An 8-year-old’s invention to assist his grandmother with dementia. A quest to create a film-lover’s paradise in Santa Cruz. A race for the brand new full-time Santa Cruz mayor. An investigation into surging fentanyl deaths and a journey into the thriller of why so few native farms elevate pork. These are among the greatest tales Lookout revealed in 2022. Learn on as our correspondents describe, in their very own phrases, their favourite tales of the yr. (And click on on every correspondent’s title under to seek out all their work.)

(Giovanni Moujaes / Lookout Santa Cruz)

‘Don’t anticipate any oldies’: Bob Dylan involves Santa Cruz: In boomer-friendly Santa Cruz, Bob Dylan has at all times been one thing of a demigod. In June, the famously obtuse Dylan carried out on the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, as he has performed a couple of occasions earlier than. I didn’t wish to write a straight-on overview of the efficiency a lot as I wished to make use of it as a automobile to deliver those that weren’t there in for a peek at what the expertise was like. I wasn’t too impressed by Dylan’s somnambulant efficiency, and I actually heard from numerous Dylan followers about it, too. From my perspective, I figured that the world actually didn’t want one more sizzling tackle Dylan. I as a substitute wished to entertain readers with an encounter that, like most concert events today, carries a little bit of cognitive dissonance between the artwork of Dylan and the ugly commerce of the live performance business.

My Esalen expertise: Huge Sur’s ‘one-of-a-kind, you-gotta-be-kidding-me, is-this-a-dream?’ kinda day: Sitting within the well-known mineral baths on the Esalen Institute in Huge Sur is such a heady expertise that writing about it could possibly really feel puny and insufficient. However I took a shot at it. My spouse, Tina, and I obtained to go to Esalen on my most up-to-date birthday, and we spent the whole day there intently centered on feeling each minute of it, making an attempt gamely to not permit our minds to wander or to fall prey to distraction. It was the quintessential California expertise, and no matter writing chops I may deliver to bear on it does it very poor justice.

Icons of Santa Cruz: The centurion of West Cliff Drive: I’ve at all times wished to write down the definitive piece on probably the most well-known touchstones of residing in Santa Cruz, and I started that quixotic quest this yr with this piece on the well-known West Cliff Drive surfer statue. Coincidentally, the statue turned 30 this yr and, as a author’s conceit, I assumed it could be a good suggestion to see if I may title the man — which you’d have thought might need occurred already. I settled on “Wes Clift,” apart from the apparent pun, it evokes the mysterious Fifties actor Montgomery Clift, and Wes is an underrated title. It’s been nearly a yr since that piece was revealed, and the following particular person whom I hear reference the statue as Wes Clift would be the first one. Oh effectively, you may’t have every part.

Who’s Bud Colligan?: It looks like so way back now, however Measure D, the rail-trail voter initiative on the June poll, produced tons of neighborhood unrest and suspicion, and I dove proper into the center of it with this profile of perhaps probably the most central determine in the entire debate, philanthropist Bud Colligan. I truly admired Colligan for his neighborhood activism when so many different folks of his means have retreated into their very own bubbles, and I used to be not cynical about his motives. This piece managed to upset each Colligan supporters and detractors, a few of whom I contemplate buddies, which isn’t a snug place to be in. Nonetheless, in some way I needed to pull again the curtain. And, nonetheless imperfectly, I took a shot.

(Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)

One Santa Cruz County farmer’s quest to develop sustainable, domestically raised meat: This story began out as a profile of a younger farmer rising sustainably raised pork in Santa Cruz County. However when he mentioned that his ecologically farmed pork, from Pajaro Pastures, is the one county-raised pork out there commercially by the pound, the query grew to become, why?

