June 10 – 16, 2020

Posted on June 12, 2020 by Bruce
Highlights this week:

BRATTON…Chris Krohn wins vote, library garage problem, deep space vision. GREENSITE…on George Floyd. KROHN…defund police, police budget, return the Bear Cat, getting back to work. STEINBRUNER…Bolinas and Covid tests, COVID violations, another stop light in Aptos, 90 year old dangerous Aptos bridge, purewater Soquel. PATTON…about Bernie Sanders. EAGAN…Subconscious Comics and Deep Cover. JENSEN…laid off at Good times QUOTES…”June”

...

AERIAL VIEW LIGHTHOUSE POINT 1961. Do note all the developable property, and Neary Lagoon. All this, and no University — just the boardwalk to attract visitors and enormous growth.

photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical photo collection.

Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

Scary animal scenes.

PIPE DREAMS PLUS. i HAVEN’T SEEN ONE OF THESE IN YEARS.THEY’RE GREAT!

DATELINE June 8 

CHRIS KROHN WINS VOTE! Santa Cruz for Bernie conducted a poll among their extensive membership asking which candidates are the most qualified to represent Bernie and our District at the Democratic National Convention, August 17-21. The candidates who received the highest approval from our members, taking into account a balance of self-identified gender as required by Democratic Party rules, are: 

  • Christopher Krohn (M)
  • Mary Hsia-Coron (F)
  • Shawn Orgel-Olson (M)
  • Rojina Bozorgnia (F)

This release was adapted from one sent by the Santa Cruz for Bernie team. 

Members made their choices in the poll to after reviewing questionnaires submitted by the candidates, which are posted at sc4b.org/dnc. 

LIBRARY GARAGE DEBATE. Bob Morgan, Sierra Club, Executive Committee member and Transportation Chair, sent the following information to us. He’s also active in the Campaign For Sustainable Transportation and Downtown Commons Advocates. 

“The Santa Cruz City Council’s Downtown Library Subcommittee is scheduled to make a recommendation to the City Council within two weeks about moving ahead with a large development project on Parking Lot 4, the location of the Farmer’s Market and Antique Faire and the largest unbuilt public space Downtown. The project is contentious and fraught with unknowns, notably the necessity of adding a 400 car garage in the project to the City’s current parking inventory–something consultants say is unwarranted (and exorbitantly expensive), the viable means for its financing, and the construction of an unspecified number of housing units at both market rate pricing and affordably priced.   What is known is that Measure S funds will be used to finance a new library in this mixed-use facility, instead of renovating the current library at its present location, the reason Santa Cruz voters approved the Measure, based on conceptual drawings produced in the 2014 Library Facilities Master Plan. 

The Sierra Club, Downtown Commons Advocates, Don’t Bury the Library, and the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation, among other advocacy groups, urge you to write the City Council today and let them know that a project of this magnitude, a multistory concrete massing stretching from Lincoln to Cathcart along Cedar Street  will forever alter the hope for a walkable, pedestrian and bike friendly Cedar Street. The building will replace public space, the potential for a community Commons, one anchored by art, music and dance festivals, and our Farmers’ Market and Antique Faire. That dynamic vision will be bulldozed over. Please write today. citycouncil@cityofsantacruz.com.

MORE LIBRARY GARAGE DEBATE. Here’s some more fact-loaded statements on the Library Garage, this time from Rick Longinotti. Rick is a leader of the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation.

“If you’ve been following the campaign by City staff and their allies to build a library-in-a-garage-now-with-housing, you’ll be familiar with way staff have sought to manufacture consent for this project. The playbook is as old as oligarchy, but political scientists call the modern edition, Decide, Announce, Defend. 
Here’s how D.A.D. has played out in Santa Cruz:  

Sometime in 2016 the City Manager decided that building a beautiful legacy library could be accomplished by making the library a tenant in a parking structure financed by parking revenues.

  • At a City Council meeting in December, 2016, City staff introduced architects they had hired without Council approval, presenting preliminary plans and cost estimates for the parking garage. Staff did not announce the conclusions (from three parking consultants they hired in 2015) that there are more cost-effective measures to address parking demand.
  • Ever since, City staff have been defending building the garage, placing themselves outside the consensus of modern transportation planning on how to address parking demand.

You may recall a similar process take place in the City’s campaign for desalination. They even hired a public relations consultant to promote…er, inform the public, about the project. In all fairness, the public process around desalination did involve Council deliberation. But deliberation is undermined by false information. The Council believed then Water Director Bill Kocher, that it would take 20 years to win state approval allowing exchange of water with neighboring districts. With a new legal opinion that it would take just 2 years to get water rights, the Water Supply Advisory Committee found water transfers to be preferable to desalination. That little piece of misinformation played a big role in the waste of $14 million in ratepayer money studying desalination.

There’s been plenty of misinformation defending the garage project. Perhaps the most unethical was when City staff represented their projection of a future parking deficit as resulting from the Nelson\Nygaard parking demand model. They failed to say that when Nelson\Nygaard ran their model, the results showed a sizeable parking surplus, indicating that a parking garage was not necessary. (See An Honest Consultant)

City staff have still not invited Nelson\Nygaard to present their Downtown Parking Strategic Plan to the City Council, as called for in the contract. Now the responsibility rests with the City Council. Would you please sign this letter to the Council telling them that public trust hinges on whether they examine the Nelson\Nygaard report and respond to its conclusions. If that link doesn’t work, send your email to CityCouncil@cityofsantacruz.com.

