Hi there! It is Thursday, July 2, and it could be another day of playing peekaboo with the sunshine around Santa Cruz County, with 60s again forecast by the bay, upper 70s in the mountains.
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A pandemic-era building boom in accessory dwelling units – ADUs, or granny flats – has fizzled in Santa Cruz County, Dieter Holger reports. After relaxed state and local rules helped ease the process, a variety of economic headwinds have made it more onerous.
With the Santa Cruz Sunrise Rotary Firecracker Run set for Saturday at Harvey West Park, the annual fundraiser is paying tribute to its longtime emcee, Rod Caborn, who died in January after facing ALS. “He was always kind of the face of it all,” Cassie Caborn told Caly Luna Plowman of her U.K.-born dad, who called the Fourth of July one of his favorite holidays, “because he had this gargantuan British accent and always came with the most amazing outfits and spirit.”
In Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, Robert M. Kaplan, a senior scholar at the Stanford University School of Medicine, relates his recent misadventures with artificial intelligence-powered customer service. “We are repeatedly told that artificial intelligence will provide faster, more personalized and more efficient service,” he writes. “Yet consumer frustration with AI interfaces has become commonplace, and many problems remain unresolved. “
The Thursday headlines also include a victory for the City of Santa Cruz in a lawsuit brought by industry groups over Measure Z, the sugar-sweetened beverage tax that voters approved in November 2024 – let’s drink it all in.
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Santa Cruz County eased rules for ‘granny flats’ – so why did construction plummet by half?
Santa Cruz County homeowners embraced backyard cottages after state and local reforms made accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, far easier to build, but that boom is already fading. Rising construction costs, high interest rates and other economic headwinds have sharply slowed new ADU projects, making it harder for the county to meet its housing goals. Read more from Dieter Holger.
The British voice of Santa Cruz’s Firecracker Run gets a fitting Fourth of July tribute
The annual Santa Cruz Sunrise Rotary Firecracker Run will honor longtime emcee and community booster Rod Caborn, who died in January after battling ALS, with a new spirit award celebrating the joyful, patriotic flair that made him a beloved Fourth of July fixture. Caly Luna Plowman has the story.
DAILY DIGEST
The long July Fourth weekend is just about here, and you can ride Lookout’s continuing coverage right into (and through) it. Among what’s coming later is our cheat sheet to eating well and going out during those days off, including recommendations from Lily Belli, with Weekender – just one of the many free newsletters and breaking news alerts you can sign up for here. Breaking news notifications are also available when you download the Lookout Santa Cruz app, now available in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and you can stay current via social media, too, where you’ll find Lookout on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
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Thank you for reading – have a good Thursday, and a safe, relaxing long holiday weekend.
Will McCahill