The Weekly Dump 4.7.17

Fourteen People Rescued From Panther Beach 

Sunday afternoon around 2:30PM, fourteen people had to be rescued by Cal Fire, Santa Cruz Fire and the CHP from Panther Beach after rising tides stranded them on the beach. Panther Beach is off the coast of Highway 1, about 8 miles North of Santa Cruz. Firefighters responded to multiple calls for a group of people cut off by the tide and in need of rescue. Santa Cruz County park rangers were soon on scene and lifeguards came from Santa Cruz. Cal Fire rigged an extraction system to haul the people to safety. A CHP helicopter responded from Napa and assisted lifting several people to safety, according to CHP Officer Trista Drake. All 14 people were safely evacuated from the beach without injury.

And it’s coincidentally spring break this week in Santa Cruz. Go figure.

Water Rescue Near Steamer Lane

Thursday afternoon around 2PM, there was an apparent water rescue near Steamer Lane. Sounded like multiple people were in the water but seemed to make it to shore ok before fire and SCPD arrived on scene.

Aptos Fire Chief on the Hot Seat

What is going on in Aptos? I hear things are not so swell down in the land of tasty waves, cool buds, and bad progressive hair.

Aptos/La Selva Firefighters on Monday announced publicly they have issued a vote of “no confidence” against Fire Chief Jon Jones, marking the first time this has happened in the department’s 87-year history. Every member of Aptos/La Selva Firefighters Local 3535 signed the vote of no confidence. According to Union President Ryan Peters, the vote came after what he called “three years of failed leadership, uneven discipline, the elimination of community services and Fire District resources, and a complete lack of communication”. This vote of “No Confidence” has been distributed to the five elected board members of the Aptos/La Selva Fire Protection District, which can deny or approve a request for a contract extension if Jones makes one. The Aptos/La Selva Fire Protection District Board of Directors will meet on April 13th at 7 p.m. to address the board about their concerns. Jones began with the Aptos/La Selva Fire District in October 2014. His three-year contract expires in October 2017, but he is eligible to request a two-year extension on his contract as early as April 13. If they have no confidence in the Chief, how much confidence should we have in the Aptos/la Selva Fire Department right now? Mierda rolls downhill.

Local Celebrity Hooker and Heroin Dealer Gets Picked Up by ICE

Apparently, Alix Tichelman has been picked up by ICE who plan to deport her to Canada. She’s the former local hooker and heroin dealer who killed a Google executive on his boat in the Santa Cruz harbor, then casually finished her glass of wine and stepped over his body on her way out. The woman who the media sensationalized with names such as the “Harbor Hooker,” made headlines in 2015 when she was found guilty of felony involuntary manslaughter and administering drugs to a 51-year-old Google executive from Santa Cruz who died from a heroin overdose on his yacht. She was sentenced to jail and was recently released from custody after fulfilling her time. At the time of her release, Tichelman had served nearly two years in the Santa Cruz County Jail for the 2014 incident. As she left the county jail at 5AM, ICE agents were waiting for her and immediately took her into custody and began preparing a deportation hearing for her. Apparently, she’s finally gone from Santa Cruz for good. No thanks to our local law enforcement though!

Woman Reportedly Needs Medical Attention at the Post Office

I got a report that a woman in her sixties was foaming at the mouth in front of the Post Office around 5:30PM on Sunday. Medics arrived but she refused any medical attention. Isn’t that when Food Not Bombs was feeding people their slop?

Fight Leaves Man Unconscious On Pacific Avenue

An apparent fight on Saturday night around 11PM left a man unconscious and bleeding in the parking lot next to the Starving Musician at Elm and Pacific. A possible second victim was located by SCPD when they arrived. Witnesses reported seeing the suspect, a White male in his twenties with brown hair reportedly flee the scene headed towards the Catalyst. Fire and rescue was called out to treat both victims. SCPD apparently caught the suspect nearby. The suspect was also in the system for a previous battery from earlier that same day. Yup. He was arrested for a battery earlier in the day, and now he’s being arrested for beating more people unconscious hours later. It’s the County Shuffle™ in action!

The Stuff I Don’t Report Would Make Your Head Spin

There’s a lot of stuff I don’t report here. I have my own personal filters. I rarely if ever report on domestic violence, rapes and sexual assaults, stuff involving kids, suicidal calls, and most mental health related stuff. But all of that stuff is happening pretty much daily. See the city’s crime stats for details. I just don’t want to discuss it for a variety of reasons. But just to give you some perspective on what our fine rank and file from SCPD goes through on a typical day, here’s a snapshot. Within a one hour window on Thursday afternoon, they had to deal with a water rescue involving multiple people off West Cliff, a baby in distress (and reportedly “dying” by it’s frantic grandmother on the call), and 2 small children under 6 with no adults banging on the fire station door on Younglove saying they needed help. The good part is nobody died here, and everyone turned out ok. But I gotta give the SCPD credit, they handled it all like pros, from dispatch to the units responding. Total pros. Well done SCPD.

City of Santa Cruz Touts Riverwalk Improvements

The City of Santa Cruz continues their ongoing claims to improving public safety on the Riverwalk, as the city has invested $200K to try to revitalize the path along the San Lorenzo River. Improvements come in the form of line striping the Riverwalk, new LED lighting, a proposed increase in officer patrols, and more outdoor fitness equipment. All of which is expected to be completed prior to the summer. I guess line striping the bike path will go a long way to keep the bums from sitting down or laying in the middle of it. And that new exercise equipment will keep the homeless that loiter along it busy with exercise instead of drinking and shooting up in broad daylight. Good thinking.

New Condos for Pacific Avenue?

