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Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz City Council takes first step to rezone Coral Street for expanded temporary housing, homeless services

By Hillary Ojeda

The Santa Cruz City Council voted to rezone the Coral Street area to allow expanded homeless services and temporary housing, taking the first step toward creating a Coral Street Overlay District envisioned in a 2023 plan for a centralized services campus. A final vote is set for March 24.

Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Pescavore founder’s trial moved to April; hearing to dismiss 14 charges set for next week

By Lily Belli

A Santa Cruz judge moved Clarice Owens’ jury trial to April 6 so her attorneys can review newly subpoenaed documents. Hearings later this month will address a motion to drop several charges against the seafood entrepreneur and lower her bail.

Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Pogonip Pizza debuts near UC Santa Cruz with bold toppings and a nod to Santa Cruz bike culture

By Lily Belli

Fourth-generation restaurateur Ryan Thompson opened Pogonip Pizza on Santa Cruz’s Upper Westside in February, bringing creative California-style pies with seasonal, locally sourced toppings to a neighborhood he described as a food desert.

Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Supervisors see belt-tightening ahead with Santa Cruz County budget deficit projected to hit $23M in ’26-27

By Max Chun

Santa Cruz County faces a hefty deficit going into annual budget hearings. County supervisors weighed in Tuesday on what’s most important in the 2026-27 fiscal year as leaders and staff prepare to propose a budget in the coming months.

Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Debbie Friedman brings story of California’s first women lifeguards to life in new memoir

By Cecilia Schutz

In “Guarded: Women, Water, and Saving Lives,” Debbie Friedman tells the unknown history of California’s first women lifeguards. The Rio Del Mar resident weaves her own story with those of other women in the field to show what it was like to be a pioneer in a male-dominated profession.

Credit: Wallace Baine / Lookout Santa Cruz

San Lorenzo Valley residents rebuilding toy box memorial to victims of fatal 1982 landslide

By Ashley Palma-Jimenez

San Lorenzo Valley residents are restoring a toy box memorial for two young brothers who died in the 1982 Love Creek landslide.

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Best of Santa Cruz County events, March 13-15

Here are some events you may be interested in this weekend:

Friday, Mar. 13

Saturday, Mar. 14

Sunday, Mar. 15

Add an event to our calendar

Max Chun is the general-assignment correspondent at Lookout Santa Cruz. Max’s position has pulled him in many different directions, seeing him cover development, COVID, the opioid crisis, labor, courts...