It’s time to bring back contact visits to those incarcerated in our jails. Not allowing face-to-face visits harms families and especially kids, who can’t understand what happened to their parents or loved ones. Our county, which prides itself on forward thinking, needs to side with research and make good on promises by our top elected officials. We know staffing is an issue in our jails, but the sheriff’s department needs to make contact visits a priority.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Teachers like me need affordable housing now – 2027 is too late
Middle school science teacher Christy Fairbairn loves her job and wants to stay in Santa Cruz County, but she and her husband, an ecologist, can’t afford the high rents. Too many fantastic teachers and staff, she writes, are leaving our community because of the high cost of living. To keep our schools thriving, she says teachers and school staff need workplace housing now.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Stop antisemitism in UCSC protests
In a letter to the editor, a UC Santa Cruz alumnus writes that “pro-Palestinian” demonstrators calling for the school to cut ties with Hillel and other Jewish organizations “is antisemitism pure and simple.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Congrats, Lookout and Ken Doctor
In a letter to the editor, an Oregon resident and former colleague of Lookout founder Ken Doctor congratulates Lookout on its Pulitzer Prize.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
West Cliff Drive: The city council approved the vision, but we still have far to go to achieve real safety for pedestrians and cyclists
Stephen Svete and Amelia Conlen, board members of Bike Santa Cruz County, support making West Cliff Drive a one-way roadway while expanding right-of-way infrastructure for pedestrians and bikers. They were disappointed on April 9 when the Santa Cruz City Council did not move forward with city staff’s two-year pilot grant application recommendation, but are heartened that the overall vision was approved. Their nonprofit organization will continue to advocate for less vehicle traffic along the iconic coastal corridor.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Watch out for Workbench revisions in Food Bin project
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident relays a previous experience with developer Workbench he says should put neighbors of the Westside Food Bin project on notice.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I’m learning to live like a widow – and I do not like it
Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach lost her beloved husband, Michael, on Feb. 25. In her first column since taking a break to grieve, she writes about the first days and months after he died, why she no longer can watch “Jeopardy!” and why books and piles of laundry give her solace in the night. She is chronicling her journey as a widow and sharing her questions as she tries to find a new normal.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Laird: It’s a ‘simple act of fairness’ to approve cannabis dispensary at former Emily’s Bakery site
Despite school officials’ opposition, state Sen. John Laird supports the creation of a cannabis dispensary at the former Emily’s Bakery in Santa Cruz. In a Community Voices opinion piece, he outlines his reasoning and his historical connection to some of the partners in the project.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Remembering Zainab Mansoor
Tae Yun Kang, a first-year literature and linguistics student at UC Santa Cruz, remembers fellow student Zainab Mansoor, 21, as kind, compassionate and someone uniquely able to make strangers feel welcome. Mansoor died in February and police have arrested her boyfriend, a former UCSC student, on charges of homicide. Here, Tae Yun writes about meeting Zainab, why she misses her and looks for people like her in all her classes.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Watsonville airport runway is not auxiliary
In a letter to the editor, a Scotts Valley resident writes that the runway at Watsonville Municipal Airport being considered for closure is anything but auxiliary.