Guest Column | Progress on Regional Water Resource Collaboration
In Santa Cruz County there are seven separate water agencies that serve our community, each with different sources of water, customer demographics and infrastructure ages. As a result, each agency has different needs and approaches to operations and, until recently, operated largely independently of...
The Mountain Gardener | Plants Add Fall Color to Halloween Garden
It’s beginning to look like Halloween in my neighborhood with chrysanthemums and pumpkins on porches, skeletons and ghouls decorating front doors and posts on Facebook about tarantula sightings as the spiders go about their fall mating ritual. It’s the plants that get my attention...
The Mountain Gardener | Houseplants — Good for You and Your Home
I look out my sliding glass doors and see tall redwoods and stately oaks, but on the inside I enjoy the green and sometimes flowers of houseplants. I learned long ago to group them where they get enough light to do well. Recently I...
Commentary: County residents being asked to build city libraries
Our library board has been working toward a ballot measure which would tax local residents to pay for a bond to improve all 10 library branches.
Plain Talk About Food | Ahh, That Skirt Steak!
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” —Winston Churchill
Often when I am in Santa Cruz and near Shopper’s Corner Market, I pop in to visit their meat counter. Their array of beautifully displayed cuts...
Commentary: Scotts Valley doesn’t need a tax increase
In 2005, when Scotts Valley faced 12 percent operating shortfalls with virtually no reserves, the city asked voters to support Measure C, a temporary five-year increase in the sales tax. I was not on the City Council then but backed Measure C because I believed there wasn’t a credible alternative and that city leaders could be trusted if they said more revenues were temporarily needed.
News Briefs | Published Sept. 12, 2025
Fun run, emergency preparedness fair set for Saturday
On Saturday, Sept. 13, the City of Santa Cruz will be hosting Race the Wave, a 3K...