The Weekly Dump 10.7.16

Open Streets This Sunday

Open Streets Santa Cruz will return to West Cliff Drive this Sunday from 9am-2pm. West Cliff will be closed to car traffic from Lighthouse Field to Natural Bridges State Park. In addition there will be a variety of FREE music and interactive activities. Sponsored by the City of Santa Cruz, Bike Santa Cruz County, and Ecology Action. The route is a ‘soft closure’ with auto access for West Cliff Drive residents only to their homes with a police escort, if needed. In addition, every effort is being made to minimize parking impact on West Cliff Drive neighbors. In promoting the event participants are strongly encouraged to arrive by bicycle, foot, carpool or bus. People needing to drive will be asked to use nearby designated event parking areas.

I really enjoy this event. I think it’s in it’s 3rd or 4th year now, and it’s one of the nicest, funnest, most family friendly events in Santa Cruz all year. It brings out LOTS of people, and they’re all having fun and enjoying the natural beauty of West Cliff. It’s like the one day the locals can get out and appreciate why they pay ridiculous amounts of money (and deal with a ridiculous amount of city dysfunction) to live here. Get out and enjoy your town.

More information can be found on their website.

Another Body Found Downtown

So I started writing this as “oh another mysterious circumstances body found downtown” and the lack of info about it. But then slowly more hearsay information trickled out (not from the city but from witnesses and people who knew the guy). The short story here is a number of people contacted me asking about a body that was found in a public city parking lot on Cedar street this past week, behind the Defib This place. A number of witnesses reported seeing a HAZMAT team and the coroner (along with SCPD) remove a body from a vehicle. Many people had questions, including eyewitnesses. What I’ve heard and come to gather is the person who died was an older man, apparently he was a street artist who sold his paintings on Pacific Avenue and lived in his van. Apparently he died of either natural causes or possibly a heart attack, probably while sleeping. Nobody noticed for a day or 2. I find the whole thing pretty sad on a number of levels, but there’s no snark here. There’s no fault here. There’s just a guy, former artist who lived outside the trappings of “conventional living” and probably struggled with many things. People sometimes die in public spaces. Especially homeless people. It probably happens more often than I’m aware of, but it’s still kind of shocking when it does happen. Personally, I’ve become so desensitized to seeing random bodies laying around in public spaces I don’t give them a second thought. I walk by Laurel Park every day and there are random bodies laying in the park all the time. They’re probably not dead. They’re probably passed out or sleeping. But the fact that they’ve become so ubiquitous locally, people like me don’t give them a second thought, or a glance, or even a concerned check to see if they’re dead or alive.

Body Found in Branciforte Creek Monday Morning

Well, here’s your weekly story about another mysterious body found downtown and the lack of info about it! It wasn’t actually found downtown though, it was found face down in Branciforte Creek near Market street. I’ve been told by sources that the victim was a young black male with dreadlocks, and police are treating it as a homicide. That’s about all we know right now. I haven’t seen Joyce from SCPD put out a media release about this (what else is new). The Senile ran a story on it but details are lacking. Just another suspicious circumstances death that SCPD and the city doesn’t want people to know about or talk about. It’s bad for business and it’s bad for mayors running for re-election. And it’s bad for clueless city managers.

Another Overdose in San Lorenzo Park

Yesterday around 9:30 in the morning, a call came in that there was another drug overdose at the children’s playground in San Lorenzo park. Yes, that’s right. An overdose at the children’s playground at 9:30 in the morning. The caller reported his girlfriend took some heroin and meth and was overdosing. She was apparently breathing but not conscious when PD and paramedics showed up on scene. Are we ready to stop accepting this as our normal yet? We’d rather coddle drug addicts than provide a safe space for children to play. Why not just convert the playground into a safe injection site? The local junkies already treat it that way anyways.

