A planned five-story complex will house homeless people with disabilities on the Housing Matters campus, the dark brown building in the middle of the photo, in Santa Cruz on Coral St. (Rendering by David Baker Architects, 180 Supportive Housing LLC)
Campaign to Waive Traffic Impact Fee for 100% Affordable Housing Project
By RICK LONGINOTTI
The image above is of a recently approved permanently supportive housing project at the campus of Housing Matters on Coral St. The project will have 120 single room occupancy units for chronically homeless people who are disabled. The residents will not own vehicles. But the project had to pay the City of Santa Cruz's Traffic Impact Fee, TIF.
The City also needs to stop spending the TIF for intersection expansion projects in a futile effort to reduce traffic delay. Most of the time, expanding intersections makes them more intimidating for bicyclists and pedestrians. For example, the City is about to spend $8.5 million to expand the Highway 1/ River St. intersection---as if the eight existing lanes of Hwy 1, and five lanes of River St. are not enough. Our city's infamous status as being at the top of the Top Ten Worst California cities for injuries to bicyclists and pedestrians results in part from City spending priorities of the last several decades.
California's SB 743 seeks to avoid the perverse consequences of environmental impact reports that mandated road expansion in order to mitigate traffic delay. These road expansions don't reduce delay for long, but they do increase vehicle miles traveled through induced demand, and greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, the City adopted an ordinance to comply with the letter of SB 743, but not the spirit. The City will continue to require developers to pay for traffic studies and pay Traffic Impact Fees to widen roads.
Many other cities have stopped trying to mitigate traffic delay. The City of Mountain View explains why their developer fees do not go towards road expansion: "Road widening is inconsistent with the City’s General Plan policies due to limited space for additional right-of-way, increased crossing distances for pedestrians, induced demand, and other issues related to the City’s desired future character." Instead, Mountain View’s developer fees pay for bike/ped bridges, a reversible bus lane, active transportation and transit improvements.
Our City has the best chance to achieve the Vision Zero goal of no serious injuries due to traffic collisions by adopting the policy to stop funding auto expansion projects and redirect funds to making our streets safe for all users.
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Peaceful rally against hate and discrimination against
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
Watsonville City Plaza
Sat. Apr. 17
3-4 pm
You are most welcome
Take care - stay healthy!
Onward! Mas Hashimoto
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Don't Be Fooled By The Withdrawal of the TOLO
By KEITH MCHENRY
The proposed Temporary Outdoor Living Ordinance was intentionally designed to fail with the goal of encouraging an even more anti-homeless law which is set to be introduced at the May 11 Santa Cruz City Council meeting. The withdrawal of the ordinance was not a victory for the unhoused and their allies. It's a clear win for the property speculators and their employees at City Hall.
It has been obvious from the beginning that “legalizing” camping on sidewalks outside business and in industrial areas of Seabright from 8pm to 8am was intended to build opposition to any humane ordinance directed at the unhoused community.
Lookout reporter Isabella Cueto suggests, “Tuesday’s meeting was intended to be an opportunity for the Council to approve amendments to the law. But instead became a discussion about a complete overhaul — and a commitment by city leaders to be more transparent with the public when crafting future policies.”
City staff had over a year to reshape Police Chief Andy Mills pre-pandemic proposal to criminalize the unhoused. This “commitment by city leaders to be more transparent with the public” is an important part of the spin.
Santa Cruz Neighbors and members of Take Back Santa Cruz are seamlessly integrated into the police and city staff, and participated in the formulation of this ordinance. The January 16, 2020, Santa Cruz Sentinel article reported, “Prominent among the ideas that Santa Cruz Police Chief Andy Mills plans to shop around the community, including the more than 50 people gathered Wednesday night at a Santa Cruz Neighbors meeting, is a revamped city no-camping ordinance.”
“Mills said he was seeking input on the rough-draft ordinance ideas before bringing formal proposals to the Santa Cruz City Council for consideration. He added that he planned to announce some four or five additional community input meeting dates for March.”
It goes on to say, “The city’s Community Advisory Committee on Homelessness also has been seeking public engagement on a revised ordinance recommendation, due for city consideration Feb. 25.” I attended nearly every one of their meetings and the ideas of those supporting the unhoused was ignored and often silenced.
The article continues, “Let me emphasize it one more time: This is not going to solve any homeless problems,” Mills told an audience of housed residents and homelessness-issues advocates alike. “The purpose is to control behaviors that affect our businesses, that affect our community, that affect our citizens – both housed and unhoused.”
