Using $1 million in federal stimulus funding, Santa Cruz is repaving Pacific Avenue from Water Street to Depot Park.
Articles by Danny Wool
Faculty Dissent at UCSC
The faculty of UCSC is up in arms about the administration’s decision to fine six students $944 each for the role they played in the occupation of Kerr Hall last November.
Good News for SCCS Teachers
The Santa Cruz City Schools Board of Trustees approved a special retirement package for 41 teachers. The new package allows for younger teachers to keep their jobs in the local school system. As a result of the decision, 26 teachers who had received layoff notices were immediately rehired and nine adult education teachers received 50 percent of their original hours. The Board can now tackle other pressing issues intended to reduce its $5 million deficit.
Santa Cruz Second-Best Rec City in U.S.
Relocate America may not consider Santa Cruz one of the country’s 10 best places to live, but it does consider it an outstanding place to take some time off. It took the much-vaunted number two spot on the list of “Top Ten Recreation Cities,” right behind Boulder, Colorado and the only city in California to make the list.
Film Looks at Teenage Alcoholism from Teens’ Perspective
Santa Cruz Neighbors, a local community group, is expanding its reach beyond the threat of gang violence in the city. It is starting to address teenage alcoholism, and it’s using local teens to get its message across. On Tuesday, about 100 people of all ages filled the community room at the Santa Cruz Police Department to watch “Wasted,” a 15-minute short film about the problem of underage drinking. It was no Reefer Madness. It was a film by teens about teens and how they are becoming increasingly susceptible to alcohol and drug abuse.
Local Students Gather for 4/20 Event
About 1,000 students gathered at Porter Meadow on the UCSC campus yesterday to mark 4/20 with bongs and brownies. It was about half the crowd that attended last year’s event. Comedy Central was there, filming a new episode for its program, “This Show Will Get You High.” Conspicuously absent were the anti-marijuana activists who showed up last year. Perhaps they had a change of heart, or perhaps they were afraid of getting caught in the cloud of smoke that rose from the Meadow at exactly 4:20 pm.
Santa Cruz Man to Stand Trial for Throwing Baby Out of Car
Erik Rebert Johnston was driving along Highway 9 on April 1 with his girlfriend and her two daughters, aged 9 and 22 months. At one point something ticked him off, so authorities say he pulled over to the side of the road and flung the younger baby out of the car.
UCSC Campus to Go Up in Smoke for 4/20
It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here! April 20 is for potheads what Christmas is for little kids or, dare I say it, what April 19 is for the armed and dangerous anti-Obama crowd. It all goes back to 1971, when a group of San Rafael teens used to gather after school at 4:20 pm at the statue of Louis Pasteur. They were not going over their biology notes. The only papers they brought with them were for rolling their weed, and 420 soon became synonymous with weed and the cannabis counter-culture.
Saving Horses, One Mare At A Time
It’s a known fact that in times of recession, some people are forced to abandon their pets. The ASPCA and other organizations are overwhelmed by the numbers of cats and dogs that end up in their hands. What few people realize is that sometimes the abandoned animals include horses too. Pregnant Mare Rescue of Aptos does. Since the non-profit group was founded four years ago, they have rescued some 60 horses from abandonment or worse, the dinner table.
Homeless Activist Gets 35 Hours of Community Service
On Jan. 6, activists from Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom stood outside of Bookshop Santa Cruz to protest the law preventing homeless people from sleeping downtown. They handed out fliers to passersby and soup to the homeless. And they sang. In fact, they had a whole repertoire of songs, from Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” to John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” to Petula Clark’s “Downtown” (lyrics altered to reflect the occasion). It was around noon, but some of the neighbors considered them a nuisance. One of them, Sean Reilly, even called the police.