Thank you!
-Rick

PS. Staff added a carrot to the garage-library project: affordable housing. The sad irony is that parking revenue represents the largest potential source of local dollars that could be used as a match for state and federal funds for affordable housing. The $87 million in debt service saved from not building a garage dwarfs the $3 million in the City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Go here to read more https://garagealternatives.org 

WHERE ARE WE? A PROFOUND LOOK AT US!

Marcia McDougal sent this beautiful, inspirational vision. Take a minute or two and think us over…again.

This excerpt from Carl Sagan’s book “Pale Blue Dot” (1994) was inspired by an image taken, at Sagan’s suggestion, by Voyager 1 on Feb 14, 1990. The earth is shown from a distance of about 6 billion km (3.7 billion miles). Voyager 1 had completed its primary mission, and as leaving the Solar System when, at the request of Carl Sagan, it was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around, and take one last photo of Earth across a great expanse of space. The attached video’s accompanying words spoken by Sagan, and written almost 24 years ago, are still relevant today. Sensitively felt, brilliantly said.


...
June 8

MAKING CONNECTIONS.
The full impact of the global explosion of protest over the murder of George Floyd is as yet unknown. The hope is for significant and lasting change in police department operations and a reckoning with racism that leads to shifts in consciousness with new policies for economic and social justice. Lasting social change is rarely easy and often unpredictable. Events will change. The direction is up for grabs. 

Just as the TV series Roots, based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Alex Haley shifted the conscience and consciousness of the nation over slavery (most of us white folks were/are ignorant) so the video in 2020 of a white cop nonchalantly exerting the full weight of his body for almost nine minutes on the jugular veins of an unarmed, handcuffed, prone black man, pleading for his life, while other cops looked on, indelibly captured the centuries of police brutality towards black men. One can only mourn for the countless other black men and women who suffered similar and worse fates without the world looking on and demanding justice. 

During this decade, along with a pandemic, we have lived through or participated in many movements for social change: The Occupy movement of 2011, the legalization of gay marriage in 2015, the #Me Too movement of 2017 and the focus on climate change inspired by Greta Thunberg in 2018. All have had a significant impact both on individual lives and social norms.  None however has toppled the system, nor much disrupted the lifestyles and global decision-making of those at the top. Individuals such as Harvey Weinstein have been toppled from their pedestal but the capitalist system of accumulation of wealth for the few and exploitation of workers has only deepened over this decade.

The goal of a world at peace, with all people living up to their potential, consuming enough to enjoy life without mindless consumption, with the natural world protected as we scale down our population numbers and live within our planet’s means is not a short campaign. And its success depends on every move we make right now. 

Vandalizing businesses and defacing property won’t win friends and influence people and we need both. Without overly concentrating on the actions of a few idiots and detracting from the main issue, I think we miss a chance to make critical connections if we didn’t notice that the vast majority committing property violence was male. News outlets didn’t mention it. This tendency to erase gender when examining violence, whether it be rape or war or police brutality will hold us back from solutions. The dehumanization of George Floyd by the male police officer was long in the making. It started with the first messages heard at the dinner table that instilled racism and violence in a young boy. That is, if there was a dinner table. The same messages hurled across the playground at school, matched with sexist and homophobic insults and reinforced by bullying if a young boy didn’t go along. Pumped up by the media. All embodied in an economic system geared for the very rich that loves divisions in the masses. We are so busy fighting among ourselves it keeps us from looking up and saying, “Hey!  How come I work hard for a small salary, pay taxes and you guys on your yachts and twelve mansions don’t pay a dime?”

To make matters worse we are steeped in assigning guilt and blame as the first attempt at communication across the issues. Label J.K. Rowling as a TERF (transgender exclusionary radical feminist) feel self-satisfied having accomplished nothing.  

If this pivotal, historical moment for which George Floyd gave his life is to have any meaning, any lasting impact towards a more just future we need to do better than in-group put-downs. I say to male partners of a loved one who is raped when they want to kill the guy, “perhaps you are thinking only of the insult to your pride…if you want to help you need to ask your partner what they need from you.” If we are to enlarge this movement to make significant change, as we (hopefully) connect across issues we would do well to ask of each other, “what do you need from me?” 

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.
...

June 9

BLACK LIVES MATTER
We won’t stop until the @MayorOfLA supports a #PeoplesBudgetLA that will #DefundThePolice. We’ll see you in the streets!

–Tweeted June 8 by Black Lives Matter-LA

“Defund the Police”
Black Lives Matter is leading a game-changing social revolution urging residents everywhere to start in their home cities and look into restructuring, and defunding, their own police departments. What I am hearing from the national debate is that it is not necessarily individual officers and departments that are so bad, but the police culture is itself is inherently toxic. How officers are trained, equipped, and deployed really matters. The origins of American-style policing have their roots in slave owners’ desires to get back their property and so hired groups to enforce slave recovery even before the “Fugitive Slave Law” came into being in 1850. From the Library of Congress web site, the “slave law” was “A bill to amend the act entitled, An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters.” (https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.33700200/?st=text) The most recent Time Magazinereported on the current nationwide police budget defunding efforts. Journalist Olivia B. Waxman writes, “In the South, however, the economics that drove the creation of police forces were centered not on the protection of shipping interests but on the preservation of the slavery system. Some of the primary policing institutions there were the slave patrols tasked with chasing down runaways and preventing slave revolts…”(https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/)