Kara Guzman of Santa Cruz Local reported on Apr. 10, 2019, “The closure of the Ross homeless camp has been delayed yet again by the Santa Cruz City Council. At Tuesday night’s meeting, the council canceled the Apr. 17 closure and declined to set a new date. The council also formally threw out the idea of creating a new homeless camp by Depot Park. And to the relief of many residents, the council paused its search for homeless camps in city neighborhoods or parks.” That May, the City Council voted to sweep Ross Camp and formed the Community Advisory Committee on Homelessness.
In 2016, Santa Cruz City Council voted to continue the sleeping ban and formed the “Homelessness Coordinating Committee Santa Cruz City Council Subcommittee” who issued their “Final Report and Recommendations” on May 9, 2017. It was nearly the same report issued by the council on May 2, 2000.
Let's not be fooled. The ordinance was not withdrawn because it was too cruel. It was delayed because it was not inhumane enough. This continues my contention that the plan is, and has been, to drive the unhoused from the city and provide cover for their effort to skirt the Ninth Circuit Court ruling against cruel and unusual punishment in Martin vs Boise.
With the expected increase of people being forced to live outside, the obvious solution is to provide real housing, filling vacant hotels and apartment units with the people already suffering under the campaign of city sponsored terror and prepare to house the 100 to 200 additional people made homeless each month as America suffers a tidal wave of evictions.
MEETING TO ORGANIZE FOR SOLUTIONS AND RESIST THE NEW TOLO:
Fri., Apr. 16, 5pm, Outside the Little Red Church at Cedar and Lincoln.
Editor's note: The poster below was distributed at the Apr. 13 rally held in the parking lot by Day's Market at Seabright and Murray streets. Note the fear mongering and lack of alternative ideas that indicate no sympathy for the plight of fellow Santa Cruz families, women, seniors and others who, according to the Santa Cruz County Homeless Census and Survey from 2019 make up roughly 67% of our local houseless population who have lived here five years or more. Housing Matters Homeless Census and Survey 2019.
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Reel Work May Day Labor Film Festival, April 14-20 event
By SARAH RINGLER
Refreshing, political and contemporary, "Fall Back Down" is this week's film festival selection. It's labeled "a punk romantic comedy in which a depressed ex-activist takes a job in a sweatshop where he and his coworker who are trying to get by on low paying jobs make a grim discovery." The job results in a sexy love story and a murder mystery. It moves fast with many surprises.
Twenty years ago, Jeffrey Smedberg, Santa Cruz unionist and activist, and a few others in Santa Cruz County’s Service Employees International Union, SEIU, decided to launch a film festival. They felt that people needed to be informed and reminded what unions do, had done and stood for. The festival is kept going by a group of dedicated volunteers.
The festival, from Apr. 1 to June 1, will be featured in two forms, 2021 Festival Selections and Classic Labor Films. 2021 Festival Selections will be shown for a week, from Thursday to Tuesday, and culminate with a Tuesday night online discussion with filmmakers and others at 7pm. See this week's films above.
Classic Labor Films from past festivals will be shown around the county on Community TV Friday nights from 6-8pm, See below.
Democracy in the Workplace: All About Collectives
(Margot Smith and Bob Purdy, 1999, 28 min)
Three worker-owned businesses show how to work collectively. From Reel Work 2009
In The Weeds: Waiting for a Living
(Cheryl Hess and Melissa Thompson, 1996, 25 min)
An irreverent and humorous look at the waitressing profession. From Reel Work 2007
Greek Cleaning Ladies
(Lucas Meijer, 2016, 8 min, Greece)
When the government privatized janitorial services, these feisty women formed a union. From Reel Work 2016
Last Stand at Nymboida
(Jeff Bird, 2010, 56 min)
Faced with dismissal in 1975, Australian coal miners staged a daring worker rebellion. From Reel Work 2012
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"One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken."
Leo Tolstoy
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Photo by TARMO HANNULA
A black-crowned night heron takes a perch above a fish-cleaning station in the Santa Cruz Harbor.
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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. As of April 15, there were 15,466 cases that tested positive. That is a 1% increase from the previous week. There were no increases in deaths this week. Deaths remain at 202. There were no changes in all the categories.
Santa Cruz County moved into the Orange Tier on March 30. For information, go here.
The county's Effective Reproductive Number is staying below one. See chart below. Numbers above one show the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing.
To get tested without a doctor’s request, call 1-888-634-1123 or go online at https://lhi.care/covidtesting. Other testing sites that may have restricted access can be found here.
