Greensite… City Council on Workbench 900 High St. Project… Steinbruner… Supervisor raise, sugar money… Hayes… The Past, The Future: Monterey Bay Conservation… Patton… The Winning Formula… Matlock… uncontrollable…end time…sticks and stones…. Eagan… Subconscious Comics and Deep Cover … Webmistress serves you… rock stars on Freddie Mercury Quotes on… “Labor Day”
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A FEW MORE DAYS… I have a few more days to prepare and get everything ready for the Playa. I haven’t been since 2010, provided that you don’t count the non-Burning Man Burning Man that happened in 2021. WHen we went back in the early aughts, Thomas and I would drive out there, buy a ticket at the gate, drive in, and then cruise around until we found a corner that looked neat. We’d park our car and put up our tent, and that was pretty much that.
This year, Brian and I are taking our trailer (which we bought for the aforementioned rogue burn in 2021 and named Serenity), and we will be in a camp with power hookups and wi-fi… I’ll get back to you on how everything was, once I’m back. I’ve been working hard on getting back on a more regular schedule for the column – didja notice?! Either way, I *believe* I’ll have wi-fi and will be able to keep that up and post from the Playa. However, best laid plans, and all that… if you suddenly hear nothing, at least you’ll know why!
Meanwhile, enjoy!
~Webmistress
THE LAST HOUSE. Netflix. Movie. (5.5 IMDb) 
Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel meets Lovecraft.
This is the ultimate “bottle story.” A suburban Seattle family wakes up one morning to find they can’t leave their house – and neither can anyone else on the block, or maybe anywhere. Some kind of mostly unseen force has sealed everyone in, and it brings the rain with it. Endless, relentless rain.
Stories like this always get under my skin. There’s a very specific kind of tension that kicks in once it starts to feel like there’s no way out – I stop hoping for a clever escape and start just wanting these poor people put out of their misery. That’s not a knock on the film; it’s a testament to how well it builds dread. You feel the walls closing in right along with the family.
What makes it work is the slow unraveling – watching ordinary people get inventive out of sheer necessity, rationing food, rigging up ways to collect water, turning on each other and then back to each other again. It’s as much a study in psychological survival as physical survival. The monster stuff, when it finally shows up, feels almost like an afterthought bolted onto a much stranger, much better film about isolation and endurance – but even that tacked-on quality has a certain charm, like the movie couldn’t resist giving its dread a shape.
Worth a watch.
~Sarge
THE BACKROOMS. In theatres, PrimeTV. Movie. (6.8 IMDb)
The Backrooms, like Slenderman and Creepy Pasta, grew out of the internet, a new kind of horror born from the post-Covid emptying of once-populated spaces. The Backrooms are both a genre and a reaction to liminal spaces: those empty places between places. Abandoned terminals, shopping malls, office buildings. They can be fascinating, but also deeply unnerving.
The Backrooms movie takes that unease and turns it up to 12, suggesting these are places misremembering themselves: genuinely endless hallways, random fragments of stairs, windows where windows shouldn’t be. Even people become fragmented, misremembered.
For anyone who’s ever found themselves unnerved not by boogeymen, but by places that just aren’t right, this hits a very particular nerve. Well worth a watch
~Sarge
THE ODYSSEY. In Theaters. Movie. (8.5 IMDb) 
The “Helen is DEI casting!” and “Achilles is trans!” outrage tells me you looked up The Odyssey just long enough to be angry, without actually reading it or seeing the film. I’ve read it multiple times, from adolescence through university. It’s a legend Homer recorded centuries after the supposed events, preserved through oral tradition, and all the variations that adds to the story. Helen’s skin color has no significance to the story, and Achilles is already dead when The Odyssey begins. Elliot Page doesn’t play Achilles at all, but Sinon, the young man sent to war in another’s place.
Nolan’s Odyssey is a solid, faithful-ish telling, briskly told in about three hours (I know, that sounds like an oxymoron but it’s true). It adds some believable depth to Odysseus, gives Penelope less screen time than she deserves, and as a mythology geek I could nitpick the lack of spear fighting or the anachronistic Corinthian helmets instead of the Achaeans’ boar’s tusk helmets. But that’s fanboy trivia. At its heart, it’s a powerful story about responsibility and loss. Well worth a watch. Twice, if you can.
~Sarge
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. PrimeTV. Movie. (6.8 IMDb) 
Masters of the Universe (2026) was a genuine surprise. Rather than forcing the franchise into a dark, gritty reboot, it embraces the colorful, larger-than-life spirit of the original. It balances action, fantasy, and humor without winking at the audience, making the whole adventure feel sincere, fun, and delightfully goofy.
This isn’t trying to be the next great fantasy epic—it’s trying to be a Masters of the Universe movie, and it succeeds. Ignore the toxic nostalgia crowd complaining about the diverse casting of characters like Man-At-Arms, Triclops, and Ram Man, and you’ll find a tonally accurate adaptation that answers plenty of questions longtime fans have had for years (particularly namings). Stick around for the mid- and post-credit scenes. Well worth the watch.
~Sarge
QUICK LOOK AT NETFLIX. Netflix. Series, Movie.
Here’s some stuff that’s not necessarily current, but currently on Netflix:
Veronica Mars think Buffy, but with no vampires, and lots of class conflicts, roofies … and the result … and murder in a small California coastal town. Young Kristen Bell (The Good Place) lives with her disgraced cop/now PI father, and is determined to solve the murder of her best friend, and the case that tanked her father’s career. A fun watch.
The Dead Don’t Die think Night of the Living Dead directed by Wes Anderson. Only in this case, it’s Jim Jarmusch. Zombies in a small town, with Bill Murray and Adam Driver starring. Tilda Swinton is a samurai. Much more like his 80’s films.
