Five years later, CZU “Renegades” still have not convinced first responders
Over the past month, I’ve been visiting Bonny Doon to hear stories about the “Renegades,” a dispersed group of Santa Cruz Mountains residents who defied evacuation orders during the CZU wildfire to defend their neighborhoods from incineration.
In the eyes of mountain residents, the story of the Renegades is one of heroism. The CZU fire burned over a thousand structures in Santa Cruz County, and without the libertarian efforts of the Renegades, dozens if not over a 100 more people would have lost their homes. The teams, as varied and unconnected as the neighborhoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains, cut fire breaks, felled trees, doused gables and vigilantly hosed small fires as the blaze crept toward homes.
Despite that success, professional first responders still say it was a mistake for the Renegades to stay behind.
“The thought of someone, that they’re going to stay and save their house still happens on occasion, but it’s kind of like when you hear that someone got into a car accident and was somehow saved by not wearing a seatbelt,” James Allen, Cal Fire’s chief deputy of the CZU unit, told me. “Maybe you get lucky in some of those situations but the risk is so high.”
Allen said, for first responders, human lives sit atop the protection hierarchy in natural disasters. Early evacuations like those issued during CZU, he said, are critical to ensuring everyone gets out in a safe and orderly way, especially in steep terrain like Bonny Doon. For those to be successful, Allen said Cal Fire has to actively push back against stories like the Renegades’.
Five years later, many Renegades say they are unsure whether they’d do it again. Their success, they told me, was largely circumstantial and weather-dependent. Still, the only regret professed by those I spoke with was not fighting the fire earlier.
For more on the complicated story of the Renegades, read the story I published today, and tell me where you land on the issue of staying and defending.
OF NOTE
Capitola City Council votes to toss a complaint against one of its own: First-year councilmember Melinda Orbach told me last week she wasn’t confident that her colleagues on the Capitola City Council would support her amid a misconduct allegation filed by a resident. However, as my colleague Max Chun reports, the city council tossed the complaint and decided to move on.
What the community loses when a TV news station shuts down: After 56 years, KION abruptly shut down its local news operation last Tuesday, leaving Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties with a single local broadcast news outfit: KSBW. The news came as a major shock to KION staff and even its competitors. I spoke with assistant news director Victor Guzman, who told me morale at the station had been on an upswing until last week’s fatal gut punch. As my colleague Tania Ortiz reports, Telemundo 23, the region’s only Spanish-language news broadcast, also shut down as part of the KION closure.
Live Oak School District won’t close schools: After mulling the question for more than a year, Live Oak School District will no longer pursue school closures — at least not yet — citing a potential stabilization of student enrollment over the next few years. Hillary Ojeda has that story.
POINTS FOR PARTICIPATION
Scotts Valley to appoint a new councilmember: Eight residents have thrown their hats in the ring to fill the void left by Councilmember Allan Timms’ resignation this summer. The city council will meet at 6 p.m. on Wednesday to appoint an interim lawmaker. Among the candidates is John Lewis, who launched an unsuccessful pro-housing city council campaign last fall.
County supervisors to get the lowdown on MHCAN: The Mental Health Client Action Network in Santa Cruz abruptly shut down in the summer after a hard-fought win to receive county funding. On Tuesday, the county’s lawmakers will meet to hear what happened at the peer-run day center and what its future will look like. The supervisors will also get an update on how the federal budget will impact the county’s ability to fund social services.
RTC to hear staff report on possible phased construction of four rail trail segments: The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission is set to hear a report that outlines ways to reduce costs and modify the scope of Coastal Rail Trail Segments 8 through 11 at its Thursday meeting. The staff has drafted a potential phased approach to building the segments, which means building part of the project first and then pursuing additional funding to build the rest later, but it could lead to a reduction of secured state and federal grant funds. The four segments, which would span about 7 miles from the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf to State Park Drive in Aptos, are facing a $72 million funding gap due to multiple factors including inflation and escalating construction and material costs. Read the staff report here. – Max Chun
ONE GREAT READ
To get people off the street, he pays for a one-way ticket home | By Eli Saslow for The New York Times
In San Francisco and San Jose, the local governments fund programs to give transient people one-way bus or plane tickets out of town. In Santa Monica, a similar program has been underway but it is funded by a single, private resident: businessman John Alle.
People have long debated the morality behind these programs. Some argue the bus ticket offers a chance for a houseless person — many of whom are not native to the cities they end up in — a chance to return home or to a familial support network. Others say the programs just move people without working to solve their homelessness.
Writer Eli Saslow, one of journalism’s finest craftsmen, followed Alle around Santa Monica and interviewed the people with whom he interacted. Saslow’s byline, especially on topics of intense social debate, always indicates a nuanced, human touch. Saslow follows one man from the streets of Los Angeles who took Alle up on his plane ticket offer, and what it’s like for an unhoused person to simply pick up their lives and start anew.