Not every freelancer is bubbling over with entrepreneurial zeal. Some do it because their industry has steadily shaved off staffers and outsourced tasks in order to save money. For others, child care or similar work-life considerations are at the root of the decision to freelance—blurring the line over whether freelancing, with its sporadic pay and other associated brutalities, is a matter of choice or necessity.
Articles by Traci Hukill
Coastal Cities Move Cautiously on Bag Ban
It’s hard to believe that Rwanda, a nation nearly destroyed by civil war 15 years ago, has it over Santa Cruz in the eco-conscious department, but there it is: it and 18 other developing nations have banned plastic bags. We haven’t.
The King of Santa Cruz Skateboards Returns
In a garage in a middle-class neighborhood at the edge of Santa Cruz, the improbable is happening. Decades after he created some of the most enduring images in the genre, the artist whose name is virtually synonymous with Santa Cruz Skateboards is once again drawing pop-eyed monsters, warhorses and nubile mermaids for skateboard decks so the youth of today can thrash in style. Jim Phillips is back. With slide show.
Firestorm of Trouble for Santa Cruz Salmon
Domestic and wild mammals fared pretty well during the Lockheed fire. Fish, not so much.
Visit A State Park, Cough Up A Ten Spot
It looks like $10 is the new $8 at most state parks in Santa Cruz County.
Santa Cruz Commission Slams Proposed Marriott
The Santa Cruz Planning Commission roundly rejected the prospect of a three-story, 86-room Fairfield Inn to announce the northern entrance to Santa Cruz, citing inappropriate design, concerns about signage and distance from amenities like restaurants.
‘Roadless Rule’ Revived
Ding dong! The witch is dead! Environmentalists are whistling a happy tune after yesterday’s federal appeals court decision to reinstate Clinton-era protections of 58 million acres of national wilderness that were repealed during the Bush administration.
Behind the Scenes at Santa Cruz’s Festival for New Music
It’s early Sunday evening and musicians are trickling in to the Civic—musicians in flip flops, musicians in blue jeans, musicians in stylish haircuts. Slowly the orchestra comes awake in a chaos of indelicate morning noises: bleeps and sour yawns and fragments of melody abandoned before they’ve started make sense. Tuning up, the two harpists strain to hear the bell-like tones of their instruments, then fall to chatting.
‘Midtown’ Santa Cruz: Fact or Fiction?
We’ve heard enough longtime locals sneer at the newish term “midtown”—most commonly used to describe the section of Soquel Avenue between Shoppers Corner and the Rio Theatre—to make us wonder where it came from and who uses it. Bill Tysseling, executive director of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, doesn’t. But the guy who answered the phone at the Bagelry does. In fact, he says he’s been using the term for five or six years.
Ten Questions for Larry Blood
The host of KUSP’s “Out Front, Outback” gives us the scoop on how a jazz lover makes it in this town.
