival has announced that this year’s plays will be Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.â€
Many Santa Cruz residents have said that Posner collecting rent from his extra unit strikes them as hypocritical.
After all, the local politician has championed relaxing building laws in order to allow more accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and he ultimately voted in favor of the revised ADU laws passed in 2015. The loosened laws still do not accommodate Posner’s backyard shed, which does not have a kitchen or a bathroom and is in a multi-residential area that is not zoned for ADUs.
Additionally, Posner did not disclose income from his $700-month back unit, which has since been red-tagged, on election forms with the Fair Political Practices Committee, an omission he now regrets.
“Those forms represent the fact that public officials need to be public about everything, and I wasn’t being public, because I had an unpermitted unit,” says Posner, who adds that he has since updated the forms.
As of press time, Santa Cruz City Council was scheduled to look at a number of issues surrounding Posner’s unit, including unreported income, at its Tuesday, March 8 meeting. It would also look at the council’s options, which include censuring Posner, a move that would still allow him to serve.
“I hope that this whole thing will allow us to focus more on housing and won’t just be a big distraction,” Posner says. “But even though it’s a distraction, it’s my responsibility, and I take responsibility for it.”
Ian Coulson runs his bare fingers along the open gaps of the hive’s frames. “Good beekeepers don’t need gloves,” he says. He pries one frame out of the hive and lifts it up to the light. Coulson, the co-founder of the Santa Cruz Bee Guild, is showing me his beehives. There aren’t as many as I’d expect. A third of his bees died last year, he tells me. Empty hive boxes lay in the tall grass around his hillside home high in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Not long ago, this would have alarmed local beekeepers—many rely on Coulson for advice when they suspect trouble at their own hives. But today, the news causes less of a stir. Beekeepers have been reporting alarming mass die-offs of their hives for more than a decade. In that time, according to some estimates, the U.S. has lost a third of its honeybees, and no one knows why. Local beekeepers, however, are now stepping in to help. At the Santa Cruz Bee Guild, swarms of beginning beekeepers fill the meetings, eager to care for their first hives. This grassroots rally to save the bees is giving hives a new hope. But even with the guild’s help, keeping a beehive healthy nowadays may require a little luck.
Mystery Solved?
No one can say for certain why bees are struggling. Bees face many stresses—disease, mites, poor nutrition, and insecticides—and the die-offs probably have no single culprit. But a general theme has emerged among the theories: bees and modern agriculture simply don’t get along. It’s not easy to be an insect on today’s farms. For instance, most conventional farmers protect their fields from pests with insecticides—chemicals that kill insects but not plants. Spray-on insecticides have a long history, but today many farmers prefer systemic insecticides, which plants absorb through their roots or seeds. In many ways, systemic pesticides trump the spray-on ones, at least from an agricultural perspective. Most notably, farmers are able to apply less of them to their fields, since the chemical compounds stay within the plants’ tissues. And they can’t blow away, a major benefit for neighborhoods that border farms. Systemic pesticides should also spare pest-fighting bugs, for example, since these helpful critters don’t eat farmers’ fruits.
“Bees already face stresses from commercial farming,” Aldrich says. “Adding neonicotinoids could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
But with their benefits, systemic pesticides also bring new challenges. With conventional insecticides, beekeepers kept their hives away when farmers sprayed. Now, compounds stick around in plants’ tissues—including in their pollen. And when scientists look in some beehives, they find traces of pesticides. No one is certain how systemic pesticidesaffect bees. But many beekeepers connect them to the sudden and widespread bee die-offs they began finding a decade ago. Complicating the problem is the fact that not all regulators agree on how to handle the compounds. In December of last year, for example, Canada banned the use of neonicotinoids, the systemic insecticide class most often blamed for the bee die-offs. In the U.S., though, the neonicotinoid review is ongoing. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported in January that one subset of neonicotinoids may harm bees, and they plan to assess others in the near future. Many beekeepers wonder why progress is so slow. But the case against neonicotinoids may be gaining momentum. Last fall, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) researcher Jonathan Lundgren filed a whistleblower suit in which he alleged that the agency had blocked his research on the harmful effects of neonicotinoids—a worrisome claim, if true. Jeffrey Aldrich, a research entomologist for more than 30 years at the USDA, and now a consultant based in Santa Cruz, thinks the argument against neonicotinoids has merit. “Bees already face stresses from commercial farming,” Aldrich says. “Adding neonicotinoids could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.” Still, Coulson doesn’t blame modern agriculture for the bees’ plight. “None of this is the farmer’s or the beekeeper’s fault,” he says. “It’s just that it’s hard to make a living farming today.”