Mindhunter was pretty amazing, on and off; the casting for Big Ed Kemper was spot on. Period piece that follows the building of the FBI’s “profiling” division, focused on this new thing: serial killers.
The Enola Holmes movies: Sherlock (Henry Cavill)’s little sister, Enola (Alone backwards), breaks free of an attempt to ship her off to a deportment school, and takes up the family business on her own. There follow adventures, romance (on her terms), and occasional visits by her anarchist mother, Helena Bonham Carter. The first is a lot of fun, growing less (for me) as the sequels went on.
Marty: Life is Short, let’s hope it’s not for him! I love Martin Short, so this was a gem. An autobiographical history, chock full of familiar clips, as well as previously unseen personal movies, and of course a tremendous group of cameos.
~Sarge
SUPERGIRL. In theatres. Movie. (6.1 IMDb)
Supergirl is 67 years old.
In that time, she’s been through a LOT of attempts to give her her OWN story instead of just being Jr. Girl Superman. She suffers here from 1) the Manosphere complaining that she’s not cute or “feminine” enough, and 2) people stuck on an older version of her, like comparing Super Friends Aquaman to Jason Momoa.
Loosely based on Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King, and honestly drawing from True Grit too, Supergirl stars Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) as Kara Zor El, who leaves Earth to escape the shadow of her cousin, Superman, and the expectations piled on her while still dealing with PTSD from the destruction of Krypton. She ends up caught in a child’s vendetta and a race against time to get medical help for Krypto (played by Krypto, from Superman).
The pacing isn’t the sharpest, but the soundtrack is a banger, the effects are great, and Jason Momoa as Lobo is a role he was born to play. Despite haters and Rotten Tomatoes, well worth a watch.
~Sarge
GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER. Netflix. Series. (6.8 IMDb)
Think Nancy Drew meets True Detective. Five years after the apparent murder of a popular high school student, aspiring journalist Pip Fitz-Amobi decides the case doesn’t add up. What begins as a school project quickly turns into a deeper investigation, uncovering secrets, lies, and long-buried resentments in a town convinced the mystery was solved years ago.
The show’s biggest strength is Pip herself (Emma Myers – Jenna Ortega’s bouncy rainbow werewolf roommate on “Wednesday”): smart, determined, and believable as an amateur sleuth. While it never gets as dark as True Detective, it avoids feeling like a watered-down teen mystery, delivering genuine suspense, credible twists, and enough suspects to keep you guessing. Based on the novel by Holly Jackson, it’s a fast, engaging binge that captures the appeal of a classic detective story while giving it a modern true-crime sensibility.
~Sarge
GOOD OMENS 3. PrimeTV. Movie. (8 IMDb)
In 1990, fantasy legend Terry Pratchett and young comic fantasy mavin Neil Gaiman collaborated on a novel built around the question, “What if the Antichrist got switched at birth?” and Good Omens was born.
In 2024, the third season of Amazon’s adaptation of the late Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens was put on hold after multiple allegations of sexual assault against Gaiman surfaced in the news.
The Amazon version of Good Omens thrived on the brilliant chemistry between David Tennant and Michael Sheen as Crowley, a demon, and Aziraphale, an angel, who have spent millennia on Earth in what increasingly resembles a Cold War marriage. Faced with the impending Apocalypse, both come to the conclusion that maybe it might be altogether better … NOT doing that.
Featuring a host of charming side stories that all somehow linked together, plus a simmering relationship between the two leads, the first season felt like a delightful Douglas Adams pastiche. Since season one adapted the novel itself, the second season came as a complete surprise. Crafted entirely by Gaiman, it leaned harder into the Crowley/Aziraphale relationship, along with a gloriously naked and amnesiac Jon Hamm as the angel Gabriel. A great deal happens, and it all ends on a heartbreaking cliffhanger.
Then came season 3 … NOT!
As allegations against Gaiman mounted, stretching from the mid-80s into relatively recent years, comics, films, and television projects tied to him began getting canceled or shelved, including Good Omens 3. Fortunately, Gaiman stepped away from the production, allowing fans to get a third season … sort of. Cut down to a single feature-length finale, it still manages to wrap up a surprising number of story threads, and may even produce a few sniffles.
Gaiman’s problematic history aside, worth a watch.
~Sarge
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Sarge, aka Jeffery Sargent, cut his teeth on the Golden Age of Hollywoood on TV and with regular trips to the Sash Mill. Film classes then, at Cabrillo with Morton Marcus, broadened his scope – he found he preferred Keaton over Chaplin, and Akira Kurosawa was his Yoda. Sarge spent 15 years working in Special Effects, on everything from Starship Troopers to Battlestar Galactica. He is a staunch geek who has a weak spot for Cozy Mysteries and loathes “Reality” shows. While he doesn’t care for the unrelenting banal horror of “True Crime”, he licks his lips over a twist like the end of Chinatown. Email Sarge at JeffLSargent@gmail.com |
August 17, 2026
It looks innocent enough. The city council taking a short break in a lengthy afternoon agenda. The problem is they were in the middle of discussing and voting on an agendized item; a Workbench housing project for the Peace United Church at 900 High St. A motion had been made when Mayor Keeley called for the ten-minute break. They all filed into the back room, including the assistant city manager and the city attorney. Fifteen minutes later they emerged and resumed discussion of the motion.
This not only looks bad; it is a violation of the Brown Act. And it is not the first time it has happened. At a previous meeting, all the microphones suddenly went dead during council deliberations on an agendized item. The Vice-Mayor called for a fifteen-minute break (the mayor was absent) and they all filed into the back room, including the city manager and the city attorney. When they emerged it was obvious there had been back-room discussions since the council member who had been feisty before the break, was subdued, apologized for being harsh on staff and made the motion she had previously been criticizing.
