A massive builder’s remedy project proposed at 3500 Paul Sweet Rd. in Live Oak would rise 82 feet beside Dominican Oaks retirement community, putting hundreds of elderly residents at risk, writes Virginia Lieb, who lives in the complex. State law allows counties like Santa Cruz County to deny such projects when they pose unmitigable threats to health and safety – and this one, she believes, does. She fears the recent approval of a project at 841 Capitola Rd. suggests local officials are backing down under the threat of lawsuits from developers like Workbench. Approving unsafe housing isn’t housing justice — it’s a failure of leadership that puts vulnerable residents in harm’s way, she writes.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Developers want to build at Capitola Mall, but where will kids go to school?
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident asks why local governments aren’t enacting regulations to tie funding for education and health care to development approvals.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Let’s design streets for people, not cars – Vision Zero can’t wait, too many in Santa Cruz County are dying
After losing his 19-year-old friend in a crash — and surviving one himself — local activist Kevin Norton argues that traffic deaths aren’t accidents, but the result of street design prioritizing cars over people. In Santa Cruz County, deaths and serious injuries happen every two days, yet real safety fixes like protected bike lanes crawl forward. Santa Cruz County has the deadliest streets for cycling in the state, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. The uncomfortable truth, writes Norton, is that saving lives will be inconvenient for drivers, will remove parking and anger some. But he believes protecting feelings matters less than protecting lives. He calls on both elected leaders and the community to move faster on Vision Zero.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz County votes early and often — our tradition could be in jeopardy this November
Michael Polhamus argues that Santa Cruz County’s strong tradition of high voter turnout — largely driven by vote-by-mail and same-day registration — is at risk due to proposed federal Republican legislation that would require proof of citizenship and photo ID to register and vote. He contends these measures, framed as election security, would disproportionately disenfranchise groups common in Santa Cruz County, including young voters, students, low-income residents and people without easy access to legal documents. He urges residents to prepare now by registering early and securing documents such as birth certificates, passports and state-issued photo ID to ensure their votes can still be counted in November.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I love watching the Olympics — but the older I get the more terrifying it is
“There was a little compartment in my brain that thought if I pushed just a little harder, I could be one of them,” Tiffany Gee Lewis writes of watching Olympians compete. But as she nears 50, “where I used to see indomitable spirit, now I just see an emergency room.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I hope my UCSC class will help our community conversation on addressing homelessness
Housing advocate Don Lane has invited journalist and author Brian Barth to talk to the community – and to his class of 25 UC Santa Cruz students studying homelessness – to discuss why encampments exist and what we should do about them. He hopes the Feb. 27 event at the downtown library will help deepen our understanding of the issue and involve the next generation in finding solutions.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Finding female friends over 50 is hard – but I’m starting a Santa Cruz group. Want to join?
Making new friends after 50 is tough, writes Lida Berliner, especially in a beautiful place like Santa Cruz County, socially rich. But loneliness is real, particularly, she says, for women who, like her, have divorced, raised kids, cared for an aging parent and started over more than once. Berliner has a life partner, but is missing strong connections with female friends. That is why she is launching a local chapter of the national group Finding Female Friends Over 50. If you’re craving a lunch buddy, a biking partner or simply someone to share life’s foibles with, she hopes you’ll join.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Our coast can’t afford offshore drilling
In a letter to the editor, Morganna Johnson of Surfrider Santa Cruz outlines how disastrous offshore oil drilling could be for Santa Cruz County and California’s Central Coast and urges readers to oppose the proposed expansion.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I grew up in an education desert but made it to UCSC – rural California needs funding so students can thrive
Ava Thornock grew up in Amador County, an education desert three hours from Santa Cruz that has no local college and limited internet access. She saw firsthand how rural students are cut off from opportunity. She is now a second-year student studying biochemistry at UC Santa Cruz, where academic access reshaped her future and career goals. Here, Thornock details how distance, poverty, staffing shortages and transportation barriers keep many rural students from higher education. With looming state and federal cuts, she argues that California must invest more in rural schools and community colleges so more students can succeed.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Let’s keep the tracks
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident urges Mayor Fred Keeley to support a rail trail option that doesn’t involve removing the existing train tracks.