In a university that receives only about 42 percent of its funding from the state, wringing money out of the system requires a little creativity.

Since 2003, the McHenry Library Addition and Renovation Project has been carefully planned and built around budgets. There is approximately a $91 million difference between projected costs and actual money allotted to the project.

The state only provided $8.4 million out of the $100 million in expenses, a figure that left the library looking for other options, said Astrid von Soosten, director of library development.

“State funding basically covered the walls, and they gave us a little money for furniture,” von Soosten said. “$8.4 million is almost nothing.”

The solution came, not for the first time in university history, in the form of private donations from individuals and foundations, charitable gifts that put UC Santa Cruz at the mercy of donors.

Pamphlets placed throughout the library proclaim the Kresge Challenge Grant as the latest major source of funds. The exclusive foundation is backing the McHenry project and has pledged to give $700,000 if the library can raise $3 million on its own. The Kresge Challenge Grant is one of the few no-strings-attached sources of funding the library will receive.

“They want to challenge the institution that is applying for the grant to reach out to their constituencies and actually get everyone to participate,” von Soosten said. “Everybody can give a little, $10 to $15, though most of the bill is footed by large donations, by individuals and foundations that can afford to give larger gifts.”

Von Soosten gave a $5,000 gift.

“It helps to give the fundraiser credibility,” she said. “I also think I need to support what I’m working for. They’re supporting me, and I’d like to help — it’s a wonderful place to work and it’s a great library.”

Most funding doesn’t come from community pocket change. The big money comes from sources such as the current Kresge grant, and individuals like those lauded in the names of seven of UCSC’s 10 residential colleges.

William Ackerknecht is a more recent donor, and his gift of $100,000 funded the oak garden planted in the library courtyard. His wife was the benefactor of a McHenry contemporary fiction collection. Ackerknecht pledged money for the garden as a memorial to her memory.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Acherknecht said, “because the university kind of stalled on the garden, and they didn’t have the funding at that time. It’s a very nice attraction, for all people in the university to enjoy the outside and be able to use the library’s resources.”

Cowell Student Council member Faeza Kazi has seen a lot of money pass through her hands, and she said that her only wish was that the money was spent in a productive way.

“I know the Student Union Assembly recently found $72,000 just hiding in one of their accounts,” Kazi said. “What’s important is spending in an unbiased manner, and the promotion of student orgs and student events and any activity that isn’t just something the administration wants.”

Kazi said that in a public school the state should foot most of the bills. She advocates stronger pressure on the government and less reliance on outside sources.

“We shouldn’t need donations to get our ends met,” Kazi said. “But it’s always good to get money for education.”

When state funding and student fees together cover only about 80 percent of university needs, fundraising is critical to diversifying the campus, von Soosten said.

“We raised $30 million altogether last year on campus to support the operations here, to support scholarships to students, to support faculty, to support collections, to support equipment,” von Soosten said. “There are also research grants that come to us. We would be much less of a campus if we didn’t have the private support.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at McHenry’s Expensive Facelift

With the McHenry Library addition fully completed, facilities such as the University Library Media Center hold cutting-edge resources that go largely underutilized by students.

“In a three- or four-hour shift, I usually only see about 30 people,” said first-year Ramille Baguio, who works at the Media Center.

The Media Center is located in Room 350 on the ground floor of McHenry Library. Its vast collection includes nearly 7,000 DVDs and over 10,000 VHS tapes, said staff member and third-year student Faith Foster. Both new and old technology is available in the facility, from phonographs and Laserdiscs to AppleTVs and an electronic keyboard.

The main room holds about 22 computers with access to a flatbed scanner as well as black-and-white and color printers. There are also 30 video workstations with DVD players available, but most remain unused. Six private viewing rooms can accommodate groups of two to 14 students.

The majority of visitors are film and music students who need to use the technology as part of their courses’ curricula, Baguio said. Nevertheless, students are welcome to use the Media Center for their own leisure, Foster said.

Patrick Wong, a third-year music major, frequently uses the Media Center to complete listening assignments for his music history class.

“The technology is pretty useful, because teachers already have playlists made on iTunes,” Wong said.

Even language studies students can benefit from the Media Center, which supports online instruction for Hindi, Arabic and Japanese. For a small fee, the center can also duplicate select foreign language audio CDs.

But the facility remains largely unknown to students.

“I didn’t really know the library had a cool media center until I came here,” first-year Collin Parker said.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Media Center: High-Tech, Low Attendance

For a public school system used to feeling the knife, this can hardly be classified as “news.”

The UC Regents, the governing board for the nation’s largest public higher education system, voted Wednesday to curtail freshman enrollment for the 2009-10 school year to offset deepening budget cuts.

The 26-member body recommended cutting UC enrollment by 2,300, roughly 6 percent of the 37,600 2008-09 freshman and 1 percent of the over 220,000 currently in the system. The recommended cut also came with an increase in transfer enrollments of 500, citing encouragement of a “cost-effective, alternate path to a UC baccalaureate degree,” according to a press release issued last week form the UC Office of the President.

“It is an excruciating decision to reduce opportunity for students in any way, but the lack of sufficient state funding leaves us no choice,” newly-crowned UC President Mark Yudof said on the UC website.

The cuts would be spread across the campuses, though UC Berkeley and UCLA — the most popular schools in the system — would remain exempt. UC Merced would also continue attempting to spur enrollment, an ongoing struggle for the newest UC, which has roughly 2,700 students enrolled despite opening in 2005.

UC Santa Cruz will face an expected drop in enrollment of 335 students, according to campus spokesperson Jim Burns. Graduate enrollment will not be affected.

“It’s not as though we’re closing the doors to all new freshmen,” Burns said. “I think what the UC president is saying is we can’t continue growing to accommodate the needs of students without appropriate funding from the state.”

Burns, echoing the regents’ sentiment expressed in the press release, blamed the state’s budget problems for bringing about the need to cut.

“Because the University of California’s mission is to educate some of the best and brightest of California’s students, no one is enthusiastic about the prospect of turning away potentially thousands of applicants who are enthusiastic about UCSC and worked hard to be here,” Burns said. “But we already have enrolled students … on campus for whom the state is not providing budgetary support.”

Wednesday’s meeting also proposed an across-the-board freeze on salaries for Senior Management Group members and limiting bonuses for anyone earning over $205,000 per year.

