What’s up, Lookout friends? It’s Thursday, June 18, and the Santa Cruz County weather forecast is a very June gloom one, with clouds predominating and highs in the 60s near the water, mid-70s with some peeks of sun in the mountains.
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Ruth S. Intress starts us off with an inside look at the Aptos farmers market as it turns 50. The multitude of farm families who comprise the Saturday market at Cabrillo College, she writes, tell the story of immigrant America drawn to the rich fields of central and coastal California.
Hillary Ojeda catches up with Airielle Silva, who graduated from UC Santa Cruz last weekend with honors including the John R. Lewis Good Trouble Award. She used her commencement speech to her speech to acknowledge the “gap” between the university’s honoring of Lewis and the still-unmet Black student demands “around anti-Blackness, housing insecurity, mental health support and institutional accountability.”
In Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, Santa Cruz landlord Darius Mohsenin argues that the city’s rental inspection program has evolved into a system focused more on permits, paperwork and minor violations than actual habitability. He urges the Santa Cruz City Council to refocus the program on genuine health and safety issues instead of what he sees as regulatory overreach that raises housing costs and strains relationships with property owners
The Thursday headlines await … shall we?
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From opera to orchards: Inside the immigrant stories and resilience fueling 50 years of the Aptos farmers market
Celebrating 50 years, the Aptos farmers market – held Saturdays at Cabrillo College – captures not just the bounty and hard work of dozens of vendors but also comes with a wealth of stories from those manning the stands and working behind the scenes. Read more here from Ruth S. Intress, with photos from Natasha Leverett.
UC Santa Cruz senior graduates after five years of ‘good trouble’
UC Santa Cruz graduate Airielle Silva was honored with the John R. Lewis Good Trouble Award after five years of student leadership and activism. As she addressed fellow graduates at commencement, Silva reflected on her advocacy work while urging the university to continue addressing longstanding Black student demands. More here from Hillary Ojeda.
DAILY DIGEST
Keep it tuned to Lookout as Thursday unfurls, because we’ve got more in the pipeline. That includes Weekender, a cheat sheet to going out and eating well around Santa Cruz County – one of the many free newsletters and breaking news alerts I highly recommend you check out and sign up for here. Get all that in one trusty app when you download the Lookout Santa Cruz app from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and sprinkle our mix of local news and views into your social media diet by following Lookout on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
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Thank you for reading – be good, and I’ll see you next time.
Will McCahill