Guest writers are ordinary people, like you, who live in or around the city of Santa Cruz, California. Santa Cruz News let’s you voice your opinion and obituaries for the community of Santa Cruz to read.
Entries by Guest Writers:
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Grahm Inducted into Winegrowers Hall of Fame
Mar 18, 2010, by Danny Wool Environment
Randall Grahm, the founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard, has raised an “ungodly” number of grape varieties since he first established his vineyard in 1983. He’s also worked in a variety of styles, though today he is probably best known for his Rhone blends. On Saturday he was inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Vintners Hall of Fame in recognition of over one-quarter century of contributions to the California wine industry. These go “go well beyond what any one person could hope to accomplish in a lifetime,” said the chair of the nominating committee, W. Blake Gray.
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County’s Buzzing With Bees
Mar 18, 2010, by Danny Wool Environment
Vegetable gardening is enjoying a comeback across the country, thanks in large part to First Lady Michelle Obama. More and more people are also starting to raise chickens too. And then there is beekeeping—the perfect way for backyard farmers to pollinate their crops and stock up on honey. It’s a popular hobby across Santa Cruz County, but most people are doing it illegally. The problem is the permit. Not only do these cost $1,000, but applicants must also inform their neighbors and participate in a public hearing before the zoning commission. Then the results of the hearing can be appealed to City Council.
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Renaissance Man at the Rio
Mar 18, 2010, by Andrew Gilbert Community
From prisoner and exile to pioneering pop star and government minister, Gilberto Gil’s musical career has taken him on an extraordinary ride. Since the mid-1960s, when he helped launch the psychedelic Tropicalia art movement, Gil has been at the center of Brazil’s teeming music scene as a composer, bandleader and iconic performer. Often referred to as South America’s John Lennon, Gil defies comparisons to artists in the Anglosphere.
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Dogs One Step Closer to Returning to Downtown
Mar 17, 2010, by Danny Wool Business
The Downtown Association’s board voted 8-1 yesterday to allow dog owners to bring their pets downtown over a six-month trial period. The decision is the first step in lifting a 34-year ban on dog on Pacific Avenue and the surrounding area. The Board’s recommendation included a number of stipulations, including a ban on dogs after dark, a ban on panhandling with dogs, and a requirement that leashes be between three and five feet long. In addition, no more than three dogs will be allowed in close proximity to one another.
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Santa Cruz Composting Program Saved
Mar 17, 2010, by Danny Wool Environment
Santa Cruz County will be keeping its composting program, despite the steep costs involved. For the past three years, the county has been composting food scraps from more than 50 local schools, hospitals, and restaurants. The amount of discarded food collected totals about 100 tons per month, which would otherwise go into the Buena Vista Landfill.
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Kessler’s Santa Cruz Tale
Mar 17, 2010, by Maureen Davidson Community
The photograph on the cover of The Mental Traveler is an extreme close-up of a young white man of indeterminate age, thick black beard and moustache bristly and unkempt, forehead knotted, head bowed toward the camera. He appears consumed by his thoughts, overcome by deep emotion, his forehead ready to burst.
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Best Breakfast Spot … for Dogs
Mar 15, 2010, by Danny Wool Business -
Norse Gets Another Day in Court
Mar 15, 2010, by Danny Wool News
Someone ought to give Robert Norse a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People. Back in 2002, Norse was ejected from a City Council meeting for giving a Nazi salute. In 2004 he was ejected yet again for parading in City Council chambers. In both cases, Norse was advocating on behalf of the city’s homeless. He sued City Council, claiming that his right to free speech was violated, but this was dismissed in November by a three-member panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Now a majority of justices on the court have agreed to reconsider his case.
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Who Are the Tourists Who Come to Santa Cruz?
Mar 12, 2010, by Danny Wool Business
Santa Cruz is definitely a tourist city. But what do we know about the people who visit here? This was the subject of a study conducted by the Santa Cruz County Conference and Visitors Council with the goal of gaining insights into how to better market to tourists and increase visits to the area, especially in the off season.
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Forbes to UCSC: Hubba Hubba!
