Juneteenth Events June 17, 18 and 19

Empty Home Tax Reports

By CYNDI DAWSON

We came together to fight for an Empty Home Tax and although we came up short, out of 25,058 votes we needed about 1,300 more. We have built a strong coalition and pushed important conversations in this community. I want to ask for you to take action where you can and support folks stepping up in our community to ensure we have a community for all of us.

This Sunday is the Liberation Paddle Out at Cowell's Beach from 12-4pm. See poster above. The event is put on by Black Surf Club Santa Cruz who promote physical and spiritual wellness through surfing and community here in Santa Cruz County. BSCSC is driven by the need and urgency for inclusivity, diversity, and equality. To join them you can and also donate, volunteer, or just show up to step out with your community to uplift an inclusive Santa Cruz.

This is is an easy fun way to take action and all funds are used to support event fees and off-setting gear costs for participants many who will be getting in the ocean for the first time.

Housing For People- Not for Unaffordable Towers 

By K.J. DURHAM – LOCAL EDUCATOR AND ENVIRONMENTALIST 

We are Santa Cruz community members of all ages and backgrounds who are concerned about the developers' land grab throughout our city and the multiple, unaffordable 12-story and taller towers that the city plans to build. These mega-development projects will greatly impact the city and the entire county. We want to:

1. Increase the affordable housing requirement for new housing developments to 25% in the City of Santa Cruz, as the City Planning Commission recommended. We strive to maintain our diversity by increasing available low-income housing, so family members, low and moderate wage earners, youth and elders can continue to live here. Presently with the State Density Bonus law, developers can build 50% more market-rate/unaffordable units and thus the affordable housing ratio is reduced from 20% down to only 13 to 11% in new development. This initiative will increase affordable housing to 25% in all new development with over 30 units.

2. Take back from developers our right to vote on the city design. We value thoughtful, human-scale, environmentally-sensitive design and believe that we should have the right to vote on increases to height and density for building in our city. Under existing city zoning, the city can build 8,364 units, which is more than double the 3,736 units that the state requires by 2031; so we can meet state housing requirements without building enormous towers.

We welcome new neighbors, not new, unaffordable, luxury towers. We need your signature and help to get this on the ballot on March 5th. Please email HERE if you want to sign our community initiative to get this on the March ballot. Please share this information with registered voters in the city of Santa Cruz. For information got to our website.

Support Day Worker Center and Celebrate Mexican American Culture

By SARAH RINGLER

June 23, at 7pm, John Leopold and DJ Juan Antonio Cuellar will present the Frontera Collection by the Arhoolie Foundation, a singular collection of songs, videos, and photos in a lively event to benefit the Day Worker Center.

John and Juan Antonio are expert story tellers and collectors of this root's music. The event will be held at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, 612 Ocean Street in Santa Cruz. Tickets $40 via Eventbrite. See flyer above for link to buy your tickets.

The purpose of the Day Worker Center is to help day laborers in Santa Cruz County secure safe employment, develop job skills, improve wages, and become more fully engaged members of our community. The center facilitates the employment of day laborers in a safe hiring hall and through an organized and dignified process. Besides providing a location for potential employers to reach workers by phone or email during center's hours of operation, the center reaches out to day workers who would normally be soliciting work on the streets. The center informs them about their services which provide secure, safe employment, develops job skills, improves wages, and helps workers become more fully engaged members of our community.

One can arrange to have work done anytime. Reliable, screened workers can help you with a variety of tasks including gardening, moving, cleaning, painting, building, hauling, clean-outs and more. The Day Worker Center of Santa Cruz County supports the day laborer population and contributes to our community in many ways. It is conveniently located at 501 Soquel Ave, Suite F, Santa Cruz. To arrange for help, call 831-475-9675 (831 475-WORK).

Watershed Memory

By WOODY REHANEK

*Much of the Pajaro Valley is floodplain.

Its wetlands were drained by Chinese 

workers in the late 1800s, before the

Chinese Exclusion Act. The Army Corps

built a too-narrow channel & fragile

levee in 1949 to "contain" the Pajaro

River. It failed in 1955, 1958, 1995,

1998, & 2023. The farmland & Latino

farmworker community of Pajaro did

not figure positively in the Army Corps'

cost/benefit ratio. American Rivers in

2005 named the Pajaro the nation's "most

"#1 most endangered river," due to its

makeshift levee & ag chemical runoff.

*Congressman Jimmy Panetta worked

tirelessly to fund a future $400 million

levee rebuild, as well as work on Corral-

itos Creek, which cuts across the NW

valley & joins the Pajaro River on the

eastern edge of Watsonville. "You can't

put a price on lives in Pajaro," he said.

When again the town flooded on March 11,

30-year resident Jose Estanquero, 79, 

said: "They have abandoned us."  

************

Photo by TARMO HANNULA 

A hooded oriole lands in a citrus tree in Watsonville during its seasonal visit.

Santa Cruz County Covid-19 Report

Slight rise above 1 in Rt number indicates increase in virus spread

By SARAH RINGLER

The California Department of Public Health now reports on Covid-19 for The Santa Cruz County Health Department. They regularly release data on the current status of Covid-19 in the county. There have been no new deaths in the county since Dec. 15. Since cases are still appearing, and there are still vulnerable people, I will continue reporting the graphs below.

