July 22 – 28, 2020

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Bruce
Highlights this week:

BRATTON…City Council election coming up, Housing California, Movie critiques. GREENSITE… Muzzling Debate at the Council Level. KROHN…letter to librarian Susan Nemitz. STEINBRUNER…is taking a one week vacation. PATTON…World View #101 EAGAN…Deep Cover and Subconscious Comics. QUOTES…”Warmth”

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ALL HAIL DON McCASLIN AND “WARMTH”. This drawing by James McFarlin reminds us of what an influence Don and Warmth were on our community. Looking closely you can also find John Thompson, Phil Yost and more. This was the mural that was on the wall of the Cooperhouse alley way. Don’s vibes were his outdoor instrument but the piano was his first and biggest love. We’ll miss him.                                                        

photo credit: drawing courtesy of James McFarlin

Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

ALDERWOOD RESTAURANT FIGHT.

TUBA SKINNY STREET BAND, New Orleans.

DATELINE July 20

CITY COUNCIL ELECTION TIME. Folks have until August 7th to file for the four seats and run for Santa Cruz City Council, as we are reading and hearing already. One good thing is that Cynthia Mathews is termed out. You can put campaign signs up starting August 5th. No words yet from Robert Singleton or Greg Larson, or from any of the women who have accused them both of harassment…we’ll wait in place. Present council members Kathryn Beiers and Sandy Brown are both eligible and we’re waiting to hear from them. So far we need to listen and take a good look at Kayla Kumar, development director at Food What? And Barrios Unidos too. And at Kelsey Hill with her background with the Lakota Peoples Law project but also with the Romero  Institute.  

HOUSING CALIFORNIA. Long time friend Iris Murillo from Housing California sent this urgent plea and information…

“Eviction moratoriums will expire at the end of the month. Amid COVID, job, and income loss, thousands of Californians are struggling to pay their rent and may have to vacate their homes. As renters try to keep a roof over their heads, private-equity companies are also preparing to purchase distressed multi-family properties as many foreclose in coming weeks and months. We’ve seen this happen before during the Great Recession of 2008. These companies ultimately hike rents and evict tenants including families with children, seniors on fixed incomes, veterans, and those with disabilities. The result is fewer naturally occurring affordable housing units available for low-income Californians. AB 1703 can help stem the tide of displacement by…

The three sponsors, Housing California, Public Advocates, and Stable Homes California, are sponsoring AB 1703. This coalition is supporting the legislation of  AB 1703 that would provide renters in tenant-occupied multi-family properties the first right to purchase their homes and stay housed during COVID 19 and beyond. Renters with help from land trusts may have a chance to own their homes. This legislation is COPA and TOPA at the state-level — community and tenant opportunity to purchase first. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee may hear the bill as early as this Saturday July 25..  We are asking readers to call senate judiciary members, who serve on this committee, to voice support for the bill.  Please contact the legislators through this portal: sjud.fax@sen.ca.gov or call phone: (916-651-4113)

BUSHWHACKERS BREAKFAST CLUB. Every Friday morning on KZSC (88.1 fm or live online at KZSC.org) from 8:10 am-8:20 am or thereabouts I present my “B Movie Bratton” segment of short critiques (not reviews) of what’s on our screens. Dangerous Dan Orange hosts the rest of the Bushwhackers B. Club. Lately of course those screens are on anything but theatre screens. Tune in this Friday and hear my critiques of such monumental flops as KNIVES OUT. It got great reviews, has a very famous cast including Christopher Plummer, Daniel Craig with the worst fake cowboy accent ever, and even Jamie Lee Curtis plus Michael Shannon can’t save this waste. 

July 20

CODIFYING CONFORMITY
Horses ears signal how the horse feels at any given moment. Pointed forward, all is good and whatever you are doing is fine with them. Slightly laid back indicates annoyance. Flat back and you’d better watch out, move away or take control. Ignoring such signals can get you a hard bite or debilitating kick if you are at ground level. Other species have their own means of expressing feelings. Their body language is a reliable indicator. Only humans it seems are capable of duplicity in this regard. 

It took me a long time in my 30 years working at UCSC in Rape Prevention Education to grasp the fact that sometimes people being nice was genuine and sometimes it was not. There is also a cultural edge that makes it more difficult to spot the hypocrisy. By and large, Australians are direct in their communication style with a little sarcasm thrown in to make the point.  Little if any time is spent telling you all the wonderful things you have done but there’s this one thing that’s an ever so slight issue that they would love to discuss…when it’s convenient of course. Aussies get right to the point with scant regard for niceties.  A similar comeback is expected. Whether this is a better or worse communication style is a matter of opinion. In Santa Cruz, it is often misinterpreted and you run the risk of being labeled “aggressive” or “not a team player.” Such terms can be exploited to discredit you and to further the other party’s agenda. Both terms have been deployed against me for that end. 

I found myself pondering all this as I cut a piece of apple for a friend’s horse whose ears betrayed his slight annoyance at my taking too long. Oh, that humans had horses ears! I mused as I recalled the hypocrisy of those at UCSC who smiled and said nice things as they worked behind the scenes to muzzle my voice on behalf of rape survivors and marginalize Rape Prevention Education. The same was true during my tenure as a commissioner on the city’s Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women in the mid-2000’s. At stake, was revealing the horrendous track record of SCPD in its response to those who had reported rape. The goal was an overhaul of police practices. I took the lead in the effort. The pushback from SCPD was outrage. No pretence at playing nice and burying the facts since we had already made them public. They accused the Commission of manipulating and misusing data, which we didn’t, and they produced an apples and oranges response to discredit the findings. Council sided with SCPD, refused to appoint a blue-ribbon committee and I was dumped from the Commission.  

During the process I was accused of intimidating staff. I asked for examples but none could be remembered.  I offered to meet in person but no offer was accepted.  Councilmember Cynthia Mathews from that day on vowed I would never ever again under her watch be appointed to the Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women of which I was a co-founder in 1981. 

Similar tactics were used to ignite the recall against council members Drew Glover and Chris Krohn.  With a new council majority, for the first time in a long time, city senior staff felt themselves under scrutiny. They no longer could assume council would heap praise on whatever project they brought forward for approval. Under the previous majority, some council members even apologized for asking a clarifying question of staff if there was a whiff of a perceived criticism involved. You could smell the power shift.

