I’m seeing fire and rain in the latest Weekly Dump! We’ve got boat fires and garage fires, a fatal head on collision kills 2 on 1, Yakkity Sax in the Beach Flats, a Tea House beatdown, an Elm street brawl, SCPD bait bike program nets 5 bums, Titans of Mavericks goes belly up, The concept of “sanctuary cities” in this Brave New World, growing weed in HWP, the Leveelies are coming back to downtown, the city gets a half million dollars to manage it’s mouth, how to report homeless camps to Caltrans, community orchard planting party, the clairvoyant Michael Glass, Beck discusses my feelings about Santa Cruz, Guerreros, and maybe a couple other things I’m forgetting.

Fire Destroys Three Boats in Santa Cruz Harbor Tuesday Morning

Multiple boats caught fire just before 6AM on Tuesday morning at the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor, destroying three boats. The fire did approximately $500,000 in damage, according to Santa Cruz Fire Battalion Chief Jason Hajduk. Nobody was injured in the blaze and the cause of the fire remains under investigation. The boats involved in the fire included one sailboat and two powerboats. The fire broke out on one of the powerboats before spreading according to Hajduk. Firefighters from Santa Cruz Fire and Central Fire responded to the incident. They were assisted by Harbor Patrol and SCPD. Once the fire was under control, crews worked with multiple agencies including the Coast Guard, Fish and Wildlife, and County Environmental Health to fully extinguish and overhaul the damaged boats.

Highland Avenue Fire Burns on the Westside

There was a report of a fire around noon on Tuesday on the 200 block of Highland Avenue in Santa Cruz. A detached garage burned and firefighters estimated the loss at about $110,000, according to Battalion Chief Rob Young. No one was injured in the fire, officials said. When SCFD arrived, a homeowner and neighbor were concerned about possible missing pets and trying to search for them. The neighbor declined medical treatment for smoke inhalation while trying to help the homeowner search for pets.

More in the Senile.

Fatal Accident Closes Highway 1 Near Swanton Road Thursday Morning

Two people are dead after a head-on collision between an SUV and a van near Davenport, according to California Highway Patrol officer Trista Drake. CHP responded to an accident at about 7:30AM involving a van and an SUV. Two other people riding in the van were flown to a trauma center with major injuries. Swanton Road was not available as a detour around the accident due to multiple landslides. As a result, the CHP closed Highway 1 between Scott Creek and the Santa Cruz-Santa Mateo county lines in both directions.

Neighbor Breaks Up Possible Home Invasion Burglary on Coulson Avenue

Thursday morning around 11AM, a neighbor in the 100 block of Coulson witnessed a black male wearing a couple of trashbags trying to break into a neighbor’s home through a window. They apparently startled the burglar, who was last seen fleeing down Coulson towards May. SCPD sent a couple units to try to catch the guy. Turns out the suspect here fled to some parked piece of mierda RV. Then he and another guy reportedly proceeded to start going house to house along Grant checking windows trying to break in ANYBODY’S house. SCPD seemed to know the guy, even referencing having possibly arrested him at the “shelter” yesterday! SCPD seemed to go around in circles here trying to catch these 2 guys without success. Cue the yakkity sax. I’m imagining something straight out of Benny Hill here in this chase. Might be nice to let the neighbors know what’s up. They had at least 4 units looking for this clown. How hard is it to find his broken down, sorry assed land yacht here? Apparently pretty hard.

Fight at Tea House Spa Draws a Crowd

Wednesday night around 10PM, a report came in about a guy getting beat up behind the Tea Hose Spa, with a crowd of at least 10 people standing around watching it happen. Maybe they should have sold tickets. At least someone in the crowd (or maybe not) had the good sense to call SCPD. Apparently the victim was beat up badly enough to require medical attention as they dispatched an ambulance to the scene. A guy gets the mierda beat out of him at the Tea House Spa. Welcome to Santa Cruz! SCPD showed up and the victim declined medical and declined to press charges. And people wonder what’s wrong with this town? Here you go. Welcome to Santa Cruz! The moral of this story is it’s perfectly ok to beat the shit out of someone in public in Santa Cruz and get away with it without any repercussions. You might even attract an audience.

