November 15, 2021 & March 21, 2017

“THINGS CHANGE THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME”.
Note from Chris Krohn: This column originally appeared in BrattonOnline during the Week of March 21-27 2017. That’s over four years ago. It is filled with hints of what we are experiencing now in terms of growth with the lack of affordable housing. It names some names and contemplates the process of selecting a new police chief, calls out city desk reserved for ICE agents, and cites some progressive city council wins. The process for selecting the police chief seemed to work, and both Bernal and Mills are now gone. Will the new city manager, Matt Huffaker, follow a maximal public input process in selecting the next police chief, senior city engineer, and library director?

A Week in the Life of This Councilmember (March 2017)Every week on the Santa Cruz city council is different. As different as one week is from another there must be some ties that bind. Perhaps it is the dissimilarities, distinctions, or varying disagreements that occur, which link the calendar dates into a more cohesive narrative that may reveal a picture of SC civic life. Early MONDAY morning I met with City of Santa Cruz Planning Department’s Principle Planner, Ron Powers, to discuss “The Notice of Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report” (re: Downtown Recovery Plan). It was an engaging conversation, which revealed that this is a big plan, folks. Similar to the steroidal Wharf Master Plan, and the market-rate housing developer dream known as the “Corridors Plan,” this one contemplates BIG changes in the downtown like building heights going to seventy feet along Front Street, for example. It’s a plan that brings together some formidable developer interests too including land-use consultant, Owen Lawlor who teams with Milpitas’ Devcon Construction. And don’t forget Barry Swenson and Doug Ross also have interests in this area too. This plan includes parcels from Soquel to Laurel along Front Street, and from Cathcart to Laurel along Pacific Avenue. The question for city council members might be: What will the public benefit(s) be in these forthcoming projects? Affordable units maybe? It’s up to the community to weigh in and make the developers do the right thing. One elephant in this room also is what will the Metro be doing with their property (1.5 acres)? Play ball with the developers, or go their own way? Stay tuned, the development of our downtown takes a village.

(Nov. 2021 Note I: Developers are running amok in Surf City as a result of the Downtown Recovery Plan being approved on a 5-2 vote (Krohn and Brown voting NO. The good news is that there will be an election in 2022 and 2024 and it’s not just Voldemort we are trying to keep out of the Whitehouse, but needing to confront the selling off of Santa Cruz.)

Bernal the Bureaucrat Who Would be King
Later in the day, I met with city manager (CM), Martin Bernal to discuss the Tuesday city council meeting agenda, but the conversation was mostly agreeing to disagree over one of his pet projects, the so-called “garage-library,” a five-story behemoth planned for the current site of the Farmer’s Market at Lincoln and Cedar streets. I will continue to update this story as information is made available. Tuesday was an official city council meeting and truth be told, I believe every vote taken by the council was unanimous. The most significant moment during the meeting was perhaps city manager Bernal’s not so cryptic message to the city council that there is a “no interference clause” in the city charter he said, prohibiting the council from telling him who to appoint as the next chief of police in Santa Cruz. It came across as a not so subtle message. The other agenda issue the council voted affirmatively on was the sanctuary city ordinance backing up an already approved city resolution stating clearly that Santa Cruz welcomes immigrants and will seek to protect them when threatened by outside federal powers. 

(Nov. 2021 Note II: Border “security” during Voldemort proved to be a disaster with ICE officers endorsing Voldemort and carrying out his twisted agenda. All the more reason why it is such a head-scratching tragedy that we would ever allow federal ICE agents to literally have an office in the SCPD. I hope someone is checking up on this and making sure there are no ICE agents still in the building, or even near it. If you doubt what the V-man has done, read Jon Lee Anderson’s well-written piece on the current political crisis engulfing Honduras at the hands of US operatives and border policies. It’s resulted in thousands of more refugees.)

Unanimous Votes Can Happen (Nov. 2021 Note III: Another major victory by Santa Cruz Left Progressives and Fiscally-minded Moderate, aka Still No Desal.)

The evening city council meeting was a most remarkable event given Santa Cruz’s history of contentious politics. It was a kumbaya moment that had both councilmembers and water commissioners singing the praises of the city’s water advisory committee (WASC). Everyone present was falling over each other in endorsing the post-desalination reset policy recommendations that will help us move toward even greater conservation with the implementation of a more innovative rate-payer structure that incentivizes using less water. But during public comment that night, Curtis Reliford, the made-in-Santa Cruz change-maker and mirth-maker, provided a poignant, and almost surreal moment after a night of back-slapping, when he repeated the Standing Rock campaign slogan, “Water is Life,” and reminded this group of decision-makers that not everyone’s water is so secure.

The Anti-Trump Campaign Continues
Wednesday night I spent at the Resource Center for Non-violence. It was a birthday celebration for Tatanka Bricca (72!) and his partner Carol (68). The evening was filled with music and an informative update on what activists are currently doing at Standing Rock in North Dakota since the pipeline was given a thumbs-up, first by the Trump Administration and then by a judge.  Danny Sheehan of the Romero Institute is there aiding several protesters who were arrested according to Sheehan’s son whose band performed at the birthday party. There has been a news blackout since protesters were forced off the site last month. NPR reported last Sunday that oil could be flowing through the pipeline (DAPL) as early as this week.

(Nov. 2021 Note IV: For the latest on Standing Rock go to the Romero Institute’s web page here.

Bernal, Again
Thursday’s highlight was at the Beach Flats Community Center where I joined fifteen other community members who’d gathered to offer input to CM Bernal as he moves toward reviewing applications of those who’ve applied to be the next police chief. He responded to a variety of questions including, is the ICE agent still embedded in SCPD? (Bernal: That agent is in the process of leaving.), Why have rangers displaced downtown hosts and community service officers on Pacific Avenue? (Bernal: To provide more protection.) And, how can PD be restructured to provide real help to the homeless instead of just issuing more tickets? (Bernal: We don’t have the funding to fund human services…the money goes to our core services, it’s a balance between protection and enforcement.) 

If your group wants to meet with the city manager to offer input on the next police chief, and planning director too, you can email him at: mbernal@cityofsantacruz.com or call 831-420-5020. (Nov. 2021 Note V: Better change that to mhuffaker@cityofsantacruz.com )

It’s All About the Climate Crisis
Friday’s big meeting was a ONE-HOUR gathering of the city’s Climate Action Task Force. It’s a wonderful group of environmentalists, alternative energy practitioners, bicycle advocates, educators, a city staff member, and me. We were summarily told by the staff member that we will NOT be making recommendations to the city council, even though the same council set up the group. BUT we are to assist (?) in implementing the city’s climate action goals as contained within the Climate Action Plan. How, you might ask, will we assist if we are not to make any recommendations? Me too. We will have three more “one-hour” meetings (since when is a task force meeting only one hour?) between now and December. We can talk about stuff, but just don’t make any recommendations was the message. I was perplexed by this outcome, especially given that the massive “garage-library” project, originally a part of our agenda was suddenly taken off right before the meeting by the staff member Tiffany Wise-West’s boss, deputy city manager, Scott Collins. It was a baffling turn of events. 

(Nov. 2021 Note VI: for the latest on this ill-fated former library-in-a-garage project go to ourdowntownourfuture.org 

(Nov. 2021 Note VII: To read what some scientists say on the Conference of the Parties, otherwise known as COP26, go to this article in Nature.)

Weekends Are Made for Meetings
Saturday is usually busy, chaotic, and a buffet of meetings to choose from, and it was no different this past week. But this was also the first weekend of March Madness basketball, which I had to follow in the upper small box window of my computer as I meeting-hopped. First up was the “Community Conversation on Homelessness” at the Garfield Park Church. Around forty people came and went during a meeting where the main discussion topics were: what’s being done around homelessness, what can be done, and what should be done? There was ample input and a particularly thoughtful presentation by Santa Cruz County’s Human Services Department’s senior analyst, Adam Spickler. He stressed that collecting data (“evidenced-based”) is crucial in drawing not only funding, but empathy, from the greater community towards the plight of our city’s homeless population, of which only around 600 are sheltered on any given night out of over 2000 according to the Santa Cruz County Homeless Census & Survey of 2015. Next, I attended the amazing organizing effort being carried out by a newly formed group called, Santa Cruz Indivisible. The civic auditorium took on a job fair-style atmosphere in which hundreds mingled around tables advocating for dozens of causes that included free speech, universal healthcare, immigrant’s rights, and affordable housing to name a few of my favorites. Organizers say that over 2000 have registered with Indivisible in only a few months’ time. What everybody attending seemed to agree upon was that we must all get much more organized if we are going to resist Trump and his regressive social policies. People are fired up and that is good to see. Finally, I attended the meeting of the “Anti-Trump Reading Group, organized by current and former graduate students from UCSC. It’s an eclectic, thoughtful, and provocative assembly that’s been meeting every Saturday afternoon in the backroom of Lupelos on Cedar Street. They send out an academic-style reading at the beginning of the week and the conversation flows on Saturday. “The Tyranny of Structurelessness,” by Jo Freeman was only tangentially brought into a conversation that covered organizing; how to enable democratic practice; meeting facilitation; and the importance of having a media presence within activist groups so the overall message is not coopted or misconstrued.

