In this first part of a three-part Sunday series, Lookout digs into the questions surrounding homelessness in Santa Cruz County. First up, how has a beautiful place with a progressive and generous population become a statewide epicenter for the needy?
Coast Life
Posted inCoast Life
Icons of Santa Cruz: The centurion of West Cliff Drive
Who are the people and what are the places or things that are immediately identifiable with Santa Cruz County? Our county’s longest-serving journalist, Wallace Baine, launches Lookout’s new series with a deep dive on the history of our most recognizable icon: the surfer statue.
Posted inCoast Life
Santa Cruz City Council urges rejection of plans to stop freight service in county
Regional Transportation Commission officials have floated an idea to foreclose freight on the Santa Cruz and Felton lines to potentially make commuter rail more financially viable. Roaring Camp, however, says the RTC has promised to keep the lines open for freight, and not doing so could hurt its business. Though it would have no formal impact, the Santa Cruz City Council sided with Roaring Camp Tuesday.
Posted inCoast Life
It’s coyote mating season, and in my neighborhood that means trouble
From spraying the yard with wolf urine, boarding up the doggy door and posting flashing red “predator eyes” on fences and trees, here’s one writer’s experience that many in Santa Cruz County can relate to.
Posted inCoast Life
Wallace Baine: The ‘Maus’ that roared and its author’s little-known connection to Santa Cruz
There are lessons to be learned from a book-banning attempt in a rural Southern county, and it all somehow relates back to this place, where freedom of expression is always top of mind. Like most such efforts, it has had the absolute opposite effect of what was originally intended.
Posted inCoast Life
Big job at a tough time: Cal Fire’s new leader talks about the challenges of wildfire defense
The new leader of Cal Fire in Santa Cruz County, Nate Armstrong, is making a few changes, while insisting that the statewide agency’s “aggressive initial attack” philosophy and other core principles are not his to change and were in place during the devastation of the CZU fires and the criticism that followed.
Posted inCoast Life
Wallace Baine: Drop the remote — the cure for our latest viral malaise awaits us right outside the door
Whether it’s the quality of the air on a hike in the redwoods, the high clouds and low angles giving the season’s light a unique character or a different tone in the ocean’s roar, getting out into our life-affirming Monterey Bay winter is a balm we’re lucky to have.
Posted inCoast Life
Surfing during a tsunami? Here’s why some foolish Santa Cruzans like me would do such a thing
Yes, I was one of them Saturday morning at Pleasure Point — amid a sea of high school surf contestants. But there are reasons that some of us Santa Cruz folks are different than others and would want to put themselves out there into nature’s grasp with little to go on. We’re a bit different when it comes to pushing the envelope.
Posted inCoast Life
Santa Cruz tells Food Not Bombs it’s time to go: Lot 27 being cleared by city to make room for construction
Homelessness advocate Keith McHenry said “it’s an insane time” for the city to try to evict his group and the homeless campers who have used the parking lot as safe harbor. The city says a construction project will begin and it’s no longer safe.
Posted inCoast Life
Wallace Baine: Goodbye to India Joze, a restaurant that reflected Santa Cruz back to itself for 50 years
India Joze, Santa Cruz’s eclectic culinary cultural exchange, has closed its brick-and-mortar operation along Front Street, giving way to riverfront development. But there’s time for one last stroll through the colorful history of Jozseph Schultz’s local legacy.