Though Santa Cruz County’s crop worth exceeds $600 million, livestock accounts for simply 1%. This dearth in domestically raised animal merchandise is indicative of a nationwide pattern. Farmer Ryan Abelson and others within the story revealed {that a} complicated snarl of U.S. Division of Agriculture rules and the closure of a number of USDA-certified slaughterhouses within the state, mixed with excessive land and water costs in Santa Cruz County, has made promoting USDA-certified industrial meat merchandise almost unattainable. This juxtaposes towards one other pattern: the will to “eat native” as a lot as potential.

A sober rethink: It’s time to widen our booze-free selections: Of all of the tales I wrote this yr, I obtained probably the most letters about this one. Dozens of readers wrote in to say that they or their companion/buddy/father or mother doesn’t drink alcohol and that this story made them really feel “seen.” My husband made a health-focused choice to give up consuming alcohol throughout the pandemic, and whereas eating out with him I grew to become acutely conscious what number of Santa Cruz County eating places overlook the significance of providing compelling booze-free beverage selections. Often, all he may discover was a sugary soda or fruit juice, whereas I sipped on a considerate craft cocktail or a sublime glass of wine.

Right here, I reveal how this can be a missed alternative for native eating places to capitalize on a rising pattern of abstention from alcohol and assert that within the hospitality business, they owe it to their friends to supply nonalcoholic drinks that go with the meal, relatively than conflict with it. Many native eating places are hip to this pattern, and I share which of them supply enjoyable alcohol-free drinks and dig into why others won’t.

Alderwood group Santa Cruz Sky goals to revitalize downtown Santa Cruz: Right here at Lookout, we’re always tuning our sails to the shifting tides of a altering Santa Cruz panorama. No eating group exemplifies that higher than Santa Cruz Sky. The domestically owned firm runs Michelin-noted Alderwood Santa Cruz; Burn Scorching Sauce, a wholesale natural sizzling sauce firm; Abbott Sq.’s fried rooster fast-casual restaurant Flashbird; the in-house Bun & Sons Bakery; and is about to open two extra Flashbird areas and a second restaurant, Alderwood Pacific.

On this story, Sam Woods, director of operations at Santa Cruz Sky and a Capitola native, reveals how the corporate’s speedy progress has a transparent aim: to revitalize Santa Cruz’s restaurant scene and assist usher in a brand new period of downtown eating.

Publish-Nickelodeon, can Santa Cruz turn into a movie lover’s paradise?: I’ve at all times beloved films, so the prospect of a yr with out theaters was predictably distressing on prime of the entire pandemic factor. However no less than they’d ultimately open up once more, proper?

Nicely, for native arthouse gem the Nickelodeon, that wasn’t and nonetheless isn’t the case.

The indie and artwork movie business — already not identified for its field workplace prowess — continues to be recovering from pandemic losses. Landmark Theatres, which owns the Nickelodeon, has not indicated any intention to reopen the Nick.

With the cinema’s reopening nonetheless caught in limbo, movie veterans Dennis Bartok and Marja Adriance — the latter a Santa Cruz native — have begun early steps to deliver their imaginative and prescient of a revitalized arthouse movie scene to Santa Cruz. Their ardour to create an area that blends neighborhood, movie and stay occasions is straight away evident, whereas their years of expertise writing, programming and curating and restoring movies present the movie data essential to maintain audiences excited for the following screening.

It’ll be an extended course of with a lot fundraising and planning to be performed. There aren’t any guarantees, however it doesn’t matter what occurs, I’m excited. In the event you’re additionally a cinephile, you ought to be, too.

Two Santa Cruz Starbucks vote in favor of unionization, a primary in California: As a fellow service employee, and extra particularly a espresso store veteran, I knew this story was an enormous deal from the second the rumblings of organizing started.

In a way, it’s an underdog story. A bunch of younger adults and school college students working to realize one thing that had by no means been performed earlier than within the state’s historical past and succeeding. Following the highway to unionization from the very begin, and having the ability to break the information months later, was a really rewarding expertise.

