Both new hotels — aiming to open in Santa Cruz in the next few years — will expand the options for visitors. The local hospitality business is now thriving. What difference might the hotels make?
Recovery & Reopening
Posted inBusiness & Technology
New luxury hotel at La Bahia, near Boardwalk, finally moves forward; aims to open in 2024
Construction is already underway at the site where the developers, including Santa Cruz Seaside Company and the company that owns the Dream Inn, plan to build an upscale venue with 155 rooms and two restaurants. Late 2024 is the target date for the hotel, as yet unnamed, to open along Beach Street.
Posted inCity Life
Cabrillo Stage emerges post-pandemic with crowd-pleasing ‘Grease,’ ambitious ‘Candide’
Santa Cruz County’s professional musical-theater troupe enthusiastically reoccupies the Crocker Theater for the first time in three years to present a big 2022 season.
Posted inBusiness & Technology
Left out to dry: Sprinkler requirements the next hurdle for beleaguered CZU rebuilders
As more families in the Santa Cruz Mountains begin the rebuilding process nearly two years after losing their homes in the CZU Lightning Complex fire, another issue has become evident: a fire sprinkler requirement, and a lack of adequate water pressure for all affected families. Some say this could hinder their ability to get home more so than before: “What can I do, just move in and face possible red-tagging?”
Posted inCoast Life
Reimagining Big Basin: Following CZU fire devastation, what should the park become?
The devastating CZU Complex fire that burned 97% of Big Basin Redwoods State Park is giving way to new growth — and new plans, including tribal involvement, as the 120-year-old park comes back to life.
Posted inFood & Drink
Santa Cruz winemakers face a bottled-up glass supply
Get ready for odd-shaped wine bottles, higher prices — and maybe more reusable bottles, like Sones Cellars has pioneered in Santa Cruz. The culprit: Yes, it’s the supply chain, choked up around glass manufacturing and distribution.
Posted inCity Life
Cabrillo Festival announces new season, to memorialize the traumas of 2020
After two years struggling to be remake itself into a temporary media production company, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music returns triumphantly to live performances at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in late July and early August.
Posted inCOVID Today
A guide to help you keep up with the Omicron subvariants
How different are the seemingly endless stream of emerging Omicron subvariants from one another and how protected are we?
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Q&A: New Santa Cruz police chief Bernie Escalante takes on staffing woes, COVID impacts and mental wellness
After serving as interim chief following the resignation of former chief Andy Mills in October, Bernie Escalante moves into his role as new police chief with goals to build staffing and trusting relationships with the community. Several days after his official appointment, he told Lookout about his vision and the department’s challenges.
Posted inHealth & Wellness
‘A big lift’ to get 988 launched: Much to do, and plenty of need, as Santa Cruz County prepares to roll out new behavioral health hotline
Health officials and organizations across the country, including in Santa Cruz County, are preparing for a major revamp of how services respond to behavioral health crisis calls. A new 988 number, launching nationwide in July, will provide people with a trained responder who can help the caller resolve a mental health crisis.