Social Service Funds Under Scrutiny

Vice Mayor Ryan Coonerty says 'the old system is coming to an end.' Photo by Curtis Cartier.

With the recession and the annual deficit, Santa Cruz has been forced to cut social service funding by 50 percent from what it was a decade ago. Still, the city offers about $1 million every year to a variety of programs that assist the needy. Few people contest that the programs are necessary, but some contest the lack of oversight in the distribution of funds. According to some City Council members, Santa Cruz has become a “magnet” for homeless people and others seeking aid.

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Homing Pigeons Looking For A Home

A healthy homing pigeon is a glorious creature.

Fifteen homing pigeons were found abandoned outside Paradise Park Masonic Lodge off Highway 9 on Monday. Now Animal Services is looking for the person who left them there. According to reports, the birds, which were likely pets, were starving and infested with parasites.  Had they not been found, they would have probably died of exposure or been eaten by other animals. According to animal rescue services, the animals did not know how to forage for themselves.

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The Exhibitionist: Fragile Strength

Charlene Doiron Reinhart, 'In My Solitude,' clay

The expressions are inscrutable. Wide-set eyes cast down or to the side; lids lowered like shades against intrusion; lips relaxed, sometimes slightly open: the ashen clay figures of Charlene Doiron Reinhart look inward and take the viewer with them. Like the white-painted characters in Butoh theatre, their expressions are communicated by the whole highly stylized form and given power by eloquent naturalistic details.

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Downtown Business Picking Up

There’s good news for Santa Cruz small business owners. Business seems to be picking up, as evidenced by the number of small shops that have recently opened up. Real figures, needed to determine whether the evidence is reliable or anecdotal, are scheduled to be released tomorrow, but Chip-of-one-name, who heads the Downtown Association, says, “We’re starting to see people with bags in their hands.”

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Second Assault in Santa Cruz

The downside of wide open spaces. Photo by Kathleen Olson.

Yesterday SantaCruz.com reported that a teenage girl was assaulted in Ocean View Park on Saturday. A second attack occurred in Arana Gulch Sunday evening. The victim, an 18-year-old girl, was walking in the area at about 6:30pm when a man approached her from behind with a knife and attempted to attack her. She said that something startled him and he fled into an adjacent wooded area.

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