Medi-Cal dental benefits are again at risk amid a challenging statewide fiscal outlook, writes Dientes CEO Laura Marcus. For Santa Cruz County — where roughly one-third of residents rely on Medi-Cal — potential cuts would directly affect access to essential dental care.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz houses 73% of homeless shelter beds in the county. That has to change.
Santa Cruz shoulders an outsized share of the county’s shelter beds, safe-parking sites and day services, despite making up less than a quarter of the population, writes local activist Kevin Norton.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
California should tax million-dollar, part-time homes to help first-gen students get to college
First-generation students lack the extra help with exams and college applications that rich kids’ families can buy. A new program and tax could change that, writes Alondra Martinez, a Stanford University senior.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Organophosphates are obsolete. Why are we still spraying them on our fields and endangering kids?
OPINION: Science has long warned that organophosphate pesticides damage developing brains, especially in pregnant women and children, writes local activist Kathleen Kilpatrick. Yet the Monterey Bay region remains a hotspot for exposure, with some of the highest rates in California.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
California’s water partnerships are effective and in danger
Federal cuts imperil government and private water partnerships and hobble disaster planning, writes Letitia Grenier and Jeff Mount of the PPIC Water Policy Center. California must maintain its water expertise.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Five years post-CZU fire, county bureaucracy continues to sabotage my rebuild — it’s a warning for all Californians
OPINION: Five years after the CZU fire, Army veteran Justin Walker says Santa Cruz County has blocked his family’s rebuild through shifting rules, repeated geologic demands and legal stonewalling.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
What if Santa Cruz became the most sustainable city on Earth?
OPINION: Santa Cruz climate advocate Danielle Lanyard argues that the city is uniquely positioned to become a global model of ecological innovation by stitching together proven sustainability solutions from around the world.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: We must do better with housing and teachers
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident expresses dismay about the local housing market and about teacher salaries.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: The county must provide better mail options for unhoused residents
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident criticizes the county for not doing enough for the unhoused population.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Santa Cruz must stop sweeping unhoused residents away and find real solutions
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident decries what he sees as the city’s dehumanizing approach to the unhoused population.