The Senior Management Group includes most of the UC’s highest executives, including the president, each campus’s chancellor and provosts, and division-level deans at each campus. UCSC has a total of 18 members, including Chancellor Blumenthal, who earns $282,339.68 each year, and Vice Chancellor and Campus Provost David Kliger, who takes home $257,165.97, according to a state worker database compiled by the Sacramento Bee. Yudof receives a compensation package totaling $828,000 per year.

The vote overwhelmingly supported the recommendation, with only two votes against: Educational Policy Chairman Eddie Island and Student Regent D’Artagnan Scorza.

Scorza, a Ph.D. student at UCLA, said that he wished the regents considered more than just that option.

“I voted no because I don’t believe we see enough options … to address this issue,” Scorza said. “Why is this the only option available?”

Though he does not necessarily oppose limiting enrollment, Scorza says that a number of options were left undiscussed, and felt uneasy choosing one without considering the others.

The regents approved a new budget last November that included a $530 million increase in state funding and, for “planning purposes,” a potential 9.4 percent fee increase across the system. This increase, which would mean $662 for undergrads and $748 for grad students, seems more likely now that state funding is once again failing to come through due to the state’s growing budget gap.

Scorza described the fee increases as “more than likely,” and that the amount would equal “9.4 percent at the very least.”

“We’ve run models that suggest we may need up to 15 percent,” he added.

Scorza said that he wanted the regents to petition the legislature for a tax increase, which he sees as the best way out of the budget crisis plaguing the state.

“We need to raise taxes,” he said. “As bad as that sounds, that does not sound as bad as limiting accessibility and enrollment … Curtailing enrollment is a big deal for the state, we’re literally saying ‘there is no place for you.’”

Even for those who are enrolled in the UC system, due to the state’s poor financial situation, many students would not receive needed financial aid, Scorza said.

“We’re talking about maintaining jobs and opportunities,” he said. “This is the equivalent of laying off hundreds of thousands of students.”

He also strongly condemned the other regents, who are mostly wealthy private-sector businesspeople.

“They don’t see the impact,” he said. “They’re not living with the consequences of this decision.”

Scorza also called on students across the state to demand budget solution soon, before conditions deteriorate even further.

“I’m calling on people in California to stand up and fight for their universities, fight for their schools, tell Sacramento that we will not allow this to continue,” he said. “We elected them to fix this, and they’re not fixing it. We need to march on Sacramento.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at UC Regents Slash Frosh Admissions, Citing Budget

In the first weeks of 2009, Santa Cruz is feeling the grip of the global recession.

As residents and city leaders tighten their belts, last year’s housing crisis continues to reverberate throughout the community.

According to the most recent issue of the Santa Cruz Record, a weekly legal and business newspaper, there were 146 foreclosures in 2006, 506 in 2007 and 1,351 in 2008.

Furthermore, for the 2008 fiscal year, as many as 1 in 10 county homeowners did not pay property taxes by the January deadline.

The delinquencies could be tied to the nationwide mortgage crisis, said Liese Varenkamp, editor of Santa Cruz Record.

“People are struggling financially — they can’t pay their taxes,” Varenkamp said. “If you’re going to lose your home to foreclosure, why pay taxes?”

The vanishing tax revenue is endangering the Santa Cruz public library system, which is funded almost entirely through sales and property tax. The library system has spiraled into a $625,000 deficit.

Library directors were forced to close all branches on Fridays after a Jan. 12 board vote.

“It’s sad,” said Susan Elgin, acting library director. “We know that libraries get used even more during hard times. We think it’s important to be open as much as possible — we want to be there for people.”

Libraries aren’t the only public sector to be affected by falling property values and the failure of residents to pay taxes. Local businesses are also receiving a blow.

“In Santa Cruz, the declining housing market has been a problem for small businesses,” said Robert Fairlie, UCSC professor of economics. “A lot of people in Santa Cruz invest in high-tech firms. If I had stock options with high-tech firms, and they lost value, that’s less money I can invest in my small business.”

But amid all the turmoil, a 2008 Community Assessment Report by United Way suggests that Santa Cruz is faring well compared to other cities.

“There are long-term and short-term decisions to make,” City Council member Ryan Coonerty said. “In the short term, every city is in crisis. In the long run, Santa Cruz is at the forefront of most communities in the world.”

The report found that even as incomes in Santa Cruz decrease, they are 15 percent higher than the state average income and 23 percent above the national average. These data suggest that a strong social safety net and recession-resistant industries like higher education leave Santa Cruz County better off than the rest of the state and nation.

Although Santa Cruz County has not been affected as severely as inland regions, the increase in foreclosures, budget cuts and taxpayer delinquency point to rough times ahead in the new year.

“We’re facing the worst economic situation in over 60 years,” Coonerty said. “We have to respond right away.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at New Year Brings in New Economic Woes

Last week, Santa Cruz community members mobilized in a final successful effort to save both the Natural History Museum and the iconic Santa Cruz Surf Museum after the City Council voted to de-fund both facilities in early December.

The initial vote came amid the city’s fiscal crisis, which forced the council to cut funding to several facilities because of decreased tax revenues.

“The museums were included in the list of facilities that [were] being funded through the city’s Parks and Recreation Department,” Santa Cruz City Council member Lynn Robinson said.

But on Tuesday, the City Council received proposals from several local nonprofit groups that proposed ways to keep both museums open with private funding. Donations were also made by individuals — such as O’Neill Surfboards founder and Santa Cruz resident Jack O’Neill — to keep the museums open.

Museum director Jenifer Thompson said the decision to de-fund these facilities in the first place could have meant the closure of the museums.

“A lot of Parks and Recreation facilities are funded by what is called the city’s general fund,” she said. “The [museums] are most heavily subsidized by the general fund and don’t bring in as much revenue as the others.”

Nonprofit organizations and the City Council have now worked out a temporary solution.

The Santa Cruz Surf Club Preservation Society and the Santa Cruz Museum Association will take financial responsibility for the Surf Museum and Natural History Museum, respectively. The city will still own the buildings as well as take on minimum responsibilities such as insurance and basic maintenance, but the financial future of each museums depends solely on these organizations.

“These are stop-gap measures to keep these facilities operating until July 1, with the hope that more long-term solutions will come about,” Vice-Mayor Mike Rotkin said.

