Environmental activist Dan Haifley argues that Monterey Bay residents should care about and support the potential designation of tribally nominated Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, covering waters off San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties. If approved by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Association, the new sanctuary will provide the missing link in a chain of protection from Mendocino to Santa Barbara.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Let’s take a break from pledge break: An open letter to KQED
Robert M. Kaplan loves public television and radio, but hates pledge drives, particularly unnecessary ones, like the one KQED, his beloved station, launched recently. If you do the math, the longtime faculty and health sciences administrator insists, some stations don’t need the pledge money as much as they let on and they should stop shaming patrons for watching. “With revenues exceeding expenses by about $25 million, should we feel guilty about watching ‘Masterpiece Theatre’ without coughing up extra cash?” he asks.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I grew up scared my family would be deported; now I want everyone to know our story
Britney Baldelomar, a fourth-year UC Santa Cruz student, is the only one in her family born in America, “with American opportunities.” Her parents and older siblings came from Bolivia before she was born. She spent decades living in fear her family would be caught, separated. She always wondered why her siblings didn’t go to college or have the same chances she did. Last year, she finally turned 21 and petitioned for their citizenship.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Three Stanford degrees, two healing choices — one uncertain path
Lookout opinion writer Marisa Messina’s résumé is impressive: She has three Stanford degrees and has worked for Fortune 500 companies. But her most intense work is learning to take care of her own body and brain and figure out “the good life.” Here, she invites you into her work-in-progress wellness journey, which includes farm fields and the acupuncture table.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Katy Marsh, ‘badass’ founder of Copper Moon Apothecary, magician, community catalyst, we love you
Katy Marsh Thompson, 53, founder of Copper Moon Apothecary, beloved community volunteer, animal lover and farmers market advocate, learned in August that she had stage 4 ovarian cancer. She is now under hospice care at home. Her partner, Garth Taylor, had a vision to celebrate and honor her with the written word. Nicole Zahm, a friend and colleague, brings that to life here. Katy, your impacts are big and we are grateful for them, she writes. This is a love note to you.
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
Why do we devote only one month to Black history? DeSantis, pop your head out of the Florida sand
Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach feels cheated. February is more than half over and she doesn’t feel she — or the rest of the public — has learned much new about Black history. “Perhaps we should flip the tables and devote 11 months of the year learning about how Black Americans were treated and what many achieved despite the odds which were and still are stacked against them,” she writes. She also has some choice words for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose State of the Union rebuttal appalled her. “Huckabee Sanders seems terrified children will learn the actual facts of our past, whether it be about race or the LGBTQ+ movement,” she says.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz must end unlawful harassment of people living in vehicles
Activist Reggie Meisler — along with 11 local organizations and 38 activists — says the City of Santa Cruz is issuing unlawful parking tickets and illegitimate abandoned-vehicle notices that unfairly target people living in vehicles along Delaware Avenue and surrounding streets near Natural Bridges State Beach. The city, he charges, does not have proper permission from the California Coastal Commission to limit parking in these areas. “These parking signs,” he concludes, “should be unenforceable.” He wants the city to stop this practice, which puts an unfair burden on those who are most needy.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I’m just a pizza guy, but I got to go to the State of the Union: Here’s what happened
Chuck Hammers, owner of Pizza My Heart, got an inside view of our government last week, when he sat near Jill Biden, Bono and the parents of Tyre Nichols during the State of the Union address Tuesday. Hammers’ Capitola Village restaurant sustained close to $500,000 in damages during the January storms, and he and other restaurants had visits from Gov. Gavin Newsom, Rep. Jimmy Panetta and even President Joe Biden. Here, he gives us a peek into the “room where it happens” and his personal “Where’s Bernie” moment.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I’m in charge of water for 98,000 people in Santa Cruz. Here is what I’d like you to know.
Santa Cruz Water Director Rosemary Menard is worried about our memory, specifically about what she calls our “weather memory whiplash.” That’s when we think our water crisis is over because of a few storms, like the ones we had in January. It’s not, she tells us here. In fact, ongoing climate change means our water crisis will likely get worse. “Future water rationing will allot only half as much water to families as water rationing of the past, and future rationing will include businesses,” she says. “That might be easier for an accountant, but not so much for a restaurant, brewery or hotel.”