Status of the Santa Cruz Police Budget
Almost 30% of the city of Santa Cruz’s budget now pays for the police department. That figure is from of the “adopted” 2020 general fund budget of $107 million. That is, just over $30 million goes to the fund police. The overall budget, which includes “enterprise funds,” like water, garbage, recycling pickup, and sewage for fiscal year 2020 is $264 million. Enterprise funds are areas of the budget which generate their own resources through the bills residents pay. Police, Fire, Parks and Recreation, Planning, Finance, Economic Development and the City Manager’s office make up the bulk of discretionary funding decisions made by the city council. It is important to note that while the police budget has risen by 20% since 2018, the overall general fund budget has only gone up 11.2% during that same period. Admittedly, residents ask the police to do a lot that includes often addressing homeless service coordination, being aliaison for our huge visitor community, and providing frontline counseling among other needs. During a city council meeting last year, the Santa Cruz chief of police said up to 60% of his budget goes for enforcement around the various homeless issues that persist in Surf City. Now that a national discussion of “defunding” the police has begun, perhaps Santa Cruz can take steps to move money from the police department and put it towards fundingthe needs of the social and human services sectors.

“When we talk about defunding the police, what we’re saying is ‘invest in the resources that our communities need.”

–Alicia Garza, founder of Black Lives Matter, on NBC, Meet the Press

Why Not?
Why not lop off part of the police budget and create a Department of Health and Human Services (as the city of Berkeley did several years ago)? It would certainly alleviate a lot of the sociology and psychology work law enforcement officers are now asked to engage in. Why not plan to demilitarize the police department? Send the Bear Cat tank back to Homeland Security, eliminate any purchases of military weaponry, require every sworn officer to spend 40% of their time on a bicycle, increase the number of unarmed community service officer hires and decrease the more expensive sworn officer employees, and finally, revamp the entire police training manual as Minneapolis is looking to do. What if $10 million out (30%) of the current $30 million police budget was devoted to homeless services and getting folks off the streets and into programs whichdeal directly with mental health and substance abuse issues? It is a telling, sad, and startling detail that two out of the four officers involved in the Minneapolis police murder were trained by the same cop, Derek Chauvin, who placed himself so tragically on the neck of George Floyd. Talk about the foxes being in charge of the hen house?!? Incidentally, as the New York City Council debates cutting $1 billion of its $6 billion budget, a majority, of the Minneapolis city council, 9 of 13 members, “pledged to dismantle” that city’s police department and start over (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52960227) while Los Angeles Mayor, Gil Garcetti is proposing to cut $150 million out of the LAPD budget. Now these are the signs of change and reform that people from Staten Island (Eric Garner) to Ferguson (Michael Brown), to Georgia (Ahmaud Arbery) and Louisville (Breonna Taylor) might welcome.

What It Will Take to Get Us Back to Work

Source:  safejobchecklist.org

How does your workplace rate?

  1. The right personal protective equipment (PPE)

    To keep the COVID virus out of your body and to keep you from spreading it to anyone else, every worker needs a supply of gloves and masks. Front line workers who know they are being exposed to people who may be sick need impermeable gowns, properly fitted respirators and face shields or goggles too.
  2. Hand washing time and facilities

    The time and the facilities to wash and dry your hands several times during your shift and a hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol to use in between.
  3. Social Distancing

    Work stations that allow six feet between you and the people around you or sneeze guards if you need to be any closer and other adaptations like staggered shift and break times and job descriptions that allow you to keep away from other workers and the public.
  4. Cleaning and disinfecting

    Work stations, shared tools and electronics, bathrooms and locker and break rooms are sanitized, and deep cleaning is done after known exposure.
  5. Wellness rules

    Enforced rules that send people home, preferably before they enter the workplace, if they feel sick or have a fever or test positive for COVID and benefits that allow people to stay home, with pay, if they or a family member feel sick.
  6. The right to speak up

    Ways to provide suggestions or raise concerns about workplace safety and health without fear of retaliation.
...
“We need to work from the ground up to transform our society. It’s clear we cannot wait any longer to act forcefully and boldly to root out systemic racism and police violence. And when we act together, we win.” (June 8) 
(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
...
June 8

COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS DEMAND SPEAKERS WEAR MASKS, EVEN IF IT POSES A HEALTH RISK
Last Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors used the County Health Officer’s Face Covering Order to impose censorship and as a result, imposed a real risk to my health.  Right now, I am required to take medication that is causing me some difficulties with breathing under stress.  I explained this before speaking without a mask during the Public Comment Period. The Board muted me without warning.

Later, during another item, I again testified again without a mask and explained that I could not wear a mask for health reasons.  Within seconds, the Board muted me again.  I protested, and pulled the mask on.  The Chairman of the Board said “Okay, let her speak”.   Within a minute,  I nearly passed out while attempting to finish my testimony.  It was horrible.  A lady asked the sheriff in the room if there was oxygen available to help me recover.  “No” he said, and stayed put on the other side of the room.

After about 15 minutes, when I had recovered a bit, the deputy walked over and asked if I wanted an ambulance to come.  I refused.  Then, he offered to open the door to help me leave.  Still shaky, I accepted and left the building.  It took about 15 minutes outside in the fresh air to feel strong enough to get to my car, but I was still light-headed and nauseated.

That afternoon, I wrote to County Health Officer, Dr. Gail Newel, to ask that the Board of Supervisors not mandate people with health problems to wear masks when speaking.  She has not responded.  Ms. Susan Galloway, the Clerk of the Board, responded that everyone has to wear a mask, and there are no exceptions.   I responded, pointing out Paragraph #12 on page 3 of the Health Officer’s Order describes  an exemption for those whom wearing a mask would pose a health risk. (read the actual order here)

 How ironic that when the country is in a state of disarray because of a murder in which the victim said “I can’t breathe!” that my same remarks to the Board went unheeded.