Stabbing at Sycamore Street Apartments

Last night around 6:30, there was a report of a stabbing over at the Sycamore Commons apartments. These are low income, “affordable housing” apartments located a block from downtown. The suspects were described as 2 Hispanic males in their twenties. It doesn’t sound like they were caught or arrested. PD was looking for a white van, possibly a Honda Odyssey. The victim was stabbed at least twice. Not sure about how the victim fared but I know he was taken to Dominican for his stab wounds. I don’t think he died. But if he did, I probably wouldn’t hear about it.

Pajama Man Strikes Again!

Around 8:30 last night, a call came in that someone described as “Pajama Man” was terrorizing employees of the Safeway on Morrissey. He was blocking the front door and refusing to let employees leave. Described as a white male in his 60s, and wearing a blue robe. Gee, WHO DOES THAT SOUND LIKE?

Man Smashed Over the Head with Vodka Bottle

Friday night around 8:30, a call came in that a man had smashed another man over the head with a vodka bottle outside the Palomar on Pacific Avenue. He was last seen running towards Forever 21 covered in broken glass. No word if they caught him or arrested him. The guy who was smashed in the head was sent to Dominican.

RV Driver Tries to Run Over Person on East Cliff Drive

Tuesday night around 6:30, a call came in that a woman driving a beater RV on East Cliff drive, no license plates, tried to run over another person. No word on whether or not PD caught up with her before she ran over any other random people.

Using Shame to Get Results

I saw an interesting article about a merchant in San Francisco who has resorted to trying to shame the city into taking his public safety concerns seriously. I can relate! This poor guy runs a sandwich shop and deli in the city’s South of Market area. He’s tired of the rampant and blatant heroin and meth problem with the homeless that takes place daily outside his doorstep. So he’s using social media to try to shame the city into action. Sound familiar? I really wish the merchants downtown would do something similar. Could you imagine if all of them start posting photos of the daily espectáculo de mierda along Pacific Avenue on their social media accounts? I GUARANTEE the city would freak out and immediately deal with it in no uncertain terms. You’d have Ryan Coonerty frantically calling every merchant he knows pleading with them to stop. LIFT THE DAMN CURTAIN ALREADY. I’m doing my part here. I wish the downtown merchants would realize that I’m doing this for their benefit.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Each day during the month of October, the Santa Cruz Sentinel will document the domestic violence calls in the county received by emergency dispatchers. Figures are compiled by the District Attorney’s Office and include reports of domestic violence, restraining-order violations and other domestic disputes. The 24-hour domestic violence hot line is 888-900-4232.

October 3rd had 21 calls. The total for the month after 3 days is 76 calls. I’ll try to remember to update this weekly.

This is stuff we probably never hear about, never read about, unless something really BAD happens and then we read about it after it’s too late to do anything about it. Check the Sentinel’s Facebook page feed for their daily updates here. I think this is great they’re bringing awareness to this issue which never seems to get much media attention.

The Bums are Back in Town

Well that didn’t last long. Almost immediately after I gave old Martin Bernal a “weekly shoutout”, I knew it would be short lived. I started getting a flood of emails letting me know where the bums went. They obviously left the levee for other areas where they would be less conspicuous (and hassled less). Areas like the neighborhoods. And Harvey West Park. And Natural Bridges and the areas as you head north out of town. They obviously didn’t leave. I was walking around downtown on Monday and was amazed at the number of bums hanging out along Pacific Avenue. More than ever. There’s really no method to the madness here. One day I can go down there and it’s bum free. The next day it’s bum central. I also heard from some of the Leveelie folks who went out on a recent clean and they are reporting more liquor bottles and needles being found along the levee.

SCPD Seeks Public Input on Public Safety

SCPD continues to seek feedback from the community through their online public safety survey. They are inviting people who live and/or work in the city to participate in the survey and give their feedback. The survey will run until December 21, 2016. It takes about 5 minutes to fill out and I highly recommend doing it. I did it. It’s a good survey. I know I complain a lot but when it’s time to complain to the people that need to listen, I’m all in.

