Home Economics of Walnut Commons

The 19-unit complex is slated for a surprisingly diminutive piece of asphalt at Walnut and Center.

If all goes according to plan, Sue Lawson will leave her home in La Selva Beach, where she’s been 32 years, for a new place where she hopes to really get to know the people around her. Lawson intends to move into a proposed 19-unit housing complex that’s up for a city council vote July 24. It would include a community kitchen and activity room—all in the name of getting to know the people next door a little better. “This is why it’s called an intentional community,” the 74-year-old Lawson says. “We meet once a week, and our building isn’t even going to be built for a year and a half.”

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Odonata Wines Makes Itself at Home

New Odonata Tasting Room Cozily located right next door to Companion Bakers, in the former New Leaf/Beckmann’s strip, Denis Hoey’s spiffy new Odonata Tasting Room offers plenty of tasting, fun food ops and sleek vintage woodwork. Hoey, who still makes his wines in the Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard space near Kelly’s, is still finetuning his new tasting space.

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‘A Chorus Line’ at Cabrillo Stage

'A Chorus Line' runs July 13–Aug. 12 at Cabrillo Crocker Theater. Photo by Jana Marcus.

In 1975, A Chorus Line shattered and rebuilt the world of musical theater. Within six months of its Broadway opening, before the world had had a chance to pick its jaw up off the ground, most of the cast went to London for the international tour. Finally, after six months of magazine covers, nine Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, they returned to the United States. Janie Scott was 25 at the time and just starting her dancing career. When she saw A Chorus Line in San Francisco, it changed her life forever.

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Doing A 180 On Homelessness

Carol and Rebel, two homeless people living in Santa Cruz. Photo by Chip Scheuer.

Permanent Supportive Housing is a model for solving the problem of homelessness, and it is the backbone of a national grassroots effort called the 100,000 Homes Campaign. With this model, homeless individuals are put into housing—literally, “Here’s an apartment, here’s a key,” no questions asked—and wrapped in any and all supportive services they may need for the rest of their lives until they die, hopefully with dignity and indoors. Santa Cruz has just joined the campaign with its own Project 180/180.

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