Ramona Cash is a cute, punky looking brunette you’d expect to see modeling skirts and bikinis in a skateboard fashion catalog. Over coffee in downtown Santa Cruz, she parts a section of her professionally highlighted hair to reveal an inch-wide heart-shaped bald spot from where her friends precisely ripped the hair from her scalp.
News
Rally Highlights K-12 Woes
As a small procession made up mostly of university students made its way down Pacific Avenue yesterday, some onlookers were unimpressed.
“Seems pretty meager for a protest,” one man said, watching as a banner passed that read “We are the Budget Cuts.” What he, and perhaps many Santa Cruz residents, didn’t know is that the meager procession had broken off from a group of at least 400 students, faculty and workers who had been picketing since daybreak at the main entrance to UCSC. In a rare coalescence of solidarity between the town and the gowns, the university protest was, in the form of this small group, merging with a community demonstration to save public education.
Students Protest Fee Hikes at UCSC
Fed up with rising fee costs and slashed department budgets, UCSC students staged a massive protest on campus Thursday as students across the nation demonstrated against what many see as higher education becoming unaffordable. With slide show.
Synergy Clothing Comes Home to Santa Cruz
A lot has changed since Kate Fisher locked eyes with Henry Schwab at a Phish concert in 1997. She was a Deadhead peddling Indian textiles; he was a Greenpeace activist touring with Phish’s nonprofit arm the Waterwheel Foundation. And yeah, yeah—they grew up, got married and had kids, but Fisher’s clothing line Synergy grew up with them, culminating with her new downtown Santa Cruz storefront, Synergy Clothing, which opened in January.
Police Prepare for Student Protests
The SCPD has issued a traffic advisory warning drivers that they could face delays getting around town today.
School Board Approves Major Layoffs
At a meeting yesterday, the Santa Cruz City Schools Board of Trustees agreed to lay off or reduce the hours of as many as 130 full-time and temporary teachers to make up for its $5.2 million deficit. The decision came after the teachers unions’ refused to offer any concessions on pay and furloughs. Teachers affected include 57 full-time and 23 part-time K-12 educators and 50 adult education teachers. The Board also voted to cut the hours on every adult education program in the county in a move described by Board President Rachel Dewey Thorsett as “the worst case scenario.”
SCPD to Start Texting
The SCPD has signed up with Nixle, a free and secure alert notification system, which will allow officers to send text messages to registered users.
Knives Replacing Fists in Santa Cruz
Sometimes it seems like stabbings are a daily occurrence in Santa Cruz. Even the police are picking up on it now. SCPD Spokesperson Zach Friend now says that, “As we saw with the tragic death of Tyler Tonario, when you engage in a verbal altercation that you maybe think is just a verbal altercation, or could be just a simple fist fight, it’s now turning into tragic stabbings more and more.” Other police officers are pointing out that knives have become the weapon of choice among teens, replacing good old-fashioned fist-fights.
Exhibit Examines the Book as a Medium
Within the next two decades, books as we know them will likely become curiosities, artifacts of an old way of life. Paper books, which set forth ideas in a linear manner, have already given way to the omni-directional, multi-media internet as a means to reach and teach the rewired human brain in the digital age: goodbye, printed newspapers and textbooks; hello, “Please enter your library card number to download Fahrenheit 451.
In Downtown Santa Cruz, Designer Handbags Galore
When Lara Marotta decided to open Twist last summer, “with no money and Facebook,” it was all about the clothes. In the Pacific Avenue storefront where she used to run Galla Cabana before selling it several years ago, her concept for a high-end consignment store stocked with designer labels began to take shape. Sophisticated Ralph Lauren dresses and Gucci jackets would hang next to playful Free People sweaters and shimmering Bebe halter tops, carefully chosen fashion pieces at a fraction of the original price. With slide show.