Here is the link to the video.

Item 5 Public Comment

  • Minute 39:43  5th Floor comments
  • Minute 58:00 Basement comments
  • Minute 1:01:20  My comment begins, re: Special Board meeting problems
  • Minute 1:03:30  I was muted for not wearing a face mask
  • Minute 6:24  Supervisor Leopold asks that I be cleared away from microphone
  • Minute 1:09:53  end of public comments

Item 7 New Code that will help business owners, but other “by right” changes that the Planning Dept. has been wanting to get through since 2015 but has been stalled with required environmental analysis to get it passed.  It will go to Planning Commission next month, and back to the Board in August.

  • Minute 1:47:29 begin public comment from basement
  • Minute  1:53:54 I begin comment 
  • Minute 1:54:10  I was muted for not wearing a face mask
  • Minute 1:55:13 I was allowed to speak, wearing face mask
  • Minute 156:55  I got dizzy, nauseated and had to sit
  • Minute 1:57:00 Supervisor Leopold instructs to move me away from the microphone “We can still hear her.”
  • Minute 2:01:00 end of comment.

In reviewing this video, I really have to wonder who is really running the Board of Supervisor meetings…it does not appear to be Chairman Caput.

Please write the County Health Officer and ask that she inform the Board of Supervisors that her Facial Covering Order should not be used to impose censorship of the public.

Gail Newel gail.newel@santacruzcounty.us
Chairman of the Board Greg Caputgreg.caput@santacruzcounty.us
Supervisor Ryan Coonertyryan.coonerty@santacruzcounty.us
Zach Friendzach.friend@santacruzcounty.us
John Leopoldjohn.leopold@santacruzcounty.us
Bruce McPherson bruce.mcpherson@santacruzcounty.us   

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

WRITE ONE LETTER.  MAKE ONE CALL.  STUDY YOUR RIGHTS AND DEMAND THAT OFFICIALS UPHOLD THEM.  TAKE A WALK IN THE FRESH AIR AND SUNSHINE AND BE WELL.

Cheers, Becky Steinbruner

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
...

 June 2, 
#154 / Quick, Form A Circle! Ready, Fire, Aim!

Over the weekend, a friend sent me a blog posting by Russell Dobular, who is the owner and artistic director at Endtimes Productions. Dobular headlined his posting as follows: “Democracy is Broken: Why 51% of Sanders Supporters are Considering a 3rd Party.” Dobular doesn’t directly say that he is one of those who plans not to vote for the Democratic Party nominee (if the nominee isn’t Bernie Sanders), but I gather that he is heading in that direction.

I am not! And as far as I know, Bernie Sanders isn’t, either!

Make no mistake, I am a very strong and dedicated Bernie Sanders supporter, and I have been a Bernie Sanders supporter since 2016. I was an alternate delegate for Sanders at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and I have offered to serve as a Sanders delegate this time around, too. I also think that Dobular makes some extremely valid criticisms of the Democratic Party. However, you would be wrong to count me as a person who is considering voting for a third party in November. I plan to vote for the Democrat.

The headline I have chosen for my own blog posting, today, suggests why that is so. I have conflated, in my headline, two sayings that epitomize a type of politics that, when put into practice, has the exact opposite effect from the effect that those engaged in the political activity desire.

The Democratic Party has often been called a “Circular Firing Squad.” Clearly, a circular firing squad is not a very effective way to vanquish and eliminate whatever enemy the Democratic Party might have in mind. Another well-known description of how politics should not be done is summed up in the “Ready, Fire, Aim” maxim. Again, being a bit too quick on the trigger is unually counterproductive where serious politics is concerned. 

Our political system is set up, currently, to ensure that voters have two choices, Democrat or Republican. One big problem, and one of the main reasons that lots of people hate politics, is that the two parties are generally more alike than different. Both of them pander to money, the big corporations and the ultra-wealthy. That is definitely not good. However, the parties are not identical, and this time around it is clear that a vote that makes it more likely for the Republican Party to win is a vote for Donald Trump. And that is a vote that is perilous in the extreme – perilous in almost every possible way.

I will keep working for genuine self-government and democracy in the United States, but when I get a binary choice this year, I know what choice is the least bad!

I am not going to be a part of a circular firing squad. I am also going to take aim before I fire.

A recent email from SantaCruz4Bernie asked a question about how progressive Bernie Sanders supporters should relate to the Democratic Party. Here’s how that email put it: “I think the correct answer to the question, ‘Should we work within the Democratic Party or outside of it?’ Is Yes, Both.”

That sounds right to me.

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
...

EAGAN’S SUBCONSCIOUS COMICS. View classic inner view ideas and thoughts with Subconscious Comics a few flips down.

EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s ” 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. 

LISA JENSEN LINKS. Lisa has been suspended indefinitely at Good Times. She was writing for them for 45 years. She’s working on another piece to post but it hasn’t gone up yet. She says, ” Mostly I’m working on my next book, which was due to the publisher about 2 years ago, but I’ve been a little distracted since then!”

...

I have watched this on loop at least 5 times. This guy’s awesome.
...

    “JUNE”

“June falls asleep upon her bier of flowers; In vain are dewdrops sprinkled o’er her, In vain would fond winds fan her back to life, Her hours are numbered on the floral dial.”  
~Lucy Larcom

“Green was the silence, wet was the light,
the month of June trembled like a butterfly.”
~Pablo Neruda

“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”
~Dr. Seuss 


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

...