City Council Candidate Propaganda Takes a New Spin

Before I get to this, I want to just say that Drew Glover is currently in Washington state tending to his mother, who is in the hospital. No snark here, I wish he and his family the best in this difficult time. And Drew is obviously a fine son for basically dropping everything to be with her. Much respect. – BD

So back to the snark. Drew and his ground team have just put out a slick new video featuring random talking faces endorsing Drew. Of course it’s blatant propaganda. I’m pretty sure everyone in the video (5 or 6 people I think) work for him on his campaign in some capacity. But it’s still very effective. First off, it’s very professional and well done. Pleasant background music scores the video. Seems to be HD quality, with professional editing (or at least done by someone who’s good at this stuff, not the CTV amateur hour junk we see on Comcast 25). There’s a link to it on Drew’s campaign website.

I haven’t seen anyone else do something like this. Drew’s video is a little too long I think at about 4 minutes. I only watched a 4 minute testimonial video to write about it here, but I was ready to bail after 2 minutes. Cut this in half and it would be twice as effective. I’m surprised nobody else has done a similar video yet (maybe some are working on it). Some of the other candidates have much better “endorsers” they could use here, not just people on their team but people that the community look for and listen to.

Fact Checking the Progressive City Council Candidate Rhetoric

If you read this column, you probably know how I feel about the red herring discussion known as “affordable housing” in Santa Cruz. It’s one of the favorite progressive talking points. Never mind they have no idea what they are talking about, and continue to spread lies and misinformation as part of their ongoing propaganda campaign to get elected. They (Krohn, Glover, Schnaar, and the Clueless Brown in particular) LOVE to rail on the city for not building any affordable housing. I’m here to tell you that they’re full of mierda. They’re lying to you. Don’t drink their Kool-Aid.

Here are 4 projects which clearly illustrate the city’s contribution to creating affordable housing locally:

• 1280 Shaffer Road (Pacific Shores, Chris Garwood developer) 30 year rent subsidy by the former RDA-$9.4 million projected subsidy through 2033 (ongoing debt of Successor Agency-combined with 1010 Pacific)
  206 total units, 83 affordable, 40% affordable units
• 1010 Pacific (Pacific Shores, Chris Garwood developer) 30 year rent subsidy by the former RDA-$9.4 million projected subsidy through 2033 (ongoing debt of Successor Agency-combined with Shaffer Road)
  108 total units, 44 affordable, 40% affordable units
• Sycamore Housing Project (Mercy Housing) $1.16 Million in loans and fees paid by the former RDA
  (60 affordable units, 100% affordable)
• Neary Lagoon $3.5 Million in City and RDA financing, $600K in federal HOME funds
  (95 affordable units, 100% affordable)

All 4 of the projects referenced above were built or made possible with the assistance and financial support of the City and former Redevelopment Agency (RDA) and would not have been possible otherwise. The high levels of affordability were expressly possible (and required) as part of the City/RDA subsidy. All of this information can be found by the city council candidates if they actually did some homework on the issue and didn’t just resort to slinging muddy rhetoric around. It just shows how CLUELESS these 4 candidates actually are on this issue. Some of these 4 candidates want 25% of the units to be affordable? The FACTS here show the top 2 development projects I listed above here have a 40% affordable clause. So does that mean that KROHN, GLOVER, SCHNAAR, AND SANDY BROWN WANT TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING UNITS IN THE CITY?

Maybe this “brand new council” should get their facts right before they start spouting their lies again?

Don’t Forget to Vote!

Early voting begins on October 10th! Absentee ballots are probably being mailed out this week. Just vote early by absentee ballot and be done with it! If you miss the deadline for mailing your absentee ballot, you can still bring it to your local polling place on November 8th and just drop it off. So you can fill it out in advance and just drop it off the day of the election (which is what I usually do).

But don’t forget to vote! People have died for our right to vote. The least we can do is respect them by doing it. This city council election is very important for the future of Santa Cruz for at least the next 4 years. Past elections have been won or lost by as little as a few hundred votes, so every vote really does matter here.

