Illustration by Christine Hipp

2012 is still a newborn baby. The beginning of January is the perfect opportunity to embrace the present, and the way to do it just might be appreciating the past.

It’s hard to say whether the patrons of Santa Cruz’s movie theaters were searching for the future or yearning for the past over the winter holidays. They came out to see the latest in film technology, but the movies told a different story. The Del Mar and Nickelodeon theaters just made the inevitable switch from film projectors to digital, a move that will soon be necessary for all theaters that want to keep showing new releases. The picture quality on the new projectors is crystal-clear, but some of the stories they’re showing are a bit hazy with memory. Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” is a tribute to pioneer filmmaker Georges Melies, while “The Artist” imitates and takes a fictional look back on the silent film era.

What these films suggest, at a glance, is the film industry’s creativity failing to keep up with its technology. That Scorsese’s first 3D film is about the “good old days” of cinema could be interpreted as stubborn defiance, and “The Artist,” an exact replication of 1930s-era silent film, seems downright gimmicky.

To some extent, that reading is correct. The appeal for both “Hugo” and “The Artist” definitely has to do with taking advantage of the erroneous axiom that older is better. The current fashion in popular culture is to be anything but current, so aligning with Hollywood’s Golden Age was a smart move for these pictures, measured both in ticket sales and award nominations. I even heard “Hugo” described as “3D for people who appreciate good movies,” as if “3D” and “good” were two previously separate entities.

But it’s difficult to yearn for the past when the past is all around us. In addition to these movies, there are multiple blogs on Tumblr related to nostalgia, with the 1990s being the newest and most popular decade to be inducted into the hall of memories. To that end, “Titanic” will enjoy another theatrical release later this year, but this time we’ll get to see the iceberg in 3D. iPhone apps exist that will turn photos into instantly-faded Polaroid-esque memories.

What’s ironic is the more technological advancements we make, the more we take advantage of them as tools of nostalgia, and perhaps this defines our time more than anything else — the ability to appreciate present comforts and past novelties simultaneously. There’s nothing old-fashioned about donning a pair of two-toned space specs to sit in a dark room and watch digital illusions jump out at you, even if you are watching a movie about the dawn of the film age.

“Hugo” and “The Artist” seem to inherently understand this, and that is why they’re both thoroughly modern films. Mentioned in “Hugo” is the old tale of the audience who, while watching one of the first-ever movies of a train riding down a track, became frightened that the train was real and about to crash into the building. Later in the movie, Scorsese makes great use of 3D in a train scene of his own. The message is clear: the audience is taking part in the next frontier of cinema. 3D probably won’t ever be used for every single film, and there’s plenty of 3D drivel out right now. But used artfully as it is in “Hugo,” it’s revolutionary.

“The Artist” has a similar revealing moment at the end. A silent movie actor who has spent the entire film pushing back against the success of talkies finally gives in and stars in one, and in the final minute of the film, sound comes on, and you can hear the actors’ voices for the first time. It’s a brilliant way to honor the past and appreciate the present.

Our time may be forever remembered as a rut of nostalgia. But I prefer to think of it as the time when technology became so advanced and so pervasive that people don’t have to choose among the present, past and future. We’re in our own Golden Age.

Students gather in the Redwood Lounge above Quarry Plaza during the first Pilipino Historical Dialogues class. The small, intimate course is taught by three elected student leaders from the Filipino Student Association with the sponsorship of Steve McKay, a faculty member in the sociology department. PHD is among few student-run courses at the university. Photo by Prescott Watson.

As the fight for ethnic studies slowly moves forward, students have turned to each other for an education they believe UC Santa Cruz has failed to provide.

For the last decade, the Filipino Student Association has sponsored the Pilipino Historical Dialogues course (PHD), a student-led seminar focused on Filipino history. It is one of the few options students have to enroll in an ethnic studies course and has been operating for a decade.

“Get to know yourself through a course that really isn’t in the traditional university canon,” said student leader Katrina Bitanga as she addressed the class of approximately 12 students this past Tuesday.

Led by fourth-years Charisse “Chai” Galano, Nicole Canonigo and second-year Bitanga, this year’s course will focus on the construction of Filipino-American identity in relation to Filipino history overall.

“The thing with Filipino history is that a large aspect of Filipino identity has a lot of American influence and other cultures’ histories,” Bitanga said. “It’s not a history that is exclusive to the nation itself. There have been other nations and other histories that have come and shaped who we are now.”

While the course is not well known outside of the Asian-American/Pacific Islander community, the course leaders encourage non-Filipino students to join the class.

“When it comes to courses like these that focus on a very specific history, on a very specific culture, you know a lot of people might not want to jump on the boat for that,” Bitanga said. “But I believe that, like with anything else, there’s always something that you can learn from this course. Part of learning is to be able to speak from your own history in relation to others’ histories.”

While student interest in the class remains steady, last year the course almost did not come to fruition.

Last year’s leaders, third-years Alyssa Suarez and Donna Estipona, took the position of student leaders after they realized very few students were willing to step into the role.

“I wasn’t planning on teaching it my second year because I wasn’t established as a student … but I felt like it’s a hidden history and if no one steps up to teach it, it’s just going to die,” Suarez said. “We’re fighting for ethnic studies, but if we don’t step up and teach our own histories, there’s no point in fighting for it.”

Suarez, who now studies history after her experiences in PHD, said that teaching the course demands a great deal from students and it adds an unreasonable amount of work.

“It’s hard for students to be students and teachers,” Suarez said. “It’s unfair and unpaid. We do this because we want to do it, for the sake of doing it. Students shouldn’t be responsible to teach their peers their own history. There are professors that study in this area … so why should the responsibility to let the students know about their own histories fall on other students and not them?”