Say it Ain’t so Granite!
(Nov. 2021 note VIII: Ahhh…a fight we prevailed on.)
Sunday’s meetings included an organizing effort around a Granite Construction boycott, in light of Granite’s bid to build Trump’s wall between the US and Mexico. The other group meeting I attended, Organizing Circle, is a project that grew out of SC4Bernie’s “Brand New Council” campaign to get a new city council elected. Well, the canvassing continues and this group meets once a month to “listen” to neighbors and their concerns about the city. This was the third such walk and between 11 and 25 walkers have made their presence known these past months in the Beach Flats, Lower Ocean, and South of Laurel Street neighborhoods so far. What is unique about the Organizing Circle is that it meets for an hour to discuss tactics, walks for two hours, and then meets at a group member’s house for a potluck-debrief-story-sharing session. It’s actually fun!

Other Notes 

• The city council’s “norms and values” retreat part I, is Tuesday, March 21st from 3-7 pm at the Harvey West Clubhouse in Harvey West Park… and I’m sure I’ll write something about it in some way next week.
• Also, don’t forget the Planning Commission’s “special meeting” to discuss, you guessed it, “the Corridors Plan” Thursday, March 23rd at 7pm in the city hall chambers.

(Nov. 2021 note IX: We sort of won the “Corridors Plan” battle too, until 831 Water came along.) 

The Republican health care bill “should be seen as a huge tax break for the wealthiest people in this country.”

This is Michael Levy and Sandra Brown, both on the Empty Homes Tax committee. “Would you like to sign a petition to create more affordable housing in Santa Cruz?” (And tax those with two and three homes, and push back on the grow-for-the-rich city council majority and let’s empower the community and let’s get involved.) Sign the Empty Homes Tax petition.

November 8, 2021

BIG CHANGES DURING THE PANDEMIC

The V.I. Lenin Time Machine
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin once mused that there are decades in which nothing happens…and then, there are weeks where decades happen. Sometimes I feel the pandemic has yielded up such a time machine in which decades have simply flown by in a matter of 18 months. So many changes to consider in Surf City. Some occurred when few of us were paying attention, but the tree (and bulldozer) does make a sound even when we cannot yet hear it.

Closed Businesses
Perhaps nothing before or since the 1989 earthquake has so devastated Pacific Avenue business life than Covid-19. Pick a favorite downtown business, anyone, and it has likely succumbed. In just one block the cupcake place next to Peet’s Coffee is gone; Peet’s too is vacant now and so is the Palace Arts store on the other side of Pete’s. Regal’s Cinema Nine is no more, but another, Santa Cruz Cinema, has moved in. It was not a good pandemic for brewpubs either. The Poet and Patriot, 99Bottles, Rosie McCann’s, and a newer one, Pour Tap Room, all made swift exits. I doubt few are missing Starbucks, good riddance, especially with the Coffee Roasting Company right across the street. Lost to construction were Taco Bell, Santa Cruz Glass, and the old Community TV offices. Pre-pandemic losses downtown were already mounting and include Benten Japanese restaurant, Logos bookstore, Tampicos restaurant, Noah’s Bagels, Andy’s Auto Supply, Game-Alot, Marini’s chocolates, Joe’s Pizza, and the eclectic Cafe Pergolesi. It’s a lot to take in. Luckily, the Del Mar Theater is back, and I hear the Nickelodeon is on its way back too. Some corporate entities found a way to survive though, led by Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, and The Gap. Go figure.

The Camping Ban
Chapter 6.36, Camping Services and Standards, of the Santa Cruz Municipal Code has been a point of contention for at least a couple of decades, until it recently wasn’t. A San Jose judge ordered that campers in the Benchlands not be moved during the Covid pandemic because it would subject them to increased risk of obtaining the virus. Most political observers never thought this day would come to pass in Santa Cruz, but it did. Allowing local residents to sleep outside is nothing anyone is necessarily proud of, but it does acknowledge that human beings have a right to sleep and that sleeping should not be deemed a criminal act. The same judge has since ruled in favor of the Santa Cruz city attorney’s multiple pleas to exercise police powers to move campers whenever the city manager wishes. So far, Interim City Manager Rosemary Menard has refrained from ordering campers along the San Lorenzo River and Benchlands area to move, but the same city auspices have cooked up a draconian measure aimed at those living in their vehicles–RVs, cars, and vans. The measure, in fact, is on this week’s city council agenda. Tell the city council how you feel about this latest revamped version of the Chapter 6.36 saga. It’s the “Vehicles and Traffic” ordinance, item 23 on the council agenda.

Murals, Murals Everywhere
Santa Cruz homeboy, Taylor Reinhold, aka Tae Lion, had a homecoming recently and he brought along 24 artist-friends to paint the town, a project called Sea Walls Santa Cruz. They created 19 murals throughout the city of Santa Cruz. Have you noticed? From the front wall of Lenz Arts on River Street to the downtown library parking lot to the parking garage walls of Frazier Lewis Lane (behind Betty’s Burgers and El Palomar), art is everywhere. It’s a wondrous collection of colors and designs to behold. I’ve always dreamed of living in a city of murals and fountains…half a loaf is better, for sure. Take an afternoon, walk around and peruse these works of art…they are big and bold and bursting with bright colors and accompanied by subtle messages about plastic pollution, habitat loss, and endangered species. And what is art without a message? It’s a minor art explosion, but a major step in Santa Cruz continuing to punch above its weight in the art world. Look out Santa Fe, Sedona, and Marfa!

Closing Streets to Cars
For years, loud voices on the street, and some less loud inside of city hall, have clamored for closing Pacific Avenue to cars. Let’s create a pedestrian paradise many bellowed. But business as usual prevailed while frightened business owners and the city manager’s office fretted for the people who would be hampered in driving their car and parking close to downtown establishments. But then came Covid-19 and streets across America have been closing to traffic and opening to pedestrians and diners. Pacific Avenue, between Lincoln and Cathcart Streets, is currently closed to vehicular traffic. There can be no going back. Moving forward must be the reclaiming of even more streets for walkers, joggers, bikers, and baby strollers. Add pedestrian-friendly to the great cities list that includes fountains and murals. The city council will be looking at extending these street closures this week (agenda item 30) Urge them to go even further.

Government in Secret
Santa Cruz city council pandemic “closed sessions” have been longer than any before in recent memory. These closed sessions often see major decisions made before little input is ever heard from the public. Zoom meetings also, does not a democracy make. There are often dropped calls of those waiting long periods to speak to the city council, incorrect zoom addresses, and the inability to display graphics properly. Meeting attendance has also decreased, but how low? No audience member really knows because the number of meeting participants does not appear on the Zoom screen. As other city councils (Hayward, S. San Francisco, Fresno, and Napa) move beyond the pandemic and meet in person, the Santa Cruz City council continues the Zoom farce…who wants the pesky public to get in the way when we have important decisions to make seems to be the “fab five’s” rallying cry. Finally, a motion passed and the council may be having in-person meetings once again at the city council chambers at 801 Center Street. Stay tuned, reportedly the first in-person council meeting will be November 23rd, but the option has been left for council members to still appear at the meeting via Zoom. I wonder which council members will be present in person, and who will keep up the Zoom charade?

Government by Initiative
One of the many reactions to government-by-zoom, besides constituents voting with their eyes and not attending city council Zoom meetings, is the surge in citizen-initiated ballot measures now seeking registered voter signatures. Often, when an empire strikes at the people, the people strike back. The Empty Homes Tax is one measure out there. It seeks to tax second and third homes people own, but do not live in for more than 120 days a year. The tax would be $6000 for single-family homes and $3000 for apartments and condos. The other initiative, Our Downtown, Our Future, takes on many status quo sacred cows, but if it passes it will be a major boon to civic life. The ballot measure sets out a bold agenda including designating downtown city-owned lots as affordable housing sites along with a designated funding stream to build or acquire housing. It also preserves the Farmer’s Market and ten heritage trees where they now stand. In addition, this initiative remodels the downtown library while making it a cornerstone of a real civic plaza. Both measures are looking to be on the Tuesday, November 8, 2022 ballot.

End-note
This just in from The Daily Poster: New York Times has its “Thumb on the Scale.” Nice insightful piece on how to read, and not read, the corporate media.

“That’s the larger point here: This is corporate media culture, not a series of isolated incidents. The Times’s decision to preference and launder Penn’s corporate talking points spotlights how ideology is quietly baked into corporate media — not just through writing, but also through story framing, voice selection, credential washing, and editorial omissions.”

I was utterly amazed to see these flowers growing up through the asphalt on the recently paved Green Street in Santa Cruz. Resilience and resistance, even the flowers are doing it.

 November 1

ISSUES –R- US

A Lot Going On…Let me Count the Issues…

• Successful climate march led by Santa Cruz High students and supported by both middle school and UCSC estudiantes, check!
• Outstanding soft kick-off of the Our Downtown, Our Future ballot initiative last Friday afternoon. The initiative opposes the city’s Public Works and Economic Development Agency’s attempt to build a garage on Lot 4 where the 10 heritage trees shade the weekly Downtown Farmers Market, check! What about a Santa Cruz Central Park on that site? There’s a lot of interest. Watch for a future downtown kick-off party when petitions begin hitting the streets in full force. Volunteers needed now!
• The Empty Homes Tax petition to levy substantial fines on 2nd and 3rd homes that allow their homes to remain vacant more than 8 months a year began collecting signatures this past Friday, check! If you want to sign the petition, volunteer to collect signatures, or offer a donation to pay for legal help and print more petitions, please go here.
• Nineteen murals completed in the city of Santa Cruz by some 25 artists from around the country, check! The Sea Walls project took one week and the results of that work is everywhere: Frazier Lewis Lane (behind the Palomar restaurant) contains three; there are two more on the backside of 1010 Pacific Ave. and over at the Mission self-car wash there’s a couple more. It’s a project headed up by Santa Cruz local, Tay Lion, aka Taylor Reinhold. Reinhold has found his calling in painting murals and designing logos. Besides heading up mural efforts in the Bahamas and New York City, he’s brought it to his hometown too. The breadth, subject, and politics of these murals cannot be underestimated or dismissed. Reinhold will be discussing the mural project on Talk of the Bay, Tues. Nov. 2 on KSQD 90.7 and KSQD.org 
• And yes, there was quite a dance jam in the progressive streets of Santa Cruz this past weekend after current Watsonville city manager, Matt Huffaker was chosen (oops, sorry Ryan…) to be the new Santa Cruz city manager, check. Huffaker reportedly begins his tenure on January 1, 2022.

