A commuter race leaves one contestant in the slow lane.
News
City Council Cracks Down on Hookah Parlors
The Santa Cruz City Council is not a fan of hookah parlors. Last Tuesday, city leaders took all of three minutes to discuss and approve a set of tough new restrictions that outlaws hookah parlors from setting up shop near schools and parks, and also caps the number of parlors allowed in city limits at two. The new laws come in addition to previous regulations that keep hookah parlors from serving food or beverages—including water—and from having live music.
A March Toward Machinery
With several lecturers and professors already holding pink slips, it seems all but certain that UCSC will follow through with its rumored plans to phase out its Community Studies program. Retired professor and Santa Cruz resident Paul Lee knows what it’s like to be deemed expendable.
Running Meter 2
A bit of topical doggerel.
Group Scrutinizes Santa Cruz Commuter Habits
In the near future Santa Cruz city officials will start pedaling to work, downtown merchants will hop on the bus and busboys will carpool if the Campaign for Sensible Transportation has its way.
Battling Belief Systems Won’t Be Resolved on May 19
While television ads, political mailings and news coverage of the state’s seemingly never-ending budget battles would lead a person to believe that the election is about ratifying a $40 billion solution to California’s budget problems, it is not that simple
Think Local First Spreads the Money Around
The goal was to turn $500 into $15,000 in local commerce in 30 days. The method was for five local banks to donate $100 apiece to five lucky raffle ticket winners, then for the recipient of each check to spend it at one of TLF’s 150 member businesses, each of which would, in turn, repeat the process. In theory, by keeping the money within the community, each $100 check would be spent dozens of times, thus producing thousands of dollars in revenue for goods and services along the way.
Running Meter 1
A bit of topical doggerel.
Art in Uncertain Times
We are searching for new paradigms with which to understand the global economy, and this search includes bewilderment at how greed can be shameless, lies and selfishness can abound even among decent people, and, despite our access to vast amounts of information, how our ignorance is (sometimes tragically, sometimes comically) irrepressible. It occurs to me that it’s through our exposure to art that we have developed a capacity to keep asking “what if?” sorts of questions and to discern the human consequences of catastrophes. Art can prompt us to hope for…and design…a better way.
Scientists Debate Strategy at Elkhorn
The wetland system of Elkhorn Slough has undergone dramatic change for decades, but now a group of local scientists and conservationists is revving up a restoration project aimed at reversing many of these alterations and letting one of California’s largest marshlands revert back to the ecosystem it once was. However, no one quite knows what Elkhorn Slough’s truly “natural” state ever really was, and activists are at odds over precisely what treatments the slough really needs, if any at all.
