Sunday Reads: This Unsung Santa Cruzan didn’t sweat the small stuff + a Prankster rewind

Unsung Santa Cruz: Why one woman’s outside-the-box idea could be a fitness gamechanger

Unsung is back: Natalia Rivera-España didn’t intend to start a business but she spotted a big need during the pandemic and knew she’d regret it if she didn’t act. The result: GOAT Santa Cruz and signs of an outside workout phenomenon. Read Wallace Baine’s story & Lookout relaunch of our popular Unsung Santa Cruz series here.

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Pranksters, LSD and the Dead: Ken Babbs was there at Santa Cruz County’s most infamous party

One strange trip: Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady and the crew immortalized in “The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test,” not to mention the band that became the Grateful Dead, got the party started at Ken Babbs’ Soquel digs. And it’s all in Babbs’ new book, which he’ll discuss in an upcoming Bookshop Santa Cruz event. Wallace with the inside story here.

How Santa Cruz’s rail-trail debate created a standoff with Roaring Camp

Deciphering the roar: A Feb. 3 meeting of the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission is likely to be heated. Why? Commissioners are slated to discuss foreclosing the Felton line for freight trains — which the line hasn’t been used for in years — as a way of moving a rail-trail plan forward. But the owners of the line, Roaring Camp Railroads, are against this idea and are rallying supporters to stop it. Jacob Pierce cuts through the noise here.