Over the past year and a half, GT has been getting bigoted online comments from an email address that seems to belong to Roger Grigsby, Nuz has learned.
Grigbsy, of course, is the one-time local Chinese restaurant owner who earned the wrath of the Santa Cruz community for his $500 campaign contribution to former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke in the white supremacist’s Louisiana campaign for the U.S. Senate. Before everyone could forget about the fiasco, he became even more infamous for quickly doubling down, decrying “a war on whites” for bringing an end to his business.
These more recent comments compare GT’s reporters to rats and cockroaches. Oh and also, he’s all in on this whole racism thing. The “social space,” this latest comment argues, can be divided into just two camps: “pro-whites” and “anti-whites.” You’ll never guess which side he says GT is on.
Anyway, although we weren’t able to 100% confirm that the email belongs to Grigsby, the same address has been linked in online listings to Shen’s Gallery, which was associated with the now-retired restaurateur for years. If he isn’t the guy leaving these racially motivated comments, he really should let us know.
WHEREFORE ART THOU?
Now that Chip has left the Downtown Association and moved to Boulder, Colorado, his wife Abra Alan has temporarily taken the reins as interim executive director—a role she’s expected to hold until moving out to the Rocky Mountain State herself. The Arts Council also has an interim executive director right now, as does the Museum of Art and History.
Could all this portend a change in vision for the downtown Santa Cruz arts scene? Nuz hopes so … ’cuz that ugly automobile-oriented art on the side of the Soquel/Front Garage has been up for 10 years too long, and we’ve just been waiting for an excuse to say something. It looks like it was dreamt up by a 4-year-old with a lousy black-and-white photo album and overzealous Adderall prescription.
NO LESSON PLAN
Santa Cruz Mayor Martine Watkins will receive an award from the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce at a gala this October.
Old-timers occasionally reminisce on the toughest mayoral years in Santa Cruz history. There was Mardi Wormhoudt’s 1989 term, when the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck, and then Hilary Bryant’s 2013 stint when two police officers were killed, putting the town’s crime rate under a microscope. But given the level of dysfunction at the city right now, Watkins’ 2019 term has got to be up there. Whereas Wormhoudt and Bryant were remembered as courageous heroes, Watkins’ role is more thankless in nature—sometimes more akin to that of an especially underpaid preschool teacher.
