Greetings, all. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 20 – Santa Cruz County’s warming trend continues, with upper 90s expected in the higher elevations and 80s even at our beaches. The National Weather Service has a heat advisory in place starting Thursday morning for the mountains with triple digits possible.
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Tuesday was a busy one for Santa Cruz County supervisors (and elswhere), and we’ve got it covered. Christopher Neely reports that an ordinance that would have allowed towing companies to immediately disassemble abandoned vehicles met loud resistance from homeless advocates and was tabled – though it could return as soon as next month.
In other business, supervisors put a cap on short-term rentals throughout the county, responding to growing concerns that the region was losing housing to platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo; as Carly Heltzel reports, they also approved a pilot project that will require developers to pay Native American tribal members for the consulting work on culturally sensitive sites that they have been doing for free.
The Walnut Avenue Family and Women’s Center saw its Black Lives Matter banner stolen for the third time last weekend, Max Chun reports, with one leader at the nonprofit saying she believes that it is being targeted.
The Santa Cruz County health care community is lamenting the death of Dr. Larry deGhetaldi, a pioneering health leader and longtime president of Sutter Health’s Santa Cruz division; he died Aug. 10 at 69 after facing brain cancer. “His impact can’t be replicated – one of the few that will never wonder if they lived a life making a difference for those that came after him,” one former supervisor told Hillary Ojeda.
Just days after its downtown Santa Cruz restaurant shut down, Betty Burgers’ Seabright location was forced to close temporarily Tuesday after major vandalism, Lily Belli reports. Management hoped to reopen Wednesday after dealing with more than $50,000 in damages.
And battery storage is again the topic in Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, with national battery safety expert and Soquel resident Matthew Paiss arguing that fires in modern energy storage systems are rare in proportion to the numbers installed.
Plenty of headlines, so let’s get to it.
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Santa Cruz County plan to demolish abandoned, oversized vehicles stalls amid homeless concerns
Santa Cruz County’s effort to clear abandoned cars and RVs stalled Tuesday after backlash to a proposal letting tow companies immediately dismantle vehicles, raising concerns about displacing homeless residents relying on them. Coverage here from Christopher Neely.
‘We’re being targeted’: Santa Cruz nonprofit sees Black Lives Matter banner stolen three times
The Walnut Avenue Family and Women’s Center saw its Black Lives Matter banner stolen for the third time last weekend, and for the second time this year. The organization’s leadership believes that it is being targeted, and that the current political climate has emboldened hate. Max Chun reports.
DAILY DIGEST
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Thanks for reading – be good, and I’ll see you next time.
Will McCahill