Cruz

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

It was a great moon. H glanced out her window and saw it ensnared in Sutro Tower. The pics don't do it justice.

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Trying to attach pic

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Failing

[King Bob]

Lots of fireworks here, but mostly distant. Still kept me up until about midnight though.

[Drunk Monk]

It was a great moon. H glanced out her window and saw it ensnared in Sutro Tower. The pics don't do it justice.

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Trying to attach pic

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Failing

You need a real camera to take a pic of the moon. Like a Greg, tQ or Scapino camera. That's always disappointed me with my iPhone.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

It was a great moon. H glanced out her window and saw it ensnared in Sutro Tower. The pics don't do it justice.

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Trying to attach pic

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Failing

You need a real camera to take a pic of the moon. Like a Greg, tQ or Scapino camera. That's always disappointed me with my iPhone.

Truth

[Drunk Monk]

A Brighter World is a do-it-yourself tie-dye shop run by an old deadhead friend of mine. He opened up around the time we moved here and I always stopped in when I was downtown if he wasn't busy, just to say 'hi'. He'd been struggling for the last few years - he ran his shop like a deadhead, not tidy to appeal to the tourists or family parties. We'd often advise him to be more topical with his storefront - offer dye color schemes that were relevant to the holidays or even just ones that said 'Santa Cruz'. 

I will miss many of these places. 

NEWSBUSINESS
Face of downtown Santa Cruz changing as retailers, restaurants permanently close
More than a dozen downtown storefronts have shuttered in the months since shelter-in-place restrictions began, and more closures are likely to come

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The Salvation Army Thrift Store on Pacific Avenue is another casualty of the pandemic. (Shmuel Thaler -- Santa Cruz Sentinel)

By [color=var(--primary)]NICHOLAS IBARRA | nibarra@santacruzsentinel.com | Santa Cruz Sentinel
PUBLISHED: July 22, 2020 at 4:52 p.m. | UPDATED: July 22, 2020 at 5:11 p.m.
SANTA CRUZ — The face of downtown Santa Cruz is changing, likely forever, as the economic impacts of COVID-19 rage on.
Since shelter-in-place restrictions began in mid-March, more than a dozen downtown stores have permanently closed.
Shuttered retailers and restaurants include the Salvation Army Thrift Store, O’ My Sole, the downtown Pono Hawaiian Grill, Leah’s Magical Pieces, Agile Monkey, A Brighter World, Nourish, a Walgreens, a Starbucks and [color=var(--primary)]99 Bottles[/color], according to a list compiled by the Downtown Santa Cruz Association. Other businesses, such as Leom Designs and Judi Wyant, closed their storefronts and moved their businesses entirely online.
And last week, the storied Poet and Patriot Irish Pub joined the list of permanent closures.[/color]

[url=http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomForum/javascript:void(0)][color=var(--primary)][/color]