Issues to Keep an Eye On

• Homeless Garden move to the upper Pogonip…could a law suit be far behind? Keep checking back.
• Santa Cruz Community Credit Union SCCCU sale to the New York Hotel group…it’s not over ’til it’s over. The project still needs to buy the so-called “remnant” city parcels to make the deal work, and that sale has yet to be approved.
• Legal action seeking to reverse the 831 Water Street project, recently defeated by a 6-1 (Sonja Brunner the dissenting vote) city council vote, may be filed any day now by California Yimby, Yes, in my backyard, almost check!

In Other News…

• The 130 Center Street project sailed to a unanimous Planning Commission vote (as my colleague Gillian Greensite wrote about in BrattonOnLine last week), but still may face an appeal to the city council…any takers? Check is in the mail.
• College 10 at UCSC was named after the late American statesman and civil rights leader, John R. Lewis. While no one could think of any direct link with Santa Cruz that Congressmember Lewis might have had with Santa Cruz, others wondered aloud why not now name College 9 after Prof. Angela Davis, someone who has been an icon in this community for many years, as well as a revered figure around the world? Check it out!

Sad Day for the Taxpayer
This Tuesday is the official Election Day. But a month ago we all received a long and mostly blank ballot, except for that one question, should 20% of the Cannabis tax that is collected by the city of Santa Cruz be set aside permanently for children’s programs? Who could be opposed to that? Frankly, very few in this community. As a member of the city council in 2020, I supported the original 12.5% tax and would support 20% now. But why is a “special ballot measure” to make the tax permanent needed? Because there’s political king and queen-making afoot. Wasting up to $177k of tax payer funds for a measure that could just as easily have been added to next year’s June primary or to the Nov. 2022 regular election, and the children would not have lost any funding, is a costly rookie mistake. Or, is there a larger political agenda being played out? City Councilmember Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson is running for 3rd District supervisor and presumably needs some issues to run on. She could’ve stopped this “special election” ballot because it was not an emergency, and therefore saved the city’s general fund a ton of money. Arguably, the 1/2 cent sales tax measure originally to be place on the ballot, but pulled because it needed a unanimous city council vote, was the reason for having a ballot at all. Seems that a cold-hearted council majority refused Councilmember Sandy Brown’s entreaty that city leaders first demonstrate a commitment to spending the new revenues responsibly, to address the low pay of front line city workers, as well as homelessness response and affordable housing., That was mistake number two by Kalantari-Johnson who expects the supervisor nod from city voters while padding her political resume with manufactured issues like passing this tax now. The council this year could have, and would have, voted for the 20% to go to children’s programming as well as place the measure before voters next November. It’s just that the supervisor election comes in March.  Given this smoke and mirrors ballot placement, the voters will decide now, and also get another crack at it in the June 2022 supervisor election.

“Think about this: the exact same medications, manufactured by the same companies, in the same factories are all available in Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan for a fraction of the price that the American people pay. And why? Because of Big Pharma’s greed. Time to end it.” (Oct. 30)

Long may it wave! How cool is this seeing the No Parking Garage, Climate Justice Now banner hanging over the “Lot 4” downtown at the kickoff of Our Downtown, Our Future. It is where hundreds of climate marchers ended the sojourn last Friday and held a big rally. “Keep dreaming,” they tell us…but we’re not the only ones…I hope someday you’ll join us….” (apologies to John Lennon)

October 25

Promo for KSQD’s “Talk of the Bay,” Tues. Oct. 26
On this week’s “Talk of the Bay,”   “Exit Interview with Police Chief, Andy Mills.” The Santa Cruz Police Chief recently dropped a civic bombshell, he’s leaving within a month to take up the same job in the desert confines of Palm Springs, California. His last day will be October 29th. Mills offered an exclusive interview to Talk of the Bay, (Host Chris Krohn.) We stroll from city hall to Pacific Ave. all the way to the Benchlands homeless camp while discussing his four-year stint as SCPD’s top dog. Mills talks about his sometimes-contentious relationship with city councilmembers, chats about alcohol consumption in Santa Cruz, loud motorcycles, and expounds on the effects the pandemic has had on him personally and on the police department coupled with their low vaccination rate (70%). Mills also offers solutions to Santa Cruz’s extraordinary “unhoused” crisis. And, in a candid moment, he is blunt in allowing for a cut in the police budget in order to fund a much-needed mental health services program in this city. Many of the Chief’s responses may surprise you. This week on Talk of the Bay: SCPD’s Chief Andy Mills gets an exit interview, Tuesday at 5p on Talk of the Bay KSQD 90.7 and KSQD.org

Editor’s (Krohn’s) Note: The following column is being reprinted here. It is from Nov. 1-7, 2017. It offers a window into the old adage, the more things (appear to) change, the more they stay the same.

Just the Facts Ma’am  
Sgt. Joe Friday on the old cop show, Dragnet, used to say, “Just the facts ma’am,” which is pretty convenient when you might not want to hear the quilt of stories behind how the facts became facts. But without context, facts are like vacuum cleaners sold to people who don’t have access to electricity, convenient machines, but not very useful without a power source. There’s quite a few “facts” running around Santa Cruz inside the housing, homelessness, and UCSC conversations, but often a context, the stories behind the facts, are lacking. Having stated the obvious, I am going to now put out a bunch of factoids that happened this week and in the interest of time, let you draw your own conclusions. 

• Library-garage architects (advocates?) presented three plans recently to the Downtown Library Committee (DLAC). 1) $37.7 million to renovate existing library; 2) $47 million to build a new, one-story library, 3) $49 million to build a new two-story library…but, lo and behold, if it is put inside of a five-story parking garage the price magically comes down to $26 million. BTW, none of these buildings would be “net zero energy,” which is really head-shaking in 2017.
• Just the facts ma’am: Six undergraduate women were evicted by the city this past week from 102-104 Hillcrest Terrace below the University off Highland. They were given 36 hours to vacate and not offered any alternative housing opportunities as far as I’ve been able to ascertain. One of them said to me when I stopped by to see what could be done, “We can kiss tomorrow’s midterm’s goodbye,” said one of the suddenly evicted.
• In the new movie, Mark Felt (Watergate’s Deep Throat character) the main character, FBI second-in-command to J. Edgar Hoover, Mark Felt played by Liam Neeson, goes through a long list of communes where his runaway daughter might be, and he lands on one in Ben Lomond of all places, on Bear Creek Rd. In the next scene, he is retrieving her and bringing her back to Washington, D.C. just in time to see Nixon walk across the tarmac and get on that infamous helicopter just after resigning.
• SC4Bernie member and UCSC student leader, Jeff Stoll talked to City on a Hill Press recently about housing and his comment as one of now 19,000 hill-dwellers bears repeating. “At the end of the day, housing is the issue that unites the campus and the community…it’s an issue related to campus development and the way we want to see the campus expand or not expand in a sustainable way.”
• UCSC Prof. Adam Millard-Ball reported that in the transportation research he is conducting, “traffic sprawl” in the United States peaked in 1994, but not in Atlanta, they seem to still be in “sprawl” mode he said. He also said that car ownership peaked in 2005…interesting.
• The top issues of concern by residents in the Prospect Heights neighborhood voiced at a forum on public safety at DeLaveaga School hosted by SCPD Chief, Andy Mills were: Isolate aggressive transients; form private sector partnerships for patrolling; focus on community safety–wellness and quality of life; make mental health collaborations between city and county, connect crime to campsites; there needs to be more visible patrols–get out of the car and more citizen involvement; use compassion when confronting homeless; police need to be proactive vs. reactive; and finally, we need to find better ways of managing mental illness. Chief Mills also said at the meeting that “80% of the calls for service by PD are for homeless-related issues.”
• Talking Points from Eastside Save Santa Cruz meeting last Thursday night:
• “Anyone here play poker? Well, the Corridors Plan is currently on ‘hold,’ we need the city to ‘fold’ the Corridors Plan.” (Jerry Christianson)
• Farrell’s Donuts vs. Dunkin’ Donuts (corporations certainly know how to vulture local businesses)
• Habit Burger? Where did that come from?
• The goal of developers is to maximize profits…and we get that. The goal of the city council should be to maximize the quality of life for residents, and THEY should get that!
• Is 340 square feet for $1700-$2000 really “affordable by design?”
• “We need housing for people who live here now.” (Dawn Norris)
• City has approved over 500 hotel rooms in the past three years. Where will the wait- staff, gardeners, bartenders, and chefs all live?
• Gary Patton hit it out of the park at the eastside meeting when he said: “Let’s make this city the way we want it to be, not the city someone tells us it should be.” And on the accusation of NIMBY-ism, Patton said, “We have nothing to be ashamed of if we fight for our community…we can’t have self-government if we don’t get involved ourselves.” Patton seemed to lay down the gauntlet when he said if developers really want to build in Santa Cruz they can build 50% market rate and 50% affordable…the crowd went wild!
• Finally, I planted three fruit trees in my backyard this week and they are surrounded by five live oaks…It really felt powerful to plant a tree, and of course I can’t wait for the grand kids to have to come along and figure out how to save them from over-development!

