Lookout Local

For the second year in a row, Santa Cruz County has been named the country’s most expensive rental market. Further, the gap between the county and the second-most-expensive area, the San Francisco metro area, widened considerably. Housing advocates are not surprised.

Since Feb. 29, Mountain Charlie Road, which stretches toward the northern boundary of Santa Cruz County, has been cut off by a major landslide. Despite desperation from residents, county, state and federal officials have until now offered few solutions.

Over the past 10 years, an area of Soquel Cove between New Brighton State Beach and Rio Del Mar has earned the title “Shark Park” due to the increasingly high number of juvenile white sharks spotted in its waters during the summer months. This year, though, researchers have seen a ton of sharks, even for Shark Park — and they have some thoughts as to why that might be happening.

In the heart of Watsonville, a small church is playing an expanding role in the homeless crisis. What started as an effort to feed the unhoused population along the Pajaro River is expanding into a mini-village of 34 microhomes behind Westview Presbyterian Church that will also host social services. Construction is set to start next month with the goal of housing residents by December.

COVID is surging in Santa Cruz County, with the highest level of transmission seen so far this year, along with higher prevalence in wastewater and slightly more hospitalizations. Summer surges are expected at this stage in the pandemic — but could be worsened by low vaccination uptake and new, infectious subvariants.

It’s been a wonderful month for Lookout as we’ve celebrated our Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News with our team and members. Thanks to all of you who offered congrats. But, as we’ve said, this is just the beginning. We built Lookout Local to be a model, and one that can rebuild local news in communities well beyond Santa Cruz. We’ve now taken that first step as we move forward with Lookout Eugene-Springfield. It will be the second Lookout, as we now scope out a wider expansion in 2026-2027. We will also announce the beginnings of our national staff leadership later this summer. The community response in Oregon has been off the charts. People know what they’ve lost in local news and have enthusiastically supported our launch there, and they’ve embraced our launch with their hearts and wallets, with more than two dozen individual and family foundation funders supporting us. We know our journalism/community/business models work, and with the sufficient capital we have raised, we also know well that it is the Lookout team there who will drive the success of Lookout Eugene-Springfield. So, we are beginning to hire, looking for those who want to be part of the solution, the revival of trustworthy local news across the country. We are hiring both for our contemporary, in-office, invite-in-the-community newsrooms modern digitally agile newsrooms and for committed business and community leaders who support and advance those newsrooms. Lookout Local is building a company of journalists and friends. We seek those who have the fire in their bellies to build the next generation of local news. We know that in a world of journalistic downturn we are fortunate to be able to serve communities hungry for real local news brought to them by people and companies they can trust. In addition, due to a medical leave, we now have a new position open at Lookout Santa Cruz, as interim managing editor. Of course, that’s a key position in maintaining our growth and excellent momentum there. I will share all the job descriptions in the comments below. We welcome beginning interest now, especially for our leadership positions. For any of them, just write jobs@lookoutlocal.com, with cover letter and résumé, subject line: Eugene.

Santa Cruz County officials publicly struggled through the most recent budget process due to the increasing cost and frequency of natural disasters. Now, as insurance companies drop thousands of residents due to increased wildfire risk, the board of supervisors will consider a new camping program that fire protection officials say will make the county more vulnerable to wildfires.

Hot dogs are an iconic summer meal, and in Santa Cruz County, six hot dog vendors plus one café are offering fresh takes on the classic all year long. Lily Belli tried them all, and brings a recommendation from each.

In “The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority is Transforming Democracy,” veteran Republican Mike Madrid likens the American political struggle as a footrace between an emerging and hopeful, largely Latino generation and an older, privileged, largely white generation with a bleak view of the future. The Lincoln Project co-founder will talk about it July 8 at Bookshop Santa Cruz.

A little over a year on, the previously scorched Mission Street shopping center is moving toward the completion of its remodel. While a return to full operations is still a ways off, some familiar faces will be coming back to the Westside Santa Cruz complex as other tenants remain to be determined.