Why Bees Matter
Plants flower for bees, not humans. Bees see colors invisible to humans, such as ultraviolet—possible, in part, because they have five eyes. So flowers use bright pigments, particularly yellow and blue, to catch bees’ attention. To reward visiting bees, flowers ooze nectar, a sugary bee food and the key ingredient of honey. But flowers, like many organisms, have good reason to be sweet. Plants mate by sharing pollen, which sticks to the legs and bellies of bees that gather nectar. When bees depart for their next flower, the pollen tags along. And seeds too, like pollen, must be spread. So plants embed their seeds in fruit—and humans, for example, carry the fruit away. Local bees have struggled through the last few years of Califronia’s dought, which stifled many of the flowers bees depend on. PHOTO: HENRY HOUSEKEEPER Flowers are savvy at attracting pollinator insects or animals to help them reproduce. But what happens when insects, like bees, aren’t there? If flowers fail to mate, they produce no seeds. And without seeds, plants have little reason to fruit. Farmers, then, must make sure their crops have plenty of opportunity to mingle. When bees spread pollen, they help orchards and fields yield fruit. At first glance, convincing bees to pollinate farms might seem easy—bees thrive near flowering fields. But a farm is only a bounty when in bloom. When a farm grows one crop, as many do today, the farm’s flowers all bloom at the same time. Bees may feast, briefly. But soon, the blooming crop turns to fruit, and for bees, the party ends. Before the next year’s flowers open, the bees’ honeycomb stores will run dry. Farmers solved this problem many years ago. Rather than entice bees to stay, they now hire commercial beekeepers to truck in bees. Moving hives may be costly for farmers and stressful for bees, but mobile colonies make flowers fruit. And today, these bees-on-wheels visits help produce a third of the food we eat.
Bringing Reinforcements
Farms can’t survive without bees, but bees don’t need farms. And the new wave of beekeepers at the guild cares little about farming—they just want to give the bees a fighting chance. But beware, Coulson warns: keeping a colony alive in the backyard isn’t easy. Bees that live miles from conventional farms, for example, still have plenty to worry about. Over the last few years, California’s long drought stifled many of the flowers that Santa Cruz bees visit. Some hives struggled to find food and water. Bees also suffer from their own pests. Within many hives, the tiny varroa mite burrows into apiaries, or birthing chambers. “They literally suck the life out of bees,” says Aldrich. Many beekeepers intend to raise colonies without chemicals, but end up forced to treat—or else lose—their bees. And new pests like the varroa or tracheal mites pop up suddenly. “Pests have always occurred from time to time,” Coulson says, “But nowadays they spread more quickly.” Commercial beekeepers cart their hives from coast to coast to follow the blooms of major crops such as almonds, cranberries, or pears. Meanwhile, pests tag along. “It didn’t take long before varroa was attacking hives on both coasts, and everywhere in between,” Coulson says. “So many hives were dying, the mites almost ran out of places to go.”
“Beekeepers know what is blooming in their neighborhood, but their friends and neighbors start paying attention, too.”
Aldrich thinks bees face a continued struggle ahead. “Bees will have a tough time weathering the pests until scientists find better solutions,” he says. Coulson doesn’t think that the mite problem will go away. “But bees will become tougher, and more hygienic,” Coulson says. “And the mites will learn to be gentler.” And more generally, Coulson feels optimistic. “Bees have had to overcome so many problems before,” he says. In other words, honeybees are resilient in the long run—they just need time to adapt. While bees learn to live with the latest pest or disease, hobbyist beekeepers need some coaching in order to keep their colonies humming. Many seek advice from more experienced beekeepers through the Santa Cruz Bee Guild. “Anyone can join,” Coulson says. “If you show up at a meeting, you’re part of the bee guild.” But that being said, the guild also strives to deter new beekeepers who may not be ready for so much responsibility. “If you think you want to keep bees, first research carefully,” says guild member Marja van den Hende. Bee guild meetings aren’t just for beekeepers. Last month, members discussed which garden plants bees visit most—coyote brush and madrone were local favorites, with lavender and rosemary close behind—useful info for bee-friendly folk who will never keep their own bees.
Colony Mentality
The beekeeping art survives mainly through mentorship, so the guild strives to pairs newbies with experienced beekeepers. And learning with family is common. Coulson, for example, learned about bees from his parents in England. “Whenever I visit my family,” he says, “they still ask me about my queens.” Sometimes, parents and children learn together. The bee guild’s late core founder, Peter Cook, began beekeeping alongside his son James. The two helped each other along, learning to care for their hives. His wife, too, began making salves and soaps from beeswax. Van den Hende believes that beekeeping brings communities together. Beekeepers learn from anecdotes, and must enlist the trust and encouragement of friends. “Beekeepers know what is blooming in their neighborhood,” says van den Hende. “But their friends and neighbors start paying attention, too.” As Coulson pulls the lid off another hive, van den Hende takes my arm. “Put your hand over the bees,” she says. “Can you feel the hive’s warmth? Keep bees, and you must become their steward.” Coulson nods. “When you reach inside a hive, you touch a mysterious world,” he says. Best then, perhaps, to leave the gloves behind, and feel the world against bare skin. Learn more about the Santa Cruz Bee Guild. Visit santacruzbees.com, or come by a guild meeting (First Wednesday of every month, community room of El Rio Mobile Home Park).