Mar 12, 2010, by Danny Wool News
Some schools, like the University of Bologna or Oxford, have traditions stretching back centuries. Their ancient buildings are the centerpiece of their cities, and those cities are recognized as international treasures. But as the Roman poet Juvenal pointed out, “Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.” That is why a rustic setting is so ideal for an institution of higher learning. It is also probably why Forbes magazine listed UCSC as one of the most beautiful campuses in the world.
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Urban Realist in the Far West
Mar 12, 2010, by Christina Waters Community
Burt Levitsky left New York more than 30 years ago, but the streets of Manhattan still pulse to life in his realist oil paintings. Trained as an illustrator and Madison Avenue ad designer, Levitsky recalls working on ad layouts by day and coming home to paint all night. Studying with Frank Reilly and Max Ginsburg, Levitsky mastered contemporary realist imagery that was always haunted by the moods and hustle of urban life. There’s a lot of George Tooker’s ennui and Thomas Hart Benton’s vitality in his ambitious portrayals of people embedded in their metropolitan landscapes.
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Sober Living House Manager Goes to Clink
Mar 11, 2010, by Staff NewsDonald Carl Peter got off easy. The former manager of a sober-living house in Santa Cruz already had 26 convictions against him dating back all the way to 1980.
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County Jobless Rate Sets New Record
Mar 11, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsThe unemployment figures for January are out, and they are startling. About 15 percent of the population of Santa Cruz—almost one in every six people—is jobless. By way of comparison, the jobless rate in all of California is 13.2 percent; nationwide, it is 10.6 percent. According to the Employment Development Department, the figure is significantly higher than the past record, 14.6, back in 1993.
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Making Scenes Around Santa Cruz
Mar 11, 2010, by Jessica Lyons Community
Customers coming into Santa Cruz Stoves & Fireplaces sounded alarm bells. “There’s a kid outside the store with cans of paint,” they fretted to employees. “He looks like he’s going to spray the walls!” Spray the walls is exactly what Elijah Pfotenhauer was intending to do. It was late 2006, and Pfotenhauer had already established himself as a talented Santa Cruz muralist with two other projects, one depicting dancers on the former Motion Pacific building on Front Street and another at the former Santa Cruz Teen Center on Laurel. With slide show.
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Santa Cruz Hit by Spate of Vandalism
Mar 10, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsPolice throughout Santa Cruz County are on the lookout for a group of vandals that has been smashing home windows with rocks.
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Arana Gulch Defenders Speak Up
Mar 09, 2010, by Jean Brocklebank and Michael Lewis Opinion
Suppose someone came to your home, demanded you give up your dining room for an important project, and said your family would still be able to live in the home but would have to accept the intrusion and the loss and just, well, get on with your life? Suppose when you asked why, the answer was to fight global warming?
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Leary Student Comes to Capitola
Mar 09, 2010, by Gary Singh Community
Berkeley’s paratheatrical Real Astrologer-mystic, Antero Alli, originally discovered Timothy Leary’s eight-circuit brain model of intelligence increase while reading Robert Anton Wilson’s book Cosmic Trigger. Those three characters—Leary, Wilson and Alli—function as a trilateral commission providing a toolbox of modalities that, when applied, might actually help people increase their intellects in a number of ways. The re-definition of intelligence comes in a holy trinity of three words: absorb, integrate and transmit. That is, the ideas in this book must be absorbed, integrated and transmitted—not just absorbed—for the model to have any usefulness.
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San Jose to Host International Podcar Forum
Mar 09, 2010, by Danny Wool News
Most people don’t know it yet, but San Jose is widely acclaimed as a world leader in podcar development, with Mountain View coming in at a close second. That’s why the city has been chosen to host “Podcar City: San Jose, Innovating Sustainable Communities,” an international summit on electric podcars, organized by the International Institute of Sustainable Transportation. The event will take place at City Hall, October 27-29.
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Westside Coffee Shop Goes Unplugged
Mar 09, 2010, by Staff Business
Who can forget Eric Clapton’s stellar performance on MTV’s “Unplugged” series, or the doleful sounds of Kurt Cobain with only an acoustic guitar? Anger transformed into angst. As the late, great Elliot Smith once said, “If you play acoustic guitar you’re the depressed, sensitive guy.” And that could be just what the Abbey Coffee lounge on Mission needs.
