Students need housing. That is why UC Santa Cruz must move forward and build Student Housing West, write administrators Akirah Bradley-Armstrong and Ed Reiskin. “UCSC is built into a stunning natural landscape, and building anywhere on our iconic campus is a tightrope walk,” they say. But Student Housing West — with 3,000 units, including 140 at the foot of campus — offers the best chance to house students soon and to help relieve the community housing burden.
Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
UCSC’s East Meadow: Green for the last time?
UC Santa Cruz’s sloping East Meadow — the pristine, grass-covered gateway to campus — is a local treasure and should not be developed, when there are many better alternatives for sorely needed housing, argues Christopher Connery, a longtime community activist and a professor in both the literature and history of consciousness departments. Regents of the University of California are set to meet starting Wednesday to discuss UCSC’s long-stalled plan to build family housing and a child care center on the East Meadow. Connery believes this is a short-sighted “folly beyond comprehension” that risks destroying the campus’ beauty and the integrity of the founders’ vision.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: City should offer 24-hour shelter; police should stop evicting unhoused from garages during storms
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: Forcing unhoused people to stand outside during the atmospheric river hoping to be one of the lucky 25 to get a space in the warming center is cruel. Even though there is enough staff to […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Don’t be afraid to travel post-pandemic: The world is less dangerous than you think
Santa Cruz native Evan Quarnstrom is on a post-pandemic year-and-a-half solo trip around the world and reminds us all of the benefits of travel and experiencing new cultures. Fear, he tells us, too often keeps us from life-changing experiences. Here, he details his experiences in Sri Lanka, Mexico and Brazil, all countries deemed “dangerous” by his family, friends and even (at times) the U.S. government. “When you make the transition from unknown to known, fears often vanish,” he writes.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Terrified about climate change? Me, too. Let’s have a ‘community conversation’ March 16
The Democratic Women’s Club of Santa Cruz County will host “A Community Conversation on Climate Change” on March 16. Peggy Flynn, a longtime community activist and the co-president of the DWC, says fear and frustration led her to plan the event. She is tired of hearing all the doomsday predictions about the planet and wants concrete ideas about what she — and you — can do to help mitigate the effects. The event, she says, will offer action plans and ways to make a difference locally.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Fairgrounds’ future looks fraught — lies, deception and personal vendettas are poisoning beloved institution
Longtime journalist Jon Chown says he has never seen as much overt lying, deception and personal attacks as went on at the Feb. 28 meeting of the Santa Cruz County Fair board of directors. He argues that the whole house needs sweeping or the fair risks disappearing.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Make your voice heard as feds consider Chumash Heritage Marine Sanctuary, key piece of coastal protection
Environmental activist Dan Haifley argues that Monterey Bay residents should care about and support the potential designation of tribally nominated Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, covering waters off San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties. If approved by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Association, the new sanctuary will provide the missing link in a chain of protection from Mendocino to Santa Barbara.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Let’s take a break from pledge break: An open letter to KQED
Robert M. Kaplan loves public television and radio, but hates pledge drives, particularly unnecessary ones, like the one KQED, his beloved station, launched recently. If you do the math, the longtime faculty and health sciences administrator insists, some stations don’t need the pledge money as much as they let on and they should stop shaming patrons for watching. “With revenues exceeding expenses by about $25 million, should we feel guilty about watching ‘Masterpiece Theatre’ without coughing up extra cash?” he asks.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Let’s stop the ‘housing Armageddon’ and build three-to-five-story structures in Santa Cruz County
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: Are you an urban professional, your parents also urban professionals? Do you prefer luxury high-rises with spas and private entrances to bougie restaurants, the kind that sell a $40 burger and fries cost extra? Think […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I grew up scared my family would be deported; now I want everyone to know our story
Britney Baldelomar, a fourth-year UC Santa Cruz student, is the only one in her family born in America, “with American opportunities.” Her parents and older siblings came from Bolivia before she was born. She spent decades living in fear her family would be caught, separated. She always wondered why her siblings didn’t go to college or have the same chances she did. Last year, she finally turned 21 and petitioned for their citizenship.