Santa Cruz is a motorcycle Mecca. After all, four wheels may move the body, but two wheels move the soul. Perhaps that is why Santa Cruz is also an environmental Mecca, which is why Zero Motorcycles is looking to open up shop here. The electric motorcycle manufacturer, currently based up the road in Scotts Valley, is looking for $800,000 to open a new research and manufacturing site as well as a store front in Santa Cruz. On Tuesday night, City Council voted to help the business out with a $175,000 loan and an additional $25,000 in staffing and technical assistance.
Articles by Danny Wool
SCPD Collaboration with ICE Under Fire
Just about everyone agrees that something must be done about the growing problem of gang violence in Santa Cruz. Not everyone, however, is happy about the SCPD collaborating with Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
Local Boy Scout Troop Under Scrutiny After Child Molestation Charges
A local Boy Scout trip is being sued over a case of child molestation that occurred more than 20 years ago. Andy Hinkle, 32, formerly of Santa Cruz but now of Oregon, claims that he was molested as a boy while attending the Pico Blanco Scout Camp in Palo Colorado Canyon in Big Sur in the early 1980s. The molestation started when he was five and lasted for seven years.
Students Protest Library Cuts
It’s not just municipal libraries that are feeling the pinch of ongoing budget cuts. Campus libraries are also facing cuts, which result in reduced staff and even reduced hours. In the past three years alone, UCSC’s libraries have lost $2 million in funding. New books are rarely acquired and important journal subscriptions are going unfilled.
Santa Cruz Seniors to Be Stranded
There have been a lot of complaints about the Chanticleer Home, a care facility for the elderly, since 2005. In fact there have been more than 100, including accounts of one resident wandering away and another denied medical care. Based on these complaints, a judge has ordered the facility shut down, but the families of the seniors—and the seniors themselves—aren’t taking it lightly.
Turning Down the Volume
The SCPD has added a new feature to its website. It is listing all the houses that have received tickets over the past 12 months for hosting a “loud and unruly gathering,” i.e., the houses where people party. These are generally parties with over 150 people, most of them drinking heavily. The result, too often, is garbage littering the neighborhood and the not-infrequent boozer bash-up.
Four Surenos Already Convicted after Operation Groundhog
District Attorney Bob Lee is working fast. Just days after Operation Groundhog cracked down on the Sureno Gang operating in Watsonville, four people have been sent to state prison, while another four have been sentenced to time in local jails or various terms of probation. “Gangs are the No. 1 problem we have in this county,” said Lee, explaining his determination to break the Surenos once and for all.
Budget Protest Scheduled for the Government Center Today
Santa Cruz County is teetering on the red, and will have to cut $17 million out of its budget this year. Like so many other counties, it is going forward with job cuts. Over 200 county employees could lose their livelihoods, with virtually every department represented, from the Sheriff’s Office to the Probations Department and from Health and Human Services to Child Welfare.
The workers in the departments have had enough. They want the county to cut from the top where, they claim, expenses are bloated. To get their point across, they will be picketing the Government Center, starting at noon today. Some 200 people are expected to show up for the picket.
Police Raid Surenos in Watsonville
After a yearlong investigation, Watsonville police arrested 42 people suspected of being part of the Surenos gang.
The Jugglers Are Coming
Christopher D. Garcia, 19, may be a computer science major by day, but as soon as class is over he takes out his balls, hoops and knives and becomes Draco the Juggler. He is just one of many students in the UCSC Juggling Club. This Friday they will be hosting their annual bash, a three-day juggling extravaganza on a hilltop in the UCSC campus grounds.
