Guest View: Fairgrounds future looks fraught
As a news reporter, I attended Santa Cruz County Fair Board of Directors meetings for years, sometimes covering scandalous fair managers and scarce finances. What I saw recently at the Feb. 28 fair board meeting was disturbing on a level I’d never before have...
Letter: RTC misses the mark on Highway 1
You can take an express bus from Watsonville to Santa Cruz without traveling a whole lot longer than it takes by car—so long as you travel after the morning peak commute hours. If you hop on a 91X bus at Main Street and Green...
Mayor’s Update: Watsonville’s resilience
The start of 2023 was far from what anyone expected it to be. Our region was battered by an unprecedented atmospheric river that brought heavy rains, flooding and evacuations for our residents.
While this was unexpected and severely impacted thousands in our community, I was...
Letter: PVUSD Board wise to appoint member
The PVUSD Board of Trustees was wise to move to make an appointment to fill the vacant Area 6 seat on the Board. Special elections often have terrible turnout and in this case would be a waste of $80,000.
As a parent of PVUSD students,...
Guest View: Showing up with love
With nearly three feet of rain in three weeks, national news picked up on the big impacts in our small county. Folks from Nebraska to North Carolina saw images of our battered coastline and the wreckage of Seacliff State Beach and Capitola Village. But...
Letter: Care for the wetlands, support the community
As so many of us are continuing to be affected by the recent storms, whatever comes our way, our community is in this together. The wetlands, creeks, and Pajaro River and the history of flooding in this valley have been fundamental to shaping the...
Letter: Speak out on fair manager’s firing
Next Tuesday, Feb. 7, the Fair Board will be meeting at 1:30pm at the Fine Arts Building. The first item under Correspondence is “Performance Audit with Dave Kegebein Response.” The Board and the state have been unresponsive to requests to schedule meetings at times...
Sandy Lydon: The false myth that Watsonville drove its Chinese community across the river in 1888
I first heard the story in the 1970s when beginning my research on the history of the Chinese in the region. I read it in community histories, newspaper history columns, and both Chinese and non-Chinese old-timers told me the story with conviction.
It was true...
Thank you, Watsonville
The Pajaronian newspaper has been a part of my life for as long as I remember.
Growing up, the paper would be delivered every morning to the Miller house on Lincoln Street. I remember sitting around the table in our tiny kitchen and watching my...
Guest View: The Republican party may not last
George Washington, our first President, warned against political parties. The English had already seen by the 18th century that there was bad feeling between the Conservative and Liberal parties in Parliament. The two parties survived to serve two factions of the public educated enough...
Protest, film target pesticide regulations
About 40 people gathered outside the CineLux Green Valley Cinema in Watsonville Friday to protest new regulations by the Department of Pesticide Regulation regarding...