Back to the 900 High St. project. This was being brought back with significant changes from the original which had been previously approved by council against formal appeals by neighbors. The grounds for the new submission were due to increased construction costs; Workbench representative Sibley Simon said the former project would not pencil. That’s right, the new buzz word is pencil, not pencil out…do try to be au courant. The new submission has many substantive changes including an increase in height to five stories, an increase in unit and bed numbers and a brand-new design shape.
It is arguably a new project and that could have been the council’s focus, but it was not addressed by council although it was addressed by neighbors who spoke to council. The focus of council’s concern was the 3 new waivers and 3 new concessions sought by the developer to reduce the costs of constructing the project. These included the added height, changed shape and increase in bed space plus replacing the city required design guidelines of non-vinyl windows with vinyl and also requested was a streamlined tenant selection process. This last concession was the focus of council push-back. Since any push-back by council on a building project is a rarity, it was a breath of fresh air to see councilmember Susie O’Hara meticulously demand answers from Mr. Simon and staff. The only downside was that the question of this being a new project was off the table.
Councilmember O’Hara demanded to see evidence that the project would not pencil without the changes. The city attorney clarified that the developer has no obligation to demonstrate that assertion (thanks Sacramento for your draconian housing laws). It’s up to the city to demonstrate whether the developer’s assertion is valid and the city had not done that calculation. As someone who has adjusted to the council’s rubber stamping of projects, I was thrilled with this new showing of guts on the part of some city council members. The neighbors did not get support for council denying the project, nor support for the need for hydrogeological studies since Westlake Pond might be impacted. That study will perhaps be done at the building permit stage which proves the need to keep public hearings for all projects. Staff is working to discontinue public hearings via its design guidelines proposal and its overlay district proposal. An early community meeting is no substitute for public hearings at the building permit end stage. Nor are they merely “subjective” and “opinion-based” as planning staff like to say. The hydrogeological issue proves that point.
Regarding the streamlined tenant selection issue, which council member O’Hara and Kalantari-Johnson succeeded in removing from the concessions, there was a glaring staff mistake and council seemed unaware of it.
Workbench representative Simon sought the streamlined selection process to avoid the considerable work involved if a thousand people apply for each one of the eight affordable units in the project. (The number 1000 is just a guess and likely overstated, but the point remains). The city’s housing manager was called to the dais, and said, incorrectly, that the city is “merely asking for notification” when an affordable unit is available. That “we don’t manage a process; we simply advertise the vacancy.” That is wrong on so many levels. Either that, or the city has no intention of requiring property managers to uphold the city’s local and local worker preferences; and the city required to track and verify that they are being followed and implemented. The community prevailed in getting council support for a local and local worker ordinance. The teeth in that ordinance is in its guidelines which should soon be available for public review (staff requested 90 days to get that together.) Council and staff should be far better apprised of this ordinance.
However, let’s celebrate and support council finding some spine to hold developers and staff accountable. It is only a beginning, and much more should follow. But a start is a start.
| Gillian Greensite is a long time local activist, a member of Save Our Big Trees and the Santa Cruz chapter of IDA, International Dark Sky Association http://darksky.org Plus she’s an avid ocean swimmer, hiker and lover of all things wild. |
At a time when the County government’s financial condition is none too rosy, the Board of Supervisors just voted to make it easier to give themselves a pay raise. What prompted that? Since 2021, their salaries were tied to being 62% of salaries made by Superior Court judges. This year, the Judicial Council did not approve any pay raises for the judges, so the Supervisors also will not get more money.
Apparently, that did not set well with our elected leaders, prompting the discussion to break the link to judicial pay, and approve returning to approving their own pay increases.
Chair Monica Martinez stated before the 3:2 vote in favor of breaking the established link that the Board uses a system based on cost of living and other factors to approve other County employees pay increases, “so, we should be proud of that and apply it to our own needs.” Hmmmm….
Well, why did then-Supervisor Greg Caput in 2021 feel linking Supervisor salaries was important enough to return to the doing such? He felt it was wrong to be voting on his own pay increase, funded by the taxpayers. He donated the pay increase amounts to local charities. Across the Board | Good Times
“The practice of linking Supervisor salaries to that of judges was initiated after 1970, following the passage of a California Constitutional Amendment California Proposition 12. This allowed county governing bodies to set their own pay by local ordinance.
- “Once granted local control, counties began experimenting with objective benchmarks to avoid conflicts of interest. For example, San Diego County passed an ordinance linking supervisor pay to Municipal Court judges in 1977, while Humboldt County officially tied supervisor pay to Superior Court judges in 1979. Santa Cruz followed shortly after in 1980.”
Counties in California use the salaries of Superior Court judges to link Board of Supervisors’ pay primarily to remove the political conflict of interest of elected officials voting on their own compensation.
The specific reasons this judicial benchmark became a widespread practice across California counties include:
1. Insulation from Political Backlash
When supervisors vote directly to increase their own pay, it frequently triggers public outrage and accusations of self-dealing. Tying compensation to an automatic, external formula shifts the mechanism out of the board’s immediate hands, insulating supervisors from the political fallout of enacting a vote for a raise. [1, 2, 3, 4]
2. Reliance on State-Regulated Increases
Superior Court judges are considered state-level legal professionals whose base salaries are prescribed strictly by California state law. Their annual adjustments are automatically dictated by the average salary increases given to regular California state employees. By tethering to this system, counties defer the calculation to state-level metrics rather than local political whim. [, 2, 3, 4]
3. Clear Professional Equivalence
Being a county supervisor in modern California is a demanding, full-time role requiring intense regulatory, budgetary, and civil oversight. Grand juries and county human resources departments regard judges as a stable proxy for highly skilled public-sector executives, establishing a professional baseline that helps attract qualified candidates to local office. [1, 2, 3]
4. Scalable Local Flexibility
The system allows individual counties to account for their local economy and cost of living simply by adjusting the target percentage. For example:
- Los Angeles County matches 100% of a judge’s salary.
