Newman Leads Housing Coalition • Central Fire: Changes For

Ruth Bates

831.359.2212

ruthbates1@gmail.com

CalBRE#01799929

JANUARY 2022

Only 12 homes Sold in Aptos in January. High sale: 133 Zanzibar – 4B/2.5Ba/3381SF, $2,150,000. Low sale: 813 Loma Prieta – 2B/1Ba/834SF, $869,000. Average Sales Price = $1,481,210. Only 3 Condos/TH Sold, all for over $1 Milliion Dollars! 261 Sea Ridge #2$1,250,000, 1730 Seascape-$1,156,000, 260 Rio Del Mar#1-$1,105,000.

ACTIVE LISTINGS

There are only 14 homes for sale as of 2/08/22, and 4 “Coming Soons”. High list: 635 Beach-$6,250,000, Low List: 1008 Redwood – 1B/1Ba/526SF-$650,000. There is only 1 Condo/TH for sale in Aptos. In Santa Cruz County, there are only 77 Home Listings and 33 “Coming Soons”. With 1200+ Realtors in the County, only 6% of us have Listings right now… might be time for some to consider another career, but not me, I love what I do and I’d love to help you – in any way I can.

INTEREST RATES

Bankrate.com 2/08 quotes 30-year fi xed mortgage rate average of 3.93%. This is signifi cantly higher than all of 2021, and will soon break 4.0% as the Feds will be doing another adjustment later on this year. The rising interest rates are supposed to correlate with lowering infl ation, but that remains to be seen.

DECLUTTERING

February comes from the word ‘februa’, which means cleansing or purifi cation, so maybe now is the time to think about Home Decluttering. Here are some ideas: 1. Clear off all fl at surfaces – and keep them clean. 2. Make the most of underutilized storage spaces. 3. Ask yourself which items you actually use, and donate/ ditch the rest. 4. Designate a place for clutter to go. 5. Evaluate one room at a time. And my favorite: Make your bed every day. This is a quick and easy way to feel instantly more organized.

——— My favorite 4-letter word is “SOLD”! Call, email, text anytime and Get Results with Ruth!

COMMUNITY NEWS

Newman Leads Housing Coalition

Housing Santa Cruz County, a countywide coalition of local organizations and individuals working to increase affordable housing opportunities for local residents and workers, has named Brooke Newman as interim managing director.

This is a new position.

Newman will lead the staff as Housing Santa Cruz County enters its second year of mobilizing the community in support of key affordable housing policies and affordable projects designed to meet the needs of Santa Cruz County’s lowerincome families and individuals.

“Brooke has seen the devastating

impact that inadequate and unaffordable housing supply has on our community,” said Don Lane, Housing Santa Cruz County governing board chairman. “We believe her deep experience working with marginalized communities will help housing Santa Cruz County better understand and advocate for community members in need of affordable housing solutions.” Newman’s background is Brooke Newman in community organizing and building partnerships between disparate groups. She is experienced at facilitating relationships between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to work toward shared goals.

“After years of working in the realm of homelessness, it has become abundantly clear that our collective efforts to lift people out of poverty will continue to be stalled until we demand that the creation of more affordable housing be prioritized throughout the county,” Newman said.

She played a lead role in the management and strategic growth of the Santa Cruz Downtown Streets Team. During her tenure, she developed its first CalFresh Employment Training program, first weekly women’s empowerment program, first culinary training program, and expanded the Team’s reach throughout the county.

“Newman” page 13

Central Fire: Changes For November 2022 Election

On Feb. 10, the Central Fire District Board of Directors opted to move forward with one of the maps presented by National Demographics Corp. drawing boundaries for 5 areas of representation for the future elections.

The map chosen is “Purple II.”

The map divides Central Fire into 5 areas, each with a nearly equal population and taking into account common issues, natural dividing lines and common needs and hazards.

The new voting system is designed to comply with the California Voting Rights Act and avoid lawsuits that have been expensive in other jurisdictions.

The voting public will be able to elect a director who lives in their area, to ensure the best representation for that area’s needs.

The next step in moving to this new district-based election system is to submit the map to the Santa Cruz County Recorders Office for approval.

Central Fire District leaders expect to have the new areas approved and implemented for the November 2022 election.

Residents can view the “Purple II” on Central Fire’s interactive map page, and enter their address at the top left to see which represented area their property is going to be part of: https://tinyurl.com/ central-fire-purple-2 (Full URL: https://ndcresearch.maps. arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid =4cb830fa156a4ff7a988d40cba60c6b7)

The map was chosen following four public hearings.

Four maps were initially presented by NDC, then two more (Orange II and Purple II) after input from the board and public.

At the fourth public hearing, all six maps and two alternates presented by a member of the public were all viewed and discussed before deciding the “Purple II” map was the most appropriate. n •••

For information on the decisionmaking process, including draft maps of the proposed areas and how to give feedback, visit www.centralfiresc.org/2279/ Re-Districting-Process-2021-2022.

“Wildlife Photos” from page 11

• Black-tailed Jackrabbit at Sacramento

National Wildlife Refuge (Larry

Whiting) • Urbane Digger Bee pollinating in white cosmos (Andrew Lincoln) • Bald-faced Hornet verses California

Yellowjacket (Robin Agarwal) • Osprey catches morning meal (Douglas Phillips) • Bald Eagles in the Angeles National

Forest (Andrew Lee) • Yellowed-bellied Marmots in Yosemite

National Park (Vishal Subramanyan) • Coyote leaping for food in Yosemite

National Park (Alice Cahill) • Golden Eagle versus Ground Squirrel (Shravan Sundaram) • Northern Pygmy Owl in Santa Cruz

Mountains (Robin Agarwal) • Spotted Owls at Golden Gate National Recreation Area (Maximilian Rabbitt

Tomita) • Sea lions at Channel Islands National

Park (Ken Howard) • California Condors at Tejon Ranch (Loi Nguyen) • White-tailed Kites mid-air food transfer (Don Henderson) • Great Gray Owl at Yosemite National

Park (Vishal Subramanyan)

Two photographs received special recognition. California Watchable Wildlife chose Alice Cahill’s shot of a leaping coyote as a favorite, while the Sierra Nevada Conservancy picked Vishal Subramanyan’s photo of a pair of Yellowed-bellied Marmots. Both were taken in Yosemite National Park. n

•••

To view all of these photos, go to https:// www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=240797574895 527&set=a.237260935249191

“Newman” from page 12

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Newman worked with the City of Santa Cruz and the County of Santa Cruz, and their nonprofit and community partners, to expand access to shelter and services for people experiencing homelessness throughout the county.

“For many of those who are housed and unhoused in Santa Cruz County, there has been little reason to believe that a pathway to safe, stable affordable housing exists for them,” Newman said. “I’m excited about working with Housing Santa Cruz County and its members as we advocate for a sea change in affordable housing development throughout our county.”

Newman has held leadership positions in a variety of nonprofit organizations including executive director of Birchbark Foundation, founding board member for the Alliance of Self-Directed Education and administrative manager of the World Trade Center Health Program in Queens, New York.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from the Eugene Lang College at the New School University and a master’s of public administration from the Baruch School of Public Affairs.

For more about the coalition, see www.housingsantacruzcounty.com and on Facebook.

See the 2020 City of Santa Cruz Reponse to Homelessness report: https:// tinyurl.com/sc-homeless-report n

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