Blog Archives

This great and imposing Hotel Metropole stood about where Eye Q optometrists and Logos Book Store are now at 1111 Pacific Avenue. It was a National Dollar store and also Hal Morris moved Plaza Books there before the 1989 earthquake. This is from the National Register of Places…”The Hotel Metropole was constructed in 1908 for Duncan McPherson by contractor Charles Kay. McPherson was the editor and publisher of the newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and owner and developer of several parcels of significant real estate on Pacific Avenue. In addition to the hotel, which offered forty-eight “furnished rooms for transient and permanent guests” at fifty cents per day, the building also housed a millinery, the offices of C. W. Waldron, a partner of McPherson’s, and the C.O.D. Grocery. The hotel changed names twice, to the Hotel Al Rose in 1935 and to the Hotel Drake in 1946, and was occupied continuously until 1961. The ground floor commercial space was consolidated in the thirties for the use of the National Dollar department store, which operated until 1976. When the property was added to the National Register in 1979, it housed Plaza Books. The Hotel Metropole was a unique Santa Cruz example of turn-of-the-century commercial architecture in the late Italianate style in which pressed-metal ornamentation replaced the more costly and fancy Victorian plaster work it often copied. The four pediments atop the third-story windows, and the acanthus design cornices were particularly handsome”. photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical photo collection. Additional information always welcome: email bratton@cruzio.com

DATELINE April 20, 2015

CAN WE HANDLE A ” NATIONAL MONUMENT”?? By now our Board Of Supervisors plus John Laird and most of our officials have continued to endorse the so called Santa Cruz Redwoods. Locally it’s been mostly the Bonny Dood residents who have brought important issues up for consideration. They talk of the enormous impact that the new traffic will have on little old (really OLD) Mission Street, there’s the increased traffic leading in and our of our county Highway 17 and Highway One. Has any “official” mention been made on just the traffic problems? The concerns involve all of us not just Bonny Doon….consider the developer pressure there will be on our precious North Coast agriculture land. Then consider Supervisor Ryan “de-sal” Coonerty’s constant support of growth? Go here to read Bonny Doon’s Newsletter The Highlander from last month. Check out the many, many more problems that have never been considered. http://www.bonnydoon.got.net/03-15_hlndr.html . One special question is why has there been no community meetings on this “national issue”??

Ed Abbey author of “Desert Solitaire” and lifelong defender of wilderness wrote many deeply relevant statements about saving such land as The Coast Dairies territory. He and I talked about them on a long walk we took near Swanton Road not too long before he died. Here’s some of the hundreds of great Ed Abbey quotes, think about them before you go waving flags.

“A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles.”

“I understand and sympathize with the reasonable needs of a reasonable number of people on a finite continent. All life depends upon other life. But what is happening today, in North America, is not rational use but irrational massacre. Man the Pest, multiplied to the swarming stage, is attacking the remaining forests like a plague of locusts on a field of grain”.

“Water, water, water….There is no shortage of water in the desert but exactly the right amount , a perfect ratio of water to rock, water to sand, insuring that wide free open, generous spacing among plants and animals, homes and towns and cities, which makes the arid West so different from any other part of the nation. There is no lack of water here unless you try to establish a city where no city should be”.

“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”.

“The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.”

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government”.

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”

“The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyong reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see.” As an aside IF anyone really wanted to name it after the most prominent growth on the land it would be the HEMLOCK National Monument. Closing note; if you do Facebook go to it and join the new “Friends of the North Coast” page.

40 YEARS OF GOOD TIMES. Be sure to check out the 40^th Anniversary issue of Good Times. I think I have a small piece on the little remembered two years that they operated in Capitola in an office just behind the AAA Center. It was 40 years ago that I started this very column in Good Times, Volume One # 1. The very first item in my first column created some reaction. I merely stated that it was a good thing Mr. & Mrs. Chuck Abbott’s son died from surfing and not from an upset stomach. Otherwise they would have built a giant brick hamburger instead of the lighthouse on Lighthouse Point in his memory.

WHO’S YOUR LITTLE WHOSIS? 1932 DITTY WITH DANCERS,

WOMAN ECCENTRIC DANCER,and so much more!!!

PATTON’S PROGRAM. Gary brings up many of the problems with the North Coast National Monument. He announces two “Water Meetings” and says, “think about how we can use less, and live within the constraints of the water we’ve got. There is, of course, the other alternative, which is to find a way to increase our water supply. Historically, Americans have always been fond of the “supply side” approach. Facing natural resource constraints, our inclination is to build a dam, extend a pipeline, or drill a well. Most recently, the “let’s increase our water supply” approach has focused on building a factory to “manufacture” fresh water, using that big ocean out there as our supply source”. It would be hard to overstate how important it is that we be aggressive and proactive in dealing with our water supply situation”. He talks about how Monterey locals want more open space at Fort Ord and public officials want development. He closes Thursday by saying, “remember that the officials we elect are supposed to work for the public, not vice versa”. That statement should be a mandatory tattoo and required on every elected public officials right hand!!! Read the complete scripts of the above at Gary Patton’s KUSP Land Use site http://blogs.kusp.org/landuse . Gary is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney who represents indivuduals and community groups on land use and environmenatl issues. The opions expressed are Mr. Patton’s \. Gary has his own website, Two Worlds/365” – www.gapatton.net

SEXY and excellent levitation trick.

CLASSICAL DeCINZO. There will never be another Steven DeCinzo or just maybe…check out his classic cartoon just below.

EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. Eagan predicts trouble ahead especially for Iran see downwards.