- Alameda County pays 80%.
- Marin County historically utilized 60%.
This provides a uniform, legally clean framework that can scale depending on whether a county is large and urban or small and rural.”
Contra Costa supervisors expected to tie their salaries to those of judges
https://www.nevada.courts.ca.
Well, at a time when the Supervisors are expecting the public to dig deeper into our pockets for a new sales tax increase, they should be leading by example.
HOUSING NEXIS STUDY FOR COUNTY CAUSES VOTE TO VIOLATE MEASURE J?
Last week, the Board heard a long-awaited presentation by Keyser-Marston consultants to evaluate the nexis of housing and developer fees aimed at supporting affordable housing. The Board had asked for this in 2023.
The consultant emphasized that the analysis evaluated the maximum legally-supported fee vs. a “feasible” fee. A survey of what other jurisdictions charge showed that developer fees collected to support affordable housing projects could be as high as $21-$28/SF for saleable single family residences, $3-$8 /SF for rental residential projects, #1.41-$3/SF for agricultural development and $4.22-$7/SF for non-residential development.
The County has been charging $2-$15/SF for saleable single family residential projects, $2/SF fro residential rental projects, $1/SF for ag development, and $3/SF for non-residential development. In 2024-2025, that brought in $551,000, and in 2025-2026, developers paid $370,000.
So, what did the County do with that money??? That was not discussed.
However, Supervisor Koenig was exasperated with a constituent report that they had to pay $800 in developer affordable housing fees to get a permit to build a 400SFtiny home.
There was much discussion between Planning Dept. staff and Supervisor Cummings that market rate projects were not really counted in housing number analysis. Staff said there just isn’t interest in those kinds of projects, but due to recent State law changes, developers are interested in building 100% affordable projects. That likely is because these projects no longer require public hearings or neighborhood notices, being now deemed “ministerial approvals”.
- Supervisor Cummings was not happy that the Nexis Study did not include what was requested by the Board in 2023, with clear direction to include analysis of a 5% Section 8 Voucher number in new developments. Staff told him that if the Board wanted Keyser Marston to look at that, the Board would have to come up with the money.
- It was shocking to see that Staff did not follow direction back in 2023 for scoping the Nexis Study, and was not willing to take responsibility for their mistake.
The Keyser-Marston consultant recommended reducing the inclusionary affordable housing rate to 11%.
Supervisor Cummings was worried the County would suffer losing a lawsuit by reducing the required affordable inclusionary housing under Measure O, and thus made a motion (seconded by Supervisor Hernandez) to require 15% of new residential development, for sale and for rent, would be dedicated to affordable inclusionary housing, as is mandated by Measure J, the voter-approved referendum from 1978.
- County Counsel Justin Heath argued that Measure O was irrelevant, even though he admitted he knew nothing about it. He said Measure J does not require 15% of each project (over 7 units) to be deeded affordable but rather only 15% of the County’s overall construction. Staff had made a comment that over the last three years, about 84% of the permitted projects in the County have been affordable housing. Mr. Heath said that proves that the County is meeting the 15% affordability threshold, and therefore supported Supervisor Koenig’s motion to remove any inclusionary requirements on developers..
- Supervisor Koenig made a substitute motion (seconded by Supervisor DeSerpa) to reduce or eliminate inclusionary affordable housing required in residential projects, and reduce or eliminate the developer impact fees. He wanted to support growth in moderate income housing. (Hmmm….is that related to his side job as a realtor?)
Amazingly, the conversation by staff and Supervisor Koenig and Chair Martinez turned to clamoring for action to support growth.
That passed, 3:2.
There supposedly will be public hearings to gain further insight on the market and what is needed, and the issue will return to the Board in March.
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You may enjoy watching the Presentation for Item #9 at this morning’s Board meeting. Supervisor Cummings did an excellent job of defending inclusionary affordable housing.
You can watch the proceeding hereClick on #9 to go directly to that area of the meeting.
County Counsel Heath’s arguments regarding Measure J and Measure O begin at about minute 4:30:00.
Like Supervisor Cummings, I feel the Staff failed to uphold the decision of the Board, and it is not right to demand the Board fund what it would take to make it right. -
Take a look at the data below and give this some thought.
Many thanks to Linda S. for sending this information:
[Almost nowhere in California is building enough, according to the state. Here’s why]
| page | v. low | low | moderate | >moderate | |
| Santa Cruz County | 27 | 2% | 40% | 35% | 11% |
| City of Santa Cruz | 10 | 197% | 248% | 49% | 30% |
| Scotts Valley | 31 | 70% | 87% | 0% | 35% |
| Watsonville | 34 | 14% | 9% | 0% | 34% |
| Capitola | 37 | 29% | 21% | 7% | 10% |
LOTS AND LOTS OF SUGARY MONEY IN SANTA CRUZ
Have you wondered about the money Santa Cruz City is gathering with the sale of sugar-sweetened drinks? I have, and took advantage of a spare moment to sit in on the Measure Z Citizen Oversight Committee for that tax passed in 2024 to collect 2cents per fluid ounce of sugar-sweetened drinks sold within the city limits.
Maybe you should sit down.
While Measure Z anticipated bringing in $1.2 Million annually, it has actually racked up $3.5 Million for the City in one year! Legal counsel advised the Committee not to spend any of it just yet, due to the law suit filed by the American Beverage Association.
