Good morning! It is Monday, May 19 – sunny and warm is the forecast for Santa Cruz County, with mid-80s in the mountains and mid-70s at the beach.
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Lookout’s series on the future of downtown Santa Cruz continues, with Christopher Neely introducing us to a retail coach the city has engaged to help fill vacant downtown storefronts.
Max Chun has the latest in local traffic and transit, with his weekly Carmageddon feature marking the opening of a short but tricky segment of the Coastal Rail Trail on Santa Cruz’s Westside.
Tania Ortiz reports on a Trump administration effort that offers undocumented immigrants $1,000 to voluntarily leave the United States, with local immigration attorneys telling her that it sends a misleading message that there might be a chance for immigrants to return to the U.S. down the road.
It’s shaping up to be a big summer for local event partnership Collective Santa Cruz, and Lily Belli has a preview of the Extra Tasty Tour – events focused on the five basic tastes of sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. The tour kicks off with a dessert festival Saturday.
The Monday headlines also include a big haul for Lookout at a statewide journalism awards ceremony and a look back at Santa Cruz Pride as it turns 50 – keep on reading.
Amid mounting vacancies, downtown Santa Cruz needed a coach, and a matchmaker
Santa Cruz hired retail coach Charles Parker to address its mounting downtown vacancies issue. Described as a “matchmaker,” Parker is now leading the effort to pitch the city’s potential to businesses — aiming to turn empty storefronts into vibrant hubs amid shifting retail trends and increasing housing stock. Read more from Christopher Neely.
➤ THE FUTURE OF DOWNTOWN: More in the series here
Carmageddon: A difficult section of Coastal Rail Trail has finally opened in Santa Cruz
Segment 7, Phase 2 of the Coastal Rail Trail is short, but the section on Santa Cruz’s Westside came with a number of difficulties that caused several delays. Its completion creates a continuous path that runs from Natural Bridges State Beach all the way to the roundabout by the wharf. The city will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday morning. Max Chun has details.
DAILY DIGEST
A busy Monday indeed as we close in on Memorial Day – and you know there’s more coming from Lookout. Sign up here for breaking news alerts and for all of our other newsletters, including Christopher Neely’s weekly look inside Santa Cruz County politics & policy in the form of In the Public Interest, hitting inboxes later Monday. Keep up with Lookout’s award-winning local coverage on social media, too – follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Bluesky. And take it all with you on your smartphone by downloading the Lookout Santa Cruz app in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
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Thanks for reading, and may your Monday be a smooth one.
Will McCahill