Glover and Krohn asked hard questions of staff, sometimes with ears laid back and a touch of sarcasm. For that they received a public shaming and eventual recall.  What happened to me 15 years ago informally has now been codified into city policy under Human Resources. A direct style of communicating, especially if it is critical of staff, can now result in a violation of the respectful workplace policy with that entry in your file. While the policy may or may not work well for workplace violations involving staff, its broad sweep is being used against people we elect to represent us as well as their appointees to commissions. It is a muzzling of debate, a shift in the balance of power towards the non-accountable, non-elected branch of civil society. Unless checked and changed, expect it to be used increasingly to achieve council as well as commission docility and conformity. 

Gillian Greensite is a long time local activist, a member of Save Our Big Trees and the Santa Cruz chapter of IDA, International Dark Sky Association  http://darksky.org    Plus she’s an avid ocean swimmer, hiker and lover of all things wild.
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July 20

AN OPEN LETTER TO SANTA CRUZ LIBRARY DIRECTOR, SUSAN NEMITZ,

Dear Library Director Susan Nemitz,

I have always thought highly of you, Ms. Nemitz. As a councilmember, I enjoyed your enthusiasm and I was caught up in your aura of positivity and can-do spirit. Additionally, you are a librarian and I’ve always had the greatest respect for those who promote reading and individual and collective scholarship and help people with their research needs. The library has always held a special place in my heart and to now have it at the center of political controversy, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and combined with the pain of a slow economic meltdown, I am shocked and saddened that you are pinning your Santa Cruz legacy as Library Director onto the garage-library concept. I’ve been involved with this discussion since 1998 (or 2000?) when public works staff wanted to build a parking garage at the same site, “Lot 4.” A hoax is being perpetrated on this community. The public was by no means supportive of the city council’s recent 4-2 garage-library decision. I believe you sensed this earlier, and many now already glimpse an evident looming disaster if this project proceeds. I do not believe the feeling in the community has changed during the four years of this discussion. 

One Question

My question is simple: Why did you as a reasonable and thoughtful director not advise the elected officials to take a step back from this decisional abyss? I believe you had a chance. From my political now-spectator lens, this project is surprisingly similar to the way the desalination issue played itself out here in Santa Cruz. In that case, previous city councils wasted somewhere between $7 million and $15 million on consultants to study, aver, assert, and cajole the community into accepting yet again, a last century technological fix, but in that case, it was to address our water problems. It was soundly defeated at the polls, or at least a past council saw it that way and never again brought it to the ballot for an up or down vote as the original ballot measure as written would force any council to do.

Library-in-a-five-story-garage-atop-the-Farmer’s-Market, Really?

It is absolutely the wrong decision to build the library-in-a-five-story-garage-atop-the-Farmer’s-Market-site. If it is ever built, it will be a municipal mistake of Titanic proportions. It is a political error that’s currently tearing at the heart of this community. Not entering into this library-in-the-basement-of-a-garage deal would have left a door open for more creative solutions. This build baby build action has created a kind of heartache that now throbs through this town like a sucker punch in the gut. What you hear next may well be the sound of an exploding collective community appendix. Whether that takes the shape of a divisive election, a lengthy law suit, or people chaining themselves to heritage trees on Lot 4, it won’t be pretty.

Are You a Betting Person?

This decision hurts for several reasons. First, it defies the will of the thousands of Santa Cruzans. The winning candidates in 2018 said they agreed that voters did not vote for a library-garage project, they voted to remodel the current structure at its venerable downtown site. Even immediately before the vote, hundreds more let the city council know that they stood four-square against moving our downtown library. (By the way, did the city’s pollster, Gene Bregman, ever poll residents to find out if they favored this garage project? That wouldn’t have been difficult to do. I believe it may never have been done because he would’ve found overwhelming support to keep the library where it is and NOT build a parking garage atop the current site of the Downtown Farmer’s Market.) There is a distinct smell of a fait accompli here being carried out against the will of the electorate. My sense—political, social, and psychological—is that this project will likely not be implemented any time soon, if ever. I suspect you might have 5-10 more years with the city? You have a chance of advising the city manager to pull back and begin remodeling the current library as time is running out on using the bond money, and building costs escalate daily as you are well aware. Knowing the deep opposition to this project and the anxious vitriol that has been stirred because of certain city bureaucrats (not you) contempt for the public, I sincerely doubt the current project will even begin before you retire, and I state this for several reasons. 

Santa Cruz’s Fighting Spirit

I have seen many projects going back to the convention hotel that was once planned for our wonderful Lighthouse Field… and then there was the 10,000 housing units once envisioned for the Wilder Ranch site, and other development pressures on the Pogonip. These projects all appeared to be done deals until the most important party came to the table, the community. Those projects never happened because of the powerful sense of civic pride and political acumen harnessed by locals, UCSC transplants, artists, and visionaries who all call Santa Cruz home. In addition, the Dream Inn was never put on a planned steroid diet of concrete once local organizing began. And remember, it took more than 20 years of land-use shenanigans of various sorts to allow the La Bahia to degrade and finally, at the eleventh hour of decrepitude, the Seaside Company prevailed. It was a painful battle that did not have to happen similar to this one. A revamped and remodeled library could have begun this year, and still can, and you could oversee it as it becomes the anchor of our city’s civic core, complementing city hall, the civic auditorium and the Greek church. You may even still be able to cut the ribbon of a remodeled and revamped library if we hurry.

Kafkaesque

The garage-library project promotes and idolizes last century technology. It flies in the face of our Climate Action Plan and oft-stated green community values. While we cannot house our homeless residents (witness the withdrawal of the “done deal” purchase of the Seaborg property to house a 24/7 navigation center on Coral Street), we now stand prepared to figure out how to house automobiles at $75k per space? Surely this is a Fellini dream I am having and will wake up in front of Happy Boys farm stand inside the current Farmer’s Market and purchase some heirloom tomatoes after checking out books at the 224 Church Street site. I know you read a lot. You are familiar with the work of Franz Kafka?  Frankly, this library in a garage, on the site of the Farmer’s Market, goes beyond Kafka. It literally pokes a metaphoric stick not only into the eye of our community’s relationships with one another, but this decision infects our democratic institutions by by-passing either a plebiscite vote, or in not hearing the incredible outpouring of letters, emails. phone calls, newspaper opinion pieces, and civic sense not to build the parking garage. Perhaps Kafka’s unfinished book, The Castle, mirrors our own unfinished garage-library story here. His story was about an uncaring bureaucracy alienated from the community and unwilling to respond to the will of the people. I remind you, The Castle was an unfinished manuscript at the time of Kafka’s death. This garage-library story is not over yet either.

