Santa Cruz County Local News

Initiated in March 2023, the Santa Cruz METRO Youth Cruz Free program providing free rides to K-12 youth has resulted in a 536% increase of youth riding the bus.

A proposed ordinance limiting use of e-bikes on sidewalks and walkways in unincorporated parts of the county was delayed by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors until its May 14 meeting following feedback from residents.

In its April 9 meeting, the Watsonville City Council voted to seek contractor bids to clear out a homeless camp from the nearly 2-acre lot on Airport Boulevard.

These professionals provide essential services, but their pay and working conditions do not reflect their value, and their health suffers.

There’s so little data available, it’s impossible to even tell if several of California’s largest homelessness programs are working, according to a statewide audit released Tuesday.

A program that allows solo drivers of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to use carpool lanes on freeways and bridges in California may be removed for good next year.

Anti-tax groups in California have qualified a measure for the November ballot that would make raising state and local taxes much more difficult. It’s a showdown that’s been building for nearly five decades.

Thirty years after prisoners with disabilities sued the state of California and 25 years after a federal court first ordered accommodations, a judge found that state prison and parole officials still are not doing enough to help deaf and blind prisoners.

Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley was awarded a $2M by philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

Marimo Berk and Brad Lewis joined the Board of Directors of Sempervirens Fund, the oldest land trust in California.

I thought my journalism and others’ could change policy, perhaps even inspire a New Deal-style response equal to the challenge. Such was my naiveté.

A new exhibit opening April 12 at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History tells the story of Filipino migration and labor in Watsonville and the greater Pajaro Valley from the 1930s to the present.

Not filling open positions in state government, cutting a school facilities program and several climate initiatives, delaying funding for public transit — these are some of the first steps that California officials plan to take to deal with a looming multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

Tenants in many new privately owned, low-income units will be protected from double-digit increases. So will some in existing units, after a state committee on affordable housing imposed a rent cap.

Public hearings for the recently released $1.1B annual budget have been scheduled for May and June by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.

The move puts the fate of AB 2222 in question, but supporters insist that there is room to negotiate changes that can help tackle the state's literacy crisis.

Feedback is being solicited by the City of Santa Cruz for a new location for the downtown farmers market, which will be displaced when the library/parking garage project begins.

The Santa Cruz County clerk officially certified the March 5 election vote count on April 2.

Supporters of the rail trail rallied in front of the Santa Cruz County building on April 3 to advocate for approval of segments 10 and 11.

The official vote count for Measure N in support of Watsonville Community Hospital passed and was certified on April 4 by the Santa Cruz and Monterey county elections departments.