Brawl On Elm Street

Heard about a brawl in the 100 block of Elm on Wednesday night around 9:30PM. Reportedly about 10 guys fighting and it was “escalating”. Isn’t 10 guys fighting pretty “escalated”? Drunks? Gangs? Drunk gangs? I’m pretty sure 10 guys weren’t arrested. I’m pretty sure nobody was arrested.

SCPD Surrounds Beach Flats Home on Rainy Thursday Morning

SCPD surrounded a home with multiple units in the 200 block of Ocean street around 8:30 on Thursday morning. A woman was stopped at gunpoint as she tried to leave the residence. Nothing in the mainstream news as to why this happened so your guess is as good as mine here.

SCPD Bait Bike Program Appears to Be Working

Is that really a surprise to anyone? It’s the equivalent of dropping a baited hook into a barrel full of hungry fish. Within two days of starting the program, five men had been arrested. It resulted in the arrest of 4 local bums. “Bum 1”, a 40 year old transient male, was charged with grand theft and possession of methamphetamine. “Bum 2”, a 30 year old transient male, was charged with grand theft. “Bum 3”, a 42 year old male, was also charged with of grand theft and a probation violation. “Bum 4”, a 37 year old transient male, was also charged with grand theft, a probation violation and possession of multiple controlled substances for sale. All four men were booked into Santa Cruz County Jail and are being held in lieu of $10,000. A fifth bum, we’ll call him “Bum 5”, 40, a transient male was charged with possession of stolen property and possession of multiple controlled substances for sale. Santa Cruz County Jail records show “Bum 5” got the “bum’s rush” and thanks to the “County Shuffle”, he’s back out into the community and no longer in custody. The operation was a collaboration between the Santa Cruz Police Department Neighborhood Enforcement Team and the Alcohol Enforcement Unit.

More in the Senile.

Titans Of Mavericks Goes Belly Up

It was reported this week that Titans of Mavericks, the LLC behind the annual mavericks big wave competition in Half Moon Bay, has declared bankruptcy, effectively canceling the event for 2017 and maybe the foreseeable future. I wonder if Jeff Clark is hankering for the good old days right about now. Organizers filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week amid a selling of their assets and a slew of lawsuits. Titans of Mavericks LLC and its affiliate Cartel Management Inc. filed separate petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. The bankruptcy filing comes after costly legal trouble for Cartel Management. Red Bull Media House North America Inc. filed a lawsuit against Cartel and Titans of Mavericks in the Superior Court of Los Angeles on Friday, just days before the bankruptcy action. Red Bull Media House sought an unspecified amount in damages after paying Titans of Mavericks $400,000 for the rights to webcast this year’s competition — which hasn’t happened yet — then never receiving a refund after Cartel abruptly terminated the contract.

How Will Trump’s Position on Sanctuary Cities Effect Santa Cruz County?

It’s a fair question to ask and consider. Our Apprentice in Chief signed an executive order promising to withhold federal money from what it calls “sanctuary jurisdictions”. What’s not clear is which cities and counties qualify for this punishment, and whether this kind of federal pressure is even legal. The executive order leaves it to the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate “sanctuary jurisdictions,” apparently based on whether they allow local officials to share people’s immigration status with the federal government. A 1996 law prohibits localities from withholding that information, and the Trump administration says sanctuary cities are in clear violation. While leaders of sanctuary cities such as New York, Chicago and Seattle have vowed to stick with their policies, other cities which have not claimed the sanctuary label are now considering bringing their policies into line with the president’s order. In Florida, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has directed the jail to honor detainer requests from ICE, reversing a 2013 policy change. According to the Miami Herald, the mayor called it a “financial decision.”

City leadership in Santa Cruz and Watsonville, plus the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, passed resolutions recently reaffirming and updating their policies, saying that their law enforcement agencies do not enforce federal immigration laws. “To stand up for the residents of Santa Cruz County may mean that we have to make some very difficult decisions about acquiring funds from the federal government. But our board was united in saying that this was a priority for our community,” said County Supervisor John Leopold, who is serving as board chairman. “So, if that means that we won’t be able to get some federal grant moneys, that’s the price you pay for protecting your residents.” Santa Cruz Deputy City Manager Scott Collins said he estimates the city receives anywhere from $500,000 to $4 million in federal funding each year for programs ranging from annual Community Development Block Grants to one-off Homeland Security grants, in addition to federal funds distributed by the state. “We consulted with our federal lobbyist and our city attorney and they’re talking with their other clients and cities,” Collins said. “It’s all kind of the same answer: ‘It all depends.’ We don’t know where it’s going to go.”

