Photo above by TARMO HANNULA
When Americans Lived in Houses Instead of Tents
By KEITH MCHENRY
The founders of Food Not Bombs spent the evening of March 25, 1981, busy preparing a 60 quart pot of soup and other goodies for the next day’s street theater outside the stockholders' meeting of the Bank of Boston.
Ronald Reagan just took office promising his Trickle Down economic theory and a ratcheting up of America’s nuclear deterrent. The board of directors of the bank also sat on the boards of Raytheon and other nuclear industry heavy weights. They had invested in our target, the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station, a project that local activists like ourselves had been attempting to stop.
Our plan was to dress as Depression era hobos, set up a soup line and hand out literature warning that if Reagan and the bank's policies were implemented, people would find themselves seeking meals at a soup kitchen. Our young enthusiastic crew wanted to shock and believed that the sight of people lining up to eat outside the Federal Reserve Bank might jolt some people into action.
But as we prepared our vegan stew we became concerned that we had not done enough outreach to create the necessary line of faux hobos for the intended impact. We also had a lot of food and didn’t want to waste it; two of us went to the only homeless shelter in Boston late that evening.
I knocked on the door of the Pine Street Inn a little after midnight. The manager welcomed us in when we explained our intentions. He lead us to a room where twenty or thirty men sat on tile benches or laid out on the floor. I explained the purpose of the action. One guy noted with excitement that it reminded him of the protests in the sixties. His bench mate added his support assuring us he would participate.
Sure enough the men arrived outside the Federal Reserve Bank the next day at noon. A businessman walked up to me shocked that it had only taken a couple months of Reaganomics before the poverty of his policies had resulted in the need for food lines. “You are likely to see a lot more hunger if we don’t start organizing now,” I responded. Some of those attending the stockholders meeting cursed us but one blue haired lady gave us the thumbs up. “Yes, these guys are crooks and I plan to vote against their proxy,” she smiled.
I remember that first man who reached out to receive his bowl of soup. “God bless you,” he quietly prayed as his eyes lit up with gratitude, “You should do this everyday. There is no food for us here in Boston.”
So that evening as we cleaned up from our first soup line, we agreed to quit our jobs and spend our days recovering food that we would deliver to housing projects and share meals with the public at Harvard Square or Park Street Station.
Forty years later I have to remind people that there were no tent cities then and we only saw an occasional unhoused person. There was one lady bound in black garbage bags who propped herself on the stairs of the building next to the symphony, and a huddle of men who sat in a dark ally near the Naked Eye. We had a system that provided housing, affordable education and wages, while meager, still made it possible to rent an apartment.
Fast forward to today.The governments and their corporate sponsors left Americans to fend for themselves as the Congress showered wealthiest one percent with trillions of our tax dollars.
The total corporate capture of society was ushered in with the inauguration of the new administration. Americans are embracing the censorship of an army of disinformation specialists funded by the military and social media titans. We are repeatedly told the $1,400 check and child tax credit will lift us out of poverty. Critics are de-platformed, fired and ridiculed. A sea of cheery propaganda insults those struggling to survive and mocks those pointing out the obvious fact that no one can pay twelve months rent with a child tax credit and their stimulus check. It has become "rule by headline." The fear of Trump, COVID and poverty has Americans celebrating the implementation of the corporate police state.
Millions of Americans are facing eviction as hedge funds and shell companies rush to park their billions in luxury condominiums developments that are unlikely and not intended to be occupied. Families selling their homes are finding it impossible to buy another house because deep pocket investment companies are always able to out bid them. Property speculators are scooping up the failed businesses. Millions of Americans had already been forced live on our streets, in our parks, hotels, cars and couches before the pandemic. Empty apartment units still outnumber the unhoused even as the numbers of people find themselves dumped on to the streets.
Even though soup lines have become common place there is hope in the memory of a time before people lived in tents. But under the current clampdown on ideas and expropriation of resources this will be challenging. This is where Food Not Bombs and our allies can make a difference. Since we are not welcome in the advancing global economic paradigm, it is up to us to create our own society outside their walls.
|
|
Food Not Bombs Meeting
San Lorenzo Park Sunday, March 28, 5pm
Meeting is called to discuss a collective response to the Temporary Outdoor Living Ordinance, TOLO,
that goes into effect next month. Please join us.
Food will be provided.
Questions to think about before meeting:
What kind of help do people want from the larger community?
If notice of displacement is given, how do people want to respond?
How do we help folks that want to move?
How do we defend folks that want to stay?