Suarez said she loved taking and teaching the class, but that the student-initiated course shouldn’t be the only option students have.

PHD faculty advisor, associate sociology professor Steve McKay, serves on the action committee for ethnic studies. McKay applauds student initiative and believes participants can gain from student-led courses because within them students move away from “a passive kind of course where [they] are sponges.”

Nonetheless, he recognizes a need for further structure for such courses.

“[PHD is] reinvented every time it’s taught, but if it had a home in ethnic studies it wouldn’t have to be reimagined every time,” McKay said. “It would exist and persist, and it could gain recognition in the UCSC community.”

This is where ethnic studies — whether as a program or a department — would come into play.

“There is no other place where this kind of course could be taught,” McKay said. “We have students across all disciplines — sciences, arts and humanities — that are interested in this class, but there is nowhere to host this kind of course. These kind of courses, without an institutional home, would fall through cracks.”

Currently, the faculty action committee on ethnic studies is working in conjunction with student organizations, but McKay could not comment on details surrounding their work.

“There’s been a demand for ethnic studies in Santa Cruz as long as there has been a UC Santa Cruz,” McKay said. “But we’re closer than we’ve been before and people are excited about that.”

As it stands now, there is no substantial ethnic studies program or department — there are no “inner or trans-departmental” critical race and ethnic studies courses on the roster. Along with UC Merced, UCSC is only one of two UCs without an ethnic studies program.

There is, however, PHD and a few other student-initiated courses like it, such as the Asian-American/Pacific Islander Perspectives course (AAPIP), offered through the Asian Pacific Islander Student Alliance (APISA).

Galano and fellow course leader Canonigo said that before they enrolled in PHD their second years they knew very little about Filipino history and culture, but PHD gave them a place to learn about themselves, their histories and things that truly interested them.

“People choose to teach a class and take the time to research more and give students a chance to learn … seeing the small steps, essentially seeing a smaller branch of ethnic studies through this course really shows what students want,” Galano said.

What PHD does and what an ethnic studies program would offer is a place for students to discuss the histories that have shaped — and continue to shape — communities today.

“By implementing any ethnic studies, whether it’s on a micro level like our one class or a macro like having a department like at any other university, it shows that students of color go here and they do have a stake in their education,” Bitanga said. “It’s not every day you get to sign up and take a course on your own history or take a course on someone else’s history that isn’t in the traditional canon of American universities. You can never really learn about Filipino history … in the way you can learn about Plato.”

Last month, the Santa Cruz City Council unanimously passed its Climate Change Adaptation Plan (CCAP) to address climate change. The plan is part of the five-year update to the city’s Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP), which will help diminish dangers associated with climate change in Santa Cruz.

The CCAP will be used as a guideline for the city to plan for increased flooding, droughts, coastal storms, wildfires and eventual sea level rising due to global warming.

The city council said at least some impacts of climate change — like the increase in severe droughts and flooding, seen in the recent Capitola flooding — are already unavoidable. It is in the city’s best interest to “develop resiliency to impacts,” according to the City Council Agenda Report on the Draft Climate Adaptation Plan and Vulnerability Study from Oct. 4 of last year.

The CCAP, authored by public works project manager Cathlin Atchison, was based on research done by Gary Griggs, UC Santa Cruz Institute of Marine Sciences director, as well as Brent Haddad, founder and director of the Center for Integrated Water Research and environmental studies professor. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funded their 18 months of research with a $50,000 grant.

Dubbed the City of Santa Cruz City Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, the research was completed and presented in January 2011. That assessment was used to create the CCAP, and will be used as an update to the city’s LHMP. This year the LHMP update will be reviewed by FEMA.

The CCAP will also be used as a part of Santa Cruz’s General Plan for 2030. Griggs said climate change issues and mitigation plans are starting to pop up in other coastal cities as the issue of climate change becomes more immediate and less contested.

“Climate change has become very politicized,” Griggs said. “It’s not a scientific question, but it is definitely a political issue. All carbon dioxide molecules trap heat — they don’t have political affiliations.”

Griggs said the majority of scientists agree climate change is happening, and humans have had a big impact on it.

“Unless we do something, or begin to do something, the consequences are going to be significant,” Griggs said. “This winter already people have begun talking about the climate change, no rain, sunny weather. There are huge implications.”

However, certain variables make predicting the risks of climate change difficult.

“Even when the potential threats are reasonably well understood, the somewhat distant timeframes involved in many climate change impacts can make it hard to formulate, approve and implement policies that affect activities taking place at the present … We can hope for the best, but should be preparing for the worst,” reads the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment.

The city, however, wants to “take advantage of potential opportunities to protect our residents, infrastructure and economic well-being,” according to the CCAP.

“We have been working on this for several years,” said Ryan Coonerty, Santa Cruz City Council member. “The impacts of climate change are far-reaching and affect everything from our sewage system, our water system, our emergency response, our flood control. Starting to prepare in each area is incredibly important.”

The plan, however, has had varying degrees of support from the public.

“In general, the public is supportive of measures to protect our city and build resiliency into our programs and services,” said Robert Solick, public works principal management analyst and Emergency Operations Center manager.

But the public had some difficulties distinguishing between the city’s pre-existing Climate Action Plan, which is meant to address lowering Santa Cruz’s greenhouse gas emissions, and the new Climate Adaptation Plan. Some members of the public feel too much focus on adaptation planning may take away from lowering greenhouse gas emissions, Solick said.

The public may also be held responsible in the future for some funding of the CCAP if FEMA cannot or will not provide all of the financial support to sufficiently cover costs. However, Solick said the federal government, which is currently reviewing the plan, would hopefully provide the funding.

