If you are hankering for turkey and pumpkin pie, steer clear of Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach’s house. She and her 8-year-old grandson, Dodger, won’t be sitting around dishing up gravy. They’ll be on the beach eating cheese puffs and apples from Bella’s orchard, building sandcastles and talking about gratitude. At the top of Sternbach’s list? Nancy Pelosi, pies from a freezer, her grandson’s giggles, airplanes, Lookout and you.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Phil Rodriguez is unfit as a school board trustee in the Soquel Union Elementary School district
Phil Rodriguez was unfairly reelected to the Soquel Union Elementary School district board, argues Chris Amsden, a parent of four kids who attended district schools. Rodriguez neglected to tell Lookout and voters he had resigned his seat. That led his challenger, Justin Maffia, to believe he was running in an uncontested race. Amsden believes Rodriguez is not fit to serve and not a good model for children.
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
Election Reaction: Let’s take back our progressive identity — real progressives advocate for change
Community activist, longtime resident and Democratic fundraiser Debra Feldstein is tired of the way the word “progressive” gets batted about in Santa Cruz County. She says a coalition of activists and politicians has claimed the progressive identity for themselves and “act as though they are the guiding force for change and the keepers of community justice.” In fact, she writes, “they are not pushing for real change.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Community call to action: Show up at courthouse Friday for sentencing hearing in BLM mural vandalism case
The two men who vandalized the Black Lives Matter mural in downtown Santa Cruz will be sentenced Friday. Activists, including members of the SC Equity Collab who led the creation of the mural, are encouraging the public to attend and speak at the sentencing. It’s a chance, they write, “to demonstrate to the defendants, the court and the judge such behavior will not be tolerated here.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Election Reaction: Peggy Flynn says students ‘do right’ by democracy and Stevenson College
Democratic Party activist Peggy Flynn spent Election Day helping at the polls at UC Santa Cruz and was amazed by the turnout — and the enthusiasm of young voters. Unfortunately, she writes, some students arrived too late to vote. She thinks local election officials could have done a better job of informing students and the community about voting opportunities before Election Day.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
I lost my nephew in a hate crime five years ago; here’s how I’ve found a way to heal
Marcelle DuPraw’s beloved 23-year-old nephew was murdered in a hate crime in Oregon five years ago. She still finds it “unbelievable” that someone so vibrant, smart and determined to promote change is “gone — just … gone.” She has taken comfort in the astonishing network of people determined to vanquish what she sees as the “tsunami of hate and bias sweeping our country.” This week in Santa Cruz, DuPraw and others have organized the countywide United Against Hate Week, which offers a full schedule of programming — a “priceless opportunity” for our community to learn from each other.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Election Reaction: Ami Chen Mills says progressives need to get organized
Ami Chen Mills laments that progressive candidates did not fare better in elections on Nov. 8. The votes are still being tallied, but she finds it sad that Santa Cruzans “could not find it in their hearts” to elect Hector Marin, a young, progressive Latino. She also questions “the overwhelming firepower” of Santa Cruz Together and begs progressives to get better organized on the fundraising front.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Ag companies regularly spray my neighborhood with pesticides; it’s time to make them stop
Retired Watsonville teacher Kathryn Mizuno wants agricultural giants like Driscoll’s to be more accountable for the sort of pesticides they spray. She has lived in her current home since 2015, but only recently realized the amount of pesticides sprayed nearby. In September, the fields near her home got sprayed more than 20 times. This, she writes, must stop: “We should not be accepting the use of toxic chemicals as ‘conventional’ agriculture.” The Watsonville City Council does not yet have a date to discuss the pressing community issue.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Is it me or is distracted driving on the rise? I’ve been rear-ended three times in Santa Cruz this year
I’ve been rear-ended three times since February in Santa Cruz, Jeanette Prather writes. She says she’s getting used to the sound of metal slamming into her bumper, which is disturbing and unacceptable. People need to stop texting, driving with pets and not paying attention to the road.
