The Weekly Dump 12.13.19

Shootings Near Boardwalk Possibly Gang Related

Two shootings near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk this week have SCPD wondering if they are gang related. Around 9PM on Sunday night, SCPD responded to numerous reports of gunshots near Third and Front street, as well as near Cowells Beach. After investigating, they found multiple bullet casings and a light pole appeared to have been hit by a bullet. Witnesses told police they saw two cars speeding and possibly chasing each other when the shots were heard. Another witness reported two people in a dark car came up and asked if they had a gang affiliation. Detectives are investigating the shooting and looking at security video but nobody has been arrested and police have no suspects. More from KION.

And then the very next day, we get reports about another shooting in the same area!

Hooch in the Cooch

Since a new body scanner was installed in the Santa Cruz County Main Jail last week, three contraband items have been detected and prevented from entering the jail. This week, an arrested woman attempted to bring methamphetamine inside. Her body scan showed something abnormal and after questioning she admitted to hiding drugs inside of her body.

It’s That Time of the Month!

Monday morning around 4AM, SCPD responded to Ocean Street where they arrested a 45 year old transient female on a variety of charges, including battery, trespassing, and being drunk in public. She’s been arrested 6 times in the past 5 months. At least once a month basically. Turnstiling!

Tow Truck Hits Pedestrian and Dog on Highway 9

A pedestrian walking their dog on Highway 9 near El Solyo Heights Drive was hit by a tow truck this week after trying to cross the road. Ben Lomond fire crews responded, along with a Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office deputy, Felton Fire, State Parks rangers, and CHP. Crews with Felton Fire administered CPR until paramedics arrived. The victim was flown by helicopter to Stanford Medical Center and the dog was taken by rangers to the Santa Cruz Animal Hospital for treatment. The victim was in critical but stable condition after being hit by a tow truck.

Slugs and Drugs

A 21 year old former UCSC student was arrested this past week by UCSC Police and charged with  sales, possession for sales, and transportation of narcotics after a lengthy multi-agency investigation. UCSC investigators, assisted by the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team and the Unified Narcotics Enforcement Team say they recovered cash, psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, Adderall, marijuana, and cocaine. The former student was booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail.

Not Your Kind Peoples

Saturday night around 8:30PM, reports came in about a robbery near Cedar and Laurel. When SCPD arrived, they were looking for 6 young males who ripped off another guy trying to buy weed from them. They pulled knives and stole his money, according to the victim who wasn’t hurt.

Man Falls Into Hole Near Davenport Beach

Wednesday night, a young man fell into a water drainage shaft above Davenport beach as he and his friends were walking on on the bluffs above the beach. A multi agency rescue team from the Sheriff’s Office and personnel from the San Mateo, Davenport, Santa Cruz City and CalFire were able to eventually extract the victim to safety. He was transported by ambulance to a trauma center for his injuries.

The Recall Candidate Options Begin to Emerge

As we draw closer to the deadline (December 19) for candidates looking to replace either Chris Krohn or Drew Glover in the March recall, names has started to publicly emerge. In addition to Renee Golder, who earlier filed paperwork as a candidate to replace Drew Glover in the event he’s recalled, 4 more people have filed official paperwork as candidates. Three of them have familiar names, one I’ve never heard of before. These are the announced candidates so far:

  • Renee Golder
  • Don Lane
  • Katherine Beiers
  • Tim Fitzmaurice
  • Another Guy I’ve Never Heard Of

We now have 3 former mayors who have filed paperwork to run.

So a couple things to consider as this plays out:

Lane and Beiers will certainly offer old progressive voters an option other than Krohn, which will inevitably pull “no” recall votes away from Krohn, since you have to vote “yes” on the recall to vote for one of them. So their combined “pull” could be significant as far as converting older, progressive potential “no” voters to “yes” voters.

Fitzmaurice seems to offer a similar, progressive “alternative” to Glover, but as I described above he will pull old progressive voters and convert them from “no” to “yes” (anyone who votes for him will have had to vote yes on the recall first). Fitzmaurice and Glover will again split the progressive votes and Golder, the only moderate candidate and the person being backed by many pro recall people (including me) should benefit from that split.

I don’t encourage anyone else to get into this race. The stars are aligning nicely. Let it play out. If the “no on recall” people want to trot anyone else out at this point, let them. They will only pull votes from Krohn and Glover with each vote they get. But for the pro recall crowd, rally behind Renee and Don and let’s get this done. I’m very optimistic here.