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Local Schools Don’t Make the Grade
Mar 09, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsYesterday Santa Cruz.com reported that school administrators were anxiously awaiting “The List” of “persistently low-achieving schools” across the state. The list is out, pending final approval by the California Department of Education, and the Bay Area did not do so well. About 20 schools, three of them in Santa Cruz County, found themselves on the List.
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Violent Weekend in Watsonville
Mar 08, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsA 7-year-old boy was shot and a 20-year-old man was stabbed in the Cabrillo Lanes bowling alley in Watsonville on Friday. Both victims are listed in stable condition. Police arrested Jordan James Micias, 20, and Abraham Santoyo, 18, for the attack, charging them with gang-motivated attempted murder.
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Santa Cruz Going to the Dogs?
Mar 08, 2010, by Danny Wool Business
Dogs may be returning to downtown Santa Cruz as the board of the Downtown Association prepares to vote on whether to ask the city to repeal its longtime ban on dogs along Pacific Avenue. Until now dog owners have been forced to take their pets to more canine-friendly spots on the Westside and the Harbor.
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School Administrators Wait for “The List”
Mar 08, 2010, by Danny Wool News
It has all the tension of Oscar night, except there is no little gold statue in the end. In fact, the results are worse than winning a Razzie. School administrators and teachers across California are waiting breathlessly today to see if they made “The List,” and are cited as the “187 worst performing schools in the state.” Superintendents and principals have already been informed, but for everyone else, the news will come at 10am this morning.
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Ten Questions for Marina Sousa
Mar 05, 2010, by Staff Community
The creative genius behind Capitola-based Just Cake and the winningest baker ever to rock a cake on Oprah shares some facts about her life—including one very strange irony.
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Police Prepare for Student Protests
Mar 04, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsThe SCPD has issued a traffic advisory warning drivers that they could face delays getting around town today.
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School Board Approves Major Layoffs
Mar 04, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsAt a meeting yesterday, the Santa Cruz City Schools Board of Trustees agreed to lay off or reduce the hours of as many as 130 full-time and temporary teachers to make up for its $5.2 million deficit. The decision came after the teachers unions’ refused to offer any concessions on pay and furloughs. Teachers affected include 57 full-time and 23 part-time K-12 educators and 50 adult education teachers. The Board also voted to cut the hours on every adult education program in the county in a move described by Board President Rachel Dewey Thorsett as “the worst case scenario.”
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SCPD to Start Texting
Mar 03, 2010, by Staff NewsThe SCPD has signed up with Nixle, a free and secure alert notification system, which will allow officers to send text messages to registered users.
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Knives Replacing Fists in Santa Cruz
Mar 03, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsSometimes it seems like stabbings are a daily occurrence in Santa Cruz. Even the police are picking up on it now. SCPD Spokesperson Zach Friend now says that, “As we saw with the tragic death of Tyler Tonario, when you engage in a verbal altercation that you maybe think is just a verbal altercation, or could be just a simple fist fight, it’s now turning into tragic stabbings more and more.” Other police officers are pointing out that knives have become the weapon of choice among teens, replacing good old-fashioned fist-fights.
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Exhibit Examines the Book as a Medium
Mar 03, 2010, by Maureen Davidson Community
Within the next two decades, books as we know them will likely become curiosities, artifacts of an old way of life. Paper books, which set forth ideas in a linear manner, have already given way to the omni-directional, multi-media internet as a means to reach and teach the rewired human brain in the digital age: goodbye, printed newspapers and textbooks; hello, “Please enter your library card number to download Fahrenheit 451.
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Poem: Goodbye to Santa Cruz
Mar 03, 2010, by Claire Braz-Valentine CommunityAfter the last box is packed and the moving truck pulls away,
I have to face it. I have to say the word, “Goodbye.”
Goodbye to all the hundreds, maybe thousands of men I wrote with at Soledad prison, at Salinas Valley Prison, who wrote out their pain. -
Arana Path Would Connect More Than Streets
Mar 03, 2010, by Micah Posner OpinionWith bicycle commuters featured in both Sierra Magazine and the New York Times, it seems that we have finally come to a consensus that more bicycling is good for human health, for reducing traffic congestion and for the environment. The question is, how to encourage people to use bikes more, especially for the short trips that comprise so much of our transportation? (More than a third of all car trips are under three miles.)
