Opinion

By Kathleen Kilpatrick Twenty years ago my family and I supported Measure U. Measure U was a compromise measure that came from Action Pajaro Valley, a robust stakeholder process that created the Watsonville Urban Limit line to allow for some growth and protection of farmland...

In the next few weeks, we will turn our clocks forward and then later in March the first day of Spring will arrive. The Buddhist celebration of the Spring Equinox is called Ohigan in Japanese. This year’s celebration takes on greater significance as we begin...

As the days get longer, we have the opportunity to cherish the beauty of our community under the warm sunshine. However, our community has also been impacted by the effects of climate change, with frequent flooding and atmospheric storms in parts of Watsonville and...

As we embark on Watsonville’s 150th birthday, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what the City Council, staff and community partners have accomplished over the last two years and look forward to the year ahead.

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...

No trust in the Health Trust The Community Health Trust of the Pajaro Valley was created more than 20 years ago from the proceeds of the sale of the Watsonville Community Hospital to a private corporation. I was a founding member of the Board of...

The Pajaro River flood is a world problem. This flood has been written up in the New York Times and the UK Guardian.   The Pajaro River levee was built in 1949. The river begins at San Felipe Lake and travels 30 miles through Watsonville to...

Over the past five years, we’ve learned how to navigate successive disasters in Santa Cruz County.  We fill sandbags, dig ditches, clear fallen trees, clean up debris, distribute food and help folks cover critical expenses when they are out of work due to shutdowns, floods,...