u/orangelover95003

This real estate PAC is responsible for killing the empty homes tax (Measure N a few years back) and many of their members brought about the Measure B (the "alternative" to Measure C, the affordable housing measure from 2025). If you are a renter, or, someone who does not want greater real estate taxes, now you know who to *not* vote for.

Keep in mind that it was the real estate industry locally who pushed (and got) in Measure C a parcel tax aspect, when it was originally envisioned as exclusively a transfer tax in the two year preparation, complete with community meetings to collect input. So not only did the real estate industry put up Measure B, but used Measure C to pull from the pockets of homeowners who are not even selling their homes.

SIDEQUEST: Notably also, Measure C does not contain any requirements for project labor agreements (PLAs) for affordable housing projects that are using Measure C money. I don't know if that is the fault of Santa Cruz Together, but, developers are typically anti-worker, anti-union. Steve Eggert, the founder of Anton Devco (which built the Anton Pacific) bitterly complained about paying prevailing wages for a framer in Santa Cruz, comparing that with wages in a whole other state, in a public meeting. See here for screenshot: https://www.reddit.com/r/santacruz/comments/1jp3urr/comment/mkwn52q/

https://preview.redd.it/nrx27nu6wb2h1.png?width=1394&format=png&auto=webp&s=fd8bd5020058362222a228fd59a09614d3932bc6

Santa Cruz YIMBY on Instagram: "The results are in for our June Primary endorsements! 🗳️🏠 For Santa Cruz YIMBY to officially endorse a candidate, we require a 60% threshold in our membership vote. Here is where things landed: ... City of Santa Cruz, Mayor: No Consensus. The vote was split, and no candidate reached the required threshold. 🚫 City of Santa Cruz, Councilmembers Dist. 4 & 6: No Endorsement. Thank you to all the members who participated and the candidates who shared their visions with us. #SantaCruzYIMBY #YIMBY #SantaCruzElections #HousingForAll"

The tech job market is a bloodbath. It's likely going to get even worse.
This 2026 surge almost rivals the first significant wave of layoffs of 2023
By Ariana Bindman,
News Features Reporter
May 14, 2026

The word “Hack” is spelled out in the main courtyard at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.
Steve Proehl/Getty Images

Listen Now:
Tech layoffs have been brutal this year. They're likely going to get worse.
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During the past several years, tech companies across the world have slashed thousands of jobs, and now, data suggests that the current bloodbath is about to get even worse.    
According to a May 12 report from Statista, which gathered data from Layoffs.fyi, a site that publicly tracks mass firings, there have already been over 100,000 layoffs in tech this year — almost equaling the total number of tech layoffs in 2025, and over two-thirds of the ones in 2024. “As our chart shows, layoffs totaled around 81,700 in the first quarter alone, the highest quarterly figure since early 2023, before adding about 20,000 more in the first six weeks of the second quarter,” the report says, attributing the major restructuring to investment in artificial intelligence. Overall, it’s a “sharp reversal” from 2025, when layoffs stayed lower at “around 27,000 to 37,000 per quarter,” the report continues. 
This 2026 surge almost rivals the first significant wave of layoffs of 2023, according to Statista, when more than 160,000 people were let go in the first quarter alone. And it’s likely going to get even worse: “The current trajectory suggests the sector may be entering another period of restructuring, with 2026 already on track to rival the scale of layoffs seen in previous downturns,” the May Statista report says. 
For years now, the tech world has been hemorrhaging skilled workers at major companies like Meta, Salesforce and Oracle, many of whom now face the possibility of long-term unemployment. With some CEOs treating layoffs as a scarlet letter, it’s becoming even more difficult for workers to get ahead in an increasingly brutal job market rife with ghost jobs.  
“I think there’s an unspoken bias,” Brian Creely, a tech recruiter and career coach, previously told SFGATE, referring to the attitude toward laid-off workers. Despite their competence, he said that some executives referred to them as “damaged goods” and “table scraps.” If the trajectory for 2026 continues, that stigma will only affect even more people. 

GILROY, Calif. —
Plans to construct a federal ICE detention facility near Gilroy are sparking growing concern and opposition from local residents and officials. The proposed site, located on the 7,000 block of Holsclaw Road, could house an 18,000-square-foot facility, according to public documents.
Santa Cruz County Supervisor Felipe Hernandez said, "We should absolutely be concerned."

Hernandez added, "It's very concerning to us here because as it is, we have families that are scared to go to work. They're scared to send their children to school. They're scared that, you know, children are scared themselves, that their parents won't be home when they come home."

Public records show the federal government has leased the land from Elmwood Capital Group, based in Beverly Hills, and documents suggest ICE has signed a contract with a developer to build the detention center to support immigration enforcement efforts along the Central Coast.
Luis Alejo, Monterey County supervisor, said, "We think this would have the adverse impact and this fear would spread across all our counties. And that is why it is imperative right now that we do everything possible to stop this project. It is not what we need."

Protests have already begun, with demonstrators gathering outside the Santa Clara County offices in San Jose earlier this week.

County leaders, including Ken Christopher of Christopher Ranch, which employs one of the largest migrant workforces in Gilroy, expressed frustration over the lack of transparency.

