|
MOUNT RUSHMORE ON CHESTNUT?? No official word yet about what or why the cliffs going down Chestnut Street between Mission and Locust Streets are being cleared, but I figured it out. The city is going to sculpt a local version of Mount Rushmore on those cliffs with favorite Santa Cruzans faces carved into the hillside. First guesses are, Charlie Canfield, Fred Keeley (with hair), Louie Rittenhouse, Jan Beautz, Dan Forbus, and of course Cynthia Mathews. And your suggestions are…..???
POLITICAL SIGNAGE. The big and expensive Cynthia Mathews sign on Louis Rittenhouse’s lot at Almar and Mission Street says more than a lot. Yes, that’s the same lot that Mike Rotkin and Scott Kennedy were caught ripping down the campaign signs back in 1998. I’ve printed Jerry Kaufmann’s and my version of that story many times over the years. Now, just to give us another accurate picture of both Rotkin and Kennedy, here is an article from the October 28, Metro Santa Cruz written by then reporter, John Yewell….
Where’s Your Sign?(Oct. 28 1998)
Jerry Kaufman is not a man who minces words.” What are you rotten stinking bastards doing?” he screamed as he hurtled himself across Almar Street hobbling on his cane. “You’re the lowest bums I ever laid eyes on.” From inside Aldos Restaurant last Saturday evening with his partner, Elaine Herman, Kaufman says he had spotted council members Michael Rotkin and Scott Kennedy tearing down campaign signs belonging to Timothy Fitzmaurice, Keith Sugar and Christopher Krohn–the Santa Cruz Action Network (SCAN) slate of City Council candidates–and replacing them with a sign for rival Linda Steinau. Kaufman, who supports the SCAN slate, swung a verbal left hook at Rotkin. “You give socialism a bad name,” he said to the leftist UCSC lecturer. He followed with a jab at Kennedy, who is a staff member at the Resource Center for Nonviolence. “You’re about as nonviolent as Mussolini,” Kaufman barked, “you disgusting fat galoots.” Then, for emphasis, Kaufman took his cane and whacked to pieces the just-installed Steinau sign. Rotkin tried to calm Kaufman down, to no avail. “Jerry was out of control,” Rotkin says.
Kennedy and Rotkin say they were on the property with the permission of the owner, Louis Rittenhouse (who confirms this), and were acting on his instructions in removing signs–although a sign for candidate Pat Clark, who is supported by Kennedy but not Rittenhouse, was not removed. Kaufman says he saw Kennedy throw a Fitzmaurice sign into the street, and produces a tire-marked sign to back up his story. Kennedy denies this. In fact, Rotkin says, they delivered the three removed signs to nearby Democratic Party headquarters on Swift Street. But longtime Democratic Party activist and high school teacher Ed Porter, who was in the office when Kennedy and Rotkin arrived, says he saw no signs delivered. Both Steinau and candidate Jane Walton say the SCAN supporters are the ones playing dirty. “I had to replace several today up on Broadway,” she says. “That’s part of the deal” of running for office, she says. Walton says SCAN candidates routinely violate municipal posting restrictions and trespass on private property. Welcome to this year’s election week sign wars”. Now in 2012 at that Almar/Mission corner along with the Mathews sign, you’ll see what we can assume is a Rittenhouse approved sign pushing Comstock. Stay tuned on this one.
CITY COUNCIL FORUM THURSDAY NIGHT. Here’s Gary Patton talking about a candidate’s night…(from his KUSP broadcasts) As a former elected official myself, I do pay attention to elections, and this year I am paying particular attention not only to the amazingly important federal and state elections scheduled for November, but to some pretty important local elections, too. County Supervisorial elections in both Monterey and Santa Cruz counties will have a profound impact on future land use decisions. City Council elections, perhaps particularly in the City of Santa Cruz, may also have a big impact on future land use and water policy decisions.
If you are going to be voting in the City of Santa Cruz (and there is still time to register to vote, by the way), you might want to attend a candidates’ forum for Santa Cruz City Council candidates, scheduled for tomorrow evening. The forum will focus on water issues, and is sponsored by the Surfriders Environmental Alliance, the Surfrider Foundation, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Peak Water, Desal Alternatives, the Community Water Coalition, Teach the Forest, and Save the Waves. The candidates’ forum will begin at 6:30 Thursday evening Sept. 27at the London Nelson Center, located at 301 Center Street in the City of Santa Cruz. The law firm with which I am associated represents the Community Water Coalition, one of the sponsors, but that’s not the only reason I am going to be at the forum tomorrow tonight. I hope to see you there!”.
| JACK WEBB & JOHNNY CARSON & FUN. Peggy Snider found this gem and sent it onwards… |
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND PROP 35. Local WILPF activist Nancy Abbey has been concerned about proposition #35, the one that claims to end or combat human trafficking. She wrote this last week for BrattonOnline…
Proposition 35,Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act, seems a “no-brainer”
|
SHIRLEY TEMPLE WALKING IN THE RAIN |
Who isn’t against sexual exploitation! But Prop 35 is so flawed that in a few years, after much damage to the life of admittedly not so innocent people, we’d be back to the ballot box as we are this year after almost a decade of the “Three Strikes” law.
