Eastside / Live Oak / Pleasure Point

Eastside Santa Cruz, Live Oak and Pleasure Point neighborhoods
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices

Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley’s tax doesn’t put community first

by Hector Marin

Santa Cruz’s proposed “Workforce Housing Affordability Act,” led by Mayor Fred Keeley, is a top-down, consultant-driven tax plan that lacks genuine community input, writes activist Hector Marin. He argues the $96 parcel tax and tiered real estate transfer tax are regressive, with unclear enforcement and little assurance they will deliver true affordable housing. The initiative, he writes, fails to meet the real needs of working families seeking homeownership and stability and the public should reject it in November.

Posted inLatest News

Carmageddon: RTC’s $4.3B passenger rail plans to face scrutiny in pair of public meetings this week

by Max Chun

After the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission holds an information session on Monday focused on both ridership projections and project costs associated with its ambitious passenger rail project, it will give a presentation on the draft concept report for the project as it aims for the final report’s completion this fall.

Posted inPolitics & Policy

Encompass closes one mental health site, another at risk as budget cuts loom

Tania Ortiz by Tania Ortiz and Christopher Neely

Encompass Community Services, Santa Cruz County’s largest nonprofit provider of behavioral mental health residential programs, says its Casa Pacific facility in Watsonville is at risk of closure as a result of funding cuts from the county. The nonprofit has already closed its Live Oak crisis mental health facility for the same reasons.

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