Posted in Weekly Articles | Leave a comment

June 3 – 9, 2020

Posted on June 5, 2020 by Bruce
Highlights this week:

BRATTON…the Worst of Times. Plea for rental/housesitting. GREENSITE… A System Failure. KROHN…George Floyd March in Santa Cruz, City Council progressive changes, recall votes, district elections, Circle Church voting. STEINBRUNER…Soquel Creek district and the Brown Act and a deficit, Santa Cruz water rates to increase, Illegal closures  and openings, measure D, library news. PATTON…Stopping the machine. EAGAN…new book to be available soon. JENSEN…she’s also working on a new book. QUOTES…”REVOLUTION”

...

SANTA CRUZ MUNICIPAL WHARF 1890. That’s the Sea Beach Hotel up in the far right. It opened in 1890. It was an attempt to attract the wealthier tourists from Carmel and Monterey to Santa Cruz. Obviously it didn’t work.

photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical photo collection.

Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE. One of Spike Jones very special pieces.

HAWAIIAN WAR CHANT. Another Spike Jones specialty.

DATELINE  June 1

THE WORST OF TIMES. Even to say “you can feel it in the air” has new meaning. Where are we now? A terrified community? A world afraid, fearful and getting worse with each headline? A President who threatens to use the militancy to handle the protests… Where is it going? What are we in for? What can we do? We all have friends and relatives in the protest areas, and still there’s no way we can help stop any of it. There’s the next election, but what about tomorrow? The fear and worry we are sharing are melting the COVID Pandemic and the racial George Floyd into one malignant fear. But where else in the world would you rather be? Thank about that one.

HOW ABOUT ANY IDEAS FOR HELP?

I asked last week if any of you know of rentals or house sitting situations, as both my daughters are interested in spending more time in Santa Cruz. Plus, they are a great help to and for me.  Any leads greatly appreciated.  Email me at bratton@cruzio.com

MISSING JOE BLACKMAN. Joe gave me — and us — a lot of great info and material for this blog. He was a wonderful friend to many friends of mine. We will all miss him. He died Sunday, May 31.

TIM EAGAN’S NEW BOOK! Artist Tim Eagan sends… “For anyone who missed my blog this week, let me say again that I have begun work on “Head First, A Comic Novel.” Subconscious Comics will be at the core of the book, and you can witness bits of the creative process as it unfolds on my Instagram account, called “timeagancartoons.” I predict one and a half to two years before this full-color, high end production rolls off the presses.


...

June 1

A SYSTEM FAILURE
The slogan for the Covid-19 era, “We are all in this together” obscures the stark difference in impact on those who are outside the social safety net of unemployment insurance and federal aid. That is, those who are undocumented, without the protection offered under DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). The latter are able to obtain Social Security numbers and therefore receive unemployment and stimulus checks. The former receive nothing. Many have lost their jobs since the low-income service sector particularly restaurants have closed, or offer only take-out, which means fewer workers at reduced hours. Many pay taxes, with a Tax ID, which is not recognized for state or federal help during this (or any) crisis.

Since I have close friends in this situation I am more concerned than if they were just a category of people in need. I turned first to our city council to see what assistance was available. The response from the Mayor included a number #211 to call. I shared that with my friends. They called and called and called without ever being able to connect. I urged them to keep trying. They did, with the same result. The number for rent assistance, which our city has contributed to, asks you to leave a number for a return call, which my friends did multiple times a day with never a return call.

Then came the good news that Governor Newsom had allocated monies for undocumented workers, $500 for each adult. Not a princely sum but enough for almost a third of one month’s rent. The funds to be distributed through the Community Action Board. The first day CAB’s phone lines crashed due to the volume of calls. There was no way of knowing the reason for no phone connection so I reached out to Assemblyperson Mark Stone’s office. His assistant informed me of the problem which they were hastening to fix, hopefully by the next day. I shared this with my friends. The next day, a message on the line, in English only, urged callers to try again. That was a week ago. My friends have tried multiple times every day with the same result. The message is a constant, try again. And again and again and again, with never a connection. I leave you to imagine the added stress caused by this non-functioning system. 

My friends know many in Santa Cruz in the same situation and those friends have a wide circle of friends. Nobody knows anyone who has received this money from the state via the Community Action Board. 

Frustrated I again contacted Mark Stone’s office with a suggestion: the Community Action Board is incapable of handling this distribution of funds. Therefore distribute some of the funds via the Tax ID # which the state has on file since these folks pay state (and federal) taxes. That would leave a smaller group for CAB to handle. The response so far is that the legislature doesn’t handle the distribution of funds. I left a message on Mark Stones message board with the assurance that he reads every one. I have not yet received a response.

While some in the community can rest easy thinking the less fortunate are being taken care of and some are fuming that undocumented workers are getting any relief, despite their paying taxes, the reality is that my friends and the wider community of such workers are getting nothing. What a failure on behalf of the local and state governments and the non-profit industrial complex. I am outraged!

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.
...

June 1

PANDEMIC POLITICS.

That was a March!

