Housing complexes look empty: Rent to students

There are several multi-story housing units now standing in Santa Cruz and to the passing observer, many of them look empty, some empty for a couple of years. I suggest contacting Santa Cruz City Council and the county Board of Supervisors to discuss leasing or renting out some of those units to UCSC students.

The plans for additional housing currently planned are too many years away. There are already too many students seeking a place to live (due to admitting too many students for available housing), which is unfair to students and their families. They’re losing and the city is losing money, so such a contract is a win-win situation for everyone.

— Kathy Cheer, Santa Cruz

Use of ‘median income’ the problem with housing rules

I was greatly impressed with the Editorial (May 23) regarding “housing rules.” As I see it, the major problem with those rules is the use of “median income” as some sort of guide. Median income means somewhere near 50% of incomes fall below that standard while another almost 50% are above it.

Statistically there are three ways to identify the meaning of a set of data. Median, the exact middle, is one; mean or the average is another; then there is mode, the most common data point. Affordability for housing, in any area might be better based on the “modal, ie. most common, income” for that area. And that is especially true for high demand areas, like Santa Cruz, and other ocean-facing areas.

— Mike Melville, Santa Cruz

FORT is spearheading a deceptive discourse

Sally Arnold’s May 13 Commentary in the Sentinel is a great example of selective use of data. Ms. Arnold talks about voters supporting rail and trail, but leaves out that the supervisorial elections in District 1 in 2020 and 2024 resulted in the victory of Manu Koenig, and in District 2 in 2024 the victory of Kim De Serpa, both avowed skeptics of the costly and infeasible train plan. By contrast, both candidates backed by Ms. Arnold and her train cheerleading organization, Friends of the Rail and Trail (FORT), lost.

Ms. Arnold also laments the tenor of political discussions in Santa Cruz County while excoriating Greenway supporters. This is the height of hypocrisy. If Ms. Arnold wants to make comparisons to the national tone of political discourse, she should look in the mirror. Ms. Arnold was one of the architects of the nasty, deceptive and entirely negative No on D campaign in 2022, which many of her own supporters thought was way over the line. The attacks and misrepresentations have continued in FORT’s monthly newsletters authored by Ms. Arnold.

— Doug Erickson, Santa Cruz

Here’s why eucalyptus trees can spread fires

Gillian Greensite’s letter (May 25) contains accurate but incomplete information about eucalyptus trees.

Eucalyptus trees did not start the Oakland conflagration. They were instrumental in the spread of that fire. When the oil-laden piles of bark at the base of eucalyptus trees ignites, it spreads up the tree as the oils in the tree boil due to the heat. The fires are so hot, that boiling oil inside the tree will typically explode about 10 feet below the top and the incredible convection wind will lift that burning chunk of tree into the air lofting it high enough to drift across a 10-lane freeway and land in a new location.

Greensite is correct — all we need to do is get out in every eucalyptus grove and rake up all of that tinder that the tree creates every year.

— Dennis Speer, Santa Cruz

‘Deep sadness’ over coming loss of Lot 4 trees

Knowing the trees living on Lot 4 will be killed soon leaves me with such deep sadness. I have wondered who will end up with the unhappy job of cutting down and killing these beautiful healthy trees.

Not the developers. Not the Santa Cruz City Council or planners who granted them permission. Will they be there to watch? Will they explain to their children and grandchildren why they did nothing to help save these beautiful trees, who have been a friend to the community for so many years?

A viable plan was presented by the community to save the two large Liquidamber trees, but was rejected. Why?

Such a small favor to ask. A chance that will not come again. Planting trees in other locations will never make up for these precious lives lost.

— Satya Orion, Soquel