Small, mostly Latinx farmers across the Central Coast need more help than they are getting, write farmworker advocates Josefina Lara Chavez, Ronnie Lipschutz and Ann Lopez. These small farmers provide vegetables to local markets, including New Leaf, Staff of Life and our local farmers markets, but most lost their livelihoods in the winter storms and still remain unable to grow and sell crops. That has potentially left up to 750 farms with little or no income to cover their families’ and farms’ needs. “In the past, these farmers might have been able to return to fieldwork on larger farms, but even those have postponed planting due to storm damage,” the advocates argue. They need our attention and help now.
Storms 2023: Road to Recovery
Posted inLatest News
More road closures on the way as Caltrans prepares to shut Highway 236 on Monday
The closure about 7 miles north of Boulder Creek is due to road settlement of temporary repairs made to Highway 236 after this winter’s storms. It is scheduled to last until mid-June.
Posted inLatest News
Cul-de-sacs and long-term erosion: Citizens, city staff take up gnarly issues of ‘saving West Cliff’
The City of Santa Cruz’s first in-person community meeting about the future of West Cliff Drive on Thursday showed some direction for the area. Most notably, the Oxford Way cul-de-sac is a go. And more community meetings driven by residents group Save West Cliff are slated for this summer as locals grapple with the options.
Posted inLatest News
Save West Cliff to participate in Thursday city meeting, unveil new resources
The City of Santa Cruz will host a community meeting Thursday about the status of West Cliff Drive repairs and the one-way pilot project for the storm-ravaged coastal roadway. Community group Save West Cliff will present resources of its own that it hopes will serve as a valuable resource to the agencies planning the road’s future.
Posted inLatest News
Piecemeal approach to Pajaro aid leaves farmworkers, community straining to move forward
More aid to the residents of Pajaro is being patched together, but the gaps in help and communication are complicating post-flood recovery efforts. More than 100 people remain at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds shelter as Pajaro evacuees have scattered throughout the area, seeking temporary housing. Meanwhile, many farmworkers’ jobs are in limbo as the flooded fields prevent work and have caused almost $50 million in farm loss, says Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau president Dennis Webb.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Undocumented families in Pajaro need support: FEMA should not operate like an insurance company
Watsonville resident Takashi Mizuno is worried about his neighbors in Pajaro, many of whom lost everything to the storms and flooding. He doesn’t speak Spanish, but has been bringing his neighbors lemons from his tree as a gesture of goodwill and solidarity. “Lemons are my way of connecting,” he says. He also is trying to deliver an important message to undocumented Pajaro families with a child born in the U.S.: Apply for FEMA help. Apply again if you get rejected. And FEMA, he insists, is “mistreating” people by not handling applications fairly.
Posted inLatest News
Zelda’s reopens following significant storm damage
After getting pounded inside and out by storm surge in January, Zelda’s on the Beach is back seven days a week at its oceanfront spot on the Esplanade in Capitola Village. “I’m glad to hang up my nail bags and put my apron back on,” kitchen manager Josh Whitby says. “We’re open and ready to have some fun.”
Posted inLatest News
Highway 9 overnight closures set for next week; two-way traffic could return by midweek
A half-mile section of Highway 9 hasn’t seen two-way traffic since it was struck by a New Year’s Eve landslide. Crews will work to put finishing touches on repairs next week to fully reopen the key artery through the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Posted inLatest News
Santa Cruz is the only U.S. small-craft harbor with its own dredge — and it was a savior during winter storms
The crew manning the Santa Cruz Harbor dredge was tasked with keeping the harbor mouth clear from excessive storm debris this winter, at which they succeeded. But the harbor, just down the coast from the San Lorenzo River, requires more consistent dredging than most other harbors in the country.
Posted inLatest News
Padilla, Panetta promise to ‘pressure’ pace of Pajaro levee project
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Jimmy Panetta visited the banks of the Pajaro River on Wednesday in an effort to get the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers moving faster on not only repairs to the levee whose failure flooded the town of Pajaro in March but also the long-promised levee overhaul. The Corps is aiming to finish emergency repairs by the fall, and to break ground on a long-promised $400 million upgrade by summer 2024.