The lawsuit, filed May 28, 2025, argues that the tax violates the Keep Groceries Affordable Act of 2018, which prohibits California cities and counties from creating new taxes on groceries, including beverages, through January 1, 2031. Included in the act was a penalty that would have stripped a local authority of its sales and use tax revenue should it impose a new grocery–related tax or fee.
Beverage industry sues to overturn Santa Cruz soda tax
The Court ruled in favor of keeping the tax, but American Beverage Association has appealed the decision. It may take 18 months to resolve, so spending the money now could potentially cause having to claw it back.
It will be interesting to see what happens, given there have been other rulings supporting the ability of charter cities to tax sugar-sweetened drinks. Ruling Affirmed in California Sugary Drink Tax Preemption Lawsuit
In the meantime, the Committee that will be tasked with developing a way to give what seems to be potentially bringing the City $3.5 Million annually is looking at launching a voter survey to determine what they actually thought they were voting on, and how the money would be used. Staff had no idea when that polling might happen. Hmmmm…..
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO RESTORE SEACLIFF STATE BEACH?
Recent storms hammered Seacliff State Beach, demolishing the RV camping area that was so popular. What will happen next?
Take a moment to join this Community sounding board and voice your thoughts on what this place should offer for The People. Seacliff Resilience | Seacliff State Beach
WHEN WILL YOUR ROAD BE FIXED?
Many thanks to Ms. Lynn Sestak, FireWise Coordinator for the Santa Cruz County FireSafe Council for sharing the information below about an upcoming meeting to talk about the status of road repair and evacuation planning in Santa Cruz County.
A special meeting with First District Santa Cruz County Supervisor Manu Koenig on September 9 at 6pm via Zoom. He will review which repairs are funded, which are not, how the County measures evacuation risk, and what we can do to make our roads safer.
This meeting will focus on roads in Santa Cruz County with some comparisons to Santa Clara County.
All are welcome.
This presentation will be recorded and the recording shared afterwards.
Here is the zoom meeting invitation:
Time: Sep 9, 2026 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
Meeting ID: 865 2530 8270
Passcode: 014731
COMMUNITY MATTERS INTERVIEWS SUPERVISOR KIM DESERPA THIS FRIDAY
This Friday, August 21, at 2pm Pacific Time, Second District County Supervisor Kim DeSerpa will talk about what is happening in her district. What are the greatest challenges? What has been a surprise?
Listen and call in on KSCO Radio AM 1080 or live stream at ksco.com/
The program will be recorded and posted on the KSCO website
MAKE ONE CALL. WRITE ONE LETTER. ATTEND ONE PUBLIC MEETING ON A TOPIC THAT MATTERS TO YOU.
DO ONE THING THIS WEEK AND MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.
Cheers,
Becky
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Becky Steinbruner is a 30+ year resident of Aptos. She has fought for water, fire, emergency preparedness, and for road repair. She ran for Second District County Supervisor in 2016 on a shoestring and got nearly 20% of the votes. She ran again in 2020 on a slightly bigger shoestring and got 1/3 of the votes.
Email Becky at KI6TKB@yahoo.com |
A brief ode to some of the region’s more recent conservationists and suggestions to where we need to go from here.
Last column, last week, I urged readers to reflect on what we see happening with conservation around the Monterey Bay. I shared what I have been seeing, which is not altogether positive. And, I noted that prior generations of conservationists would be sad to see what has become of their work. Can we recall prior conservationists or adequately recognize those at work now? How will future conservationists succeed?
Conservation Leaders
In my time here since 1986, I have been inspired by some amazing conservation leaders around the Monterey Bay. I often think about R. Morgan, who many consider the most important conservationist of modern times. He generously shared his always growing extensive understanding and insights into botany and wildlife biology. He knew where every native plant grew in Santa Cruz County, was always discovering new species, could recall a litany of bird occurrences and their natural histories, was familiar with most of the geography of the county, and tracked and helped focus others on conservation priorities accordingly. Dean Taylor and Roy Buck complimented his work in botany, cataloging species occurrences and furthering our understanding of conservation approaches. There were also Celia and Peter Scott and Bruce Bratton adding very important leadership and energy to the Santa Cruz County conservation movement. To the South, for decades, Mary Ann ‘Corky’ Matthews and Jeff Norman led the plant conservation charge for Northern Monterey County into Big Sur, learning much, sharing more, and inspiring generations of others to help conserve and better manage many areas. All of these souls are gone now, much missed.
We too often fail to recognize and support other, super-knowledgeable and incredibly generous conservationists like Bruce Delgado, Sam Farr, Julie Packard, Steve Singer, Bill Parkin, Jonathan Wittwer, Frans Lanting and Chris Eckstrom, and my co-contributors to the BrattonOnline e-periodical, Becky Steinbruner, Gillian Greensite, and Gary Patton.
Where is the next generation?
The Current Problem
The Old Guard is aging out and the morale of the next generation has been laid waste, thrown into the abyss of a seemingly anxious and hopeless mire. It is too expensive for anyone who might be inspired to spend time on conservation. One literally risks one’s well-being as a conservationist, even in the ‘liberal’ Monterey Bay area. Try pursuing right livelihood and the Bosses will threaten you for speaking out in favor of conservation. Overtly or by insinuation, they declare “Every moment you live, you represent The Company, and you better not endanger Our Funding!” A gap in employment means you can’t pay rent. You can barely afford groceries, anyway, with the few jobs available that are involved with, or adjacent to, conservation. Raise a family doing conservation-type work around the Monterey Bay? Well, only if you keep your mouth shut about the compromises one must make to keep the funding flowing for your employer. But, most people have already self-censured for fear of the stress of conflict. Even the supposed allies with the dominant center-right social democrats spare no margin in cracking down on anyone critical of their watered down, milktoast, pro-business, condescending nods to what they hope you will interpret as pro-conservation. They are something to fear, especially if one tries to get elected to, appointed to, or advise governmental institutions.
