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SANTA CRUZ PUBLIC LIBRARY. This interior of the original, and first of our four Carnegie libraries in Santa Cruz. It was opened in April 1904, and Carnegie came here to see all four in 1910. It had 9000 square feet. It was demolished in 1966. The present one opened in 1968.                                                 photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical photo collection.

DATELINE January 29

NEW ART/FOREIGN/INDIE MOVIE THEATRE IN TOWN!!! Ashlyn Adams, the owner of Westside Video, just sent a very exciting massive hunk of cinema news!!! She says…

“We’ll be in the former Circle Church, at 111 Errett Circle on the Westside. We’re busy at work getting the rooms built and soundproofed and wired every morning and evening, and I think we can do a soft open right around the second week of February. We’ll do a grand opening at the beginning of March for everyone. We’ll be showing first-run independent, foreign language, and local productions (especially stuff that isn’t otherwise playing in town), second run, bigger budget movies, and classics. We have contracts with Criterion, Kino, Lorber, Oscilloscope, and A24. We’ll be serving up cafe items, popcorn, drinks, and bulk candy, plus there’s a commercial kitchen for popup restaurants to come serve meals on the weekends. We’re running everything on a 4K UHD projector system with 5.1 surround sound.” Should be a real fun experience!

She added later that the entire Westside Video Store is moving to the Circle Church. It’ll be called the Westside Film & Cultural Center. Opening prices will be: adult regular $9 first run, $6 second run, $3 catalog. Kids and seniors will be $8/$5/$3. There will be two 30 seat theatres, with comfy sofas and great chairs. The films will be many of the ones that Landmark doesn’t bring to town. I’ll keep you posted.

WESTSIDE PLAZA NEWS. Reports from Westside Video staffers told me that the owner of that entire block of businesses — from the once Omei Restaurant to Shen’s Gallery — has big plans. He’s going to “demolish” the present Westside Video store building. The  owners of the La Cabana Restaurant next door are petitioning him to leave their part of the building standing.   

JOHN TUCK HAS LEFT THE COUNTY. More than one of the probably hundred-plus gang of friends that gathered to say good bye to John Tuck last week said it marked an end of an era. John has moved to Austin, Texas to live with his daughter Jaala and her family. John’s developed a few senior citizen type ailments and he’s better off there. John was a writer, a child placement specialist for the county, an actor, bon vivant and one of the closest friends I’ve ever had.

John and I had a great ceremony — we bought the very first drinks ever served at Randal Kane’s  “new” Catalyst, Chris Mathew’s Poet & Patriot, Lou Caviglia’s Clouds, and the Old Lulu Carpenters when it opened as a bar in the mid 70’s. From 1970 onwards we partied… and worked together at the Cabrillo Music Festival, Save Wilder Ranch (Operation Wilder), The Santa Cruz County Fair (as board members) and political campaigns beyond count.

It’s not enough to say all of us will miss John…it’s the end of an era.

Dateline January 29, 2018

A LESSON IN CIVICS
After 10 meetings and with a rare show of transparency, the Downtown Library Advisory Committee (DLAC)  voted unanimously for the option of closing the current library and constructing a new library on Cedar St. under a 5 story parking garage…. and then they opened the floor for public comment on the issue. More than one speaker noted that a process whereby the public speaks after the committee has voted is a waste of time. That is true only if speaking before a vote is not a waste of time. Why nurture the illusion that an elected or appointed body listens to and incorporates public comments into their decision making when that rarely happens? More honest to vote, then let the public vent.

The overwhelming public sentiment, expressed at this last meeting and all previous meetings, including the one devoted to public commentary attended by over 90 people, was against a new library under a 5 story parking garage, the option chosen by the committee. To be fair, DLAC did an impressive outreach effort, a fact I omitted to acknowledge in my last column on this issue. Over two thousand people were reached via their survey. Only one problem: the survey failed to ask even one question regarding a potential main library move and its placement under a parking garage. With the most controversial and significant issue out of the picture, the rest was an easy exercise in relative trivia, rendering the survey largely meaningless. Survey questions asked about what folks wanted in a library, what they did and did not like about the current downtown library and other similar enquiries. Answers were somewhat predictable: more computers, wifi and printing resources and problems with unhoused people, safety concerns, drug users and use of bathrooms. Such social problems have been largely addressed with the relocating of the homeless out of downtown. That doesn’t solve the homeless issues but it has largely addressed the impact on the library.  