“Are you truly free if you work 100 hours a week because you can’t find a job with a living wage? Are you free if you have no health care?” (October 29)

October 18

THE INITIATIVE PROCESS, PART II.

The Initiative, Proposition and Recall Process, Part II
Last week I opened a conversation about the history of the initiative, proposition, and recall process that began in California in 1911, a constitutional amendment approved by voters. I described how socialists were intricately involved in passing that law in California. This week it’s about how socialists, many inspired by Bernie Sanders’ presidential run, aim to make a difference locally in the November 2022 election. Although the state proposition procedure has often been coopted by corporate interests, such as the Uber-Lyft bought and paid for Proposition 22 campaign, this same law can often help level the political playing field in local communities throughout the state. For example, when politics tilts too far towards the interests of powerful developers and realtors, as it does in the city of Santa Cruz these days, then average citizens come together over kitchen tables and Zoom technology to learn the rules and craft language for legislation that pushes back against the predatory practices of capital. This is happening in Santa Cruz right now and this is part of their story.

Two Santa Cruz Petition Ballot Initiatives Are Set to Hit the Streets in November 
Democratic Socialism is focused on a society that works for all, not just the millionaires and billionaires. Ballot initiative policy-making helps level the political playing field and has the potential to redistribute a community’s wealth as it increases the quality of life for all residents. In November of 2022 there will likely be a pair or heavy-weight policy initiatives on the ballot for Santa Cruz voters to decide upon, and they will be looking to redistribute resources and improve our quality of life. The “Yes on Empty Homes Tax Santa Cruz” and “Our Downtown, Our Future” are measures that may severely test whether Santa Cruz is a progressive town in an arguably liberal state and walks the walk of social and environmental justice, or only talks a good game. Of course, those same forces that raised over $1 million to defeat rent control in 2018 are not to be taken lightly. No doubt some of them will be back with the same tired Republican-inspired dogma of getting government off the backs of the people and will oppose any socialist-inspired legislation.

A Tax on Empty Homes
The “Empty Homes Tax” (EHT) is simply a tax on homes that consistently remain unoccupied over long periods of time. In fact, the definition of an “empty home” will be formally established by this citizen initiative as one that is occupied less than 120 days (four months) each year. Each unoccupied house will be assessed a fee of $6,000 and every apartment complex consisting of eight or more units will have to pay $3000 per uninhabited unit. In addition, each vacant condominium, multiplex, and townhouse will also be accessed the $3,000 if no one lives there more than 120 days in a calendar year. How many empty homes are there in Santa Cruz? On the EHT web site there is an estimate that 9.5% of the 24,014 dwelling units in Santa Cruz are vacant. That’s 2,283 empty places, which include single-family homes, condos, and apartments. 

A Santa Cruz Grassroots Effort
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have been involved in ballot measures in this state and around the country. DSA Santa Cruz Chapter member Josh MacCallister, a city worker who resides in the Lower Ocean Street neighborhood became involved in the Empty Homes Tax initiative as a member of the group’s Electoral Action Working Group. He writes in an email exchange interview why he became active. “For so many working-class people in Santa Cruz, the struggle to find and maintain housing is oppressive and overwhelming…the housing crisis in Santa Cruz negatively impacts so many of the efforts that DSA is organizing around.” How will the tax be enforced? The group’s initiative that will be looking to collect signatures as early as November 1st, establishes the following protocol:

1. The City Council shall establish a process for annual declaration of vacancy status for real property, excluding public, undeveloped, non-residential parcels, and mobile home parks…
2. A website or online portal which explains the Tax and allows declaration of vacancy status.
3. A paper declaration form and instructions to be mailed to the owner of each parcel of real property within the city…

The vast majority of residents in the city of Santa Cruz are renters. Over 60% of the population will not have to fill out this form or pay any tax, only those who own property may be affected. This tax appears to be a win-win for renters since the property owner of the vacant living unit will either rent the unit or pay the tax. There will be no passing on this tax to renters. At this past weekend’s EHT kickoff event at the Shanty Shack Brewery in Harvey West Park there were more than 150 attending, and one attendee who identified as a renter quipped to me, “This initiative is easy. It taxes rich people. What could be more simple than that?” MacCallister adds, “My hope is that the EHT will relieve some of the pressure on the workers of Santa Cruz, allowing more energy to be put toward furthering the cause of the working-class.” Environmental consultant, Santa Cruz Planning Commissioner, and DSA member Cyndi Dawson is also a member of the “Empty Homes Tax, Fund for Affordable Housing” group. She says this effort is about shared priorities and not a litmus test of a person’s politics. “A lot of people believe in healthcare for all and housing for all, but don’t know that these are socialist beliefs.” Dawson said in a recent interview. “We are having a conversation with parts of the community we don’t usually talk to and that’s what the Empty Homes Tax [ballot initiative] is about.”

Affordable Housing for All
The tax collected from empty homes will be destined for an affordable housing fund. This revenue “may be used for the purchase or construction of affordable housing units for rental, sale or resale that are deed restricted to permanently maintain affordability to low, very low, and extremely low income individuals,” according to the ballot initiative’s language. Dawson adds, “The initiative process allows us not to be dependent on politicians, but to build working-class power now while working on the long-term project of socialism and ending capitalism. This ballot initiative is easy to understand, it’s straight-forward and it will work to build our political power and increase the affordable housing supply.” She’s also clear that this tax will not solve the affordable housing crisis in Santa Cruz, but it is a structured approach “in this late-stage zombie capitalism” she says. Dawson is looking for all community members who are interested to get involved and carry the petition drive forward. If you are interested, go to the Empty Homes Tax website.

Next Week, Part III, another petition effort, “Our Downtown, Our Future” is moving forward and will be chronicled here next week.

“Am I worried about the wishes of the more than 600 billionaires in America today? No, not for a minute. I am worried about a working class who has been neglected by their government for decades, who is working longer hours for less pay. That’s who I’m worried about.” (Oct. 17)

Campers are back along my San Lorenzo River jogging and walking route. The city continues to use the houseless in their version of political football. A city council majority washes its hands and people’s lives–housed and unhoused–continue to be negatively impacted by public policy inertia. The Association of Faith Communities is one group that has painstakingly put forward a plan to address homelessness, but it continues to fall on deaf municipal ears.

 October 11

RECALLING THE RECALL.
Recalling the Origins of the Recall
There’s a high-end building boom in Santa Cruz and it’s not what the doctor ordered. Luxury condos, tear-downs giving way to trophy homes, endless bidding wars over once moderately priced homes, the housing crisis has left many scars. If you’re a socialist, now’s a good time to be alive because we are up to meeting this severe challenge. The current Santa Cruz city council majority ought to be called out for continuing to vote with their developer and real estate overlords. Martine Watkins, Renee Golder, Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson, Sonja Brunner, and Donna Meyers–are supported by these same real estate interests and for-profit housing developer interests. They ran on a pro-development platform and they are carrying it out. Just go to the Santa Cruz planning department web page …. and you will see no less than twenty-five significant projects that will yield very few affordable units. So, it is not surprising that their administration of this city has been an investment piñata party for developers under the fuzzy notions of “equity” often invoked by the current 5-2 majority. This council majority has filled the piñata with loads of community assets and interests since their election and it includes the 205-unit project on Pacific Avenue that has not even one unit of affordable housing. The development is a poke into the eye of the current inclusionary rule of 20%. In addition, this city council majority has negotiated with an out of town hotel developer to sell two city-owned parcels so as to make a large hotel project work on the site of the Santa Cruz Community Credit Union. Another auto-centric project stuck into the pro-market rate build program is a plan to construct a five-story parking garage on the site of the Downtown Farmer’s Market. Clearly, this council is not negotiating in the interests of its low and middle-income residents.

Policy-making by Initiative, Proposition, and Recall
We may not have a socialist city council yet, but we do have the means of creating and instituting socialist policy through the initiative process. It is a collective endeavor that can make lasting impacts on the way we live now and in the future. The ballot initiative process was born in the Golden State back in 1911 to reign in the Southern Pacific Railroad and the pro-capitalist powers of Harrison Gray Otis, then the owner of the Los Angeles Times. Policy-making by initiative and proposition has brought monumental changes to this state as well as to the Santa Cruz community. Legislating by the ballot is an act of self-governance more akin to the direct democracy of a New England town meeting today beyond just getting candidates elected. In fact, it is a way around the elected officials who’ve been coopted by the circling vultures of capitalist self-interest. Some elected officials are better than others at warding off these powerful special interests. The free-market buzzards in Santa Cruz are currently winning, with their 5-2 council majority.

