Pedophile Arrested at the Boardwalk
This week, Santa Cruz Police arrested a 40 year old pedophile from Stanislaus County after the man attempted to meet with what he thought was a 13 year old girl. Aided by the group “Child Safety Soldiers”, police arrested him when he came to Santa Cruz to try to meet the girl at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. SCPD confirmed that police investigators met with members of the Child Safety Soldiers team before arresting the man late Monday night. A search warrant of his home was also executed in the city of Ceres. He was arrested on suspicion of three felonies, including soliciting sex acts, contacting a minor with sexual intent and distribution or exhibition of lewd material to a minor, in addition to two misdemeanors for contacting a minor with sexual intentions and child endangerment. Just my opinion, but the Boardwalk is a very safe place for kids usually. I want to think this is an anomaly.
Body Found in Ocean Near Moran Beach
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said that they recovered a dead body in the ocean just off of Moran Beach on Wednesday afternoon. According to a spokesperson with the Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to Moran Beach along with Harbor Patrol and State Parks for reports of a unresponsive individual in the water around 4:30PM. Emergency personnel arrived on scene and began efforts to revive the person but the individual was pronounced dead on scene. I heard about a number of water rescues that day, but I haven’t heard any other details about what happened here.
Davenport Crash Sends Five People to the Hospital
Tuesday morning, at least 5 people were sent to local hospitals after a crash on Highway 1 near Davenport. The single vehicle crash happened around 6AM on Highway 1 and Cement Plant Road. Firefighters responded, and two people suffered critical injuries, with one of them being life-flighted to the hospital. The crash is under investigation.
We’re on the Road to Nowhere
This week, the Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury Report released a report saying a majority of the roads in unincorporated Santa Cruz County are in poor condition. According to the report, at least 63 percent of the roads are in poor or failed condition. Residents off Mountain Charlie Road in the Santa Cruz mountains are still cut off. At least 80 homes have been impacted by roads that have washed out and have not been repaired yet by the county.
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors just finished reviewing their proposed budget and there is seemingly no sense of urgency to fix these roads and help these people. Among the proposals in the budget:
- 88 storm damage sites from the last two years with no funding source identified for their repair – ever.
- Halting regular road resurfacing projects for the foreseeable future and using that money (from the Measure D 1/2 sales tax) to pay for debt service on last year’s storm repairs instead.
- Reducing county contingency funds to 17% of previous levels (from $7.5 million to $1.25 million) meaning that very little funding is available for emergency repairs if a road washes out and residents are trapped.
- Reducing mowing and vegetation management along county roads.
Staff proposed this budget with the idea that it preserves county jobs and social services like mental health and legal defense for indigent people convicted of crimes. Seriously?! Fucking progressive leadership has their head up their ass as usual.
What about the infrastructure that working citizens (TAXPAYERS!) use everyday? ROADS. Not a single cent of our property taxes are being allocated to road repairs. The county is misappropriating property tax funds that should be used on infrastructure repairs and improvements and using it instead to help the homeless. Do the homeless pay fucking property taxes?! Nope.
Supervisor Manu Koenig seems to be the only supervisor who actually cares about helping the residents of Mountain Charlie Road (and others) who are literally living on an island abandoned by their county leaders.
Keeping Scotts Valley Weird
This week, Scotts Valley Police arrested a Fresno man after he rammed into two patrol vehicles. Officers responded to an area of Granite Creek Road about a suspicious vehicle and when officers arrived, they thought the driver seemed impaired. The driver then disobeyed officers orders and rammed into two patrol vehicles. After the man fled at a high rate of speed, police were able to deploy a spike strike which disabled all four tires but the driver continued to get on Highway 17. He was finally arrested after he drove off the highway and onto a dead-end road on Timber Ridge Lane. He was booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail on multiple charges. This was a very weird scene. I heard it play out in real time, and the driver is lucky he wasn’t shot by police. He was tased and had his window broken out and got a visit from the dog too. Law enforcement was extremely patient with this man, and for that he’s lucky to be alive today.