May you live in interesting times…are you kidding me?! By my count, over 5000 marched through Santa Cruz on Sunday to memorialize the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, while three (!) of his colleague cops looked on. It was a large gathering for Surf City. The largest political protest march was the Woman’s March of 2017 when 14-15,000 paraded downtown. In 1995, there was the “No Nukes” demonstration and concert” drawing more than 8,000 attendees and featuring musicians Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, David Crosby and Graham Nash at San Lorenzo Park.” So, by those previous standards, Sunday’s weaving and bobbing heads on Ocean Street, snaking around to Soquel Avenue, crossing Pacific and the spontaneous rally in front of the Center Street police station was a bit more modest, but its significance echoed loudly across the county’s pandemic landscape and registered deeply in the annals of the city’s political history. Spontaneous, peaceful, and uninhibited the march was likely led by the Millennials (1980-94) and GenZ (1995-2012) generation of activists. Given the mayhem and fallout from the police killing in Minnesota there just seemed to be a local collective, doesn’t this suck, but we just have to be out here, what else can we do? Collective feelings of rage, ambivalence, alienation, and the need to be with other humans and vent for a couple of hours were all reasons to be in the street. While Santa Cruz saw none of the property destruction and looting that was rife in Oakland and San Francisco, there was a report that the SCPD chief sent SC officers to Oakland to assist OPD in addressing their protesters. (I wonder if this is what local protesters would’ve wanted from their kneeling police chief? See SC Sentinel, Sun. May 31)

Why So Much Rage and Property Destruction?
After seeing the CNN building facade destroyed by protesters in video footage taken from inside the building and police who were held at bay for hours in their own Southern California police station I am taking a pause. This is all moving so fast. The La Mesa standoff is chronicled in an the hour-by-hour video compilation that ended in two banks–Union and Chase–being completely burnt to the ground. I am simply in awe of the sheer volatility and daring on the part of Protesters.

 If you look at these two videos there are no “hit and run” tactics being used. Protesters appear to be locked in, standing tall in the face of heavily armed police who are not timid in using their weapons against unarmed demonstrators. Of course, a few of the protesters can be seen throwing heavy objects including some large pieces of concrete and water bottles at the police lines. In some cases, protesters can also be seen hurling the police’s own tear-gas canisters and unexploded flash-bang grenades back at the cops. If you have one hour, I urge you to watch how the Battle of La Mesa unfolds. It is a large-ish suburb east of San Diego, but it could be Anywhere USA. Evidently, the day before the battle took place an unarmed man was roughed up by police and arrested while waiting for a friend at the Grossmont Center trolley stop near San Diego. This incident was perhaps in the minds of many protesters going into what would end up being a fiery and property destructive day of outrage. If you have only a minute, check out this rather shocking attack on protesters by NYC police using their squad cars to ram people.  

What a Difference a Couple of Progressive Votes Make
Santa Cruz City council politics have changed. The Recall election shifted the council vote from a 4-3 progressive majority to a 4-3 pro-real estate and pro-commercial construction majority. This new group is also moving in the direction of less public input as well. If you were in doubt before the March 3rd election as to where this new majority might go, simply peruse the city council’s “meeting minutes” approvals at the beginning of each council agenda. There is access here: http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/government/city-council/council-meetings , and scroll down. This is where the casual consumer of council action can go to see how their team did if you are keeping score at home.

1) Minutes of April 28 meeting:

a) “The Council received a report from the City Attorney on threatened litigation under the California Voting Rights Act and voted unanimously to direct the City Attorney’s office to enter into settlement negotiations with the Plaintiff’s attorney, and return to Council at a future meeting with a resolution to move to district elections for the November, 2022 election.” The previous city council would’ve voted to at least go to court and not roll over to this rightwing effort led by a known Republican “intellectual” operative, Lanny Ebenstein.

2) Minutes of May 12 meeting:

  1. a) 111 Errett Circle–Past city council would have given direction that this Circle Church property project offer greater affordability and full payment of in-lieu fees at a minimum if development was to take place.

3) From minutes of May 26 meeting

  1. a) Motion carriedto: Approve the plans and specifications for the Highway 1/9 Intersection Improvements (c400805) and authorize staff to advertise for bids. Approve the Construction Management Services Request for Qualifications and advertise for proposals.” This project will spend over $5 million to widen an intersection in the middle of a pandemic when traffic counts have harkened back to the 1980’s, and while the Santa Cruz electorate continues to move into a greener future and away from reliance on single-occupancy vehicles. Go figure.

“A lot of ppl are asking abt policy solutions. Here are a few:

  1. Ask your mayor & city council for strong Citizen Review Boards
  2. Budgets. They’re powerful. Find your city’s police budget. Compare that to the school & housing budget. More $ in fmr school-to-prison pipeline
  3. What does mental healthcare look like in your city? Too often our prisons are used to discard ppl struggling w mental health, housing. Invest in the latter. 
  4. Healthcare, living wage, housing & education guarantees. Without them we feed the cycle. What are your ideas?” (May 30)
(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
...

June 1

SOQUEL CREEK WATER DISTRICT BUDGET …BIG SALARY INCREASE APPROVED FOR GENERAL MANAGER IN CLOSED SESSION DESPITE PROJECTED $1.1 MILLION DEFICIT
I think the Soquel Creek Water District Board violated the Ralph M. Brown Act by discussing the salary increase for General Manager Ron Duncan while in Closed Session on May 19, 2020.  They posted no video of the meeting to report actions taken in Closed Session.  There are no draft minutes of the meeting for the public to see in the subsequent June 2 meeting agenda.  However, it is evident in Consent Agenda Item 4.6 that the Board approved a higher-than-COLA salary increase in renewing Ron Duncan’s contract to $222,939.64/year plus benefits (projected to increase by 12%)

This violates the Ralph M. Brown Act. 

It also really makes me wonder how the Board can claim any fiduciary accountability to grant a hefty pay raise at a time when their Finance Director has warned of a $1.1 million deficit, and the American Water Works Association has warned that water utilities could see a 16.9% financial impact from COVID-19, and unemployment in Santa Cruz County could reach as high as 19% by summer (this is all from the District’s OWN 2020/21 Budget Summary) (see page 25, and the Budget at page 55)

Write the Board of Directors and ask  them to justify their actions. Soquel Creek Water District bod@soquelcreekwater.org,  and copy Board Clerk Emma Olin emmao@soquelcreekwater.org   

What in the world are they they thinking?   Or perhaps a better question might be…Who do they think they are???

