Opinion

Since my last message our clocks have sprung forward and Spring is here. As we move past the storms of the past several months, much-awaited federal help for our neighbors in Pajaro has arrived.  The President approved a major disaster declaration for Santa Cruz and...

What is wrong with us? One hundred days into 2023. One hundred and fifty mass shootings under our belt. More than 11,500 people killed by gun violence thus far. Across our country, “Amazing Grace,” our new national anthem, is heard more often than the “Star...

Median home sales in 95076 in February were $768,000, down 12.7% from last year, according to Redfin.com. Meanwhile, amongst some dire predictions of housing value decline or a housing “bubble” burst, homeowners in Watsonville’s “Adult Villages” are seeing quite the opposite. Home values in...

Since the beginning of the year, Community Bridges has been busy helping Santa Cruz County and North Monterey County residents who have been devastated financially, emotionally and mentally by the recent unprecedented spate of storms and floods.    We walked door-to-door in the immediate aftermath of...

Are you interested in learning more about how our local government works? Are you interested in helping improve our local government? Do you enjoy working in a collaborative setting with other community members? If you answered yes to these questions, please apply to serve...

To say the last three weeks have been tough is an understatement. Overwhelming, heartbreaking, enraging and exhausting is more accurate. The Pajaro levee breach on March 11 came at the same time our community marked the three-year anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic. As with...

Stay hopeful in midst of tragedies It used to be that I would write to my state and federal representatives whenever there was a school shooting. Full of shock and outrage, I asked that they support legislation to outlaw assault rifles and require universal background...

Thousands of Monterey and Santa Cruz County families were forced to evacuate March 11 after the Pajaro and Soledad rivers flooded this rural agricultural area. The storms arrived at the beginning of the growing season, just as farmworkers were going back to work and...

As we entered the second week of March, we once again prepared for storms and another atmospheric river event that was expected to bring heavy rains and flooding. The City is working tirelessly with many partners to prepare and be ready to assist our...