Lookout’s Christopher Neely puts Santa Cruz County politics and policy in focus in his weekly newsletter.
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Posted inLatest News
Morning Lookout: Watsonville runway dispute, criminal justice reform and Soquel Drive overhaul
Monday morning headlines from Lookout Santa Cruz.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Up in the air: Watsonville’s airport and housing clash on the runway
A new chapter has begun in the decades-old battle between growth and preservation around Watsonville Municipal Airport. A local pilots group is suing the city after the city council narrowly voted to decommission the airport’s auxiliary runway.
Posted inLatest News
In wake of SCPD cyclist arrest, speakers voice frustrations, push for public safety reforms in community forum
Local activists, social justice organizations and about 30 community members gathered Sunday in front of Santa Cruz City Hall to connect and begin discussing ways to reimagine public safety in the city in response to community complaints regarding the use of excessive force by Santa Cruz police officers in their arrest of a Black cyclist earlier this month.
Posted inLatest News
Carmageddon: Soquel Drive improvements moving forward, with biggest impact likely for the summer
Work to encourage residents to cycle, walk and take the bus more is happening along Soquel Drive, and Santa Cruz County staff expect the most noticeable traffic delays to occur over the summer both because of the scope of work and the generally higher traffic levels.
Posted inRecreation & Sports
High school sports roundup: Baseball, softball races coming down to the wire
In his weekly roundup of Santa Cruz County high school sports, Thomas Frey sets the scene for the decisive final stretch in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League and Pacific Coast Athletic League.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Koenig and McPherson say they support rail, but vote against it
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz reader takes County Supervisors Manu Koenig and Bruce McPherson to task for, as she sees it, saying they support rail transportation in Santa Cruz County and then voting against it.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
From Hell to the Hall of Fame: The astonishing story of Sandy Stone
Longtime Santa Cruz County resident Sandy Stone has been named to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the first transgender woman so honored, thanks to her amazing contributions in everything from computer science to music to transgender studies.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
RTC needs to answer hard questions about rail trail
The Regional Transportation Commission has not done its job on the rail-trail debate, writes local activist Jack Brown. Here, he offers 12 questions he believes commissioners have failed to answer. Brown supported Measure D, the 2022 Greenway ballot initiative calling for a trail-only option. He says Santa Cruz County has lost too much time and money on a flawed idea.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Board of supervisors has what it needs to move rail-trail project forward
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors needs to vote Tuesday to move forward with the coastal rail-trail project, writes Matt Farrell, board chair of Santa Cruz County Friends of the Rail and Trail. If not, our community won’t meet the state’s requirements to receive nearly $68 million in state grant funding, he says. Two supervisors, Manu Koenig and Bruce McPherson, voted no on the most recent round.