Live, from the most contested intersection in Santa Cruz
Good afternoon, all. I’m writing this newsletter from the corner of probably the most hotly debated intersection in the city of Santa Cruz, where Laurel Street meets Mission.
The northern corners of this intersection have drawn intense conversations this year over the future of the city, and the fates of both are poised to be settled by the city council this month.
On Tuesday, the Santa Cruz City Council will vote on whether to greenlight the dispensary proposed for the old Emily’s Bakery building at 1129 Mission St. The proposal, a partnership between the celebrated collective Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, or WAMM, and cannabis retailer The Hook Outlet, has met all of the city’s code and land-use requirements needed to move into that space. However, parents and administrators from the Santa Cruz City Schools district have bristled against the project, claiming the location is too close to Santa Cruz High School and Mission Hill Middle School.
According to existing city rules, the dispensary would sit comfortably outside of the 600-foot school buffer (more than 800 feet from the high school, and more than 1,300 feet from the middle school). Yet, the city council retains some discretion over whether the dispensary would cause more harm than good.
Valerie Corral, head of WAMM, told me more is at stake than a simple business venture. WAMM, whose mission to treat sick and dying patients with medical cannabis occupies a special place in the city’s history, particularly during the HIV/AIDS crisis, is on its last legs financially. A city council denial, after all of the investment into this location, could spell the end of WAMM, Corral said. This has prompted heavy hitters like state Sen. John Laird and Assemblymember Gail Pellerin to urge the city council to approve the project.
The connective threads running throughout this story among the people, locations, the city’s past and its present, surprised me while reporting this piece. In a couple weeks, this intersection will once again be in the headlines when the city council focuses its attention on the lot across the street, where local developer Workbench has proposed a five-story, 59-unit development on the Food Bin lot, a project that has riled up the neighborhood, and even some city councilmembers.
Of Note
Coastal Commission tempers Santa Cruz’s oversized vehicle ordinance ambitions: If you were looking for an example of why political appointments matter, last Thursday was a great example. The City of Santa Cruz appeared before the California Coastal Commission on May 9, seeking a five-year extension of its oversized vehicle ordinance pilot, which has been in effect for only five months.
Coastal Commissioner Justin Cummings, a county supervisor and former Santa Cruz mayor, has long taken an opposing view of the city’s oversized vehicle parking ban, which has been under some form of development since 2016. The Coastal Commission is set up to, broadly, protect coastal access for all Californians, and Cummings argued that the city couldn’t yet know how the overnight parking ban impacts coastal access. The city collected only five months of data, and the ordinance had not been in effect for the summer and early fall, which are the busiest times of year for visitors.
Cummings’ questioning appeared to sway other coastal commissioners into agreeing that a five-year extension, at this point, was too long. The commission then voted to extend the pilot program only for another two years, and mandated that any other extensions in the future would require a Coastal Commission approval.
Former supervisor John Leopold on the move: Former District 1 County Supervisor John Leopold announced last week that he would be taking over as director of the Central Coast K-16 Regional Collaborative, a six-county effort to build career paths for underrepresented students. He described the director role to me as the “conductor of a fast-moving train.” He said he is essentially “lead organizer” responsible for aligning the work across the six counties (Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura) and ensuring that the collaborative’s work is in tune with its broader mission.
Looking Ahead
Supervisors to defer e-bike regulations: In March, Santa Cruz supervisors began crafting rules around where and when e-bikes and scooters can ride. The new ordinance was set to be voted on Tuesday, but Supervisors Manu Koenig and Zach Friend plan to postpone the vote until June 25.
Insurance crisis prompts a visit from the state: The CZU wildfire and other recent natural disasters have frightened major home insurers to cancel thousands of policies throughout California, forcing homeowners onto the state’s last-resort FAIR plan. On Tuesday, a representative from Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s office will visit Santa Cruz County for a 1 p.m. presentation to the board of supervisors, and a town hall-styled community meeting at the Cultural and Performing Arts Center in Scotts Valley at 6 p.m.
Cannabis parlor at Santa Cruz City Hall: As mentioned above, the city council will vote on whether to allow WAMM/Hook Outlet to open its dispensary at 1129 Mission St. That conversation is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.; however, it’s not the only cannabis conversation touching the dais this week. The city council’s cannabis subcommittee will propose a few recommended changes to the city’s pot laws, including a prohibition for dispensaries within 1,000 feet of a school from serving medical cannabis customers under 21 years old. Existing state and local law marks 18 as the legal age for purchasing medical cannabis.
A town hall for the embattled Big Basin Water Company: Last year, the courts determined that the private owners of Big Basin Water Company, which serves about 1,200 people in the Boulder Creek area, were no longer suited to run the water utility. The owners were forced out and the court-appointed law firm Silver & Wright LLP took over operations. On Wednesday, attorney Nicolas Jaber will host a town hall at the Boulder Creek Fire Protection District at 6:30 p.m. to update customers on the future of the utility. The meeting will also be viewable remotely by Zoom.
Weekly News Diet
Local: UC Santa Cruz students have occupied Quarry Plaza for more than a week, demanding the university divest from Israel amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Now, the union for University of California graduate student workers is voting this week on whether to go on strike as a protest against campus administrators cracking down on the student encampments. My colleague Hillary Ojeda has that story.
Golden State: San Francisco Mayor London Breed made headlines earlier this year for pushing to mandate sobriety as a prerequisite for tenants of some of the city’s homeless housing projects. The idea has now made its way to Sacramento, where a pair of bills aim to allow the state to finance sober housing projects, a switch from existing law that mandates state-funded homeless housing projects cannot discriminate against tenants. Marisa Kendall with CalMatters has that story.
National: Psychedelic churches are on the rise throughout the U.S. as more outfits operate under religious freedom laws to conduct ceremonies with psychedelic drugs that are otherwise illegal. Ernesto Londoño reports from these circles in today’s New York Times. This story reminded me of the great and deep dive by my colleague Wallace Baine, who last month tackled this same topic through a local lens.
One Great Watch
“Eames: The Architect and the Painter,” directed by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey (2011)
It’s difficult to think of a more influential power couple in the world of industrial design than Charles and Ray Eames, the artists behind some of the favorite chairs, homes and furniture of post-1950s America. If you’re unsure, just look up the Eames Chair, or the landmark Eames House in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
In this documentary, narrated, oddly, by actor James Franco, we get to know the Eameses through those who worked most closely with them during their most productive years. We also come to understand that, much like the music of the Beatles, the broad influence of the Eames chair, their house, the short films, the New York World’s Fair installation, etc. is owed to this chance partnership between Ray, a painter, and Charles, an architect.