The United States is still around 85 percent dependent on fossil fuels, and it is now widely accepted by the state of California sea levels will rise around 16 inches by 2050, Griggs said. He said it is now necessary to address adaptation to these sorts of changes, in addition to fighting against their increased severity due to greenhouse gas emissions.

“We know the climate is changing,” Griggs said. “We need to start planning instead of saying, ‘I’m going to see how high the water gets before stacking sandbags and evacuating my house.’ We’re all going to retire someday, and we need to put money away. We plan every day, so we need to plan for this too, instead of looking back 20 years from now and wondering why we didn’t.”

Illustration by Christine Hipp

 Editor’s Note: This editorial opinion originally ran in the print and online editions of City on a Hill Press under the headline “Rain Dance Required.” Upon further reflection, the City on a Hill Press editorial board has decided the original title was not appropriate to the piece, and could potentially be offensive to our readers. City on a Hill Press apologizes for this oversight, and would be happy to hear and publish readers’ thoughts or concerns, which can be sent to letters@cityonahillpress.com.

Despite the appeal of the mid-winter summer, where Santa Cruzans can play beach volleyball in bathing suits and make Panther Beach an off-season destination as well, Californians should think about the implications of the absence of rain.

The unseasonably lovely weather and drought go hand in hand. In an area like Santa Cruz, which relies almost entirely on reservoirs, lack of rainfall means lack of replenishment for our water source.

In years like this one, when precipitation levels are not where they need to be this late in the season, rainfall will catch up over a shorter period of time. While this looks good on paper — because yearly rainfall averages are almost reached — it does not mean that drought woes are mitigated. When rainfall occurs in violent spurts, the reservoirs and watersheds that need replenishing cannot retain the water, leaving those who depend on them still in threat of drought.

The dry year is not exclusively a concern for the Santa Cruz area; the lack of rain is plaguing the entire state. According to the U.S. drought monitor, numerous regions of California are experiencing D0 (abnormally dry) conditions and the dryness is greatly impacting areas vital to water provision.

“California’s key watershed and agricultural areas received little or no precipitation,” the report stated.

Despite this fact, the report assured that reservoir storage is not yet a concern for California, because there is still more winter to come and the reservoirs and snow melt have a chance yet to build back up.

D0 and D1 (moderate drought) conditions characterize regions in California and similarly, locations such as Salinas and Fresno set December records for dryness.

“Not a single drop of precipitation fell in Eureka, Nevada, and Fresno during December for the first time since 1989,” the U.S. Drought Monitor reported. “Reno experienced its first completely dry December since 1883.”

In their first survey of the season, which occurred at the beginning of January, the Department of Water Resources reported “snowpack water content throughout the Sierra at 19 percent of the average for early January,” as reported in a San Francisco Chronicle article.

One-third of California’s water supply is provided through snowfall.

Apparently water managers are not panicking yet, as department director Mark Cowin stated that “most the winter is ahead of us.”

Maybe inciting panic in California is not the best idea, but state residents should be aware of the actual implications of dry years like this.

When the department puts ear muffs on Californians, sparing them from the harsh realities that tough dry years leave us with, it keeps state residents blissfully wasteful and dangerously ignorant to facts that dramatically impact our lives.

The impacts on water provision could unequivocally would be better mitigated with better water conservation throughout the state, and that needs to begin with a more honest rendition of the state of California water supply.

Santa Cruz city residents use 66 gallons of water per person per day. Compared to the 150 gallons used per person per day statewide, it’s the lowest per capita use in California. If the entire state could make changes to get closer to that figure, we would be insuring a more sustainable future in the face of widespread drought.

Former mayor and UCSC community studies lecturer Michael Rotkin announced his retirement in December, after 38 years as a university lecturer and community studies field study coordinator. He plans to return in a part-time position. Photo by Sal Ingram.

Since the birth of community studies at UC Santa Cruz, Michael Rotkin has supported the innovative program — the two have gone hand in hand. But this year he has stepped out, dismayed at its decay.

“I’m not ready to retire,” Rotkin said. “I’m going to come back and teach part-time.”

Five-time former Santa Cruz mayor Rotkin said the decline of community studies is part of “a bad set of priorities.”

“The effect on the students and the communities that these students serve is really a crime…me personally, I’m fine — in fact it’s embarrassing to whine about my situation,” Rotkin said. “But I’m outraged that they closed down this program.”

Rotkin had planned to resign earlier. He received a layoff notice two years ago in the fall, and was prepared to retire given the program’s condition. But in May, Rotkin learned of the university’s plan to increase summer student fees from $1,010 to $3,640, and did the math.

“I had 111 students going out on field study that summer … that comes to almost $400,000 [in student fees],” Rotkin explained.  “I am the total university for these students while they are out on field-study. They don’t have the benefit of the [campus services/amenities] … if I don’t do this work, these students aren’t going to pay these fees.”

Rotkin filed a grievance declaring the university’s layoff decision arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable. He won the grievance, and worked one more year at full-time, and another year at three–quarters time.

“It was good for me personally, since your retirement is based on your highest three years of salary.”

This worked out for Rotkin to the tune of a $20,000 higher annual pension.

Rotkin originally came to Santa Cruz as a Cornell undergraduate, pursuing a summer program. He decided to apply to the graduate program in history of consciousness, and fell in love with the city.

A teaching assistant for community studies during his graduate work, Rotkin was then hired for the Extended University program. After four years of traveling to Fresno each week to teach, Rotkin became a full-time lecturer. In 1979, he applied to be field-study coordinator of the department.

“I did what unions call ‘rate-busting’ — taking two jobs and making them into one,” Rotkin said. “But I liked the job so much I didn’t care about being overworked.”