The historical value and cultural contribution that these museums give to the Santa Cruz community were never in question.

The Natural History Museum, which has been in its present location on East Cliff Drive in the Seabright neighborhood since 1954, sees about 12,000 visitors per year and reaches a total number of 58,000 people through educational outreach in classrooms and various community events such as the annual Fungus Fair, Thompson said. The Surf Museum, which opened its doors in 1986 as a satellite of the Natural History Museum, sees about 25,000 to 35,000 visitors annually.

Rotkin credits the museums’ salvation to a strong response from local citizens.

“This never would have happened without a massive outpouring of community support for these programs,” Rotkin said.

Harry Mayo, a longtime resident and original member of the Santa Cruz Surf Club, founded in the late 1930s, has worked tirelessly on behalf of the museum. Mayo is passionate about the Surf Museum remaining in its iconic spot in the Mark Abbot Memorial Lighthouse on West Cliff Drive.

“It simply has to be open,” Mayo said. “I think Jack O’Neill said it best: ‘Santa Cruz “Surf City” has to have a surf museum.’”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Community Saves Local Museums After Cuts

For the average UC Santa Cruz student, looking for housing is, to say the least, a time of high stress and minimal enjoyment.

The university educates approximately 15,000 undergraduate students, all of whom require shelter. But the city of Santa Cruz — and the campus — have reached residential capacity. Inevitably, needy students have ended up settling for less-than-desirable domains while the university masses feel plagued with worry over roommate compatibility, living conditions, exorbitant rental costs, and, of course, location.

***

Second-year student Brett Gilbert applied last spring to live in an on-campus quad apartment with three other people in the fall of 2008. He hoped to finally have a room to himself along with the camaraderie of hand-picked housemates. Instead, what he got was an uncomfortable triple room and roommates with whom he is far from comfortable.

“They don’t have enough apartments,” Gilbert said. “[I was] placed with random people [I] don’t really know … it’s just a huge personality clash. I feel like for the dorms they make an effort to match people for personalities, but for apartments they just needed to fill the space so they throw everyone together.”

Kevin Tresham, assistant director of Student Housing Services, spoke on the difficulty of matching the personalities of roommates based on paper applications.

“We do our best to find a compatible roommate while at the same time asking that students understand their roommates may not share all the same interests, outlooks and attitudes,” he explained in an e-mail. “Meeting the challenge of sharing and learning from alternate perspectives is one of the most infinitely rewarding experiences of college life. Students are encouraged to engage their new living arrangement with an open, interested and considerate attitude.”

University match-ups can sometimes result in the “infinitely rewarding experiences” Tresham referred to. But second-year student Scott Frazer notes that even when students go out of their ways to make the job of matching housemates easy, somehow things still end up far from perfect.

“We had six people willing to apply as a group for the apartments, and from what we had been told, we were pretty much guaranteed,” Frazer said. “But by the time we got to the lottery, only three spaces were available in the Cowell apartments, all spread out.”

Frazer decided to make the best of the situation.

“I knew I didn’t want to live off-campus because it was too expensive and too much hassle,” Frazer said. “So I chose the Village.”

The Village is a university-run housing community located near the campus’s lower quarry, on the east side of the UCSC sprawl. The Village site is located near the campus farm and garden, amid meadows and redwoods. Beautiful as it may be, the Village is generally less impacted than other on-campus housing options since it caters primarily to transfer, re-entry, and graduate students, rather than continuing students like Frazer.

According to figures published on the UCSC website, approximately 4,550 newly admitted freshmen and transfer students enrolled in the fall of 2008 — the school’s largest incoming fall class to date. These numbers have been felt in the realm of student housing in the form of an overall lack of adequate room at the various colleges. Because of this school year’s record-high enrollment, more and more students like Frazer are resorting to less traditional housing arrangements.

Tresham responded to this recent influx in student numbers and its effects, saying that accelerated action is under way to create more space for future years.

“The campus is in the planning process on the East Campus Infill project, [which] will provide 550 to 600 apartment spaces in housing units that will be constructed between Crown and Merrill colleges and Crown-Merrill apartments,” Tresham explained.

Still, the project will not produce livable student housing until at least the fall of 2011.

***

The rental housing market in the city of Santa Cruz is congested, to say the least.

According to an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel published in September 2008, in the entirety of Santa Cruz County, about 40 percent of the population rents their residence. In the city of Santa Cruz, that number is above 50 percent.

For the many UC Santa Cruz students who choose to live off-campus, particularly during their third and fourth years, this spells inherent competition as they enter a severely overstuffed city search of appropriate, convenient, inexpensive housing.

Jan Kennedy, manager of the Community Rentals Office at UCSC, said that overcrowding often forces students into an eclectic mix of accommodations.

“[I see students in] rented rooms in shared housing, studios, one, two, three, four, five or six-bedroom houses,” Kennedy wrote in an e-mail. “But the larger houses are harder to find.”

Michael Casserd, property manager for Advantage Properties in the Aptos community of La Selva Beach, and a former UCSC student, agrees with Kennedy that this anything-goes reality is a direct result of the jumbled local market.

“Generally it’s termed as a tight housing market with more renters than available units,” Casserd said. “Then you compound that with the current crisis of people losing their homes and coming back into the rental market. In addition, this year I’ve seen people moving here and taking up housing units that traditionally would have been [occupied by locals].”

Though most property managers claim a creed that dictates nondiscrimination against students, many landlords may not uphold this same standard.

“The bad stories seem to take precedent over the 99 percent of good students that leave things in good condition,” Casserd said. “I would estimate that if we rent to four units, maybe one of the four will give us some challenges when they move out. That’s just the trouble. Bad stories always take over good stories.”

The party-hardy, destructive reputation that landlords often affix to young renters in Santa Cruz is not the only disadvantage that students face. Economically, Casserd pointed out, students are also at a distinct disadvantage.

“Our [home]owners — the people we’re working for — have certain criteria,” Casserd said. “In terms of marketable applications, they’re more income and credit score-based.”

Without independently having this type of economic wherewithal, students often fall victim to unjust landlords and abysmal living conditions because they simply have nowhere else to go.

Gerard Balon, a former UCSC student, says that calling his former off-campus residence “subpar” would be an understatement.