Keeping Up With Chris Krohn

“Keeping Up With Chris Krohn” explores the colorful past and history of Chris Krohn, former mayor and now a city council candidate after being out of government for the past 16 years. Maybe he thinks 16 years is long enough for most people to forget about who he is and what he’s done. But Weekly Dump readers have a long memory, and have been bombarding me with stuff about Chris Krohn and his past transgressions. So I’m gonna pick a few of my favorites and feature them through this election campaign, just to provide some balance and perspective to all the rhetoric that will inevitably come from his mouth in the coming months. – BD

Did you know Chris Krohn cares more about the swamp next to his house than he cares about the welfare of his neighbors? It’s true! And I’m not the one saying this (I guess I am but it’s more like stating the obvious here). Check out this recent letter to the Santa Cruz Sentinel by one of Chris’s LONG SUFFERING neighbors.

Well that’s quite enlightening. I’ve known for a long time that Chris Krohn doesn’t care about affordable housing. He talks about it now because it serves his needs to try to get elected to the city council. But he’s just pandering folks! He’s just telling the local sheeple progressives exactly what they want to hear. His actions speak MUCH louder than his words do here. Chris Krohn would rather have a swamp next to his house than affordable housing. Nobody’s talking more mierda here than Chris Krohn is.

City Council Election Watch

We’re into October now and the race is heating up. Many of the candidates have been seen walking the hoods, knocking on doors wanting to chat. None of them bite. Chat them up. Ask them why public safety isn’t their top priority? Because really, what’s more important than being safe? Nothing. I think being alive and healthy tops my personal wish list.

You’ll start seeing their signs popping up everywhere all over town. You’ll see them at community forums debating local topics. I’ll share what I know. It’s mostly opinion. I’m also going to rate them on what I’m calling my “Progress-o-meter”. With a 1 being a Trump Republican and a 10 being Don Lane. And I’ll add casual observations overall every now and then. This week, I’m also adding what I’m calling “Ryan or Micah?” (as in Ryan Coonerty or Micah Posner). If one of them endorses a candidate, I’ll let you know.

CANDIDATES ENDORSED BY THE WEEKLY DUMP!

MARTINE WATKINS:

I’m endorsing her for a number of reasons. She has a masters degree in public policy so she’s not just someone with a bunch of grand ideas with no substance and no ability to make it happen. She seems pragmatic. She works for the County Office of Education so she’s already doing public service work that really does benefit not only the community but the less fortunate as well. I realize she’s not actively selling “public safety” as part of her campaign, and that’s a concern for me. But I think she understands what needs to be done there without the need to spell it out yet. I really like what I saw at the first candidate forum. I think she was the best speaker. She didn’t read from a script but seemed to be very well prepared. She’s raising 2 young kids. I’m sure she can handle the kindergarten atmosphere of most city council meetings like the adult in the room. I have little doubt that she’d do a fine job on the city council. I might not agree with all of her positions, and I’m fine with that. I’m not always right. Just most of the time.
Progressometer Rating: 7
Ryan or Micah?: Ryan

ROBERT SINGLETON:

I’m endorsing him for a number of reasons. He’s smart, ambitious, and idealistic. And perhaps more importantly he’s fresh. He’s not a retread. He’s also not afraid to tackle sensitive subjects and try to identify better solutions. He’s not married to an ideology. He seems both progressive and pragmatic. I think he understands the challenges of improving public safety in Santa Cruz, a town easily frightened by a rescue vehicle named after a cute little animal. One thing I feel he does understand is the red-line level of dysfunction within the city government. I don’t think he can fix it (at least not by himself) but I don’t think he’ll perpetuate it either. I think he’s a break from the status quo, despite being endorsed by the status quo. He serves on the Downtown Commission, so I’m sure he’d represent their interests better than some of the others on the city council do or will. And perhaps his biggest strength is he’s smart enough to understand the nuances of data driven analytics and how to apply that to improving the way our city government “does business”, especially with social service based non-profits looking for handouts in perpetuity.
Progressometer Rating: 7
Ryan or Micah?: Ryan