Recent Socialist-Supported Ballot Initiatives
In 2020, a total of nine ballot initiatives, endorsed by various Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) chapters around the country, won. The $15 minimum wage sailed to victory in Portland, Maine and Orlando, Florida. A “No Eviction Without Representation” measure passed in Boulder, Colorado, and in Montgomery County, Maryland, voters turned back a cap on property taxes with DSA’s support. Measure J in Los Angeles was backed by DSA-LA. This initiative “requires that no less than 10% of the county’s general fund be appropriated to community programs and alternatives to incarceration.” In fact, the Socialist party of California supported “[T]he adoption of the initiative, referendum and recall and of proportional representation, nationally as well as locally” in their 1912 platform according a Northern Illinois University labor history web page. Socialists saw the ballot initiative as an opportunity to chip away at the Democrat-Republican duopoly of power. The Progressive party was running Teddy Roosevelt after his two terms as a Republican president. He and Eugene V. Debs would lose the presidential election of 1912 to future one-termer, William Howard Taft, who in-turn would be followed by the overtly racist policies of Democrat, Woodrow Wilson. That same Socialist platform was pretty remarkable, and prescient, in the scope of what we are still facing today in terms of big national issues encompassing capitalism’s shortfalls. The Socialist’s reform measures included direct election of the President, “equal suffrage for men and woman…full voting rights in US Territories…the adoption of a graduated income tax and the extension of inheritance taxes,” and voting rights for the District of Colombia, which was actually recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, but has yet to be signed into law.

A Brief History of the Ballot Initiative in California
The California “initiative, referendum, and recall” movement actually began in Los Angeles around 1900. It was the election of Hiram Johnson as governor in 1910 and, believe it or not, his “Progressive majority” (republican at the time) that introduced the initiative, referendum, and recall efforts at both the state and local levels of state government. Johnson, a Republican populist, ran a crusader campaign against the hegemony of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) notes that the initiative process actually began in South Dakota in 1898 and as of today “that makes 24 states with an initiative process.”  The initiative, referendum, and recall law was enshrined in the California constitution in a special election that was held on October 10, 1911. Although transplanted Pennsylvanian, Dr. John Randolph Haynes who formed the Direct Legislation League in Los Angeles in 1900 is credited for bringing the initiative, referendum, and recall process to California. Lawyer and historian Joshua Spivak also credits the Socialist-Labor party’s activist efforts in passing such avant-garde policies. But to understand the initiative and recall movement at the time, one has to consider the unique history of Haynes. He “was not a typical progressive, having amassed a fortune in his medical practice and in real estate, mining, and other capitalistic ventures. However, he spent a large portion of his wealth to promote a form of gradual, democratic socialism in the United States.” He also supported public ownership of all utilities and was instrumental in starting and keeping the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in public hands. Haynes Wikipedia entry actually calls him “a prominent California Socialist.” What is clear is that the initiative, referendum and recall law was designed and implemented by socialist and progressive forces in the early twentieth century to act as a populist lever of power that could thwart powerful capitalists who were led by oil and railroad millionaires.

1914, A Decisive Year in California History
Interestingly, a pair of early statewide initiatives included abolishing the California poll tax (52%-48%) and also providing $1.8 million in construction bonds for the University of California in 1914 (63%-37%). Another ‘believe-it-or-not’ Golden State moment occurred on the 1914 ballot when forty-eight propositions appeared, the most ever! I urge you to look at this list of 48, many of which we are still debating over today. Nineteen-fourteen was clearly a turning point in California history. On the ballot that year there were two competing alcohol initiatives. Proposition 2 would have made alcohol illegal and Prop. 37 would repeal proposition 2. That year, Prop. 2 was trounced and 39 won overwhelmingly with the pro-alcohol forces voting winning by more than 120,000 votes. The federal government trumped the California proposition when it outlawed alcohol sales and consumption from 1920-1933. It was the period known as prohibition. Another proposition on the 1914 ballot, Prop. 33, would’ve “authorized municipal corporations to acquire and operate public utilities.” It lost, 55% to 45%.

Socialist Turns Democrat to Run for Governor
In the 1934 election for governor, Socialist Upton Sinclair did what Bernie Sanders would do years later, switch to the Democratic Party. Sinclair ran for governor. He is the author of such classics as The Jungle (1905), King Coal (1917), and Oil (1926) and was a long-time member of the same Socialist party of Eugene V. Debs and Jack London. Sinclair had run twice before as a Socialist. He ran on a platform, and movement, to “End Poverty in California” (EPIC). Although he came much closer to winning while running as a Democrat, his campaign was severely undermined by Hollywood’s “news reel” propaganda hit pieces against his candidacy. The anti-Sinclair forces were funded by movie producers Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg. Historian James Gregory offers a curious state-wide voter breakdown in his essay, Who Vote for Upton Sinclair and EPIC?

[Editor’s (Krohn’s) Note: What does this initiative, proposition, and recall history mean for Santa Cruz? Two initiatives, “The Empty Homes Tax,” and “Our Downtown, Our Future” will be highlighted here next week as Part II, “Santa Cruz Ballot Initiatives Seek Justice and May Threaten Politically-Deaf City Council.”]

“Americans don’t know what’s in the Build Back Better plan because the corporate media doesn’t discuss it. Let’s stop the beltway gossip and start talking about lowering prescription drug costs, expanding Medicare, childcare, and housing – and combatting climate change.” (Oct. 10)

Lot 4, the battle over the future of this lot continues.

October 4. 

Reprinted in large part from his Political BrattonOnline Report of 2/27/2017

Note to Reader: I am running a column written in February of 2017 as a way of illustrating how intractable issues are…well, intractable…here are two big ones, the ICE raid that took place with assistance from the SCPD, and the long-standing housing crisis.

Was ICE—Immigration and Customs Enforcement—actually a part of the recent DHS urban blitzkrieg? 

Last week in Santa Cruz began with a blitzkrieg-style raid by agents of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). A Bear Cat-style tank was seen near the Boardwalk. It was reported by several residents that children were left alone after their parents were taken into custody. An immigration raid? Searching for terrorists? Or was it both? Pretty serious stuff. These actions were carried out in Santa Cruz County’s mostly Latino neighborhoods: Beach Flats, Live Oak, and Watsonville. My week ended at an academic conference on the UCSC hill, “Democratizing the Green City: Sustainability and the Affordable Housing Crisis.” It was a discussion that ranged from Ernest Callenbach’s, Ecotopia to the current research findings of UCSC sociology professors, Miriam Greenberg and Steve McKay concerning the Santa Cruz plague of high housing rates combined with low wages. They invited a bunch of their friends from New York City, Minneapolis, Seattle, Berkeley and Davis to share their research as well. Turns out we’re screwed, but not alone.

Surreal Week

I felt like it was a surreal week and that these two events were perhaps interrelated. While the raid was an out-of-nowhere slap-upside the head to all undocumented area residents who are not members of the Mara-Salvatrucha 13 gang, the conference was a further head-scratching discussion of the age-old question, ‘Who gets to live in Santa Cruz?’ The Greenberg-McKay investigation of the extreme differences between the high cost of housing and the miserably low wages paid to workers right here in Surf City often pushed hard against Callenbach’s visionary book. That book was a green revolution bible for many, but essentially it presents a segregated nation-state concept that seeks to transform the Sixties dominant paradigm into a green paradise with a hippie veneer. Who knew that Callenbach’s greening—trees, greenbelts, bike lanes—would end in a boon to real estate developers while failing to produce a cross section of housing for all income groups? Is equity even possible in Santa Cruz? Or Minneapolis, Berkeley, Davis, or New York City? 

Can Democratic Cities Be Made Green? Conference participant, Jennifer Rice, a professor of geography at the University of Georgia quoted an activist in Seattle, but could’ve easily been describing one from Santa Cruz. She said, “Our planning department continues to approve significant numbers of market rate housing (and upscale hotels) while people with families are forced to move,” (first to Live Oak then to Watsonville and finally out of the county). Of course, many of us are keenly aware of those who perform even a different housing dance. The first move is often from their house or apartment into a vehicle, then inside a tent they go looking up at the trees within the university footprint, and finally they may end up under the eaves of city hall or the post office. Prof. Rice also suggested in her talk that residents can successfully protest large capital projects in Seattle, for example, where a proposed $160 million police headquarters was scratched in favor of affordable housing bonds. It seemed to be one positive activist response in the era of sky-high housing costs.

Gawd, I love this town!

The late Herb Caen used to use the phrase, “Gawd, I love this town,” and I am appropriating those words in this week’s column. I love Santa Cruz because our people can put up a fight in the face of injustice, no matter how well-armed the foe may be. There were urgent, organized, and immediate responses by neighbors and activists to the DHS raids this past week. Homeland Security’s intrusions into our community sent ripples of fear and uncertainty through the homes of hardworking Santa Cruzans. A day later, several groups were present at city hall to confront the city council I serve on. They were led by “Sanctuary Central” and demanded a community forum to talk about DHS’s tide of terror that was witnessed by residents, many who are now too fearful to even leave their homes. The Activists shut down the meeting for about twenty minutes as the city council huddled in the back room wondering what to do next. Before additional police officers actually arrived to clear the room of protesters as called for by some councilmembers, a negotiation of sorts took place. Vice-mayor Terrazas and I waded back into the council chambers to open negotiations with the 200-plus crowd. An agreement was soon reached that agenda item 17, which had to do with Santa Cruz sanctuary city status, would be moved up so that those present could immediately comment on the DHS-ICE raids from the day before. The police never had to arrive to clear the room, and residents were able to vent about this serious and delicate issue. Is that what “a win-win” is?

Bottom Line

The affordable housing conference at UCSC cannot have come soon enough because Greenberg and McKay actually provide plenty of data, on the ground interviews, and open-ended analysis of the severe housing crisis that is no longer the elephant standing in the Santa Cruz city living room. This crisis is now front and center and may be the story within the story in the immigrant neighborhoods that were raided. Mayor Cynthia Chase, upon taking office this past January said she would be pursuing an affordable housing agenda this year. The community appears urgently poised to join her.

