Santa Cruz’s Ecology Action is at the center of new program designed to save money and the environment
Just in time for the New Year, the Energy Upgrade California Program (EUCP) is announcing its plans to keep the environment green and clean while putting a different kind of green back into the pockets of the state and consumers alike.

A collaborative effort between nonprofits, utility companies and the California Energy Commission (CEC), the program will use federal stimulus funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA). It will allow homeowners and commercial businesses a unique opportunity to make their buildings more energy efficient by providing rebates and monetary incentives for upgrades. What makes this program different from others, is that it is a statewide program that will allow all 58 counties to participate in reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions providing more benefits than just monetary. At the cornerstone of the project is Santa Cruz’s own Ecology Action.

Local preschool teachers receive community hero award and fight to keep their schools open
The go-to source for Santa Cruz statistics was released last month. Along with providing a plethora of data, the Santa Cruz County Community Assessment Project Report (CAP) honors dedicated citizens who contribute to the community’s social health. This year, a group of teachers from a network of parent-interactive preschools have received recognition for their betterment of early education. But, honors aside, the preschools are facing economic woes  that threaten their survival.

The CAP Report is an annual almanac that reports the x, y and z’s of Santa Cruz County. Since 1994, the report has supplied citizens with raw data concerning a variety of community interests, such as public safety, health and education.

Congress recently passed an extension for Medicare reimbursement rates for physicians. How long will the extension last, is there talk of extending it further, and how will it impact the Central Coast specifically?
This is a great question, and it is an issue I have been working deep in the weeds for more than a decade. To answer the immediate question, congress has passed a series of extensions for Medicare reimbursement—the current extension expires on Dec.31, 2010. But Democrats worked out a way to guarantee a longer extension, one that will last through 2011. That bill is on its way to President Obama for signature, thus assuring that doctors will not face a 23 percent cut on Jan. 1.

But the Central Coast also faces another important issue looming over Medicare reimbursement in our region.

As many of you may be aware, doctors in Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito Counties receive a lower payment from Medicare than do doctors in neighboring Santa Clara County.

Picketing protestors clash with teacher’s supporters outside local yoga studio
The calm of an overcast December morning on the Westside was interrupted on Saturday, Dec. 11 as about a dozen protestors picketed in front of Santa Cruz Yoga off Ingalls Street. The protest was over the studio’s owner, Mark Stephens, who, protestors claim, inappropriately touched several students. The picketers’ signs read things such as “Honor Women,” “No More Victims” and “Groping is not Yoga.”

“We’re essentially trying to let the community know that we’re concerned about his behavior during classes touching women inappropriately,” says local Ann Simonton, a leading feminist in the country and one of the organizers of the protest. “He tends to pick on vulnerable women, so we’re here to stand up for the vulnerable women. That’s what a community is about.”

Students continued to come to and from Stephens’ classes throughout the morning despite the protest, some even stopping to confront the protestors.

Local nonprofit heads to Haiti to offer aid and support
Having only five members hasn’t stopped fledgling humanitarian nonprofit Action Santa Cruz from delivering aid and supplies to a whole arsenal of worthy causes. The small group formed shortly after the 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti in January 2010. On Dec. 9, the group will take flight to Haiti, where its members will embark on a search for the project that will define them.

And if their resolve is tested, Action Santa Cruz has the inspiration they need to fall back on, a Haitian saying which has already carried member Mary Anne Kramer-Urner through one challenging trip to Haiti:

“Piti, piti, zwazo fe nich.”

GT sits down with 2010 Historian of the Year Marion Pokriots
When I meet 2010 Santa Cruz Historian of the Year Marion Pokriots at her Scotts Valley home, where she’s lived since moving to the area in the 1950s, I find the dining room table stacked with volumes chronicling her own rich history. The books she’s authored, including “Some Early Santa Cruz Families: 1797-1847,” “The Joseph Majors Story,” “The Hitchcock-Patterson Saga” and the most recent, titled “Remembering Scotts Valley,” are piled alongside research projects or booklets she “just puts together” like one about Mount Carmel Cemetery and a scrapbook of press clippings by and about her from over the years.

We sift through the materials, journeying through her extensive adventures deciphering Santa Cruz County history, arriving at a thick packet of research on David Morrill Locke—a New Hampshire man who made his fortunes selling water to California gold miners and used it to settle on 1,100 acres in Scotts Valley. The project was for a Santa Cruz County history class she took in 1984 at Cabrillo College taught by esteemed local “history dude” Sandy Lydon. Her foray into the legacy of Locke launched her into an endless exploration of other notable Santa Cruzans from years past.

You are co-sponsoring a Dec. 11 reception honoring Celia and Peter Scott. Which of their accomplishments will be highlighted?
Many of us think the environmental amenities we enjoy have been protected from development forever. Wilder Ranch, Lighthouse Field, Pogonip, Grey Whale Ranch, Coast Dairies Ranch and the Santa Cruz Greenbelt provide spectacular scenic, environmental, recreational and even economic benefits to all of us and, in many ways, define the kind of community we are.

But the permanent protection of these resources for the public has only come about over the last 30-plus years. It resulted from the hard work, tenacity and perseverance of a relatively small group of community activists and elected officials who at times engaged in bitter political fights as they mobilized the broad based public support for the preservation of these incredible community assets. And, at the forefront of many of these and other environmentally related battles were Celia and Peter Scott.

Local orgs and causes to give to this holiday season
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Needy Animals
Second Harvest Food Bank
The Walnut Avenue Women's Center
Brown Berets Toy Drive

If you’re stumped on what to get that special (or not-so-special) someone, or are just feeling particularly generous this holiday season, perhaps the answer is in lending your support to one of the many local organizations and causes that are in need of a little holiday cheer. Here are a few such ideas; now, let the real giving get going!

UCSC cop plans to help a human trafficking safe house in Cambodia
The truth about the Cambodian genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge following the Vietnam War, as well as the current political situation in Cambodia, is hard to come by. But when local resident Jon D. Haro visited an orphanage in Northern Cambodia last year that provides a safe house and vocational training for young girls rescued from human trafficking in the Cambodian sex industry, he was hit by one, overwhelming truth: “[That] I’ve got to do something to help this place.”

Santa Cruz local walks cross-country to raise awareness for Hepatitis C
In the age of freeways and airplanes, transportation is fast and efficient, if not a little dehumanizing. We live in a time in which most people hop in their cars to run even the smallest errand. But this winter, one Santa Cruz resident is ditching his car and hitting the road for a transcontinental trip—on foot.

Meet Joseph Melsha. On Friday, Nov. 26, the Santa Cruz native embarked on a journey that will take him through the United States, with nothing more than a bag stocked with basic amenities (a tent, flashlight, and a small camp stove) on his back and a sturdy pair of walking shoes on his feet. He has plotted a course that will take him to his final destination in Boston, Mass.