In the past, one could work through organizations to advocate for conservation and follow such advocacy with legal action when necessary. As outlined in my last column, those organizations have largely retired from that kind of work.
The Future
The last generation of conservation had a sense of belonging to what became known as the Deep Ecology movement, and I believe that philosophy is in need of revival. I recently saw the leader of a statewide “conservation” organization give the opening speech to a large convention where they suggested that the main problem with conservation was the lack of recruitment of the next generation into the natural sciences. As they continued, it became clear that the speaker thought in terms of academic pursuits and was oblivious to the deeply personal reasons most people are drawn to conservation: their love of nature, their desire for clean air and clean water, and a rebellion against the greed that toxifies and privatizes the planet.
“The battle for conservation must go on endlessly. It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong.” – John Muir
It seems to me that we need to cultivate a new generation of conservation leaders through a common understanding of the difference between right and wrong.
Is it not right that a river be given its floodplain? If the San Lorenzo, Pajaro, Salinas, and Carmel Rivers had their rightful floodplains, they would: sustain salmon, steelhead, lamprey and a world of other wildlife; recharge crucial groundwater; reduce flooding and the resulting environmental contamination, and; enrich humans’ lives immeasurably.
Is it not right that all species have healthy populations, sustained for generations to come? Most native plant and animal species are declining around the Monterey Bay because of greed and poor planning. We need to better manage our public lands, better plan for private lands, and think about growth through the lens of the future 7 generations.
Is it not right that the First Peoples should have primacy in caring for this land? We cannot embrace a Just Future without pursuing healing from the criminal activities of the not-so-distant past where genocide and violence usurped these lands from the original peoples.
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Grey Hayes is a fervent speaker for all things wild, and his occupations have included land stewardship with UC Natural Reserves, large-scale monitoring and strategic planning with The Nature Conservancy, professional education with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and teaching undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz. Visit his website at: www.greyhayes.net
Email Grey at coastalprairie@aol.com |
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Ben Rhodes, an Obama Administration insider, is a person whose ideas about politics can be taken seriously. That’s my judgment, at least.
In the August 14, 2026, edition of The New York Times, Rhodes outlines what he calls “The Winning Formula For Democrats In “Red States.” This is the hardcopy headline on his August 14th opinion column. When you click either that link, or the following link, and read Rhodes’ column online, you’ll run into a different headline: “He’s Young and Thoughtful, With Kennedyesque Good Looks. Can He Break the Republican Grip on His State?” The state at issue, incidentally, is Iowa.
If you pay close attention, you will immediately note that the two headlines are incompatible – unless, that is, the “winning formula” for Democrats, in the upcoming midterm elections, is for all Democratic candidates to be “young,” and “thoughtful,” and to possess “Kennedyesque Good Looks.” That doesn’t, really, seem like a “formula,” does it?
In fact, Rhodes isn’t really betting on “good looks.” Here is the “formula” he is advocating (emphasis added):
For all our obsession with national politics and policies, the path out of corrupt, one-party government starts at the local level. That’s where you can take advantage of a party that has become lazy in power, build organizing muscle and test approaches that can be repurposed for other states or scaled up nationally.
As a former local government official (in a “non-partisan” office, by the way), I think the “formula” just highlighted is, in fact, a very real way forward towards political achievement and success, in a time in which our “partisan” politics is both perceived as, and actually is, “corrupt.”
Of course, while it is a lot easier to get people engaged in the thrilling adventure of “self-government” when they are operating at the “local” level, in the communities in which they live, the “formula” identified by Rhodes won’t work at the “local” level any more than at the state or national level, if ordinary men and women don’t get involved in politics themselves.
I’m telling you (and I know about this), getting together with your friends, forming some kind of political “club,” and working at the local level for political change (the kind of change that can transform our “political world” to achieve what we decide we want) is not only the high road to effective political power, it’s a lot of fun!
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Gary Patton is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney for individuals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. You can read and subscribe to his daily blog at www.gapatton.net
Email Gary at gapatton@mac.com |
Tom Engelhardt writes on Nation of Change, “If only we could walk out on him the way he recently walked out on NBC’s Kristen Welker in the middle of an interview, when she challenged him over his wild claims of election fraud in California’s primaries. But no such luck, of course.” Tom says that with two and a half years to go, “Trump is undoubtedly going to give decline (and fall) a new meaning. It’s true that all great powers invariably go down in their own fashion, but never, I suspect, quite in the fashion of Donald J. Trump’s America.” Pronouncing Trump as uncontrollable, even by himself, he has set himself up as president, ruler, king, and dictator of a (dis)United States of America.
Trump has failed to notice that since WWII, the greatest power on earth has been unable to win its wars of choice against countries whose power bore no relation to America’s, and now Iran has become all too typical in his disastrous “excursion.” Even the elected officials and other leaders have blithely followed along, ignoring the painful lessons in the years since 1945. Only China seems to have taken note, its leaders avoiding war, aside from minor skirmishes, with Russia following in the footsteps of the US as it continues to waste its resources in Ukraine. Engelhardt credits the world’s military with having refrained from use of atomic weaponry, however, he feels that we are in a slow-motion version of atomic warfare called ‘climate change.’
