The Weekly Dump – 4.26.24

Man Stabbed to Death in Brawl at DeLaveaga Park

Santa Cruz Police are investigating their second homicide of the year after a stabbing happened on the 1200 block of Branciforte Drive on Friday afternoon. According to police reports, a man was reportedly stabbed in the George Washington Grove area of DeLaveaga Park. Investigators said the man and some other people were involved in a fight prior to the stabbing. A suspect has been arrested and is currently in Santa Cruz County jail on a $1M bond for murder. 

Nursing Home Staff Member Stabbed in Watsonville

Wednesday afternoon, Watsonville Police responded to the 500 block of Auto Center Drive after they received reports of a stabbing at a local nursing home. They arrested a 44 year old man who was visiting the center, who reportedly pulled a knife and stabbed a staff member. Police found the suspect with a knife and he was arrested. The staff member suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene. The suspect was taken to the Santa Cruz County Jail and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. 

Flash in the Can

This past Tuesday, Capitola Police arrested an Oregon man who exposed himself to a woman and a girl inside of a local business. The flashing started on Saturday, when Capitola Police were notified about a man committing lewd acts inside of a business on the 1800 block of 41st Avenue. Witnesses told police that a man was exposing himself and acting extremely inappropriately towards at least two female victims, including a juvenile. Police eventually identified the suspect as a 53 year old man from Oregon, who (wait for it……) was on felony probation and is a convicted sex registrant. He was located and arrested in Santa Cruz three days later. We just attract the finest “tourists” here. Sex offender on felony probation hanging out on 41st Avenue jerking off in public and flashing women. Can we permanently ban this guy from Santa Cruz county limits? 

Parking Ticket Scammers Target Downtown 

This week, the Santa Cruz Police Department warned people of a parking ticket scam that took place downtown. SCPD warned the public that fake parking tickets were left on cars parked on Locust Street and around City Hall on Wednesday.

Photo of fake parking ticket found in downtown Santa Cruz. Photo: SCPD

 Begging in Traffic is Dangerous and Stupid

I know it’s one of the most self evident things I can imagine, but I still feel the need to say it because, well, I live in Santa Cruz and we have an ongoing problem with people begging in traffic. Anyone who drives through the intersection of HIGHWAYS 1 and 9 (yes, I need to emphasize these are highways with traffic sometimes flying through the intersection at speeds above 50MPH) has seen the human barnacles clinging to the medians looking for some spare change from drivers waiting for the light to change. I personally have seen SCPD pulled up next to them waiting for the light to change and they do nothing. Every time I see it they do nothing. It is still against the law as far as I know. Chapter 10.36.040 of the city’s code, titled “Remaining on Median Strips and Roundabouts,” defines the term “remain” as meaning, “the use of a median or roundabout for a purpose other than assistance in crossing the street including the purposes of disorderly conduct, solicitation of money, solicitation of prostitution, consumption of alcoholic beverages, or other activity not related to crossing the street”. Maybe it’s too much of a nuisance for SCPD to kick them off the median (consistently). It’s all fun and games until someone bounces off an innocent driver’s bumper and windshield and they unnecessarily kill someone because SCPD couldn’t be bothered to do their job. Tick. Tick. It’s a matter of time. 

Toadally Gonna Be a Parking Garage Soon

In another inevitable sign that the city owned “farmers market” parking lot is soon to become a new public library disguised as a parking garage, the city of Santa Cruz recently purchased the Toadal Fitness building downtown. It occupies a key corner of that parking lot. The city apparently paid $2.5M for the building. Bonnie is wheeling and dealing! The city will lease back to Toadal Fitness the current space for $1 per month until they move. Toadal Fitness has until October to move to their new location on the 700 block of Ocean Street. They will also get the first right of refusal on the 8,000 square feet of commercial space in the new space for the project. The project will include a new downtown library, 124 affordable housing units and a childcare facility. The city expects the project to be completed by 2027.

Trash Talking With Ron

Well last week a certain bridge caught my attention.

Ever since I was a little kid, I love to explore all kinds of places. Places like caves, ravines, you name it. Last week was no different. I took a walk under the Soquel Drive bridge, just adjacent to Spreckels Drive in Aptos, and located a small landfill building underneath. We were able to put together a small crew from the clean team, and trudged bag after bag of refuse up the embankment. At the end of the morning, it looks like we pulled about 1,000 lbs of trash out. This was trash, and a leaking rusty can of drano that most likely would have washed down into Aptos Creek. After the 4th hour, our work was done, for now.

