Good morning! It is Monday, April 27 – looking like another mostly cloudy day around Santa Cruz County, with slight chances of drizzle along the way and high temperatures in the low to mid-60s.
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We’re leading off today with opinion from Lookout’s editorial board on Watsonville Community Hospital. With the crucial piece of the county’s health care picture struggling to stay afloat, the board calls for greater transparency into how the hospital is being managed.
In his Monday Carmageddon column, Max Chun previews a vote this week by the Santa Cruz City Council on updating the city’s active transportation plan, whose goal is to get people out of their cars by promoting walking, biking and public transit.
Tania Ortiz rounds out her series on the candidates for the District 4 Santa Cruz County supervisor seat by talking to the incumbent. Felipe Hernandez touted his track record on the job and responded to criticism from constituents over his stance on a battery storage facility proposed for outside Watsonville.
Speaking of local politics, the next Lookout candidate forum of this election season happens May 7 at Hotel Paradox in Santa Cruz and will feature mayoral candidates Ryan Coonerty, Gillian Greensite, Chris Krohn, Ami Chen Mills and Joy Schendledecker; the candidates for Santa Cruz City Council District 4, incumbent Scott Newsome and challenger Hector Marin; and the candidates in District 6, incumbent Renee Golder and challenger Gabriella Noack. Get more information and RSVP for free here.
To the Monday headlines.
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OPINION: A Lookout View: Watsonville Community Hospital is too important to fail — but it can’t survive without transparency
Watsonville Community Hospital, a critical community lifeline, is under increasing financial strain and is actively seeking a major health care partner to help it evolve into a stronger regional hub. As those pressures grow, Lookout’s editorial board sought to better understand how leadership is managing the hospital, but found a level of transparency that falls short of what the public deserves. The board sees no indication of wrongdoing, but with physician shortages, aging infrastructure and heavy reliance on Medi-Cal funding, the stakes are rising quickly. Saving the hospital will require not only financial investment, but also trust, accountability and greater openness. Read the editorial here.
➤ Para leer el artículo en español, haga clic aquí.
Carmageddon: Santa Cruz City Council eyes updates to active transportation plan; Bike Santa Cruz County annual survey
The Santa Cruz City Council will vote on whether to approve this year’s updates to the city’s active transportation plan, a guide for implementing projects, policies and initiatives that promote and improve walking, biking and mass transit. More on local traffic and transit from Max Chun here.
DAILY DIGEST
That’s how this last Monday in April is shaping up, and more is in the pipeline from Lookout, so make sure you’re keeping up. Download the Lookout Santa Cruz app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for access to all of our award-winning coverage, with breaking news notifications, games and more, right on your smartphone. Sign up here for breaking news alerts via email and for all of our other newsletters, and on social media, connect with Lookout on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and/or Threads.
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Thanks for reading – I hope you have a good Monday.
Will McCahill