The City is Finally Pushing back on the County

The Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 this week to move a homeless shelter intake center from the corner of Front and Laurel streets to a county parking lot next to the main jail on Water Street. Supervisor Ryan Coonerty advocated that the shuttle service be placed adjacent to the paved parking area known as “Department Head Row”. I love this idea, if nothing else for the name and the potential optics of displacing department head parking for a homeless shuttle bus stop.

Sheriff Jim Hart is concerned about the issues that have compelled the city to move the shuttle from its current location. Oh he is? He’s the leading freaking contributor to the issue!

Hey Jim Hart! It’s your shitty ass leadership that contributes to the problem here. County probation, under your command, is arguably the number one public safety hazard in the city of Santa Cruz. If you can’t keep your human waste locked up, you can park it at your front door.

Free Aquarium Days For Santa Cruz Residents

Residents living in the tri-county area are invited to the Monterey Aquarium free of charge through Sunday, December 15th for its annual Community Open House. Those who wish to attend the free Community Open House must present a photo ID and proof of current Monterey, Santa Cruz or San Benito County residence at the main entrance. Free admission is good for regular aquarium hours, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. It’s worth seeing if you’ve never been. The jellies are amazing.

Santa Cruz Has a New Mayor!

And his name is Justin Cummings! Congratulations to him. It’s interesting how Justin Cummings and Drew Glover both came in together, at the same time. Both men of color. Both progressive. And one is going to be our next mayor and one is being recalled. Talk about playing it right and wrong. What a contrast in style, intelligence, and “diplomacy”. They were both part of the supposed “New Progressive Majority”. What a farce that turned out to be. Two of them will most likely be recalled three months from now, while Cummings has turned out to be what I like to refer to as “the most powerful guy in the city of Santa Cruz politics”. He’s the wild card on everything. The wild thing. He makes my heart sing. He makes everything….groovy.

The Santa Mierda Podcast Network

Be sure to check out the Santa Mierda Podcast Network! You can find the Santa Mierda Podcast Network on SoundCloud. And Apple Music. And Spotify. It’s free so check it out and give it a listen! Next new podcast should be coming this Sunday night!

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27 Comments

  1. YOKO F THUNDERS

    Another successful dump!

  2. I think every voter can vote for a recall replacement candidate, regardless of whether they vote yes or no on the recall. That’s my interpretation of the process. I’m not positive.

  3. Again, we are given more news and all the crazy of Santa Cruz.
    I heard about a shooting down by the boardwalk which is pretty disturbing, then again. I just thought by the news, that they were still talking about the first shooting! When in fact it was a second shooting !! Holy crap !! Thank you for clearing up that in fact we did have 2 shootings.
    Norse and some others at the Christmas Parade made my jaw drop. Talk about crazy !!
    I am still wondering why Sheriff Hart is so upset about the salvation army pick up spot.
    The Board of Supervisors meeting this week went well. Parking lot pick up, needle handout has new guidelines. To the people who came out to the meeting and spoke up, Thank you !! I personally think that the County is finally listening to us l, the city folk who puts up with so much dysfunction!!
    Big Congrats to our NEW mayor Justin Cummings !!
    Thank you for ” The Weekly Dump ”
    My favorite news source !!!

  4. I’m not particularly thrilled about Tim Fitzmaurice throwing his hat in the ring for County Council. I recall when he, Krohn and Keith Sugar (deceased) ran roughshod over city politics. On the other side of the spectrum Justin Cummings is wearing his adult hat. The City of Santa Cruz is in dire need of adult leadership.

  5. ” since you have to vote “yes” on the recall to vote for one of them. ”

    This is not accurate.

    • You are correct. That kind of voting “yes, then vote” was discontinued sometime around 2005 or so. You can vote any way on the recall, and also vote for any candidate (or neither or either one I think). There was a lot of confusion on this earlier in the recall campaign.

      • Actually there was never a requirement that only ‘yes’ voters could vote on the replacement. Prior to to the 2005 law, you couldn’t abstain from the recall yes/no vote and still vote for a replacement. Now, everyone gets to vote for the replacement, even those that abstained from the recall question.