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Animal Hospital Closes Doors for Good
Mar 01, 2010, by Staff Business
After 35 years serving local pets, the Adobe Animal Hospital in Santa Cruz will shut down for good today. A staff member explained that business has been suffering because of the recession; fewer pet owners can afford to bring their animals to the vet.
The Adobe Animal Hospital was especially popular because it offered low-cost veterinary services to its clients. These included not only cats and dogs. The clinic once did a brisk business treating horses, but fewer people are keeping horses these days because of the steep costs involved. -
Gamers Lured to UCSC
Mar 01, 2010, by Staff NewsGamers from around the world are being lured to UCSC, not to play but to learn.
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Changes in Latitudes
Feb 26, 2010, by Maria Grusauskas Community
In June 2006, 25-year-old Dominic Gill set out from northern Alaska on a tandem bike named Achilles and headed south. Way south. His goal: to reach the southern tip of South America in 18 months, picking up random strangers along the way. Armed with bear spray, a video camera and a questionable sense of sanity, Gill rolled out of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and into the bleak tundra with a small British flag fluttering encouragingly behind him. He had just one rule: “I never asked anyone to get off!”
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Moratorium on Cussing in Statehouse
Feb 26, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsSure, the state’s budget is a mess, unemployment is skyrocketing, and Anthem Blue Shield is making its customers sick over its proposed price hike. That’s no excuse for dropping the f-bomb. Deficits be gosh-darned!
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Coastal Commission Staff Approves Bike Path
Feb 26, 2010, by Staff NewsThe controversial Arana Gulch project passed its penultimate major hurdle yesterday when it received a nod of approval in a report by the Coastal Commission.
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Prom Dress Drive Launched
Feb 26, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsSanta Cruz City Councilmember Tony Madrigal is concerned about how the current recession will have a lasting impact on teenagers. In these very formative years of their lives, many are forced to do without such basic staples as food, shelter, iPods, Wii’s, unlimited texting and clothing. That is why he has teamed up with Classic Cleaners to launch a community effort to help needy teens get to their proms in the style that they are accustomed to. They are launching the Prom Dress Drive.
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UCSC Students Receive Summons
Feb 26, 2010, by Staff NewsThe 45 UCSC students who occupied Kerr Hall in response to a 30 percent tuition hike have been summoned to appear before a council.
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Ten Questions for Shane Desmond
Feb 26, 2010, by Shane Desmond Community
What do you do for a living?
What don’t I do? I work for Whole Foods Market Santa Cruz, have been a bartender at El Palomar Restaurant for the past 17 years, tend bar at Cypress Lounge and surf big waves for fun. -
Free Downtown Parking Over
Feb 25, 2010, by Staff NewsLike pull-tabs and 8-tracks, free parking will soon be a thing of the past in downtown Santa Cruz.
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Great Pacific Garbage Patch Bigger than Anticipated
Feb 24, 2010, by Danny Wool Environment
Researchers studying the Great Pacific Garbage Patch have reached a disturbing conclusion. It’s a lot bigger than they originally anticipated. Giora Proskurowski of the Sea Education Association says that the reason scientists have miscalculated is the wind. It tends to push the plastic down from the water’s surface to the upper ocean. After studying the phenomenon he realized that there’s about as much plastic in the next 9 meters of ocean as there is in the top 1 meter that has been studied.
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Twitter Gets Spiritual
Feb 24, 2010, by Danny Wool News
“Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.” It’s a quote attributed to Tenzin Gyatso, known around the world as the 14th Dalai Lama. It’s also just 58 characters long, perfectly tweet-sized, as are so many others of the Dalai Lama’s insights. More quotes like this could soon become available from the source himself—on Twitter. It’s not just for devotees either. As the Dalai Lama said: “If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it” (88 characters).
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Grateful Dead Archive to Feature in ‘The Atlantic’
Feb 24, 2010, by Danny Wool News
UCSC’s Grateful Dead Archive hasn’t even opened for business yet and it’s already getting plenty of attention. It will be the focus of a feature article in the March edition of The Atlantic. The article spotlights the academic and scholarly impact that the archive will have on a wide range of disciplines, some of them unexpected. Sure, music historians and ethnomusicologists will be interested, and the Dead were a historical phenomenon—the voice of a generation.
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Women Ventures Project Training Women for Construction Jobs
Feb 24, 2010, by Staff NewsThe Women Ventures Project in Santa Cruz County is using federal stimulus funding to train women for careers in construction.