Furthermore, the library-in-a-garage project may well end up costing more than any other that the city has been able to marshal the people’s efforts and tax dollars to create, more than the sewer treatment project and the police department building, more than the purchase of the Pogonip and Moore Creek Uplands, and likely, before it is finally completed, more than the city’s one-year of General Fund revenue of $100 million.

Epilogue

This community deserves better. If I were a betting man, you, the Public Works department, the city manager, and some members of the city council have just thrown down the gauntlet. The clock is ticking and the community knows it. It was an initial decision that roils the community’s sensibilities and will likely be one of the two or three top issues confronted by candidates in the November election. We are confronting so much right now. This library-in-a-garage-atop-the-Farmer’s-Market controversy did not have to be one of them, unless it was to be a community-wide vote. That could’ve sufficed, but now we have what looks to be a looming blood bath of community disagreement. Where will it end? Not on Lot 4. Ms. Nemitz, I urge you to implement your good will, indomitable spirit, and energetic disposition to help turn this project around, it is not too late. 

Sincerely, Chris Krohn

(Chris Krohn is a father, writer, activist, and was on the Santa Cruz City Councilmember from 1998-2002. Krohn was Mayor in 2001-2002. He’s been running the Environmental Studies Internship program at UC Santa Cruz for the past 14 years. He was elected to the city council again in November of 2016, after his kids went off to college. His term ended in April of 2020.

Email Chris at ckrohn@cruzio.com
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July 20

Becky’s taking a one week vacation and will be back here next week.

Becky Steinbruner is a 30+ year resident of Aptos. She has fought for water, fire, emergency preparedness, and for road repair. She ran for Second District County Supervisor in 2016 on a shoestring and got nearly 20% of the votes.

Email Becky at KI6TKB@yahoo.com
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July 19
#201 / Worldview 101

Come October, I will be teaching LGST 196, the Legal Studies Capstone course at UCSC. The course will be given online. In other words, just to be clear about what that word “at” implies, I am not actually expecting to be on the UCSC campus in person. Wish it were otherwise!

I first began teaching LGST 196 in Winter Quarter, 2014, and I have taught the course every year since then. As I teach it, the class is focused on the topics of “Privacy, Technology, And Freedom.”

This time around, I will probably teach the course a little bit differently, given that it will be online, but students can still expect to be discussing government surveillance, facial recognition, social media, “big data” and its impact on politics, biometrics, the “Internet of “Things,” and how privacy is protected in our Bill of Rights through William O. Douglas’ famed “penumbra theory” (See Griswold v. Connecticut).

I have greatly enjoyed teaching LGST 196, and as I look back, I see that I have injected into the Syllabus and Class Schedule a lot of my own theories and thoughts. These are outlined in a very summary fashion below. Candidly, the discerning student could probably figure out that the course ought to be called:

Gary Patton’s Worldview 101

  1. – Two Worlds
    I think we best understand our human situation if we explain that situation through what I often call the “Two Worlds Hypothesis.” That way of thinking about our existence suggests that we live in “Two Worlds,” simultaneously. First, we live in the “World of Nature,” or the “World That God Made,” if you would like to remember the traditional way of thinking about it. We find ourselves most mysteriously here on Planet Earth, and we are (though we keep forgetting it) absolutely, totally, and ultimately dependent on the World of Nature (the World That God Made). 

    Most immediately, though, we don’t live in any unmediated way in the World of Nature. We live primarily in a “human world,” a world that human beings have created within the World of Nature. This is “our” world, and it is the immediate reality we inhabit. However, just as a reminder, while we live “immediately” in a human world that we create, we are “ultimately” dependent on the World of Nature, which we most emphatically did not create. 

  2. – Law In The World of Nature
    The “Two Worlds” that we simultaneously inhabit are governed by two completely different kinds of laws. First, within the World of Nature (the world we don’t create ourselves), the laws that govern are descriptions of what must and will happen.

    The “Law of Gravity” is my go-to example (but all the laws of Nature operate in the same way). You can’t disobey the law of gravity, or any of the other Laws of Nature. “What goes up must come down,” and it will come down according to a law that perfectly describes what will happen.

    The fact that the laws that govern the World of Nature cannot be broken, and that they inevitably and exactly tell us what will happen when certain things are done, is the reason that we can be sure that the continued combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, according to our current practices, will ultimately heat the Earth to the point that our human systems (dependent on the World of Nature) will fail, and that human civilization will (probably) come to an end, along with mass extinctions and physical changes in the World of Nature that will remind us (just in case we persist in denying the obvious) that we are ultimately dependent on that World of Nature, and that the World of Nature is governed by laws that we cannot ignore, without experiencing the consequences.

  3. – Law In The Human World
    All that is pretty glum news, perhaps (since we keep ignoring the laws that apply in the World of Nature), but there is another kind of “law,” too. That is the kind of “law” that applies to the human world that we create. Human laws, unlike the Laws of Nature, are not descriptions of what must and will happen in various circumstances. Human laws are prescriptions, written down instructions that we give to ourselves, telling ourselves what we think we ought to do (not what we must do).

    A human law tells us to stop at red lights, but we can run right through them. If we ignore our own laws, there may or may not be a penalty to be extracted. You can run a lot of red lights before you either kill somebody or are killed yourself. Maybe that’s why human beings get in the habit of thinking that all laws are like that, and that maybe we can get away with ignoring the law. Human laws, yes! You can ignore or defy them, and maybe even get away with it. The Laws of Nature, though, are not subject to avoidance or evasion. What goes up, must come down!

  4. – Changing Our Human Laws

    The fact that human laws are not “given,” but that we can change them, is actually extremely good news. If our world is “governed” by human laws (which it is, to the extent that we follow our own laws, which most people do, most of the time), that means that we can change human realities by deciding to change the “law,” the rules that direct and govern our behavior. Human laws are “prescriptions” that we issue to ourselves, telling ourselves what we think we ought to do.

    We are not inevitably constrained, in other words, by any existing realities, within our human world. Again, this is quite different from our situation in the World of Nature. In the human world, what “goes up” does not necessarily have to “come down.” We can change the rules. Since our laws are “prescriptions,” that means that if one prescription isn’t working we can write ourselves another one.

