With a new year upon us, Wallace turns to his favorite drag-queen psychic, the Fabulous Ms. Claire Voyant, to peer into the unknown … and goodness, did Ms. Claire have some visions about name-change fervor across the county, the new downtown library, fashion plate Fred Keeley and plenty more.
Housing
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Remembrance 2022: Santa Cruz County looks back at those we lost
In the final chapter of his series remembering prominent members of the Santa Cruz County community who died in 2022, Wallace Baine spotlights a barber-author, artists, activists, an academic and more.
Posted inFood & Drink
Longtime food & drink columnist Christina Waters switching gears
“I can now expand my arts writing free from the insistent pace of the weekly column,” Christina Waters says of what’s ahead after some 35 years at local alt-weeklies.
Posted inK-12 Education
Unsung Santa Cruz: Her classroom and sex education curriculum help students feel safe and included
As an English and health teacher at Delta Charter High School, Jamie Cutter has her hands full. Students and other education leaders say she’s made a difference in Santa Cruz County by helping youth develop healthy and critical decision-making skills in and outside the classroom.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Unsung Santa Cruz: As the navigator in chief, he’s helping steer county’s most vulnerable into housing
John Dietz is not your average 85-year-old riding out his golden years. He and his team at the downtown Santa Cruz library work diligently to help house folks who might otherwise be deemed off-limits by landlords. They help find important paperwork, fill out forms and prepare for housing interviews. Once those clients are in, the team helps them remain stable. If and when they lose that roof overhead, Dietz and his team try, try again.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Need a quick stocking-stuffer? Nothing beats a book
Books often make the best gifts. Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach offers some tips for new and classic reads, including a few that either take place in Santa Cruz or are written by local authors. All would make swell stocking-stuffers, she writes. Maybe even throw in a battery-operated book light for those stormy evenings when the power leaves us reading by candlelight.
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Uncensored: Local realtor explores who Santa Cruzans are through Census data
Keep Santa Cruz Weird… a phrase coined by locals to concisely describe our unique community. The “keep” in the phrase can be seen as a protest against change. Change is, of course, inevitable. Santa Cruz has seen an influx of change since its official inception in 1791. Presently, this change is only accelerated as more […]
Posted inCoast Life
Pleasure Point sustains: Neighborhood group celebrates compromises made for Portola Drive’s future growth
Though they’re “not gloating,” Save Pleasure Point made enough sensical noise to 1st District Santa Cruz County Supervisor Manu Koenig, who helped make the group’s case to the planning department and other supervisors to limit development density on large parcels along the neighborhood’s main commercial artery.
Posted inCoast Life
‘Yeah, I’m pretty lucky’: Santa Cruz’s new public works director loves to play where he works
Nathan Nguyen is the City of Santa Cruz’s new public works director, taking over for the retired Mark Dettle, who held those reins for 21 years. When the new leader isn’t wrangling a complex stable of civic projects, you’ll probably find Nguyen out on one of his many favorite mountain bike trails.
Posted inCoast Life
With fentanyl ODs still surging, fear of increased drug use among Latino youth has county leaders concerned
A survey conducted among high school youth in Watsonville earlier this year suggests that a growing number of kids are experimenting with substances beyond alcohol and marijuana on a regular basis. Leaders hope a Spanish-language town hall Monday night will help illuminate the problem more broadly — and affirm to parents the danger fentanyl presents. The number of deaths the synthetic opioid has caused in Santa Cruz County in 2022 will set a new high, Lookout has learned.