City of Santa Cruz officials expect to return later with a more complete city policy next month. Personally, I’m fine with the “Sanctuary City” status, mostly because I normally don’t trust the government to do the right thing (that’s my Libertarian side talking there). But I see both sides of the argument, and it’s going to inevitably be debated here. Well maybe not much here. This is Santa Cruz, where one sided conversations (usually led by self proclaimed “progressives”) are the norm and dissenting views are personally attacked. But in a nutshell, the argument “for” being a Sanctuary City involves the concern that “at risk” members of the community will be more likely to help the police solve crime. But do they do that much now? How much do they help the police now? The argument “against” it is obvious. Money. And fear mongering bigotry but it’s mostly about money. The county stands to lose it. Maybe a lot of it. Which will hurt the community in many, tangible ways. Public safety could be impacted. Social services could be impacted. So the question/argument ultimately becomes what is the cost either way? How many people are we talking about? How much money are we talking about? Maybe it’s time to move past the hard, angry rhetoric on both sides and have a real discussion about this. As I’ve said, I’m fine with the “status”, I’m less than fine with our local county narcissists (like Leopold) blowing our horn about it. The biggest narcissist (Trump) is threatening to cut off funding locally, so I question how wise it is for our local narcissist politicians to take him on publicly just for the sake of a fight. We have plenty of local problems that need to be dealt with. Stop trying to change the world when you can’t even fix Santa Cruz.

Kind Peoples Collective Wants to Grow Weed in Harvey West Park

An application for a “Major Modification to Special Use Permit 04-269” was submitted a couple weeks ago to allow indoor cultivation of medical marijuana at 140 Dubois street. Kind Peoples is the collective that took over the Use Permit (04-269) after Greenway vacated the leased space at 140 Dubois Street in the Harvey West area of town. Kind Peoples has leased approximately 3,500 square feet of additional space within the existing building to allow for cultivation of medical marijuana for use by their patients consistent with Section 24.12.1300 of the Zoning Ordinance. The Major Modification will be heard by the Planning Commission in an upcoming agenda, likely in the late winter/early spring timeframe. Mike Ferry is the planner who is working on the application.

Take Me to the River

The Leveelies, a really terrific group of volunteers from the community who act as unofficial stewards for the San Lorenzo river levee (and who I absolutely HATE seeing being taken advantage of), have decided to restart their efforts again to clean up the west side of the levee near downtown. To basically do the job Public Works is supposed to be doing. Will they be disappointed YET AGAIN by the city? Probably. It’s inevitable. It’s like a troubled relationship you keep coming back to, hoping beyond reasonable hope that things will change, that this time it will be different. Bless their optimism. I’ll try not to let my jaded cynicism get in the way here. All of this comes after they suspended their clean up efforts due to dangerous criminal activity and general neglect by the city manager’s office (again). The Leveelies recently announced they will officially resume their activities in March. The group normally meets every Saturday at 9AM. The regular meet ups stopped in the fall of 2016, after the fatal shooting of a homeless transient along the river levee bike path in an area adjacent to where the group does their cleaning. At the time, the group issued a statement saying the area had become too dangerous. Last September, the city launched the “Riverwalk Engagement Plan”, a joint effort between the city and the Coastal Watershed Council, which supposedly includes measures for additional park rangers, security cameras and lighting improvements. The city knew it was a PR nightmare to piss off the Leveelies and have them basically walk away due to city neglect and apathy over public safety in the area. Will the city deliver here? Time will tell. Will the city disappoint the Leveelies yet again? Time will tell.

Santa Cruz Gets $500,000 to Help Manage Their Mouth

The City of Santa Cruz secured a half million dollars from the California Fish and Wildlife Department for what they are hoping will be a permanent solution to prevent flooding by the San Lorenzo River at the river mouth. When the river level hits 5 feet under the trestle bridge, it begins to flood businesses, streets, and homes, including the Boardwalk. The city’s plan is to install a 600-foot-long pipe buried in the river that will empty out into the ocean. “Whenever the water reaches five feet, water will spill into it and then run the length of the pipe into the ocean,” Deputy City Manager Scott Collins said.

