Remember 2120 Delaware? You know, the sprawling 20-acre, 530,000-square-foot live-work building project on Delaware Avenue that, when it was approved by the Santa Cruz City Council back in July 2008, was going to usher in a new progressive multi-use community to the Westside? That was, of course, until the economy tanked and Redtree Properties, the project developer, couldn’t sell any of the lots to customers. Well, today the property looks much as it has for the last decade: a fenced-off empty field.
Articles by Curtis Cartier
Santa Cruzs Party Palaces
At first glance Kasey Peck has it made. An undeclared freshman, he lives a block from UCSC with five other guys in a big ranch-style house on the upper Westside. Five young ladies in an almost identical situation live right next door. The only problem: he and the girls next door live in homes that have been flagged by the Santa Cruz Police Department as “loud and unruly” party houses. The designation stems from at least one wild night apiece that most likely involved lots of people, lots of ruckus and eventually lots of police, one of whom it is certain wrote a doozey of a ticket, not just for breaking the city’s noise ordinance but for throwing a legally defined “loud and unruly gathering.
At UCSC, A Costume Drama
In the back of Robbie Pleasant’s closet, behind a few wrinkled T-shirts and a couple pairs of pants, are rows and rows of costumes. Among them is a black-and-silver collared robe modeled after “Manjoume” from the anime series Yu-Gi-Oh GX. There’s also a white flowing martial-arts-type gi like the one “Aizen” wears in Bleach and a tattered wizardly gown famously donned by “Negi” in Mahou Sensei Negima!
SC Blues Fest’s Stellar Lineup
Bill Welch is a tall, gray-goateed music nut known for breaking into a sweat when talking about a good guitar player or horn blower—and for booking around 300 shows every year at his club, Moe’s Alley. But just in case the locals forget about the steady stream of talent running through his club, in his spare time Welch and his staff also throw together Santa Cruz County’s biggest music showcase, the Santa Cruz Blues Festival.
Ben Harper’s Blue Side
Undoubtedly there was some head-scratching when the name “Ben Harper and Relentless7” appeared atop the lineup for this year’s Santa Cruz Blues Festival. A man who’s sold millions of records thanks to reggae-inflected acoustic hits like “Burn One Down” and “Jah Work,” Harper is often written off as mellow indie it-boy by old-school rock and blues fans raised on B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Buddy Guy. But those people obviously haven’t heard his newest records.
Chowdown With Chowhound
In a large window-lit kitchen in Aptos, seven apron-sporting men and women survey a banquet of fresh ingredients in front of them. Farro grains, shallots, rhubarb, chicken breasts, chanterelle mushrooms, scallops, strawberries, butter, heavy cream and a handful of spices fill measuring cups and ramekins. Interrupting the happy din of the chatting guests, the owner of the home, a short but commanding brunette named Denise Ward, addresses them one by one.
A Revisionist History of 2009
It was one for the record books, this 2009. Oh, sure, there were bright points: the inauguration, some entertaining scandals, the inauguration, Giants slugger Pablo “Kung-Fu Panda” Sandoval, the inauguration. But for the most part, when we look back at 2009 we prefer to contemplate what might have happened rather than what actually did.
Firestorm of Trouble for Santa Cruz Salmon
Domestic and wild mammals fared pretty well during the Lockheed fire. Fish, not so much.
Santa Cruz Man’s Goatee Judged Greatest On Earth
For as long as he’s been an adult, Paul Beisser has had a beard. Be it a full and bushy face mane, a chiseled Fu-Manchu or a long and proud Van Dyke, the 58-year-old Santa Cruz postal worker’s chin skin has rarely seen the light of day. It wasn’t until May 23, at the World Beard and Moustache Championships in Anchorage, however, that the world finally recognized the whisker whiz for all his worth and awarded him the coveted trophy for World’s Best Natural Goatee.
