A team of 11 young women is spreading awareness about sex trafficking by pedaling 1,700 miles down the West Coast — from Seattle to San Diego — and has a special fondness for Santa Cruz, where the team recently spent three days. Pedal the Pacific co-founder Savannah Lovelace and her teammates want communities to know that trafficking is not a “developing nation” problem. It’s happening across California and the Pacific Coast, Lovelace writes, even right here in Santa Cruz.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Finding the rainbow in the COVID cloud: How one Santa Cruz artist stitched herself happy
The pandemic left Santa Cruz County artist Marie Cameron feeling despondent and lost. She longed for relief and healing, she writes, and unexpectedly found it arcing across the sky at Pajaro Dunes beach: a rainbow. She spent two years exploring rainbows and stitching them onto vintage photos to remind herself of her own light, the goodness in others and the beauty still left in our world.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
‘I love Matt Scott’: Santa Cruz icon and beloved friend needs us
Matt Scott was severely injured in a motorcycle accident July 1, and more than 900 people have rallied to help him as he faces a long recovery. Ann Wasserman has known Matt for decades, she writes, and misses his warmth, smile and her regular “Matt sightings” around town.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
If Santa Cruz wants more accountability from police, we need to repeal state Peace Officer Bill of Rights
The Santa Cruz Police Department is among some of the best in the country, but it wasn’t always, writes five-time former mayor Mike Rotkin. If we want a police department that is fully accountable, he says we’ll need to change the state’s Peace Officer Bill of Rights. He’d like to see that happen.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Lookout missed the context on Scotts Valley Pride flag debate
Scotts Valley Vice Mayor Jim Reed wants to set the record straight on the Scotts Valley Pride flag debate Lookout covered in late June. He says Lookout took his comments about how to legally allow the flag to fly, and comparisons he made to extending the same privileges to the KKK, out of context and missed the larger discussion of how councilmembers and governments have to consider legal issues. If the Pride flag flies, what other flags could then also be allowed? Reed worries the public does not appreciate the legal complications elected leaders face, and that this gap in understanding can lead to a skewed perception that there is disagreement, when none exists.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Stick to Santa Cruz’s downtown library and affordable housing plans: Don’t fall for ODOF’s two big mistakes
The future of a visionary downtown Santa Cruz project to deliver 124 units of affordable housing, a modern library and a childcare center is threatened by a misguided ballot measure built on falsehoods and half-truths. Three experts push back on arguments made by Our Downtown Our Future leaders, including Rick Longinotti.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
What to do when even a soothing stroll at the beach begins to feel political?
Claudia Sternbach has lived in Aptos for 40 years and walks her beloved Seacliff State Beach almost every day. She recalls the beach of her childhood as a place of sun, fun and surfers, “those magical creatures celebrated by The Beach Boys.” She never considered the beach “feeling political.” But lately, she’s seen flags and shirts supporting the Second Amendment displayed prominently along her daily walk, which includes a memorial to her late sister. “Do I have a right, a duty even, to speak out? My gut instinct says, hell yes!,” she says. “My liberal, Santa Cruz mentality (after taking a deep breath) says no.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz’s parking garage mistake: It would undermine library project, make affordable housing harder
Santa Cruz voters delivered a historic “no” vote on Measure F last month. Rick Longinotti attributes this to mistrust in city government. Longinotti believes city staff buried a consultant’s downtown parking strategic plan to win city council support for a new parking garage to be constructed along with a new downtown library.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Pleasure Point is not a place for high rises: Rezone our neighborhood the right way
The neighborhood group Save Pleasure Point wants to protect the culture and character of its eclectic coastline community by preventing Santa Cruz County from rezoning Portola Drive to the maximum urban density allowable under code. The group isn’t against building, members write — just against what it sees as too much building too fast for an area it says is already burdened with parking, traffic and safety concerns. Save Pleasure Point offers an alternative solution.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
‘You’re the first Muslim I’ve ever spoken to’: How quick talks with a stranger can challenge our stereotypes
Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi thinks the only way we can “move forward as a nation and as human beings” is to talk to each other and find “the threads of common humanity that unite us.” She gives suggestions and — in partnership with others — is offering us a chance to talk to strangers and get to know ourselves at the MAH on July 23. She’ll be there, too.