The Weekly Dump – 8.2.24

Adios Downtown New Leaf Market

Thanks to Martin for the tip!

I’ve heard rumors for months but apparently it’s true and just a matter of time now. Downtown is losing our New Leaf Market. I noticed the big sign on the building the other day. Did some digging around and found this. According to the listing, New Leaf will be vacating downtown at the end of September. So where are they going? They are actually moving into the old Ross store location at Gateway Plaza. Because Ross just shut down too. So where is Ross going? To the old Office Max location across the parking lot, next to PetSmart and Cost Plus. I’m getting dizzy thinking about it.

So Gateway Plaza will soon feature Cost Plus, Ross, PetSmart, and New Leaf. Currently, Ross is closed and I’ve heard the store is basically empty. So I would anticipate New Leaf is planning to remodel the Ross store between now and the end of September, and try to move inventory in from the closing of the downtown location at the end of September. So the New New Leaf should be open by the end of the year. How long will the old location be vacant? 

Downtown will lose an anchor tenant and the loss is gonna sting. I would hope another independent grocery store moves in. But here’s another idea. How about turning that location into an indoor food court and take out market (like I previously proposed for Logos). Something like this. The market concept has shown to be successful downtown. Abbott Square has become the town square. Zoccolis is always packed at lunch time. Get creative with the space, but most importantly, make it a destination location for downtown. 

UCSC Has Issues With Reporting Crime

Good article on KION about a recent audit which highlights issues with crime reporting at the University of Santa Cruz. The data collected here is used by the university to show how safe the university is in their marketing materials for the school, so I’m not really surprised by the school lowballing the actual crime numbers for the sake of selling the nice, safe, happy, hippy vibe. 

To help inform students, employees, applicants, and their parents about campus safety, the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) requires all eligible institutions of higher education to prepare, publish, and distribute annual security reports disclosing specified campus crime statistics and campus security policies. What jumped out to me in this report was UCSC had 672 Clery crimes reported, while the next closest school (UC San Diego) had 216. That’s a huge difference between worst and 2nd worst. The top 3 reported crimes from the university in 2022 were Rape, Robbery, and Stalking (in that order). So crime is being officially under reported in Santa Cruz? You don’t say! 

Coral Street Will Always Be Coral Street

Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund announces a $50 million investment in affordable housing (KION News)

This week, the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund announced support for the Harvey West Studios project in Santa Cruz. The new project will be located at 119 Coral Street. The $50 million fund, set up in partnership with Destination Home, Cerato Philanthropies and Apple, will provide 120 studio apartments for homeless individuals. The facility will include bike parking, residential amenities, and support services. This new project is set to begin construction next month and should be ready for, occupancy in less than two years. We’ve officially given up Coral Street to the homeless and the HIC (Homeless Industrial Complex) that feels the never ending need to service them. It’s become a fucking campus now it’s so big. It’s never been about eliminating homelessness here. It’s always been about servicing them. Eliminating homelessness eliminates your market and shuts down your grift. As long as we dole out grant money with no accountability, people will take advantage of that. And we’re the ones getting grifted. Gee thanks Apple. 

Local Drug Addict Mom Kills Her Toddler

Sunday afternoon, a 38 year old woman showed up at Dominican hospital with a dead toddler, leading to an investigation and her arrest on numerous child neglect charges. According to police, the 18 month old child likely died of a fentanyl overdose. The mother has been charged with two counts of felony child endangerment, one with an enhancement for great bodily injury to a child younger than 5 years old, plus an additional misdemeanor for evidence destruction. She was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on Monday and remained held without bail. The suspect had been homeless until the baby’s father died of a fentanyl overdose in April. After his death, she took her children to live with her parents in Scotts Valley. According to court testimony, the toddler was found dead on Sunday in a bed with her sleeping 4-year-old brother at a River Street apartment. The suspect took the dead child to Dominican Sunday afternoon. Police confirmed the location on River Street is a known drug area. Detectives said that while a full toxicology report and an official cause of death determination were not yet complete, the toddler showed a “presumptive positive” for cocaine and fentanyl in her system. On Wednesday, the woman appeared for her initial arraignment, which was delayed until next week.

Friends Drunken Brawl Leads to Deadly Repercussions

Last Friday, A Santa Cruz judge ruled that sufficient evidence exists to charge a 38 year old Texas man with killing his best friend after a drunken brawl in downtown Santa Cruz. He faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter after emergency responders were unable to revive his 37 year old best friend after they found him sprawled on the sidewalk near Front Street and Soquel Avenue in November of last year. According to police reports, both men had traveled to Santa Cruz from Texas. On the night of the incident, the two began to fight each other when one of them fell to the ground and became unresponsive. An attorney for the defendant argued that his client may have been acting in self-defense after a night of drinking. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office Forensic Pathologist testified that the cause of death to the victim was blunt-force injury to his head and neck. The defendant, who has been out of jail on supervised release, is scheduled to return to court on August 12th for arraignment.

Watsonville Strawberry Festival This Weekend

Even though I’m late this week, there’s still time to catch the final day (Sunday) of the Watsonville Strawberry Festival. The annual celebration of the area’s most valuable crop features all things strawberries, with free admission for all. Runs from 11AM until 7PM. Main Street and E. Beach Street in downtown Watsonville. 

Cowells Beach No Longer a Bummer

This week it was announced that Cowell Beach, next to the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, was not named on Heal the Bay’s “Beach Bummer” list, according to the nonprofit’s 2023-2024 Beach Report Card. Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay has been issuing its annual Beach Report Card, which grades water quality by analyzing bacteria pollution at more than 700 beaches along the West Coast. This is now the 5th year in a row Cowells has been kept off the beach bummer list. Fifteen years ago, it was renowned for being on the worst offenders and even occasionally spending time at the top of the list. Cowell Beach was rated the most polluted beach in California on the 2013, 2014, and 2015 report cards. Cowells was consistently given poor grades from Heal the Bay until city officials, who had always blamed bacteria problems on dubious uncontrollable environmental factors, decided to take the matter seriously. In 2015, The Santa Cruz City Council formed a study group to improve the beach’s poor water quality. They studied conditions at the surrounding areas to determine the source of the bacteria that was polluting the beach, and found that a primary source of the bacteria was coming from birds roosting under the Santa Cruz Wharf. After a number of improvements, the ratings improved. To read the Beach Report Card, visit healthebay.org.

Developers Plug the Plug on Dream Inn Project

This week, developers announced they were abandoning plans to build a proposed four story, mixed use development on West Cliff Drive and Bay Street across from the Dream Inn. The development was being led by Ensemble Real Estate and Investments, which owns the Dream Inn. According to a letter submitted to the Santa Cruz Planning department, the developer stated that market conditions changed during the lengthy appeals process and the project was no longer feasible to pursue and was being abandoned. The proposed development project was first approved by the Santa Cruz City Council in October 2019. The 56 foot tall, mixed-use structure would have been built on what is now a surface parking lot used by the hotel and the parking would have been moved underground. The project would have also included transforming the intersection at West Cliff Drive and Bay Street into a traffic circle.

In My Ear

Wildflowers – Tom Petty

Rest in Peace Sweet Enzo. You were so loved by many and you will be missed by all of us. 

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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