This proposition has several worrisome aspects, but there’s one in particular that bothers me.
Since a major motivation for human trafficking is financial gain, the idea of increased fines and penalties seems an appropriate deterrent to the crime. But this initiative doesn’t stop there. It broadens the definition of human trafficking and requires that anyone convicted of human trafficking register as a sex offender for the rest of their lives.
Sex offender? Isn’t that a sexual deviant? A pervert in not so “politically correct” terms?
If the intent of this law is purely punitive, then living with that label is surely punishment. The framers of the initiative got that right!
But if there’s any intent of rehabilitating someone caught up in the wide net this bill would cast, that label will be a deterrent to a new means of livelihood. What chance would a convicted human trafficker have of finding honest employment after serving their time? What chance of getting education or training for another career? Of finding housing that wouldn’t be plagued with the animus and fear of neighbors?
Sorry, we need to bring more attention to human trafficking – whether sexual exploitation or labor exploitation – but let’s do it with a thoughtful approach that can deter human trafficking, not just clean up punitively after the fact”.
Others are becoming aware of the faults with propositions, and especially with Prop.35’s unique problems…In Monday’s (9/24) S.F. Chronicle Edith Kinney talks about the more and more challenging Prop 35 that we face in just 6 weeks in an article titled “Beyond Sexual Exploitation”…”Voters should remember that human trafficking is not the same as prostitution. Indeed, the state’s 2007 report “Human Trafficking in California” concluded: “[T]he perception that most human trafficking is sex trafficking must be dispelled, and other forms of forced labor recognized.” While tough-on-crime approaches to sex trafficking assuage the public’s moral outrage, cracking down on prostitution to combat trafficking will increase demands on the criminal justice system while likely doing little to assist exploited victims themselves”.
(Edith Kinney is a graduate of Berkeley Law and the UCB Jurisprudence & Social Policy program. She is a visiting assistant professor at Mills College in Oakland).
A Board of Supervisors public hearing that is scheduled for Tuesday, September 25th, on Barry Swenson’s Aptos Village development will include a review of the changes to the plan being proposed. For those new to this ongoing “plan”, originally adopted in some form in April 1979, the current plan was approved by the Planning Commission in February, 2010. Not much has changed with this property since 1979, except for lots of thrashing around by different developers that didn’t produce anything acceptable to the community, nor were investors willing to get involved. However this time, Barry Swenson Builders are sure they have a project, BUT with certain changes to the plan that was approved by the Planning Commission:
1. The historical Firehouse and VFW building must be demolished. It was deemed “unmovable”.
2. 10 more residential units need to be added.
3. A second “anchor store” must be added or the “project isn’t financially feasible”.
Searching through the documentation online, there was no indication of a traffic study being done, other than the statement “standards of dwelling unit density, site coverage, yard spaces, heights of structures, the distances between structures, off-street parking, and off-street loading facilities will be such that the development will not generate more traffic than the streets in the vicinity can carry and will not overload utilities”.
Traffic will be increased by that second “anchor store”, and traffic will be the major problem with this development. Why not more details? Also, if the Firehouse can’t be moved, what’s going to happen when they get down to moving the Apple Barn that is also a requirement of the Aptos Village Plan? (Paul Elerick is co-chair, along with Peter Scott, of the Campaign for Sensible Transportation, http://sensibletransportation.org , and is a member of Nisene 2 Sea, a group of open space advocates).
