In a letter to California lawmakers, Lookout CEO and founder Ken Doctor outlines his opposition to Assembly Bill 886 as the the California Journalism Preservation Act heads to a hearing before state Senate Judiciary Committee.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
How Daniel Ellsberg opened the door to one of the most consequential climate stories of our time
Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, was undaunted by the challenge of finding out what the oil industry knew about carbon emissions and global warming. Ellsberg died Friday at 92.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We need wider sidewalks and protected bike lanes in Santa Cruz: Let’s rethink our rights-of-way
We should be using 20 to 30% of our city land better, write urban planner Stephen Svete and Strong Towns advocate John Mulry. They believe in prioritizing bikes over cars, walking over parking and creating communities rather than transport corridors. Locally, that would mean narrowing our roads and adopting protected bike lanes, investing in more tree planters, curb extensions and more. “As Santa Cruz undergoes its biggest facelift since the 1989 earthquake, this is an ideal time to be talking about this,” they say.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Here’s what celebrations of Juneteenth shouldn’t be missing
It’s impossible to celebrate a national holiday that marks the emancipation of Black people in 1865, writes academic and author Kellie Carter Jackson, without considering the role of education in freedom, which the GOP continues to attack today.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I’ve been dancing to the Grateful Dead for 50 years … I just wish I could remember it all
When you can’t trust your memory, it’s time to whip out your phone and push the record button, says Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach, who is in her 70s. Sternbach is growing frustrated by her memory gaps — and that “there isn’t a single person left who might be able to confirm or deny” what she does remember. Here, she recounts a recent memory she wants to hold — a celebration of 50 years of Grateful Dead shows — and the freedom she experienced on the dance floor. Luckily, her husband caught it all on his cell.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
What do a police officer, an activist and a surfer have in common? On Saturday, ‘Let’s Talk About It’
A police officer and a longtime progressive sit at a table discussing mutual concerns. A young Muslim mother meets her first transgender man. “Let’s Talk About It” will open our community to these conversations and more Saturday at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz. The event, in its second year, allows us to have conversations with people from marginalized and misunderstood communities and peel back our own layers of identity. With hate crime on the rise nationally and amid incidents of intolerance locally, it’s something we need, writes Tenzin Chogkyi, a longtime Buddhist teacher who works at the Conflict Resolution Center.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We all want to halt fentanyl-related opioids, but Panetta’s vote to criminalize would keep us in same loop of failure
Retired Santa Cruz physician Helen Nunberg spent decades treating people with addictions and can’t understand why Rep. Jimmy Panetta recently voted for the HALT Fentanyl Act. The act, she says, will lead to harsher criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of fentanyl-related drugs and makes the same mistakes we have been making for decades. “Obviously, what we are doing isn’t working,” she writes. She encourages you to write to your senators and keep President Joe Biden from signing it into law.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The real ‘woke up’ call: Good Times does not get a pass after publishing a transphobic anonymous letter
Xinistra and Rogue Roulette, two drag artists who participated in “Drag Story Time” in Watsonville last month, pen an open letter airing their anger and hurt over the anonymous homophobic and transphobic letter Good Times published about their event. That letter prompted both an apology from Good Times and a change in the publication’s leadership. They feel the weekly’s apology was inadequate and doesn’t address its systemic failure. “Merely apologizing and moving on is not enough,” they write. “Not in the current national climate. You don’t get to sweep this under the rug.” They also address the letter writer, local businesses, their fellow drag artists and queer community and you, the public.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz needs an affordable housing tax measure; a $95 parcel tax is the best option
The city of Santa Cruz needs more taxes to support affordable housing, writes James Weller, a local housing advocate. A proposed 2024 ballot measure is under discussion by a citizens committee and in recent polls 63% preferred equally either a parcel tax or an assessed-value tax-rate increase. That leaves Weller optimistic. Anyone can join in the planning process over the next month; Weller invites Santa Cruz residents to participate.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz County’s human-service nonprofits need more funding — even as budgets tighten all over
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.