Santa Cruz made NBC’s Today show early Friday with ample video footage showing people enjoying Cowell’s Beach next to the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf. Their news team was covering parts of the golden state and in particular, Santa Cruz County, after the beaches and parks reopened Thursday. They had been closed by health officials for a week as part of the fight against the coronavirus spread.
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There are 91 cases of COVID-19 in Santa Cruz County, with 41 recoveries and two deaths.
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Gas prices are also a big reflection of the times. I saw regular fuel was going for $2.59 a gallon at the 76 station on Soquel Ave. in Santa Cruz. That’s 20 cents cheaper than a week ago. Watsonville weighed in at $2.39 at one station on Freedom Boulevard.
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Construction crews have begun repairing the Santa Cruz Branch rail line at milepost 4.6 (4 miles) just north of Watsonville, my railroad friend Gary Plomp said. “This is a long process as the rail was washed out and undermined from the rain storms of 2017,” he said.
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Watsonville continues to feel like a sci-fi movie. Traffic is scant, many shops are closed, it is calm and quiet (at times) and schools are chained shut. The cold, overcast weather adds to the gloomy feeling.
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Something I’m noticing on my walks and bike rides is an abundance of discarded rubber gloves and masks. They’re in the gutter, on sidewalks, the roadway and lawns. I don’t get it. Some folks are using them for protecting themselves, and when they’re through with them, the masks and gloves are tossed aside on the street for the rest of us to deal with. I’ve been seeing these discarded items for over five weeks now.
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I rode my bike out to the west side of Santa Cruz during my work photo spree and noticed about a hundred people back in the surf. One man, as he climbed up a flight of stairs from Cowell’s beach said, “It feels really good be get back in.”