“My first complaint is that we didn’t get the house in a very clean state [to begin with],” Balon said. “It was really dirty, the ventilation in the bathroom was horrible, it grew mold and there was no heat. In the winter we had to walk around the house in our jackets.”

According to Balon, despite these downfalls, the worst part about the residence was that the initially exorbitant deposit was never returned.

“Our deposit was $3,300,” Balon said. “And even after we cleaned the entire house we each only got $16.08 back.”

***

According to UCSC’s Community Rentals Office, living off-campus can range in monthly cost from $450 to $1,000 for a room in a house, depending on inclusion of utilities, furnishings, location, and the size and condition of the residence.

On student budgets, and with little previous renting experience, these prices and the added stress of an entirely new living situation are often difficult to manage.

To help students with the transition into the market, the UCSC Community Rentals Office provides an online workshop.

“We increased promotion of our online renters’ workshop over the years and saw the numbers of students taking it increase dramatically in the last two years,” Kennedy reported. “It educates the first-time renter in preparing for the housing search and in their rights and responsibilities as a tenant.”

“We give a certificate upon completion of a quiz that students can use as a type of reference in their rental application packet,” Kennedy added. “Knowledgeable tenants have an easier time finding housing.”

With plans for expansion, many students are hopeful that on-campus housing accommodations will improve over the next few years. With a market that is not inherently prepared to house masses of students, though, Santa Cruz will have a hard time keeping up with the ever-growing number of residence-seeking students who currently account for more than a quarter of the city’s population.

“Santa Cruz, in my personal opinion, was developed as a second-home market, so when they brought the university here, Santa Cruz wasn’t really prepped with housing to begin with,” Casserd said. “Building houses that adequately accommodate the university has been — and will continue to be — very difficult.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Housing Horrors – A Look at How Little Santa Cruz Has to Offer

If “all the world is a stage,” then in Santa Cruz theaters, Shakespeare Santa Cruz is headlining the show.

Founded in 1981, Shakespeare Santa Cruz (SSC) is a local theater repertory, which has been hailed by USA Today as “one of the nation’s top 10 most influential Shakespeare companies.”

A much-beloved Santa Cruz institution, SSC has been experiencing great financial hardships and now lacks the necessary funding to continue its run in the 2009 season. Fortunately, with the help of many Santa Cruz groups, SSC is back on its feet and is ready to take the stage for 2009.

Shakespeare Santa Cruz received unfortunate news from UC Santa Cruz last year: The company would have to raise $300,000 itself to keep the shows running. UCSC could no longer contribute to its funding, due to the burden of the university’s own struggles in the downtrodden economy, but would continue to support it in any way possible. One main way is allowing use of theater facilities such as the main stage and outdoor stage.

“When we’re all faced with any different economic climate people will scale back,” Mike Ryan, SSC director and UCSC lecturer in theater arts. “The nonessentials — and in this case theater — start to go and begin to get affected.”

In light of this news, SSC turned to the local community for support, and it readily obliged. The plight of Shakespeare Santa Cruz reached the pages of the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the San Jose Mercury News, sparking interest and earnest attempts to get SSC its needed funding. Soon, support sprouted up in unforeseen places.

“There were a lot of large community meetings,” Ryan said. “Groups began popping up and it just became this grassroots effort to help us.”

Some such groups even appeared on Facebook, including the 300-member “Save Shakespeare Santa Cruz,” which employs a plea for theater patrons, fans and UCSC students to join and spread awareness for the cause. Members of all groups, on Facebook and beyond, pledged time and money to save SSC.

Saving the theater company is well worth the cost, said first-year Danielle Goldsmith, a member of the Facebook group.

“I just loved everything I’ve seen so far, especially with ‘Wind in the Willows,’” Goldsmith said. “I couldn’t imagine not having [SSC] around anymore, so I needed to help as much as I could.”

First-year Allison Nishimura has participated in Shakespeare Santa Cruz performances.

“‘Wind in the Willows’ was an amazing experience,” Nishimura said, “and I wanted the opportunity to take part in that again. I know a lot of SSC kids, including myself, donated money to do just that.”

Shakespeare Santa Cruz has surpassed its goal of $300,000. According to the most recent tally, it has raised about $400,000, which confirms the 2009 season and preps it for production. SSC will also continue with its “Shakespeare to Go” educational theater outreach program during the summer repertory season.

“It’s the arts — it’s just necessary,” Nishimura said. “What could be more important for our community?”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Shakespeare Santa Cruz Reaches its Financial Goal, Secures Funding for 2009 Season

A bronze goat lays grotesquely arched over a sacrificial stake. Among the construction and general “fresh quarter” hustle at Cowell College, details like this tend to fall out of focus. With new class enrollment, book-buying and general stressing in the works, students walk briskly by the sculpture without a second glance.

“Sacrificial Goat,” created by local artist Jack Zajac, serves as a war memorial for the UC Santa Cruz students killed during the Vietnam War.

George Skakel, one of the students commemorated in the memorial, attended UCSC as a member of its 1965 pioneer class. Drafted in July of 1966, Skakel served as a sergeant in Vietnam and was killed in action in March of 1968. It was not a death Skakel would have chosen, said friend and fellow UCSC student Blair Cooper.

“George hated that war,” Cooper said. “He recognized it for what it was: a huge mistake on the part of the U.S. government, a human travesty for the sake of unscrupulous motives. He felt helpless to do anything — he was forced to do what he knew was morally wrong.”

This sense of futility was widespread, said Skakel’s sister Nancy, a former UCSC student.

“It was a time of very few options,” she said. “It felt like there was heavy machinery rolling over people and no one was safe.”

Having fallen victim to this machine, Skakel took action and became a war news correspondent for a very young City on a Hill Press. An aspiring writer known for his charisma and intellect, Skakel described the life of a soldier and channeled his views to loyal student readers.

“I think his views on the war helped to shape those of the students at UCSC,” Cooper said. “His published letters deeply affected those on campus. George conveyed the idiocy, futility and brutality of war. He described sleeping in the mud, [moving] through the jungles, killing ‘gooks,’ the camaraderie, the fear. I can’t see how his view of reality wouldn’t affect anyone who read it.”

Zajac, who was inspired to create his “Sacrificial Goat” series upon seeing animals hanging in the street markets during an Easter in Rome, hoped the piece would exhibit this harsh face of reality. Although the piece was not designed to be a war memorial, Zajac feels the expressed themes are appropriate.