The owners of a two-story downtown building located at at 1013 Pacific Avenue want to tear it down and put up a new four story building with 17 condos above a first-floor retail space. This is the space between the Catalyst and Old School Shoes on Pacific, which has sat vacant since the 1989 earthquake almost 28 years ago. The owners of the proposal have designed and built other projects together in Monterey County.  The design puts six condos each on the second and third floors and five condos on the fourth floor with private decks and balconies opening onto open courtyards. They will be studios and one-bedroom units, ranging in size from 356 to 913 square feet. Potential noise impacts from the Catalyst were a potential issue. An early design oriented the courtyards to the south, where the Catalyst operates, exposing residential units to noise. The final proposal orients the courtyards and condos away from the Catalyst, with a solid wall along the southern property as a noise mitigation. Future residents would be notified that there may be noise from downtown activities. Tenant storage lockers and bicycle parking for each unit would be located in the basement.

Sure. Who wouldn’t LOVE to live next door to the Catalyst!

Free Gun Locks to Residents in Unincorporated Santa Cruz County

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office is offering free gun locks to any resident in the unincorporated areas of Santa Cruz County as part of its Project Child Safe program. Stop by one of the four Sheriff’s Office Service Centers and pick up a lock free of charge — one per family as supplies are limited. Here are the Service Center locations:

• Live Oak / Soquel Center, 5200 Soquel Drive, Santa Cruz, CA 95062
• Aptos Center, 19 Rancho Del Mar, Aptos CA 95003
• South County/Watsonville Center, 790 Green Valley Rd, Watsonville, CA 95076
• San Lorenzo Valley Center, 6062 Graham Hill Rd., Felton, CA 95018

It Might Be a Good Time to Quit Smoking

In a move sure to seriously piss off a small but vocal group, the local tax on a pack of cigarettes just went up $2 per pack. It was eight seven cents per pack, now it’s $2.87 per pack. Good thing I don’t smoke.

March Crime Statistics: City of Santa Cruz

These numbers reflect the 31 day period of March 2017 and are for the City of Santa Cruz only. They are a synopsis of the full report, which is compiled and published by SCPD and posted on the city’s website.

• Rapes: 11
• Robberies: 15
• Aggravated Assaults: 16
• Burglaries: 39
• Larcenies: 241
• Auto Thefts: 31

Hugh’s News

2 weeks in a row! Apparently this week’s city council meeting was moved up a week due to a conflict on 4/11 with a Jewish holiday. – BD

City Council Meeting April 4, 2017

Santa Cruz City Council was gifted this week with a few things, a short agenda, the presence of an amazing group of individuals and the absence of the usual band of self-promoting kooks that fill the chambers. Thank you to those that showed up and to those that did not. On the agenda this week was a resolution supporting Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to the construction and use of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and to communicate the City’s actions to the Federal Government, State and local representatives and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. I strongly urge anyone that did not watch today’s meeting do so when the video is uploaded onto the city website. It will make you feel good. The public comments on this item consisted of heartfelt and peaceful testimony from indigenous people and those that support them. This in my opinion is truly the way to be heard. No grandstanding, no shaming, no demanding. Just kind, humble and supportive statements. Council voted unanimously to adopt this resolution. There was a standing ovation from the audience and from Council. We did a good thing today.

Guerreros

by Ernie Douglas

Golden State Warriors:
The Warriors went into this week on a winning streak. And they came out of it on a winning streak. They also clinched the #1 seed through the NBA playoffs and will have home court advantage as long as they keep playing. They are peaking at the right time. There’s little doubt they are the best team in the NBA right now. Their bench is getting good playing time lately, and the team is getting great contributions lately from David West, Iggy, Ian Clark, and Javale McGee. Even Matt Barnes, who I was somewhat concerned about it, has been a model dude and great foot soldier here. No chemistry problems on this team at all. These guys just really like playing together. Against Houston and James Harden, they shut down one of the 2 teams in the West that people are giving any sort of faint odds to compete with the Warriors in the post season. They won 107-98, led by Curry with 24 points and Klay with 20. Against Washington, they did the same. They put up 139 points on one of the best teams on the Eastern Conference. Curry put up 42 in that 139-115 win. Against the Timberwolves, it was Klay’s turn to light up the other team, going for 41 points in a 121-107 win. Wednesday night, they flew to Phoenix to take on the Suns. The Warriors led throughout the game, with the Suns trying to make a late push that was shut down in the game’s final minutes, as the Warriors won 120-111. In a nice bit of deja vu, Curry again put up 42 points on a team for the 2nd time this week. With the win against the Suns, the Warriors clinched the Western Conference title and guaranteed themselves the NBA’s best regular season record again and ride a 13 game winning streak now into the week before the playoffs begin.

Upcoming games this week: 4/8 vs. New Orleans, 4/10 vs. Utah, 4/12 vs. LA Lakers

Santa Cruz Warriors:
The Santa Cruz Warriors wrapped up their regular season at a very respectable 31-19,  defeating the Los Angeles D-Fenders 127-117 in the final game of the regular season. Damian Jones, on assignment from the Golden State Warriors, led all scorers with 25 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Jabari Brown added 21 points off the bench, and Cleanthony Early added 19 points and 7 rebounds. Santa Cruz now moves on to the first round of the Western Conference semi-finals against the OKC Blue in a best of three series. Game 1 of that series was a nail biter, with the Warriors winning 121-120. Jabari Brown led all scorers with 36 points. Damian Jones finished with 14 points and six rebounds, while Alex Hamilton contributed 18 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Upcoming games this week:  4/8 at OKC, 4/10 at OKC (if necessary)

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