A pleasant morning to you, Santa Cruz County. It is Tuesday, April 23, and it’s looking like more clouds than sun, with temperatures in the low to mid-60s (though, as always, your mileage may vary).

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Our first stop is in Aptos, where, Lily Belli reports, Cafe Sparrow is closing this weekend after 38 years in business. Inflation is a key piece of the closure, its owners say.

Watsonville will be seeking a new city manager when Rene Mendez departs for Salinas, and the city council is slated to vote later Tuesday on handing the interim job to longtime bureaucrat Tamara Vides. Vides has held the interim city manager role before, after Mendez’s predecessor, Matt Huffaker, left to take the same job in Santa Cruz.

The Santa Cruz Police Department announced the arrest Monday of a suspect in last week’s fatal stabbing in the DeLaveaga Park area, Max Chun reports. Police say Joseph Young, 31, and the victim were acquaintances, and that they had “a prior negative interaction, which led to the stabbing.”

And in Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, you’ll find an op-ed from activist Rick Longinotti, who lauds local environmentalists Peter and Celia Scott ahead of an event feting them and other local “freeway fighters.”

Let’s get to those headlines.

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Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Aptos restaurant Cafe Sparrow to close after 38 years, citing rising costs

After 38 years, French-inspired Aptos restaurant Cafe Sparrow will close its doors at the end of the month. The owners blame inflated operating costs and say it’s no longer feasible to keep the restaurant open. Here’s what Lily Belli heard.

Credit: City of Watsonville

Familiar face poised to take over as Watsonville’s interim city manager

At its meeting Tuesday, the Watsonville City Council will seek to appoint Assistant City Manager Tamara Vides, a seasoned bureaucrat, as interim city manager following the departure of Rene Mendez. Christopher Neely reports.

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Have an excellent Tuesday!

Will McCahill

A veteran jack-of-all-trades journalist who is Lookout’s copy editor, writes and compiles Morning Lookout newsletter and produces Lookout’s other editorial newsletters and helps run Lookout’s social...