SANTA CRUZ CITY WATER RATES WILL BE INCREASING SOON
The City Water Commission has been hearing presentations from Raftelis Consultants recently regarding different ways to structure another rate increase.  It is expected that another rate increase will be proposed to the rate payers by this fall.  Under Prop 218, the increase must be sent to ratepayers but the increase will pass automatically unless 50% +1 protest votes from qualified ratepayers is received.  That level of participation is really difficult to accomplish.

Raftelis Consultants is the same group that pulled the wool over the ratepayers’ eyes for Soquel Creek Water District’s draconian rate increases to pay for injecting treated sewage water into the drinking water for MidCounty folks.

The City Water Commissioners will consider this issue again at their June 1 meeting.

Unfortunately, those meetings are usually not recorded, but they might be now that meetings are held via Zoom.  Write City Water Director Rosemary Menard and ask that all Water Commission meetings be recorded and archived.  This thoughtful Commission makes significant decisions that affect the water use policy throughout the County, affecting everyone.Rosemary Menard  rmenard@cityofsantacruz.com 

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS APPROVED VARIANCE TO SPEED ECONOMIC RECOVERY
I am grateful that Chairman of the Board Greg Caput called a Special Board Meeting last Friday to ask the Board to approve the Attestation Application for Variance with the State’s economic recovery plan, and begin allowing County businesses to open sooner but with safety precautions.  Supervisor Caput was the only Supervisor physically present in the Board Chambers, with all others participating remotely.

However, Supervisors Zach Friend and Ryan Coonerty once again refused to allow their images to be shown on the meeting screen, as if they continue to want to hide from the public.  Maybe because the hair and eye lash salons have been closed for so long, Zach and Ryan just don’t feel like being seen???  Gee, who knows, but in the interest of government transparency and accountability, they need to show the public that they really are paying attention during those Board meetings, or at least verify that the voice heard voting on important issues is really coming from them. It was encouraging to see about 50 people show up at the meeting, many providing eloquent testimony.

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

WRITE ONE LETTER.  MAKE ONE CALL.  ATTEND A ZOOM MEETING AND INSIST ON GETTING ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS.  MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE THIS WEEK WHILE TAKING A WALK IN THE FRESH AIR AND SUNSHINE TO STAY HEALTHY AND KEEP YOUR WITS ABOUT YOU.

Cheers,

Becky Steinbruner

831-685-2915  ki6tkb@yahoo.com 

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
...

May 31
#152 / One More Time For The Vietnam Generation 

If you instantly recognize this picture, you are probably one of the members of the “Vietnam Generation” to whom I am particularly addressing today’s blog post. For those who don’t recognize the picture, this is Mario Savio, standing on top of a car in UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. 

As Wikipedia reports, Savio was “an American activist and a key member in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially the ‘put your bodies upon the gears’ address given at Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley on December 2, 1964.” I have reproduced the full text of Savio’s speech at the end of this posting. You can also listen to an audio/video recording of the speech by clicking this link. 

I was in my fourth year at Stanford University when Savio gave that speech. I recognized the picture instantly. Savio’s call to “put your bodies upon the gears” was an appeal that spoke directly to me. I heeded that call, four years later, when I voluntarily gave up my then-student deferment and refused induction into the armed forces in Oakland, California. Many in the “Vietnam Generation” changed their lives sometime during this period, from 1964 to 1968. Savio’s speech wasn’t the only reason, of course; there was a lot going on, but this speech did epitomize the kind of response that many in that “Vietnam Generation” felt was necessary, to stop what one of Bob Dylan’s albums called a “World Gone Wrong.” 

Some who “put their bodies upon the gears” in the 1960s and early 1970s died or were mangled. Many did not suffer such consequences. I certainly didn’t. I came back to law school, got my JD, passed the California Bar Exam, went to Theological Seminary in New York City for a year, became a general practitioner in Santa Cruz, California, got elected to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, served for twenty years in that position, headed up two wonderfrul nonprofit organizations, and then ended up (right now) teaching undergraduate students at the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

So far, at least, I have not told the students in my classes to “put their bodies upon the gears,” but sometimes I am tempted to do that. The world is still going wrong. Really, really wrong! 

Instead of exhorting young students to do something about that fact, I am starting to think that it is really my turn to do something – our turn, really, those who might self-identify as the “Vietnam Generation,” as I am calling it here. Savio’s speech still echoes for me, and I am thinking that it might be the moment to spend some of my remaining time trying to do what that “Vietnam Generation” did not accomplish before.

Despite our efforts in the 1960s and 1970s, neither racism, nor militarism, nor economic injustice has disappeared. In fact, they are “surging,” to use the language of the coronavirus pandemic. In the 1960s there was a “surge” towards racial and economic justice, towards a world at peace, and those who might self-identify as members of the “Vietnam Generation” should be proud of our efforts to confront and counteract the “operation of the machine.” 

But… The machine grinds on, and now the entire Natural World is at peril. Our situation is worse than when Savio made his speech. So, pay attention to this, the famous part: 

There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus — and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it — that unless you’re free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!