Twice every year, Rotkin was responsible for the arrangements, travel, safety and related affairs for roughly 130 students, as well as over 1,000 pages of field notes to be read and commented on.

“They’ve gone all around the world,” Rotkin said, listing France, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, Latin America, West Africa and the British Isles as a few examples.

“I’ve gotten an education from my students as much as they’ve gotten from me all these years,” Rotkin said. “It’s really been kind of a vicarious field study for me.”

Rotkin’s academic background is broad.

“I’ve taught … almost anything you can imagine that involves issues of social change or social justice,” he said.

While the loss of community studies is a complex issue, Rotkin firmly believes it is the result of a fundamental shift in the purpose of a university, toward profit and away from accessible education.

“Community studies didn’t make money — professors would get grants for their research, but those were small … compared to what you get for patents and things you can sell.”

For Rotkin, the evidence supporting community studies’ place at Santa Cruz was clear. Along with challenging the faculty’s theories of social systems and directly benefiting the communities students served, the program turned out model students.

“Most of our theses are masters-level quality work … our undergraduates often win the Deans’ and the Steck Awards for their senior projects, disproportionately to the number of students we have.”

Rotkin referenced the role both students and faculty played in creating community studies, and indicated the fight both must continue to save the program.

“People are capable of change. That’s a pretty fundamental belief of mine,” Rotkin said. “Of course they may not … this may totally tank, but I’m not persuaded that’s the way things are going.”

The former lecturer had a sign on his door: “Politics is the art of getting morally indifferent people to do good things for bad reasons.”

Rotkin is aware much of the program’s future may still come down to “dollars and cents,” but argues that such a value system will never fulfill the mission of the university.

“Let’s train students who think there must be a way to change this,” he said. “Things are not going to fix themselves, but if enough people get organized it is possible to turn things around.”

Though he has left community studies, Rotkin will be teaching a Marxist theory class this summer.

Illustration by Louise Leong.

Student-driven education is a laudable effort. It’s one of the most encouraging aspects of university life. When a group of ambitious individuals decide to act on their shared backgrounds and interests, like in the case of the Filipino Student Association’s (FSA) Pilipino Historical Dialogues (PHD) 5-unit program, the university’s ability to gather bright and engaged people in one place shines through.

But the burden of something as comprehensive and necessary as ethnic studies and its related programs shouldn’t be relegated to students alone. The university should embrace the idea of meeting students halfway, and with regard to ethnic studies, UC Santa Cruz can do more.

The PHD program has been operated by elected student leaders from the FSA for roughly 10 years, and remains one of the few ethnic studies courses available to students at UCSC at this time. Ethnic studies at UCSC has a long and embattled history, and — much to the chagrin of students — it has amounted to more losses than victories. While areas of concentration like Jewish studies, Latin American and Latino studies. and the more recent Sikh and Punjabi studies programs are steps in the right direction, the fact remains that UCSC has not provided a comprehensive set of ethnic studies options for its students despite strident demands from the student body.

To be clear: the PHD program does an admirable job of providing a fertile environment for those who know about the 5-unit independent study course. The problem is one of scale. Students can only support so many of their brethren, and that’s where the university needs to step in. Only they can answer the very real need for a large-scale program that would teach students about ethnicity as a very tangible and delicate subject, while fulfilling their responsibility to students as educators. Graffiti bearing hateful messages on the UCSC campus has become almost commonplace, and it’s that sort of routine hatred and banality that ethnic studies would help address. That’s not to say it’s a panacea in any sense, but the fact remains that UC Santa Cruz is one of the only campuses in the UC system that doesn’t have an ethnic studies major.

The ethnic studies major has a long history, which is why it’s strange a socially progressive campus like UCSC would have to fight so hard for it to come to fruition. It’s clear that the UC has money problems. It’s disheartening that community studies and American studies majors are scrambling to get what they came for before the lights in their classrooms go dark. Still, ethnic studies is something that lets people understand each other and see them as something more than a preconception — that doesn’t seem like an optional program for a progressive university. The university is taking steps to further ethnic studies at UCSC, but they need to do more. Perhaps student-led classes could even be part of the major or program. It just can’t be the only part.

In 1981, the Third World and Native American Student Coalition (TWANAS) staged a hunger strike in protest of the university’s lack of an ethnic studies major. It’s a stretch to think they did that just to have an easier elective option. In a world where multiculturalism is the norm, ethnic studies approaches something of a moral responsibility. It’s not a responsibility that students ought to have to bear alone.

Illustration by Jamie Morton

Leo Herbert, a lively and outspoken man in his mid seventies, still remembers April 21, 1971, the day he received a letter from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) that said it needed to purchase the rights to his property.

Herbert’s home, located in the foothills of Hayward, California, 15 minutes south of Oakland, sat in the middle of a 10-mile corridor of land where Caltrans planned to develop a freeway that would link I-580 in Castro Valley with I-680 in Fremont.

“They said, ‘We need your house for a freeway, so [if] you go out and find a house that you want, then we will give you a fair price’,” said Herbert from his back patio, motioning to the vacant field behind his home where Caltrans planned to build the freeway.

In preparation for the construction of the “Foothill Freeway,” in some instances Caltrans utilized eminent domain, the process by which the state seizes private property, to purchase 620 parcels of land in the Hayward area during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Herbert was not threatened by eminent domain. He resisted the demands of Caltrans while others in the area were bought out by the agency, which then began to rent out the newly acquired property to tenants while freeway plans stalled.

During the next three decades, a series of lawsuits were filed against Caltrans by local environmental organizations and tenants, stymieing Caltrans’ freeway plans in Alameda County courts until the project was abandoned completely in the mid-2000s.