For vaccine information in Santa Cruz County, click here.
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% deaths by ethnicity/% of population:
White - 56%/58%
Latinx - 36%/34%
Black - 0/1%
Asian - 7%/4%
American Native - 0/not available
% deaths by gender/% of population:
Female - 51%/50%
Male - 49%/50%
Other - 0
Under Investigation - 0
Deaths by age/202:
30-39 - 2%
40-49 - 3%
50-59 - 2%
60-69 - 13%
70-79 - 21%
80-89 - 31%
90+ - 27%
Tested positive by region/% of population:
Mid-county - 21%/12%
North county - 19%/60%
South county - 58%/29%
Under investigation - 0%
Weekly increases in positive tests:
June 12-19 - 7%
June 19-26 - 23%
June 26 to July 3 - 22%
July 3-9 - 23%
July 9-16 - 40%
July 16-23 - 20%
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July 23-30 - 27%
July 30-Aug. 6 - 13%
Aug. 6-13- 12%
Aug.14-20 - 16%
Aug.20-28 - 10%
Aug. 28-Sept. 3 - 10%
Sept. 3-10 - 6%
Sept. 10-17- 8%
Sept. 17-24 - 7%
Sept. 25- Oct.1 - 5%
Oct. 1 - 9 - 4%
Oct. 9-15 - 4%
Oct. 15-22 - 5%
Oct. 23-29 - 4%
Oct. 30-Nov. 5 - 6%
Nov. 5-12 - 10%
Nov. 12-19 - 11%
Nov. 19-26 - holiday
Nov. 19-Dec. 3 - 29% 2 weeks of data for this week only
Dec. 3-10 - 16%
Dec. 10-17 - 17%
Dec. 17-24 - 14%
Dec. 24-31 - 19%
Jan. 1-7 - 13%
Jan. 7-14 - 14%
Jan. 15-21 - 11%
Jan. 21-28 - 5%
Jan. 28-Feb. 4 - 5%
Feb. 5-11 - 2%
Feb. 11-18 - 2%
Feb. 18-25 - 1%
Feb. 25-March 5 - 1%
March 5-11 - 1%
March 11-18 - 2%
March 18-25 - .5%
March 25- Apr. 1 - .7%
Apr. 1-8 - 0.1%
Apr. 9-15 - 1%
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Fashion Street
This spring, It's Hot Pink!
By SARAH RINGLER
You and your pet can go out in style this spring. Our trend concious model was seen out on Pacific Avenue enjoying a stroll in downtown Santa Cruz last week.
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ECONOMY
Job Listing
Position: MAT Navigator (Full-time, approx. 40 hours/week)
Compensation: $50,000 per year salary
Timeframe: May 2021 - August 2022, with the possibility of extension
Location: Santa Cruz County
HRCSCC Background: The Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County is a community-based organization dedicated to providing services to People Who Use Drugs and people experiencing homelessness. HRCSCC operates a needs-based Syringe Services Program throughout the county, and through that program provides syringe access, syringe disposal, naloxone, safe sex supplies, PPE, wound care supplies, and referrals and connection to other service providers. This position is funded by our newly received MAT Access Points grant, administered by the Sierra Health Foundation. The position is currently funded through August 2022, with the possibility for extension.
Job Description: The Navigator will be responsible for overseeing the participant end of HRCSCC’S MAT Access Project that we are launching in partnership with the Homeless Person’s Health Project (HPHP). This project will run from March of 2021 to August of 2022. The primary goal of this project is to increase buprenorphine access to HRCSCC’s participants while maintaining the principles of harm reduction. The Navigator will meet with participants who enter this program and support them in entering and continuing treatment. The Navigator will interface with HPHP and work with them on supporting our mutual participants. They will be responsible, in conjunction with HPHP, for providing case management services such as benefits navigation, housing navigation, employment skills development, education development, etc. They will be the primary individual responsible for administering grant-required GPRA reporting and programmatic evaluation surveys to our participants, prior experience with administering GPRA surveys is highly desired but not necessary.