Short-takes on Local Issues

In between the raids and the conference, I encountered several other locals and experiences that made me say to myself again and again, “Gawd, I love this town.” I will offer a Cliff Notes version here of those conversations, while hoping to expand upon the themes in future columns.

• Airbnb is large—$37 billion and growing—and an exceedingly complex corporation. Its social reach includes the disabled, the temporarily unemployed, or single moms just renting out a room in order to make ends meet, all the way to individuals renting and re-renting large numbers of units and in the process wholly transforming Santa Cruz neighborhoods. In addition, I fear the Airbnb model is more numerous than any of us might have imagined. It is now estimated that there are 577 dwellings, and counting, according to one local well-placed real estate investor. This same close observer also told me that “perhaps hosted vacation rentals represent even a greater threat than un-hosted ones.” Stay tuned, the STVR—Short-Term Vacation Rentals—committee is studying the vacation rental issue and will send it to the city council “soon,” perhaps by May or June I am told. But a couple of sticking points that may not go away are the existing ADA provisions along with parking requirements that could be enforced on each vacation rental?
• Who is the “General Strike Planning Committee” and what are their intentions?  I do know that hundreds have turned out to their five “planning” meetings and beer hall (Lupulo) reading group discussions. In fact, over 100 showed up at the Louden Nelson center last Friday to participate in an “(Un) President’s Day” event. It was a smorgasbord of social justice and environmental groups presenting themselves and all organizing in the spirit of resistance during the age of Trump. Along with the Woman’s March it seems very encouraging, if somewhat chaotic with lots of unplanned planning sessions along the way.
• At the UCSC affordable housing conference I was struck by NYU sociology professor named, Gianpaolo Baiocchi. One of his solutions to the rental crisis included: “Squatting is a pretty effective housing solution.”
• The Fruit Tree Project, led by Andy Moskowitz, Debora Wade and Steve Schnaar, organized a work day to plant fruit trees where San Lorenzo Blvd. meets Riverside Ave., alongside Mike Fox Park. Seventy-five volunteers showed up one morning to assist in furthering the local community garden revolution. Wow!
• From the too many conversations I’ve had with locals I’m fast becoming convinced that the enduring 3-legged stool of high rents is caused by a) the university’s ability to allow in more students and its inability to provide more beds; b) the city’s Rental Inspection Ordinance that took out hundreds of housing units, many unpermitted but not unsafe according to a certain local architect; and c) the rampant growth of Airbnb and the entire vacation rental market. 

Four Years Later…the Same Truth:

But what is really troubling is that the seat of this stool is not really for the people of Santa Cruz to sit on, but is actually a resting place for the enormous derrière of Silicon Valley’s wads of disposable income.

“Look, the Republican Party has already been bought and paid for — they are not going to do anything to help working people. We know this. But I hope very much and I expect that the Democratic caucus will stand firm and will fight for the working class of this country.” (Oct. 3)

“This sign was posted recently explaining the removal of bells in the city of Santa Cruz. It reads in part: “The destructive impacts of colonialization continue to be felt by California’s Indigenous communities today in the form of intergenerational trauma, dispossession from ancestral lands and widespread poverty. As the true history of California is brought forward, so are important conversations about what it can look like to move towards repair and healing in the 21st century.” Wow! I am proud to live in a town that acknowledges a hurtful past and a hopeful future.

Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2021

Hot Topics Updates

Empty Homes Tax

Have you noticed a lot of empty homes while jogging on West Cliff or walking on King Street or Bay or just visiting friends at the end of Frederick Street or in the Prospect Heights area? These homes sit empty while so many in Santa Cruz struggle to find housing, and when they find it, they are paying stratospheric rents more akin to the West Village in Manhattan or San Francisco’s Mission District. How many homes are empty?  Vancouver, Oakland, and Portland found an answer: plenty! This ballot initiative aims to not only find out what homes are vacant, but also to tax every empty house $6000. The goal? To either force the owners of empty homes to rent it, or pay the six grand, which will go into an affordable housing fund to both build and acquire housing for “low and very low income” residents. Is it THE solution to the housing crisis? No, but it chips away at that enormous accommodations boulder encompassing the neck of Surf City. Stay tuned, or go their website, EmptyHomesTax.org

Our Downtown, Our Future

Hot topic item #2, the future of downtown. For many residents, the future of the once leafy, pedestrian-congested, and the community’s grand living-room, is in peril of being sign, sealed, and delivered to the highest bidder. It started with the cockamamie scheme of getting a library bond passed, Measure S, in 2016 and then handing over its fate to Public Works director, Mark Dettle, and Economic Development Director, Bonnie Lipscomb who were to lead this legacy project of City Manager, Martin Bernal. You guessed it, Bernal is now long-gone and the new, interim, CM is Water Director Rosemary Mennard. Some say that she’s not so keen on continuing the project. Time will tell, but again, the good people of Santa Cruz are by-passing the city council and city manager and have organized a petition drive to a) modernize and rebuild the library where it has been for over 100 years; b) dedicate “Lot 4” as a permanent home for the Farmer’s Market; c) maintain all those climate-mitigating heritage trees on Lot 4 to provide post(or pre?)-pandemic shade, d) create a downtown Central Park, and e) designate all city-owned downtown lots as affordable housing sites. A tall order?! So was Lighthouse Field, acquiring the greenbelt, stopping a freeway down Chestnut, creating the Tannery Arts Center, and bringing the Del Mar Theatre back to life. People, we’ve been here before, now it’s on with gathering the 5,000 signatures from registered voters to put these issues before voters and take them out of the hands of bureaucrats and corporate real estate-elected councilmembers. It’s time.

Credit Union cum Large Hotel?

About that New York hotelier who’s involved in the remake of the Santa Cruz Community Credit Union (SCCCU) property…it’s true, his name is Stephen Chan and his email chain with local developers and the Economic Development Director were uncovered through a freedom of information act request recently. Stephen’s company, (can I call you “Stephen?”), Eagle Point Partners LLC, is located on Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan. The city of Santa Cruz owns two “remnant parcels” within the future dreamed-about hotel footprint, which according to the emails, have got to be included if the deal is to go forward. In the meantime, the parcels were on last week’s city council closed session agenda and guess what? The deal has yet to be consummated. The group now organizing to Stop the Hotel, is reaching out to SCCCU members to force another meeting of the board. Lots going on, so stay tuned on this one too. It ain’t over ’til it’s over! 

Not So Fast: Homeless Garden Project Encounters Legal and Moral Hurdles as it Seeks to Occupy Prime Greenbelt land in the Pogonip

Oh boy, this is another, only in Santa Cruz stories. See if I get this right…way back in 1996, the Santa Cruz City Council, led by Scott Kennedy and Mike Rotkin, dealt away the then Homeless Garden Project’s Pelton Street property to a luxury-home developer. Result: eight or nine mini-mansions now sit on the once bucolic, community supported agriculture property. While the city received a pittance, about $2 million and change, the developer became evermore wealthier and HGP was out of a home until Ron Swenson offered up his Delaware and Shaffer Road property for a dollar a year. HGP has been on the Swenson property for more than two decades and could be cultivating organic veggies for a couple of more, but word spread (rumor?) that Swenson wanted to build on the property and the garden would have to vacate soon. That was at least 20 years ago and HGP leaders worked with the city of Santa Cruz to relocate to greenbelt land, the Pogonip. When the price to channel water to the lower meadow came in at over $2 million, the project was somewhat delayed. Local nonprofit executive, Cathy Calfo came in to save the day and has thus far raised more than $3 million to relocate the garden to the Pogonip. A lot of history here. After surviving intense opposition to relocate to the lower meadow, it turns out that land has to now be remediated because it was once a skeet shooting area. Lead and the shards of clay pigeons do not a garden make. Now the HGP negotiated to use the upper meadow, near the Pogonip Clubhouse, a once-venerable outpost for women’s polo enthusiasts. The city council signed onto the move in August, but now there is plenty of opposition. Cathy Calfo, meet your Pognip political neighbors, Grey Hayes, Gillian Greensite, and Kaitilin Gaffney. Long-time Save the Pogonip stalwarts, Celia and Peter Scott are also present in spirit and in their opposition to the upper meadow move. This looks like another legal battle brewing. The trio from Save the Pogonip (Again)’s simple argument is that open space is open space, and it was not set aside by the people of Santa Cruz for agricultural use. Last week, Grey Hayes brought to light three issues here in BrattonOnLine:

• The original state funding source that supported acquisition of the Pogonip was for open space, watershed restoration, and habitat protection and does not allow use as a commercial farm. 2. The Lower Meadows site should be cleaned up expeditiously to remove the lead contamination on site. 3. If the Homeless Garden Project no longer wants to relocate to the approved Lower Meadow site, it should consider options such as a permanent location at its current site on the Westside or leasing land zoned for agricultural use.

UCSC’s Shuttle System Teetering?