While freeway plans languished, Caltrans became one of the largest landlords in the Hayward area, amassing several hundred properties in a corridor from the Hayward foothills and Mission Boulevard east to the west, and north to south from unincorporated Alameda County to Industrial Boulevard in south Hayward.

Caltrans’ takeover of properties has had a lasting impact on neighborhoods like Herbert’s, which sits on the edge of the Hayward foothills, just east of downtown.

“That little house across the road was immaculate. You know what they use that for now? Storage,” said Herbert, pointing to the boarded-up home opposite his that was owned by his neighbor prior to the Caltrans buyout in 1971. “It’s a shame. They could have rented it out to so many people, people wanted to buy it, but they wouldn’t sell. It’s just a shed now.”

As of late, the proposed sale of these vacant Caltrans properties, along with hundreds of other occupied residencies owned by the state, has drawn controversy. Some long-term tenants who have lived in the constant shadow of the proposed freeway are unable to purchase the Caltrans residences they have come to call home.

“We have been given no definite time of when we have to be out, but it’s still annoying that we’re going to get a letter from Caltrans saying, ‘OK, it’s time to move,’” said Shannon Stewart, a Hayward Caltrans tenant who resides just east of downtown Hayward.

In 1970, La Raza Unida, an organization composed of predominantly low-income Hayward residents, brought a suit against the state of California which called for the blocking of the freeway proposal on the grounds that the project violated local environmental standards.

By the mid-1970s, plans to connect I-580 in Castro Valley with I-680 in Fremont were abandoned by the state, and an alternative plan dubbed the “Hayward Bypass” was implemented. The plan proposed the connection of I-580 in Castro Valley with Industrial Boulevard in South Hayward by means of a 5.3-mile corridor that would run through the Hayward foothills.

Sherman Lewis, who founded the Hayward Area Planning Association (HAPA) in 1978, has spent three decades fighting this proposal.

As he sat in the basement of his Hayward home surrounded by boxes and file cabinets full of research pertaining to the proposed freeway construction, Lewis recalled some of the factors that drove him to take a stand against the project.

“I was involved because I was pissed off, and you don’t want to piss off intellectuals,” Lewis said. “This was an extremely destructive project in many ways, they were subsidizing driving, and as a result destroying the environment.”

In 2001, HAPA and Citizens for Alternative Transportation (CATs) won a case against the state, which banned use of a half-cent sales tax titled Measure B, which was implemented in 1986 to fund the “Hayward Bypass” project.

According to Lewis, during the late 1990s, city leaders had performed what he called a “bait and switch” on the ballot, which lead voters to believe that Measure B funds were used to fund an alternative transportation project through Hayward, not the bypass project. He said the local government knew voters would not have approved due to its intended route through the Hayward foothills.

In 2004, “Hayward Bypass” project plans were all but ended for good by judges in an Alameda County appeals court.

Caltrans, deeming some homes ineligible to be purchased, leave some Hayward neighborhoods littered with vacant houses

By December 2009, after it became known Caltrans was planning to begin the sale of the properties, a settlement between Caltrans, the city of Hayward and Caltrans tenants was reached, designating which of a selected 193 Caltrans homes located in the corridor would qualify for purchase by tenants.

According to the settlement, structures that do not conform to single-family residence zoning qualifications are deemed ineligible for purchase.

The settlement also provides relocation assistance in the form of lump sum stipends for tenants unable to purchase their Caltrans homes, which is calculated according to the number bedrooms  and income level of single family residences. For example, a three-bedroom single family residence occupied by a low-income family would receive $22,310, which could be then used for moving expenses and relocation costs.

Stacy Sorensen, who works for the City of Hayward as the 238 Caltrans project manager, will monitor the sale process of the 107 Caltrans homes deemed eligible for purchase by the settlement.

“We work as the facilitator, the administrative piece to the pie, we work with tenants on receiving stipend amounts and work with tenants on purchasing their home or another home if they so choose,” Sorensen said. “We are looking forward to helping tenants make the best decision for them and their family both emotionally and financially, if you will.”

Since the 2009 settlement, nearly 50 Caltrans tenants have opted into the Opportunity to Purchase Program (OPP), which allows to buy their Caltrans homes if they qualify for purchase.

According to Sorensen, residents eligible to purchase their homes and have taken stipend checks, awarded to tenants in January of 2010, have until July 6th, 2012 to opt back into the program.

Although no Caltrans homes have been sold to tenants as of yet, Sorensen remains hopeful that in the coming months the first homes will be sold.

“We have a couple that are close, but as of today none have been sold,” Sorensen said. “There have been eight properties approved by Caltrans that are now ready to be purchased.”

Marilyn Batler, a long-term Caltrans tenant and Hayward resident, lives in one of the 45 homes deemed ineligible for purchase.

Batler said unless her house is declared a historical landmark, she will have to accept relocation assistance provided by the settlement and move elsewhere.

“They told me I would have to move in three months because of the freeway construction plans and I said ‘OK, whatever,’” said Batler, recalling when she began renting her Hayward Caltrans home in 1981. “If that would have happened back then it would have been alright, but after 30 years you kind of make a place your home.“

Batler’s home doesn’t meet single-family residence requirements zoning qualifications, and is not eligible for purchase.

“The way I saw it, they picked and chose the properties that they wanted for themselves. In my case they rezoned it from single-family residence to high density, then they turned around and said it is ineligible to purchase because the zoning didn’t conform,” said Batler, whose home and accompanying land was appraised at around $225,000.

While the 2009 settlement provided relocation assistance on behalf of the city of Hayward, Batler has developed a strong connection to her home and is fighting for the right to buy her property.