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Santa Cruz Takes on Plastic Bags
Feb 24, 2010, by Danny Wool Environment
Santa Cruz joined San Jose, San Francisco, and other cities in the Bay Area yesterday when the council endorsed a ban on single-use plastic bags and a fee on paper bags. Plastic bags, which do not decompose, are a major source of litter, filling coastal areas and rivers before they make their way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In the Bay Area alone, people use an estimated 3.8 billion bags every year. On average, they end up in the trash just 12 minutes after people get them.
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Israel Deserves A Break
Feb 24, 2010, by Gil Stein OpinionNazi propaganda films were made to convince the world that Germany was a peace-loving nation that was forced to attack Poland. With the creation of the web and the access to 24-hour “news,” it is so much easier to spread lies and half-truths.
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Teen Center Fighting to Survive
Feb 22, 2010, by Staff NewsMoney is running out on the Teen Center, and unless it can raise $75,000, it may have to close its doors for good.
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UCSC Students to Admin: Non, Nyet, Nein!
Feb 22, 2010, by Staff NewsForeign language students at UCSC and the faculty who teach them are up in arms over a decision by the school to cut back on foreign language instruction.
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In The Elephant’s Flight Path
Feb 20, 2010, by Tai Moses Community -
Too Much Booze in Santa Cruz?
Feb 19, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsYesterday news organizations reported that the recent health report for California counties noted that the prevalence of liquor stores per 10,000 people in Santa Cruz County is twice as high as in any of the neighboring counties.
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Dinner Train Project Threatened
Feb 19, 2010, by Staff NewsThe proposed dinner train between Santa Cruz and Davenport could be in trouble. The original plan was to use state funding to purchase the train tracks and add hiking and bicycle paths along the tracks. Any planned passenger service would be postponed until some future date.
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The Ukelele or the Grateful Dead
Feb 18, 2010, by Danny Wool Community
When you think about the Santa Cruz music scene, the first thing that should come to mind is probably the Grateful Dead. After all, UCSC is home to the most important Dead archive in the world. But a Canadian filmmaker found another musical phenomenon that makes Santa Cruz tower above the rest: the ukulele. Perhaps it indicates close ties with Hawaii. After all, another SC icon, surfing, is also associated with that state and Santa Cruz.
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Santa Cruz County Good ‘n’ Healthy
Feb 18, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsSanta Cruz County ranked 8th in a survey of the healthiest places to live in California.
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Ten Questions for Robyn McIntyre
Feb 18, 2010, by Guest Writers Community
What do you do for a living?
I’m a writer/artist/social media enthusiast with an interest in a lot of things. I write three blogs and am anticipating the position of Director of Miscellany for a new start-up currently being funded. -
Governor’s Gas Tax Flip Is Trouble
Feb 18, 2010, by Bill Monning OpinionIn January, as part of an effort to tackle the budget deficit, Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed eliminating California’s 6 percent gasoline sales tax and replacing it with a 10.8 cents per gallon excise tax. While that might seem like good news for consumers, it comes at a high price.
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Callers Keep Police Busy
Feb 17, 2010, by Staff NewsThe SCPD is reporting that the number of calls it received in 2009 was the most ever for a single year—85,774, or 1.5 calls for every resident.
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State Budget Woes Take Toll on Highway Improvements
Feb 17, 2010, by Staff NewsImproving existing infrastructures is listed as top priority by everyone in government, from the president to the governor to the mayor.
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Chihuahua Faces Mountain Lion … and Loses
Feb 17, 2010, by Staff NewsIt’s pretty much a no-brainer. Tough and yappy as they may be, chihuahuas have very little chance against larger predators like mountain lions.
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Fluoridation Could Be Coming to Watsonville
Feb 15, 2010, by Danny Wool Business
Back in 2002, Watsonville’s city council voted against the fluoridation of its local tap water.
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Couple Wins Engagement Ring
Feb 15, 2010, by Staff CommunityWhat do you do when you win a diamond ring? Propose with it, of course. That’s what Karl Tunis did when he and his fiancée Erica Lund won a 1.02-carat Lazare diamond ring valued at $12,000.
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Buddha Bags Sold
Feb 15, 2010, by Danny Wool Business -
Ten Questions for Reyna Ruiz
Feb 13, 2010, by Guest Writers Community
What do you do for a living?