What appears to remain under there, is about another 1,000 or so pounds of rotting trash and debris. We look forward to returning soon, to finish the job. Special Thanks goes out to County Public Works, who tirelessly work for the public good, and took piles of trash we had no more space to take!

Please remember, if you see trash, or any debris, in a public space, let us know, and we will do our very best to get it removed, We’re all part of this community, Thank you for all your support!

The Community Speaks!

This week, I asked a bunch of folks on Facebook the following Question of the Week!

“Do you favor converting West Cliff Drive to one way vehicle traffic northbound and putting a bicycle lane in the existing southbound lane?”

“If it goes one way how about a sort of figure of 8? Westbound from Bay to Woodrow, and Eastbound from Natural Bridges to Woodrow. Thoughts?”
-Brent

“We already have a state of the art new bike trail just three blocks away covering basically the same area from Bay to Natural Bridges. It cost 6.4 million dollars just for this segment (segment 7, phase 1). Why do we need to build another one on W Cliff? I think e-bikes and other bikes should use the bike trail. Pedestrians and cars should use West Cliff, two way. This would cause fewer negative impacts to the residential neighborhoods from traffic coming back from a one way, and make sure that pedestrians have full access to West Cliff without getting run over by bikes/e-bikes.”
– Carol

“The road is being rebuilt to support making it armored for two way traffic and the walkway. Any deviation from its original configuration puts the traffic burden into neighborhoods AND Mission St and Delaware Ave and will adversely impact not just those neighborhoods but the entire Westside and hence all those in town using and traversing Hwy 1, etc. We managed to enjoy West Cliff just fine the way it was and any deviation from the original traffic pattern will create an exponential problem that expands outward into town. The Risk/Benefit scenario makes it obvious that West Cliff should remain open to 2 way traffic.”
– Robin

“I don’t know there is such a lot to consider. Some how or other I would like to see a pedestrian walk free of other traffic like bikes, skateboarders etc. Woman with prams and strollers would have to leave enough room for people to pass. Actually I am down there enough to notice mothers with strollers don’t really cause a problem there are usually only a couple of them. It’s the bikes I hate they are all over the place and a lot of them ride too fast and expect me to move. I have no good suggestions but something needs to change.”
– Anne

“Time to prioritize human powered activities over cars. So one way for cars and a physically separate two-way bike hwy, with a yet again physically separate pedestrian walkway. People not cars!”
– David

“The way I see it: One way conversion could actually slow the falling of west cliff dr into the ocean. Less cars weighing it down. Plus that’s what they do for portions of East Cliff. It would indeed make too much sense to convert W Cliff to the benefit of those who walk and bike. But I doubt it will actually happen.”
– Josh

“The ocean will make that choice for us eventually.”
– Zander

The Weekly Stroll

Last Sunday, I took a stroll through the Makers Market on Pacific Avenue. Pacific Avenue was closed to traffic and the street was full of artisans and walkers. Lots of people out enjoying the beautiful weather and beautiful crafts and original art from local artists. This is what it could look like if we shut down a block of Pacific Avenue to traffic. A community hub. 

Makers Market – Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, California

You’re Making Me Hungry

Trying something new this week for my weekly boo lunch date, and I’m embarrassed and ashamed to say it’s my first time at The Crepe Place. I know, this place is legendary. I just don’t get over to the east side much. So this week I visited a Santa Cruz institution and was really happy I did! From the outside, The Crepe Place looks like any other bar on Soquel, and the front of the place is an actual bar. But the best is saved for the back, and when you walk through the hallway past the kitchen and bathrooms, you exit into a beautiful shady garden courtyard and patio with lots of outdoor seating. What an amazing space that’s hidden from the world. And the food was great too! We went at lunch time, and I enjoyed a very tasty lunch of a 1/2 crepe with a 1/2 order of a Caesar salad. Ma boo got the fried cauliflower (which looked delicious). I got the Crepe Gatsby, which featured marinated chicken breast, sun-dried tomato pesto, spinach, feta & mozzarella cheeses, fresh mushrooms, scallions, tomatoes & garlic. and sprinkled with romano cheese. The food was all delicious and the service was excellent. Highly recommend The Crepe Place for a date or a special lunch or dinner. 

In My Ear

Nubian Lady – Yusef Lateef

New Santa Mierda YouTube Channel!

I started a new YouTube channel for the Weekly Dump. It will host all my videos going forward. I’ll also put the podcast over there too if I can ever get that going. Go check out some videos if you haven’t seen them yet, and thank you to all the subscribers! (you can subscribe over there)

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