Lookout politics columnist and former five-time mayor of Santa Cruz Mike Rotkin is a bit annoyed by what he is reading in Lookout and other publications about homelessness. He thinks the city is doing a good job overall, but says it could tend more carefully to needed repairs in shelters, particularly showers. The homeless problem in Santa Cruz is not a lack of beds or affordable housing, he writes. It’s bigger.
Mike Rotkin
Mike Rotkin is a former five-time mayor of the City of Santa Cruz. He serves on the Regional Transportation Commission and the Santa Cruz Metro Transit board and teaches local politics and history classes at UC Santa Cruz.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
November elections are coming – are you ready?
Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin recently unplugged on a three-day backpacking trip in Big Sur. It got him thinking about the importance of recharging before November’s local and national elections. Santa Cruz will elect two new supervisors to the county board and shake up its current makeup, while Watsonville and Scotts Valley will elect new city councilmembers. Nationally, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will try to keep Donald Trump and JD Vance from a second term. Rotkin asks readers both to relax and get geared up for November, to make a plan for engagement.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Free speech and civil disobedience – let’s get the differences straight at UCSC protests
Lookout politics columnist and former Santa Cruz mayor Mike Rotkin has been arrested “about a dozen times,” including during the war in Vietnam and during the Civil Rights Movement. Here, he offers advice to UCSC students on what he has learned about police action, arrests and the legal consequences of taking a moral stand.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The Santa Cruz Pride committee made a bad decision in not allowing sheriff’s office a place in this year’s parade
Mike Rotkin recalls a time when the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office refused to hire openly gay, lesbian or bisexual applicants, and says he recognizes that some in the county as a whole have a jaundiced view of law enforcement. But, he writes, the current sheriff’s office has shown its support for the LGBTQ+ community, and particularly with members of that community among sheriff’s deputies, refusing them a spot in this month’s Santa Cruz Pride parade was “a tragic missed opportunity.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
How did we get to the homelessness problem of today and what is next?
Homelessness didn’t just happen. It came about through government choice and policy, writes Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin, a five-time Santa Cruz mayor. Here, Rotkin leads us through how unhoused policies shifted starting in the 1970s and offers his read on what we need now.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Election denial is not happening just among Trump supporters: We are seeing it in Santa Cruz County on rail trail
Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin is tired of hearing people make excuses for the June 2022 defeat of Measure D. It’s the “issue that won’t die,” he says. But he insists the facts are clear: Santa Cruz County voters do not want to tear up the train tracks in the corridor owned by the Regional Transportation Commission. They want a permanent trail with a future train running next to it.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Are West Cliff neighbors ready for the influx of traffic if 50-year ‘vision’ is approved by city council Tuesday? I don’t think so.
The Santa Cruz City Council is set to make a big decision Tuesday on whether West Cliff Drive should be a one-way street, writes Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin. But not only do too few people know about the vote, the data the councilmembers are using to get neighborhood feedback is also flawed, he says. He leans on his 26 years of experience on the Santa Cruz City Council to suggest that neighbors will not like the changes in traffic patterns and that the vote should be delayed.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Supervisors’ deadlock on rail trail shows Measure D fight is not over: I urge action to get needed state funding
Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin, who sits on the Regional Transportation Commission board, says the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors’ split on advancing two segments of the rail trail in Mid-County is a lose-lose for the county. He sees it as a stunning disregard of the June 2022 Measure D vote and urges the community to let the two supervisors (Manu Koenig and Bruce McPherson) who voted against advancing the segments hear their frustration.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz County voters feel good about our government – that is the lesson I take from March 5 elections
Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin sees a clear message from Santa Cruz County voters: They are not looking for big change. The top vote-getters among county supervisor candidates all have government experience – or endorsements from those in power. One change Rotkin is celebrating, however, is electing at least one woman – and quite likely two – to the board of supervisors in November.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Here’s what the Santa Cruz city election results say about growth, labor, the unhoused and door hangers
Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin offers his read on the Santa Cruz city elections and the slate of pragmatic candidates who won.