On Saturday, Take Back Santa Cruz, Save Our Shores and the Friends of Lighthouse Field will be launching a major cleanup campaign at Lighthouse Field. The 36-acre landmark has been seeing an increase in drug dealing, littering and illegal camping since 2007, the year that the city gave up its lease to the site and it reverted to State Park control. Given the current budget crisis facing California, the Parks Department is hard-pressed to provide the necessary protection for the area. According to Take Back Santa Cruz, “Whenever you pull the community out of an area, then this illegal activity is going to flourish.”
Alfresco Moves Uptown
Marilyn Emery’s healthy fast food creed is short and sweet: “Ready in 45 seconds to two minutes.” And she means it. I peek inside her miniature curbside kitchen as she whips up the Muffalleta wrap I have just ordered. A supple, pie-sized whole wheat tortilla materializes. Hummus is instantly spread across every centimeter. The chopped olives, red peppers, capers, pepperoncini and garlic are slapped into the middle, followed by a healthy handful of organic baby greens. Whoosh! Her lightening hands roll everything into a tight, fat cylinder. She makes a diagonal cut forming two perfectly uniform halves. It’s packed tightly into a to-go sheet of plastic wrap or served up on a biodegradeable plate to eat on the spot. Bam. It’s done and you’re good to go.
Staring Down the Dragon on Dependence Day
On the night of the Fourth of July, I flew into New Orleans. I watched from above as fireworks sailed from below into the sky to celebrate Independence Day.
The young man from a small Louisiana coastal town sitting next to me said “I’ve never seen fireworks from above.”
“Me neither.”
Sureno Gang Drug Dealer Busted
Paul Matthew Garcia, 20, was arrested in his home in Rio del Mar after federal agents and local gang investigators raided his house.
The Blue Whales Are Here
Once in a blue moon. That’s one way to describe how rare the event was. Whale watchers in Monterey Bay had a chance to see not one, not two, not three, but 28 blue whales frolicking in the waters of the bay, along with a pod of humpback whales. It’s a sight that’s seldom seen. At 100 feet in length, blue whales are not only the largest animal that ever lived. They are also one of the rarest, with only 10,000 surviving across the planet today compared to over half a million just a few decades ago. Blue whale hunting was only banned by the International Whaling Commission in the 1960s, and halted by the Soviet Union in the 1970s. By then, the population in the Southern Ocean had been reduced to just 0.15 percent of its initial numbers.
Santa Cruz Mayor: Smart Meters Not Too Bright
These days, nothing says “I’m a 21st century product” quite like word “smart” in front of it. There’s “smart phones,” “smart cars,” “smart loans,” even “smart toilets.” So it should come as no surprise that gas and electric companies statewide are rolling out new “smart meters” that will replace the old – apparently “dumb” – mechanical usage meters with high-tech digital versions that track energy use down to microscopic detail and beam the info wirelessly to the power company.
Proposed Nitrates Rule Pits Farmers Against Activists
Juggling hand-drawn maps and posters, Dipti Bhatnagar and Leslie López leave Watsonville’s Public Library to pack their props and generous snacks into the trunk of Bhatnagar’s sedan. It hardly matters that only a few community members found their way to their Wednesday evening educational workshop on regional water issues—it isn’t their first meeting, and it won’t be their last.
Loads of Trash on Beaches, Post-Fourth
What did you do on Monday? If you live near one of Santa Cruz’s beaches, chances are you were combing the sand and collecting several hundred pounds of garbage left behind from the Independence Day festivities. Within two hours volunteer cleanup crews with Save Our Shores and the Clean Oceans Project had collected as much as 300 pounds of garbage at Seabright Beach alone. Much of it was plastic, which would otherwise have ended up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But there were also remains of fireworks, which fish could easily mistake for kelp.
Second Amendment Case Surrounds BB Gun
Barbara Saldinger, 47, is a medical doctor with a degree from Stanford who raises horses as a hobby. She is also at the center of a major gun rights case. Ironically, the only gun she’s ever owned is a BB gun.
Sleeping as an Act of Protest
For 40 years Santa Cruz has enforced a ban against sleeping in public places between the hours of 11pm and 8:30am. With more and more people out on the street, the sleeping ban is coming under fire. For two days, homeless activists and their supporters have been holding a sleep-out outside the county courthouse.
