Renewal or decline: Where is downtown Santa Cruz going?
When four prominent retailers all abandoned downtown Santa Cruz within the space of a few weeks, chatter about a downtown in decline began to grow louder. Lookout will be turning our eye to the rapid changes happening downtown, the economic ups and downs, and the profound transformation that could shift the area from a mainly commercial district to a residential neighborhood. Read the first installment of our new series via Wallace Baine.
10 hot jobs in Santa Cruz County: Week of April 25
Looking for a new job in Santa Cruz County? Explore the top 10 exciting job opportunities across industries like education, health care and more. Your next career move starts here!
Trump’s escalating attacks on research and education are hurting UC Santa Cruz – the public needs to act now
The Trump administration’s attack on scientific research will deeply affect UC Santa Cruz, three eminent UCSC professors, including one who won a Nobel Prize for her work, write in a Community Voices opinion piece. Since Donald Trump took office, UCSC has lost 10 NIH grants worth $6 million, they write. In the past two weeks, the professors have lost $2.8 million in funding for biomedical programs. “The termination of these highly effective and legally compliant programs, based on undefined claims of woke ideology and waste, will weaken the crucial talent pool in the biomedical workforce – a loss our society can ill afford,” they write. Read the op-ed here from Needhi Bhalla, Susan Carpenter and Carol Greider.
Santa Cruz’s moral fight over the property sales transfer tax – be sure to pick your side wisely
Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin comes out against an affordable housing proposal put forth by realtors to rival one proposed by local activists, saying it is an attempt to confuse voters and subvert the democratic process. It’s not about creating housing, he says. He calls on Santa Cruzans to channel the energy used to beat back Big Cola last November to reject this initiative. Signatures on the petitions for the rival initiatives are due May 9. They need 3,620 signatures to qualify for the November ballot in the city. Read Rotkin’s latest opinion piece here.
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