Watsonville-born playwright Spike Wong explores his identification by means of his work: Candidate for greatest dialog I had all yr goes to Spike Wong, as he shared the artistic course of and inspiration for his newest endeavor, “White Sky, Falling Dragon” — a rumination on the clashing of cultures and coming to phrases with one’s identification.

With the principle character primarily based on Wong’s father, and he himself assuming the function of his personal grandfather, it was perhaps his most private play but.

Having grown up in Santa Cruz, I grew to become effectively conscious that there’s a small Asian inhabitants right here. In consequence, I do know that I didn’t discover my Chinese language identification a lot and didn’t actually really feel the necessity to. Spike, although, made the hassle to attach with that identification later in life, and realized simply how a lot his household had misplaced by means of assimilation.

Possibly I ought to do the identical.

Unhoused Santa Cruz: The battle for households is actual — and for one household, tragedy adopted triumph: After I was launched to Leticia Sandoval, I used to be advised that her story represented an excessive case of an area household in want of housing discovering the golden ticket and offering her youngsters the steadiness they deserved. I didn’t, nonetheless, know the small print of what that extremeness entailed — that simply as that dream was realized, a kind of children could be tragically misplaced.

Watching tears fall from her eyes as we sat on the sofa in her front room, I knew this could be one of many saddest tales I’ve ever advised. As I mirror on tales like this as a dad, it makes me recognize the method and significance of sharing. And largely that persons are prepared to share — and discover the belief to take action. On this case, Leticia Sandoval realized that her success story — going from unhoused to housed, discovering the steadiness of a roof overhead — was solely made extra necessary by the tragic loss that may comply with.

‘We’re right here for you’: In wake of tragedy, Santa Cruz browsing neighborhood doubles down on era subsequent: I had heard the rumors of how native second-generation surfboard shaper Buck Noe had misplaced his life. And so they have been ghastly. I additionally knew that the annual occasion honoring one other native browsing legend misplaced too quickly, Shawn “Barney” Barron, was taking place the following day at Steamer Lane. As I made a couple of calls to browsing world sources, I found that the occasion to honor Barron could be utilized by organizer Darryl Virostko — an necessary success story in Santa Cruz browsing’s chapters of battle — to honor the fallen and prolong a hand to the youthful era. Inside that scene and second, there was some historical past to be advised and a few reflection to be culled.

As fentanyl’s painful demise toll grows in Santa Cruz, taking younger lives, it’s time for significant options: The concept was easy: Discover out what’s going on domestically in response to the nationwide disaster of fentanyl use/overdose/demise. The solutions have been removed from easy. The first discovery in Lookout’s investigation of the techniques in place was that key native our bodies — public well being leaders, regulation enforcement, the coroner investigator, the district legal professional’s workplace — weren’t in common communication concerning the disaster and had no particular plan for preserving the neighborhood secure. It was significantly regarding given the rising variety of younger folks dying as a result of that they had taken drugs laced with the lethal toxin that has overtaken the illicit drug scene.

Our constant pestering of those stakeholders finally helped spark a digital neighborhood city corridor by which the necessity for proactive schooling and communication with the general public grew to become abundantly clear. Since that three-part collection ran — it included the revelations that each the sheriff and the county’s prime public well being officer misplaced shut family members to fentanyl poisoning — public well being leaders have shaped a fentanyl process pressure, the county’s public excessive faculties have improved academic sources and made positive the opioid antagonist Narcan is out there on campuses, and a second city corridor was held particularly for the Spanish-speaking neighborhood. That is the kind of accountability reporting the Santa Cruz County neighborhood deserves.

(Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)

Pleasure and Fred: A mayor’s race in excessive distinction: Open seats for public workplace usually entice a sure model of characters. Fred Keeley and, to a lesser extent, Pleasure Schendledecker, are well-known all through Santa Cruz. Nevertheless, as a newcomer to city I knew neither of the 2 candidates for Santa Cruz mayor. This story (my first with Lookout) allowed me to discover who Pleasure and Fred have been by means of the lens of an outsider. Any story that works even barely towards a extra intimate understanding of one other particular person is my sort of story. They require a fine-tuning of statement expertise and shift the kinds of questions I ask, even when the subject is political, or electoral.

(Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)

‘Inform the varsity goodbye’: Households, employees, alums heartbroken by closure of 60-year-old Good Shepherd college: The previous a number of years severely challenged the schooling system; distant studying and the pandemic have exacerbated psychological well being points for college kids and lecturers, and intensifying curriculum debates have led to legal guidelines in some states limiting instructing on racism and gender. It has not been straightforward.

So in July, when information emerged of Good Shepherd Catholic Faculty closing its doorways because of what directors mentioned was declining enrollment and rising prices, the blow hit additional onerous for households who for many years despatched their youngsters to the varsity. Households, lecturers and directors have been devastated to see the varsity shut and felt robbed of a possibility to lift funds to reserve it.

The closure of the varsity and the responses by those that cared about it demonstrated the that means of a faculty neighborhood — how faculties present a way of security and identification.

Resigned then (possible) reelected: Soquel Union board trustee faces questions from mother and father, lecturers union: With college curriculum turning into increasingly more politicized over the previous a number of years, tales about heated college board races have been making headlines. The Soquel Union Elementary Faculty District board race this most up-to-date election cycle made it to Lookout’s headlines due to some odd circumstances.

Longtime board member Phil Rodriguez resigned from his seat simply months earlier than his time period was set to finish and simply weeks after he had filed to run for reelection. His opponent, Justin Maffia, considering he was operating unopposed, relaxed his marketing campaign.

Because the incumbent together with his title nonetheless on the poll, (his resignation got here too late within the marketing campaign to take away his title from the poll), Rodriguez gained the race. Rodriguez advised Lookout he would serve if voters elected him, and he was reinstated to his place on the board — main mother and father and each of the district’s unions to query Rodriguez’s intentions and the equity of the race.

The varsity district is without doubt one of the smaller ones within the county, however the story exhibits the significance of civic engagement.

Meet the Watsonville 8-year-old behind ‘D’ sneakers, an award-winning invention for folks going through dementia: Second grader Kristopher Bayog’s invention to assist discover folks with dementia was stuffed with creativity and coronary heart. After his grandmother, who has dementia, wandered off at his cousin’s commencement, Kristopher was pushed to discover a manner to make sure that folks with dementia are reunited with their households.

Outfitted with solely the gadgets he may discover in his dwelling, because the invention program he participates in at college requires, he created an alarm by putting in a doorbell in a shoe to find a lacking beloved one. His invention superior by means of a number of rounds of this system, permitting him to turn into one in all solely 5 California college students to qualify for the worldwide competitors.

This straightforward and candy story was the most-read of any story in Lookout’s two-year historical past. I feel that exhibits how a lot readers worth youth voices and heartfelt tales.

Include us to the Benchlands: Pay attention to 5 voices of Santa Cruz’s unhoused: I’ve spent the previous 2½ years strolling down on the Benchlands and talking with the unhoused. It was necessary to me that their voices have been heard on this function talking with 5 unhoused folks earlier this yr, earlier than the encampment was closed within the fall.

Take a peek at Veterans Village: It’s a solution to homelessness, however wants extra money: Individuals who have fought for our nation deserve higher. This video story exploring Veterans Village, a challenge for homeless veterans in Ben Lomond, was enlightening. Veterans Village has succeeded find a tremendous location within the redwoods to deal with a choose few veterans and provides them the help they deserve.

Gallery: Hearth at DeLaveaga Park: As a photojournalist, overlaying fires is at all times thrilling. So when a wildfire broke out in DeLaveaga Park in August, I jumped on the likelihood to {photograph} it. The blaze was shortly extinguished, and the fireplace that bordered a wonderful golf course offered an fascinating setting for images.