“The theme of sacrifice is very broad,” Zajac said. “We see that same brutality right now in the Middle East. We’re no better or freer than we were in Vietnam. Still, I am pleased if the piece can turn just a little corner in thinking or be enough to move someone from war.”

Nancy Skakel, who was still in high school at the time of her brother’s death, said she first found it hard to comprehend and cope with the sensitive themes of the memorial.

“When the memorial was first erected after George’s death, the subject of the sacrificial goat was confusing to me,” Nancy said. “I guess it took maturity and perspective to really understand the sacrifice that George made, that we all made.”

In an era brimming with draft notices and Kennedy idealism, sacrifice was commonplace in the streets and the hearts of young people everywhere. Nancy said political activism of today’s youth does not compare to the notorious demonstrations of the 1960s.

“Why aren’t we rioting in the streets?” Nancy said. “I’ve seen a few sizable demonstrations, but it’s not the same. Everyone just goes back to their video games or mall shopping when it’s over.”

Bill Dickenson, a friend of George Skakel’s who frequents the Cowell memorial, feels a generational gap.

“I sit with the memorial sculpture fairly often when I am on campus,” Dickenson said. “But as I watch today’s students walk to and fro without noticing it, I think it merely expresses a blip in time that probably means nothing to all but a small handful of us.”

The memorial allows Dickenson to remember and honor his good friend, he said.

“I recall a vividly passionate young man wrestling hard with big ideas about the truth of existence,” he said. “I sometimes find myself crying when I think about how much energetic promise was wiped out for no good reason. But that was then and this is now. Your generation has its own truth to pursue.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Modest Memorial Carries Heavy History

The crowd was silent as it anticipated the winning point. Fans stood on the bleachers with breathless anticipation, waiting to hear the ball hit the ground. Then the sound of a whistle sliced through the air, and the gym erupted with noise, ending the night with exuberance.

Last weekend, the UC Santa Cruz men’s volleyball team went 3-0, defeating Grand Canyon University 3-0 on both Friday and Saturday, and taking down Holy Names 3-1 in an exciting match Saturday night.

“We knew we were the better team out there, but we didn’t want to give them any slack,” senior and libero Jeff Hogg said. “We played our starters, and after that we put in a couple of our new players and they really stepped up.”

Senior Matt Smiley, an outside hitter, said he was satisfied with the team’s cohesiveness and is confident in its ability to defeat Holy Names.

“We’ve played [the Hawks] many times before,” Smiley said. “We weren’t that nervous … We just knew we had to pass well.”

Outside hitter senior Chris Konish scored nine kills throughout the match. Junior Eric Rowell, a setter, scored eight kills and 42 assists.

The Slugs dominated the first half of the match, winning the first set with a score of 30-17 and the second set 30-14. After losing the third set 27-30, the Slugs rallied back and took the fourth 30-25, ending the match and putting another win on their record.

“Even after we drop a game, we’re still able to come through and have guys compete and play pretty well,” said five-year coach and alumnus Jonah Carson. “I think that is a testament to how hard every guy on the team works.”

The Slugs have a rich winning history, finishing third in the Final Four of the Molten Division III Invitational Championship last year, and winning it the two previous years.

This season, the Slugs maintain high hopes for the championships and consider this year’s team able to match, if not surpass, last year’s end-of-season standings.

“The season looks fairly optimistic,” Smiley said, “but we have a long road and a lot of hard matches, so we’ll see.”

Hogg is optimistic.

“Obviously we want to go back to the Final Four and New Jersey,” he said. “If we keep playing like we were tonight, I think we’ll be able to do that.”

Though the Slugs have yet to play a team in their own DIII, they hold a record of 3-1 overall. Coaches and players say they have a lot of work to do, but it is possible to get to the Molten Final Four.

“We want to be the best team in the country, and obviously that means winning a national championship,” Carson said. “We have to make it to the Final Four in order for that to happen, and that’s where we’re going.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Weekend Wins Inspire Hope for Championship

“Lay on!”

With a shout of commencement, Edgar Gonzalez leaps through the air, his weapon brandished, leather wristbands glinting in the sun as his opponents draw back in fear. Weapons collide, and warriors fall to their knees as they wipe the beaded sweat off their faces.

This scene, reminiscent of “Lord of the Rings” or the knights of the Round Table, is simply another Saturday afternoon for Belegarth, a sport that has intrigued a group of UC Santa Cruz students.

A national medieval combat society, Belegarth is a sport in which members dress in medieval attire and fight one another with foam-padded weapons. Gonzalez, a second-year student, has been an active participant for the past six years and introduced the sport to his peers at UCSC.

“It started in the ’70s,” Gonzalez said. “A bunch of guys read ‘Lord of the Rings’ and wanted to do that.”

The sport has since evolved into a national organization that boasts chapters around the country, which practice and combat in different fantasy realms. Hundreds of Belegarth members come together for national events and tournaments each year. Players compete in a variety of battle games, which involve striking opponents in the torso and limbs with their weapon of choice.

There are a variety of weapons, which are homemade and typically composed of foam and PVC pipe. They include swords, daggers and bows and arrows, all designed with safety as a top priority. The ways in which players are “killed” in battle are very particular.

“A torso shot is a kill,” Gonzalez said. “The butt and groin are legal, but frowned upon. Two limb shots is a kill. Head shots aren’t legal, unless you’re hit with projectiles. A lot of people wear cups. I don’t blame them.”

This strong emphasis on safety in Belegarth is reflected by the group’s motto: “Safety first, playability second and realism third,” Gonzalez said.

“This is an actual sport. We have had people chip teeth,” said second-year Merlin Jones, an active Belegarth participant. “It can get pretty intense.”

The makeshift swords and bows and arrows are specifically designed not to cause pain upon contact.

“I got shot in the eye with an arrow once,” Gonzalez said. “It felt like getting hit with a pillow.”

Jones explained that members have different names for battle to distinguish their warrior personas from their everyday selves.

“My name is Hephaestus because that’s the Greek god of weapons,” Jones said. “I make most of our weapons.”

The UCSC group consists of about 10 to 15 individuals who meet every weekend and engage in medieval battle. Although the majority of members are male, females participate as well.