It is fair to say that when they voted for Measure S to renovate our libraries, if most people had known that the money would be used to terminate the Main library and build a new one on Cedar Street under a 5 story parking garage, the Measure would probably have failed to obtain the required votes. My hunch is that such a plan was known to those behind the scenes even if the public was unaware. It should raise skepticism about any future Measures that we will be asked to support. Some have asked whether it is even legal to use Measure S funds for such a project. Buried in the language of Measure S is the phrase, “construct facilities where necessary.” It is doubtful that the Main library came to mind if that phrase was noted.

If Santa Cruz has a heart it is probably not in the ever changing commercial strip called Pacific Avenue but is rather in the civic triangle formed by the Civic Auditorium, City Hall and the Main Public library. We may take these public institutions for granted yet they are the closest to a public center that we have within a market/ private property world. All three have a history of architecture and place. We can regret the tearing down of the original Main (Carnegie) Library (pictured) built in 1903 on the same site where the current library stands and to repeat that mistake would be unwise. To erase one of these three prominent civic institutions and build somewhere else on the bottom of a high-rise parking garage on a commercial street would be folly.  

This issue will go before city council in March or April for a final vote. That will be a test of whether the council listens and responds to the public’s voice whose opposition to relocating the library under a parking garage is loud and clear or whether the decision to relocate is a fait accompli. If the latter, council may as well vote first and hold public comment after the vote. Less cognitive dissonance for all.

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.

2018 majority report #4

Dateline January 29, 2018

Pacific Collegiate School bike rack. There has been an enormous increase in getting students to ride to school. Perhaps locating some new Bike Share stations inside school grounds would be another assist in getting even more students on a bike, as bus service to PCS is sporadic at best.

TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY

“If it be admitted that a man, possessing absolute power, may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach? Men are not apt to change their characters by agglomeration; nor does their patience in the presence of obstacles increase with Democracy in America the consciousness of their strength.”

—Democracy In America, p. 287-88 (Harry Reeve translation, Penn State, 2002

Power Grab?
The basis for three council votes that the progressive community lost at last Tuesday’s (Jan. 23rd) Santa Cruz City council meeting is reflected within Alexis de Tocqueville’s phrase, one he coined while observing the potential downside of American democracy, “the tyranny of the majority.” It was practiced with impunity by a 4-member council majority. It happened when the mayor wanted to add the vice-mayor to the closed-door bi-weekly “agenda review” meeting. It’s a meeting I wrote about last week that is held to set the official city council meeting agenda. Fifteen department heads and the mayor sit down and discuss the essence of the coming week’s city business. While I support the vice-mayor attending this meeting I also support other councilmembers attending. So, I made a motion that a rotating councilmember be able to attend. My motion was seconded by Councilmember Richelle Noroyan. (Thank you Richelle!) The majority was having none of it. Why should they let minority members into such a meeting? I can only guess at the reason.

The next majority move was to not allow a discussion on an agenda item I brought forward to level the playing field in council appointments to city boards and commissions. The resolution I put before the council was to restore the one councilmember-one commission appointment process in order to avoid the current democratic charade of four councilmembers being able to appoint seven commissioners to each of the city’s thirteen active advisory bodies. Why not have some minority views on those commissions? I would have argued that, but since Councilmember Sandy Brown was under the weather and could not attend the meeting, I received nary a second for my motion from a tight-lipped majority.

The third item had to do with renter protection. If renters were forced to leave their domicile by the city because of health and safety violations not attended to by the property owner, shouldn’t the city compensate the renters in terms of paying for temporary housing so as not to be put them out on the street? The city could then sue the landlord to recover costs. Sandy Brown and I brought this to the council back in October and it was coming back now with a big stamp of disapproval by our Planning Director, Lee Butler cum City Manager, Martin Bernal. It would be a city budget buster they argued, put the city into too much risk, they declared. Let’s just try it, I argued. If it proved to be expensive, we could bring it back to the council and repeal it. After all, aren’t the city’s renters near the top of the council’s priorities list? Maybe, maybe not? Even if tenants in this town were in the minority, which they’re not, shouldn’t a majority of the council be taking care of tenants? It was too harsh a decision for me, one in which made me feel like I live in a parallel universe and could only watch the majority again step in doo doo. I have to believe the renters will weigh in soon.

