Santa Cruz County’s Measure E would impose a five-year, half-cent sales tax increase expected to raise about $27 million annually to help address a worsening budget outlook and potential losses in healthcare and other safety-net funding.
Today’s Top Story
A significant story with interest across the county
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Santa Cruz Film Festival explores AIDS activism, Holocaust history and the power of art
The Santa Cruz Film Festival runs Wednesday through Sunday and features documentaries exploring AIDS activism, Holocaust history and cultural resistance, alongside comedies, thrillers and films celebrating local winemaking and cidermaking.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Capitola City Council: Meet the five candidates vying for three open seats
In Capitola, five well-known names in the community are on the ballot competing for three open seats on the city council. The top three vote-getters will win. This is also the last election cycle under Capitola’s at-large system.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Ghosts among us: Five of Santa Cruz County’s most haunted places
Phantom children, mysterious nuns, a woman in white, and one invisible dog with a very bad attitude. Just in time for Halloween, Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters founder Mary Anne Porter takes us through five of her favorite haunted places, where local history and ghostly legends have a way of getting tangled together.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz mayoral race: Plenty of similarities within the division between Coonerty, Chen Mills
Ryan Coonerty and Ami Chen Mills are reaching the end of a long, intense campaign to decide who will be mayor of Santa Cruz for the next four years. The two have made their stances on the city’s major issues clear over the past several months, and in the closing stretch of the campaign, they seek to make their final cases to voters.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Capitola City Council candidates agree on budget, rail trail — but differ slightly on housing
Five candidates for the Capitola City Council discussed a variety of issues affecting the city, including the city budget and the Coastal Rail Trail, during an election forum Wednesday evening.
Posted inFood & Drink
The best things I ate and drank in Santa Cruz County in September
September is Santa Cruz County’s quiet stretch of summer, when the crowds thin out and the weather holds. It’s a good month to eat where locals eat, and four dishes worth tracking down are a sourdough smash burger piled high, lobster cacio e pepe, an agua fresca with a chamoy-coated rim, and squash bread brushed with harissa butter.
Posted inFood & Drink
As Starbucks closes stores, what does it mean in a city built around independent coffee?
Starbucks has closed four Santa Cruz County locations in the past year, including two that shut down in September. We asked local coffee drinkers and independent baristas whether the closures matter in a city with a thriving independent coffee scene — and the answer depends on what customers want from their morning cup.
Posted inEducation
Pajaro Valley school board Area I race: Meet Andrew Goldenkranz, Robin Sukow and Meilin Obinata
Andrew Goldenkranz, Robin Sukow and Meilin Obinata are running for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Area I seat after incumbent Joy Flynn decided not to seek reelection. All newcomers, the candidates are diverse, with two coming from education backgrounds and one having business experience.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz mayor race: We fact-checked two disputed claims about Ami Chen Mills and Ryan Coonerty
A contentious, competitive race for Santa Cruz mayor has included a number of claims that both candidates have consistently rejected – most notably, that Ami Chen Mills wants to cancel a $500,000 loan from the city to Joby Aviation and that Ryan Coonerty supports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
