An oak tree spreads its arms and looks skyward at Twin Lakes State Park.

Photo by TARMO HANNULA 

Act to Save the 12 Heritage Trees

By magi amma FOR THE SC4B CLIMATE TEAM

Act today to save the Heritage Trees at the Farmers Market at Lot 4 on Cedar St., between Cathcart and Lincoln streets, in downtown Santa Cruz. Please write a short email to the Parks and Rec Commission and ask the Commissioners to accept the appeal and save the heritage trees. Send the email to Tremain Hedden-Jones. Emails can be a few sentences. It’s the volume of emails that matter.

Subject: Tree Appeal

Talking points: 

• Trees provide great value to the community.

• There are not very many trees downtown.

• There are many climate benefits from trees and the shade they provide.

• The Santa Cruz city Climate Action Plan calls for more trees not less.

* Trees will continue to provide benefits as long as they remain alive.

* There is no compelling reason to cut the trees now rather than later.

• These are heritage trees and need to be saved.

• Wouldn't cutting these trees be a violation of the heritage tree ordinance? No plan has yet been submitted to accommodate the trees or mitigate their removal.

• The proposed building is not even permitted yet. How can the trees be cut in advance?

• No tree should be taken out until all final plans are approved, financing is complete, and the project is “shovel ready,” which may take a year or more.

The Parks and Recreation Commission will be hearing the appeal for cutting the trees in Lot 4, the Farmers Market lot, on Dec. 12, from 4-6pm. For information click here: Parks & Rec Commission Meeting via Zoom 

Report: Living on the Pajaro River

By MONIKE ILENE TONE

I'm Monike Ilene Tone, your local Watsonville and Pajaro Unhoused Union President. I would like to start off by reporting that once again, on Nov. 16, the Monterey County Water Resource  Agency and the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department came down to bulldoze more houses along the Pajaro River leaving around 75 people without shelter. 

California State University Monterey Bay gave out vouchers for motels in Seaside and in Santa Cruz. Before the vouchers were given out, people were told that they were going to be given two weeks' worth of motel vouchers plus there would be a social worker who would get in touch with them to help them establish permanent housing. 

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I received a lot of phone calls from individuals who said that their vouchers were going to end on Thanksgiving Day. I made plenty of phone calls to try to get in touch with a few people. I actually did receive a call back from CSUMB stating that the vouchers would not be extended. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I received phone calls from individuals staying in Seaside and Santa Cruz stating that their motel vouchers were also not extended either. The buses were not running and people had no way to get back to Watsonville from Seaside or Santa Cruz.  

Another local agency, Community Action Board, also provided vouchers from the city of Watsonville. They provided two weeks of vouchers with no extensions, no social workers and still we're back to square one with all members of our community on the river, out in the cold with nothing - no blankets, no sweaters, no shirts, nothing to provide them any kind of shelter. 

Watsonville has several shelters. One on Union St. is run by the Salvation Army. There is a women’s shelter on Brennen St. and Pajaro has Adult and Teen Challenge which provides housing and addiction with a religious focus. Most people, primarily women, don’t want to go there because some of the residents have a bad reputation. 

We received a lot of support from LGBTQ and UCSC students who came together to help us. We ended up spending $500 on tents, tarps, socks, blankets, sleeping bags, hoodies etc. so our people can keep dry, warm and have some kind of shelter and a place to go. 

My community feels that it's a slap in the face, especially on Thanksgiving, to put us out on the streets. We feel it is done out of bias and we feel some people think we are naïve. We feel that it this is done out of cruel intent. It is physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting when these public figures come to us and offer their assistance and services. We want to take them but we know the outcome - lies after lies after lies and once again, another holiday and we are out on the streets. 

This is a third year that our encampment has been taken and bulldozed. We are not like the campers in San Lorenzo Park. We are more of a community and we mostly exist out of sight and out of mind. We don't bother anybody. All of our houses and everything that we have we try and make sure that we maintain it. When the city gets done with our places by bulldozing them down, they sift through it to get what they want and take it. I had to personally ask one of the Water Resource Agency members who stole one of our generators to give it back or he would be charged and I would personally make sure that he lost his job. I did obtain it back by getting it out of the back of his truck after the supervisor came. 