  5. – Possibility And Inevitability
    Because we can change the laws that direct and govern human behavior, and by doing so change what our human activities will accomplish, “possibility” is the key operative category in the human world that we create. To the extent that we can bring ourselves to change the prescriptions that govern our behavior, we can completely change any aspect of the human world. At least, that will be the effect of changing the laws if we then actually follow them. As I say, this is quite a piece of good news! Within our human world, nothing is “inevitable,” and anything is “possible.” That does include, of course, both our most wonderful dreams and our most horrible nightmares!

  6. – Human Observervation

    We are, as human beings, born to be observers. From our earliest moments of life, we look around to see what realities exist, both in the Natural World and in the world that humans have created. If we truly understand the “Two Worlds Hypothesis,” and consistently recognize that we live in two, quite different, worlds simultaneously, then we will understand that the realities we “see” in the human world, are something quite different from the realities we “see” in the World of Nature. If we truly understand that nothing is “inevitable” within the human world, and that “possibility” is the key category for understanding the human world, then we will also understand that whatever we “see” in the human world can be changed.

  7. – Actors Not Observers
    Because we are, as humans, born “observers,” and because the World of Nature is a reality that exists outside our own existence, and is a world that we have not created, it is a common mistake to attribute an absolute “reality” to the things we “observe.” That may be fine as we study aspects of the World of Nature, but it doesn’t work very well in the human world, because the human world is not something that exists outside of our own existence. Human beings have created and can recreate the human world. Therefore, while it is good to know what human realities exist, as we observe them (from greed to goodness and from racism to reconciliation), we must always understand that our human world will be what we “make” it, and that the human world is the product of our “action,” and that what we see is not a definition of what can exist. Observation is only helpful to us if we do not equate what we “see” and observe with a message that what we see is what must be.

    Because “possibility” is the key category for understanding the human world, which exists as it does because human beings have created it that way, then we will also understand that whatever we “see” in the human world can be changed.

  8. – Individuals
    There is another important realization that can help orient us to our situation in the human world, and to how we should conduct ourselves within it. We need, always, to be very much aware of the “I,” and of our individual existence – of how important and powerful each one of us is. In fact, each one of us is an independent and individual human being, and every human reality has begun, or begins, within the mind, and heart, and spirit of an individual human being. Our individual ability to act, to create, to do something unexpected and new must never be forgotten.

  9. – We Are Not Only Individuals
    However, it is equally important to realize we are not just individuals. Thinking always from an individual point of view is a perspective error. While each one of us is an individual, we are also, inevitably, bound up with others, and are part of a larger community. No one can exist individually and independently. Our lives depend on others, and as we are more and more learning today, we are inevitably connected to, and are part of, every other human being in the world. To the degree that we have two political parties in the United States – which is the typical way we tend to think of it – we have a party that clamors to make sure that no one forgets that the “individual” is where everything begins, and that the ability of individuals to act is supremely important. The other party tends to emphasize the collective nature of our lives, and that we must, as a community, provide support and assistance to any individuals who need that.

    Both/And! That is the truth.

  10. – Putting The Formula To Work
    If the human world is something that we create – and not through a bunch of individual and separate actions added up, but through a collective effort – we are talking about a world that we create through “politics.” We are individuals. We are inevitably a community, too. We need to debate and discuss what to do. We need to celebrate the conflict and contention as we have different ideas of what we should, in the end, decide to do (together).

    The process is called “government,” and in the United States, our process is called “self-government,” a process in which we all know that we can be, and need to be, involved. That is how we govern ourselves and create the human world we want. And, of course, we can change our minds, because in our human world, the “Political World” that we most immediately inhabit, anything is possible. We can decide what to do. Should everyone have health care? Should public lands be opened up for oil development? Everything is possible, and noting is “necessary.” We debate, and then we decide. Here is the “formula” that describes this process. After the debate, there is a decision. We make a “law,” a prescription that tells us what we think we ought to do. That is how we govern our human world:

    Politics > Law > Government

    As I say, these ideas have slipped into my Syllabus and Class Schedule for LGST 196. Frequent readers of this blog will have seen these ideas before. I think this ten-point ouline is a good start on a “worldview” that is worth considering.

But, of course, this set of thoughts is really just a start. It’s the “political” part of the course. Besides including a lot more about the World of Nature, I know that a “Worldview 101” course needs to recognize art, music, and the Three Commandments: Faith, Hope, and Love. 

And the greatest of these is Love.

Love for all humans. Love for this wonderful World of Nature, this blue/green planet of oceans and trees into which we have been so privileged to have been born:

Gary Patton is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney for individuals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. You can read and subscribe to his daily blog at www.gapatton.net

Email Gary at gapatton@mac.com
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EAGAN’S SUBCONSCIOUS COMICS. Out of the vaults and into the dark, strange world of only you know where. Scroll low down a little.

EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s hot, new, current, Deep Cover down a few pages. As always, at TimEagan.com you will find his most recent  Deep Cover, the latest installment from the archives of Subconscious Comics, and the ever entertaining Eaganblog. 

Steve Hofstetter is one of my favorite comedians…

    “WARMTH”

“Love your haters. People shed layers when they feel warmth.”
~Richie Norton 

“It is no small thing to feel the warmth of the sun on your skin.”
~Marty Rubin 

“All the statistics in the world can’t measure the warmth of a smile.”
~Chris Hart 

“The glory of fame isn’t in having so many people know you, but in having so many people know you care. Otherwise, it’s like being drawn to a fire to find no warmth.”
~Richelle E. Goodrich 


COLUMN COMMUNICATIONS. Subscriptions: Subscribe to the Bulletin! You’ll get a weekly email notice the instant the column goes online. (Anywhere from Monday afternoon through Thursday or sometimes as late as Friday!), and the occasional scoop. Always free and confidential. Even I don’t know who subscribes!!

Snail Mail: Bratton Online
82 Blackburn Street, Suite 216
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Direct email: Bratton@Cruzio.com
Direct phone: 831 423-2468
All Technical & Web details: Gunilla Leavitt @ godmoma@gmail.com

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July 15 – 21, 2020

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Bruce
Highlights this week:

BRATTON…More Odwalla local history, UCSC’s East Meadow issues, Brommer and 7th and Swenson problems, poetry workshop, Movies on Friday. GREENSITE… is off this week. Will return next week.”  KROHN…Zooming City Council meetings and laughs, Library Garage votes, Democratic Socialist mayor Cummings switch? STEINBRUNER…dumping waste water into ocean, SOU code, Soquel’s old mill and the old house, Aptos radio Tower, local businesses and Covid funds, County health inspections. PATTON…Cryptocurrency. EAGAN…Deep Cover plus Subconscious Comics QUOTES…”COUGHING”

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SANTA CRUZ CARNEGIE FREE LIBRARY. An early view pre-ivy. One of the many libraries that Andrew Carnegie funded across the United States. This library opened in 1903 and endured until 1966.                                                 

photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical photo collection.

Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

Ray Stevens sings “Quarantined’. A true saga.

CHER SINGS “Half Breed”. Just a little comment??

The r-Real Nitty Gritty. Watch for Peter Lawford, Judy Garland and more!

DATELINE JULY 13

ODWALLA & DAVENPORT…MORE HISTORY. I wrote some news last week about Odwalla and its local and historical connections. Those founding folks sent a letter saying…. 

 “We the undersigned, being original creators of Odwalla Juice, read your recent column with interest and wanted to set the record straight on a few points, now that Coca-Cola is sun setting our beloved creation.

** First off, we would like to thank you for the mention in your column … It is an honor! **

We started the company in the fall of 1980 on Seabright Avenue, juicing oranges, first, in our kitchen, then the backyard shed, to deliver to local restaurants every morning in the early hours. Among our first accounts were Aldo’s, The Cook House, Harbor Cafe, and Tapu’s Breakfast Hut.  

In January 1981 we set up shop on Mansfield Street, off 17th Avenue in Live Oak. Our goal was to support our musical passions while providing the best fresh juice on the planet. The loving people of Santa Cruz embraced our “Juice for Humans” and by the summer of 1981 we were selling bottled fresh-squeezed orange juice to retail outlets like Shopper’s Corner, Community Foods, and The Bagelry.

By 1983, Odwalla had outgrown the Mansfield location and, together with the Bailey Family, we remodeled the old Davenport packing shed and created a beautiful juice plant inside.

We processed 100% of our products there and maintained our headquarters next to the juice room with wonderful views of the ocean. Soon Odwalla offered a full range of fresh-squeezed fruit and vegetable juices and some of the world’s first nutritionally enhanced smoothies.

After ten years in Davenport, to keep up with increasing demand and to locate closer to the fruit, we refurbished a former Harry and David packing house outside Dinuba in the Central Valley and moved all manufacturing there in 1994.

As the company thrived, the founders were able to live by many of our core values, in smaller and larger ways… sponsoring our musical mentors The Art Ensemble of Chicago at Kuumbwa, creating scholarships for women nutritionists with our Femme Vitale program, starting one of the first plastic bottle recycling programs in Santa Cruz County, and sponsoring community gardens for local school children, among many other initiatives.

While we continued to distribute to Santa Cruz county residents from Davenport for many years, the company headquarters moved to Half Moon Bay in 1995.

We would like to thank all the folks who supported and gave love to Odwalla in Santa Cruz and beyond… as we used to say, “Drink it and Thrive!”

Greg Steltenpohl, Gerry Percy, Jeannine Bonstelle Bassett, Tom Dill, Don Faia 

BRATTONOTE. The Davenport packing shed they moved to in the 80’s was once owned by the Davenport Producers..That’s a very sexy name when you think about it. They were my landlords too  Also when they mention the Fred Bailey family’s and their son Zach, that’s who Zachary’s Restaurant is named after.

UCSC’S EAST MEADOW DEVELOPMENT. The problem with the many authorities in the UC system is that they are pushing ahead trying to create a stucco village on one of the most beautiful, and meaningful areas of that spectacular campus. Activist and concerned citizen John Aird sent a letter to Chancellor Cynthia Larive and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer.         It just about tells the entire story. 

Dear Cynthia and Lori –

I am writing this short note to urge you to take the opportunity that your respective new leadership’s positions afford to change direction on and resolve the corrosive controversy surrounding building the family student housing complex on the East Meadow.  

Here’s my case for doing so –

  1. It will make a positive statement about the leadership style you bring to your roles and your commitment to solutions that garner wide-spread campus and community support alike.
  2. It will protect the East Meadow which provides part of the introductory openness and beauty that distinguishes the UCSC campus and developmental heritage, one that visually projects the particular emphasis of the campus to its commitment to environmental stewardship on the campus itself and on its academic and research emphasis in a whole host of areas including environmental studies, marine biology and other disciplines that have nationally distinguished it.
  3. While the total effect and implications of Covid-19 at this point are unknown, one thing is clear.  It will have a dampening effect on things for quite some time, whether that be in normal university functioning and adequate supportive funding, California State budgetary health as a whole or any kind of short-term “return to normalcy” on or off-campus. All of this buys time and the opportunity for alternative location reassessment and exploration.

Certainly these reasons and others suggest that other alternative sites ought to be re-reviewed with an announced commitment to select one that would leave the East Meadow preserved and protected.

I hope you will seize the opportunity here and make this decision.  You will be justifiably applauded for having done so and it’ll also serve as a striking signal of the sensitivity of leadership that you being to your new roles.

Sincerely,

John Aird

BROMMER AND 7TH & SWENSON DEVELOPMENT ISSUES.  Jean Brocklebank and Michael Lewis remain very eager in following up on the proposed Swenson development at Brommer and 7th. They sent this plea…  

“Hello Harbor Neighbors,~

Having heard nothing since last November 2019, we wrote to Swenson asking about the status of the proposed development on the property at the SW corner of 7th at Brommer. 

We also explained we were especially concerned that a virtual community meeting not be attempted by Swenson. We have attended several of these development community meetings and find them a very poor alternative to having people attend in person. Engaging with the community via Zoom is not “engaging.” It becomes a slide show with screens filled with speakers. True, questions can be asked … and answered … via a Q & A platform. But these virtual meetings are like eating a paper pizza instead of the real thing. Residents are growing weary of starring at computer screens in an attempt to engage with government, business and one another. The value of the human social experience cannot be replicated on a phosphorescent screen. 

Last month we received the following information in response to our email to Swenson, which we think you will find very interesting:

“We received comments back from the County pertaining to the Pe-Application in early March and we are working towards implementing those comments into the plan. Additionally, hospitality has been greatly impacted by COVID-19. As we moved forward with the project, we were in search of a partner/operator for the lodge, and found little traction. Since COVID-19, the lodge component has proven even more challenging, and we are working on other economic alternatives that still satisfy the RFP, Zoning, and Coastal Commission goals.

“When we find an alternative solution, we will most likely need to submit another Pre-Application with the County for their review. You will be our first point of outreach if we are able to find an alternative solution and/or use, prior to us moving forward with the County Pre-App.

