As the flooded Soquel Creek threatened local restaurant Tortilla Flats, strangers stopped in to see if they could offer sandbags or help shovel sand into them; next-door business owners who rarely strayed over came to check in. The word “village” in Soquel Village was suddenly taking on new meaning.
Mark Conley
Follow Mark Conley on: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Mark joins Lookout after 14 years at the Mercury News and Bay Area News Group, where he served as Deputy Sports Editor on a staff that covered three World Series, three Super Bowls, five NBA Finals, a Stanley Cup Final, six Olympic Games and three U.S. Opens over that span. He led enterprise coverage and special projects, and guided the Merc’s premium NFL and MLB magazines to five straight years of top APSE honors.Mark chaired a digital innovation committee and partook in the Table Stakes program that led to the newsroom’s establishment of a digital subscription team and a product development approach to coverage. He helped build brands around Pac-12 and high schools coverage via robust newsletters, social engagement, promotional deals and targeted audience content. Both coverage areas became top digital subscription drivers in the sports department — and the newsroom as a whole.Mark has lived in Santa Cruz County — Westside, Eastside, Midtown and now Capitola — for more than 20 years and has a passion for seeing journalism restored in the place he lives and loves.“This county is such a special place, and it’s as much about the people who choose to live here as the magical geography,” he says. “I’m looking forward to helping tell the stories of Santa Cruz County.”
Posted inLookout PM Archive
Lookout PM: Storm updates, Mad Yolks’ breakfast sandwiches, and a look at back-of-house restaurant workers
Storm Central keeps you updated as we watch, wait and assess. Check back here as Lookout correspondents reach out across…
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Capitola Wharf taking a beating, Esplanade taking on water
The worst of possibilities, a massive swell peaking just as the tide was at its highest, may have been avoided in Capitola. But the wharf and Village were still under siege from an angry Pacific Ocean as city workers made efforts to minimize the damage.
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Lookout PM: A note from Ken Doctor, more storm coverage as ocean hits the coastline hard
Storm Central keeps you updated as we watch, wait and assess. Check back here as Lookout correspondents reach out across…
Posted inLatest News
As Mother Nature stirs, Capitola braces for a surging Soquel Creek, Thursday’s XL swell
Capitola Village, sitting closer to the Pacific Ocean than any other local area, knows when its in harm’s way. With a massive northwest swell projected to send large waves crashing into its decreasing shoreline Thursday, those who work closest to that meeting of land and sea were watching closely on Wednesday morning.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Unsung Santa Cruz: With a name like Strongheart, showing other vulnerable youth how to thrive comes naturally
It’s been a decade since Ooli Strongheart, then 15, found a safe haven for transition-age youth (TAY) that helped fill in many of the missing gaps from a childhood devoid of love and support, filled with trauma and fear. Soon to be a UC Santa Cruz graduate, the former foster and homeless youth is passionate about giving back to the program — now aptly known as the ‘Thrive Hive’ — that has helped them recognize their purpose and potential in this world.
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Lookout PM: Storm coverage and guide, Chill Out Café and Golden City close, Unsung Santa Cruz continues
Storm Central keeps you updated as we watch, wait and assess. Check back here as Lookout correspondents reach out across…
Posted inLatest News
Santa Cruz County Storm Central: The latest on the winter storms, swell damage
Storm Central keeps you updated as we watch, wait and assess. Check back here as Lookout correspondents reach out across the county and stay close to the county’s emergency operations centers to bring you the latest through the day.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Unsung Santa Cruz: As the navigator in chief, he’s helping steer county’s most vulnerable into housing
John Dietz is not your average 85-year-old riding out his golden years. He and his team at the downtown Santa Cruz library work diligently to help house folks who might otherwise be deemed off-limits by landlords. They help find important paperwork, fill out forms and prepare for housing interviews. Once those clients are in, the team helps them remain stable. If and when they lose that roof overhead, Dietz and his team try, try again.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
‘The world is missing something without him’: Santa Cruz memorializes its unhoused fatalities
COVID wiped out the annual community celebration of homeless lives lost for two straight years. Wednesday marked its return and a packed Vets Hall illustrated the number of others affected by those losses — 137 people who had been unhoused at some point in 2022, 91 of whom lost their lives while deemed officially homeless.