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Watsonville
January 11, 2026

Local nursery buzzing amidst pandemic, winter months

With most people staying close to home during the pandemic, looking for things to do and ways to stay safe, local nurseries have seen an uptick in customers. Stay-at-home orders have prompted many to find new hobbies—and gardening has been a popular choice. Sierra Azul...

County still weeks away from opening restaurants for dine-in service

santa cruz county business covid-19
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Though some rural counties are allowing restaurants to open for dine-in service, Santa Cruz County officials are still several days away from giving their restaurateurs the green light. That’s according to county spokesman Jason Hoppin, who on Tuesday said testing and contact tracing...

City readies for renewed negotiations with PV Arts for Porter Building

Porter Building
WATSONVILLE—The city of Watsonville is expected to resume negotiations with the Pajaro Valley Arts (PVA) Council for the sale of the Porter Building after no affordable housing developers showed serious interest in the historic landmark. Watsonville and PVA earlier this year had begun early discussions...

Kitchen incubator celebrating five years

El Pajaro Community Development Corporation's Commercial Kitchen Incubator, 412 East Riverside Drive in Watsonville, will celebrate its fifth anniversary with Tacos and Tapas on Aug. 23 from 6-9 p.m.

Harbor Freight opens doors

Dozens of customers on April 6 were browsing the aisles of Harbor Freight, Watsonville’s newest hardware store.

Food service industry faces unprecedented labor shortage

Two weeks ago, Amelia Loftus, owner of Hidden Fortress Coffee Roasting, was on the brink of closing her cafe in Watsonville just shy of its five-year anniversary. The shop, located at the end of a sleepy business complex on Hangar Way, had been struggling to...

Creative masks still a hot item

Watsonville masks covid-19
WATSONVILLE—Battling the pandemic for nearly a year now has spurned a wealth of creative avenues to keep Covid-19 at bay. From crafty outdoor dining patios, equipped with heaters, sun umbrellas and all kinds of tents and landscaping, to attention-getting homemade signage, face shields and...

Drinking in the shopping season

As holiday shopping season ramps up, the employees at Elyxir Distributing have the solution for the beer lovers in the family.

Tight market, recent disasters put strain on local home buyers

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—For the past few years, local real estate agents have seen a drastic dip in inventory of homes in Santa Cruz County. And with the ongoing pandemic and recent wildfires that destroyed close to 1,000 homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the...

Applied Motion Products moving to Morgan Hill

Applied Motion Products
By Erik Chalhoub, Special to the Pajaronian MORGAN HILL—Citing a need for more space and to be closer to its Silicon Valley customers as its business grows, Watsonville-based Applied Motion Products broke ground on its Morgan Hill facility on Aug. 6. The facility, now under construction...
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Teen arrested after chase

A routine traffic stop turned into a chase late Tuesday night that ended with the arrest of a 17-year-old suspected gang member and the...