“Regarding Community Meetings, we did conduct a Zoom Webinar for one of our projects downtown and received great feedback from the attendees, with the Q&A feature and follow up emails. I certainly understand your concerns and desire for in-person meetings. We will use whatever medium is available to us at the time, and I am not sure if we are allowed to promote community gatherings, even if it was in a large parking lot in order to implement safe social-distancing practices. Realistically, due to COVID-19 impacts in general and pertaining to the viability of this project, I don’t see us holding a community meeting for at least 6 months at the earliest. So hopefully, we will have a solution by then, and shelter-in-place restrictions will be relaxed to where we can hold in person meetings again.”

As always, we will share any information we receive about this matter. Meanwhile, it looks like a lot of development projects are being delayed by at least 2 – 3 years. Frankly, we’re pleased.

All the best,

Jean Brocklebank and Michael Lewis.

POETRY WORKSHOP . Patrice Vecchione is creating an online workshop at Bookshop Santa Cruz on Tuesday, July 21. Check it out

Bookshop Santa Cruz invites you to join us online for an event with acclaimed local poet, editor, and teacher Patrice Vecchione (Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience) to celebrate her newest book, My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice—the ultimate writing guide for teens.

BUSHWHACKERS BREAKFAST CLUB. Every Friday morning on KZSC (88.1 fm or live online at KZSC.org) from 8:10 am-8:20 am or thereabouts I present my “B Movie Bratton” segment of short critiques (not reviews) of what’s on our screens. Dangerous Dan Orange hosts the rest of the Bushwhackers B. Club. Lately of course those screens are on anything but theatre screens . Tune in this Friday and learn about    Tom Hanks newest “Greyhound” the ship, not the bus. Plus Hanna, and streaming news and ideas. And probably a few more.

Greensite is off this week. “Will return next week.”  (HER DIRECT WORDS)

Gillian Greensite is a long time local activist, a member of Save Our Big Trees and the Santa Cruz chapter of IDA, International Dark Sky Association  http://darksky.org    Plus she’s an avid ocean swimmer, hiker and lover of all things wild.
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July 13

THE ZOOM CHARADE 

After you finish with the late-night comedy shows–Steven Colbert, Trevor Noah, and John Oliver–I suggest tuning into the Zoom Charade that has become the remains of what used to be a Santa Cruz city council meeting. It would all be funnier if the council only dealt with Covid-19 related decisions and road maintenance issues during their zoom chaos meetings. But that is not the case. They continue to make momentous decisions and spend real money on things too large to be decided on in council pandemic confusion as they did this past July 2nd. Frankly, I fully expect George Orwell to pop up on the Hollywood Squares Zoom meeting dais and say something about the dystopian moment SC finds itself in, like, “Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” I feel crazy watching decisions made when the overwhelming preponderance of calls, emails. and community sentiment is against building the library at the bottom of a parking garage. These days, council can make decisions with little scrutiny and scant visibility, but the public one-upped them on audibility during that July 2nd meeting. Around 25 “Noise Makers,” as they called themselves, banged on pots and pans right outside the almost empty city council chambers. Seems that the city clerk and assistant city clerk are the only people allowed inside the chambers, along with the Community TV technician who puts together the Zoom boxes of council members all onto one TV square and broadcasts the entire gobbledygook from city hall. Have a look at the meeting here.

When is a Meeting Not a Meeting?

Start around minute number 34. At 1h:04s the mayor begins reading the protocol of “clearing the chamber” because the protesters outside council chambers, and only two people inside, were making it difficult to “conduct city business.” Justin Cummings read from a city’s handbook and included language that stated, “you will be removed by the Sergeant-at-arms and you will not be able to return to council chambers.” Return? Sergeant-at-arms? Folks, we really are living in strange times, “fictitious” ones as Michael Moore called out about George Bush’s fake war in Iraq in 2012 upon receiving his Oscar award.

There were no members of the public in council chambers on July 2nd. Every one of these council meetings has been quasi-secret because of the extremely limited participation of the public. In case you missed the link, here it is again

The noise-making got so loud that the mayor, I kid you not, read out that he was going to “clear the chambers.”He read the statement into his computer screen. None of the Noise Makers protesting could hear anything the mayor read. There was no “council chambers” filled with residents and certainly no “Sergeant-at-arms” present at the meeting because the meeting was virtual. Cummings then asked his computer screen, “And I would like to ask if you understand this warning?” Ironically, this is where George Orwell’s writing voice can be heard most loudly. There were no audience members in the chambers, so “clearing it “would of course take little time for the fictitious (virtual?) Sergeant-at-arms. The community has been banned from meetings since March. A petition from the public has been submitted to the mayor demanding that the Civic Auditorium be opened, and to hold council meetings there while maintaining the proper CDC social-distancing protocols. Councilmember Sandy Brown has been a strong proponent of opening up the Civic for meetings too, but thus far it has been rejected by ‘da Mayor, the city manager, and some other councilmembers. I understand the noise-makers wanted to hammer home their point about reducing the police budget too, but Cummings sent the police to the city hall court yard instead. In making the protesters point, more than 20 officers swarmed the Santa Cruz city campus, but by the time they arrived the protest was already breaking up. People involved in the protest reported that no arrests were made and maybe four people were left when the police ordered them to leave the area immediately outside city council chambers. I understand the protesters were hoping to get the council to specifically agendize the police budget. Their wish is similar to the national call to reduce and redirect a portion of the police budget towards social services since PD is not really trained in the area of mental health and addiction issues. Many of police calls for service also include issues stemming from people’s unemployment and houselessness issues. We cannot expect the police to provide job training or transitional housing services.

