In a letter to the editor, a Live Oak resident takes issue with those urging regional transit authorities to bury existing train tracks under upcoming segments of the Coastal Rail Trail instead of removing them.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
A Lookout View: After the Moss Landing fire, the public deserves answers — not silence
“We know investigations often lag, but the lack of clear information leads us to ask troubling questions,” the Lookout Editorial Board writes more than a year after the massive fire at the Moss Landing battery storage plant. “Why has it been so hard to get consistent answers from the officials charged with protecting the public?”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Federal cuts put Watsonville Community Hospital at risk. Partnership is the way forward.
Watsonville Community Hospital reflects the growing fragility of Santa Cruz County’s health care system, strained by rising costs, workforce shortages and declining reimbursements. Despite real progress since becoming community-owned in 2022, Stephen Gray, the hospital’s CEO, writes that new federal Medicaid cuts are projected to cost the hospital up to $10 million annually, threatening local access to care. Measure N has funded critical facility upgrades, he writes, but state law prevents those dollars from covering staffing or service losses caused by federal cuts. To protect and expand health care services, the Pajaro Valley Health Care District is now actively seeking a strategic operating partner to ensure long-term stability. He insists the hospital will work to preserve local oversight.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Housing Matters has lost its way
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident outlines what he sees as homelessness nonprofit Housing Matters losing its way.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Lookout missed important stories
In a letter to the editor, an Aptos resident takes Lookout to task for what he sees as important local news stories left uncovered.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We’re reducing homelessness in Santa Cruz County; now we must fight to keep the funding
Santa Cruz County is bucking national trends, significantly reducing homelessness through sustained investment, coordination and compassion, writes Mer Stafford, the chair of the Coalition to End Homelessness in Santa Cruz County. But, with this year’s point-in-time count happening Thursday, those gains are now at risk as state and federal funding for housing and homelessness programs face deep cuts. Losing this support would push hundreds of people back into homelessness and undo years of hard-won progress. Stafford urges residents to contact local and state leaders to protect the funding that’s working.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Sweeping encampments to ‘reduce’ homelessness is a Santa Cruz numbers game — not a solution
Clearing the Coral Street encampment days before the point-in-time count won’t house anyone — it just hides the problem, writes Food Not Bombs founder Keith McHenry. By scattering unhoused people out of sight, the City of Santa Cruz can claim progress while worsening daily survival. McHenry writes that he sees up to 200 people every week in rising meal lines in the city and folks complaining about lost tents and property. If Santa Cruz wants honest data and real solutions, he believes we have to stop mistaking displacement for success.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Water decides who wins in California – that’s why I wrote my new novel
OPINION: After a decade of research and writing, Santa Cruz author Victoria Tatum is preparing for the release of her second novel, “More Than Any River,” which transforms California’s water wars into a human story rooted in the Central Valley.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Let’s decriminalize mental illness: Santa Cruz doesn’t need a mental health jail
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Chris Clark has floated the idea of a new “mental health jail,” pointing to the high number of incarcerated people on psychiatric medication. But jail is not treatment, and incarceration only deepens trauma and mental illness, write Kasi Tkaczyk and Julia Gratton.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Senate should pass Kayla Hamilton Act to prevent tragedies
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident urges the U.S. Senate to pass a law he says will help fix deadly flaws.