The three graphs below give a picture of what is happening currently. The first graph below shows the Rt Number. Numbers above one show the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing.

The second graph below shows data that the Health Department collects for Covid from wastewater at the City Influent, for the city of Santa Cruz, and from the Lode Street pump stations for the county.

The third graph below shows hospitalizations. Click to see more information on hospitalizations HERE.



The vaccination data for the county has stayed fairly constant increasing very little over time. Go HERE for new information on vaccination records, treatments, vaccines, tests, safety in the workplace and more.

Photo by TARMO HANNULA

Fashion Street - An easy to figure out license plate message.

Labor History Calendar - June 16-22, 2023

a.k.a Know Your History Lest We Forget

June 16, 1953: A few dozen construction workers strike against speed-up, sparking rebellion in East Germany.

June 16, 1987: Paper workers strike mill near Portland, Maine.

June 17, 1913: IWW strike at Studebaker.

June 17, 1953: East German workers strike and revolt for democracy; Russia invades to restore law and order.

June 17, 2013: Millions protest transit fares and costs of World Cup in Brazil. 

June 18, 1984: Striking miners face off against thousands of police at Orgreave coking plant in England.

June 18, 1990: Redwood Summer blockade of lumber exports in Sonoma, CA.

June 18, 2012: General Strike backs Asturian miners fight pit closings in Spain.

Juneteenth June 19, 1953: ILWU begins four-day general strike in Hawaii against convictions of 7 unionists under the Smith Act.

June 19, 2016: Police murder at least eight striking teachers and students in Nochixtlan, Oaxaca. 

June 20, 1893: American Railway Union headed by Eugene Debs is founded.

June 21, 1977: 10 Molly Maquires hanged.

June 21, 1919: Police attack Winnipeg crowd killing two in an attempt to break general strike.

June 21, 1945: General strike starts in Nigeria.

June 21, 1964: Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner murdered in Mississippi.

June 22, 1920: Gendarmes open fire following rally to support striking rail workers in Milan, Italy; five are killed.

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

“I'm a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I'm no cheek turner. I got no respect for a man who won't hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat.” 

― Muhammad Ali

Photo by TARMO HANNULA

Nutmeg and New York

By SARAH RINGLER 

This old-fashioned cookie is always nice to have in the cookie jar. They keep well so you can have a good supply of goodies on hand whenever the need comes up.

Nutmeg is the predominant flavoring in these cookies. It was very commonly used in colonial America. 

The tree, from which the nuts come, is native to the Banda Islands in Indonesia and was the only source until the 19th century. Europeans in the Middle Ages became familiar with the spice through Arab traders who kept its location secret. Then, as now, it was highly desirable as a flavoring. It is commonly used in baked goodss but also in toothpaste and cosmetics. It was used in snuff for centuries in Indonesia and India. Consuming too much nutmeg can be fatal. 

Arab trade in nutmeg was disrupted when Portuguese naval officer, Afonso de Albuquerque, conquered the Banda Islands and took over the trade. This was followed by battles between the Netherland’s Dutch East India Company, and England’s British East Indian Company culminating in the Treaty of Breda in 1667 when the Dutch got the Banda Island of Run and the Brits got to keep the island of Manhattan, changing the name from New Amsterdam to New York. 

However, as with all things of high profit, the Dutch only temporarily won the nutmeg trade. In 1810, the British returned to conquer the main island of the Bandas and took trees to other parts of the British Empire like Singapore, Ceylon and Grenada. This diluted the Dutch financial advantage. Grenada still is a major producer of nutmeg and  it is currently less expensive and more accessible.

The cookies got their name because they resemble an old fashion washboard with perpendicular ridges that run down the length of the board. The ridges are made with a fork that has been dipped in flour and pressed on the dough. 

Washboard cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup – 1 stick – unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup packed, brown sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Sift the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg into a bowl.

In another bowl, beat with an electric mixer, the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy for about 2 minutes. Add the egg and milk and beat for another minute. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and add the dry ingredients from above and the coconut. Mix just until the dough is well combined.

Put a large rectangle, about 18 inches long, of plastic wrap or wax paper on the counter. Flour your hands and shape the dough into a 15-inch long log on the paper. Flatten the top making the log 3 inches in width and about 1 inch tall. Wrap the log in the plastic wrap or paper and refrigerate until firm, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Arrange the racks in your oven to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Get out two cookie sheets and a cooling rack.

Take the chilled dough out of the refrigerator and cut into ¼ inch slices. Put the slices about 1 inch apart on the cookie sheets. Using a fork dipped in flour, press down on the cookies making a pattern of lines that go perpendicular to the length of the cookie. 

Bake until the cookies are golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes. Keep and eye on them. If you are baking two trays at once, you may want to switch the top and bottom trays about half way through. Cool on the cookies sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes about 3 dozen. Keeps well for a week in a cookie tin. 

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. 

Copyright © 2023 Sarah Ringler - All rights reserved