OPINION: Have we built too much housing in Santa Cruz or not nearly enough? Housing activist and former Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane reminds us that Santa Cruz spent decades limiting growth.
Don Lane
Don Lane is a former mayor of Santa Cruz. He serves on the governing boards of Housing Santa Cruz County and Housing Matters and has been a homeowner for 40 years.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Getting our housing facts straight before Santa Cruz votes
Housing is taking center stage in Santa Cruz County’s June primaries and November elections, writes housing activist and former Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane. He worries that community debates are often clouded by misinformation. Here, he argues that many new downtown Santa Cruz developments are in fact affordable and part of a long-overdue housing push. He points to decades of underbuilding as the root of today’s shortage and rising costs. As voters head to the polls, he urges a fact-based conversation about who gets to live in the community.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I hope my UCSC class will help our community conversation on addressing homelessness
Housing advocate Don Lane has invited journalist and author Brian Barth to talk to the community – and to his class of 25 UC Santa Cruz students studying homelessness – to discuss why encampments exist and what we should do about them. He hopes the Feb. 27 event at the downtown library will help deepen our understanding of the issue and involve the next generation in finding solutions.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
No, Measure C isn’t a ‘Keeley project’ — and the City of Santa Cruz is keeping its housing promises
Former Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane pushes back on Keven Cook’s recent commentary, arguing that Cook misrepresents the origins and intent of Measure C and ignores the coalition that created it. He points to Santa Cruz’s affordable housing record and rejects claims that the city misuses housing funds.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Yes on Santa Cruz’s Measure C: Let’s not let the perfect be the enemy of the good
OPINION: Measure C might not be perfect, but it will create needed affordable housing in Santa Cruz, writes former Santa Cruz mayor and housing advocate Don Lane. He refutes a recent op-ed by resident Keven Cook questioning loopholes in the measure and encourages the community to support it.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
A Santa Cruz affordable housing primer – and why Measure C makes sense
Santa Cruz is on track to add nearly 900 truly affordable apartments — well short of what’s needed for teachers, servers, health care workers and longtime unhoused neighbors, writes housing advocate and former Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane. He advocates for Measure C on the November ballot.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Let’s stick to facts when we talk about our unhoused problem
Don Lane, former Santa Cruz mayor and a longtime community housing advocate, takes issue with a recent Lookout op-ed on the unhoused. Lane acknowledges some points but pushes back on many of the underlying assumptions, particularly that the city is a “magnet” for people from other places seeking housing.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Finger-pointing at Coral Street – here’s why a homeless encampment lasted for so long in Santa Cruz
An encampment of about 40 to 60 people popped up on Coral Street in the spring and lasted for months before Santa Cruz police cleared it. Why did it take so long? Housing activist and former Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane unpacks the complex reasons.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
No on Measure M: Let’s not make it harder to build affordable housing
Santa Cruz – like all cities in California – is required to plan for thousands of units of housing: If we make it harder to go higher and denser downtown, builders will look to other areas – closer to other neighborhoods – to put multistory apartments.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Propaganda or propaganda? Yet another response to Santa Cruz’s dangerous and senseless ballot Measure M
“If you run around crying ‘fire’ through the neighborhood after the fire department has already put out the fire, you are probably unnecessarily scaring people. One might even call that a ‘scare tactic,’” Don Lane writes in his latest piece decrying the upcoming Santa Cruz ballot initiative Measure M and refuting its chief proponent, Frank Barron, a retired environmental planner.