Sidebar: Honeybees vs. Native Bees
Pollen-rich flowers benefit not just honeybees (bottom), but native bees as well. The digger bees (top) is one of several bees native to the area. Honeybees haven’t always been in Santa Cruz. Europeans first brought them to America centuries ago to make honey. But before Europeans and honeybees sailed to the New World, native bees were already here, pollinating California’s diverse wildflowers. Unlike honeybees, most native bees don’t form large colonies. In fact, most don’t form colonies at all. And besides the bumblebee, which, compared to honeybees, make a small amount of honey that is much harder to harvest, native bees make no honey—no surprise then that honeybees get all the love. But luckily for native bees, local projects to help out honeybees likely aid native bees as well. For example, gardeners often plant pollen-rich flowers with honeybees in mind, but native bees visit, too. “They definitely make use of urban gardens,” says Angie Ashbacher, a UCSC graduate student who studies interactions between plants and pollinators, such as bees. Ashbacher says a few small changes can make urban gardens more welcoming to native bees. Most importantly, she recommends that gardeners preserve spaces for native bees to build their homes. “Honeybees may fly 5 miles to find food,” she says. “But native bees stay close to their nests.” So for native bees to visit urban gardens, they need shelter nearby. Keeping a space for native bees isn’t tough. “Leave a few dead stems on your trees,” Ashbacher says. Many native bees adopt old stems to build their homes. “Or if you’d rather,” she says, “buy a native bee nest box.” And when gardeners shelter native bees, they help their gardens produce more fruit. Although honeybees seem to steal the spotlight, they can’t compete with native bees when it comes to pollinating flowers.
The espresso machine had just arrived when I visited the new, spacious Pacific Avenue home of Buttercup Cakes & Farmhouse Frosting, in the former Noah’s Bagels space. The space features a long counter adorned with those out-of-this-world cupcakes, and a spacious banquette with little cafe tables and chairs. I felt instantly at home. And anyone who has tasted one of these sinful, addictive creations—my favorites include the hibiscus flower, the exceptional carrot ginger, and the little blood orange number with Earl Grey tea frosting—knows what I’m talking about. Now, picture all of that comforting feel-good flavor right there in the heart of downtown, on Pacific Avenue.
There’s so much to love about the establishment’s move from the tiny space across from Sockshop’s side door into a new higher-profile store: More cupcakes. More fresh muffins—an especially tasty gluten-free number made with oat flour and luscious spices captured my fancy, and lots of savory pies, spanikopita-style. “The Greek” packs feta, spinach and kalamata olives into a light, flaky filo triangle. The Melanzane is loaded with eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. So Buttercup has branched out into a menu that looks a lot like lunch, or brunch, or midday snack.
Sweets, savories, espresso and long opening hours (for after or before the movie?)— weekdays 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and until 9 p.m. on weekends. Stop by and be prepared to have your taste buds permanently altered by the irresistible house cupcakes. If a wedding is in someone’s future, you’d do well to check out the gorgeous mega-cake options. Last week I watched in awe when an excited young man ordered three of the new “seasonal” coconut snowball cupcakes and ate two of them on the spot. When Marie Antoinette murmured, “let them eat cake,” this is what she obviously meant. All of your favorite flavors, plus a few you haven’t yet discovered, plus exceptional vegan and gluten-free varieties, are waiting for you at Buttercup’s new location—1411 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz.
Class Action
Yes it’s that time again—time to get your hands on some gushy, moist, pliant dough and start shaping your very own to-die-for croissants, sourdough loaves, pies, and pastries. And thanks to the culinary team at Companion Bakeshop on Mission Street, you can do just that. Go here: https://squareup.com/market/companion-bakers to find all of the mouthwatering details, and book your space in the workshops, which begin at 6 p.m. on March 14 with Sourdough Basics. You can sign up for a single class “a la carte” or the three-class Sourdough series which includes “Whole Grains” and “Enriched Breads.” All workshops run 2-3 hours ($70 each/$180 for all three). Arrive dressed to get messy, in comfortable shoes, and perhaps bring a notebook.
Business Buzz
Dig this! According to a recent Infogroup study reported by Bloomberg Business last week, Santa Cruz (yes, our Santa Cruz) is ranked second among the top 10 foodie cities in the U.S. Only our fair sister up the road, San Francisco, came in higher. The rating was due to our many high-end and organic grocers, and “the consumers’ propensity to eat at fine dining restaurants as opposed to fast food or family dining chains.” Cool, huh?
Late Breaking New Leaf
Making a wide range of outstanding organic foods, produce, meats, and artisan products available throughout the Bay Area, New Leaf Community Markets has just signed a lease for a new store to open in August 2017 in Aptos Village. The plan is to expand the current offerings into more freshly prepared foods, including a wok and ramen bar. Can’t wait! Details as they emerge.
Councilmember Micah Posner admitted last month to renting out a shed in his backyard without the proper permits to make the unit habitable under city building codes.