“History and fantasy kids get really into this,” Gonzalez said. “I feel like I’m making up for lost time in my childhood.”

The combating group often draws attention from many students who pass by their practices at the Porter Squiggle. Eventually, Jones hopes to see the group become an actual chapter of the Belegarth society, as well as receive university recognition as a club sport.

“Some people come and watch. Others try it out and become regulars,” Jones said. “Either way, we give them a good show.”

Students are drawn to the sport for various reasons.

“I had heard of it before because I fence,” third-year Kat Foley said. “From the perspective of someone whose main sport is swordfighting, it seems like it would be fun.”

With their impressive sword skills, the members of Belegarth are sure to be UCSC’s go- to knights in shining armor.

“Some people come and watch. Others try it out and become regulars,” Jones said. “Either way, we give them a good show.”

—

Rula Al-Nasrawi, Ashley Glazebrook, and Brett Leader contributed to this article.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Banana Slugs Go Medieval

As California’s deficit continues to trickle down into the university system, budget cuts may limit students’ options for undergraduate general education classes.

“A lot of popular general education courses are being eliminated,” said Stephen Thorsett, dean of physical and biological sciences. “Our first priority is to make sure that people who have to get classes to graduate get those classes.”

The Violent Universe, a popular introductory astronomy course, was recently cut. The biology program is expecting a big cut as well, Thorsett said.

Early last year, in an effort to compensate for California’s deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut the UC and CSU budgets by 10 percent. He aims to increase the student-to-faculty ratio by 10 percent. With the economy deteriorating, more cuts are expected. This means fewer classes and teachers for students at all UC campuses.

UCSC is bracing for the newest cuts to academic programs for the 2009-2010 school year. In a November 2008 address to the UC Board of Regents, Chancellor George Blumenthal said that while he is deeply concerned about the situation, cuts will “first involve reductions to our academic programs and hence, instruction.”

David Kliger, campus provost and executive vice chancellor, asked that each campus principal officer submit two or more proposals for reducing costs in their areas of responsibility by Jan. 9.

In a letter to the UCSC community, Kliger said that “this request in no way implies that we are imposing a flat, across-the-board reduction to all campus operating units.”

Nevertheless, he said, each department has to prioritize what they believe is most important. Faculty will face new rounds of cuts, to be announced later this year.

Classes are increasingly prioritized by necessity and prioritized for people who need the class to graduate. That focus makes it difficult to get into many lower-division classes. Additionally, many such classes are cut.

“Demand is high and we’re not able to accommodate everyone,” said David Jones, acting dean of the arts and Porter College provost.

Though the staff of many departments worry about the potential effects of new budget cuts, some departments still suffer from old cuts.

“They cut the program down in 1992,” said Peter Elsea, professor of electronic music, “and we have never really recovered.”

One electronic music course was cut down from two sections of 15 to one section of 25, and the program is very selective.

“We’ve had a key instructor who left us last year,” Elsea said. “We haven’t been given the funds to replace him.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Budget Cuts Limit General Education Options

The inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States is set for Jan. 20, 2009, and we are now mere days away from a new presidency. But it

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Too Much Idol for Americans

With Inauguration Day being just a hop, skip and a jump away, the Democratic Party is pulling out all the stops to celebrate this historic event.

But let’s not forget that President-elect Barack Obama beat his opponent John McCain due in part to his promising financial plan that would fix the economy. And with the economy continuing its downward spiral, Obama’s inaugural committee is sending a dishonorable message to the American public, with all the glitz and glamour going into the numerous inaugural celebrations.

On Jan. 20, Obama will be sworn into office as the 44th President of the United States with an elaborate ceremony and numerous giant television screens going on National Mall. The ceremony will be followed by a parade and at least 10 official inaugural balls.

The cost of the inauguration festivities is expected to cost between $40-50 million, with $1.24 million coming from federal appropriations, according to a spokesperson of the joint congressional committee on inauguration. Most of the money being spent on the inaugural celebration is coming from individual donors.

Over the past few weeks, the Obama campaign has sent out multiple e-mails to the millions of individuals on his mailing list asking for money in order to “organize the most open and accessible inauguration in our nation’s history.”

Donors contributing $10,000 to the Obama Inaugural Committee receive two tickets to the inauguration ceremony. Those who donate $50,000 receive four tickets to the ceremony with better seating arrangements.

How accessible is the inauguration ceremony with tickets only being released for thousands of dollars?

Asking for money during a recession sends a negative message to the public, especially after running the most expensive campaign in history due to the millions of donations contributed by individuals.

Is Obama losing touch with the American people by throwing such an expensive celebration in these times when people are really struggling financially?

In such hard times, it’s disrespectful to create such a shebang with performers, a new tuxedo, and elaborate gowns. Making such a scene only shows a further divide between the wealthy and poor.

During historic times of economic hardships, elected presidents like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge did not have official inaugural balls, but instead held nontraditional charity events. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and William Harding canceled their balls altogether because of the great expense that they saw as unnecessary.

Perhaps Obama would gain even more respect from the nation’s citizens if he toned down next week’s events and made an inspiring speech about how to fix the economy or the need to bring about changes within the markets.

We may want to party like it’s 1999, but we have to remember that it’s 2009.

While we should celebrate this important moment in history, we need to do so with some perspective. Let’s show some respect for the people who got Obama to the grand party in the first place.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Obama Inauguration: The Price of the Party

Chaos. When it erupts, opinions and perspectives become skewed. Amid the tension of violence and war, while bombs blast and life is on the line, those affected do not naturally stop to take a step back and assess the situation fairly. This is why the presence of trained, professional members of the press is a necessity in a conflict situation such as the current fiasco in the Gaza Strip region.

As of the morning of Jan. 14, after 18 days of raging conflict in the Gaza Strip region, nearly 1,000 lives sounded the death toll and more than 4,300 injuries had been tallied. According to the New York Times last Thursday, the United Nations declared a suspension of its aid operations following the death of two drivers behind the wheel of United Nations-flagged vehicles. The drivers were coordinating their movements with the Israeli military. The Red Cross, an international organization, has scolded Israel for its policies.

When the ceasefire between Gaza and Israel began to collapse a month ago, the Israeli defense ministry closed access to the Gaza Strip region to all foreign journalists, for security reasons. On Tuesday, 17 journalists and media activists responded. Organized by the Doha Centre for Media Freedoms, the group rode a bus to Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza in an effort to defy Israel’s restrictions.