“Caltrans said, ‘We will offer you another house on the corner.’ No, I want the house that I have lived in for 30 years, I don’t want to move,” Batler said. “I have lived here half my life. You think I want to pack up and go?”

Some tenants who do have the option to purchase the homes they rent do not see this as a wise investment, largely due to the poor condition of the structures.

“The appraiser basically told me that I could never get a loan on my house, the retaining wall is falling back, looks like there is water leaking in through the foundation, there is a sink hole in the back yard that is falling in because Cal Trans didn’t put a replacement on leaking gutters,” said Bob Swanson, a longtime Caltrans tenant who lived in unincorporated Alameda County.

Swanson feels years of property neglect on behalf of Caltrans created an unrealistic purchasing scenario, and took the lump sum stipend provided through the 2009 settlement.

“There is no chance for me here, so I took my stipend and bought a house in Castro Valley and I am very happy with it,” Swanson said. “The cost to bring the Caltrans house up to code would be an incredible amount of money, and if I can’t get a loan on it then I can’t buy, so I bought a house that’s in way better shape and it works for me.”

Some long-term tenants who have lived with the Caltrans freeway project for years are unable to purchase the residences they have come to call home.

Shannon Stewart, a Caltrans tenant for nearly two decades, lives on a stretch of Fourth Street just east of downtown Hayward, where nearly 10 Caltrans houses sit vacant.

Stewart, whose home is surrounded on three sides by vacant Caltrans properties, claims the local Caltrans agent evicted several tenants more than five years ago, and the houses were never rented again due to plans to begin to sell off properties.

Although Caltrans public affairs spokesperson Tracy Brews acknowledged that most recently some Caltrans properties have been offered for sale, no timeline could be provided on when vacant houses like those in Stewart’s neighborhood would be sold.

“We are in a real dead spot,” Stewart said. “I keep my Christmas lights on year-round because the street is so dark. We petitioned the city of Hayward to put up another street light, but we got turned down.”

Stewart, who is upset with both state and city responses to the problem, said vacant homes attract suspicious activity to the neighborhood.

“We have people walking down our driveway all the time — it’s actually kind of scary,” said Stewart while, motioning down to the pathway which runs past her door and leads to a vacant home sitting virtually right behind her home.

Stewart also claims that Caltrans and police are largely unresponsive to the problems of trespassers. As of press time, Caltrans could not be reached for comment regarding this matter.

“We call the police [and] they don’t care; we call Caltrans they don’t care either,” Stewart said. “We have actually told them ‘There are people in the house right now, we have just watched them walk in and they are squatting on state property.’ But this is Hayward, they have real crime to fight.”

Stewart, who is not eligible to purchase her house due to its location on a land parcel with three other homes, plans to take her lump sum stipend and move.

According to City Project Manager Stacy Sorensen, the fate of Caltrans properties ineligible for purchase by tenants is still up in the air.

“Caltrans may sell them at auction, they may demolish them, they may leave them as they are, they may have the developer come in and take over,” Sorensen said.

Bunker Hill, which sits below Cal State East Bay, is unique in that it contains a substantial amount of the 41 homes labeled ‘unclassified’ by the September 2009 settlement. This means there has not yet been a decision on whether the homes will be made eligible for sale to tenants or sold to a private developer.

According to Lewis, longtime anti-Caltrans freeway activist, much of this decision rests on prospective development plans and the infrastructure of Bunker Hill, as much of area requires road widening and the installation of new sewage systems.

“One of the issues up there is that they need lot line adjustments, so determining the boundaries is one of the things we need to move forward with,” Sorenson said. “We are still talking with Caltrans about what that process looks like, then we can do a proper appraisal of properties.”

This could be a lengthy process, one that Melanie Cedeno, a seven-year resident of the neighborhood, believes may not be worth the wait, especially in light of the current state of her home.

“Up here, the biggest issue is retaining walls — the dirt is falling and they don’t do that stuff,” Cedeno said. “If they did a few things, with the foundation or any of the few things that need to be fixed before you a buy a home, I really would like to buy it, because it is really nice up here.”

While Cedeno and other tenants no longer live in the shadow of the proposed construction of a phantom freeway, uncertainty surrounding future living arrangements looms as they wait for a decision on when Caltrans will begin to sell off more property.

For tenants like Stewart, Caltrans’ mismanagement of a once well kept neighborhood has had such an effect that moving on will not seem as difficult a task a initially conceived.

“If the condition of the neighborhood was kept up I would have liked to stay,” Stewart said. “But it’s just no fun living in a dead zone.”

