The Douglas iris is a wildflower native to central and northern California and parts of southern Oregon.
(Blogpost extra: In a last-minute addition to this edition of The Newsletter, I share some thoughts on today's eclipse. See below.)
The first time I recall encountering a field of Douglas irises, which may have been at Wilder Ranch State Park just north of Santa Cruz, I looked around for the ruins of a homestead. It didn't occur to me that these could be wildflowers—I figured they had to be remnants of some long-ago-planted garden.
I grew up ten miles from Manhattan in New Jersey, which is known as the Garden State, and deserves that nickname outside the brutalized swath that is the Turnpike. But the woods that flanked the Hackensack River and surrounded the Oradell Reservoir, my childhood nature refuges, had nothing to compare with the Douglas iris. Or the California poppy. Or, to my knowledge, the Calochortus lily (see below). All of California is special in my eyes, and Santa Cruz maybe especially so.
I write as always from my beloved home in the urban forest that is Midtown Sacramento, and take you today to another of my hometowns.
A Spring Guide, a Garden, and a Bunch of Pretty Murals
Even if you aren't planning to visit Santa Cruz this spring, you might enjoy this virtual visit.
Santa Cruz Murals
Santa Cruz County is home to amazing murals. One amazing person is working to document them in one place.
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.
(04/09/2024) SF Gate
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.
(04/09/2024) CalMatters
These professionals provide essential services, but their pay and working conditions do not reflect their value, and their health suffers.
(04/09/2024) EdSource
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.
(04/08/2024) California Healthline
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.
(04/08/2024) CalMatters
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.
(04/06/2024) Los Angeles Times
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.
(04/05/2024) CalMatters
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.
(04/05/2024) CalMatters
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.
(04/04/2024) EdSource
It quickly became clear that Elon Musk’s SpaceX was responsible for the show. The lights were a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 new Starlink satellites into orbit. The rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:30 p.m., and it’s trail was visible from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree National Park.
(04/02/2024) SF Gate
