Top Stories
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Friday, Aug. 22, 2008
Downtown Parking Garage Threatens Market, Raises Ire
Critics say proposal ignores findings of a 2003 transportation study
Easily the ugliest buildings in town, parking garages have always had a tough row to hoe when it comes to getting public support. The city’s proposal to build a five-story, 612-space parking garage on the corner of Cedar and Cathcart Streets is no different, and a growing group of residents is stepping up to oppose the building and everything it stands for. -
Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2008
Critics of Proposed La Bahia Hotel Plan Rally
Size of proposed beach hotel and union labor contracts fuel Aug. 21 protest
Critics of the La Bahia Hotel project have scheduled a rally to shore up opposition to Barry Swenson Builder's grand plan. The event will kick off Thursday, Aug. 21 at 5:30pm at the beach in front of La Bahia and will feature irked union workers, peeved neighbors and slighted city commissioners.
The rally is being hosted by the Build A Better La Bahia Coalition, a local protest group whose slogan is “build a great hotel, not just a great big one.” Group spokesman Ned Van Valkenburgh said a wide variety of people are unhappy about the seven-story hotel and want a scaled-back version. -
Friday, Aug. 8, 2008
Santa Cruz Gets Tough With Styrofoam Ban
New rule closes loopholes left in by Capitola
Santa Cruz officials are praying to the gods of biodegradable packaging that restaurants take the Aug. 12 ban on Styrofoam more seriously than their neighbors in Capitola.
The ban–approved in January by the City Council–prohibits any food provider from using Styrofoam and mandates all disposable food packaging be biodegradable, compostable or recyclable.
“We’re really hoping the community steps up and enforces the law themselves,” says Public Works Operations Manager Mary Arman. “We’re not hiring extra staff to enforce the law, but we expect people to report on those who aren’t complying, and then we’ll try and work with them.” -
Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008
Democrats' New Campaign Headquarters Opens in Santa Cruz
The United Democratic Campaign is all about high hopes for long coattails
Even in true-blue Santa Cruz County, the Democrats’ coattail fever has set in. On Wednesday, Aug. 13, the United Democratic Campaign headquarters opens at 740 Front Street in downtown Santa Cruz with the goal of uniting (get it?) support for the presidential, congressional, state and local candidates under one glorious blue donkey-tastic banner.
It’s all part of a national push by Democrats to ride long Obama coattails into office, explains Democratic Central Committee spokesman Don Morrison. The California Democratic Party is pitching in by establishing these united campaign headquarters in 51 California counties. -
Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008
Brookdale Bleach Spill Blamed For Fish Deaths
Steelheads' endangered status could cost hotelier
The owner of the Brookdale Inn and Spa is facing potentially hefty fines from the California Department of Fish and Game after 49 dead fish were found in a nearby stretch of Clear Creek, which flows under the lodge’s restaurant.
An employee at the Brookroom Restaurant, known for the open stream meandering through the dining room, is thought to have poured between 1 and 3 gallons of bleach into the stream prior to the fish turning up dead.
“Basically, what happened was we had a clog in the pipes and we tried to clear it, then it overflowed and an employee mopped up the spill and threw the water with bleach in it into a storm drain that went into the creek,” says Sanjiv Kakkar, owner of the Brookdale Inn and Spa, formerly known as the Brookdale Lodge. “It was a new employee who didn’t know not to throw the water in the drain.”
KUSP To Swap Midday Music for More News
'Grand experiment' to involve partnership with SF station
Some fans of Santa Cruz's oldest public radio station wept salty tears at the news that KUSP is giving the boot to four hours’ worth of midday music programming during the week to make room for more news. The thought of the venerable station following in the tracks of CSUMB station KAZU and going all talk all day when it unveils its new programming on Sept. 1 was, to some listeners, not a welcome one.
Susan Goldstein, president of KUSP’s board of directors, hastens to explain that KUSP is most assuredly not becoming another NPR yackfest. “We’ll still keep music in the evenings, locally hosted classical and jazz, five days a week,” she says, adding that KUSP will be “strengthening the music on the weekends.”
Monday, August 4, 2008
Firebombings Shake Santa Cruz
UCSC researchers targeted by animal rights activists
A charred spot of asphalt and a scalded front door are all that remain after Saturday’s early morning attack targeting two UCSC researchers, but among neighbors and community members, fear and outrage persist.
“It’s terrible. This is a huge threat to academic freedom,” said David Keller, director of Residential Services at UCSC and neighbor to a researcher whose car was destroyed. “I have a child and he was terrified. Given the nature of fire, it could have easily spread to my house or someone else’s house.”
The blasts at two residences, which destroyed a vehicle and damaged a home, were carried out in an act of what police are calling domestic terrorism. No one was killed in the blasts, which happened around 5:40am, but David Feldheim, a UCSC molecular biologist, injured his feet when he, along with his wife and two small children, were forced to flee their burning house through a window, police said.
Santa Cruz Biofuel Station Reopens
B99 ‘gourmet fuel’ is 100 percent recycled
The faces are familiar, the signs are the same and the slightly sweet scent of french fried fuel lingers in the air at the new biodiesel station at Soquel and Ocean. Where the defunct Pacific Biofuel once stood is the newly conceived Green Station, which quietly began selling small amounts of the cleaner-burning fuel in July.
“B99 still lives in Santa Cruz,” says Ray Newkirk, the former president of PacFuel and the most visible biodiesel activist in Santa Cruz. Still chatting with customers and fueling the revolution, Newkirk eschews a manager label at the new station and instead calls himself “the only guy working here now–I'm the green grunt.”
Santa Cruz Local News Archives
July 2008