One night in November of last year, John and Sue, both Occupy Santa Cruz participants, threw a brick through the window of the Wells Fargo building downtown, just a few blocks from their home. City on a Hill Press recently sat down with the pair to learn more about Occupy Santa Cruz from an insider’s perspective, as well as what led them to vandalism for the sake of a cause.

~~~~~~

CHP: First off, can I get an idea of when and why you became involved with Occupy Santa Cruz?

John: I went to the first meeting they had in Laurel Park. I’ve always liked politics and history, and I’ve always felt a sense of inspiration in the protest movements of other generations, and I think it’s just as necessary, if not more necessary, now. Some of the biggest issues around Occupy [that interest me] have to do with legalized bribery in terms of campaign funding, and the Citizens United decision.

CHP: Since your concerns seem to be mostly national, what do you think is the value of having Occupy in a “liberal bubble” like Santa Cruz?

John: I think it’s really powerful when people read about things happening not just in New York and DC, but when they open up their local paper and read about the march on Pacific and realize it’s everywhere.

CHP: So do you see any change in Santa Cruz that could be connected to Occupy?

John: There’s been the Occupy Our Homes campaign, which is pretty much genius in terms of PR. Occupy members are inviting people to live with them if the banks are foreclosing on their homes. That’s happening in Santa Cruz and all over.

Also, I was involved with the occupation of 75 River St., which is the most recent big thing, and thought that was a good experience. I have that sentimental front page over there (he points to an issue of the Santa Cruz Sentinel thumb-tacked to the wall). I think what was so controversial about it (and it was regarded as controversial) was that the storyline had a different ending. The headline says “Riot Gear-Clad Police and Protesters Clash.” There was a three-week period where they were cracking down everywhere, so it was almost like an old story by that point, but it was controversial because in this case, the police backed away and the people won. I think that threatened the status quo in a way that made people feel uncomfortable.

CHP: What is the community of Occupy Santa Cruz like?

John: So there’s the veterans of the ‘60s, who are more concerned with spiritual matters. There’s the anarchist faction, which I think deserves a lot of credit for Occupy’s success and framework. I could be completely wrong, but I think the whole consensus process was developed by anarchists as a way to do consensus without having any leaders. So we’ve got the aging hippies, the anarchist punks, the lefty academic student types (here he points to himself) and the homeless.

Sue: And in addition to that, I work in the mental health field, and some of my residents have gone and at least camped at Occupy Santa Cruz. So I have this appreciation for the movement because of how accepting they are of all walks of life.

CHP: Speaking of the homeless, a big complaint leveled against Occupy Santa Cruz is that it’s more of a “homeless haven” than anything else.

John: That’s part of it, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s living up to the values that they’re espousing about economic equality, and they want the state to be more responsive to the people. They’re leading by example. If the homeless aren’t allowed to sleep on the street or in their cars, then that’s a pretty good cause in itself for establishing a community for them.

CHP: What prompted you to throw that brick through Wells Fargo, and do you stand by [your action]?

Sue: It was earlier that day when the students had come down and done the ring around Wells Fargo. For me, it came to this point where we were so disgusted and frustrated by what was going on with the banks, by their continue abuse of practice, and the breaking of the windows was this symbolic thing. We weren’t going to break — they were going to. I would feel bad if I had broken somebody’s something, but this is not somebody’s something. It’s something that we have all paid for, and will continue to pay for.

John: The most recent issue of Occupation Times had just printed an open letter from an Oakland activist [responding to a media coverage of bank vandalism in Oakland] that was really articulate, and he was saying, ‘Some people are uncomfortable with that kind of thing because it seems like violence. But don’t do the job of the 1 percent by condemning the actions for them.’

*Names have been changed

(from left to right)

“Christmas was really bad this year because my parents always fight about which grandparent’s house to go to. We ended up going to one of my grandmas’ houses, then there was no event going on … We ended up going somewhere completely different and had a good time in the end, except my dad, who was drunk, sitting sadly in a corner. You know, typical family holiday stuff.”
Jessie Garcia
Fourth-year, Porter
Politics

“Staying in Santa Cruz.”
Pia Rios-Sotelo
Third-year, College Ten
Politics

“Oh man, which one? I was up in South Lake Tahoe for Snow Globe during New Year’s Eve. I was rolling balls all night, and it was super cold. The girl I was hooking up with, her feet were freezing, so I gave her my shoes, dude, and I didn’t even realize it until the next morning. I was so close to frostbite.”
Brett Lambert
Third-year, Stevenson
Psychology

“Waiting for the train in Chicago in 10-degree weather for 2.5 hours because I missed the first one. … It was miserable.”
Dibya Phuyal
Graduate student
Engineering

(from left to right)

“I wish they offered architecture classes, and maybe even a major. With the focus we have on sustainability, I think it would be cool if we could study sustainable building and architecture.”
Alejandro Goena
Second-year, Stevenson
Ecology

“I wish there were pre-dental classes. I really like the campus and I don’t want to leave, but I will have to after I finish my biology GEs.”
Attaley Hernandez
First-year, Kresge
Biology

“I’m an anthropology major, and honestly I’m satisfied with all the classes I get to take. I really can’t think of any.”
Vivian Lei
Fourth-year, College Ten
Anthropology

“Arabic. They have Hebrew, so why not Arabic? It’s taught at every other UC, and I’m losing my fluency.” 
Amr Amr
First-year, Stevenson
Economics

With state revenues falling more than $2.2 billion short of projections, Brown enacted the June state budget’s planned trigger cuts to both education and social services.

The cuts to UC would not be passed on to individual campuses, according to UC spokesperson Steve Montiel, and would instead by absorbed by the UC Office of the President.

“These cuts, they’re not good,” Brown said in a press conference. “This is not the way we’d like to run California, but we have to live within our means.”

In more recent news, the cut to the UC budget (permanent or not) could see some relief to the tune of $90 million in state funding if Brown’s budget proposal, released last week, is enacted.

This increase would rely on Californians voting yes on a tax measure that would enact an income tax surcharge on the state’s highest earners and a half-cent sales tax boost, generating about $7 billion in extra revenue for the state’s education and public safety programs, according to the governor’s office.

If voters vote down this proposal, the $100 million in cuts could become permanent, and the UC will face an additional $200 million in trigger cuts.