We are hoping to file a restraining order against Monterey County, Water Resources and the city of Watsonville. We have obtained new lawyers who will be working on this and we are very happy and very pleased to know that we are being heard once again. So everybody out there who is unhoused, please hang on tight, we're still here to fight. 

Like to Sing? Come Out for Seasonal Anti-Corporate Caroling

By GRRRANT WILSON

It's high time we reclaim our creative community and on that front, I'd like to welcome you to join me in some public Anti-Corporate Sing-a-longs during the next week in front of the Gap on Pacific Ave. Sing-a-longs are scheduled at 3pm on Sat., Dec. 10, and Dec.14, Wednesday during the Downtown Farmer's Market. If we get rained out, we can sing at 3pm on Sunday.

If you want to join us at any of these sing-along dates, please text me at 831-332-2930 or send me an email. I'll keep you updated. If you can't join us, feel free to share the songbook below with others. 

Here's the last, in-car-nation of our Art & Revolution Anti-Corp Xmass Caroling Songbook! - (11 pages) compiled during the initial years of our glorious Santa Cruz Art & Revolution Convergence collaborations - political and social-justice activism with and without giant puppets. If you haven't seen this song-book before, may I suggest "O' Little town of Santa Cruz,""God Rest Yea Very Wealthy Men," "Trees & Joy to the World" - a few of my faves that are very singable and still relevant.

Photo by TARMO HANNULA 

A California scrub jay handsomely perches on a metal pole at Pinto Lake City Park.

Santa Cruz County Covid-19 Report 

By SARAH RINGLER

The Santa Cruz County Health Department regularly releases data on the current status of Covid-19 in the county. Covid-19 vaccines are available for everyone 6 months and older. Updated Covid-19 boosters are available for everyone 5 and older. Make an appointment with a doctor or the local pharmacy. Go HERE for details. 

There were no new deaths in the county this week. Click to view a graph of hospitalizations HERE.

Because of the availability of home testing I don't report on changes in the active cases in the county. The Health Department is now collecting data for Covid and mpox - the new, and improved, name for monkeypox - from wastewater at the City Influent for the city of Santa Cruz, and from the Lode Street pump stations for the county. See webpage HERE. The first chart below shows the latest county data.



Here are details on the county's vaccination data. Vaccination data has not changed much and doesn't include the boosters.

This webpage also has a link where you can get a digital copy and scannable QR code of your vaccination record. Keep track of your four-digit code because that is your access to the site.

The county's Effective Reproductive Number is still above one. See the second chart below. Numbers above one show the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing. The chart, released from the California Department of Public Health below shows several predictions from different agencies. For information, click here.

The government is no longer issuing free Antigen Rapid Tests; Congress has not provided funding.To get information on COVID-19 testing locations around the county visit this site. You can make an appointment for a Rapid Antigen Test here.

Photo by TARMO HANNULA

Fashion Street - What would your vehicle look like with all your stuff in and on it? This bright blue minivan was parked on Cedar Street in downtown Santa Cruz.

Labor History Calendar - Dec. 9-15, 2022

a.k.a Know Your History Lest We Forget

Dec. 9, 1842: Birth of Peter Kropotkin.

Dec. 9, 1869: Knights of Labor founded. 

Dec. 10, 1886: American Federation of Labor formed.

Dec. 10, 1906: First sit-down strike in US called by IWW at General Electric in Schenectady, NY.

Dec. 11, 1995: 40,000 workers strike in London, Ontario to protest cut in social programs and labor rights. 

Dec. 12, 1995: 1.5 million march across France protesting austerity plans. Government agrees to negotiate. 

Dec. 12, 2011: Occupy pickets close West Coast ports in solidarity with Longview, Washington workers. 

Dec. 13, 1917: Broken Hill strikers seize mine in Australia. 

