Looking at the year ahead of us, what issues do you expect to be at the forefront for the city, and how do you plan to address them?

It is an honor and a great privilege to be Mayor of Santa Cruz. We have a strong city council and staff and are prepared to work hard during 2013 to ensure that our city government moves forward with policies and programs that enable our community to thrive. For my part, I intend to focus my efforts in three areas:

One is economic development. Growing our economy is essential to solving so many of the challenges that this city faces every day. In the near-term, we must work to create jobs in Santa Cruz and keep existing jobs in town.

GT looks ahead at likely key local issues for 2013

The last half of 2012 seemed to revolve around the election. Before that, the year kicked off with the SmartMeter saga still in full swing, and Occupy Santa Cruz stealing headlines. What will be this year’s equivalent? For one thing, we will have transportation projects under way (Rail Trail, Highway 1), and continued struggles with unemployment, hunger and other symptoms of a struggling economy. But here are three issues that we suspect will unfold in particularly interesting ways in 2013.

Watsonville Youth City Council plans to survey police

The Watsonville Police Department will face questioning by the Watsonville Youth City Council (WYCC) this month.

The survey of officers is the first move by the youth council to follow up on a survey they conducted during October and November of 723 high school students about how safe kids feel in different parts of the City of Watsonville, and how they interact with the police. 

Fifty percent of survey respondents said that they would not report a crime in progress, and 29 percent said they would not approach police for any reason.

One local woman’s mission to use marijuana and hemp to help returning veterans

There were approximately 21.5 million U.S. military veterans in 2011, including more than 13,000 living in Santa Cruz County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

This October, 9.7 percent of post-Sept. 11 veterans remained unemployed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the rate of suicide among U.S. veterans has never been higher (the army reported 211 potential suicides by Sept. 27 this year).

Record number of calls for service help police work, but crime is still up

Earlier this month, there was a wager going around the Santa Cruz Police Department on when they would hit 100,000 calls for service—an all-time record number of calls in a year. Whoever guessed the day the record would be broken stood to win a cup of coffee, compliments of Deputy Chief Steve Clark.

On Thursday, Dec. 13, the department hit that 100,000 calls mark, which means Clark owes Chief of Police Kevin Vogel one cup of joe.

In light of recent debate over The Fiscal Cliff, what is your opinion on how to approach solving these financial problems and “fixing” the economy?

Our economy prospers when the middle class prospers. As we continue to debate our budget priorities, we must remind ourselves that investments in the middle class form a strong foundation on which we can build a robust economy.

I know that because we have been down this road before.

Nonprofit combats obesity and diabetes by cooking with local kids

Ever since Yeyen Gunawan, local nutritionist and former owner of Cafe La Vie in Downtown Santa Cruz, took her 3-year-old daughter to a nutrition class she was helping with at Live Oak Elementary School several months ago, the little girl has been demanding more vegetables.

The 2-year-old local nonprofit Nourishing Generations Educational Project hosted the class, which included a lesson about “rainbow foods” that explained to the kids in attendance why it is important to eat fruits and vegetables from every color of the rainbow.

Local association of faith groups helps the homeless with straightforward services

For more than four years, the Arredondo family struggled in and out of homelessness in Watsonville, sleeping in their Chevy Suburban when they could not make rent. 

But things began to turn around for them two months ago, when the husband, wife and three children found shelter through the Interfaith Satellite Shelter Program (ISSP), a local church-based emergency shelter program first initiated in the 1980s. The program was dormant for most of the last decade, but was revived last February by The Association of Faith Communities (AFC) in Santa Cruz, a collaboration of church pastors, church members and activists dedicated to serving the homeless.

Nonprofit seeks to connect students with career inspiration

Local Cassidy Clawson had been working at his father’s Santa Cruz-based medical device manufacturing company, BC Tech, since he was young. When the company collapsed in 2010, the recent UC Santa Cruz graduate jumped into a van and drove cross country to do some soul searching. Somewhere between New Orleans and Texas, while pondering YouTube videos and fellow recent grads who were out of work, an epiphany hit.

Now that the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission has purchased the Union Pacific Rail line, what is the status of the rail trail project?

The Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) is currently in full swing planning for the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail Network. This project merges plans for a bicycle/pedestrian trail along the rail line that will serve transportation, recreation and interpretive uses for walkers, joggers, bicyclists, families, locals, and visitors.