The plan has been in the works for years, for eight years in fact. The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission wanted to expand Highway 1, adding high-occupancy vehicle lanes between Soquel Drive and San Andreas Road, additional lanes between exits, and three new bridges for bicycles and pedestrians to cross the highway. The price tag for the total project is $503 million, but first it would have to get through an environmental impact report. Budgeted at about $12 million, the EIR alone has taken over a decade to complete.
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Predictive Policing And SCPD
Budget cuts have taken a toll on the police. Though the SCPD gets 30 percent more calls than it did in 2000, the department has to answer these calls with 20 percent fewer officers. This takes an inevitable toll on the force, but Santa Cruz has come up with a model that may relieve the strain a bit.
The Greenest House in Santa Cruz County
Once finished, the Platinum LEED-certified house will produce as much energy as it uses, if not more. Located on the sunny Westside at 325 John Street, the home complies with Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards—the absolute highest certification for green buildings. The LEED certification is based on a stringent rating system set by the U.S. Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization promoting sustainable design and construction (and the fastest-growing nonprofit since 2005).
Guilty Verdict in Sorokin Murder
On Tuesday a jury found Kenneth Clamp guilty in the July 2009 killing of Elias Sorokin.
CORRECTED: Monning, Stone, Robinson Announce Campaigns
The election season game of musical chairs has begun. The announcement Monday by Carmel Democrat Bill Monning that he will challenge incumbent Republican Sam Blakeslee for the Central Coast’s Senate seat touched off a minor flurry of activity early this week among Santa Cruz Democrats. First, just hours after Monning’s announcement, County Supervisor Mark Stone declared his candidacy for Monning’s Assembly seat, which is considered safe for Democrats. On Tuesday, Santa Cruz Councilmember Lynn Robinson threw her hat in the ring for the Assembly seat as well.
Younglove Avenue
It’s only three blocks long, between Mission Street and the circle with the church, hardly an avenue really, but the train tracks slashing through it at an angle give it a greater scope because as you ride across them carefully on your bike so as not to slip you can look both ways and imagine long trips in a boxcar.
FAIR Time for LGBT History
In the early morning hours of June 27, 1969, after countless police raids on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, gays and lesbians finally fought back. The ensuing three days of bottle-throwing, broken windows and street fighting has gone down in history as the Stonewall riots and is acknowledged as the beginning of the gay rights movement.
Santa Cruz’s First Shipping Container Home
When Connie DeWitt and her husband Kam Kasavri began designing a weekend getaway house in the quiet woods of Zayante, they knew what they wanted: high style, low impact on the earth and a minimal cash outlay. Two years later, their modern cabin is taking form as the very first home in Santa Cruz County to be constructed out of shipping containers.
Ten Questions: Ken Foster
Ken Foster hates two-stroke leaf blowers, loves Mandy Moore and Transition Santa Cruz.
PLATED: Local Color
Bonny Doon’s Sunset shout-out, Vine Hill’s new tasting room and Storr’s awarding-winning Pinot in this week’s PLATED.
