At a time when the powers that be think it’s a good thing to sell public spaces to oil companies, we’d better cherish what we have in the way of beautiful nature preserves.
And here’s our newest, the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument, which hiking master Richard Stockton thinks is so beautiful, it’s like a vision.
“Is there something special about this place, or are we hallucinating?” Stockton asked Zachary Ormsby, Bureau of Land Management field manager for the newly opened park.
“You’re good,” he answered. “The topography can have you in a well-protected corridor on those grasslands and then you come out of that and get a blast of wind. Loop One takes you in and out of a riparian depression and then you take a hard left at the base of the coastal terrace where the wind blows in off the ocean. Yeah, it is a special place; hiking here is what I do on my time off.”
Have you been yet? When I tell my friends the best things about Santa Cruz, of which there are so many, one of the first is that nature is preserved and sacred here. We can hop over to the preserved Marine Sanctuary or pop over in the other direction to giant redwood forests. A day doesn’t go by that I’m not thankful for it all.
I’ve lived all over the country and there’s nothing comparable. In New York, you have to be rich to access nature and you have to drive a lot. We would wake up at 5am to get to the beach without numbing traffic. And at what we called a beach, there were blasting boom boxes, people packed tight like it was Coachella, and vendors hawking their loose joints or junk food like it was Yankee Stadium.
Our nature here makes me feel like a millionaire on the cheap. Until you can get out to the Cotoni-Coast Dairies yourself, you can warm up with our cover story, which takes you on a hike and prepares you for your own. Clip it and save it as your personal guide.
One of my favorite seafood restaurants in Watsonville gets overlooked because it’s not on the ocean. But La Perla Del Pacifico has been a jewel of the Watsonville dining scene for the last 35 years. Its owners had only planned to stay a couple of years. Check out their story in our Foodie File by Andrew Steingrube.
In the not-good-times news department, after voters passed a bond to help Watsonville Hospital, a crucial health center in our growing county, now it’s threatened by federal cuts. It’s something we have to save for the whole county, which is already short of healthcare.
Who knew Martinelli’s cider has been here since before the Civil War, with its “drink your apple a day” catch phrase? You’ll learn more in Mark C. Anderson’s dining column.
Enjoy your shortened week and our real summer weather.
Brad Kava | Editor
PHOTO CONTEST
GOOD VIBES The huge crowd of music lovers enjoying the final Midtown Summer Concert of 2025. Photograph by Maria Choy
GOOD IDEA
Do you make movies? Santa Cruz is having a Halloween movie-making contest with three categories: Horror Short Original, Horror Scene Remake Challenge and Halloween Music Video. Teams must be registered by Sept. 5, 11:59pm (1 minute before midnight). Films must be uploaded to YouTube before 11:59pm on Oct. 3. For rules and info, go to NelsonCenter.com This year’s required compulsory elements for the Original Horror Short: Name (a character or used in dialogue): Milo; Prop: Clock; Line of Dialogue: “Don’t forget to smile.” Sounds awesome.
GOOD WORK
The project to construct northbound and southbound auxiliary lanes and bus-on-shoulder improvements on Highway 1, between the Bay Avenue/Porter Street and State Park Drive interchanges, is ongoing and there are updates regarding the ramp closures.
The three Park Avenue ramps, which are currently closed, will REOPEN on Friday, Sept. 5, at 6am.
The long-term closure of the Bay Avenue/Porter Street ramps, which was originally scheduled to begin on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 9pm has been POSTPONED. A new date for the closure will be announced in advance of the construction.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
‘All governments suffer a recurring problem: power attracts pathological personalities.’ —Frank Herbert
