Local News

Tarmo Hannula Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf and Beach Boardwalk While the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and the Municipal Wharf are mainstays of summer fun and typically mobbed with tourists and locals during the hot months, I'm drawn to them with equal fervor when storms come through....

WATSONVILLE—Following an enormously successful fundraiser for the Fairgrounds Foundation—the first-ever Holiday Lights drive-thru tour during November and December—more events are now being lined up with a similar footprint. Next in line: The first-ever Drive-Thru Crab Feed, slated for March 6. “Holiday Lights was a resounding success,”...

Special events Open Farm Tours (Oct. 12-13) Due to the increase in attendance at the 2018 tours, an additional day has been added this year so people can visit more farms without being rushed. Fourteen family-owned farms will participate in this year’s tours. All farms implement sustainable...

The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday renewed the contract for 20 license plate reader cameras—and despite community opposition added 17 additional ones—for a $251,000, two-year contract. Council members voted 5-2 in favor of the new contract, with Mayor Maria Orozco and Councilwoman Vanessa Quiroz-Carter dissenting. The...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a four-part strategy to deal with the county’s homeless crisis, an ambitious three-year plan that has the goal of reducing by 50 percent the number of households experiencing homelessness by 2024. The...

SEACLIFF—The tidal surge that ravaged Seacliff State Beach on Jan. 5 destroyed much of the park’s protective sea wall, all but destroyed the campground and ravaged the pier so severely that the entire structure is “actively failing” and likely beyond repair. That was the message...

The federal government is preparing to open two new industry-specific small-business relief programs, one of them months in the works, as its signature pandemic aid effort, the Paycheck Protection Program, nears its end. The Small Business Administration said it hopes to start taking applications by...

Local farmers Zea Sonnabend and Javier Zamora talk Aug. 17 about both of their farming operations and how a $1 million loan from California FarmLink boosted their businesses.

Fourth grade students from Mar Vista Elementary School get an up-close view of a Robinson 22 helicopter Tuesday during a tour of the Watsonville Municipal Airport. Now in its third year, the community outreach program by the Municipal Airport exposed kids to various aspects...

SANTA CRUZ—Dignity Health Dominican Hospital announced Monday that it has received a $1 million donation, which will be dispersed to hospital employees who have helped fight the coronavirus. The anonymous donor is a “long-time friend” of the hospital who wanted to thank the workers specifically...