I am the program director of the Beach Flats Community Center, where I
have the distinct honor of working to improve the living and social conditions of families living in the Beach Flats neighborhood. -
Is the Lindbergh Baby Living in Santa Cruz?
Feb 11, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsPaul Husted doesn’t go by his old name anymore. He’s had it legally changed to Charles Lindbergh, Jr. The homeless former insurance salesman, who now lives with his wife Adua in an Ocean Street motel room, claims that he is the long lost son of aviator Charles Lindbergh.
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Catch the Wind?
Feb 10, 2010, by Staff EnvironmentRemember the old Donovan song “Catch the Wind”? It seems to have inspired several Silicon Valley residents, who want to build wind turbines on their property as a source of alternative energy. Just last month, Adobe added 20 “wind spires” to the roof of its San Jose garage, claiming that they were an architectural enhancement. Other cities and towns in the Bay Area are less accommodating.
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Walk the Talk on Tolerance
Feb 09, 2010, by Sami Abed, Sallye Steiner Boyer and Scott Kennedy OpinionIt is disappointing that Rabbi Abraham Cooper, representing the Wiesenthal Center for Tolerance in Los Angeles and a speaker at Temple Beth El last week, is a chief advocate for building a new “Museum of Tolerance” on top of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem. This hardly seems consistent with the Wiesenthal Center’s declared purpose of “worldwide promotion of tolerance education.”
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Jogger Finds Body Near Railroad Tracks
Feb 08, 2010, by Staff NewsA jogger running along the railroad tracks on Santa Cruz’s Westside this Saturday found the body of a UCSC student.
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UCSC Student Has Too Much Time on His Hands
Feb 08, 2010, by Danny Wool News -
New Use for Sentinel’s Old Home
Feb 08, 2010, by Staff NewsThe former offices of the Santa Cruz Sentinel are about to get new tenants. The Church Street landmark is going to be taken over by Internet service provider Cruzio Internet and the nonprofit Ecology Action. In addition, two commercial spaces totaling 13,000 square feet will be rented out to retailers or as office space.
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Santa Cruz Winemaker With Class
Feb 06, 2010, by Christina Waters Community
Vine Hill Winery’s Sal Godinez makes terrific pinot noirs. But he also knows the secret alchemy of winemaking, and that skill has won him a cult following. Years ago in Napa, Godinez was a young cellar worker looking for extra work to support his family. Scoring a weekend job with one of the top shops for wine reconstruction, Godinez learned to extract volatile acids—the spoilage that can turn pricey wine to cheap vinegar. He soon became an expert wine doctor, the go-to guy to save a winemaker’s investment, much like Hollywood script doctors come in to tweak a film into commercial shape.
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Film Festival Under New Leadership
Feb 05, 2010, by Staff CommunityAs it prepares to launch its ninth season, the 2010 Santa Cruz Film Festival has announced that its founder and current executive director, Jane Sullivan, will be taking a sabbatical this year. Her role will be taken over by a team of festival veterans and members of the Board of Directors.
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Arrest Made in Double Murder
Feb 05, 2010, by Staff NewsSanta Cruz police arrested Jaime Galdamez-Guevara last night for the double murder of Alejandro Nava-Gonzalez and Oscar Ventura on Jan. 23.
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Three Arrested After Liquor Store Assault
Feb 05, 2010, by Staff NewsTwo men and a woman have been arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and battery after attacking two women at a liquor store on the Westside early Thursday morning.
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Ten Questions for Joe Ferrara
Feb 05, 2010, by Staff Community
What do you do for a living?
I own Atlantis Fantasyworld, where I have sold comics and related items for the last 33 years. I also play guitar and sing at the Shadowbrook on Friday nights. -
The Carnivore’s Agenda
Feb 04, 2010, by Gabe Meline News
It’s another Monday night south of Market in San Francisco. As the jukebox blares Joy Division, the Bloodhound Bar is shoulder to shoulder with thirty-somethings sipping from Mason jars of bacon-infused whiskey cocktails. Beards, tattoos, bandanas and black T-shirts mingle. Suddenly, the back door flies open. Ryan Farr and Taylor Boetticher emerge, carrying giant goat and lamb carcasses high above their heads. With slideshow
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Signs Naming Creeks to Go Up Downtown
Feb 04, 2010, by Staff NewsSigns Naming Creeks to Go Up Downtown
Most people in Santa Cruz know when they’re crossing the San Lorenzo River, but water about smaller rivulets like Branciforte Creek? There are 200 00 named creeks and rivers throughout the county, but few people know the names of all of them, and only 36 are marked. -
What’s Really Happening with County Jobs?
