There was good news for teachers and students when the Pajaro Valley school board met on Wednesday. After years of dwindling funds, they were finally debating what to do with a $9 million surplus and another $5.6 million set aside to cover additional cuts.
Articles by Danny Wool
City Considers Making Pacific Avenue Two-Way Again
Twenty years have passed since Pacific Avenue was a two-way street. That may change if some city councilmembers and businesses have their way.
County’s Plastic Bag Law Challenged
It has only been a month since the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted to ban plastic bags from stores and restaurants in all unincorporated areas of the county. That is all it took for the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition to challenge the law in court. Stephen Joseph, the San Francisco lawyer behind the suit, says that there is no scientifically backed evidence to support the notion that plastic bags are harmful to the environment. “You at least have to have some valid findings,” he says. “But they don’t. They have invalid finding.”
End to Rent Control in Capitola
Capitola put an end to a rent control ordinance for mobile homes that has been on the books for 32 years, the Sentinel reports. The decision was made in response to a series of costly legal challenges over the past 10 years, particularly from the owner of one mobile home park, Ron Reed. Most other mobile parks are either owned by the city or nonprofits. Reed, however, is a property owner who still has two ongoing lawsuits against the city.
Santa Cruz Council Votes to Reduce Library Positions
City Council voted 5-1 last night to reclassify positions in the municipal library system. Only Councilmember Tony Madrigal dissented. The new arrangement could lead to as many as 11 layoffs, though library staffers are hopeful that at least some of these will be eased by early retirements. Also possible, they say, is a new deal with the union to cut costs by as much as $900,000.
Occupy Santa Cruz Plans Dance Protest
Today’s Occupy Santa Cruz protest will mark a change not only from previous protests in the city but also from Occupy protests taking place across the country. Rather than marching and chanting slogans, the participants plan on dancing. After all, music is inherently related to the protest movements of the past, and this is the town most closely identified with the Grateful Dead, known for such iconic protest songs as Mr. Charlie.
The Monarch Is Back
This weekend Santa Cruz turned out to greet the thousand of butterflies with their rich, autumn-colored wings, who will either winter in the park or move down to yet warmer pastures in Southern California or Mexico
Already Overcrowded, Jail Braces for More Inmates
On Friday, SantaCruz.com reported how Santa Cruz County Jail is preparing for about 120 new prisoners to be transferred there from state prisons over the course of next year and the release of 50 to 80 low-risk prisoners. This shuffling around of the state’s prison population is the direct result of AB 109. Yet while it may reduce overcrowding in state prisons, it is posing serious problems to local authorities, and not just because of the anticipated recidivism rate among early releases.
More Prisoners Coming to County Jail
Santa Cruz County Jail is preparing for some 120 new prisoners over the course of next year, the result of AB 109, which calls for the relocation of some 30,000 prisoners from state facilities to county jails. Chief Deputy Jim Hart of the Corrections Bureau says that the new prisoners will be “direct referrals from the court system who are non-violent, non-sex cases, and non serious cases.” To make room for the prisoners, another 50 to 80 low-level offenders will be released on parole or to electronic monitoring and house arrest.
A Two-Way Pacific?
Ever since the 1989 earthquake, local merchants and residents have been debating whether to keep Pacific Avenue one-way or make it two-way. The problem, says Robert Gibbs, a national retail consultant, is that right now Pacific cannot support any new businesses. If it went two-way, he says, new businesses would flock there, adding as much as $1.8 billion in new revenues to the economy and much-needed dollars to the city’s coffers.
