Feature Archives

Despite the fact that there is overwhelming vacant commercial space in Santa Cruz County, the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County (CFSCC) decided to build a new office building in Aptos. Instead of building around the gorgeous landscape that defines the downtown Aptos area, CFSCC contracted Lewis Tree Service to cut down one of the few remaining Monterey Cypress trees on August 11th.

The San Jose City Council will hold a public hearing about the future of Coyote Valley on Monday, August 13th. Coyote Valley is a large, rural space between San Jose and Morgan Hill. It is one of the last remaining open spaces of its size in Santa Clara County, and is home to many endangered animals and plants. Developers are planning to build housing for 80,000 residents in Coyote Valley. People will gather at 5pm in front of City Hall, located at 200 East Santa Clara Street, San Jose and then they will attend the 5:30pm Coyote Valley Task Force meeting.

On August 9th, East Palo Alto youth rallied against environmental racism and celebrated the partial shutdown of Romic Technologies. Romic is a hazardous waste recycling facility that has been operating in East Palo Alto since 1964 and has not had a proper operating permit for the past 14 years. Community residents have waged a campaign to shut down Romic in East Palo Alto since 1989.

On July 24th, ForestEthics was joined by local environmental activists and 'Candace the Caribou' in San Francisco at a lively protest to highlight the devastating effects that catalogs sent by companies such as Crate & Barrel have on Endangered Forests and global warming. This was the fourth in a series of visits Candace is making this summer to U.S. cities, where she has exposed other companies such as J. Crew, Eddie Bauer, JC Penney, and Sears/Lands' End.

Danny Jordan, the chief negotiator for the Hoopa Valley Tribe, issued a public statement today charging that H.R. 24, a bill to restore the San Joaquin River, will drain funds from the Trinity River restoration project.

During the week of August 8th-14th, social justice and environmental activists will come together for regional North American Convergences for Climate Action. Organizers plan to "fight the fossil fuel empire and create truly sustainable, bio-regionally appropriate and community-based responses to climate change." On the west coast, they will gather near the mouth of the Columbia River for 6 days of low impact living and high impact action against the fossil fuel industry. On Thursday, July 26th, the West Coast Climate Convergence will hold a film screening and discussions at Station 40 in San Francisco as a "plug-IN" event" in preparation for the Convergence.

Corbin Harney, Spiritual Leader of the Western Shoshone Nation, crossed over at 11:00 a.m. in the morning of July 10th, in a house on a sacred mountain near Santa Rosa, California (Turtle Island). He dedicated his life to ending nuclear testing and dumping. That battle claimed his life through cancer.