"The problem right now is confusion, and that's the real problem. That's what's causing anxiety and causing pain and causing fear is because there's no clear answer," Christopher said.
Concerns have also been raised about whether the land can be rezoned to accommodate the facility and whether the federal government can override local control. Alejo said the Monterey County Board of Supervisors will consider approving a referral next week to support opposition to the plans.

"So that our county, the county of Monterey, could officially oppose and join Santa Clara in its opposition and join any efforts, whether it's joining litigation to stop the construction of this prison, immigration prison outside of Gilroy," Alejo said.
Opponents of the project have indicated they are prepared to fight the plans in court.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY: WARNING!

In regards to all the people wanting to move here from the San Francisco/Bay Area as well as many other heavily populated cities across California, as well as those wanting to visit...

Before you come to SANTA CRUZ County to visit you must be aware of what is happening here. . There's a housing shortage, rent has tripled, and folks are vacationing here in record numbers...

So if you plan on moving here, or just plan on vacationing in our lakes or rivers this summer, I think you should know that wolf spiders, fire ants and bedbugs have infested hotels and motels across the area due to drier than usual weather. The woods will eat you alive with ticks and chiggers.

Our lake is full of gators, fresh water sharks, and creepy old guys wearing speedos.

Lakes around us froze out this past winter and all the fish died. Only zebra mussels remain. Don't bother coming here for a weekend fishing trip.

Our rivers are full of drunks in tubes peeing themselves while the banjo players lay waiting in the bushes.

Mountain lions have eaten many domesticated animals and possibly some small children.

The local bear and coyote population are all 'in heat' and think your wife/girlfriend is hot.

Snakes... don’t even get me started on the water headed copper moccasins here, and the Diamond Back Rattler Cobras.

The poison oak has overtaken all other vegetation.

We have had bear sightings at every park and town and they are after your picnic baskets….and some cougars have been spotted in motel rooms and bars.

Watch out for the jackalopes, they have been extremely aggressive this season.

We have the Skunk Ape invading our parks and it’s their mating season. Porcupines are "stabbing" small children should they dare to utilize the local playground equipment.

Skunks have made their way over and multiplied at unprecedented rates and wander the local campgrounds in packs looking for beer.

Murder hornets!?! We’ve got great black clouds of murder hornets, and swarms of giant crickets and even some Oklahoma grasshoppers.

Scorpions have now migrated here and have been congregating in massive quantities under rocks, logs, wooden steps, automobiles, and tarantulas are now stealing peoples food and biting like crazy.

I’m pretty sure all private tiger owners (we had a jump in them after Tiger King) have released their cats into the streets of our cities and towns.

Head lice now fly and we have vampire bats.

Oh, and no one is vaccinated.

I hear Idaho, Nevada and Arizona are really nice though.

Hearing from a friend who uses ND that most of the Nextdoor comments on threads about the District 4 race are not from Watsonville - Rio Del Mar, Seascape, Mar Monte, Ben Lomond, Capitola, Prunedale.

How do people feel about this?

I feel like ND is a trash fire politically so I don’t bother reading it btw. Lot of admins are with Greenway (train haters and/or affiliated with Bud Colligan).

[emphasis added is mine]

Now, before the June 2026 meeting, is the time for all of us to weigh in with letters to the SCCRTC.

Honorable SCCRTC Commissioners:

Please honor the RTC decision on December 4, 2025, to continue to pursue passenger rail along the SCBRL, and to develop a design for an Interim trail that does not require removal or complete covering of the tracks.

I strongly support the concept of a “Hybrid” design for the so-called “Interim” trail alignment.

As one of 56,342 voters who decisively rejected the 2022 Measure D Greenway initiative, which would have ended planning for public rail transit in the publicly owned railroad corridor, which was acquired by the public expressly for public transportation purposes, I want to proceed as expeditiously as possible with planning for both passenger rail transit and the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail (MBSST) in the railroad corridor.

An “Interim” trail plan that would entail the removal of some six miles of existing railroad tracks for an indefinite period of time, possibly 30 years, just to make way for an alignment of the MBSST in the middle of the SCBRL corridor, would flout the expressed will of the people.

For several important and undeniable reasons that I won’t take up your time to unpack here, proceeding with that would effectively prevent any progress toward rail transit. That should not be an option, especially in light of the RTC’s decision to continue to pursue the passenger rail project.

The RTC directed that a plan be developed that would not involve removing or covering the railroad tracks. Accordingly, the “Hybrid” design option promoted by the FORT advocacy group is eminently feasible and should be adopted.

Roaring Camp has offered to realign and improve the existing tracks at no charge to enable construction of the “Interim” trail within the railroad corridor alongside the tracks without demolishing them. Where necessary, pavement can be installed between the rails and on either side of them, as on Chestnut Street and elsewhere, with composite flangeway fillers closing the gaps.

Please adopt the “Hybrid” design as the preferred alternative.

Jim Weller

Capitola

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link to campaign website as point of reference: https://votejoethompson.com/

I think my favorite is The Farm House. Steak and Eggs is prob my fave traditional breakfast food they offer but my fav dish there is the Dino's Stuffed Burger. You could eat that burger and die a happy death.