How do we build solidarity between housed and unhoused people?
|
|
An Open Letter to UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive on Campus Growth
By CHRIS KROHN
Dear Chancellor Larive,
This community cherishes UC Santa Cruz. UCSC has brought many great gifts to our town and enriched all of our lives, for the most part. But now is the time to say that 19,500 students is enough. UCSC began as that special "teaching-first" campus within the UC system. We can retain those roots of quality, vision, and curiosity not by exploding the campus to 28,000 students, plus 3,000 added faculty and staff, but by focusing on what we do well, by shoring up the campus transportation system and making it the best and most efficient within the UC, and by building the classroom space that was needed a decade ago just to keep up with the current student population. Let's get back to the central mission of teaching excellence when it comes to our undergraduates.
As a long-time Santa Cruz resident, employee, and alum, it saddens me that you are daring to go forward with the ill-fated project of bringing yet more students to a community that is unprepared and already over-taxed by the number of people living here. We now know much more about the preponderant environmental value and sensitivity of the campus, far more than was known back in 1965 when the campus opened. The carrying capacity of the old Cowell Ranch is not nearly as great as once contemplated by early campus planners.
Furthermore, many students I've spoken with had no idea before coming here that the campus budget is so resource-poor, and that goes double for graduate students. It's expensive to live in Santa Cruz. Lots of undergrads now clamor to leave in three years, forgoing the traditional and time-honored four-year experience. Why? Because the cost of living on campus far exceeds the cost of living in town; landlords know it, students know it, and parents are also keenly aware. Students feel the financial pressure to move off campus because "rents" on campus are so high. "Student Housing West" will not fix this situation, nor will developing the East Meadow. Students move off campus into say, a 3-bedroom house where six or eight students and sometimes more, occupy that house for a lot less than it costs to live in the dorm and at the same time, a Santa Cruz family has one less place to live in the city where they work.
Chancellor, you sat in on one or two of the Community Advisory Board (CAG) meetings with me and other locals. We met with your predecessor, Chancellor George Blumenthal, four or five times as I remember. Members of the CAG included current and former city councilmembers and supervisors, as well as members representing the business community and the city's planning department. It was a group composed of individuals who rarely see eye to eye on policy issues and who have differing political views. But what I saw and experienced within that group was something rare. There was unanimity on the fact that this city and county cannot continue to shoulder evermore students without first fixing the many infrastructure problems that exist on campus, and in the city as well.
Frankly speaking, I have been an educator most of my adult life - 16 years here at UCSC - and I have come to the conclusion that it would be irresponsible to bring more students to this city or campus without first providing the resources in the areas of housing, transportation, and pedagogy, all of which we now so sorely lack.
These are sobering times and they call for bold leadership, Chancellor. Growing UCSC is the wrong response. I urge you to go to the Regents and let them know that this community loves UCSC and that's why we feel strongly that it cannot grow past 19,500. Santa Cruzans are a generous and compassionate bunch, but we are being pushed to the brink here. I understand it is not the news the Regents wants to hear, but if this growth continues it will surely kill this tired old goose which bequeathed us such a wonderful shiny golden egg that is the city on a hill. I fear Fiat Lux will become the Fiat Death of Surf City.
Respectfully, Chris Krohn
Chris Krohn directs an Internship program at UC Santa Cruz and is a former Santa Cruz City mayor and councilmember.
|
|
“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
Maya Angelou
|
|
Photo by TARMO HANNULA
An oyster catcher searches for food on the rocky shoreline off of West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz.
|
|
Support Tenant Sanctuary
By BRUCE VAN ALLEN
Tenants in Santa Cruz face many challenges. One of the few victories for
renters locally in the past few years is the formation of the Tenant Sanctuary, a small nonprofit group that provides tenants information on their rights in English and Spanish, and at no charge.
Tenant Sanctuary is facing a possible temporary closure later this Spring, due to timing issues over when funding will arrive.
Our Steering Committee has authorized a short-term fundraising effort so we don’t have to close right at the time when the current pandemic eviction protections expire.
Here’s how you can help, and I hope you act today:
* We have a Facebook post about the fundraising drive at that you can share with your friends.
* To mail a check, make out to Tenant Sanctuary and send to: 703
Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95060. This office is not currently open for business. All services are currently provided by phone and online.
|
|
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 March 25, there have been 15,258 cases that tested positive. That is an increase of .5% from last Thursday. 200 people have now died, an increase of 2%.
Santa Cruz County moved into the Red Tier on March 10. Indoor retail and shopping centers may increase operation up to 50% capacity, restaurants, movie theaters and museums up to 25% capacity, gyms, and climbing walls and hotel fitness centers up to 10% For information, go here.
