City and County officials reached an agreement on Wednesday that the city’s ban on camping out on city property extends to county property within city limits.
Domestic Violence Up Across Santa Cruz County
The numbers are disturbing. Five out of the nine homicides reported in Santa Cruz County this year resulted from domestic violence, a sharp upswing from last year. Kristie Clemens of the Walnut Avenue Women’s Shelter says that she has noticed only a slight increase in the number of women turning to the shelter because of domestic violence, but adds that the incidents being reported are more severe.
Santa Cruz Pet Biz Puts Old-School Spin on Crowdsourcing
An open gate and empty backyard can breed panic. Pet owners realize they have a date with every light pole and bulletin board in the city, canceling appointments and digging up photographs of their vanished animal. But four legs can cover a lot more ground than two, and a few hundred more pairs of eyes can raise the margin of success.
Downtown Santa Cruz Dogfight
Oliver loves to visit downtown Carmel. He and his chauffeur enjoy great service at restaurants and freedom to run the town’s white sand beach untethered. Oliver also enjoys Los Gatos, with its water bowls on the sidewalk, welcoming stores and a main street full of other people and their dogs.
Pedestrian Hit by Rock on Soquel Drive
The Santa Cruz Intifada had another victim on Monday when a 32-year-old male was brought to Dominican Hospital after being hit by a rock.
Peacecamp 2010 Protests Sleeping Ban
For the past three weeks Santa Cruz’s homeless population has been camped out on the steps of the county courthouse, protesting the city’s ban on sleeping on the streets. The courthouse grounds are safe, because they belong to the county, not the city, and the protesters, while they may be a nuisance, cannot be arrested easily there. But the protesters feel that they are not making headway, so on Tuesday they marched to City Hall to demand that the sleeping ban be repealed.
Tamagotchi: Man’s Best Trend
Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ Co. Ltd, is the original creator of Tamagotchi, which is arguably the most famous virtual pet device ever created, with more than 70 million units sold since it debuted in 1996 and multiple adaptations of the toys into films, television series and video games. Yokoi answered questions from Santa Cruz Weekly via email from his home in Chiba, Japan, about how he came up with the idea for Tamagotchi and what the differences are between virtual pets and real ones.
Unconditional Love 2.0: Cyberpets v. Real Thing
It has to be vomit. Nothing else could explain that wet, meaty stench wafting from the back seat. Pulling the car to a stop, I look back at my dazed 7-month-old golden retriever, Dublin, then down at what is indeed a small but pungent pile of partially digested kibble that the 90-minute trip from Santa Cruz to San Francisco has sent rocketing up from her motion-sensitive stomach and onto the car’s upholstery. With slideshow.
‘Cabaret’ Celebrates The Bawdy Beautiful
The audience never stood a chance. From the moment the lights came up on dynamo Roddy Kennedy in the impish, libidinous role of the Emcee, the cast of Cabaret was in charge. No provincial musical theater production this, with audience members tensed for blown high notes and lead-footed maneuvers by non-dancers. Cabrillo Stage’s latest offering brims with big-city talent—top-notch singing, powerful dancing and strong acting, all marshaled by director Trevor Little into a dark tale about decadence, innocence and escalating racism in 1930s Berlin.
Santa Cruz Pension Talks Move Forward
To call it a “breakthrough” might be premature. But there are now seven out of the city of Santa Cruz’s 762 benefited employees who say they’ll jump on the pension reform bandwagon. Four lieutenants, two deputy chiefs and a captain of the Santa Cruz Police Department agreed last week to temporarily increase the amount of money they pay into the California Public Employees’ Retirement System by 8 percent (all of which will come after they receive a 4 percent annual cost-of-living raise from the city). The city’s finance department estimates the move will save $101,000 next year.