  6. I’m glad there are no more city council meetings this year. They seem very rushed and desperate now, trying to pass as much (progressive) stuff as they possibly can before March 3 (virtually everything is a rush and must come back “1’st thing”).
    I will admit I did a bit of a sneaky, but well deserved slam, on Glover in Oral Communications for mischaracterizing me the meeting before. The guy before me made a good case for more mental health care by personal demonstration and is a must see. One of the last Oral speakers gave some historical perspective of how civility has really nose-dived both by the public and the council. I cannot recall everything this last year, but it included chants of NAZI’s, point blank accusations of being fascist, personally responsible for deaths of homeless, purposefully getting thrown out of the council chamber of refusing to and shutting it down (many times), applauding the worst possible behavior, crimes against humanity, treason, potty mouthing, and don get me started on the council itself at times with their “civil” assassinations. My only excuse is I’m for the recall, but I did keep it clean and really quite defenseable. Maybe next year will be different (that includes better or worse). Place your bets. The roof blows off March 4.

  7. I grew up in Santa Cruz, remember going downtown with my parents before the 89 earthquake. After which it never recovered. I lived downtown until 2003 before moving to a much safer locale. There is no way I could relax if my wife, who does not drive were to have that as her downtown to walk around by herself.

    I’ve known a business owner personally who recently vacated the city due to lack of police response to the homeless squatting at his business.

    The city has been in decline for well over 30 years now and it’s doubtful it will ever recover if it hasn’t done so through this last economic boom.

    Very frustrating as I want this to be the city I retire too… But having read this blog it mirrors my experience when I use to live downtown. It becomes apparent that will never be the case.

    I believe the only action that would get the cities attention is if there was a business owner shutdown that lasted a week or two followed by demands to clean the city up and make it safe again.

    That will never happen though, they’ll just leave one by one to be replaced by businesses like buffalo wild wings to cater to the crowds that come to the one remaining music venue and the new stadium.

    • I agree, the big chains are the only establishments that can stand up to all the problems santa cruz has allowed – exactly the places they were against. I find it very ironic santa cruz was quite perfect at one point but in trying to keep it like that, the failed to see effective laws and rules work.

    • Brian that was sad but accurate commenting. Santa Cruz is in decline and will likely never recover. I personally believe it’s the long-term trend to socialism with turn styling and wokeness being symptoms.

  8. I have to greatly disagree with the idea that housing advocate Don Lane would be a good fit for the council. I have sat with him on various occasions and atttended many council meetings and he is just too far to the left, to my taste. Let’s not forget that he was a co-sponsor of Measure H, the failed county housing measure tax bill that appeared on the ballot at the same time as Measure M, rent control. He put the measure together with another re-tred politician, Fred Keeley. The worst part of the bill would have taken money from property owners and handed it over to strangers for down payment money, so they could buy a property.
    As someone paying over $4,000 a year for fire insurance on an average house with no losses, no much needed but unaffordable earthquake ins. and another $4500 a year for property taxes, I like many others, cannot withstand the onslaught of Don Lane’s spending schemes, nor can the city withstand it. I would support a new unannounced second moderate candidate and of the one’s announced, I have found Katherine Biers to be fair and reasonable when she was on the council. I remember her saying that she was very disturbed at the time when Don Lane and other’s on the council were changing zoning to fit commercial projects in residential areas when the neighborhood disapproved.

    • Bluesy1,

      I support Don Lane. As Ben said last week, he has a track record of moving things forward. Like Justin Cummings, Don Lane understands he represents all of Santa Cruz, and not just the vocal few. Don Lane stated he will serve out the term of Chris Krohn, and not campaign in 2020.

      I have nothing against Katherine Biers. Both of these candidates are well known by the electorate.

      I’d suggest you shop for new fire insurance. I understand some carriers, such as State Farm, can again write policies in the Santa Cruz mountains beginning in January. I heard this from a real estate agent, I know and trust. In this case, he was speaking about zip 95033 in Santa Cruz County.

      • With respect, Don Lane had a substantial role in getting Santa Cruz to where it is today. High property crime, a transient population that we can not afford, a decline in downtown etc.
        He may look good compared to Glover and Krohn but that’s not saying much.

    • I know little really, but from listening to Don Lane speak at council and the fact that anyone on the CACH had to pass the Leftist stamp of approval, I will say I suspect you are right about him being too far left.

