About Town

On Monday I clipped my bike to the 91X Metro Express bus on Water Street in Santa Cruz and came out to Watsonville. The express bus is just that — it whistles out to south county very quickly: I climbed off the bus 35...

A group of volunteers has painted a large Black Lives Matter mural on a stretch of Center Street in downtown Santa Cruz in front of City Hall. The project was spearheaded by Santa Cruz artist Abi Mustapha, with help from Arts Commission Vice-Chair Sean...

I rode my bike to the Santa Cruz Farmers Market in downtown Santa Cruz today. It was a surprise to see Nick Prevedelli of Prevedelli Farms in Watsonville running a stand there with one of his workers. They had about 14 kinds of apples...

Observations from around the Pajaro Valley.

Tarmo Hannula: Santa Cruz has a new mayor: Justin Cummings, 36, a Beach Flats resident was sworn in Tuesday. A biologist, he told the council that he wants to keep Santa Cruz abreast with the latest environmentally sustainable topics. Homelessness is also at the...

I walked through the Capitola Mall on 41st Avenue last night and was surprised to see how empty it was. In Beck’s Shoes, a place that’s been there for years and offers a wide range of quality shoes, had one or two customers. The...

Tarmo Hannula: I learned in the newspapers the other day that Germans are credited with starting the tradition of Christmas trees in the 1500s. • At midnight Tuesday, as Christmas Eve slipped into Christmas Day, I heard an interesting bit on my police radio from a...

Tarmo Hannula: Though the day started out sunny in Santa Cruz, as I cruised into Watsonville on the METRO bus 69A the city was dark, cold and gray beneath a heavy cloud layer. The streets were still slick with rainwater. The National Weather Service...

Tarmo Hannula: February is Black History Month. I’ve seen a few venues around town that honor this important page on the calendar. The main branch of the downtown Santa Cruz Public Library has a special display set up showcasing a bunch of related books,...

The leaning tower of Dallas? A demolition in Dallas on Sunday of a residential high-rise did not go according to plan. Following the typical dynamite blasts and huge puffs of smoke the old building simply leaned over a bit and stayed that...