CYNTHIA MATHEWS:

I know I’ve been pretty hard on her here at the Dump, and it’s really not personal. She’s the Mayor. She means well. I never doubt that. It’s kind of a reflection right now of her job performance. But the truth is I blame City Manager Martin Bernal MUCH more for the local public safety issues than Cynthia or any other person on the city council. If anything, I’ve been disappointed that she didn’t do more this year as Mayor, but she hasn’t done a bad job, and given the fact that she has to deal with both Don AND Micah pontificating and basically derailing every single meeting, and the local circus from the public, and the fact that she’s still doing it and seems to enjoy doing it! Now that’s hard to find. What she does bring is obvious wisdom, knowledge of history, and perspective. She is status quo, and I know I complain A LOT about that. But we should be careful to not toss the baby (Cynthia) out with the bathwater (Don and Micah). You can have a variety of opinion about Cynthia but she is definitely pragmatic, and that’s pretty high on my checklist. Yes she panders. It’s an election! They all do. Some more than others. But she has shown an ability to actually deliver. At least when she doesn’t have a circus to deal with. Hopefully the next city council will be less circus and less circuitous. The new members can learn a lot from her experience in navigating city government.
Progressometer Rating: 7
Ryan or Micah?: Ryan

Other Candidate Profiles:

J.M. Brown:
Nothing he says really stands out or differentiates him from anyone else. He’s vanilla ice cream. Nothing offensive. It’s like he’s trying to be a safe bet for the most people. You know what they say. If you’re not pissing someone off, you probably aren’t doing anything important. He’s a safe bet for extreme Progressives like Katherine Beiers. She endorses him. Photo ops with John Leopold? Check. The more I learn about him, the more I see him for what he really is. A progressive posing as a moderate. Or maybe it’s a moderate posing as a progressive. Who knows. It changes depending on the audience. He just feels like Don Lane Lite. Don Lane even endorses him! (go figure). He’s really not that “progressively” different from Glover or Schnaar. He just has better name endorsements.
Progressometer Rating: 9
Ryan or Micah?: Ryan

Sandy Brown:
Sandy Brown is an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco and University of the Pacific. She previously worked for the local Community Action Board, and has taken part in the city’s Living Wage Advisory Committee, the Citizens’ Police Advisory Board and Santa Cruz County Women’s Commission. She also doesn’t like city hall. She doesn’t seem to have any real plan here but he unions love her anyways. Terrible performances at the forums so far but she has solid backing from the “sheeple” so far (unions and SCAN).
Progressometer Rating: 9
Ryan or Micah?: Micah maybe?

Jim Davis:
Jim writes jingles for KPIG radio. And he likes cool hats. He looks every bit like a rock star. I’d call him the “Average Joe” candidate but his name is Jim. I know he thinks the city doesn’t do nearly enough for the homeless and he’s disgusted by all the needles found in public spaces. So he’s a definite wild card. He can be BOTH very progressive and very moderate. Now that’s an anomaly in Santa Cruz. Was recently busted for a DUI (after the black eye). The forums haven’t been his friend, he just seems either lost or incoherent, no website, no endorsements, sinking like a rock. He can be very entertaining but I’m not sure what we need is an “entertaining” city council member. He’s colorful for sure.
Progressometer Rating: 8
Ryan or Micah?: Neither

Dru Glover:
Founder of “Project Pollinate”, a community activism group that likes to throw parties 4 times a year in San Lorenzo Park. Works for the resource center for non-violence. Has never held public office before. Good speaker but talks really fast to fit all his ideas in. Seems to really love the color purple. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called “life”. He’s done pretty good in the progressive friendly forums so far but that’s his crowd. He’s lacking in “name” endorsements, but he’s doing pretty good on the social media and event circuit.
Progressometer Rating: 8
Ryan or Micah?: Micah

