Sierra Club Endorsements 2016
Chris Krohn
It is with the utmost concern and commitment to this community that I am presenting myself as a candidate for the Santa Cruz City Council. It has been almost fourteen years since I came off the council and since that time I partnered with my wife of twenty years, Rachel O’Malley, in raising two wonderful daughters, Sophia and Isabel. During this time, I have participated in taking my kids to school and soccer practice, running a successful internship program in the Environmental Studies program at UC Santa Cruz, coaching basketball, and working on several local issues like saving the Beach Flats Community Garden, confronting UCSC growth through the Community Water Coalition, and achieving a sound water supply and conservation plan with the group, Desal Alternatives.
Over the past few years I have witnessed the quality of our town diminish, give way to a market rate housing boom that is not satisfying the needs of people who already live here, but pushing out folks of modest income levels. There is also a bureaucratic inability to come to grips with our traffic nightmare along Laurel Street, Mission Street, and Soquel Avenue in the Branciforte area.
The current city council has cast a blind eye to the environment too. Our quality of life has been significantly diminished along the river, in our precious wetlands areas, and also on our community’s iconic beaches. We have a natural environment to protect and the current council is not up to the task. Compounding our fears concerning the changing climate, there has been a severe depletion of our Santa Cruz urban forest.
Sandy Brown
I am running for City Council to ensure quality of life for all Santa Cruz residents, today and for future generations. I believe city government can and should promote measures that support a sustainable and equitable economy and maintain the diversity that makes Santa Cruz such a remarkable place.
I am committed to supporting working families, protecting our natural environment, protecting public safety, and providing support for the most vulnerable in our community.
As a long time resident, community-labor activist, sustainable agriculture practitioner, and teacher, I understand the challenges we face. Our affordable housing crisis and lack of funding for critical public services demand that we bring community members together to pursue innovative and viable solutions.
My experience in the nonprofit sector includes developing job training programs for low-income women and coordinating social justice policy campaigns at the local and state level. While in graduate school I worked with a local, organic farm,which gave me a deep understanding of the need to address local watershed issues. I am currently a university instructor in food studies, focused on labor and environmental policy.