A reality check for Mountain Charlie residents
Nestled high up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a colossal road collapse has disrupted the lives of dozens of families, some of whom have been completely isolated, for more than four months. Now, as summer brings heatwaves and wind gusts similar to what we saw over the weekend, residents’ complaints have evolved from extended commutes into matters of potential life and death.
Last month, some residents agreed to meet me where a February landslide took out Mountain Charlie Road, a five-mile thoroughfare that winds along the west side of Highway 17, connecting Glenwood Drive to Summit Road. The damage was jarring. The road led to a yawning canyon of broken asphalt, concrete and dirt, as if someone had just removed all of the supports beneath the road and let it collapse.
Since April, a group of neighbors have attended every county board of supervisors meeting to urge their elected officials to prioritize a repair. Those appeals grew increasingly urgent over the last couple months, especially as it became clear the supervisors would choose to not fund the repair in the most recent budget. The 2023 and 2024 winter storms put a strain on the county’s finances, and the elected leaders ultimately decided there were other, more urgent priorities.
Last week, after months of vague surmisings and head scratching, Mountain Charlie neighbors received their clearest diagnosis yet, but the news hit like a reality check. During a virtual town hall with residents, county officials put the rosiest timeline for a permanent fix at three years. Michel Pharand, a resident who lives close to the slide, emailed me after the meeting: “The timeline doesn’t sit well with me or others.”
Of Note
HipCamp proposal holstered: A proposed county policy change that would have made it easier for owners of large private properties to rent out their land as recreational campsites was tabled by the board of supervisors last week. The program, proposed by District 2 Supervisor Zach Friend, spurred a furious rebuttal from residents in the CZU burn scar who argued that a policy that expands camping options also expands wildfire risk. The supervisors said they would revisit the proposal if a similar state bill, SB 620, first found support in Sacramento.
Clocktower Center continues to collect community criticism: But it wasn’t all opposition at last week’s virtual town hall meeting. Wednesday’s meeting was the second opportunity for residents to weigh in on Workbench’s Clocktower Center, the mixed-use residential project envisioned behind the town clock in Downtown Santa Cruz that could reach 16 stories and 260 housing units. Over the course of an hour, people voiced their discomforts with welcoming such an incongruously large development into the city. However, the project heard from its supporters as well. Several people emphasized that if Santa Cruz wants to no longer occupy the top spot among the country’s most unaffordable housing markets, the county needs big, dense projects like the Clocktower Center.
Looking Ahead
Homelessness emergency meeting tonight: Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that cities and counties can enforce anti-camping bans, even if they do not have available shelter space. The ruling has upended the legal landscape that local jurisdictions operated under for the past few years. On Monday night, a group led by Food Not Bombs founder and homelessness advocate Keith McHenry has scheduled an “emergency meeting” outside Santa Cruz City Hall to discuss the implications of the ruling. The meeting will kick off at 6 p.m.
Supervisors and city councils take the week off: No city councils, nor the board of supervisors, will meet this week. The supervisors and the Santa Cruz City Council begin their annual July summer recess and will not be back in session until August.
Weekly News Diet
Local: At two meetings last week, county residents overwhelmingly favored light rail and multiple-unit vehicles for a planned future passenger rail project. As my colleague Max Chun reports, the government agencies leading the rail-trail project will now study whether those car types can work on the envisioned rail system.
Golden State: In the wake of last week’s Grants Pass v. Johnson Supreme Court decision, San Francisco politicians said they were still reviewing how the ruling impacted their ability to address homelessness. According to a report from J.D. Morris, Bob Egelko and Kevin Fagain for the San Francisco Chronicle, city officials said they plan to use their new powers to escalate homeless camp sweeps.
Global: After France’s far-right party, the National Rally, won big in the European Parliament election, French President Emmanuel Macron decided to test how popular the NR’s anti-immigrant sentiments were among voters. Macron dissolved France’s Parliament and called an election for the country’s legislative branch. Macron’s move has been widely criticized as brazen and too much of a gamble. On Monday, first round tallies showed the NR party surging into first place, with 33% of the vote, while Macron’s more centrist Renaissance party, fell to third place with 20%. According to the New York Times’ Roger Cohen, a new era of conservatism appears ahead in France.
One Urgent Read
To serve his country, President Biden should leave the race, By the New York Times Editorial Board
Crisis, panic and disaster have been the buzzwords among Democrats following an objectively disappointing (to put it lightly) performance from President Joe Biden in his debate with former president Donald Trump. After the fog of knee-jerk pundit reactions settled in the days after the debate, the New York Times Editorial Board published its take: Biden needs to step down.
The editorial board emphasized that, if Biden decides to stay in the race, he would be the board’s “unequivocal pick” for president, but they continued to make the argument for him to relent.
“To make a call for a new Democratic nominee this late in a campaign is a decision not taken lightly, but it reflects the scale and seriousness of Mr. Trump’s challenge to the values and institutions of this country and the inadequacy of Mr. Biden to confront him.”
I’d love to hear what readers of In The Public Interest think about Biden’s performance and his ability to fend off a Trump challenge.