The pub, which opened its doors on Cedar Street in 1982, had been temporarily closed since mid-March. On July 11, pub owners announced the closure, after 38 years in business, is now permanent.
“Recently, we realized that even with the new regulations, or restrictions, we were not going to be able to operate — you know, all the staff or anything like that — for quite a while and it seems to be almost endless at this point,” said co-owner Tim McCormick, who help found the pub with its original owner, the late [color=var(--primary)]Chris Matthews. “We just can’t afford to pay rent and continue on.”
Those closures are only a partial list, even limited to downtown Santa Cruz. The list excludes less visible businesses that rent office space above storefronts, according to Abra Allan, interim director of the Downtown Santa Cruz Association.
“Whether that be a chiropractor, a body worker or an accountant, those things are only slowly starting to trickle in and we don’t have as strong of a sense of yet — mostly because we can see when a business closes on the ground floor,” Allan said.
At least some additional downtown businesses have indicated they don’t plan to renew their leases, Alan said. The names of those retailers have not yet been made public, however.
[/color]“I think businesses are just feeling that they don’t have the capital to hold on indefinitely, and they don’t know when that endpoint will be,” Allan said, explaining the pandemic has hit retailers who were already losing business to online shopping especially hard. “I think it really is that uncertainty that’s really pushing businesses to evaluate whether or not this is going to make sense for them.”
Without significant support from the city government, nonprofits and business groups, the situation would almost certainly be more dire still.
Parts of Pacific Avenue and Cathcart Street were closed to traffic early in June to allow restaurants to seat diners at safe distances outdoors. Other steps taken by the city government include a microloan program, an ongoing eviction moratorium that also protects commercial tenants, and a 15% cap on delivery commissions to prevent price gouging.
In another significant push, business groups and nonprofits banded together with local governments, companies and volunteers to create the Ride Out the Wave campaign — an online platform that leveraged matching funds to generate more than $432,000 in gift card purchases in support of local businesses over 45 days.
The campaign was spearheaded by tech-business nonprofit Santa Cruz Works, which identified a shared concern that shelter-in-place restrictions threatened to permanently close many beloved local stores and restaurants.
“It’s hard to imagine a Santa Cruz without that favorite business, and that’s kind of how it all came about,” said Santa Cruz Works CEO Doug Erickson.
The joint effort made a big enough splash to earn the recognition of California Treasurer Fiona Ma, who called it a potential blueprint for other cities. While matching funds have dried up, the portal remains an active one-stop shop for local gift card purchases at r[color=var(--primary)]ideoutthewave.org.
Local businesses have also secured significant support through the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
Verve Coffee Roasters, whose storefronts include a prominent Pacific Avenue cafe, was among the biggest recipients in Santa Cruz County — receiving a loan in the range of $2-5 million to help protect the jobs of about 200 employees, according to federal disclosures. Businesses that received loans less than $150,000 weren’t disclosed by name.
The Poet and Patriot did not apply for a federal loan because it wouldn’t have been able to meet payroll even with the funds, according to McCormick. Employee retention is among the federal program’s requirements for loan forgiveness. McCormick said the pub was struggling with overhead and permitting costs even before the pandemic.
But despite the varied avenues of support, Allan predicted more closures are coming to downtown as COVID-19 cases continue to surge to record levels in Santa Cruz County and across the state.
“Only time will really tell, but I will tell you that there will definitely be another wave of closures coming as we see these lease agreements come up for different properties,” Allan said.
Where downtown Santa Cruz will be left once the cloud of the pandemic eventually passes remains to be seen.
“I just would hope that when this is all cleared and we can socialize again that there is some place that people can call their home, their living room if you will — that it’s a place to have weddings, funerals, wakes, whatever, all in the same place,” said McCormick, reflecting on the Irish pub’s legacy as a welcoming gathering place for an eclectic mix of people. “That’s what I hope continues on somewhere.”
One silver lining Allan sees is the chance to reevaluate how downtown Santa Cruz could be improved — making better use of its sidewalk and street space for cyclists and pedestrians, perhaps, or breaking up larger storefronts to allow more small and more diverse retailers to open their doors.
Many downtown businesses forced to close during initial shelter-in-place restrictions have since reopened, at least in some capacity. The Downtown Association is also tracking those open stores [color=var(--primary)]downtownsantacruz.com/shopdowntown[/color].
“It’s inevitable that there will be some fundamental change to downtown,” Allan said. “I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t see that being a ghost town — I don’t see that at all. Our downtown has come back from so many things, and I know that will happen again. Because, what I will say about our downtown business owners, who I work with daily, these people know how to hustle. They are passionate, and they will fight, and they will figure it out.”
[/color]

[thatguy]

The Poet was a real bummer. Do you ever go to the Crepe Place? The bartenders there are usually pretty good. They've fixed up their backyard patio so they can stay open.

#17 on this list: https://goodtimes.sc/cover-stories/best-...anta-cruz/

Steamed artichoke appetizer is a great veggie option....

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

I feel ya with P&P. I don’t frequent tCP that often even tho it’s a short walk. And while we doing takeout occasionally, no patio dining for me. Don’t quite see the point of that now.

[Drunk Monk]

Man, I've been gathering resolve to face the grocery market, waiting for the after-lunch lull, and I head out to Staff of Life and the whole block is shut down. A bomb threat. Srsly? As if there isn't enough going on?

I'm just going to hide in my bungalow.

[Greg]

Door-Dash.

Who bombs Santa Cruz?

[Drunk Monk]

A lot of people make bomb threats here apparently. I just went to search 'santa cruz bomb threat' to see if there's any breaking news and a bunch of old bomb threat articles popped up. 

I haven't heard any explosions but cbrite has been sirens and more sirens all afternoon.

[Drunk Monk]

Update: Possible pipe bomb in Santa Cruz determined non explosive

Updated: 6:51 PM PDT Aug 6, 2020

Infinite Scroll Enabled

[/url]

Josh Copitch  

[url=https://www.ksbw.com/news-team/63391016-65d3-4293-b3dd-d00e9d39aa62]Digital Media Manager

[b]SANTA CRUZ, Calif. —[/b]
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office was called to an individual in crisis Thursday afternoon when they discovered something that looked like a pipe bomb.
The incident happened on Soquel Ave. near Staff of Life and closed the road and store for a period of time.

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The Sheriff's Office reported that when they found the person and pulled them over they located a device they thought could be a pipe bomb. 
The bomb team was called and they determined the device was not explosive. 
According to the Sheriff's Office, the individual will be receiving additional health services relating to the initial call.

[Drunk Monk]

Rolling blackout killed my entertainment for the evening. Can’t even open the fridge without letting the cold escape. PG&E texted us to let us know we’re I out of 196 to lose power, but it’s cbrite because all the WiFi is down.

No postal service for the last 2 days. 

Lost health care. 

Next we’ll lose water. 

This is America great again?

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Lost health care? Did TC Media pay for your care or just get you a group price?

[Drunk Monk]

Power is back but our WiFi is still out. Saturday night bummer

[Drunk Monk]

Our first morning back is hazy. Yesterday, when we got back from SD, the air quality was good - green on the map. Now it's orange, which is not so good. My neighbor told me that it got really bad two days after we left then got better. Stacy went outside and felt her eyes burning right away. She said it smelled like a campfires in a packed campground. 

Once again, we're locked inside with the air filter running.