Amanda Quirk wants UC Santa Cruz to improve its access for students with disabilities. She spent five years as a Ph.D. student in astronomy and astrophysics and struggled to navigate the campus’ hills, rocky paths and roads without sidewalks. The university and city, she says, need to do better. Already, too many talented students choose to go elsewhere.
Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Hooray for Safeway’s choice to carry cage-free Glaum eggs
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: Many of us were pleased to hear that a number of local Safeways will now carry cage-free eggs from Glaum Egg Ranch. In recent years, hundreds of major companies — such as Panda Express, Outback […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Reduce stress! Find your groove! Play your cat’s food container!
Jim Greiner, master percussionist, thinks we are all too stressed. He implores us to find our inner child and offers quick techniques to connect with our individual life rhythms. He also teaches us how to transform cat food into a musical instrument.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: NuBo ‘never belonged in that space’ and should not be allowed to continue
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: Today, three neighborhood children playing in the sun were nearly flattened in my driveway by a Porsche whipping in to turn around and cruise back down Gladys Avenue to get a parking space to go […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Measure D is over. The RTC needs to go after federal and state money.
Santa Cruz voters have spoken. Now what? Mike Rotkin, former five-time Santa Cruz mayor and member of the Regional Transportation Commission, writes about next steps for the RTC and explains how we can get past the logjam and move toward action. That will take federal and/or state funds, some local funding commitment, patience, and a desire to work together.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Lookout needs to present the whole story on SROs: They will not keep our kids safe
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: In both Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas, mass shootings happened with horrific consequences at schools with school resource officers. SROs are not the answer to keeping our children safe. A recent Lookout article about last […]
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I was a married mother of two and had an abortion. Will you judge me?
Victoria Tatum had an abortion as a young mother of two. She doesn’t regret it, she writes, and she also didn’t make her choice lightly. She has lost her strong ties with the church in Santa Cruz, but says she has an ongoing, private connection to God. She thinks the church, the state and the Supreme Court should mind their own business when it comes to the choice a woman makes.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I deliver books to Santa Cruz jails; don’t tell me libraries don’t matter
Librarian Jesse Silva regularly delivers books and library programs to the more than 300 people currently incarcerated in Santa Cruz County. She also brings in kindness and social support. For some, she says, the library is the only outside contact her patrons experience during their months or years in jail. She argues that her work is vital and that we must support our libraries and recognize the essential role reading plays in rehabilitation.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Ryan Coonerty: Who will be Santa Cruz’s George Washington and three other election hot takes
Ryan Coonerty, outgoing District 3 Santa Cruz County supervisor, offers four insights on Tuesday’s election results, along with a bit of wry humor. From the defeat of Measure D to low voter turnout and a historic supervisor runoff, he walks us through the ups and downs of election season and even helps us understand why Santa Cruz today is like Philadelphia circa 1787.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Bring us more from the Ven. Tenzin
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. To the editor: I have just finished reading the article “What does Measure D have in common with your neighbor’s barking dog?” I want to thank the author, Venerable Tenzin Chogkyi, and Lookout for printing it. She says, […]