    • This is unreal. I know fire insurance has been cancelled up north to people who live along skyline … i care about the right to purchase health insurance, and taking care of the environment… but this is forest mismanagement. its hard to believe in the democrats and also watch these lies with the fires and power outages.

      i want to believe in moderate democrats but i wont accept the party line of state dems that is basically saying this is the new abnormal… we are supposed to watch all the rural areas be shut down?!?!… so sickening what those in power are doing in the name of ecology. this is a tough time to be in california :0( i dont feel like im going to be able to vote at all :0(

      and honestly when i first saw that statewide the homeless population is only about 160,000 – out of 40 million people… and california is where many people from all over the usa chose to be voluntarily transient… how is this being so mismanaged?! did anyone see that movie pompeii… i mean honestly thats how bad the corruption is… hopefully this storyline has different ending.

    • I agree. Don Lane is not trustworthy and suffers from one hell of a messiah complex.

  9. Looks like some of us will cancel out the others’ votes. I will never vote for too-left Don Lane. What happened to some of the other candidates for the seat Glover “won” in the last election? Ashley? Richelle? Maybe too disgusted or disillusioned to try again? Understandable, but please think about it.

    • We need you to vote for Don. Not voting for Don means you’d prefer Krohn (or Beiers). That’s the reality. Not up for debate. Don is the lesser evil. If you support the recall, you have to finish this with a choice of anyone but Glover or Krohn. Failing to do this hurts and undermines the recall effort as a whole. Don is a 9 month band aid. Look past the person and see the bigger message we are sending with this recall. Bullying and harassing women at city hall will get you recalled.

  10. After reading this weeks Mierda, I’ve come to the realization that I’m living in a time warp. Apparently, the Santa Cruz city council approved candidate list is recycling in much the same way as the movie Groundhog Day, where everything happens over and over again in exactly the same way.

    How is the downtown occupancy factor going these days? Is there still vacancy left over from the 1989 earthquake? I never go down there anymore to find out as I’ve permanently taken my shopping dollars elsewhere where it’s cleaner and they are appreciated.

  11. Garrett Phillipp, I don’t always agree with you, but I do recognize you as someone who knows a lot about the issues facing Santa Cruz, and you take the time to understand where politics impede policy. One of the reasons I stated my support for Don Lane is I agree with much of what he writes in his blog. The piece on the library seemed to focus on solving problems instead of the pandering politics we hear from some of the current council:

    https://www.donlane.org/home/libraries-parking-and-the-real-monstrosity

    I’d be open to considering other candidates based on their policy and ability to work with the current council and city staff. I could care less whether a candidate is considered far left, near left, center left, or whatever. Whomever is challenging Councilmembers Krohn and Glover will be tagged as funded by developers and Republicans by Krohn/Glover campaigns no matter what the folks who comment on this blog think of the candidates.

  12. So far Mother Nature has been keeping the scum bags in check, but the true struggling homeless are out in the same elements suffering it out the best they can “ like I’ve said I don’t have to really ever worry about them they’re not the ones that give me death threats for simply doing my job”. Amazing insight and info here I appreciate all who chime in. Happy holidays and watch out for each other 🙂

  13. SCU and SCT had their “victory” bash Tuesday and a few things came up. One is SCU will disband after the recall election, however it turns out. They , SCU, are also sticking to it’s no official endorsement stance, but somehow Rene Golder and Don Lane got the wink-wink nods from the group leadership, but with no indication they would expect much in the way of a public asking of their stances on important issues.
    I all want to know from each candidate is “are you an ultra left leaning progressive which doesn’t care much for property rights, wants to turn Santa Cruz into a cesspool of government dependence, doesn’t respect public property rights, thinks the public is a cow to be milked, and never seems to consider the meta-principals of the USA as to individual sovereign authority with a limited government, and represents a tiny sector of special interests whose interests you think are best served with collectivism?”

    Now, is that so hard an answer to get? It’s all I want to know. Simple. Direct. That’s me, and all I ask of them.

    There also was the very real consideration that the election in Nov will be even more important as 4 seats come up for election, and some of the groups who have been silent in the past probably won’t be on that one (or the recall comin up). I also got the feeling at least maybe some of the leadership might be getting tired after almost two years fighting one thing after another, but there are enough people there I suspect for new spokespersons and organizers who will come forward.

    • Golder is a moderate Democrat. Don is a progressive Democrat who leans pretty far left but can be sensible on occasion. Hope that helps. I think Golder would be great as a swap for Glover for the next 3 years. Don is a 9 month band aid.

  14. Jennifer Andrews

    Don Lane is one of the main reasons we have this homeless disaster. Why in the world would you recommend him?!

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