A rainy good morning to you! It’s Thursday, May 28, and that precipitation is forecast to linger around Santa Cruz County until early afternoon, with temperatures in the 60s.
I WANT TO … Become a Lookout member | Download the Lookout app | Browse latest news | Get other Lookout newsletters | Solve a puzzle | Find local events | Advertise
Tania Ortiz spent some time on the outskirts of Watsonville recently, speaking to residents near the Minto Road site of a proposed battery energy storage plant. With the project now before state regulators for approval, many who spoke to Lookout say they’re opposed, with some considering moving out of the area.
In Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, local activist Kevin Norton writes about a proposal moving forward in the Santa Cruz City Council to give small grants directly to residents who want to build community. “The need for the grant points to a quiet trend,” Norton writes: “Santa Cruz is becoming harder to hold together.”
The Thursday morning headlines also include a warning from county officials on an invasive insect that can threaten grapevines and other agricultural and ornamental plants – shall we?
Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here to receive Morning Lookout in your inbox every weekday.
You’re missing out on full access to Lookout
As a reader of Lookout’s newsletters, you get access to a limited number of free articles per month — but there’s much more! Members of Lookout Santa Cruz get full access to every article published by our team of on-the-ground correspondents. Join now to go beyond the headlines and dive deep into Lookout’s local coverage.
‘We grew up here’: Some longtime residents say battery storage project near Watsonville might force them to move
Lifelong residents near the proposed battery storage facility on Minto Road outside Watsonville talked with Lookout about their concerns over the project, with some saying that they’ve thought about moving out of the area if the project gets approved. Here’s what Tania Ortiz heard.
➤ Para leer el artículo en español, haga clic aquí.
OPINION: Could Santa Cruz’s neighborhood microgrants bring back community life?
Local activist Kevin Norton says the City of Santa Cruz might be onto something much bigger than initiating a neighborhood microgrant program. He says the program – approved May 12 – could help rebuild neighborhood connection, an urgent and underreported issue in our community. Norton points to the high levels of dissatisfaction among American parents, and argues that rising loneliness, car-centered development, economic stress and declining social trust have quietly eroded the “village” Americans once relied on. He believes immigrant communities may hold important clues for how to rebuild and argues that rebuilding neighborhood connection is urgent. Read Norton’s Community Voices op-ed here.
DAILY DIGEST
Sure, it’s been an abbreviated workweek, but that doesn’t mean we’re not ready for the weekend here at Lookout – and among what’s still out there Thursday is our cheat sheet to going out and eating well around Santa Cruz County, a little newsletter we call Weekender. Sign up here for that and any or all of our many other free newsletters, not to mention breaking news alerts. Download the Lookout Santa Cruz app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to get access to all of our award-winning local coverage, and follow us on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and/or Threads to keep up with Lookout on social media.
Our content isn’t possible without community support, so if you’re not already, please consider becoming a Lookout member.
Take it easy on those slippery roads, and I hope to see you again tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
Will McCahill