The attempt proved unsuccessful and journalists continue to fight for the ability to cover the raging war. On Jan. 15, Israel’s supreme court will hear a petition brought by the Foreign Press Association demanding that Israel allow reporters into Gaza to cover the conflict.

At City on a Hill Press, we commend the Doha Centre for Media Freedoms as well as the Foreign Press Association for their efforts on behalf of journalism. We are not an authority on the topic of the Israel-Palestine conflict and do not intend to comment on the conflict one way or another. We do think, however, that Israel was wrong to ban foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip. News coverage and public information are essential witnesses to any conflict.

When it comes down to it, there will either be journalists on the scene, pledged to honesty, attempting to portray the truth in an unbiased way, or civilians and soldiers plagued by violence telling the tales of war.

It is by way of the press that the outside world takes note or even hears about a conflict such as the current quarrel between Israel and Palestine. It is important that foreign journalists, who do not live in the region and do not have a vested interest in either country, be on the scene reporting.

Journalists, of course, are human beings. This renders perfect objectivity impossible. However, a foreign journalist pledged to portray the truth is less likely to taint a story with a bias than a person whose world is being torn apart by the confusion and brutality of a conflict like that of Israel and Palestine.

A world without reporting and public access to information is blind and deaf. It is by way of journalism and public access to the truth that the world connects. It is not guaranteed that the truth will always be achieved through journalism, but the freedom for the press to make an effort is vital. At the very least, the reporting of foreign journalists opens the topic of the conflict up for discussion. It is necessary for the world to hear and see and bear witness to bloody conflict. It is through the awareness of the world that change can eventually appear. Public information will set us free.

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Israel/Palestine: Let the Journalists Into Gaza

Good food — healthy, fresh produce and affordable staples are harder to come by in West Oakland, a region of Oakland devoid of a full-scale grocery store. Instead, the community is overwhelmingly inhabited by over 40 liquor and convenience stores, small-scale markets, and fast-food restaurants.

In West Oakland alone, there are over 10 advocacy and education organizations and coalitions, ranging from People’s Grocery, a nonprofit, to Mo’ Better Market, which runs provides a farmers market, a rare source of fresh produce in West Oakland.

David Roach, manager of Mo’ Better Foods, spends Saturday mornings in front of the West Oakland BART station with three tents and few vendors. Roach said he started to get involved in food justice while teaching at Castlemont High School in Oakland, where a former student came in feeding her young child candy.

Roach asked her why she was feeding her child candy instead of nutritional food.

She replied, “Mr. Roach, where can I find any good food around here?”

The answer to the mother’s question is a complicated and devastating one for the residents of West Oakland. The community has been dubbed a “food desert,” a term used by food justice activists to describe areas that lack access to fresh, affordable and healthy food.

The lack of food security, or having physical and economic access to sufficient and healthy food, pervades the places that are most in need — inner cities with low-income populations. Other “food deserts” across the nation include East Harlem, Detroit, South Los Angeles, and the South Side of Chicago.

The California Food and Justice Coalition, a food advocacy group, extends the meaning of food security to include safe, culturally acceptable food acquired through sustainable means.

According to Kai Seidenberg, director of the California Community Food Coalition, this focus increases community self-reliance and social justice.

“All communities are affected by food security issues in different ways,” Seidenberg said. “The ones that are definitely most affected are low-income communities.”

The negative effect of a lack of food security can be seen in other Bay Area communities like Bayview-Hunter’s Point in San Francisco and East Palo Alto in the South Bay, where urban sprawl, low-income populations, and crime are all rampant and grocery stores are few and far between.

These effects are particularly pronounced, though, for West Oakland. According to the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau, the area houses about 24,000 residents, bordered by the Port of Oakland and three freeways. The average household income in West Oakland is about $20,000. Approximately half of the population is African-American, followed by approximately 20 percent Asian, and about 12 percent each Latino and White. Oakland is also one of the 10 most dangerous cities in the U.S. In 2008, there were 124 homicides, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

***

Welcome to West Oakland: A History of Hunger

Since there are no full-scale grocery store chains in the area, most residents commute a few miles away to the Safeway and Pak N’ Save in Emeryville, the closest supermarkets to West Oakland. The fact that 35 percent of West Oakland residents do not own a car means a long and tedious trip using public transportation is required to reach the nearest supermarkets. This also means more frequent trips, since it’s harder to buy and carry groceries in bulk.

However, getting a week’s worth of groceries hasn’t always been so difficult.

Larry Johnson, a 43-year-old resident born and raised in West Oakland, recalls walking to numerous mom-and-pop stores with his mother years ago. He notices how different the scene is now, with liquor stores lining the streets instead.

“When I was a kid, it was wonderful,” Johnson recalled. “There were mom-and-pop stores in the neighborhood. There’s none of that anymore. Some of them had groceries, meat packages, fresh produce, fruits, and vegetables. You go into the stores now, all you can buy is liquor and beer.”

The community has had a shaky relationship with the few grocery stores it has seen. In March of 2007, Eugene’s Market closed down. The grocery market was located at the Jack London Gateway Shopping Center, in the least populated “Lower Bottoms” region of West Oakland. Many residents attribute its closing to the fact that, like some other failed grocery stores, the owner was interested primarily in quick profit, rather than in developing a long-term relationship with the community and achieving gradual success.

Other residents recall the once-local Acorn Super. Though markedly better than liquor-store grocery shopping, many residents remember Acorn for being overpriced, limited in selection, and of a notably lower quality than other grocery chains.

Since shutting down in February of 1996, the store’s shape has shifted many times. At one point it was converted into an Asian market. The grocery mart failed to meet the cultural demands of the community, however, and was also closed down.

Currently, there are a few corner markets that offer a limited selection of fresh produce and grocery items. But these corner markets offer only a fraction of what full-service grocery stores do.

A 2005 study by UCSF School of Medicine found that in the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood of San Francisco, which bears striking similarity to West Oakland in its lack of a supermarket, a loaf of bread purchased from a liquor store averaged $1.94 versus $1.09 in grocery stores elsewhere in San Francisco.

Johnson expressed sentiments felt by many in the community regarding the need for bigger, full-service marts, since some local markets that supply meat, for example, don’t cater to other basic grocery needs. He also expressed disapproval for the number of liquor stores he has watched move into his neighborhood.

