Fearing that Gov. Jerry Brown will take the county’s Redevelopment Agency money, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors worked out a plan to save the funds by spending them. Over the course of their meeting, they managed to spend $75 million and learned that it is not as easy as it seems.
Santa Cruz Harbor Reopens
After being closed for almost two weeks following the tsunami, Santa Cruz harbor reopened to boat traffic as of 8am this morning.
Library Plan Relies On Volunteers
There will be layoffs ahead for the Santa Cruz County library system, but all of the branches will remain open, and they will even increase their operating hours. That was the gist of a new plan released by a library board panel charged with finding ways to save the struggling system. The plan would increase the number of weekly hours that the system operates from 257 to 392. Key to the success of this proposal is the creation of a vibrant volunteer community that can replace many of the people laid off.
Abigail Washburn And Her Traveling Banjo
Abigail Washburn never dreamed that she would become a professional banjo player. Her plan was to become a lawyer. Ironically, it was her love for China—she lived there, visits regularly and has a deep connection to the Chinese people—that inspired her to pick up the banjo.
Brooklyn Band Endures And Tours
A shambling, unwieldy beast borne of country, punk, metal and anything else readily available, Brooklyn’s O’Death attracted plenty of attention with its first two albums. Fans of fractured folk music loved them, purists hated them, but the band’s divisive approach was admirable in an era of profitably risk-adverse indie rock.
Santa Cruz Poets, Santa Cruz Inspiration: Robert Sward
From the Guggenheim fellow, Fulbright scholar, Pushcart Prize nominee and editor of ‘Local Poets, Local Inspiration,’ a dog poem.
PLATED: A Pinot Party
With Pinot Paradise upon us, oenophiles will want to make educated choices about where to go and what to taste. For heft, muscular beauty and minty complexity, the Burrell School Vineyards 2007 Estate Reserve Pinot Noir will deliver and then some. This full-figured creation was among the 45 local pinot noirs, vintage 2007 and 2008, ranked last week by a team of tasters and wine writers.
Desalination Survey In
Just over half of Santa Cruz city residents support the much talked-about desalination plant proposal, according to a phone survey sponsored by the desal task force. A reported 54 percent of respondents called the plan to build a desalination plant a “good” or “excellent idea,” while 30 percent called it a “poor” or “not too good idea.”
In Praise of The Phonetain
There is a place in Santa Cruz that embodies, for me, the perfect synthesis between the city’s motto, “Keep Santa Cruz weird,” and a devotion to the world of creative imagination that is both lighthearted and heavy with sense, even though its sense is often nonsensical.
A Tsunami of Haiku
I tried to digest my feelings on the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident, and found that the only way I could express myself without ranting was a haiku cycle. So here it is:
