Live Oak • Age: 38 • Occupation: Tech Entrepreneur, County Supervisor
What are the top issues for the 1st district?
Housing, homelessness, traffic, road safety (including traffic calming and regulating e-bike usage), parking, vacation rentals, rural road conditions, flooding, coastal erosion and fire safety.
What thoughts do you have on boosting affordable housing, finding real solutions for homelessness and the daily traffic jams on Highway 1?
When it comes to the high cost of housing in our area, a number of problems have collided to make the perfect storm. These include more vacation rentals, telework shortening the distance between us and Silicon Valley, and all of the red tape we have to building more housing.
By far the biggest piece of the problem is the red tape. It just takes too long to get through our County planning department. This means that we build less and what we do build is more expensive to build and those costs get passed on to homeowners and renters.
Since taking office I’ve been working to make County Planning more user-friendly. We combined the Public Works and Planning Departments and installed all new leadership in an effort to change the culture. We created pre-approved ADU plans and eliminated permit fees for ADUs of 750 sq ft or less. I identified a third-party plan check program that Marin County created and implemented it here.
Next I’m working on a streamlined approval process for projects that reserve units for our teachers, firefighters, nurses and other local workforce.
On homelessness, we’ve made incredible progress with a 22% decrease from 2022 to 2023. We did this by closing large encampments (like the San Lorenzo River Benchlands) and handing out emergency Section 8 housing vouchers to over 600 people.
I also championed projects like Veterans Village, a motel conversion that will soon have 25 housing units for veterans and their families. One of our most cost-effective programs to address homelessness is the Association of Faith Community’s safe parking program. We need to expand this program.
We’ve also seen that self-governed communities are much cheaper than fully staffed shelters. We need to expand these more cost-effective programs while creating low-barrier return to work opportunities.
In regards to traffic, the important solutions are now underway. As a Metro director, I helped make the bus free for everyone starting the 2nd half of 2024. This will encourage more ridership and less car travel. Since eliminating fares for youth, we’ve already seen a 400% increase in student ridership. We’re also ramping up service to every 15 minutes across town.
I’m advocating for expansion of the bus on shoulder program on Highway 1 so that we have a fully dedicated transit facility on the highway and the bus doesn’t get stuck in traffic. We’re also putting in 22 smart lights on Soquel Drive (including a signal at Robertson!) so that traffic flows better and protected green bike lanes so that people can safely get around on bikes.
Can you talk about your housing situation? Homeowner or renter? How does that help you relate to 1st District constituents?
My wife and I became condo owners in 2020. Up until then I was paying rent of over $3,000 per month.
When we became homeowners, we realized that we’d crossed the biggest wealth gap that exists in Santa Cruz: The renter — homeowner divide. This motivates me to help more people become homeowners, gain a sense of security and be able to become more involved in our community.
Can you describe your family situation? Married/single? Children/pets? Your favorite spot in the 1st district? You spend your free time doing what?
I’m married with an 8-month-old daughter and a 2.5-year-old blue heeler.
Favorite location is a tie between Blacks Beach and the Chaminade trails.
Free time is spent hiking in the redwoods or on the beach with the family.
Also taking care of our many plants. Biking and surfing when free time allows.
How long have you lived in Santa Cruz County? What brought you here?
I was born and raised here.
I’ve moved away a few times, but came back for the Favorite Chocolate Cake at the Buttery and to be close to my parents and grandparents.
My grandfather is a big cyclist and rode his bike over from San Mateo County.
He ended up at the Corralitos Market, realized he’d discovered Shangri-La and ultimately moved here.
What prompted you to run?
My desire to address the climate crises in order to make the world a safer place and protect our beautiful natural spaces.
Will you push back against the state demands for more housing, as the state auditor says those numbers were based on unsupported assumptions? See https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2021-125.pdf
I agree that the state’s so-called planning process is flawed. The housing numbers that they threw at us are largely aspirational and will be impossible to meet without billions and billions in subsidies.
However, I haven’t seen any jurisdiction successfully “push back” on their numbers based on the 2022 report that was cited. That’s why I’m more focused on doing what we can to actually build some housing rather than getting into a useless battle with the state.
I’m for less fighting and more doing.
People in this district feel we are running out of room for new residents. Not enough water, not enough electricity — PG&E brownouts — and potholes instead of well-maintained roads. What do you say?
If we don’t build more housing, the cost of services will keep increasing dramatically.
You won’t be able to get in to see the doctor. Our community will lose the dynamic energy that makes it great.
Why? As the fastest aging county in California, we need to add housing for the next generation of workers.
For example, 30% of the workforce that maintains our water and sewer lines will retire within the next 10 years. Our nurses are overworked because we can’t recruit new people to move to expensive Santa Cruz. Our public safety is threatened because we can’t hire enough correctional officers to fully staff our jail or police departments.
Building housing will actually bring the cost of public services down by spreading the cost of infrastructure repairs out over more people and allowing us to pay less in public salaries because housing will be more affordable.
Regarding potholes: I’m building a coalition to correct the unfair state property tax formulas that deprive our county of money and have led to the degradation of our roads.
In the first 10 months of 2023, Santa Cruz County Coroner Stephany Fiore tallied 115 accidental fatal drug overdoses. County health officials want to be more proactive. What more could be done?
We can prosecute drug dealers who sell fentanyl for manslaughter. This will make it much riskier to be a dealer.
We can increase education, particularly at schools, and ensure that students can get Narcan.