“It’s wrong to have more liquor stores than grocery stores. They should stop selling liquor, period,” Johnson said. “As a kid I saw my parents drink, and as I grew older I started drinking. It makes the community worse.”

Johnson has been unemployed since he was released from prison a year and a half ago and is living off of welfare. His mother, now 65, cannot go to the grocery store anymore.

“When they had the Acorn Super Market a few years ago she was able to drive her motor scooter across the street and come back home with her own groceries.” Johnson said. “But now, she can’t even go outside her door and [get groceries] ‘cause there’s no grocery stores in West Oakland.”

Since Johnson owns a car, he’s able to go to the grocery store for his mother. However, he admits that he goes to fast-food restaurants for most meals — Jack-in-the-Box, McDonald’s and KFC are all located across the street from his house.

“I can walk across the street to the McDonald’s but I can’t walk across the street to the grocery store,” Johnson said.

Although Johnson knows the importance of eating healthfully, he still opts for the conveniece of a fast-food diet, regardless of its consequences.

“I get stomachaches more [when I eat fast food]. When I eat cooked food, my stomach don’t hurt. Fast food’s not good for you, not good for you at all.”

Unfortunately, he isn’t alone. Johnson said he often sees the same faces going in and out of the fast-food joints near his home multiple times a day.

When the bulk of a community is trading in home-cooked meals for hamburgers and convenience-store items, the results can be dire.

The fact that a fast-food diet is an unhealthy one is nothing new. Studies, including the Alameda County Health and Ways of Living Study, which was first done in 1974 and has been updated multiple times since then, conclusively linked poorer health with greater consumption of fast food. The study determined that residents of West Oakland face higher rates of illness and live 7.3 years shorter than those who reside in higher-income communities within Alameda County like Oakland Hills, where grocery stores are significantly more accessible.

Yet despite knowledge of the epidemics created in food deserts like West Oakland and East Palo Alto, and despite food budgets designed to help combat food injustice, more work to combat the problems still needs to be done.

Wolfram Alderson is the executive director of Collective Roots, a food systems advocacy organization that runs a farmers market in East Palo Alto.

Alderson said that the food budget in the city of East Palo Alto, a two-and-a-half square mile community with 37,000 residents, is $68 million per year.

“It’s not chump change,” Alderson said. “It’s a significant amount of money [meant to be] spent on food. [Residents] deserve some sort of solution — a supermarket or farmers market that would provide more food access.”

Alderson’s farmers market in St. Francis of Assisi Church is the singular source of fresh produce in a five-mile radius, aside from a corner store. Alderson said that the only food sources in the area are a Chevron gas station food mart and fast-food restaurants, including two McDonald’s located a mile apart from one another.

Residents in East Palo Alto and West Oakland have higher rates of diabetes and obesity than their neighboring communities, some of the wealthiest and healthiest cities in the state.

“In these low-income communities, it becomes a matter of life and death,” Alderson said. “It’s shaving years off people’s lives, and that’s the bottom line.”

***

Local Heroes: Creating Alternative Food Systems

Various organizations in West Oakland use advocacy, education, and farming programs and markets to fill the void created by the lack of supermarkets while improving the health of the community. While Mo’ Better Foods is selling food at the West Oakland BART station, City Slicker Farms provides farmers markets at the community’s Center Street Farm.

Leslie Pilcher, a fourth-year community studies major, interned with City Slicker Farms for her field study during fall quarter and worked at the farmers market.

“City Slickers is accessible for people who have been left out of the ‘green’ movement,” Pilcher said.

The food is grown in urban gardens maintained by City Slicker Farms’ employees, volunteers, and local community participants. The organization attempts to make organic and healthy food accessible and affordable to West Oakland residents by offering produce on a sliding donation scale, so people can pay what they can afford.

Since 2005, City Slicker Farms has helped 85 residents grow their own produce through their Backyard Gardens Program. They provide residents with all the tools, seeds, and fertilizer they need.

“It’s tapping into reclaiming this space and turning it into a thriving system,” Pilcher said. “Not only in our gardens, but in their backyard.”

John Watkins Sr., a construction worker who uses seeds and fertilizer from City Slicker Farms, grows a variety of vegetables in a 100-by-30-foot backyard lot that he proudly gardens all by himself.

“City Slickers is number one,” Watkins said. “I love them because they can get more organic gardens and that’s what it’s about.”

A 60-year-old man with excited eyes and a curly beard, Watkins has been growing food in his backyard since 1961, when he moved from Cleveland, Ohio to the temperate climates of West Oakland. He hasn’t left since, except for the occasional trip home and to protest alongside Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights movement.

For Watkins, gardening satisfies him in a multitude of ways. He talked enthusiastically about growing organically, working in the dirt, and giving away his produce to neighbors. He says that urban gardens could work as a solution to food access issues.

“It’s nothing for a person to scratch some dirt out. It’s amazing what you can squeeze out in a little area,” Watkins said. “It’s a solution if you get enough people involved in it.”

***

Developing an Organic and Just Economy

Julie Guthman, a UCSC community studies professor, teaches a course titled Agriculture, Food and Social Justice and has written many articles analyzing the success of community agriculture projects. While she applauds programs such as City Slicker Farms for redefining food systems, she’s critical of those who hail it as the only accessible solution to food security issues in West Oakland and areas like it.

“There’s been a lot of focus on providing access. [Community agriculture] doesn’t get the major problem of food security,” Guthman said. “It’s a little Band-Aidy.”

The problem, Guthman said, is not only about food accessibility but also poverty and economic development.

Food justice activists often attribute the existence of food deserts in communities like East Palo Alto and West Oakland to supermarket “redlining,” or large-scale supermarkets migrating to the more profitable suburbs while closing up shop in lower-income communities.

Keeping money in the community is a concern for locals and food activists alike. Experts estimate that 25 million retail dollars are spent outside of West Oakland — money that, if spent within the community’s boundaries, could help foster local development.

“A lot of reasons why there are food deserts is because of the historical practice of redlining, denying capital to neighborhoods. You can’t create markets,” Guthman said. “We need neighborhoods to have access to capital, to build stores, so that they’re not devalued.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at An Inconvenient Story: Food Insecurity in West Oakland