The best thing about this year for me is that it’s over and my hope for 2024 springs eternal. Then again, we could be heading for a year of unimaginable horror, but whatever happens nationally and internationally, I feel like we have a safe harbor here in Santa Cruz.
That’s one reason we’re here, right?
We have a community that cares passionately about equal rights, the environment and education, perhaps more than any place I’ve lived.
Everywhere you look you can see immigrants doing great work, from the fields around Watsonville to the boardrooms of most Silicon Valley companies.
To name a few: Safra Catz, the CEO of Oracle; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Adobe Inc. CEO Shantanu Narayen; IBM CEO Arvind Krisha; Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi; and Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk.
As has been the case throughout our history, immigrants are making this country great and creating the inventions that make the world a better place.
Now is the time to stick up for the rights of immigrants coming to this country and not forget how much they have benefited us and continue to do so. There are those working to attack them again and again and we in Santa Cruz should remember how much they have given us and will continue to make our lives better.
There are those who continue to try and divide us for political gain but we should remember to see the good in this country and know that from the start immigration has helped us and continues to help us.
Check out our year-end review and let us know whether this has been a great or terrible year for you and why.
We wish you the best for 2024, all of you.
Thanks for reading.
Brad Kava
Photo Contest
SNOOZE MOON Harbor moon & resting Sea Lion. PHOTO: Jennifer Kelly
Good Idea
Santa Cruz is trying to calm traffic on its streets and wants your suggestions. City residents may submit their street for traffic calming consideration Jan. 15 using the form found at cityofsantacruz.com/trafficcalmingpilot.
The form includes only four questions. Streets will be ranked by standards you can see at cityofsantacruz.com/trafficcalmingpilot.
Tools include speed humps, bulb-outs, slow turn wedges, and traffic circles.
Good Work
The Biden-Harris Administration announced $50 million for environmental help for poor neighborhoods in California.
This new grant will make it easier for organizations to access federal environmental justice funding and will ensure communities that have long faced underinvestment can access the benefits of the largest climate investment in history.
It includes funds for small local cleanups, local emergency preparedness and disaster resiliency programs, environmental workforce development programs for local jobs reducing greenhouse gas emissions, fenceline air quality and asthma-related projects, healthy homes programs, and illegal dumping.
Learn more at Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmakers.
Quote of the week
“I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical.” —Arthur C. Clarke