Feb 04, 2010, by Staff NewsOn Tuesday, SantaCruz.com cited news source saying that “Officially, 150 jobs were added to Santa Cruz over 2009, with 86 of them in the final quarter.” Of course, “County officials [were] more optimistic, saying that as many as 362 jobs were either created or saved last year through the county’s departments alone.” For some reason, this doesn’t match up with a state report claiming that the county added 600 new jobs in local government in December, compared to November. The new jobs were supposedly added to county government, city government, school districts and community colleges.
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School Board Considering Drastic Cuts
Feb 04, 2010, by Staff NewsAt its meeting yesterday the board of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District debated a series of drastic cuts to overcome its $5.5 million deficit.
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Bartering: The New Raise
Feb 03, 2010, by Amanda Hutchins Opinion
It is, unfortunately, easier to spend less than it is to make more. As a finance geek, I tend to approach every problem armed with an Excel spreadsheet, so let me illustrate. After taxes, an annual 5 percent raise (optimistic by most companies’ standards) results in an approximately 3.3 percent increase in take-home pay. If your income is $100,000, that’s only $3,300 for the year, or $275 a month. With luck, it will mitigate overall inflation and leave you exactly where you were before. It’s certainly not enough to afford the new Porsche I’ve always dreamed of.
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Comcast Admits to Bill Errors
Feb 03, 2010, by Staff NewsThere’s some good news for Comcast customers living outside of the city of Santa Cruz.
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No Cheers for Gym Closing
Feb 03, 2010, by Staff BusinessIn the four years since it opened, the Majestic All-Stars Cheer Gym in Watsonville has become a local institution.
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Child Porn Case May Extend to Santa Cruz
Feb 03, 2010, by Staff NewsThe SCPD is looking for people who know Richard Werner Schweich.
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Is Santa Cruz Rail Line in Limbo?
Feb 01, 2010, by Staff NewsThere was some bad news for Sierra Northern Railway, the freight train company that runs the Santa Cruz rail line.
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The Exotic Is Among Us
Feb 01, 2010, by Danny Wool Community
When travel writer Eric Hansen wrote Orchid Fever in 2000, the Columbus Dispatch commented that “The exotic, it turns out, is among us.” As it was in Santa Cruz this weekend. Botany, obsession, and plant-politics converged in Soquel for the Santa Cruz Orchid Society’s Orchid Show. “You can get off alcohol, drugs, women, food, and cars,” says Joe Kunisch, a commercial orchid grower from Rochester, New York, “but once you’re hooked on orchids, you’re finished.”
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Go Populist Now
Jan 31, 2010, by Katina Vanden Heuvel OpinionElection results rarely have a single explanation. Yet it’s pretty clear that Scott Brown’s special election win in a state that last sent a Republican to the United States Senate in 1978 is an indicator of the turbulent national political mood a year after Obama took office.
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Adult Education on the Chopping Block
Jan 29, 2010, by Staff NewsFaced with a $5.4 million deficit, schools in Santa Cruz are looking for quick cuts. Among the most vulnerable targets are adult education programs, especially those focusing on helping older students get their GEDs
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Evictions Up in Santa Cruz
Jan 29, 2010, by Staff NewsEvictions are rising in Santa Cruz County, largely because of the foreclosure crisis. There were 367 evictions in the county in 2009, compared with just 293 in 2007. More worrying perhaps is that almost one-third—114—were the result of foreclosures.
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Local Groups March to ‘Take Back the Streets’
Jan 29, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsLast night, some 70 members of women’s and neighborhood advocacy groups joined with community leaders and the local police department in a protest march against violence.
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City Manager to Retire
Jan 28, 2010, by Staff News
Longtime Santa Cruz City Manager Dick Wilson announced that he will be retiring at the end of July. Wilson served in the position for the past 28 years. In that time, he oversaw the reconstruction of the city’s downtown after it was devastated by the Loma Prieta earthquake. More recently, he has been forced to contend with a declining municipal budget, due to dwindling tax revenues.