What is up with UCSC’s shuttle system? They are using belching, lurching, diesel-spewing aging buses (wrecks?) to shuttle students around UCSC’s rather pastoral, heavily environmentally protected campus. Inside some of the shuttles is a spider web of caution tape. It courses around aging seat covers and windows that are hard to open. Maintaining social distance between drivers and students seems to be the idea, but the UC Regents says that campus policy does not include social distancing rules this year. Students and drivers alike are more than courteous, all glad to be back and give it a post-covid try, but it will not be long before these belching beasts either break down or are put out to a bus cemetery. What’s more is that student fees not only prop up the Santa Cruz Metro bus system, but also pay for these pathetic shuttle buses. The Metro is currently auditioning an E-bus on its Watsonville route. We can only hope that UCSC Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) does not continue to lag behind. Oy vey, students already pay more than $300 a year in transportation fees, while A-Lot parking stickers go for $765.12 per year, or $150 a month. Compare that with the recently increased city monthly parking garage permit fee of $76 per month, pre-Covid, and the climate-destroying $33 PER YEAR street parking permits. Something is not passing the overall city transportation smell test. I guess the diesel fumes are too strong and getting in the way.

News Sourcing Addendum

Thanks to all of you who wrote in with additional sources of news. How could I leave out Al Jazeera, not to mention Jimmy Dore Show and Counterpunch? I also learned about a bunch of new ones that include: The Gray Zone, Black Agenda Report, Nonsite.org, The Vanguard (“A couple of Kansas City bros”), Rising (Now With Kim Iversen), Secular Talk With Kyle Kulinski, Frank Analysis, Tim Black Show…and then there’s the podcasts: The Katie Halper Show, Chapo Trap House, Bad Faith With Brianna Joy Gray, Fred Hampton Leftists, Behind The News With Doug Henwood, Joe Rogan (“Yes, a Thoughtful and Mostly Leftist Thinker”), This Week With David Rovics…and the Substack Subscriptions of Matt Taibbi, and Useful Idiots. Wow, a lot to take in!

(Note: AOC apologized to supporters for voting “present” on the Israeli “Iron Dome” system, which is already financed by US taxpayers, but was looking for a billion dollars more. So, this week, it is not an AOC Tweet, but a strongly-worded apology issued by her, which included this: “And, the reckless decision by House leadership to rush this controversial vote within a matter of hours and without true consideration created a tinderbox of vitriol, disingenuous framing, deeply racist accusations and depictions, and lack of substantive discussion on this matter. I want to be clear that the decision to rush this vote – virtually preventing any member from meaningfully consulting with their community – was both intentional and unnecessary. Even the night before, as it became clear that the discourse around this issue was quickly devolving from substance to hateful targeting, I personally had a call with the House Majority Leader to request a 24-hour stay of the vote, so that we could do the work necessary to bring down the temperature and volatility, explain our positions, and engage our communities. That request was summarily dismissed. Not only was the request dismissed, but despite the House having almost 8 straight hours of votes yesterday, this vote was chosen to be the first despite being one of the most controversial.”

Donning masks and hiking boots, with water bottles in hand, a new crop of UCSC students plants itself on the paths of the Great Meadow ready to explore the infinite possibilities of campus. To paraphrase the late great Herb Cain, Gawd, I love Autumn!

September 20. 

POLITICAL WATCHING, READING AND LISTENING.

How do You Stay Informed?

I’m often asked what I’m reading. How do you stay informed? I think about this a lot because there is so much to read and keep up with. Autumn is now upon us too, and I always ask new UCSC students where they go for information about the world. Often, they say their “Google newsfeed” or “by-word-of-mouth” or “my parents send me articles.” Just as often they say “CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, SF Chronicle, or Democracy Now!” Since technology has made it easier for individuals to report news, there are many non-traditional sources of information, which come with positive and negative side effects. Of course, all news reporting has a bias. The New York Times may state each day on its front page, “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” (how haughty!), but we are all keenly aware that there are many daily stories happening around the corner and around the world that are reported in The Guardian (London) or La Jornada (Mexico City) or O Globo (Rio de Janeiro), which never see the light of day in the Times, “the paper of record.” (more PR bloviating). So, here is a column on content, what I read to stay up to speed, or maybe we just think we can actually understand this “crazy world?” (“Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that.” Humphrey Bogart’s, Rick character, in Casablanca).

Hey, let’s share information. Tell me what you read. Email me at: ckrohn@cruzio.com

The Intercept
It was started by the insightful, and decidedly leftist and hyper-critical journalist, Glenn Greenwald. He had a falling out with other editors over content and he left, but this investigative online publication still breaks many stories from many sources. One recent story made it to the New York Times Sunday magazine. African-American and Berkeley-native, Terry Albury, joined the FBI to fight terrorism, but he ended up harassing Somali immigrants, and being harassed himself by fellow white agents in a Minneapolis FBI field office, became a whistle-blower, and began sending classified documents to the Intercept. Then there was this breaking story last week about the outsized clout of West Virginia Senator, Joe Manchin and his daughter’s business dealings. “Even the infrastructure bill’s relatively modest and incremental provisions could reduce the value of Manchin’s business interests, and the coal industry is lobbying mightily against them — as are Manchin’s Wall Street donors who have hired their own army of lobbyists to kill any provisions that would raise their taxes or hurt their bottom line…Meanwhile, we’ve just uncovered evidence that Manchin’s daughter, former CEO of the drug company Mylan, worked directly with the CEO of Pfizer to jack up the prices of life-saving EpiPens. This new information is especially interesting in light of Big Pharma’s opposition to the infrastructure bill’s provision allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug costs.” Some shady stuff that others picked up on after The Intercept broke the story.

The Daily Poster
David Sirota was a senior advisor and speechwriter on the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. The Daily Poster also does some excellent investigative news pieces from a decidedly left political perspective, “left” because he is critical of the neo-liberal economic policies of the Clintons, Obama, and Bush. He’s a former columnist at The Guardian. 

Rumble
Rumble is a Canadian news and entertainment site that covers stories about the world from a decidedly non-American editorial view and some consider a decidedly conservative perspective too. Greenwald joined Rumble recently along with former Hawaii congress member, Tulsi Gabbard. Possibly, Rumble is the video version of Substack?

Democracy Now with Amy Goodman
This is now the mainstream news source on the center-left. Goodman consistently and conscientiously goes after unreported and under-reported stories. DemocracyNow even revisits stories a year later, which most mainstream publications fail to do with any consistency in the here today-gone tomorrow capitalist news-gathering business.

What Else?
Jim Hightower‘s, The Hightower Lowdown, is a weekly fun read about populist politics in Texas and around the country, “Forget Trickle-Down BS.” You can even get it delivered in hardcopy too. Krystal Ball is entertaining and worthy of some trust in her clear and blunt reporting of political events. The Young Turks is also a lively and informative news show. Believe it or not, it is now in its 20th season. The LA Progressive is a labor of love for leftists, Dick and Sharon, well-written stories about California and the country by those known and unknown, definitely worth a read. CalMatters is a very reasonable journal of issues that “matter” in the Golden State and beyond “the world’s fifth-largest economy.” One CalMatters story that caught my eye is why aren’t more Californians going back to work as unemployment here ranks second highest in the country? 

Locally
Well besides BrattonOnline’s weekly dollops of local politics, the Serf City Times has become a go-to news source for under-reported Santa Cruz labor news as well as a useful update on the county’s Covid-19 infection rates, but it is not web-based. You must email editor Sarah Ringler and get on the mailing list coluyaki@gmail.com Lookout Santa Cruz costs $187 per year, so to actually read a story you must pay, but the summary at news@lookoutlocal.com is a useful and easy read in learning about what the county’s mainstream status quo believe to be “news.” The paywall appears immediately if you Google Lookout, but you can go to the above email and ask to be placed on the mailing list to see the headlines. Alas, I wish the Santa Cruz Sentinel and San Jose Mercury News were better. Vampire-like, Alden Capital, who owns both under the name Bay Area News Group, bleeds all resources from the two papers, thus never providing the resources to do investigative journalism while continually running AP and NY Times reprints. Believe it or not, the Merc and Senile actually make money, but Paymaster-Alden drains it away for their investors’ pockets. On the free front are two local propaganda pieces that are worth checking out once in a while. The Monthly Chamber of Commerce newsletter allows the reader to peek inside the brain of the Santa Cruz business class, mostly the chamber’s CEO Casey Beyer, that is busy devising evermore stealthy ways of sapping the county’s material resources. UCSC’s “Newsday,” always tells you why UC Santa Cruz is on the cutting edge of almost everything and the best UC that exists (which actually might even be correct!)

Polling Services and Ratings of House and Senate Members’ Voting Records, Progressive Punch
Progressive Punch has been around for many years and was started by former UCSC undergrad, Joshua Grossman. It ranks each member of Congress according to their voting record.

Justice Democrats
Justice Democrats “is running progressive campaigns to transform the Democratic Party,” so says their website. It was started in 2017 by Cenk Uygur (Young Turks), Saikat Chakrabarti (AOC assistant), and Zack Exley (Bernie campaign). After supporting so many left-Dems including Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, Marie Newman, Raul Grijalva, Ro Khanna, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, AOC, and Pramila Jayapal it has become a partisan Left-Democrat group that’s now taken quite seriously by DNC-types, or rather, the kind of fog-brained politics of the Santa Cruz Democratic Central Committee-types…not including Hochman, Falls, Dawson, Chiaramonte, and Glazer, but the group did once host progressive Ash Kalra from San Jose).

FiveThirtyEight
One of the premier polling firms is Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight.com. This opinion poll analysis group takes its name from the number of electors in the US electoral college, 538. California gets 54 of those. (FunFact: according to FiveThirtyEight, Joe Biden’s approval rating has gone from 55 in March to 46 this week. The approval/disapproval lines merged on Aug. 26th and look like they have only gone in the disapproval direction since then.)

