May 25

SIGNS OF THE TIMES
House for Sale, Apt. for Rent, Car for Sale…I’m seeing a lot more of these signs as I take my daily exercise walk to the end of the wharf and home again. I perused Craigslist today for Santa Cruz County and it turns out, there’s a lot of rentals, 539 as of the Memorial Day weekend, and it doesn’t take a real estate genius to prognosticate that many more For Rent signs are on the way. Housing crisis? What housing crisis? Is this one of those vaunted “market corrections” that capitalists are fond of talking about? The listings begin with all these “rare opportunity” to rent a $600-$700 room” close to the [UC] campus” ads. Will students be back in fall? I doubt it. Who will occupy these rooms then? Probably a few hopeful students who want to be around campus, do classes virtually, and maybe use the library, but it’s all still up in the air. We may be seeing a lot of empty bedrooms. On the same Craigslist page, there’s a cottage to share on Grant Street for $900; a cozy one-bedroom cottage on Ocean Street Ext. for $950 (that’s cheaper); a “freshly-painted studio” in Soquel with “spectacular views,” also for $950; 200 square feet in Felton for $1095; and someone looking for a housemate on the Westside to fill the third bedroom for $1175, “no couples” please. Is the pandemic finally bringing rental prices in Santa Cruz down from their non-ganga induced highs? Not yet, but we’ll take another look in late June following the exodus of the off-campus students who stayed during lock-down and also just on the heels of a likely remote/zoom/on-line fall quarter student body not coming back to campus. Also, the usual suspects–Chestnut Street Apartments, Cypress Point, and 55Five Pacific–have not come down much in price, but are offering one or two months “free” if you are willing to sign a lease. In addition, there’s a bunch of “rent and security deposit reduced” listings. Has it taken Covid-19 to not only address the houseless and homeless emergency, but make a dent in our affordable housing crisis as well? Stay tuned.

UC Santa Cruz to Open in Fall?
Still remains doubtful whether students will be back in September. UC not-for-long President Janet Napolitano (she’s outta here as of “August 2020 according to EdSource), told the S.J. Mercury News on May 20th that “every campus will be open and offering instruction” this fall. It’s just that most of those classes will likely be on-line. The few that won’t be will likely be held in-person in order to save the NCAA Division IA sports teams’ schedules, notably football. It was back on May 2nd that Napolitano fatefully struck a sterner chord.”I think it’s fair to say none of our campuses will fully reopen,” she said according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Seems impossible to think that if the 500,000-student CSU system, the largest in the country, is going totally on-line–Zoom anyone?–this fall, that UC will not follow suit. I could imagine a scenario that allows graduate students to be on campus because of their smallish numbers and research needs, but undergrads too? Classes of 400 down to a socially distanced 50-60 in Classroom Unit II, for example, and 30 in Classroom Unit I? Ten students per bus and shuttle? Dorms a quarter filled? These are the scenarios that come to mind. Perhaps the remodeled quarry can be used as an outdoor classroom for possibly up to 100 and could provide the six-foot social distancing. Will these campuses be safe without a vaccine or on-going testing? What we do know is that sadly, saving a football season is part of the UC calculus in determining whether to reopen physical campuses to physical bodies. Cal and UCLA are heavily invested in football programs. Don’t forget, the Transparent California web site has had these two football coaches (Jeff Tedford, Jimmy Dykes), and a couple of basketball coaches (Cuonzo Martin, Steve Alford) receiving between $2 million and $3 million dollars (see UC salaries)

They’re usually at the top of the UC pay scale followed by a non-essential employee like UCLA transplant expert, Ronald Busutill who clocks in at $2.5 million. He’s the Dumont Professor of Transplantation Surgery and Chief of the Division of Liver and Pancreas Transplants in the Department of Surgery at the UCLA School of Medicine, according to his university bio. So remember, getting football jump-started is an important consideration in whether to send back UC’s 280,000 students to its ten campuses before a vaccine is found. Sounds like the CSU is also making it possible for their three Division IA teams–San Jose State, San Diego State, and Fresno State–to play football during the 2020 Covid-19 season. Looks like college presidents will play all ends from the middle like SDSU president Adela de la Torre. According to NBC, she tweeted out that SDSU plans to get around any closure by offering a hybrid model for classes, some in-person, and some virtual.”We will offer certain lab and performance-based instruction in person.” I continue to say, follow the money…in sports, in politics, and in the for-profit public and private education biz.

Santa Cruz City Council Agenda for May 26th
Once again, too many non-essential decisions are being made, mostly by staff and rubber-stamped by a council majority, during these troubled Covid-19 times. I advocate taking some deep breaths and waiting until the public and city council can return to Council Chambers at 809 Center Street. Or better yet, open the Civic Auditorium for safe, socially distanced meetings. It is just plain bad policy to be approving non-essential building projects and subjectively slashing the budgets of key departments without sufficient input from the community. All departments are not equal and the called for 10% across-the-board cut may sound fair, but some departments have a lot more fat, like Public Works, Economic Development, and Planning, than others like the Parks and Recreation Department. Chopping $225k salaries at the top by 30% and leaving those making below $50k alone should a priority, or at least be discussed, but so many of these decisions are made in closed session (see council agenda here ).

From what I can tell, closed session this week includes the behind the scenes push to get district elections in Santa Cruz (it’s on open session too); settling or fighting a millions of dollars law suit which had alleged sexual harassment within the police department, and labor negotiations. And then on the “consent agenda,” the city manager must feel district elections is such a slam dunk policy move that it shouldn’t be placed on the “regular agenda.” This kind of move is usually done to circumvent discussion and bypass public scrutiny. If you ever thought that our local government system was squeaky clean, it would be this issue on the consent agenda, which should give you pause to think, Uh oh, this isn’t right, something may be fishy here. Also on consent, item 15, is the Highway 1 and 9 “intersection improvements.” This has been a move by one city engineer, Chris Schneiter, to 1) boot Central Home Supply from town, 2) widen an already difficult intersection, and 3) to elevate car culture in the time of climate change and Covid-19. The city council ought to send this one back to Chris’ drawing board and save some money. The”construction contract $5.1 million,” is money better saved and spent on local businesses trying to come back in the coronavirus economy. Please city council, choose the no-project alternative and save business and save the environment. But also, puleeze, stop putting such big-ticket items on the consent agenda, which by-passes a full community-council discussion! All major environmental groups–Sierra Club, SC Climate Action Network, and Campaign for Sensible Transportation are vehemently opposed to this intersection expansion project. As far as I can tell, council has received lots of communication opposing the project and not even one letter or email of support. On the evening’s “regular agenda,” items 1, 3, and 4 are proposed resolutions that if passed, give even more carte blanche power to the city manager and police department. Again, this will all take place with a minimum of public scrutiny and participation. Welcome my friends, to democracy in the age of Covid-19, call it Pandemic Politics.

Harvey Milk was one of the first openly LGBTQ politicians in the U.S., and on this #HarveyMilkDay, his vision for a brighter tomorrow has never been more important.” (May 22)