PATTON’S PROGRAM. Gary says we should pay attention to Watsonville’s General Plan which they will be working on…this Tuesday. He too tells us details about developer Barry Swenson’s plans for Aptos Village and our board of Supes decisions. That means 63 new residential units and 75,000 sq. ft of commercial development where the old Apple barn now sits. He talks about ALBA and why we should know more about this word and the organization behind it. (Gary Patton is “Of Counsel” to the Santa Cruz law firm of Wittwer & Parkin, which specializes in land use and environmental law. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. Gary has his own website, “Two Worlds / 365” – www.gapatton.net)
ANCHOR IN ANTARCTICA. Micaela Neus writes her very last column…from Antarctica’s ice…
After weeks of preparations, a few whispered prayers and more than one mumbled curse, the mighty ship ARSV Laurence M.Gould (LMG) arrived in Arthur Harbor last Saturday morning. Her final departure in June marked the beginning of winter and her return now signals its end. I remembered a ship that looked tubby and clumsy, was painted a garish orange with sickly yellow accents, and swayed unevenly from side to side due to her shallow draft. People often compare the LMG to a diesel-powered rubber ducky and on other days, I might have laughed at those jokes. But on that morning, no other ship on the sea could have been a more welcome sight to winter over eyes!
The days since then have passed in a blur. The boat more than doubled the population on station, not counting the ship’s crew who remain onboard, and the rush of new faces has left some of my fellow winterovers quite overwhelmed. We spent the last three months with only nineteen people and have gotten to know one another’s voices and habits.
A few footsteps or even a single sneeze would suffice to identify someone in the winter. New people mean a barrage of unfamiliar sounds and unanticipated routines. We bump into one another, do that little right-left-right dance of trying to walk by a stranger with whom you’re out of sync. Yesterday, I got confused by the fragrance of someone’s lotion: what is that bizarre smell? No one wore that brand in winter.
Yet the boat also brought the things we miss most during the winter: Freshies and mail. Nothing on earth rivals the pleasure of a handwritten postcard and crisp red apple after ninety days of canned fruit and Facebook! My first meal consisted of a pile each of carrots, cherry tomatoes, and real (not dehydrated or canned!) mushrooms, plus a generous helping of roasted root vegetables, with an apple and a banana for dessert. The emotional experience is hard to describe– I bed more relaxed and yet more homesick with each bite. You’ll find similar descriptions of food’s impact on morale and mental health in the earliest accounts of Antarctic expeditions, and I felt a sense of solidarity with my forebears. Not too long ago, people died on this continent from various forms of malnutrition and vitamin deficiency, not to mention plain old starvation. People elsewhere in the world continue to die for the same reasons today. Good food is a blessing beyond compare, and one we must fight to defend these days.
Personally, I got reenergized by the boat’s arrival. My role as the cargo supervisor keeps me hopping, mixing with our summer replacements and the ship’s crew as well as spending time with the winterovers. Still, quiet moments do manage to wiggle their way into my day. I’ll catch myself looking across the harbor at the glacier or over toward the
mountains behind our little islands. Not exactly day-dreaming, not exactly zoning out. My impending departure has stirred up a surreal form of nostalgia, one that starts before the trip ends. One day soon, I’ll wake up somewhere that is not Antarctica. What then?
(Micaela Neus works for Raytheon Polar Services Company as a utilities technician and was living at Palmer Station, Antarctica now she’s leaving, and probably forever!!)
| MISSION IMPOSSIBLE SQUIREL. Kit Birskovich found this tribute to mother nature and patience…and especially NUTS!!! |
VINTAGE DE CINZO. DeCinzo deals with fast food and fast legal action…scroll down
EAGANS DEEP COVER. Tim visits Romney World again, featuring thrill rides for the rich!! Page downward about 3 pages.
LANDAU’S PROGRES. Saul writes, «On A pedestal of Nuclear Immorality » he says, “What did Iran do to us to merit heavy U.S. sanctions? The media doesn’t ask this question. Oh yeah, 30-plus years ago Iranian zealots grabbed some CIA and Embassy folk in Teheran and held them hostage, and then let them go, and Reagan took credit. But before we plunge into military conflict with Iran, as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu extols, the press might indulge its public in some useful historical review – they forgot some important history – to try to deal with the alleged threat of “nuclear mullahs” as Bill Keller called Iran’s religious leaders”. He closes with, “.Nuclear weapons are bad, just as the Iranian Ayatollah characterized them. And the United States has exclusively used them, and then tested them. Its political leaders knew the tests could hurt humans. We stand on a pedestal of nuclear immorality when we threaten Iran”. Read it all here
Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow whose films are on DVD from roundworldproductions@gmail.
|
SHIRLEY TEMPLE & BOJANGLES ROBINSON. |
LISA JENSEN LINKS. “Don’t turn around, but the Open Studios Art Tour is just around the corner. Read my handy guide to getting the most out of Santa Cruz’s premiere art event this week at Lisa Jensen Online Express (http://ljo-express.blogspot.com/)—beginning with the Open Studios Preview Show opening at the Art League this Sunday. ” Lisa has been writing film reviews and columns for Good Times since 1975.
|
RUBE GOLDBERG IS ALIVE AND WELL. Another Birskovich discovery which is one of my favorites… |
THE MASTER. Scientologists have been told not to see this film, but you should. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and especially Joaquin Phoenix do Oscar winning roles in this spell binding film. The director Paul Thomas Anderson has always made fine films but this one tops them all.
