The Capitola Wharf is set to reopen to the public on Sept. 25 following a yearlong renovation project. The community has invested heavily in the rebuild, raising $425,000 for additional features and participating in an art installation for the wharf’s gate.
Storms 2023: Road to Recovery
Posted inLatest News
Capitola Wharf has soft opening as new features are added
The restored Capitola Wharf held a soft opening last week, a year and a half after a storm surge destroyed a large middle section. A community work day party is planned for Saturday, Sept. 7, to install extra features purchased through a fundraising campaign.
Posted inEducation
A like-new Pajaro Middle School reopens after March 2023 levee breach flooded its campus
An extensively renovated Pajaro Middle School reopens Wednesday to students, who were placed temporarily in other schools for a year and a half following devastating flooding that hit the community and damaged the campus when the Pajaro River levee breached in March 2023.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Levee agreement marks a watershed moment for the people of Watsonville and Pajaro
A federal, state and local agreement signed last week officially greenlights the construction of a new Pajaro River levee, a project the community has been waiting for since the 1950s. Local officials say the moment has been a long time coming.
Posted inLatest News
Flooded California towns secured millions in aid. Who gets the money?
Residents of Pajaro and Planada want state aid to help alleviate debt incurred from rebuilding after January floods. Local officials want some money to go elsewhere.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘A Dark and Rising Tide’: Novelist’s supernatural twist on Capitola Village’s devastating winter storm
The latest novel from former KION-TV news director Debra Castaneda is directly inspired by Capitola’s experience with the Storm of ’23. “A Dark and Rising Tide” imagines a scary winter storm that actually brings forth some enormous and mysterious sea creature, and a couple trying to survive both the ocean’s fury and the monster it washed to shore.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
County’s infrastructure leaves residents at ‘heightened flood risk’ as another abnormal winter looms
With the El Niño weather pattern now in effect, Santa Cruz County officials are keeping a wary eye on forecasts that could mean more pressure on the Pajaro River levee and other infrastructure that took a beating last winter. The breach that flooded Pajaro in March should be fixed soon, but other repairs won’t even start until next year.
Posted inBusiness & Technology
$65M in storm-related losses just one of many challenges ag chief sees for Santa Cruz County farmers
“It’s been a tough year,” David Sanford says of 2023 for Santa Cruz County farmers and farmworkers. Sanford, who took over as county agricultural commissioner earlier this from Juan Hidalgo, talks about how local growers are tackling the variety of issues stemming from climate change, the effects of inflation and more in a Q&A with Jessica M. Pasko.
Posted inLatest News
Santa Cruz City Council votes to restore two-way traffic on West Cliff Drive; work to begin next week
The Santa Cruz City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to restore two-way traffic on West Cliff Drive by the start of next year, ending a pilot project that has seen a stretch of the scenic road reduced to one-way traffic since January. While many residents told the city they want to see one-way traffic remain, some Westsiders say they are fed up with increased traffic in their neighborhoods and welcome a return to a two-way West Cliff.
Posted inK-12 Education
Six months after levee breach flooded their classrooms, Pajaro Middle School students settle into new normal
The March 11 failure of the Pajaro River levee forced the closure of Pajaro Middle School until at least fall of 2024. Now at the start of a new academic year, the middle school’s more than 400 students are settling into their temporary academic home inside Watsonville’s Lakeview Middle School. Students say they’re getting into a routine but still miss their school.