Santa Cruz deliberates on whether to loosen the leash on its downtown dog ban
The Santa Cruz City Council will consider at its July 12 meeting whether or not to temporarily alter the city's ban on dogs downtown. This comes after a recommendation by the Downtown Association, which voted back in March 2010 to support lifting the ban for a trial period of six months with various stipulations. These include limitations on leash length, the number of dogs gathered in close proximity, and the time of day dogs will be allowed downtown, as well as restricting panhandling with dogs.

The existing ordinance, which bans dogs from Pacific Avenue, has been in place since 1976 with additional restrictions for Locust Street, Church Street, Walnut Avenue and Lincoln Street between Cedar Street and Front Street in place since 1985. Dogs are also not allowed on some public beaches, the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, or in San Lorenzo Park.

Controversy over growing downhill biking craze reaches boiling point
Law enforcement was jolted to take action on issues related to downhill mountain biking recently, thanks to a group of particularly perturbed Felton residents.

Residents of the Forest Lake community in Felton held a heated meeting on Tuesday, June 14, aimed at putting the controversy between residents and downhill riders on law enforcement’s radar.

Santa Cruz dishes out its first annual city report to residents and businesses
The City of Santa Cruz is broke. It’s also anti-business, too strict (or too lenient) with the homeless, is controlled by UC Santa Cruz, and has an unsafe downtown. In Mayor Ryan Coonerty’s eyes, these are the five biggest myths about Santa Cruz.

In part, he believes that these ideas are perpetuated because they are “stories we’ve been telling ourselves for a long time,” that, although untrue, help “simplify the world.”  But he also blames them on the city’s poor communication skills. “I don’t think we have done a good job of communicating what we’re doing,” Coonerty says.

He’s been attempting to debunk these myths at his Mayor’s Academy workshops (the last of which is on July 27 at 7 p.m. at the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce), and also has a new trick up his sleeve for reaching out to the public: the city’s first ever State of the City report, which will arrive at every city household and licensed business on Friday, June 24.

City hopes to integrate technology with government through partnership with nonprofit Code for America
Code for America, a nonprofit aimed at “helping governments work better for everyone with the people and the power of the web,” announced earlier this month that Santa Cruz made the list of finalists for its 2012 city partnerships.

Santa Cruz joins nine other cities, including Austin, Texas, Detroit, Mich., New York, N.Y. and Macon, Ga. as finalists for the CfA partnership, beating out Balboa Park in San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Clarita, Calif., as well as the U.S. Department of State, among others. However, Santa Cruz is not yet guaranteed a spot; following a fundraising period, CfA will narrow down the finalists and announce the selected five to eight cities this fall.

With adoption of the next fiscal year budget on the horizon, the city asks residents what they think
The city wants your help.  Council members will adopt the Fiscal Year 2012 city budget next month and, in the meantime, need to figure out how to make up for the looming $2.8 million shortfall. Officials have some ideas (see Good Times’ May 5 interview with City Manager Martin Bernal at goodtimessantacruz.com), but the council is also opening it up for public discussion.

"We're trying to do more to engage the public in helping the city council make decisions about the city budget," Vice Mayor Don Lane says. "We are eager to have people communicate their priorities for the budget."

And a well-informed citizenry makes better decisions, he adds.

It was with these sentiments in mind that Lane, Bernal and Finance Director Jack Dilles broke down the budget at a community budgeting workshop on Tuesday, May 31. They walked whoever would listen through where revenue comes from, how it's spent and why we're in a $2.8 million deficit this year, all in the hopes of getting some helpful feedback. It was the first meeting of its kind for the City of Santa Cruz. 

Robert Ellsberg, son of the man responsible for ‘The Pentagon Papers,’ speaks in Santa Cruz
In 1971, at 13-years of age, Robert Ellsberg helped his father, Daniel Ellsberg, photocopy thousands of classified U.S. government documents, later dubbed “The Pentagon Papers.” These papers revealed to the world the government’s conscious pursuit of a losing the war on Vietnam, and earned his father, a former Vietnam War strategist, the title of “Most Dangerous Man in America,” according to then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. More recently, Daniel Ellsberg’s story was the subject of a 2009, Academy Award-nominated documentary.

“I was an early witness to my father’s act of conscience, and the factors that helped inspire him…the power of truth, and the power of non-violence and civil disobedience, particularly the young men who were going to prison at that time to protest the draft, which inspired my father to ask himself to question what he would be willing to do, if he were prepared to go to jail to help end the war,” says Ellsberg, who is currently the editor for Orbis Books in New York. “That set in motion questions I would pursue in my own way, as a writer and editor.”

Local swim instructor and community members push to reopen Harvey West pool in time for summer
Swim instructor Jim Booth first started coaching at Harvey West Pool in 1974. Now, nearly 40 years later, Booth is working with other community members to reopen Harvey West Park’s lap pool, which was shut down more than two years ago as part of a series of budget cuts that aimed to fix the city’s deficit.

Booth still gives lessons at the children’s pool, which remains open, but would like to see the main lap pool opened again (it was closed because it requires more energy use, and thus produces a bigger PG&E bill). “It’s tradition,” Booth says. “[When] all of us grew up, our moms and dads dropped us off at the pool in the summer. Thousands of kids have grown up with that pool.”

The ‘Smart on Crime’ effort seeks to spark changes in the local criminal justice system
The Santa Cruz County Jail earns an average of two stars (out of five) on the popular review website Yelp. Comments range from the serious—“This jail lies in stark contrast [with] the supposed basic rights we are all afforded”—to the facetious. “The jail cooks better than my ex-wife ever did,” one user writes. Yes, it’s absurd to review a jail like you would a coffee shop. It’s a jail, and you don’t get to choose to take your business elsewhere. But if a business garnered similar reviews as the county jail has, the owners of the business would, one hopes, work hard to make changes.

In a way, that is what is happening in the county right now. Arguing that the current incarceration system is inhumane, ineffective and expensive, local politicians, scholars, and leaders are working to find different approaches.

Santa Cruz Pride marks the anniversary of the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) equality. Forty-two years ago this June, the Stonewall riots in New York were a turning point as queer people declared they would no longer stand for the status quo of harassment and persecution. California’s Secretary of Natural Resources John Laird’s article from Good Times (May 26) paints a compelling picture of the LGBTQ movement’s progress over the last 40 years. We owe trailblazers like Laird a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to equality and fairness.

California nutritionists’ ongoing fight to maintain legal legitimacy
What is the difference between a nutritionist and a dietitian? This may sound like an menial question to some, but ambivalence about this distinction sent holistic health professionals across California into a flurry of phone calls, letters, and public consternation regarding a piece of recently proposed legislation know as Assembly Bill 575.

Due to sizable disapproval over the written logistics of AB575, which was proposed by Assemblymember Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward), it was tabled on May 4 for revisions. However, the debate it sparked brings to light an ongoing controversy in the world of nutritional healthcare.