The proposal faces a few obstacles before voters can even vote on it. After last year’s failed push for a tax extension, this new measure would need more than 500,000 signatures to be placed on the ballot in November. If the signatures are collected voters could pass the revenue hike proposal by a simple majority.

Student regent Alfredo Mireles is cautiously optimistic about the governor’s budget proposal and tax hike initiative.

“It’s much better than it could have been,” Mireles said to UCLA’s Daily Bruin on Jan. 9. “What [the UC Board of Regents] can do is show our gratitude by supporting the governor’s tax measures, continue to make the case to the governor and the legislature on why we need the money.”

In his budget cover letter the governor offered words in line with Mireles’ cautious optimism.

“This ballot measure will not solve all of our fiscal problems, but it will stop further cuts to education and public safety and halt the trend of double-digit tuition increases.”

Photo courtesy of Dan P. and The Bricks.

While the homeless community in Santa Cruz struggles to get by, local band Dan P. and the Bricks gives money back to the community. On Jan. 21, Kuumbwa Jazz Center is clearing its seating for a dance floor and hosting the band’s latest album release. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the Homeless Service Center of Santa Cruz.

With a five-piece horn section, two guitars, an organ, a bass and drums, Dan P. and the Bricks are a rocking 10-member ska band from Santa Cruz. Their latest album, “Watch Where You Walk,” was released from Asian Man Records in November 2011 and was voted No. 1 of the top 10 albums of 2011 by Upstarter Punk Reviews.

“We’re a local band, we play local shows, so we wanted to help a local charity that helps the homeless,” said Dan Potthast, the band’s lead singer.

Since the band formed in 2009, their goal has been to play locally and raise money for local charities. Their fundraisers have included a concert for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Hospice of Santa Cruz County, and the Surf City AIDS Ride that benefited the Santa Cruz AIDS Project.

Dan P. and the Bricks, who regularly play street shows on Pacific Avenue, said they play most of their shows for the homeless community.

“We show up on Pacific with a piano, a drum set and play free shows for anyone on the street,” Potthast said.

In this event, as in their past philanthropic events, the band feels supported in their efforts.

“You discover other people in the community that are like-minded and want to help out,” Potthast said. “We’re fortunate to have a lot of community to help out with this show.”

The Santa Cruz Homeless Service Center is an organization dedicated to providing emergency and transitional services to homeless individuals and families. It has four different programs that offer an abundance of resources like shelter, hot showers, meals, phone use, an address from which to send and receive mail and many other benefits.

Mareisa Weil, Homeless Service Center development manager, is thrilled about the band’s donations.

“It’s really special when an artist wants to get involved with our program,” Weil said. “There’s something really special about music and art that brings a community together. It has a lot of power and impact.”

Both Potthast and Weil predict the show will sell out. With a 200-person venue capacity and tickets at $9 a piece, that is a potential donation of $1,800. The funds will be used for general operating funds within the organization.

The Homeless Service Center is also enthusiastic about the event being held at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, another nonprofit.

“It’s two great local organizations with a great local band, coming together to help people who just need a little bit of extra support to get them on their feet,” Weil said.

Clutch Couriers, a local bike messenger service, has been supporting the event by donating its printing and poster distribution services.

Richard Graves, who works for the Couriers, said the organization donated its time because all the sales were going to benefit the Homeless Services Center.

“Big ups to Phil and the band, as well as the Kuumbwaa for setting this up — true humanitarians,” Graves said. “Myself and other crew members have been homeless at one time. I have seen how when you give a leg-up to someone, you never know how far they can go.”

During the second half of the women’s basketball game, the Slugs score a basket against Holy Names University. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Photo by Morgan Grana.

Five more points. Down 52-57 to Holy Names University, the UC Santa Cruz women’s basketball team was on an 8-0 run in the second half, looking to pass the Holy Names Hawks. What seemed like a classic underdog story for the Slugs turned as Holy Names found a way to hold on and win, with a final score of 75-68.

The loss against Holy Names gives UCSC women’s basketball a season ranking of 6-10. With nine games left before the NCAA Championships in February, head coach Todd Kent is optimistic.

“We are still in position to make the post season, since we’re in third place, but we need to put together a winning streak,” he said. “We have a game coming up against our rival Chapman [University] at home, and I think we have a better team against them than ever.”

The Slugs came out of halftime swinging. Down 31-38, the Slugs adjusted their strategy to better match Holy Names’ potent offense. Shooting guard Kelly Gregg explained their strategy.

“We always try to bring an aggressive home game, especially against a team that is number one in their conference,” she said. “In the second half, coach told us to be even more aggressive, so that’s what we did.”

Coach Kent noticed the Slugs were not matching the athletic Holy Names team very well. Kent reacted by switching the Slugs to a 2-3 zone defense from a man-to-man defense. The new defense caused Holy Names to start turning over the ball and forcing shots. This change was the catalyst for the Slugs’ big run.

“It was frustrating that we didn’t use our defense when we really needed to,” he said. “It went well, and we played well in spots, but inexperience and a few mental mistakes hurt us.”

The team is young, but talented. Currently, the Slugs start two freshmen and three seniors.

Freshman center Sarah Mackey is one of nine freshmen on the team. Mackey is in the top five in the nation in blocks, with 3.31 per game. Mackey blocked seven shots to go along with her 15 rebounds and two steals last Tuesday.

Mackey’s shot blocking is a nice surprise for the Slugs. Mackey feels the blocked shots helped her take charge defensively in a very physical game. In the second half alone, there were 19 fouls recorded by both teams.

“Most of my aggression comes from blocking shots,” Mackey said. “It’s what get’s me going.”

Senior point guard Jen Marquez said the Slugs were undone by their concentration. Marquez noted the team shot too many forced three-pointers in the second half to continue challenging Holy Names.

“We wanted to attack the basket and get fouled,” Marquez said. “We just lost focus and it killed us.”

Coach Kent feels this lack of focus is part of coaching a young team.

“We’re still looking for that one animal on the team that will really start calling the plays and leading the team, but a lot of that really just comes from experience,” he said.

UCSC women’s basketball will host games at home against Menlo University on Jan. 14, and Chapman University on Jan. 20. Jan. 21 the team will head up to Redding in a match against Simpson University. Additional reporting provided by Michael Mott.