Ben Lomond resident Daniel DeLong misses his neighbors. Many lost homes in the CZU fire in 2020 and have struggled with the bureaucracy of rebuilding. Too many, he writes, are giving up, worn out by paperwork and the demands of bureaucrats. For him, the numbers say it all: 911 homes lost, 24 rebuilds. “Look, I know these are just people doing their jobs,” he says of those in charge of approving rebuilds. “They’re checking the boxes that codes and regulations require. … But I also know that bureaucracies don’t always have to be as mindless, as dehumanizing, as soul-crushing.”
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Highway 1 futility: Why you might soon be spending more time in traffic
Activist Rick Longinotti warns Highway 1 commuters about two county projects he believes will make traffic around Santa Cruz worse: the exit-only lane from Soquel Drive to 41st Avenue and a proposal for a Kaiser Permanente medical complex in Live Oak. The first will cause congestion and won’t bring improvement, he writes, while the second is misplaced and would “call for a 730-space parking structure, 50% larger than the current largest garage in the county.” Kaiser, he argues, should build so employees and patients have access to public transit.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Eight things you know about homelessness that are wrong
Housing advocate Don Lane has worked on issues of homelessness for three decades. Here, he addresses the eight misconceptions “we need to overcome to advance our community thinking about homelessness.” A former Santa Cruz mayor, Lane addresses the mental health argument, our community counting skills, the “send them back” stance and more.
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
A Lookout View: ‘Build back better’ sounds great. But who is paying and when?
Editorial: Yes, Santa Cruzans are resilient, but this next recovery is fraught with challenges and questions. They begin with money, but now include lots of questions driven by climate change and equity.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Was the president’s visit to Santa Cruz County worth it?
Veteran journalist and former Santa Cruz Sentinel editor Tom Honig reflects on President Joe Biden’s visit to Santa Cruz and the fiscal impact it might have on recovery and rebuilding. The exposure, he believes, is good for Santa Cruz and our hard-hit surrounding areas. He felt heartened by the local turnout to see Biden and is hopeful it will bring results.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz County should not be using a pesticide banned in 34 countries — that is environmental racism
Erika Alfaro, a Santa Cruz resident and pediatric nurse case manager, was one of dozens from across California who implored regulators to limit the use of 1,3-dichloropropene on crops during a recent hearing in Sacramento. The regulatory board has proposed “allowing 14 times more cancer-causing 1,3-D in the air that farmworker communities breathe” than the state’s office of environmental health says is safe, she says. “If this pesticide were applied in Los Gatos or Saratoga, where affluent communities reside, would this even be an issue?” she asks.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Alec Baldwin, I get you — it’s time to call bull on those who say guns are safe
Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach understands Alec Baldwin, at least a little. At least his stunned, nauseated reaction after he accidentally killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while filming “Rust” in October 2021. Sternbach, too, has felt sick this week, as tragedies in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay enveloped us. “In both cases, the people in charge of the deadly weapons all claim that the guns were stored or handled properly,” she writes. “They are positive no one was in danger. Well, isn’t it time to call bull?”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
What NYT omitted about life in the Santa Cruz Mountains: Neighbors with chainsaws
Daniel DeLong lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where packing a chainsaw is often just part of mountain life. His young daughters are as familiar with the gear – ropes, helmets, wedges, mini sledgehammer – as they are with their own backpacks. Unfortunately, The New York Times reporter who interviewed him last week during the storms, was not. “That reporter omits the most important aspect of rural mountain living: preparation. And having neighbors who look out for each other,” he says.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Skimboarding might be surfing’s little brother in Santa Cruz, but it’s given me family across the world
Santa Cruz’s skimboarding community “might be relatively small,” writes Evan Quarnstrom, “but our small town plays an outsized role in the history and culture of the sport.” Quarnstrom grew up skimboarding in Santa Cruz and he’s used his passion and skill to meet fellow skimmers across the world. He explains how, and offers a primer on why skimming is harder than surfing.