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Motorcycle Clubs Fight It Out Downtown
Jan 28, 2010, by Staff NewsViolence in Santa Cruz took a turn yesterday when a group of local Hell’s Angels faced off with bikers from Vagos.
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No Plane Crash in Santa Cruz Mountains
Jan 26, 2010, by Staff NewsFor two days, rescuers combed the Santa Cruz Mountains, looking for a downed plane and its pilot. On Monday, the FAA announced that the report of a crash was “not credible.”
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County to Consider Tax Hike for Fire Service
Jan 26, 2010, by Staff News
In 2007, Santa Cruz County residents voted against a proposed tax hike to increase fire services. The next year, the county faced three major wildfires, and in 2009 there was the Lockheed fire, which covered 7,000 acres. Given these recent incidents, county officials are hoping that the public may be more willing to pay the cost of protecting its property.
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Ancient Artifacts Heading to UCSC
Jan 25, 2010, by Staff NewsAbout 7,000 years ago, a small group of people lived above Harkins Slough in Santa Cruz County. Ten years ago, workers constructing a water supply project west of Highway 1 found their remains.
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“Turn of a Friendly Card” for SC Company
Jan 25, 2010, by Staff Business
There’s an “Eye in the Sky” looking out for Keyfax NewMedia on Santa Cruz’s Eastside. The company recently hired legendary recording guru Alan Parsons for its new project, The Art and Science of Recording Sound, to be available on broadband.
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Two Dead in Apartment Complex Shooting
Jan 25, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsThe SCPD is investigating a double homicide at a lower Ocean apartment complex at Canfield Avenue and Barson Street on Saturday. It was the second and third murder in Santa Cruz so far in 2010.
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Ten Questions For Eric Thiermann
Jan 23, 2010, by Staff Community
Eric Thiermann discusses directing, his media agency, and a special place in hell reserved for whoever dreamed up nylon ID tags in shirts.
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Candidates Get A Jump on Santa Cruz Council Race
Jan 21, 2010, by Staff News
Candidates for the City Council election this November may have to wait until summer before they can officially file to run, but that has not stopped them from announcing their intentions. Three of the council seats are at stake, and Councilmember Lynn Robertson is the only eligible incumbent. Among the issues that the prospective candidates are addressing are how to make do with less, given the recession, and what to do about growing crime and violence.
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It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
Jan 21, 2010, by Staff News
About 21,000 homes and businesses across Santa Cruz County were left in the dark yesterday as the county was pummeled by the third major winter storm of the season. PG&E crews worked round the clock to restore power and clear downed power lines, but outages are expected to continue over the next few days.
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Jazz Masters Celebrate Django Reinhardt
Jan 21, 2010, by Richard von Busack News
THE FLOURISH of strings fans out into an exquisite patter of notes as sharp as icicles. Then a sad violin takes up the refrain. The music is age-old yet fresh, accessible yet mysterious. The sound is a mélange of musics. It’s made up of jazz—that blend of Civil War–surplus brass instruments, of Armstrong and Ellington, of African roots and snazzy New York Jewish songwriters. As played by guitarist Django Reinhardt, violinist Stéphane Grappelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of Paris during the 1920s and 1930s, it was a music that enraptured the world.
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Thousands Lose Power in Storm
Jan 20, 2010, by Danny Wool News
PG&E reported that 18,300 customers in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties were without power yesterday as a result of the storm, and the worst is yet to come today. Fallen trees knocked down power lines and blocked highways, including Highway 9, where a 120-foot cedar tree kept traffic backed up. Winds are reported to have reached up to 47 miles per hour. Storm surges along the beaches resulted in waves of up to 18 feet, and Capitola closed its Esplanada and wharf.
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A Snitch in The Harvard Psychedelic Club
Jan 20, 2010, by Gary Singh Community
JUST WHEN everyone thought the final penny whistle had sounded on Timothy Leary and the ’60s LSD spectacle, along comes veteran journalist Don Lattin. Author of numerous articles and books covering both mainstream and alternative religious movements, Lattin now brings us a rigorously honest exploration of interconnected relationships under a fine-looking circus of a title: The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America.
