Shareen Bell got spooked by the smell of wildfire that hung in the air around Santa Cruz County last week. It took her back to the CZU fire and reminded her why the organizing work she does at Firewise matters. She is one of the organizing members of the Highland Firewise group on the Westside, and she encourages everyone to get to know their neighbors and create a disaster plan. She explains how and why here.
Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
A far-right hate group is trying to recruit in Santa Cruz County; we stand united to say ‘No’
A coalition of 44 local organizations has united to denounce the group Moms for Liberty, which participated in a meeting in Watsonville last weekend. Moms for Liberty says it advocates parental rights, but is also labeled extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Here, the 44 organizations denounce the tactics, ideas and motivations of Moms for Liberty, which include banning books and limiting discussions about race and LGBTQ+ identities in schools. “We will fight their efforts with vigor and passion every step of the way to protect our most vulnerable kids and their families,” the groups write.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Anderson Cooper is helping me understand grief — and podcasting
Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach has fallen for Anderson Cooper. His podcast, anyway. On it, he unpacks his grief at the death of his famous mother, the heiress and fashion trendsetter Gloria Vanderbilt, and the suicide of his brother, Carter. Like most people in their 70s, Sternbach has lost loved ones and has become accustomed to carrying her grief with her. “The older we get, the more we lose,” she writes in this latest column on aging. “And yet, as we continue on, we are expected to carry more. More memories, more grief, more tools to deal with said grief. We fill up a virtual backpack with it all and just keep walking as the load gets heavier.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Anti-density stances are bad for Santa Cruz — so are ballot initiatives on building heights
Economist Richard McGahey responds to Housing for People activist Susan Monheit’s Sept. 15 Lookout piece. The two have been engaged in a lively public debate about changes to downtown Santa Cruz and the usefulness of a ballot initiative on tall buildings Housing for People is trying to get on the March ballot. McGahey, whose 2023 book on inequitable cities was nominated for a National Book Award, is against the initiative. “Not only do we voters not know enough, but such voting actually is anti-democratic, favoring wealthier people and homeowners,” he says.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Need an escape from bad news and politics? Try fiddlin’ in the forest
Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach is amazed at her friend Nora, who at 68 took up fiddling in 2019 and recently performed in the Valley of the Moon Fiddle Extravaganza at DeLaveaga Park. Sternbach attended and was mesmerized by the range of emotions the music brought. “I had gone from foot tapping and clapping to sobbing silently, a lump in my throat the size of a boulder,” she writes. “I thought of the people I miss. The people I loved.” She also got a brief respite from the woes of the world. “Who knew that such a small instrument could provide such an abundance of joy?”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz needs to stay a beach town: Let the people vote on high rises
Santa Cruz housing activist Susan Monheit believes Santa Cruz’s iconic status as a beloved beach town is endangered by planned development. Here, she responds to critiques by economist Richard McGahey, who, in a recent Lookout piece, called her advocacy and a petition by Housing for People circulating for the March 2024 ballot “misguided.” Below, she unpacks what Housing for People does and does not do.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Stop the hydrogen buses — they are ‘simply bad news’
New Leaf Community Markets brand manager Lindsay Gizdich said the store is moving from Pacific Avenue in order to have…
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Affordable housing debate needs more nuance
New Leaf Community Markets brand manager Lindsay Gizdich said the store is moving from Pacific Avenue in order to have…
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I had never been arrested for anything. But I got addicted to crack and woke up in jail in Santa Cruz at 50.
Justin Marc, a second-generation Santa Cruz milkman, spent 19 months in jail in Santa Cruz for check fraud, fueled by an addiction to crack. While incarcerated, he found his voice as a poet. He was released two years ago, on Aug. 31, 2021, and has been sober for four years as of last week. Here, in both video and written form, he tells his story, often in rhyme. “That’s how words come out in my thoughts,” he says. “The rhyme is automatic.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz needs more housing density; misguided advocates are making our housing problems worse
Economist Richard McGahey, who has held federal, state and local leadership roles and is regarded as a national expert on urban and regional economic development, has a message for Santa Cruz: Stop supporting misguided housing petitions and policies aimed at curtailing growth. The only way to move Santa Cruz off the list of the nation’s most expensive cities, he says, is to build. He lives part-time in Santa Cruz and points to the petition by the group Housing for People as an example of ill-considered advocacy.