Feature Archives

A widely circulated email, republished on Indybay, theorizes that UC Santa Cruz is in the process of completely closing the historic UCSC Arboretum. A volunteer at the world-famous botanical garden states, "They are doing it by steps to prevent a public outcry."

On August 15th, hundreds rallied at the Richmond BART and then marched to the Chevron oil refinery. The protesters called attention to Chevron’s polluting oil refinery in Richmond and to its oil industry expansions - killing people and the planet for profit. A critical mass bike bloc also meet at the Richmond BART and followed the main march to the Chevron refinery. At the end of the march there was non-violent civil disobedience action against the refinery.

August 7th, 2009 marks the two year anniversary of the death of John Myslin, a high school teacher who was run over by a truck at the intersection of Bay and Mission in Santa Cruz. Several months after his death, on April 8th, 2008, another experienced cyclist, Chris Rock, was run over and killed by a truck at the same intersection. A memorial bike ride took place on August 16th.

A march and rally was held in Kettleman City on July 18th, to protest a cluster of birth defects that participants say is probably connected to pesticide used on nearby farms or a toxic dump site located just outside of town. Five children out of twenty born in Kettleman City in the last 18 months had birth defects. Three of them died.

Legislators and hundreds of Delta advocates held a rally at the State Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday, July 7th, to oppose the peripheral canal -- what they call a budget-busting and environmentally destructive project that would approximate the Panama Canal in width and length. "I'm not going to vote for a plan that builds a Panama Canal down the middle of the 15th Assembly District,” exclaimed Assemblymember Joan Buchanan to loud applause.

A massive campaign is underway to “turn on the pumps” and deliver additional water to farms in the western Central Valley. Agribusiness interests and their allies claim environmental and water activists care more about fish than people and are demanding more water, now! Central Valley Congress members are calling for an exclusion from the Endangered Species Act of the delta smelt, more dams, a peripheral canal, and a bond initiative in 2010 that will result in taxpayers subsidizing water for large corporate farming operations.

Michael Steinberg writes, "On Saturday the third annual Bicycle Music Festival in San Francisco was kicked out of two sites in Golden Gate Park, and then threatened with expulsion in Dolores Park, before finally partying on pedal power late into the night on the SF waterfront."