Parking Garage and Library Money Charade, Take III

“To the extent that a parking district generates revenue in excess of what’s required in order to provide and maintain parking facilities that are in existence, and to the extent the City Council makes a policy determination that those revenues are not needed to improve or increase parking facilities with the use of the revenues, then under the Parking District law of the State of California, you are able to put those funds into the General Fund.”
–Tony Condotti, Santa Cruz city attorney

That’s right; the parking fund is part of the city’s general fund. It is discretionary; meaning a majority of councilmembers can decide how to spend it. No denying this, although many supporters of the immense concrete proposed parking garage will say otherwise. In fact, during recent council deliberations on the garage, the Machiavellian Mathews-Coonerty clan were forced to bring back a former city attorney and darling of market-rate housing enthusiasts, John Barisone to, err, correct his business partner Condotti on his parking fund legal opinion. While neither has voted, or can vote on the project, the Mathews-Coonerty political marriage is daily pushing to make the library-in-a-garage-atop-the-Farmer’s-Market their legacy. They direly want to etch this apparent white elephant project onto their political backroom deal six-shooters. If ever built, the massive structure on one of the few remaining city-owned parcels will likely cost over $100 million and be the largest public works project (outside of the water dept.) in the history of Santa Cruz. Do we really want it to be a parking garage? According to Condotti’s legal opinion as described above, the city council can use parking fund fees to finance a homeless shelter, plant trees, offer loans to struggling businesses or, it can even supplement the expenses of remodeling the downtown library WHERE IT NOW STANDS at 224 Church Street. Using the $28 million in bond money to revamp and refurbish this 60’s structure, and thus enhance and firmly establish our town’s civic core will likely be one of the top three issues in the upcoming November elections, which actually begin October 5th. With political stakes high and slates of candidates now developing around rebuilding the library and creating a permanent downtown Farmer’s Market while also creating a Downtown Commons, versus displacing the market and moving our library into the ground floor of a 5-story parking garage, there will be no room for candidates to equivocate! Winning a seat on the city council will be a fiercely competitive endeavor this year. Each side now has at least three candidates and adding a number 4 is being debated over daily. With Covid-19 making a big comeback candidates are uncertain how campaigning may look in election season 2020. Barring a 4-seat sweep, the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation, the Downtown Commons Advocates, Sierra Club, and Santa Cruz Climate Action Network will all be looking to place the library decision into the hands of voters through a ballot initiative. Look for this issue to be with us until at least November of 2022.

Post Script
Does anyone know why in the world former progressive candidate and Democratic Socialists of America member, Justin Cummings would want to be the deciding vote on the library-in-a-garage? It’s perhaps the most controversial project in Santa Cruz since the Beach Area Plan. Will he now become known as Mayor Garage? Car-Carrier Cummings? Or, Just-in Time for Covid: Library-in-a-Garage?

“It’s our real life. While it takes months, sometimes years to study crime data, I personally can tell you that fed & state relief is NOT reaching people. We aren’t getting stimulus checks (mixed status fams), millions can’t pay rent, & summer youth employment has been cut.” (June 13)

See Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez offer a two-minute, Why Defund the Police message.

(Chris Krohn is a father, writer, activist, and was on the Santa Cruz City Councilmember from 1998-2002. Krohn was Mayor in 2001-2002. He’s been running the Environmental Studies Internship program at UC Santa Cruz for the past 14 years. He was elected to the city council again in November of 2016, after his kids went off to college. His term ended in April of 2020.

Email Chris at ckrohn@cruzio.com
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July 13

WHEN WILL THE CITY OF SANTA CRUZ PLEASE STOP DUMPING WASTEWATER SO CLOSE TO THE SHORE?
Please write the Santa Cruz City Council and State Water Quality Control Board to demand that the City repair the ruptured sewage outfall pipe that is spewing contaminated water close to the shore for the surfers to ingest.   Read on…

In February, 2020, the State Regional Water Quality Control Board enforcement agency sent a letter (attached) to the City of Santa Cruz requiring a detailed investigation and response regarding the known rupture in the City’s Wastewater effluent outfall pipe that has been leaking sewage water into the Bay about 65′ from shore.  The City had to respond by May 31, 2020.

Essentially, the City report admits that it has known about this problem since 1992.  They claim studies done in 1994 showed it was really no big deal, and that sand and rock covered the ruptured pipe, making it impossible to find the exact location of the rupture.  The City had done no inspections of the outfall pipe in 2018, but did one in 2019.  That report is attached at the end of this blog post.  Take a look at pages 36-37 to see the significant dye plume on November 21, 2019.  Take a look at page 23 that discusses the problems with Total Organic Carbon (TOC), fecal coliform and an abundance of large filamentous bacteria in the effluent related to the episodic UV treatment issues.  See pages 10-16 for heavy metals and chemical contaminant levels.

Here is the City of Santa Cruz response to the State Water Quality Control Board…an expensive technical memorandum (see attached) that the State already has, and nothing done to actually fix the leak spewing contaminants close to shore for local surfers.

PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT
Wastewater Treatment Facility • 110 California Street, Santa Cruz CA 95060 • Phone 831-420-6050 • Fax 831-420-6489 

June 1, 2020 
John M. Robertson, Executive Officer
Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
895 Aerovista Place, Suite 101
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

Re: REQUIREMENT TO SUBMIT A TECHNICAL REPORT ON THE CONDITION OF THE SANTA CRUZ WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY OUTFALL STRUCTURE

Dear Mr. Robertson,

Through this letter, the City of Santa Cruz (City) responds to your letter dated February 11, 2020, that required the City to submit a technical report on the condition of the Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment Facility (SC WWTF) outfall structure. On page 2 of that letter, you request that the City respond to five items. We address each item in order below. 

The City has engaged Brown and Caldwell (BC), the firm that helped the City with original outfall planning and design, to assist the City in its response preparation. BC prepared the accompanying technical memorandum (TM) that gathers relevant information concerning the outfall and historical identification of and monitoring for the leak and its vicinity. The TM includes a summary of the leak history, the annual outfall inspections, and results of the ongoing bacterial monitoring. The City discovered the leak in 1992 during a routine monitoring fly-over inspection. Initial investigations in 1992 failed to locate the leak precisely at the ocean bottom. In 1994, the City engaged Kinnetics Laboratory, Inc. (KLI) to conduct additional investigations to locate and measure the leak and monitor bacteria in the leak area. Diver investigation over the leak could not locate it precisely. A heavy layer of rock and sand cover the pipe at the leak location. The dyed effluent filters from the leak to the sediment surface through interstices (small openings) in the covering backfill and sediment, spreading laterally away from the leak before it reaches the sediment surface. Field measurements by KLI determined that the leak was very small, with an initial dilution of seawater to effluent exceeding 1000:1. 

Based on the small, intermittent nature of the leak, the lack of evidence for adverse leak impacts, the substantial cost to repair a leak of insignificant magnitude, and the possible risk to the integrity of the outfall pipe, the City proposed in 1994 to continue to monitor the leak rather than repair it. The Water Board accepted the City’s proposal. The City has continued regular monitoring and reporting since that time.  

Since the leak was discovered, the City has continued to conduct annual investigations, including dye studies and outfall inspections, as well as weekly bacteriological monitoring. The technical report provides a detailed review of the investigations and is briefly summarized below.  

