Quick Take
With the passing of Mike Rotkin, a giant in the Santa Cruz community for decades, Lookout invites readers to submit tributes and memories.
Mike Rotkin was a Santa Cruz giant.
He not only witnessed the transformation of Santa Cruz from a conservative enclave into what some called the nation’s “leftmost city,” he was an integral part of that shift. One of the cogs of the engine.
He remained so until Wednesday, when he passed away peacefully at home, just as he had wished.
Just a few weeks ago, Lookout published what would be his final column – a stamp of approval for the south of Laurel Street downtown expansion in Santa Cruz, along with a warning. He worried the city was acting too fast, not learning from the past – and then, as he so often did, offered his expertise and memories as lessons.
Even sick, he thought of others – of his UC Santa Cruz students (he rushed to get his final spring grades done), of his successors on the city council, of the choices that will affect our community for decades.
We know Mike had an outsized impact on this community. We invite you, our readers, to share your experiences of him. We will publish them here. Email your tributes and memories and photos to our opinion editor, Jody K. Biehl, at jody@lookoutlocal.com.