- Responsibilities: Regular meetings with participants receiving MAT treatment through our MAT Access Point project
- Administering GPRA reporting and programmatic evaluation surveys
- Benefits navigation including SSI/SSDI, CalFresh/SNAP, Unemployment
- Education, employment, and housing navigation
- Managing and distributing bus passes/taxi fees and ensuring transportation to appointments for our participants
- Qualifications: Competency in both English and Spanish is required
- Preferred prior case management experience
- Preferred prior reporting experience
- Competency in using Google Sheets/Docs or Microsoft Excel/Word
- Preferred but not required lived experience with substance use and Medication Assisted Treatment
- Commitment and passion to working within a harm reduction framework
- Commitment to intersectional feminist and anti-racist practices and values
- Possess a valid California driver’s license and a reliable method of transportation
To Apply:
Please fill out this Airtable Form and attach your resume to it. Please answer all questions for your application to be considered.
HRCSCC is committed to employment practices that ensure that all applicants are treated equally without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information or any other factor that is not related to the position.
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Labor History Calendar for April 17-23:
April 17, 1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion
April 18, 1908: IWW poem "We Have Fed You All For A Thousand Years" first published.
April 18, 1912: West Virginia coal miners defend themselves against National Guard.
April 19, 1943: Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
April 20, 1914: Miners' wives and children massacred at Ludlow by company guards and Colorado National Guard.
April 21, 1892: Black Longshore workers strike in St. Louis.
April 21, 2008: Teachers' strike closes thousands of UK schools.
April 22, Earth Day
April 22, 1526: First American slave revolt
April 22, 2010: Thousands demand that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer veto a vicious anti-immigrant bill; she signs it instead.
April 23, 1980: Death of Ida Mae Stull, first woman coal miner.
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Photo by TARMO HANNULA
Simple Souped Up Tomatoes
By SARAH RINGLER
Here’s a nice simple soup you can make from the 1977 Better Homes and Garden's Mexican Cook Book. It’s fairly bland and could be considered a template from which you can add more authentic additions like dried and roasted pasilla chilis, fresh serrano chilis, epazote and oregano. Queso de Oaxaca would also be a much creamier substitution for Monterey Jack, and like string cheese, is fun to peel into thin, meltable strips.
Although the tortilla chips and cheese add flavor and texture to the soup, it is really the smooth and slightly sweet taste of the tomatoes that make this a comforting and enjoyable meal. They are one of the few vegetables to be classified as possessing the taste of umami, or savory, one of the five basic tastes that is usually attributed to cooked meats, fish, mushrooms and cheese.
The familiar red tomato was bred by the Aztecs thousands of years ago from the native plant, the green tomatillo. In their language, Nahuatl, the tomatillo was called tomatl, or “the swelling fruit,” according to the Etymology Online Dictionary. Breeding for a sweeter, larger and redder fruit, they created the xitomatl, Nahautl for “plump with navel,” and commonly called jitomates today in Spanish.
In an example of co-optation driven by a lack of knowledge of history, something we all may be guilty of at times, the love of the tomato caused the city of Reynoldsburg, Ohio to call itself “The Birthplace of the Tomato,” according to Wikipedia. It is the official state fruit/vegetable of New Jersey, Arkansas and Ohio, however the bid to make it the provincial vegetable of Ontario, Canada was voted down in 2016.
Buñol, Spain holds an annual La Tomatina Festival that becomes a huge tomato fight, literally turning the town red. Rotten tomatoes, thrown as non-lethal projectiles, have also become a way to show displeasure during bad theatrical performances or protests. The website, “Rotten Tomatoes,” uses that label to classify film reviews; a film that gets a rating of “Certified Fresh,” got 75% or higher positive ratings.
Sopa de Tortilla
1 8-ounce can of tomatoes, do not drain
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons roughly chopped cilantro
¼ teaspoons sugar - optional
4 cups vegetable, chicken or turkey broth
Salt and pepper
Topping:
Tortilla chips
1 cup grated Monterey Jack
Since they are going to be puréed, roughly chop onions, garlic and cilantro. In a blender, combine undrained tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro and sugar. If you want to add chilis, add them to this mixture. Cover and blend until nearly smooth. Pour into a large saucepan, stir in chicken or turkey broth and bring to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn down heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot with tortilla chips and grated cheese. Makes 4-5 servings.
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OOPS!
Last issue, I made an error. SEIU is Service Employees International Union.
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YOUR STORY OR ART HERE: Please submit a story that you think would be of interest to the people of Santa Cruz County. Try and keep the word count to around 400. Also, there should be suggested actions if possible. Submit to coluyaki@gmail.com
If you are enjoying the Serf City Times, forward it on to others. We need readers, artists, photographers and writers.
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Welcome to Serf City Times. Over time, our county has grown more stratified and divided with many people feeling 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.
Copyright © 2021 Sarah Ringler - All rights reserved
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