Sunday Reads: West Cliff’s troubling future and a call to ocean action

Whither West Cliff? Recent collapse of path along ‘Santa Cruz’s front porch’ suggests troubling future

(Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)

The West Cliff Drive we know today — Santa Cruz’s “front porch,” a surfing mecca and the site for a procession of multimillion-dollar homes/objects of envy that represent the Sunset magazine ideal of the California Good Life — is a shockingly recent development. Coastline erosion has been an ongoing constant, consistent over decades and centuries — but now we humans are adding a new wrinkle: climate change. Wallace Baine paints the picture.

➤ MORE: Will West Cliff sidewalk collapse, continued erosion eventually pave the way for a one-way street? (Lookout)

You can help protect our ocean — here’s how

(Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)

Thirty years ago, Dan Haifley helped change the California coast from the driver’s seat of his 1972 Ford Pinto. As the only staff member of Save Our Shores, he drove up and down the coast urging communities to prevent oil companies from offshore drilling. Those presentations helped create a bulwark against drilling among coastal towns and were the first steps in the establishment of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. But there is still much to do — and he has ideas on how you can get started volunteering and making a difference. Read his Community Voices opinion piece here.

➤ MORE: Happy 30th birthday, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary: Here’s to long life and continued good health! (Lookout’s Community Voices)