Every day, I am feeling more and more that way. It could be time for those who can self-identify as the “Vietnam Generation,” those who responded to Savio in 1964, and to others like him, to make  one more effort to make the machine stop.

oooOOOooo

MARIO SAVIO, DECEMBER 2, 1964:
“You know, I just wanna say one brief thing about something the previous speaker said. I didn’t wanna spend too much time on that ’cause I don’t think it’s important enough. But one thing is worth considering.

He’s the — He’s the nominal head of an organization supposedly representative of the undergraduates. Whereas in fact under the current director it derives — its authority is delegated power from the Administration. It’s totally unrepresentative of the graduate students and TAs.

But he made the following statement (I quote): “I would ask all those who are not definitely committed to the Free Speech Movement  cause to stay away from demonstration.” Alright, now listen to this: “For all upper division students who are interested in alleviating the TA shortage problem, I would encourage you to offer your services to Department Chairmen and Advisors.” That has two things: A strike breaker and a fink. 

I’d like to say — like to say one other thing about a union problem. Upstairs you may have noticed they’re ready on the 2nd floor of Sproul Hall, Locals 40 and 127 of the Painters Union are painting the inside of the 2nd floor of Sproul Hall. Now, apparently that action had been planned some time in the past. I’ve tried to contact those unions. Unfortunately — and [it] tears my heart out — they’re as bureaucratized as the Administration. It’s difficult to get through to anyone in authority there. Very sad. We’re still — We’re still making an attempt. Those people up there have no desire to interfere with what we’re doing. I would ask that they be considered and that they not be heckled in any way. And I think that — you know — while there’s unfortunately no sense of — no sense of solidarity at this point between unions and students, there at least need be no — you know — excessively hard feelings between the two groups.

Now, there are at least two ways in which sit-ins and civil disobedience and whatever — least two major ways in which it can occur. One, when a law exists, is promulgated, which is totally unacceptable to people and they violate it again and again and again till it’s rescinded, appealed. Alright, but there’s another way. There’s another way. Sometimes, the form of the law is such as to render impossible its effective violation — as a method to have it repealed. Sometimes, the grievances of people are more — extend more — to more than just the law, extend to a whole mode of arbitrary power, a whole mode of arbitrary exercise of arbitrary power.

And that’s what we have here. We have an autocracy which — which runs this university. It’s managed. We were told the following: If President Kerr actually tried to get something more liberal out of the Regents in his telephone conversation, why didn’t he make some public statement to that effect? And the answer we received — from a well-meaning liberal — was the following: He said, “Would you ever imagine the manager of a firm making a statement publicly in opposition to his Board of Directors?” That’s the answer.

Well I ask you to consider — if this is a firm, and if the Board of Regents are the Board of Directors, and if President Kerr in fact is the manager, then I tell you something — the faculty are a bunch of employees and we’re the raw material! But we’re a bunch of raw materials that don’t mean to be — have any process upon us. Don’t mean to be made into any product! Don’t mean — Don’t mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone! We’re human beings!

And that — that brings me to the second mode of civil disobedience. There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus — and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it — that unless you’re free the machine will be prevented from working at all!! (emphasis added)

That doesn’t mean — I know it will be interpreted to mean, unfortunately, by the bigots who run The Examiner, for example — That doesn’t mean that you have to break anything. One thousand people sitting down some place, not letting anybody by, not [letting] anything happen, can stop any machine, including this machine! And it will stop!!

We’re gonna do the following — and the greater the number of people, the safer they’ll be and the more effective it will be. We’re going, once again, to march up to the 2nd floor of Sproul Hall. And we’re gonna conduct our lives for awhile in the 2nd floor of Sproul Hall. We’ll show movies, for example. We tried to get Un Chant d’Amour and [they] shut them off. Unfortunately, that’s tied up in the court because of a lot of squeamish moral mothers for a moral America and other people on the outside. The same people who get all their ideas out of the San Francisco Examiner. Sad, sad. But, Mr. Landau — Mr. Landau has gotten us some other films.

Likewise, we’ll do something — we’ll do something which hasn’t occurred at this University in a good long time! We’re going to have real classes up there! They’re gonna be freedom schools conducted up there! We’re going to have classes on [the] 1st and 14th amendments!! We’re gonna spend our time learning about the things this University is afraid that we know! We’re going to learn about freedom up there, and we’re going to learn by doing!!

Now, we’ve had some good, long rallies. [Rally organizers inform Savio that Joan Baez has arrived.] Just one moment. We’ve had some good, long rallies. And I think I’m sicker of rallies than anyone else here. She’s not going to be long. I’d like to introduce one last person — one last person before we enter Sproul Hall. Yeah. And the person is Joan Baez.

Joan Baez, On The Steps of Sproul Hall, 1964

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
...

EAGAN’S SUBCONSCIOUS COMICS. More classic and wildly funny views into our almost hidden psyches.

EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s ” 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. 

LISA JENSEN LINKS. . Lisa writes: “After my 187 years in journalism, I can still pretty much figure out what does or doesn’t work in a movie. But I’m all at sea confronted with the unwieldy text of my own next book! Find out how much I’m missing my beta reader — and what I plan to do about it — this week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com ).” Lisa has been writing film reviews and columns for Good Times since 1975. 

Leave it to Trevor Noah to succinctly break everything down. These 18 minutes are well spent.

 

    REVOLUTION

“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship”.
~George Orwell 

“You don’t have a peaceful revolution. You don’t have a turn-the-cheek revolution. There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution”.
~Malcolm X

“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.
~George Orwell 

The United States was born in revolution and nurtured by struggle. Throughout our history, the American people have befriended and supported all those who seek independence and a better way of life.
~Robert Kennedy 


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

...

Posted in Weekly Articles | Leave a comment