Santa Cruz City Council: Homeless Shelter, San Lorenzo River, & more!

Last Council Meeting before Summer


The Council has been putting in some hours this last month or two with budget hearing and labor negotiations and a variety of other issues. At our last meeting, the Council agreed to pull $150,000 from the San Lorenzo Bridge Highway Widening Project, as part of a package of $700,000 in cuts from the total budget. This allowed us to free up more money to pay our workers.

On the consent agenda, soon after 1PM, City Staff are asking the Council to support them in finding ways to keep the Paul Lee Loft and the Armory Winter Shelter open. In case you haven’t heard, the Homeless Shelter lost a funding source and ended up with a funding deficit so large that it envisioned dropping mail service, showers and meals and important support for the Armory Winter Shelter for 100 during the cold months, as well as closing the Paul Lee Loft, which provides emergency funding for 50. The good news is that the County has come up with around $300,000 to keep the Loft, mail and showers open for at least six months. If you want the City Council to encourage the staff to see how we can help, send us an email at citycouncil [at] cityofsantacruz.com. Of course you can also advise the Council to let the Loft and other services go, but consider the possibility that this would result in another 50 to 150 homeless people sleeping in our parks and downtown.

Then, at some time after 4 pm, the Council will consider whether or not to create a small pilot project to enable paddling of small boats and boards on the lower section of the San Lorenzo River. The pilot project would attempt to determine what effect paddling would have on wildlife on the River. Of course the debate around the pilot project mirrors people’s feelings about the idea of paddling the river. Some don’t see any reason to disturb wildlife, especially birds, by allowing people access to the water. Others feel that humans could participate with the river in a natural and positive way if we were allowed to travel it under our own power. The debate is reminiscent over our 20 year conversation around a bike path through Arana Gulch. Are urban natural areas good places for humans to interact with nature, or are they best left alone for the animals that have come to inhabit them? Come to the City Council by 4 pm to listen and speak in person, or weigh in by sending an email to cityofsantacruz [at] cityofsantacruz.com.

At 7:30 pm, come on down to 809 Center Street for a joint meeting with the Council and the Water Supply Advisory Committee, which is proposing some great ideas on deep conservation and supply options that work to recharge natural water tables and use them as aquifers. Or, as always, you can watch the conversation on Community Television.

Those of us with computers can also participate in an interactive civic debate on paddling, water supply and many others issues at civinomics.com. Check it out.

Your advocate on the City Council,
Micah Posner