The Santa Cruz City Council will discuss preliminary plans for West Cliff Drive on Tuesday, with the impact of this winter’s battering storms on the iconic coastal roadway and what comes next an immediate focus. A draft plan also floats a future study of a sea cave underneath Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse, which could determine how seriously the city will look at the feasibility of relocating the lighthouse; a leader of resident group Save West Cliff is pushing for action sooner.
Santa Cruz
Posted inHousing & Development
Nightmare or riverfront nirvana — or somewhere in between? What’s the next Santa Cruz going to feel like?
Quick, describe the vibe that characterizes what the one-of-a-kind place that is Santa Cruz is known to be. Now, as the housing construction boom begins to change the landscape of downtown, angst is growing about the displacement of the old and the coming of the new. Will downtown’s dramatic facelift obliterate that special Santa Cruz something? Or will the Santa Cruz spirit — however you might define it — in time inhabit the new city now emerging?
Posted inPolitics & Policy
After very public Benchlands clearing, Santa Cruz taking quieter approach with Pogonip homeless encampment
In this edition of In the Public Interest, Christopher Neely looks at what’s different about efforts beginning Monday to clear the homeless encampment in Pogonip from how the City of Santa Cruz moved residents out of the San Lorenzo River Benchlands last fall.
Posted inCity Life
The People’s Studio: Santa Cruz’s Sonivore has a novel idea — why not open up the recording studio to everybody?
Seeing Santa Cruz County’s music scene “on the precipice of a kind of renaissance” — one powered by young people of color — Summer Red and his Sonivore Studio are helping artists break into the music business with the nonprofit Solo Tracks program. He’ll talk more about it during a free panel discussion Friday at the MAH.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
UCSC students should expect more from their administration in combating antisemitism and hate
UC Santa Cruz is seeing a problematic rise in antisemitic acts, writes second-year music major Bodie Shargel. Shargel feels that amid a concurrent rise in antisemitism nationally, UCSC needs to do more to combat hate on campus. He feels the measures the university has in place to combat antisemitism are not working and says the administration’s response to a group of students holding a birthday party for Hitler in April was insufficient. Shargel believes Jewish students need more support and is calling for more action from the administration and for solidarity among students to “get Nazis off campus.”
Posted inHousing & Development
First meeting on potential 2024 Santa Cruz housing bond debates affordable housing, downtown growth
Santa Cruz Mayor Fed Keeley hosted the first of three public meetings on a potential March 2024 housing bond ballot measure, along with City Councilmembers Scott Newsome and Sandy Brown, Director of Economic Development Bonnie Lipscomb and city attorney Tony Condotti.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Toward a March 2024 housing bond measure in Santa Cruz
James Weller, a local housing advocate, thinks he has an answer to our community’s most vexing issue, the fact that most of us cannot afford to pay the exorbitant cost of housing. The state has mandated Santa Cruz County build more, Weller writes, but developers won’t build unless they can make a profit by charging high rents. “But what if we had a public subsidization fund so we could pay developers some fraction of their marginal cost per unit” so that more units could be low-rent dwellings, he asks.”Maybe we could pay them enough to make a profit on the deal.”
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz’s phased sweep of Pogonip homeless encampment to begin next week
Last fall, after the City of Santa Cruz finished clearing the Benchlands homeless encampment, many people began relocating to the Highway 9-adjacent city park known as Pogonip. Next week, the city will begin evicting people from Pogonip.
Posted inFood & Drink
Lily Belli on Food: Checking out Firefly Tavern, prize-winning pies and a quest for tuna niçoise
Hello eaters! Jessica M. Pasko here. While Lily is out on maternity leave, I’m pitching in on the latest local food news. A little about me — I’m a writer and a native of upstate New York, living in Santa Cruz for over a decade. Our rich food culture is just one of the many […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Firefly Tavern brings new concept to former 99 Bottles space
Aiming to provide a spot in downtown Santa Cruz that both fosters a sense of community and boasts delicious food, Hans Losee and April Wilkerson opened Firefly Tavern in April in the Walnut Avenue location that formerly housed 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.