Reggie Meisler, an advocate for the unhoused, has a simple message for the California Coastal Commission members set to vote Thursday on the validity of Santa Cruz’s contentious oversized vehicle ordinance: Be wary. The city, he writes, has “had numerous opportunities to practice restraint” in ticketing and towing vulnerable people and has repeatedly proved itself untrustworthy. He says the ordinance is “discriminatory” and makes the lives of needy people worse.
Reggie Meisler
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz must end unlawful harassment of people living in vehicles
Activist Reggie Meisler — along with 11 local organizations and 38 activists — says the City of Santa Cruz is issuing unlawful parking tickets and illegitimate abandoned-vehicle notices that unfairly target people living in vehicles along Delaware Avenue and surrounding streets near Natural Bridges State Beach. The city, he charges, does not have proper permission from the California Coastal Commission to limit parking in these areas. “These parking signs,” he concludes, “should be unenforceable.” He wants the city to stop this practice, which puts an unfair burden on those who are most needy.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We are voting for Justin Cummings; Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson’s policies are detrimental to the unhoused
Santa Cruz Cares is against the choices the Santa Cruz City Council has made on dealing with our community’s unhoused. This includes the clearing of the Benchlands encampment and the oversized vehicle ordinance — both of which, its members write, they believe harm the unhoused unfairly and don’t offer viable, lasting or empathetic solutions to their plight. They feel Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson’s record of voting for these policies make her a poor candidate for Santa Cruz County 3rd District Supervisor. They have endorsed Justin Cummings.