The county's Effective Reproductive Number is continuing to fall 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.
|
|
 |
%Deaths by ethnicity/% of population:
White - 56%/58%
Latinx - 36%/34%
Black - 1%/1%
Asian - 8%/4%
American Native - 1%/not available
%Deaths by gender/% of population:
Female - 52%/50%
Male - 49%/50%
Other - 0
Under Investigation - 0
Deaths by age/200:
30-39 - 2%
40-49 - 3%
50-59 - 3%
60-69 - 14%
70-79 - 21%
80-89 - 31%
90+ - 28%
Tested positive by region/% of population:
Mid-county - 21%/12%
North county - 19%/60%
South county - 59%/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%
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%
|
|
|
|
Labor History Calendar for March 26:
1850: Birth of Edward Bellamy, author of "Looking Backward."
1971: On August 23, 1970, 6,000 United Farm Worker members held a strike against the Salinas Valley growers in what was the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history. They had been locked in after they refused to scab. UFW leader César Chávez was arrested when the union defied an injunction barring picketing, leading to new boycott activities and strikes at several more growers. The strike ended March 26, 1971, when growers agreed to recognize the union and negotiate working conditions.
2011: Maine Governor Paul LePage orders labor history mural dismantled.
|
|
Photo by TARMO HANNULA
Featherlite Pancakes
By SARAH RINGLER
Here's a pancake recipe that is not only a different twist on a classic, but also one that presents the opportunity to honor a very special person.
This person is special and worth remembering because of the significance of an event that occurred one day in history, December 1, 1955. The setting was Montgomery, Alabama, a city with a long history of hatred. Its public bus system exemplified some of that hatred; seats on the bus were divided between places where white people sat, in the front, and where blacks had to sit by law, in the back.
On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks left to go home from her job as a housekeeper and seamstress for a politically liberal couple, Clifford and Virginia Durr. Earlier in the summer, her bosses had paid for Parks to attend a workshop at the Highlander Folk School, a center that promoted workers' rights and racial equality. She was an educated woman and with her husband, a barber, was involved in the Montgomery chapter of the National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP. At an NAACP meeting earlier in the week, she had gotten the frustrating news that two white men in Mississippi had been acquitted in the murder of Emmett Till, a black teenager. She got on the bus around 6 pm, and sat in the section reserved for blacks.
As people poured on to the bus, the white section in the front filled up and some had to stand. The bus driver got up out of his seat at one point and told the black people that they had to leave the black section and move further to the back. Everyone complied except for Rosa Parks. The bus driver called the police who came and arrested her.
Later that evening, Edgar Nixon, head of the Pullman Porters' Union and president of Montgomery's NAACP, and Park's boss, Clifford Durr, bailed her out. The next day she was tried and found guilty on charges of disorderly conduct and for violating the city's segregation law. She was fined $10, and $4 in court costs.
She appealed the decision. Black leaders like Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr., Edgar Nixon and others saw this as an opportunity to organize the community and challenge the city and state's segregation laws. They organized a bus boycott and for 381 days, the community refused to ride the city's buses. Over 75% of the bus riders were black so it nearly shut down the transit system. It also put a tremendous burden on the community who had to find alternative and creative ways to get to work. Her appeal was put in slow mode as it went through the Alabama court system. Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Browder v. Gayle in June 5, 1956, ended bus segregation everywhere in the United States.
King wrote, "Actually, no one can understand the action of Mrs. Parks unless he realizes that eventually the cup of endurance runs over, and the human personality cries out, 'I can take it no longer.'"
Rosa Parks's recipe was written on the back of a deposit envelope for the First Independence National Bank of Detroit and found as part of her possessions after she died. It was located in an undated file titled Miscellany and is now online at the Library of Congress.
February 4 was her birthday. She died October 24, 2005. Enjoy her pancakes and remember her bravery.
Dry ingredients:
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
Wet ingredients:
1 beaten egg
1 1/4 cup milk, warmed (optional: add a tablespoon of dried buttermilk powder)
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
1 tablespoon melted shortening or oil
Vegetable oil for frying pancakes
Make the wet ingredients. Warm milk and mix in the peanut butter and shortening or oil until well blended. Add the buttermilk powder, if you have it, to make the pancakes even fluffier. Cool and put into a bowl. Beat in the egg and oil with a whisk.
Sift dry ingredients.
Heat the griddle to 275 degrees over medium heat. Combine wet and dry ingredients but do not over mix. Some lumps are fine.
When griddle is hot, fry pancakes in a little oil. Flip pancakes when bubbles form on the surface and the edges start to dry. Serve immediately with butter and syrup. Serves four.
|
|
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.
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