Real Clear Politics
Real Clear Politics is a “polling data aggregator” that came together in 2000. I find them tilting heavily rightward politically, but their aggregating of opinion data is phenomenal in terms of covering Senators, governors, and the President. (Where else can you find approval ratings for Voldemort, err…Tr**p?)

Of course, the New Yorker, National Geographic, New York Times and Jacobin are all standard hardcopy publications that come in weekly and monthly to our house. I also highly recommend Nation Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, and the New York Review of Books, but I have lost the time to read them.

“In this year’s NDAA, I’ve intro’d 7 amendments, including blocking specific US weapons transactions to: – Saudi gov over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi – Colombia gov over its violent crackdown on protesters,& – Israeli gov over the bombing of Palestinian civilians, media centers” (Sept. 17)

Note: Some people are saying AOC had a bad week after wearing the expensive, Tax the Rich, dress at a New York City even more expensive gala event. The proof will be in the pudding if congress really does “tax the rich” in passing the $3.2 trillion spending bill.

A window into downtown development and the destruction of our Santa Cruz past. This is a picture of the corner of Pacific Ave. and Laurel Street. Read this recent article titled: The case for…never demolishing another building,” from Energy in Demand.

Chris Krohn is a father, writer, activist, and a Santa Cruz City Council member from 1998-2002 and from 2017-2020. Krohn was Mayor in 2001-2002. He’s been running the Environmental Studies Internship program at UC Santa Cruz for the past 16 years. On Tuesday evenings at 5pm, Krohn hosts of “Talk of the Bay,” on KSQD 90.7 and KSQD.org His Twitter handle at SCpolitics is @ChrisKrohnSC Chris can be reached at ckrohn@cruzio.com Email Chris at ckrohn@cruzio.com

 September 13

“COVID, COVID, COVID” (voice of an ex-president) 
There was a professional football game last Thursday night in Tampa Bay, Florida. Some 65,000-people attended. Quarterback Tom Brady had another spectacular game and very few attendees wore masks. Social distancing was not respected, enforced, or even tolerated. The seven-day average of case counts in the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area for those testing positive is near 3,000 according the current New York Times coronavirus tracker. A day before this game, President Joe Biden was implementing new vaccine and mask mandates, pleading over the airwaves to please get vaccinated, to wear a mask, and to social distance, but this was not the case at college and pro-football games around the country.

Step Backwards
Back in February when the Super Bowl took place in Tampa Bay, NFL officials limited the number of those attending to 22,000 and made masking mandatory. Even though social distancing protocols were also implemented, many thought a super-spreader event might be in the making, and at the time the 7-day case counts only averaged about 1400 according to the Times tracker. More than a million-people attended pro-football games this past weekend in packed stadiums even larger than Tampa Bay’s. “More than 90 percent of N.F.L. players and all coaches and staff are vaccinated, yet dozens of them have tested positive for Covid-19 since training camps opened in July,” according to NY Times sportswriter Ken Belson.  Well, Santa Cruz case counts averaged around 200 during Super Bowl week last February. Today, the 7-day average is around 70 according to the same Times tracker. With the coronavirus “breakthrough” variant strains coursing through our country as a result of so many people just being on the move, can our Covid-19 rates remain low for very long in our county?

Covid Fear and Loathing in the Classroom?
It began at noon last week with 187 participants. It swelled to 195 by 12:30pm. The meeting was only scheduled for an hour, but at 1:10pm there were still 126 on the Zoom meeting. People, UCSC faculty and staff, seemed hungry for information about how to deal with Covid, vaccination enforcement, and classroom decorum. Only two weeks remained before the first day of instruction, Thursday, September 23rd. There was much information distributed by at least six different campus officials. They clearly had their hands full. Faculty and staff were peppering the admins (administration) with some real concerns, and fears, about opening the campus. Here are some of the questions and responses:

Staff/Faculty: What are we to do if a student will not put on a mask?
Admin: “If a student will not put on a mask when asked, then ask them to leave…but don’t call the police…the police enforce the law, it is not their job to enforce campus rules.”
Staff/Faculty: Who will enforce the masking rule? (Never answered during discussion. Came up several times.)
Admin: There is a new rule in the fall, “no eating or drinking in any classroom…you must keep your mask on at all times.” (Does this include coffee?)
Admin: Unvaccinated students will be required to get “2 tests every 4 days,” while unvaccinated staff and faculty will need to get “2 tests per week.”
Admin: All students have to provide negative test results before they can move into campus housing. All other students must provide a negative test result within 5-7 days after arrival “to campus.”
Staff/Faculty: Will you require mandatory testing of vaccinated people? 
Admin: No. 
Staff/Faculty: Why is UCLA requiring it, but not UCSC? 
Admin: We are following UC guidelines. We are not set up for it. “Almost all hospitalizations are of unvaccinated people.” 
Staff/Faculty: Do faculty need a doctor’s note if they want to teach on zoom instead of in-person? 
Admin: “Yes, documentation is needed…” through the “disability accommodation process.”
Staff/Faculty: What about classroom ventilation?
Admin: Ventilation in some of the classrooms has been enhanced. If ventilation is not adequate, you can request another classroom, “but do not call the registrar, contact your dept. office. We are identifying bad ventilation and installing hepa-filters.”
Staff/Faculty: I’m concerned about equity (if the new color-coated badge system is being predicated on having a cell phone) and students who have no phone. 
Admin: Yes, we are too and we are looking into it.
Faculty/Staff: What is the main benefit of being in an in-person classroom if everyone is masked? 
Admin: Students told us they want to come back to the campus and we are trying to accommodate that. “You’ve all told us you want to be back.”
Staff/Faculty: What about these “breakthrough” transmissions of the virus?
Admin: “Breakthrough transmissions are from unmasked individuals.”
Faculty/Staff: Can students sit in every other chair in the large classrooms?
Admin: UC system is not requiring social distancing. “We want students and staff to have the accommodations we can provide…we cannot provide for social distancing.”
Admin: “Talk to your students on the first day about how you are going to norm the room…visit your classrooms before the quarter begins and see what kind of accommodation is needed…we had the idea of blocking out every other seat, but these [large] classrooms will not have seats blocked out.”
Admin: Don’t come to campus if you have been exposed to those testing positive or think you were exposed and are waiting for lab results.

What is College Life? (personal memory)
I’ve been experiencing lots of thoughts lately about my own college experiences at UCSC and what it has been like for students having to learn “remotely.” But also, what constitutes a real college experience and if the university grows to 28,000 students and adds 4000-5000 more staff and faculty, how will that experience be changed? How would any of us feel about a “remote” Zoom education? Yes, there are students who prefer it, but not many, and what kind of education is it? UCSC used to be about making connections, potlucks at professor’s houses, going to lectures and films on campus and then talking about it with roommates until 2am…it’s also going to the Catalyst and Moe’s Alley and ending up at the Red…it is sitting in the library and wandering the stacks never knowing what you might find…oh the books that I’ve discovered! It is participating in streaking on the first night of rain in Santa Cruz…it is Halloween downtown…breakfast at Zachary’s with friends…listening to jazz at Kuumbwa, hiking in Wilder/Pogonip/upper campus and all the while running into friends and classmates…It is participating in in the Holi Festival, 4/20, Earth Day, and intramural sports…it is all those serendipitous chance meetings, connections, and friendships that matter most…on-line college just doesn’t make it. A college education is not simply listening to lectures, passing tests, and writing papers. It is an (w)holistic endeavor that should be available to all of our young people. (And 20,000 students in Santa Cruz is enough…basta! We’ve reached our student carrying capacity.)

If You Love UCSC so Much, Why Do You Seem Hostile?
Hostility comes from many corners of Santa Cruz, essentially because the UC Regents is an undemocratic system. It justifies dumping students from El Cajon, Fresno, and Eureka into SC and expecting them to survive because every young person in California deserves a UC education. Yes, everyone deserves a UC education and no, Santa Cruz can only accept its fair share. I am certain most people in Santa Cruz would not want to give up the real perks and privileges of having a UC here–great libraries, musical concerts, plays, and visiting faculty lectures, but why not spread the wealth? Why not erect new campuses? Why not a UC Eureka, UC Stockton, UC El Centro, or UC Redding? We need to build more campuses, not continue to stress out the communities that already house a UC. Community goodwill is not something to dismiss lightly.

UC and Bad Decisions?
And/but, UCSC has made terrible decisions…kicked Shakespeare Santa Cruz off campus; brought in 100 cops to beat up grad and undergrad students last year (not the first time either); it’s still not gone to electric buses when by all indications they would do it 10 years ago; then the admin saying campus population will grow to 28k and not including the extra 4-6k faculty and staff in that number up front; seeking to build in the ecological hotspot that is upper campus; trying to construct buildings on the iconic east meadow thus defying a 60,000-plus signature petition; and of course the eternal question which perplexes locals: why aren’t the UC Regents building more housing on-campus for ALL new students? Are Santa Cruzans hostile? How about insurrectionary.

“We have worked very hard to develop legislation which finally meets the long-neglected needs of the working class. $3.5 trillion is already the compromise — we must pass the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill in tandem.” (Sept. 12)

Iron Man/Womyn competition is quite the event! It was held this past weekend and large crowds came out all along West Cliff, Highway 1, and in the Depot Park area. Amazing athletes! But Covid-19 had its way here too. I heard over 2000 registered (at $349 each), but less than 1300 showed up.