How ‘the dirtiest political trick’ has driven a stake between Santa Cruz leaders and the realtors’ lobby
It wasn’t quite the assassination of Caesar on the senate floor, but the Ides of March brought its own flavor of what some perceive as political betrayal in the city of Santa Cruz.
Earlier this year, Mayor Fred Keeley and local nonprofit Housing Santa Cruz County launched a highly publicized petition to put an affordable housing funding stream before voters in November 2025. Work on the proposed ballot measure, which was a hallmark of the mayor’s 2022 campaign, stretched back 18 months and was shaped by negotiations with stakeholders ranging from landlords and the real estate industry to renters and UC Santa Cruz students.
This week, however, a different petition will begin circling city neighborhoods, streets and farmers markets, backed by a monied political group that Keeley and housing advocates thought, and hoped, would stay on the sidelines: the Santa Cruz County Association of Realtors. SCCAR’s presence opens a direct line to its national and statewide parent organizations, which have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past to topple progressive housing measures in Santa Cruz.
If each petition secures roughly 4,000 signatures by the end of May, the measures would face off against one another on the Nov. 4 ballot; the proposal with the most “Yes” votes will go into effect.
“This is the dirtiest local political trick I’ve ever seen in the city of Santa Cruz,” Keeley told Lookout on Tuesday. “It’s a slap in the face. For a narrow special interest to try to blow up over two years of work is pretty insulting to the community.”
Victor Gomez, SCCAR’s director of government affairs, acknowledged the tall task posed by the signature deadline. However, he told me that even if the realtors’ petition doesn’t qualify, the fight against Keeley’s measure won’t end.
“There’s a strong likelihood that we’re going to oppose it and we’re going to spend money doing it,” Gomez said. “We have plenty of resources. Money is not a problem.”
The central debate here is how the city funds much-needed affordable housing. Keeley and local housing advocates believe wealthy home sellers should contribute a significant chunk of those funds through a proposed tax on home sales greater than $1.8 million. The realtors want that tax to kick in at $4 million, instead.
In an off-election year, this debate sets the stage for some late-summer and fall fireworks. For more on how the petitions differ, and the looming question of influential political group Santa Cruz Together’s loyalty, read my report from last week.
OF NOTE
A return of local control? It seems the Santa Cruz City Council and Planning Commission will have a lot of influence over the shape, look and feel of a proposed multifamily housing development on the city’s Westside. A developer has proposed to convert the 2-acre lot of warehouses behind the Mission Street Parish Pub into a mixed-use housing project targeting UC Santa Cruz students. Unlike most recent housing proposals in California — in which state laws essentially require rubber-stamped approvals from local governments — city politics will play a central role in this development’s fate due to a unique planning approach taken by the developer.
The slow transformation of the county’s rail dreams: No local infrastructure project has driven more intense debate than the Coastal Rail Trail project. Last week, the county’s Regional Transportation Commission approved a plan to explore an intercity rail vision, which as my colleague Max Chun reports, “typically entails faster vehicles but fewer stops compared to other options like light rail or commuter rail.” RTC staff believe an intercity rail project stands a better chance of accessing the ever-fickle pot of federal funding.
State Sen. John Laird wants tighter battery safety standards: A new bill from the Central Coast’s Senate representative would require owners of future battery storage facilities to consult with local fire authority and integrate emergency response plans. Facilities would also need to undergo safety inspections by local fire officials or the state fire marshal, and all expenses for the inspections would fall on the facility owner. As Laird laid out in a video address, the bill, Senate Bill 283, is a direct response to the Moss Landing battery fire disaster in January.
POINTS FOR PARTICIPATION
More places to smoke pot: The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will take a final vote on Tuesday to allow retail dispensaries to open on-site consumption and smoking lounges, a significant expansion in local cannabis permissions. The board is also set to take its first of two votes on a law that would allow cannabis farms and grow operations to offer a vineyard-esque experience in which visitors could visit the property, receive a tour, and purchase and consume limited amounts of cannabis on site. The idea is central to the ambition of making Santa Cruz County a hot spot for cannabis tourism.
What will replace downtown Santa Cruz’s existing library? The highly anticipated downtown library mixed-use development will begin construction by the end of May. That leaves quite a bit of time before that building is in full swing as a modern library and affordable housing development, but questions are beginning to swirl over the future of the existing downtown library lot on Church Street. On Tuesday, the Santa Cruz City Council will direct staff to begin planning the next phase for that address, which has been envisioned for a public plaza and permanent home for Wednesday farmers market. The meeting begins at 2:30 p.m.
ONE GREAT POEM
To Mrs. Professor in Defense of My Cat’s Honor and Not Only, by Czeslaw Milosz (1995)
The great Polish poet is actually a California bard, as he lived and worked in the Bay Area for 40 years — his home longer than anywhere else. He lived in Berkeley when he received the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Because his poems are translated from Polish (most times by the author himself), English readers miss much of the linguistic flair he employs in his native tongue. While a certain style might be sacrificed for his Western audiences, Milosz’s poems are no less impactful. Although I’ve known the name for some time, I was only recently introduced to his work within the past week, and after a few days, I’ve found his poetry refreshing, often skipping the scenic route for something more direct but no less essential.
In “To Mrs. Professor,” Milosz appears to be rebuffing a treatise against cruelty, using his house cat as the prime example of a natural world ambivalent to human morals.
“My valiant helper, a small-sized tiger” the poem begins. “/ Sleeps sweetly on my desk, by the computer, / Unaware that you insult his tribe.”