Good-bye to UCSC College Community System?
Will Student Housing West (SHW) put final nail in UC’s once “different campus” dream?

“Each college is a vibrant living/learning community supported by faculty and staff  who provide academic support, organize student activities, and sponsor events that enhance the intellectual and social life of the campus.” —From UCSC Housing, “UCSC’s 10 Campuses”

Where were the preliminary planning studies to decide on 3,000 beds? Seems like the last time the UC Admin. did a study of this kind for “west campus housing ” it was back in 2015 to look at around 1,000 beds. But, once the bed count was increased, the University changed their process and turned the question over to the three short-listed private developers who were tasked with inventing the project (so much for student and community input) and how it might be sited. As far as I know, the developers were not asked to carefully fuse the project into the campus’ legacy of residential colleges or even really acknowledge the 2005 LRDP, other than superficially (but how could they… the project seems to go against what the 2005 LRDP advises.) Yes, more bed space on campus is needed, desperately, but not so the campus can grow, but so it can catch up with its inordinate bigness within a community of only 62,000 residents. When UCSC houses at least 75% of its currently capped 19,500 students, then maybe we can discuss any further growth.

It is a fair guess that UCSC abandoned the process of doing planning studies and jumped in bed with “3P”–public-private partnership– developers because the UC Admin. is under enormous pressure to meet deadlines, so they are essentially cutting corners. They likely view the 3P developer scheme as one-stop shopping, thus killing the “vibrant living/learning community” concept and not yet agreeing how to control its growth impact on the town. In other words, no one has clearly stated that 3,000 more beds are not just a license to grow the campus by 3,000 more bodies. It is beyond irony that with each new revision of the Environmental Impact Report’s Notice of Preparation (EIR NOP), it has come to light some assumptions that were enabling the 3,000 beds, and it just won’t work. For example, the University thought it could build on the Porter Meadow, site of the annual student 4/20 cannabis event, or to the north of the Meadow below Kresge College. Seems like it turns out, due to environmental constraints, the only part of the west campus site that can be developed is the existing Family Student Housing location. This essentially forces that small parcel of 200 apartments–arguably the most affordable housing site in Santa Cruz County for families to live–to fit an even more absurd density of five to seven story residential blocks. 

Rent Control, Rent Freeze, and Just-Cause Eviction
People make history, but not necessarily under conditions of their own choosing.
Will this be the year Santa Cruz finally realizes its electoral power and makes some significant community quality of life changes? If so, when historians look back they just might note that February 13th was perhaps the start of a great Surf City march forward, a regular Movement for Housing Justice campaign that woke a once sleepy electorate. I hear that three Santa Cruz city councilmembers may be placing rent freeze and just-cause eviction ordinances on the upcoming Tuesday, February 13th council agenda. If so, this will be an historic occasion you will not want to miss. What these ordinances just might do is provide cover for rent-weary tenants during the lead-up to the November rent control vote.

EXTRA: Bernie on the plight of the working-class:

Let me back up. There is a rent control initiative that was submitted last week to the city clerk’s office and “if all the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed”  an officially blessed and sanctioned initiative will hit the streets on Sunday, February 11th, I hear. So, come the 13th, folks will be asking the city council to stop landlords from raising rents until the people can decide during the November 6, 2018 election. No, my friends, rent control is not THE solution, but it is an enormously powerful tool, a community bargaining chip in getting the attention of property owners in one of the most expensive real estate markets in California. It also throws down the gauntlet and sends a unified message to those out of control capitalists who are gouging renters and exploiting a housing market that has come to place too much power in the hands of too few landlords. It doesn’t take a weatherman, or women, to predict that fed-up tenants will be trying to stick it to the man this fall by employing Bernie Sanders’, ‘enough is enough,’ and going about leveling the playing field through the ballot box.

Bernie Quote of the Week

Bernie Sanders recalled his own childhood growing up in a rent-controlled apartment in Flatbush Brooklyn, which “meant that my family, which did not have a lot of money, did not have to spend 50 or 60 percent of its limited income on housing.'”