He says that Trump is at war with this planet, big time, calling this mild all-to-slow-motion reality a hoax, a scam, a con job. In a true Trumpian statement, the president has insisted that the Earth is “cooling as a planet,” even as heat indexes continue to rise annually. Even the Environmental Protection Agency had stated that any actions to deal with climate change will be “futile.” As the planet continues to heat up, the powerful nations of the world worsen the situation by adding disconcerting amounts of fossil fuels to the atmosphere. Engelhardt apologizes by ending his piece on a grim note, asking us to think of Donald J. Trump as our end times president.
A post on The Intellectualist says, “A third world war is not inevitable. The conditions at issue are not a predictive checklist. They are mechanisms through which conflicts that begin separately can start changing one another. The danger is not simply that several wars are occurring at once. Regional wars can be extraordinarily destructive without becoming direct great-power wars. They remain regional when outside great powers — even while supplying weapons, intelligence, financing or political support — and do not enter sustained direct combat against one another.” The piece says that both world wars crossed that boundary because the leading powers fought one another across multiple theaters — scale does not determine the category, only the identity of the combatant does. The warning here is that the distance between regional war and great-power confrontation is narrowing by the day.
Doug McKinnon, a former White House and Pentagon official, in his opinion piece in The Hill asks, “Is the US already in WWIV — and losing?” He recalls Einstein’s dystopian vision statement: “I know not with what weapons WWIII will be fought, but WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones.” McKinnon doesn’t view it that way, speculating that weapons of mass destruction will be substituted with cutting-edge systems created and perfected for WWIV. No nuclear warheads, ballistic missiles or mushroom clouds — only mouse pads and joysticks! Military operations fought with debilitating cyber-attacks to shut down water supplies or electrical grids would be far-reaching and more effective.
Panic would ensue if financial systems or investment accounts were hacked and zeroed-out; hacking transportation computer systems for commuter trains, air traffic control systems, or self-driving cars would cripple all travel. And orbiting satellites would be endangered, paralyzing a wide array of informational sources. This is not fantasy or the stuff of science fiction — such cyber and social manipulation systems have been years in the making, with regular testing, especially with AI gaining prominence. We have recently seen the evidence with Iran hacking into water systems in at least 12 states. McKinnon says, “Advancing technology is a miracle, right up until the moment cyber-criminals or cyber-warriors learn how to exploit it.” The warp-speed progression of AI and robotics is meant to take human beings “completely out of the box.”
“A largely automated military, a digital currency, driverless electric vehicles with ‘kill switches,’ AI-controlled utilities — all of these conveniences also make us more vulnerable, in addition to whatever they do to worsen unemployment. Despite our perceived advances, and often because of them, adversaries, rogue states, and terrorists have entirely new avenues by which to manipulate and weaken us,” writes McKinnon. And despite the warnings of our growing vulnerabilities being relegated to white noise, we stay on the path toward empowering AI and robotics, with the smart money on our continuing to ignore the threats. What if, on its own, Artificial Intelligence concludes that humans are standing in the way of its destiny? Doug leaves us with the proverb: “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King.” Picture the “2001: A Space Odyssey” computer named ‘HAL’ and its one ‘eye’!
The bone spur afflicted, draft-dodging Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image a couple of weeks ago, casting himself as a battlefield leader portraying him as a general, flanked by generals Patton and MacArthur of WWII prominence. Trump displays four stars on his epaulets, whereas the two outranked generals are showing only two stars — well below Patton’s actual four, and Mac’s actual five. Perhaps Trump’s fantasy image of four stars represent his deferments for education — he could have added a fifth for the bone spur. His chest is bedecked with countless ribbons and medals, resembling some Russian general’s photos we are probably familiar with. Missing is an eye patch for our One-Eyed Donny.
Trump’s brush with soldiering came when he was attending the New York Military Academy, earning the rank of cadet captain, hardly enough glorification for his military résumé. Problem solved by adding to his AI general persona, the Medal of Honor — conspicuous gallantry, indeed! In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that he was considering awarding himself with the coveted medal, all because his plane flew into Iraq to visit troops, landing on an unlit runway during his first term as president. “I flew to Iraq and was extremely brave. In fact, so brave I wanted to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor,” he was quoted at the time. Perhaps he should be encouraged to have his plane land on an unlit runway in Iran to add credence to his claim of bravery.
Posts by readers in reaction to the brave AI general quickly followed: “Four student deferments? With a documented GPA of 1.2 from Fordham University, and graduating 364th in a class of 366 from the University of Pennsylvania (part of public record). How was it possible for him to receive one II-S, let alone four?” Another posted, “I could also point out that both Patton and MacArthur were relieved of command for insubordination. Eisenhower relieved Patton for his resistance to denazification in Germany, and MacArthur was relieved by Truman for his insubordination regarding statements of policy contrary to Truman, and his overtures about using atomic bombs on China.” Suppose it will take an AI five-star general to remove this doofus?
Expatriate Robert Harrington offered, “That image is physically sickening…and shows how twistedly sick his mind is. That image is an absolute disgrace and insult and disrespect to our military and those who serve(d) and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. That image of HUMPTY is a textbook example of ‘STOLEN VALOR’…a persistent, strange, psychological behavior when an individual who has never served in the military claims to have performed heroic deeds and thus earned/deserved medals for their deeds (there is even a federal law regarding Stolen Valor since 2005). Every person, military and nonmilitary, should be sickened and appalled by this image, and it’s time to call out HUMPTY’S despicable behaviour.”
Appropriating humorist Jack Handey’s Risky Situation joke: “He knew he would be taking a chance by signing the Declaration of Independence. But he signed anyway. ‘Hey, what are you doing, Mr. Trump? That’s the Declaration of Independence,’ said the museum guard, chasing after him.” Doesn’t sound so far-fetched, does it?
A Bob Dylan quote gets the last word: “Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” Our president is soaked to the bone by now!
