2020 Santa Cruz City Council Candidates

Kayla Kumar

What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?
•Structural racism that creates wealth inequality, inequitable incarceration rates, and uneven access to opportunity.
• The depth and longevity of the COVID-19 economic fallout.
• A public safety model that does not address root causes of criminal behavior or criminalized behavior.
• Lack of affordable housing that can be accessed by the very low, low and moderate income levels.
• Impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.

 Martine Watkins

What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?

• Income inequality, housing affordability, and its societal impact affecting low income citizens, particularly of people color

• K-16 educational disparities along with affordable childcare for working families

• Impact of pandemic - loss of small business and jobs for working people

Sonja Brunner

What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?

My top priorities are all tied to health and equity especially with COVID-19 and CZU Fire impacts: affordable housing solutions, public health and safety solutions, economic recovery and sustainability, racial and social equity, and climate sustainability.

Maria Cadenas

What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?

These are difficult times for the City of Santa Cruz. It is imperative that we address the budget shortfall and work to ensure essential services are provided to our residents, especially the most vulnerable. Our main focus should be a close review and monitoring of our city budget, both in expenses and revenues, and in alignment to moving us to a more equitable future. I have worked closely with global and local institutions, including during turnaround times that required difficult budget decisions. This can be done with a thoughtful approach and focus on an equitable framework and analysis to our policy to address disparities and ensure all can thrive. In addition to managing the immediate budget shortfall,we must look at ways to rebuild and strengthen our recovery in ways that set the stage for a stronger Santa Cruz. This includes a focus on creating affordable housing and looking at possible industry development and support of local economic models, that are centered on investment in local business development of women and BIPOC owned businesses.

Kelsey Hill

What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?
1. The COVID-19 recovery: balancing the budget, keeping small businesses afloat, avoiding disproportionate cuts to essential services and resources for vulnerable community members, keeping people fed and housed.
2. The housing crisis: preventing evictions in the COVID-19 period and recovery, mitigating the crisis of folks not being able to find housing, combating overcrowding and inadequate housing, pursuing deep affordability in new developments.
3. Community safety: responding to concerns around safety and over policing of houseless folks and POC communities, better meeting the needs of folks experiencing personal emergencies around housing, mental health, or substance use.

Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson

What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?
I look at every issue through the lens of equity. It is difficult to select only three but I would say racial and social inequities, economic recovery, and affordable housing are currently pressing issues facing santa cruz. These societal challenges are not new and are embedded in a long history of racism and poverty and very much present today. COVID has exacerbated these issues and shed further light on the systemic inequities that exist. Now is the time for us to find new openings for solutions and change. We must work together to drive that change.

Elizabeth Conlan

What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?

The most pressing issue facing Santa Cruz is recovery from the pandemic/economic downturn with its disproportionately negative impacts on people of color and low-income individuals and its negative effects on small businesses, renters, and the city budget. The other most pressing issues are the housing crisis and homelessness.

Sandy Brown

What do you think are the three most pressing issues facing Santa Cruz?

1. A Just Covid19 Recovery: We must make sure that the city budget is not balanced on the backs of working people and that the services on which our community members rely are not compromised; cuts should come from the top and from non-essential budget items, including consultant contracts; our efforts should prioritize community stability, including maintaining emergency eviction moratorium and exploring its extension to commercial properties to support small local businesses struggling to stay afloat while their operations have been restricted due to the Public Health Emergency.

2. The Affordable Housing Crisis: City efforts should aim to maximize low-income housing in new development through enforcement of inclusionary housing rules and other policies like replacement housing, in-lieu fee calculations, unbundled parking, and how we bring abated units back on line. As I talk with people across the city, I hear frustration about the city's perceived preference for facilitating new, high density, high end housing while making it difficult for individual property owners to build and preserve rental units. It's time to address these issues, through meaningful community engagement. We should also be utilizing/reserving city owned properties  and exploring ways to gain site control over surplus state properties (e.g. CalTrans right of way) for 100% affordable housing projects. 

3. Community Safety: The city's enforcement only approach to addressing so called quality of life issues and challenges facing our unhoused community members, as well as disproportionate negatives affects of over-policing. Safety can be promoted by working to ensure that people's basic survival needs are met. We need more hygiene facilities, waste management, and health and other supportive services. Health and human services are arguably the primary responsibility of the county. However, we cannot continue to shirk our responsibilities at the municipal level. Recent cooperative program planning and establishment of safe sleeping spaces are promising and all efforts should be made to make them sustainable.