Keeping Capitola Weird
Around 2AM this past Monday, a woman driving a stolen car drove off the demolished Highway 1 bridge in Capitola. After police received a call of a stolen vehicle in Santa Cruz, the vehicle was spotted but a chase was not initiated due to safety concerns. Capitola police later spotted the vehicle and started chasing it. During that pursuit, the driver drove off the demolished bridge’s south side and landed on Highway 1 below. The driver of the vehicle suffered major injuries, and a juvenile passenger suffered minor injuries, per CHP. The driver was arrested and is facing charges of child endangerment and possession of a stolen vehicle.
Tannery Fire Forces Evacuation of Residents
Thursday afternoon around 4:30PM, Santa Cruz Fire and other local fire and rescue resources responded to reports of a fire at the Tannery Arts Center off River Street. When they arrived, they found smoke and an active fire on the third floor of a structure. Medics also responded and treated residents for smoke inhalation issues. Everyone who lives at the nearby lofts were reported to be safe and accounted for.
The Weekly Stroll
Enjoy 2:31 of Santa Cruz bliss.
A Quiet Morning on Cowell’s Beach
Flemish Giant Rescued Along Highway 17
This week, a construction crew working along Highway 17 found a Flemish Giant close to the highway. What’s a Flemish Giant you might be wondering? A massive rabbit! It weighed more than 26 pounds.The construction workers along with California Highway Patrol officers were able to capture the rabbit and bring it to the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter for care and safekeeping. The staff at the Animal Shelter believe the rabbit was not wild and was domesticated or someone’s pet.
In My Ear
Kamasi Washington plays the Catalyst Saturday night. Here he joins Gee Mack on a funky version of the classic track by the Meters.
Cissy Strut – Gee Mack featuring Kamasi Washington
New Santa Mierda YouTube Channel!
I started a new YouTube channel for the Weekly Dump. It will host all my videos going forward. I’ll also put the podcast over there too if I can ever get that going. Go check out some videos if you haven’t seen them yet, and thank you to all the subscribers! (you can subscribe over there)
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I really hope everyone who voted for the 1/2 cent sales tax increase in the county and in the city are happy that the money is being misappropriated and wasted on the vagrant freeloaders instead of what it was falsely campaigned to be spent on.
Why I never vote Yes on local bonds! It’s a shell game. Thanks Brent!
These groups that confront the pedophiles are awesome. There’s one out on You Tube, where they caught the producer of Space Jam attempting to meet up with a 15 year old female. Kudos to this group and SCPD.
I agree! Makes me wonder how many others slip through the cracks locally. Thanks Steve!
You forgot to mention the County’s ill-conceived plan to sell-off county assets to raise cash, and lease them back! From Manu’s letter of 5/13:
“That’s why the County is considering issuing lease revenue bonds worth $95 million. Lease revenue bonds mean that County facilities including 701 Ocean St, Emeline and the Live Oak Library are put up as collateral for the bonds and the County “leases” the buildings back.
Total costs for this financing include up to $24,185,000 in interest, $7,793,000 in capitalized interest, and $1,147,000 in fees and issuance costs. Interest costs could decrease to a projected $10,708,000 assuming a reasonable level of federal and State reimbursement over the next decade.
The annual debt payments would be financed from Road Fund revenue sources up to $2 million annually with the remainder covered by the General Fund resources. Based on current projections, the General Fund annual contribution would begin in FY 2027-28 (see Table 4) up to $1.39 million. The Measure K ballot measure approved by voters on March 5, 2024, will be an important resource for this portion of the General Fund’s future cost.”
IOW, they’re going to commit us to 20-30 years of payments for road repairs that if we’re lucky will last half that long. Brilliant! Just what I would expect from the “leadership” of SC County.