  • A review of the available dye studies from 1995 to 2019 shows that the leak is still intermittent and (when observed) the plume at the leak site appears smaller than the plume at the diffuser section of the pipeline.
  • A review of the annual outfall diffuser inspection reports from 1995 to 2019 show that the end structure is in good condition and the open diffuser ports are unobstructed.
  • There is no evidence that sediment is impeding the flow of the outfall pipe. If the flow were being impeded, the effluent pumps would be run more often. The operations manager reported no increase in run times or frequency of use for the effluent pumps.
  • The City monitors for potential bacterial contamination at the leak site via sampling boat at the 70-foot contour line above the outfall at the location of the leak site. Over the past 15 years, only three recorded values out of more than 600 tests have exceeded the Permit limits, all for enterococcus. The three exceedances occurred during the peak of the rainy season and are likely due to surface runoff.

From a review of the annual reports, there is no evidence that shows that the leak is increasing in frequency or size. The leak is still intermittent and small. We see no data or circumstances that support a need for additional costly field work or leak investigations and/or repairs.  

click here to continue (link expands, click again to collapse)

A GIANT TOWER IN APTOS FALLS 

A giant falls: Fire destroys Aptos radio tower | The Pajaronian

A blaze that Aptos/La Selva Fire said was likely started by a homeless person seeking warmth has felled one of the towers that once reached into the sky alongside Highway 1 in Aptos.

The tower was part of a quintet of now-silent radio antennae that stand at the site.

According to Aptos/La Selva Fire Protection Deputy Fire Marshal Marco Mack, the fire damaged the concrete at the base of the tower, and the porcelain insulators there. [read the whole article]

COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH INSPECTIONS OF LOCAL FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS AVAILABLE FOR YOU TO SEE
County Environmental Health Inspectors regularly visit all establishments throughout the County that sell or prepare food for the public.  They are a dedicated, hard-working and well-trained crew and do an excellent job of keeping the public safe. You can look at the results of their inspections here  

Wondering what the codes mean for various violations noted?  Click on the code and a definition will appear.  That’s how I learned that “VI” means ‘rodent or insect infestation”.  

Many thanks to the anonymous friend who sent me this information to share with you. 

WRITE ONE LETTER.  MAKE ONE CALL.  ATTEND A VIRTUAL MEETING.  MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE BY DEMANDING ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS.  TAKE A WALK ON THE BEACH AND STAY HEALTHY.

Happy Summer,

Becky

Becky Steinbruner is a 30+ year resident of Aptos. She has fought for water, fire, emergency preparedness, and for road repair. She ran for Second District County Supervisor in 2016 on a shoestring and got nearly 20% of the votes.

Email Becky at KI6TKB@yahoo.com
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July 8

#190 / Maybe Not Such A Great Idea 

Back in the middle of January, The Wall Street Journal celebrated a financial triumph for the world’s best-known cryptocurrency: “Bitcoin Rallies, Approaches $9,000.” That is what the headline said in the print edition of the paper on January 16, 2020. Online, The Wall Street Journal headline was even more emphatic. It added a boast that “Bitcoin … Trounces Stocks, Bonds, Gold and Oil.”

I have never been a big fan of cryptocurrency. The attraction, as I understand it, is that there is no central authority in charge of the money supply. This is considered to be a “feature, not a bug.” Since there is no central authority in charge, no government or bank is in a position to take away your money. Again, that is cited as an advantage, because it is true that sometimes banks and governments do, essentially, steal the money that is on deposit with them, or that is measured in value by the currency issued by the government. 

No such problems are supposed to exist in the case of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, although I would point out that the value of bitcoin appears to resemble a continuing gamble that the price will, somehow, inevitably go up. Comparing bitcoin to “stocks, bonds, gold, and oil” seems to be on target. If you want your money to be put into constant play in what amounts to a speculative “currency casino,” bitcoin may be just what you are looking for.

That is not the kind “savings” plan I want for my own money. The problem I worry about is this: if your money does disappear (and that has happened with bitcoin), there is no government or other institution that is specifically responsible. Thus, you have no way to hold anyone accountable. At least, that’s the way I see it. 

But let me raise an additional issue, also serious. As Wikipedia tells us, cryptocurrencies exist only by way of an online technology that “creates a distributed ledger, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database.” That database exists, and the cyrptocurrency exists, only because a large number of computers are linked, and are in constant communication. The picture above shows bitcoin “mining” equipment in Quebec, Canada. The article from which I obtained the photo informs us that “Bitcoin consumes more energy than Switzerland.” Vox calls bitcoin “an energy hog.”

In case you hadn’t noticed, we are facing a planetary-level peril that is being created by our use of energy, the greatest source of which is the combustion of fossil fuels. Using less energy, not more, is the correct prescription for human survival. In our current climate crisis, it doesn’t make much sense to develop a whole new concept of money that is based on the production and consumption of massive amounts of energy obtained from the combusion of hydrocarbon fuels. 

In short, for various reasons, including the need to maintain Earth as habitable for ourselves and other living things, it may be that bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general, are not such a great idea.  

Gary Patton is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney for individuals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. You can read and subscribe to his daily blog at www.gapatton.net

Email Gary at gapatton@mac.com
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Caitlin is a funeral director and a mortician, and she is so cool! Her YouTube channel is Ask a Mortician. She makes these videos about death, trends and practices in the funeral industry, and mixes new ideas with historical facts. Her delivery is great, her videos are both funny and interesting to watch! This one is about green burials versus “traditional” embalming and cremation.

    “COUGHING”

“Love and a cough cannot be hid”.
~George Herbert

“Whooping cough is not a mild disease. Whooping cough, before the vaccination, could make you very, very sick. First of all, there was a chance you could die from it – small chance, not a big chance. You would be coughing and coughing. It wouldn’t last for a few days, like a cold.”
~Anthony Fauci

“A small cold and cough can actually stop you from going where you are.”
~P. V. Sindhu


COLUMN COMMUNICATIONS. Subscriptions: Subscribe to the Bulletin! You’ll get a weekly email notice the instant the column goes online. (Anywhere from Monday afternoon through Thursday or sometimes as late as Friday!), and the occasional scoop. Always free and confidential. Even I don’t know who subscribes!!

Snail Mail: Bratton Online
82 Blackburn Street, Suite 216
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Direct email: Bratton@Cruzio.com
Direct phone: 831 423-2468
All Technical & Web details: Gunilla Leavitt @ godmoma@gmail.com

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