STEPHEN FRY DISMANTLES THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

SANTA CRUZ CHAMBER PLAYERS. The Players end their season with The Clarinet Ascending” featuring music by two favorites, Mozart and Brahms. The performing cast is

Jeff Gallagher, artistic director and clarinet, Sue Brown, violin and viola, Shannon Delaney, violin and viola, Eri Borcea-Ishigaki, violin, and Judy Roberts, cello. It’s at Christ Lutheran Church, in Aptos off Freedom Blvd. near the CHP office. Saturday, Apr. 25, 8 pm and Sunday, Apr. 26, 3 pm. Maybe tickets at the door, but the Sunday performances usually sell out!!!

SHAKESPEARE’S KING JOHN. The Stratford Festival presents a “live” telecast of King John. Wikipedia sez, “King John, a history play by William Shakespeare, dramatises the reign of John, King of England (ruled 1199–1216), son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of Henry III of England. It is believed to have been written in the mid-1590s but was not published until it appeared in the First Folio in 1623. King John is one of only two plays by Shakespeare that are entirely written in verse, the other being Richard II. It’s at The Del Mar, Downtown Santa Cruz. Two Shows Only!!Thurs 4/23 @ 7:30pm. and Sun 4/26 @ 11:00am.

JEWEL THEATRE’S “COMPLICATIONS FROM A FALL”. Santa Cruz’s own Kate Hawley wrote it and it is directed by Paul Whitworth of Shakespeare Santa Cruz fame. The notes say, “In this touching and funny new play, an adult son reluctantly comes home to care for his aging mother for a few days and finds out a great deal more about her past — and his own — than he had bargained for. While his long suffering care-taker sister spreads her wings out of town, Teddy comes to grips with adult diapers, irrational demands, souvenirs from the past, and his engaging and infuriatingly mysterious mother”. It runs April 23 through May 17.The Jewel Theatre is in the Center Stage Building 1001 Center Street. Tickets at this link.

LISA JENSEN LINKS. Lisa writes: “Drop in and help me celebrate 40 years on the movie beat in Santa Cruz, this week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com.” Lisa has been writing film reviews and columns for Good Times since 1975.

UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE RADIO PROGRAM KZSC 88.1 FM or live online at www.KZSC.ORG TUESDAYS 7-8 P.M.

UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE. Each and every Tuesday from 7:00-8:00 p.m. I host Universal Grapevine on KZSC 88.1 fm. or on your computer, (live only or sometimes old programs are archived… (See next paragraph) and go to WWW.KZSC.ORG. County Supervisor John Leopold co-hosts our KZSC #1 Pledge Drive night on April 21. Historian, author Sandy Lydon co-hosts KZSC #2 Pledge Drive night on April 28. Miriam Ellis guests on May 5 to talk about this years International Playhouse at UCSC. Miriam is followed by Dr. Jason Luksich talking all about his field of Ophthalmology. May 12 has Ted Benhari telling us of some of the problems and issues that the proposed National Monument will bring. May 19 Elizabeth Romanini and Attny. Bill Parkin talk about the success of NOPOC (Neighbors Organized to Protect our Community) and Tash Nguyen discusses UCSC’s Sin Barras after that. Do remember, any and all suggestions for future programs are more than welcome so tune in, and keep listening. Email me always at bratton@cruzio.com.

UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE ARCHIVES. In case you missed some of the great people I’ve interviewed in the last 5 years here’s a chronological list of just this year’s podcasts. Click herehttp://kzsc.org/blog/tag/universal-grapevine then tap on “listen here” to hear any or all of them… all over again. The update includes Nikki Silva, Michael Warren, Tom Noddy, Anita Monga, Mark Wainer, Judy Johnson-Darrow, Wendy Mayer-Lochtefeld, Rachel Goodman, George Newell, Tubten Pende, Gina Marie Hayes, Rebecca Ronay-Hazleton, Miriam Ellis, Deb Mc Arthur, The Great Morgani on Street performing, and Paul Whitworth on Krapps Last Tape. Jodi McGraw on Sandhills, Bruce Daniels on area water problems. Mike Pappas on the Olive Connection, Sandy Lydon on County History. Paul Johnston on political organizing, Rick Longinotti on De-Sal. Dan Haifley on Monterey Bay Sanctuary, Dan Harder on Santa Cruz City Museum. Sara Wilbourne on Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre. Brian Spencer on SEE Theatre Co. Paula Kenyon and Karen Massaro on MAH and Big Creek Pottery. Carolyn Burke on Edith Piaf. Peggy Dolgenos on Cruzio. Julie James on Jewel Theatre Company. Then there’s Pat Matejcek on environment, Nancy Abrams and Joel Primack on the Universe plus Nina Simon from MAH, Rob Slawinski, Gary Bascou, Judge Paul Burdick, John Brown Childs, Ellen Kimmel, Don Williams, Kinan Valdez, Ellen Murtha, John Leopold, Karen Kefauver, Chip Lord, Judy Bouley, Rob Sean Wilson, Ann Simonton, Lori Rivera, Sayaka Yabuki, Chris Kinney, Celia and Peter Scott, Chris Krohn, David Swanger, Chelsea Juarez…and that’s just since January 2011. Hear them all!!!

QUOTES. “It’s so dry the trees are bribing the dogs”, Charles Martin. “Drought is the best thing that ever happened to my lawn. And my beard,“, Jarod Kintz, “The exhausted earth groaned and quivered under the monotonous glare of the sun. Spirals of heat rose from the ground as if from molten lava. A panting lizard crawled painfully over the fevered rock in search of a shady crevice. Cattle and dogs cringed under the scanty shade of the trees and waited for the rain to deliver them from the heat and thirst. Instead the heat grew more intense and oppressive each day, singeing and stifling all living things with an invisible sheet of fire, which only the rain could put out. The drought had persisted for over a month.” S. Rajaratnam