When disasters like this winter’s storms and the CZU fire hit, Santa Cruz County relies on nonprofits to help those in need. Here, Lookout columnist Mike Rotkin outlines how nonprofits came to be so useful in our community and why they need our ongoing support, particularly with the county and its cities coming to grips with looming budget woes.
Mike Rotkin on Santa Cruz politics
Mike Rotkin, former Santa Cruz city councilmember and five-time mayor, writes about local politics for Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The key to environmental stability for Santa Cruz County? Reliable, frequent public transit
A nearly $40 million infusion of state funding for public transit and transit-oriented housing is good news for our community, says Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin. It will kick-start needed climate-friendly improvements, including a push to make our buses carbon-neutral and establish a “bus on shoulder” lane for Highway 1. Transit is the biggest cause of greenhouse gasses locally, so getting more people to ride buses and bikes is key. But we can’t be the national leader we want to be — on par with cities like Boulder and Portland — without even more money, he says. He suggests a small sales-tax increase to get us there.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The California Coastal Commission: It’s critically important, but it increasingly overreaches
The California Coastal Commission keeps our beaches and scenic views accessible to all, and that is a good thing, writes Lookout political columnist Mike Rotkin, who fought to pass the 1976 Coastal Act that followed the commission’s establishment. But Rotkin does wonder why the commission is weighing in on so many recent issues in Santa Cruz — from hotels to oversized vehicle parking — and suggests commissioners might be setting rules in Santa Cruz that don’t apply to other communities, including Carmel and Monterey.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
California state law needs to change — let’s stop allowing building in areas we know are dangerous
Most disaster victims deserve our sympathy, says Lookout political columnist Mike Rotkin. But some storm disasters are predictable and avoidable. The state needs to take action to change laws that allow anyone to rebuild housing in areas that are so clearly unsuitable and dangerous for habitation, Rotkin writes. “Low-lying neighborhoods like Felton Grove, subdivisions built on unstable slopes like Love Creek and multimillion-dollar homes built too close to the bay regularly put their residents at risk and even lead to unnecessary deaths.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz Water 101: Why we are still in drought
Lookout political columnist Mike Rotkin explains why the atmospheric bomb cyclones that flooded parts of Santa Cruz County at the start of January do not signal an end to the drought we are currently in. He also offers a mini primer on the city’s water-solutions history, from storage to desalination efforts and more. He also explains why water bills might eventually go up.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
National midterm election results offer real reason to have a happy holiday season
Mike Rotkin reviews the outcome of the national midterm elections and finds muted, but real, reasons for a happy holiday season. The midterms turned out well for Democrats — putting off what he describes as “the terrifying prospect of a House of Representatives controlled by a supermajority of election and climate change deniers, gun fanatics and anti-feminist, LGBTQ+ bashers.” But losing the House will have consequences, and the tight races in many states don’t bode well for the future, he writes.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz elections turned out well for pragmatic progressives
Mike Rotkin explains why he felt better coming out of Santa Cruz’s November 2022 elections than he did going into them. Most of the candidates he supported won, with the exception of Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson in the District 3 county supervisor race. But, he writes, he feels good about Justin Cummings as a leader and about his “evolving politics.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
UCSC workers are on strike; I wish they would tell me why
Lookout opinion columnist and UC Santa Cruz lecturer Mike Rotkin is a longtime union supporter with extensive union bargaining experience. He supports the current UC strike on principle, but is baffled that the strikers have not communicated their demands to potential allies (including him) — and to the public. That’s a mistake, he says.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Measure O deserves a no; the rest is magical thinking and pixie dust
The opposition to the proposed new downtown Santa Cruz library began with parking — specifically people opposed to ever adding any parking downtown. Over time, Mike Rotkin writes, others found reasons to oppose the project and joined the effort in support of Measure O. But nothing changes the fact that the proposed library will be bigger and better for less cost than rebuilding a library on its current site.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Let’s applaud Santa Cruz city leaders for finally tackling homelessness
The City of Santa Cruz has finally adopted a real plan to address homelessness, which is a change from past practice. The city has a three-year plan to help transition people into housing and clear city streets and parks of encampments. Mike Rotkin, longtime mayor of Santa Cruz, wants us to give our city leaders credit for trying to tackle this longtime issue. He also wants us to use our votes to fund city taxes that fight homelessness, he writes.