The man and lawsuit standing between Santa Cruz County and $10 million in desperately needed tax revenue
Conversations around money in Santa Cruz County this year are as tense as they’ve been in recent memory. No moment better depicted that struggle than the May 22 fight between the board of supervisors and the county’s chief executive over the latter’s decision to put no tax revenue into the county’s roads.
Responding to climate disasters over the past seven years has put the county in the red by tens of millions of dollars. Money is in short supply. Chief Administrative Officer Carlos Palacios said funding roads would mean cuts and layoffs elsewhere. District 1 County Supervisor Manu Koenig challenged Palacios: What about the $7.5 million in new revenue from the half-cent sales tax increase county voters passed in March?
Despite overwhelming approval of that measure, and although the government has begun collecting the tax revenue, Palacios said the county’s ability to spend that money, intended for homeless services, parks and housing, would likely be delayed thanks to a court challenge from a single resident.
Down the street, as the temperature was rising in the supervisors’ chambers, Boulder Creek resident Bruce Holloway sat inside Lulu Carpenter’s downtown Santa Cruz location. A retired Silicon Valley computer engineer, Holloway has been fighting the sales tax increase imposed by Measure K since last year, when the county decided to put it on the March ballot. All county residents, including those in the cities of Watsonville, Santa Cruz, Capitola and Scotts Valley, were eligible to vote on the tax increase despite it being levied in only the county’s unincorporated communities.
Holloway looked around the coffee shop, and wondered aloud why city residents got to vote on a tax where he lives, but not the other way around. Lawsuits against public agencies are a familiar arena for Holloway, who said they are always a win-win for him.
“Every time I do a lawsuit, I’m buying a master’s degree; if there is anything about this subject I don’t understand, I’m going to learn what it is,” Holloway said. “I’m going to learn why I was wrong, but usually I learn why I was right. My dad has two master’s degrees. I don’t have any. But every time I do a lawsuit, I’m going, ‘Man, I’m buying a master’s degree.’”
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Quote of the Week
“I’m an avid cyclist and the thing I love most about Mission Street is that King Street exists,” – Greg, a local resident and mechanical engineer testifying to the Santa Cruz City Council on May 28 during a hearing for the Food Bin redevelopment. Greg was referring to how dangerous Mission Street feels for cyclists.
Of Note
City of Santa Cruz releases its long-awaited draft of the Downtown Plan Expansion: As I am typing this, I just received word that the City of Santa Cruz has published a new draft of its plans for the South of Laurel District, the area targeted for 12-story mixed-use apartment buildings and a new, permanent Santa Cruz Warriors arena. I’ve not yet read the 81-page document in the 15 minutes I’ve had since the city emailed it out, but the city is planning to host a joint city council/planning commission meeting on the plan on June 18.
Looking Ahead
Let’s talk about 16 stories: Local developer Workbench, with the City of Santa Cruz’s planning department, will host a community meeting on its proposed gargantuan mixed-use development at 2020 N. Pacific Ave. In April, I reported the proposal being 18 stories, as did Workbench in its media release. The city has officially called it 16 stories in its own literature. Whatever it is, the community will have a chance to Zoom in to a virtual meeting on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. to offer feedback. For those interested in attending, follow the link here.
Weekly News Diet
Local: Things erupted up on the hill over the weekend. After one month of occupation by pro-Palestinian student and faculty protesters who moved from UC Santa Cruz’s Quarry Plaza down to the parking lot outside of the Barn Theater, the university sent the police in, clearing the camp, pushing protesters back and arresting around 100 people in total. Campus protests have formed across the country in response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but this many arrests and a 16-hour standoff is a level of escalation rarely seen. Lookout’s team covered it all the way through, and education reporter Hillary Ojeda has the latest.
Golden State: Kern County is set for a 2,300-acre solar panel installation, news many would see as progress in the ultimate environmental goal of moving away from fossil fuels. However, the project will require the chopping of thousands of Joshua trees, many of which are thought to be over 100 years old. The mindset of destroying the environment to save the environment has raised concerns, especially among the Mojave Desert locals. Melody Petersen has that story for the Los Angeles Times.
Global: Mexico has elected Claudia Sheinbaum as its next president, the first woman, and the first Jewish person, to lead the country in its 200-year history. A scientist, former Mexico City mayor and acolyte of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum’s landslide victory will tighten the hold leftist politics have on the country.
One Great Read
The internet’s final frontier: Remote Amazon tribes, by Jack Nicas for The New York Times
We’ve allowed the internet to evolve into a foundational piece of (or crutch for?) our society, economy, politics, entertainment, communication, etc. You name it, the internet has found a way to insert itself.
In a short time, Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, has launched web access into places previously thought impossible, or at least improbable. Ukraine’s military, a hospital in Gaza and Houthi rebels in Yemen all rely on it. Now, thanks to Starlink, the internet is encroaching on its final frontier: once-isolated tribes deep in the Amazon.
Yet, after less than 10 months with internet service, one tribe, the Marubo, is already experiencing an acute dose of the peril and promise of digital connection. The youth are becoming less interested in the tribe’s traditions; laziness and apathy have increased, and pornography has become a major issue among teenagers. Yet, Starlink has also allowed the tribe’s leaders to more easily communicate and spread critical information.
“Young people have gotten lazy because of the internet,” one elder of the tribe said. “They’re learning the ways of the white people. … But please don’t take our internet away.”