END OF WATCH. One of the finest cop-buddy movies I’ve seen. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena make you believe they are good friends and South Central LA cops too. All the acting, and especially the camera work, is exciting and new, and a lot of hand held action. The locations are authentic, the plot has a few holes in it but go see it, very well done.
DREDD IN 3D. Another Blade Runner justice in a future mega city type violent bloody excellent movie. The main villain is named Madrigal (really) the futuristic boring buildings were probably designed by Barry Swenson (maybe) but above all that is a fast paced, beautifully edited, fantastic use of 3D the likes of which we seldom see. If you like these no holds barred enforcer films go see this….and see it in 3D.
HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET. Elisabeth Shue has done a little better in her film career and Jennifer Lawrence should sue whoever made this piece of crap horror flick. At least when somebody goes down the stairway into the cellar part of the stairway is circular…and that’s about the only original bit in this stupid (only 12% Rotten Tomatoes) horror mess. Don’t even think about this film. That’s why they didn’t publicize it, or the ratings.
TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE. This is Clint Eastwood as I’ve always thought of him…corny, trite, sappy, not too quick. His movies, his acting, and his politics are all in the same bucket. A Hollywood dollop of tripe. Don’t go. Except that Amy Adams does do her usual excellent acting, in spite of everything.
CAPITOLA BOOK CAFÉ READING. Joanne Leonard author of The Healer of Fox Hollow will be doing a reading at 7:30 p.m. from her book Thursday Sept. 27 at The Capitola Book Café. It’s a fine book and Joanne is an excellent writer, and Rick Kleffel will be doing a live interview with Joann for his KUSP “Agony Column” Program.
HOSTETTER’S HOT STUFF. There’s a lot of new stuff here and check it out at http://www.lutherie.net/live.music.html, such as Korean Culture Day at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill in a few places, BluePrint’s Dancas Nativas in SF, Bosnian Sevdah & Dance at the Croatian American Cultural Center, Sri. Mysore Nagaraj & Dr. Mysore Manjunath – violin duet in Milpitas, Sonny Landreth on guitar, “Women Over the Edge,” Ensemble Basiani, there’s just no end to it. pH.
UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE. Each and every Tuesday from 7:00-8:00 p.m. I host Universal Grapevine on KZSC 88.1 fm. or on your computer (live only, or sometimes old programs are archived…(see next paragraph) and go to WWW.KZSC.ORG.
On Sept. 25th Scott Griffin, Nickelodeon chief operating manager discusses films, digital releases and local movie tastes followed by Jim Emdy from KUSP. He and I will talk about the many area opera season’s. OCTOBER 2nd means the Bi-annual KZSC Pledge Drive with County Supervisor John Leopold returning as special guest co-host. Cathy Pickerrell from Santa Cruz Chamber Players will provide season news on October 9th ,then David Foster discusses the newly opened Re-Store project. October 16th Grapevine has Catherine Segurson and Rebecca Goldman talking about The Catamaran Literary Reader then Richard Popchak discusses The Ventana Wilderness alliance. Land Use attorney Bill Parkin talks about the legal issues involved with the Aptos Safeway expansion on October 23rd followed by Linda Bixby and Jimmy Cook discussing child placement and the local CASA organization. Do remember, any and all suggestions for future programs are more than welcome so tune in, and keep listening. Email me always at bratton@cruzio.com
UNIVERSAL GRAPEVINE ARCHIVES. In case you missed some of the great people I’ve interviewed in the last 5 years here’s a chronological list of just this year’s podcasts. Click here http://kzsc.org/blog/tag/
QUOTES. Amazing but true, Alyce Cadwallader sent even more winning quotes…
“What do you mean, my birth certificate has expired?”,
“Sex is not the answer. Sex is the question. “Yes” is the answer”
“Don’t you think it is funny that after Monday (M) and Tuesday (T) the rest of the week is WTF?”
“You have to stay in shape. When my mom was 60, she started walking 5 miles a day. Today she is 97. And, we still don’t know where the hell she is.” Thank Alyce, not me.
Subscriptions: Click and enter the box in the upper right hand corner of each Column. 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 @ www.TheGoldenFleece.com
BEST OF VINTAGE STEVEN DeCINZO.
Deep Cover by tim eagan.
