Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: As someone active on TikTok and as a creator and content “consumer,” I want to clear up misconceptions about this platform. It is not just a platform for teens, pranks and dance videos. Political and […]
Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: We need a real bridge over the Pajaro River at Murphy Crossing Road
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: I often walked on the levee along the Pajaro River from the Pajaro’s mouth toward the bridge on Murphy Crossing Road between December 2019 and January 2020. I noticed the bridge on Murphy Crossing Road […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz is not immune to hate — let’s build our own table of cooperation
John Brown Childs — a UC Santa Cruz distinguished professor emeritus of sociology and veteran of the civil rights movement — has spent a lifetime thinking about resolving conflict. Earlier this month, while sitting outside a cafe in Santa Cruz County, he was the victim of hate speech, making that work both more immediate and more personal. Nader Oweis, former UCSC chief of police and now chief of police at Sonoma State University, also worries about increasing intolerance and polarization. As our country has become more divided socially and politically and more affected by gun violence, the two advocate for more ways of bringing people of different constituencies “to the table” to solve racism, inequity and violence.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Remembering fire captain Brian Tracy: How do I do justice to the man who stole my heart in minutes?
Brian Tracy, a 16-year veteran of the Santa Cruz Fire Department, lost his two-year battle against brain cancer on April 27. He was 43. His wife, Stephanie, remembers him — and offers a lesson for all of us.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The U.S. Senate should approve the U.N. high seas treaty — we need this protection for our ocean
Environmentalist Dan Haifley says the newly minted United Nations high seas treaty will protect the “wild west” of international waters, fight climate change and preserve biodiversity, and that the U.S. Senate, which failed to ratify the previous agreement on seabed mining, should approve it. The U.N. vote is scheduled for June 19.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Of course new buildings will change the Santa Cruz vibe
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: My opinion of all the new buildings being built is: overkill. Of course it’s gonna change the Santa Cruz vibe. Things already have been changing drastically with all of the homelessness. It’s a shame that’s […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: As Santa Cruz builds, multistory downtown housing does not have to be ugly
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: I was born and raised in Santa Cruz, and haven’t lived here full-time for more than 60 years. But I have had a second home in Santa Cruz since the 1980s, and I visit it […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
When is it not safe to surf? My experience surfing in the world’s shark-attack capital
Nowhere in the world has been more dangerous for surfers than Reunion Island, a French department in the Indian Ocean. The isle has gained global notoriety for its disproportionate amount of shark attacks. Santa Cruz native Evan Quarnstrom, who has called the island home for the past three months, details his experience becoming part of a unique surf community that has been forever altered by sharks. “Everyone seems connected to someone who was attacked,” he writes.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
UCSC students should expect more from their administration in combating antisemitism and hate
UC Santa Cruz is seeing a problematic rise in antisemitic acts, writes second-year music major Bodie Shargel. Shargel feels that amid a concurrent rise in antisemitism nationally, UCSC needs to do more to combat hate on campus. He feels the measures the university has in place to combat antisemitism are not working and says the administration’s response to a group of students holding a birthday party for Hitler in April was insufficient. Shargel believes Jewish students need more support and is calling for more action from the administration and for solidarity among students to “get Nazis off campus.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Toward a March 2024 housing bond measure in Santa Cruz
James Weller, a local housing advocate, thinks he has an answer to our community’s most vexing issue, the fact that most of us cannot afford to pay the exorbitant cost of housing. The state has mandated Santa Cruz County build more, Weller writes, but developers won’t build unless they can make a profit by charging high rents. “But what if we had a public subsidization fund so we could pay developers some fraction of their marginal cost per unit” so that more units could be low-rent dwellings, he asks.”Maybe we could pay them enough to make a profit on the deal.”