Santa Cruz’s new downtown library and affordable housing project has hardly been without controversy — but after years of debate, the building is rising, writes affordable housing advocate and former mayor Don Lane. Now the question is less about who supported the project and more about what we want this new civic space to become. With its expanded Life Literacies Center, free resources and room for people to gather, Lane believes the library could become downtown’s living room – and a place to bring a divided community together.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Safety shouldn’t be a luxury: Why Flock and license plate readers can protect vulnerable communities
The debate over Flock and license plate recognition often pits privacy against public safety, but that framing misses those who might benefit most, writes retired engineer and local landlord Darius Mohsenin. For lower-income, immigrant and other vulnerable communities, a stolen car or unresolved burglary can threaten a family’s livelihood, not just its property, he writes. With strict privacy safeguards, transparent oversight and limits on data use, LPR technology can provide a more precise, equitable tool for solving crimes and finding missing people. The question isn’t whether this technology is perfect; it’s whether we can improve and govern it responsibly rather than deny communities a potentially powerful layer of protection.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The cyclospora outbreak isn’t about lettuce. It’s about who is protecting you and your family from disease
The nationwide cyclospora outbreak has sickened thousands, exposing more than a problem with lettuce or one food supplier, writes retired family doctor Jeoffry B. Gordon. Santa Cruz County has had no known cases and contaminated lettuce linked to the outbreak did not come to California — but that should not lull us into complacency. The outbreak, he writes, exposes the consequences of weakened food-safety systems and delayed federal action to trace and contain contamination. He sees food safety as a public responsibility, and he urges readers to demand the resources and oversight needed to keep food safe.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
On Coral Street, police sweeps don’t solve homelessness; they make it invisible
On Coral Street in Santa Cruz, the tents are disappearing — but the people who lived in them have not. As Housing Matters prepares to open 120 units of supportive housing, weekly street sweeps are escalating into daily displacement, writes Kevin Gallagher, who works with the unhoused on Coral Street. A community, he says, cannot call itself compassionate while pushing its most vulnerable people out of sight. Homelessness is not erased when we clear a sidewalk; it is simply moved somewhere we don’t have to see it. He urges city leaders – and all of us – to do better.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Time’s up: Constant development pressure on Santa Cruz’s neighborhoods must be addressed
Santa Cruz mayoral candidate Ryan Coonerty says he will fight against the six-story housing project proposed at Seabright and Soquel. Housing projects outside of downtown should be limited to granny units and modest buildings that are designed at scale with the neighborhood and include reasonable parking and setbacks, writes Coonerty.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
What if $75 could help someone leave the criminal legal system?
A strong reentry plan after time spent in jail can disintegrate over something as small as a phone, a bus ride or a $75 fee, writes Heather Rogers, Santa Cruz County’s public defender. She and her staff of 64 attorneys regularly solve complex problems, but public dollars often can’t cover these immediate, practical needs. That is why she has helped co-found the BRIDGE Foundation, a nonprofit designed to fill gaps in the system and help people overcome small barriers – like access to transportation or fees for an addiction program – that can keep them stuck in the criminal legal system. The BRIDGE Foundation is launching with a fundraiser Thursday in collaboration with the Homeless Garden Project.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Made in Santa Cruz: Why Art Matters | Rhia Hurt
“Made in Santa Cruz: Why Art Matters” is a new video series, published every other Sunday, exploring the artists who shape Santa Cruz County’s creative landscape. Each episode offers a peek into an artist’s practice, the places and experiences that inform their work, and the ways creativity helps us see our community differently. Today’s artist is Watsonville painter and art educator Rhia Hurt.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
California is making progress on fire prevention. Federal retreat, shaky funding put it at risk
California set an ambitious target to reduce wildfire hazards each year and is making real progress, write Bradley Franklin and Kyle Greenspan of the PPIC Water Policy Center. Preserving that momentum as federal partnerships fade and state funding declines is crucial.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz’s Pacific Avenue is starting to look like Everywhere Else
Pacific Avenue once embodied Santa Cruz’s quirky, community-driven spirit, writes UC Santa Cruz student and aspiring writer Carly Pavlin. As chain retailers, including Anthropologie, replace longtime local institutions, she fears that identity is beginning to fade. Here, Pavlin reflects on the downtown she fell in love with four years ago — and asks what kind of city Santa Cruz is becoming. Is Pacific Avenue still Santa Cruz, or is it starting to look like everywhere else?
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Why is a chemical once used in war still sprayed in Santa Cruz County?
For more than 25 years, parents, physicians, researchers and farmworker advocates have warned about pesticide exposure in the Pajaro Valley. So why haven’t Santa Cruz County’s healthcare institutions taken a stand? Local activist Kevin Norton asks why major hospitals and healthcare organizations have remained largely silent on an issue affecting many of their patients — and argues that preventing disease should begin long before someone enters an exam room.
