Greetings, friends and neighbors. It is Monday, Sept. 29, and Santa Cruz County is looking at some unsettled weather for much of the week, with chances of rain Monday under mostly cloudy skies and highs in the 60s and 70s.
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Lookout’s series on the impact of the CZU fire five years later continues as Christopher Neely catches up with “The Renegades” – residents who stayed behind to defend their neighborhoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Not all are sure they would do it again, and first responders say it’s not an approach they can endorse.
In his weekly traffic-and-transit-focused Carmageddon column, Max Chun reports that the Capitola City Council is reversing changes made along Bay Avenue following a fatal hit-and-run accident there in 2023. The move to restore lanes that had been taken away comes after a raft of complaints from residents about the impact on traffic.
UC Santa Cruz has seen about $25 million in funding reinstated after courts ruled that Trump administration cuts were illegal, Hillary Ojeda reports, but the ripple effect on campus research and other programs persists.
The Monday headlines also include the web of connections between Watsonville and Croatia that Wallace Baine explored during a recent trip aboard – onward.
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The Renegades saved homes during CZU. Five years later, emergency responders still call it the wrong move.
Five years after the CZU fire, “The Renegades” of Bonny Doon are remembered as both heroes and cautionary tales — neighbors who defied evacuation orders to fight flames themselves, saving homes but igniting a debate over the risk of staying back. Read more here from Christopher Neely.
UCSC recovers some funding cut by Trump, but research disruption roils campus
UC Santa Cruz has recovered the majority of its federally terminated research grants after judges ruled the Trump administration’s cuts were illegal, reinstating about $25 million in funding. However, university officials warn that the temporary losses caused long-term disruption to crucial research and student training programs, and that ongoing federal pressure continues to threaten the broader University of California system. Hillary Ojeda has the latest.
DAILY DIGEST
Lookout will be keeping a close eye on Santa Cruz County happenings as this new week takes shape, and among what’s still coming Monday is In the Public Interest, Christopher Neely’s dispatch from the public square of local politics and policy. Sign up here to get that and all of Lookout’s newsletters delivered right to you, plus breaking news alerts. Download the Lookout Santa Cruz app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to stay current with our award-winning local coverage, and upgrade your social media feed by following Lookout on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads and/or Bluesky.
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Thanks for reading, and here’s to a smooth Monday all around.
Will McCahill