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Covello & Covello Historical Photo Collection Preparing For Harbor High, 1967. You can see the La Fonda overpass and the Morrissey Avenue faux cloverleaf in the distance. Soquel Avenue is angled there at the bottom. If you squint you can see that same old Quonset hut that's now a market selling flowers at Seventh and Soquel. Everything else looks like the old Cali Brothers feed store or chicken coops from this distance. Bruce Bratton ALOHA MARCH 2000. Joan Britton, formerly of this fair county, now residing over a decade in Kealia on Kaua'i, sez we all need to know about the Aloha March planned in Washington, D.C. Organizers are hoping to bring 20,000 native Hawaiians and their supporters back to America's capital so that meaningful dialogue can immediately begin to facilitate "reconciliation between the United States and the Native Hawaiian People." The other Aloha March, in 1998, achieved worldwide media coverage that brought awareness about Native Hawaiian issues to America and beyond. On July 4, 2000, the organizers will stage a Native Hawaiian version of the Boston Tea Party, casting Hawaiian ti leaf leis into the water. John "Butch" Kekahu says, "The cry of the queen is still heard 100 years later." He's talking about Hawaiian Queen Lili'uokalani, who came to Washington 100 years ago to protest the illegal federal annexation of the Hawaiian Islands. Prez Clinton did sign a resolution/apology in 1993, but that didn't do much to settle any claims against the United States. The organizers want to return seized lands to Native Hawaiians, but almost more importantly, they want to draw attention to the poverty and joblessness that haunt the native islanders. They want to show that there are significant numbers of non-Native Hawaiians who support self-determination and that the reconciliation process must take place with the U.S. federal government and not the Hawai'i state government. Call Butch Kekahu at 808.822.7643, check the website at www.alohamarch2000.org or email [email protected]. VERY GOOD FILMS. Having nothing else to do in L.A. while waiting for the baby to arrive (not yet!), I read Frank McCourt's 'Tis, the sequel to the book and film Angela's Ashes. I had to just to find out what happened to everybody in the film. I have never read Angela's Ashes, but I liked the film tremendously. It was a bit dour, dark and very dank, but well done. The End of the Affair deserves all the attention it's getting. Stephen Rea has always been an excellent actor, but you've never seen him this great. Same goes for Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes. When you remember that Graham Greene wrote this book and The Third Man and director Neil Jordan also directed The Crying Game, Butcher Boy and Mona Lisa, you've got some magnificent talent. HEY, CISCO! Most of the responses (like those from Richard Wilkman, Alan Schlenger and Andrew Bennett) about my mentioning that Cisco Systems is leaving town say it's no big deal, that they never were a real presence here anyway. Seems that Cisco bought TGV a while back, waited, then moved those remaining employees back over the hill. I hope the rest of these new high-tech folks and businesses start becoming more involved with the community. After all, this is still a small town, and neighbors do need to be neighborly. So far, one could get the impression that these techies are a bit standoffish or even aloof; usually that means that they're just shy. We need a big community party, and the High Tech Business Expo happening at the new UCSC Town Center on Feb. 23 might help everybody meet. FIRST NIGHT JOB OPENING. After four long years, Melodye Serino is leaving as executive director of First Night to start her own business as facilitator, consultant and things like that. Her old position at First Night starts at $38,000 with benefits, vacation and a free sweatshirt each year. Actually, you get two sweatshirts because the job creates more than enough sweat for just one. Call the office at 425.7277 for a description and necessary qualifications. Melodye sez to "tell them they get to work with a fabulous board of directors," and I can personally attest to that. TRES MAGNIFIQUE. Miriam Ellis was awarded the Palmes Academiques by the Attache Cultural de France and Herve Le Mansec, the Consul Honoraire de France at a party Friday night at M.R.C. Greenwood's house up at UCSC. Aside from all she's done for the community, Miriam has done even more for theater, opera and cultural life on campus. This makes her a chevalier, or knight, of the academic palms; Miriam told me there's no female equivalent for chevalier. Lots of her friends and associates were there, such as Pat Arnold, Tom Lehrer, Patti Fitchen, Angie Christmann, Marge Frantz, Mike Rotkin, John Dizikes, Greenwood (of course), Jean Lerner, Nicole Paiement, Audrey Stanley, Michael Warren (the real one), Michael Tanner, Harry Berger and many more. SCAN ENDORSEMENT MEETING. This meeting will result in the endorsing of county supervisor, district attorney and other things. There'll be voting on initiatives and, most importantly, a discussion of strategies. You can vote only if you're a paid up SCAN member or if you're no more than one year overdue or if you joined at least one month prior to the meeting. You can drop in, vote and leave, or preferably hang in there to help decide where the considerable SCAN energy will be focused in this election. The meeting happens at the London Nelson Center at 6:30pm on Feb. 10. Call the SCAN office at 458.9425. LOCKHEED RANTINGS. It said in that Santa Cruz daily that Lockheed is cutting 2,800 jobs but none in the Bonny Doon plant, where there are now just 87 workers who make and test fleet ballistic systems. In the old days, there were hundreds employed there. What I've wondered about for years is what happens when they finally do shut down that plant? What about the massive amounts of lethal pollutants dumped and stored up there during the last 30 or more years? Who gets to clean it up? Former employees over the years have told horror stories about the ponds, pools and lakes of fuel and the barrels of material stashed all over the place. Look at Fort Ord and that cleanup mess and think about holding Lockheed accountable before it's too late. PLAZA PROGRESS. With the beginnings of a city-supported professional study of plaza potentials, everybody's excited. Also a plaza task force is being developed so that lots of voices will be taken into consideration. I'm still optimistic that if the city can work things out with the owner, then grants, land trusts and many funding sources could become available. When you look at the many millions being proposed for the Ohlone Park acquisition of lands near the trestle and boardwalk (some with unwilling sellers), our Downtown Plaza Committee and plaza supporters really believes the creation of a plaza at Pacific and Church would benefit our entire community even more. Mike Schmidt of the Santa Cruz Chamber, and now a member of the Downtown Plaza Task Force, even said we should work together on this! Call the Downtown Plaza Committee at 475.9172. Bruce critiques films every other Thursday at 12:50pm on KUSP (88.9FM). Reach Bruce at [email protected] or 457.9000#400. [ Santa Cruz | MetroActive Central | Archives ]