More from KSBW

Reporting Homeless Camps Located on CalTrans Property

I heard there’s a new procedure to report homeless camps along the freeway. CalTrans needs to know that Santa Cruz is involved and it does make a difference to us about homeless camps along our local freeways. We need everyone get on board here or CalTrans will not take it seriously enough to deal with it. SCPD has no jurisdiction over these freeway corridors but they are willing to partner with CalTrans and help post and clear these spaces. It is a safety issue and the laws are there for a reason. We are in the San Luis Obispo District Serving Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties. So you can see we do need to raise our voices in order to get service. There’s a lot of competition for their resources and time. Report it!

CAL TRANS Website

http://www.dot.ca.gov/

To create a report – PLEASE SUBMIT A MAINTENANCE REQUEST

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/maint/msrsubmit/

Community Orchard Planting Party Tomorrow Afternoon at Mike Fox Park

Join the Santa Cruz Fruit Tree Project and others in planting fruit trees at the new extended community orchard, right next to Mike Fox Park (the skatepark on the east side of the levee near Riverside). This public orchard, started in 2014 by the Santa Cruz Fruit Tree Project, Seed Culture Labs, and the City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation, is launching a major expansion from its first site in Riverside Gardens Park to a much larger plot across the street at Mike Fox Park, adjacent to the skate park and pickle ball courts. I really like the Fruit Tree Project. I know I’ve been snarky on Steve Schnaar but this is one of the good projects he does. Meet at Mike Fox park anytime from 12-4 if you want to help out.

Michael Glass Can Read My Mind

Lost Cause

“This town is crazy….nobody cares”

Beck – Lost Cause

Guerreros

by Ernie Douglas

Golden State Warriors:

The GS Warriors took on the Clippers at Oracle last Saturday and blew them out 144-98. With Chris Paul out, Curry had a monster game. He erupted for 49 points in 29 minutes. He ended up a +42 for the game. He also led the team with 9 rebounds (and he’s the smallest guy out there) and had 5 assists. An MVP performance by the 2 time reigning MVP. Durant added 23 and Klay had 16 but this game was all about Curry and his heat check moments. It started after he hit a half court shot at the buzzer to end the 1st half, then he comes out in the 3rd quarter and lights up the Clippers for 25 in the third quarter, more than the Clippers scored as a team. He put his foot down on the gas and LA had no answer for him. Monday night they flew to Portland. Curry sat this game out with the flu. And they could have used him. Warriors played well, but inconsistently, blowing a 20 point lead to end the first half. And the game came down to another last second shot attempt to win the game by the Blazers, but they lost it on an Evan Turner miss. After that, the Warriors had a couple days off for Curry to get healthy and rest. And a well rested Curry came back and destroyed the Hornets. Thursday they flew to LA to take on their “rival” (in name only at this point) the Clippers. No Draymond, no Zaza. Javale McGee and Pat McCaw started in their place. Both played well. McGee had 11 points and 8 boards in 15 minutes. McCaw had 8 points in 25 minutes after chasing JJ Redick all over the court. Still the Warriors won going away 133-120, with Curry and Durant leading the way. Curry ended up with 29. Durant finished with 26. Klay had 21.

Upcoming games this week: 2/4 at Sacramento, 2/8 vs. Chicago

Santa Cruz Warriors:

The Santa Cruz Warriors flew to Salt Lake City last Friday to take on the Stars. The Warriors had six players score in double figures, led by LaDontae Henton with 22 points and Scott Wood with 21. They were back in Santa Cruz to take on Rio Grande at the Kaiser Arena on Saturday night. The Warriors (16-12) beat Rio Grande 123-115. Scott Wood led all scorers with 32 points. He hit ten 3 point shots, setting a franchise record. Phil Pressey added a triple-double with 15 points (4-13 FG, 3-11 3P), 14 rebounds, and 13 assists, adding in four steals. Alex Hamilton contributed big, adding 20 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists in 29 minutes off the bench.

Upcoming games this week: 2/3 vs. Iowa (at Kaiser), 2/4 vs. Northern Arizona, 2/7 vs. Texas

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