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Dale Matlock, a Santa Cruz County resident since 1968, is the former owner of The Print Gallery, a screenprinting establishment. He is an adherent of The George Vermosky school of journalism, and a follower of too many news shows, newspapers, and political publications, and a some-time resident of Moloka’i, Hawaii, U.S.A., serving on the Board of Directors of Kepuhi Beach Resort. Email: cornerspot14@yahoo.com. |
Each week, I will feature a selection of interesting and historically significant places in Santa Cruz County from the 1986 edition of Donald Thomas Clark‘s wonderful book, “Santa Cruz County Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary“, published by the Santa Cruz Historical Trust.
“Nuggets” If I find something topically relevant, but not necessarily directly related to the week’s selection, you’ll see it under the Nuggets heading. Note: for reasons of brevity, sources are usually dropped when I reproduce an entry. You can always email me if you’re curious, or, even better, buy a copy of the book!
Dateline: August 19, 2026
Once again, a railroad stop yields a place name. This entry is less interesting for the included particulars, than the information about the name itself, which I presume was taken out of a desire to convey the same kind of fashionability as its original namesake, Tuxedo Park in New York State. Formal wear not being at all typical attire for me, I had no idea as to the origins of the name of the tuxedo (which is an Americanism, the Brits call it a “dinner suit”).
Finding more sources of information about this item was an interesting application of Google-fu; obviously, a simple search for the name and “Santa Cruz” would yield a lot more hits about formalwear than geography. I found the referenced sites, which of course included a page from the wonderful Santa Cruz Trains, by filtering out “suit”, “rental”, “sale” and “cat”… the latter, of course, is because the Internet is for cats, and tuxedo kitties are adorable. Still had to click through multiple pages of noise. There’s apparently a very popular local band called “Tuxedo”. 🙂 Which an experimental AI query seemed much more interested in than the “Historical Footnote” of Tuxedo Junction (which it did identify via a link to the Trains page). After I discovered that the hotel was renamed the Zayante Inn, I did a quick search for information on that, and of course, the results were far less noisy and far more numerous… sometimes, searching for ancillary or related information is a better tactic.
According to the entry for Mount Hermon Bridge on the Sahale, LLC web site (interesting on its own as an example of recent historical legacy–they built many trails and bridges in the area from 1992 to 2010 when the owner died), “Tuxedo Junction” is a former name for Mt. Hermon, used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also states that the Tuxedo Hotel was renamed the Zayante Inn after the resort was turned into a “Christian camp” (there’s plenty of photos of the latter, the link goes to one from the USCS University Library digital historical photograph collection, another wonderful resource available for exploration of locale history).
The hotel burned down in 1918 according to the Zayante In Resort entry on the SCPL Local History Wiki.
Interestingly, Clark doesn’t specifically cite this as a former name for Mt. Hermon.
The entry for Mount Hermon station on the Santa Cruz Trains web site added that Southern Pacific’s name for this stop was originally, “Campus”, which the owner, Thomas L. Bell (link to page on Santa Cruz Trains), wanted renamed to Arcadia (a utopian term referring to a “vision of the pastoral and harmony with nature”, which makes sense for someone trying to market a resort in Santa Cruz at the time), but since the name was in use elsewhere, he choose Tuxedo, which in turn became the name of the resort itself (Santa Cruz Trains makes the same historical connection, which I wonder if they just lifted from Clark’s entry without credit, or derived on its own as a well-known fact).
I really do love that a few minutes of digging can yield such a rich variety of resources and information about a Santa Cruz County location essentially picked at random from the book, even though Santa Cruz County’s documented history is rather foreshortened as compared to “Old World” locations in Asia, Africa and Europe. We’re truly gifted to live here in that respect.
The name of a former railroad “stop” on the South Pacific Coast Railroad, resort, and settlement located at the junction of Bean and Zayante creeks in the present-day Mount Hermon area. SEQ, Section 15, T1OS, R2W. The resort was created in 1901 by Thomas L. Bell, a lumberman and land developer, who named it Arcadia. “When it was brought to Bell’s attention that there was another Arcadia on the same Southern Pacific Railway line which traversed his site, he renamed it Tuxedo.”–Gudnason (1972, p.11). The name is probably a transfer name taken from that of the Harriman estate, Tuxedo Park, in New York State, near the present-day Harriman State Park. The word tuxedo for “a tailless dinner jacket” took its name, according to Mathews (1951, p.1785) from Tuxedo Park, “a fashionable resort and country club where this article was first worn.” Tuxedo is said to have been the name of an Algonquin Indian subtribe.
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Thomas Leavitt is the husbandy thing to our illustrious webmistress. A resident of Santa Cruz (now part time) since 1993, his interests include history, technology, and community organizing. He started the world’s first self-service web hosting company, WebCom, located at 903 Pacific in May of 1994. He’s been part of too many community organizations to mention, and ran for City Council in the early aughts. Email Thomas at ThomLeavitt@gmail.com |
“Labor Day”
“For working people and union members, Labor Day stands for something special and profound. It’s a day to honor the deep commitment each of us has to serve the children we teach, the families we heal, and the communities we love.”
~Randi Weingarten
“The candidate out front on Labor Day has historically been the one who stayed ahead in November.”
~Peter Jennings
“As we celebrate Labor Day, it is important to recognize the contributions of labor unions’ crucial role in building and safeguarding the rights of American workers, including their wages, benefits, and working conditions.”
~Al N. Green
“I believe that summer is our time, a time for the people, and that no politician should be allowed to speak to us during the summer. They can start talking again after Labor Day.”
~Lewis Black
“If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend.”
~Doug Larson
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Things other rock stars said about Freddie Mercury… |
Direct questions and comments to webmistress@BrattonOnline.com
(Gunilla Leavitt)