Dec. 13, 1982: Martial law declared in Poland; Solidarnosc suppressed.

Dec. 13, 1995: 60,000 march in Brussels against austerity.

Dec. 14, 1852: One of the founders of the IWW, Daniel DeLeon was born.

Dec. 14, 1992: 300,000 coal miners strike against “Solidarity” government in Poland. 

Dec. 15, 1890: 1890: Oglala Sioux chief Sitting Bull killed.

Dec. 15, 1918: Textile workers strike for 8-hour day in Lima, Peru. 

Labor History Calendar has been published yearly by the Hungarian Literature Fund since 1985.

"For us, warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who can not provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity."

Ogala Sioux Chief Sitting Bull

Photo by TARMO HANNULA

Sticky Sweets from the Phillipines

By SARAH RINGLER

I’m dazzled by all the flours that have come on to the markets these days. As well as the usual wheat, rye, buckwheat, barley and corn, varieties I have never heard of like spelt, teff, amaranth, oat, flaxseed, and almond flours are available, not only in baked goods, but as bulk flours. I suspect it might be because of the gluten free movement. It seems like just about anything can be milled or ground into flour so brace for further surprises. The cultures of our world are so rich and the environments so diverse, it can be a history lesson and a culinary adventure just to eat. 

One of the most beautiful flours that looks and feels like pearl dust - and comes in the cutest box - is Blue Star Mochiko, a sweet rice flour, made by Koda Farms, a California product made with rice grown and milled by the Koda family since 1940. And, it can be used to make bibingka, a sweet and gooey Filipino dessert. It can also be used to make Japanese mochi, Chinese dim sum and various Korean and Indonesian dishes. 

Blue Star Mochiko is milled from a glutinous rice, native to East Asia, and is unique in that the small opaque grains become sticky when cooked. It has been grown in China for over 2,000 years and was discovered in a mutated rice plant, then propagated, and grown for its unique sticky characteristic that also makes it more digestible than regular rice. Note that this rice contains no gluten. Glutinous just means sticky, and this bibingka is gooey and sticky. You could imagine that it might taste like baked jello, if jello could be baked.

This easy to make recipe is from Jo Anne Sugimoto of www.justapinch.com. Note that like a cake, the flour and liquid mixtures are added in stages, not all at once.  A more traditional Filipino recipe uses glutinous rice fermented with palm wine and then ground into a thick paste, a lengthy ritual made and eaten around Christmas time. 

Blue Star Mochiko, as well as take-out Filipino goodies and groceries, are available at Oriental Store and Food to Go at 205 East Lake. Staff of Life also carries it. 

Bibingka

2 cups mochiko flour

1 teaspoons baking powder

6 ounces canned coconut milk

1 ½ cup milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup butter - softened

1 ½ cup sugar

 2 eggs 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square pan. In a small bowl, whisk together mochiko and baking powder. 

In another small bowl, combine coconut milk, fresh cow’s milk and vanilla extract. 

In a medium size bowl, cream softened butter and sugar together until very smooth. Add one egg at a time beating well. To this mixture, add half of the mochiko flour mixture and blend until smooth. Then add half of the milk mixture and blend in again. Add the rest of the mochiko flour and blend in. Finally add the rest of the milk mixture and mix until smooth. 

Pour mixture into the greased pan and bake for 1 hour. Cool before cutting. 

Welcome to Serf City Times Our county has problems and many people feel left out. Housing affordability, racism and low wages are the most obvious factors. However, many groups and individuals in Santa Cruz County work tirelessly to make our county a better place for everyone. These people work on the environment, housing, economic justice, health, criminal justice, disability rights, immigrant rights, racial justice, transportation, workers’ rights, education reform, gender issues, equity issues, electoral politics and more. Often, one group doesn’t know what another is doing. The Serf City Times is dedicated to serving as a clearinghouse for those issues by letting you know what is going on, what actions you can take and how you can support these groups.This is a self-funded enterprise and all work is volunteer. 

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