We Have A Housing Emergency. Here’s How We Face It

Chris Krohn is a father, writer, activist, former Santa Cruz City Councilmember (1998-2002) and Mayor (2001-2002). He’s been running the Environmental Studies Internship program at UC Santa Cruz for the past 12 years. He was elected last November to another 4-year term on the Santa Cruz City Council. Email Chris at ckrohn@cruzio.com

CLASSICAL DeCINZO
DeCinzo takes on housing options… scroll down to see.

EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s “The Blame Game” down a few pages. As always, at TimEagan.com you will find his most recent  Deep Cover, the latest installment from the archives of Subconscious Comics, and the ever entertaining Eaganblog with Tim’s deeper thinking about blame and the energy behind it.

NEW MUSIC WORKS presents the annual “NIGHT OF THE LIVING COMPOSERS”.

THEY’RE ALIVE!! And composing in our neighborhoods!!    (all Santa Cruzans at one time or another) Susan Alexjander ,Philip Collins, Steed Cowart, Michael McGushin, Jon Meyers, Barry Phillips and Scott Stobbe (not in attendance).  There’ll be a Composer Panel Discussion: 6pm. TICKETS: Night of the Living Composersat Cabrillo College Box Office: http://cabrillovapa.com/tickets 831/479-6154

CELEBRATE PIANO ENSEMBLE presents “An Afternoon of Piano Ensembles”. 
Selections are from both one-piano and two-piano repertoire. An eclectic group of composers will be featured ranging from Brahms, Saint-Saëns, Inghelbrecht, Nazareth, and Fina to a medley of dances from Bernstein’s West Side Story to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth. Performers include Erica Arul, Mary Jane Cope, Roger Emanuels, Rose Georgi, Irene Hermann, Nicki Kerns, Lynn Kidder, Lavinia Livingston, Michael McGushin, Vlada Volkova Moran, Carol Panofsky, Barbara Ruzicka, Kumi Uyeda, and Leah Zumberge.   

Suggested donation is $10 at the door. If you are not able to attend but would like to make a donation for scholarships please write a check to SCCMTAC and mail to Barbara Jirsa, Treasurer, Santa Cruz MTAC, 221 Nevada St, Santa Cruz CA 95060.

Sunday, February 11, 2018, 2:00pm UCSC Recital Hall

LISA JENSEN LINKS. Lisa writes: “Now that the awards season is here — and most of the movies in contention have finally played in Santa Cruz— it’s time to reveal my top 10 movies of 2017, this week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com ). Also, some unsung, real-life female astronomers from a century ago finally get the props they deserve in Jewel Theatre Company’s lyrical new production, Silent Sky. And find out how you — yes, you! — can enter a giveaway for an advance copy of my next novel, Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge!” Lisa has been writing film reviews and columns for Good Times since 1975.

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 archived for two weeks… (See next paragraph) and go to WWW.KZSC.ORG. On January 30 UCSC Music prof. Linda Burman Hall talks about the 45th annual Santa Cruz Baroque Festival opening February 10. She’s followed by James Weller United Peace Church minister talking about Sanctuary Santa Cruz and the current DACA issues. February 6 has Espressivo Orchestra director, conductor Michel Singher talking about their Feb. 15 concert then Edward Moncrief author of Raining Blackbirds talks about his book and farm laborers. UCSC’s Felicia Rice discusses her new book  “Doc/Undoc”  an art piece centering on the immigration experience. Then Ashlyn Adams talks about her two new movie theatres opening next month in the former Circle Church. OR…if you just happen to miss either of the last two weeks of Universal Grapevine broadcasts go here… http://www.radiofreeamerica.com/dj/bruce-bratton You have to listen to about 4 minutes of that week’s KPFA news first, then Grapevine happens. Do remember, any and all suggestions for future programs are more than welcome so tune in, and keep listening. Email me always and only at bratton@cruzio.com

UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE ARCHIVES. In case you missed some of the great people I’ve interviewed in the last 9 years here’s a chronological list of some past broadcasts.  Such a wide range of folks such as  Nikki Silva, Michael Warren, Tom Noddy, UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal, Anita Monga, Mark Wainer, Judy Johnson, 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.

QUOTES. “FEBRUARY”
“Why do all our friends and relatives destroy the summer for us? Why can’t they get married in February?”  Jerry Della Femina
“Without Valentine’s Day, February would be… well, January“, Jim Gaffigan
“Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what’s the matter, That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?” William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing
“February – the month of love..?!!
No wonder the shortest one in the calendar.” Dinesh Kumar Biran