Nate Kennedy:
Hard to take Nate seriously. No website. Sometimes he has a few good ideas, and I think he really cares. In reality, he has little to no chance of winning a seat. He did bring color and laughs (no flair, that would be Jim Davis) to the first forum. He’s skipped a couple forums since the first forum (or maybe they didn’t invite him) and the air is quickly leaving his balloon here. I really felt like Nate was using this as an opportunity to hear his ideas and now that he’s been given the chance, he’s missing in action. Maybe he got bored. Maybe the whole thing was too overwhelming for him. Maybe he smartened up and someone talked some sense into him. I haven’t seen him on Pacific lately. Still has no website, no endorsements, no chance.
Progressometer Rating: 9
Ryan or Micah?: Neither

Chris Krohn:
Another former mayor and city council person comes back to try to haunt us. He is the Internship Director for the Environmental Studies Department at UCSC. He was elected to the Santa Cruz City Council in 1998 and was mayor of Santa Cruz in 2002. He’s been out of city politics for 14 years. The Santa Cruz Weekly actually described him as “one of Santa Cruz’s most famously leftist former mayors”. He gets the Perfect 10 on the Progress-o-meter. Even Mike Rotkin, notorious local socialist who previously served with Krohn on the city council, said “If you ask my opinion, I don’t think he’d make a great council member”. I guess that rules out his endorsement here. He’s done very well at the forums and he works the crowd well. He’s using his “experience” as the “alternate leader” of the progressive “slate” so he’s getting some benefit by association from the moderate acceptance of Glover & Schnaar so far. He’s basically a hot mess but let’s face it, the old SCAN crowd loves a hot mess.
Progressometer Rating: 10
Ryan or Micah?: Micah

Steve Pleich:
Steve seems to be everywhere now that the campaign season is in full swing. He’s all over social media. Every photo-op you can likely find Steve ready to photobomb it. He loves attention. He loves the limelight. He loves to hear himself talk. He is running mostly on what I’ll call the “homeless” platform, bent on repealing the sleeping ban and other homeless issues. I’m sure he’s hoping to tap the old SCAN crowd once again but how many times can they go to the well and find it empty yet again. He couldn’t even get an endorsement from the world’s oldest progressive city council candidate forum audience. That hurts. He hasn’t really done anything wrong, he’s just done it all before many times. And the “New Progressives” (led by 16 year absentee relic Krohn) have kind of decided he’s not one of the cool kids in their clique anymore. Go Independent Steve! Don’t let the “progressive” tail wag YOU!
Progressometer Rating: 9.9
Ryan or Micah?: Neither

Steve Schnaar:
Founder and director of the Santa Cruz Fruit Tree project, and a volunteer mechanic for the Bike Church. I really like both of these groups, although the Bike Church has had a stigma for supporting bike thieves. Long time social activist. Has had previous issues with SCPD and the city council (mostly related to the Bike Church). Married to Stacy Falls, longtime progressive advocate for homeless issues and co-founder with Brent Adams of the sanctuary camp project. I know he comes across as pretty soft spoken but his positions can be pretty extreme (and he seemingly has a tendency to take rejection personally when it comes to dealing with the city, much like Micah does now). Schnaar has actually done well at each forum, and was endorsed by the PDC (beating Pleich). I think his calm demeanor works well for him. Newly anointed part of the “New Progressives” ticket (with AARP member Krohn, Glover, and of all people the woman without a plan Sandy Brown!). He’s in, Pleich is out.
Progressometer Rating: 9
Ryan or Micah?: Micah

Weekly Shoutouts!

Weekly shoutout to Stab Santa Cruz. Good luck and thanks for all you tried to do in bringing public awareness to an obvious lack of focus on public safety locally. I doubt I’ll make it 8 years here. You’re a local legend, and I hope I can carry a match to your torch here. Weekly shoutouts to everyone sharing the Dump! You know who you are!

DeCinzotized – Classic Steven DeCinzo

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