Editor's Note - Growing Up in Santa Cruz

Celebrating Mothers in Santa Cruz County

Brad Kava — Mon, 11 May 2026 23:23:01 +0000

Publisher Brad Kava celebrates the unique spirit of Santa Cruz County mothers and highlights local Mother's Day events, from the redwoods to live music.

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Kids Day Shows the Heart of Downtown Santa Cruz

Brad Kava — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:40:41 +0000

I'm totally psyched for Kids Day on May 2 for a number of reasons. First: I have used that day for a decade to measure the health of Downtown, which I'm afraid has too many critics and not enough people appreciating the center of art, culture, music and shopping we have.

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Why Summer Camp Matters More Than We Realize

Brad Kava — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 07:38:05 +0000

Brad Kava explores why summer camp is as vital as school, sharing how a movie-making camp helped his son build confidence and public speaking skills.

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A Mouthful of Help

Brad Kava — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 02:20:12 +0000

Publisher Brad Kava shares how a personal dental trauma led to the founding of Growing Up in Santa Cruz and reflects on the importance of local dental experts.

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Ringing in the New Year With a $500 Water Bill

Brad Kava — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 18:03:42 +0000

Brad Kava reflects on a frustrating $500 water bill due to a leak and shares updates on local transportation projects and community goals in Santa Cruz.

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Growing Up and Growing Older

Brad Kava — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 17:06:00 +0000

One of the worst things that happened when raising my son was that no one told us that breast feeding in the middle of the night and not brushing his teeth right then could cause cavities. I wished someone in obstetrics had mentioned that. Instead, we had to take him to a pediatric dentist, where he was put under anesthesia and a great dentist did the work. His mother and I were in tears of fear watching this not quite a toddler on the chair. That’s one of the guiding principles for this magazine ever since. We want to get as much information out to parents as possible. This month we have a pediatric dental column to help with things they might not have told you yet. It’s so important and can be overlooked amongst the trials of child birth. We are trying to cover child rearing experiences for all ages, from birth to grand parenting with content provided by local experts and local writers. You won’t find that in online parent guides or many other magazines, which use syndicated writers. Here you will find everything homegrown in our county, something I’m really proud of. I love this line from our special needs columnist Tovah Petra Kolodinski, who is both a writer and an expert: “In some ways, a newborn experiences the world much like we experience Halloween— loud, unpredictable, and filled with strange sensations.” Perfect for the season, in which we celebrate births and the frenetic end of month holiday. Susan Tatsui-D’Arcy, who is an educator and owns her own school, took a break from more serious topics to bring us a fun Halloween treat. Yum. And we have two of my favorite stories ever: one on the top baby names here in California and in the rest of the country. I find parents’ choices so fascinating. What’s the strangest or most unusual baby name you’ve heard lately? The other piece we love is our fashion column in which writer Malia Fort takes a look at what older and younger people in Santa Cruz are wearing. Love, Love Love. Our finance column also has lessons you’ll keep for a lifetime: the most important being that kids start learning about finance at a much younger age than you would expect. There’s much more here to entertain and teach. Have a great read. PS: As we go to press, we saw major changes in federal and state regulations for pain killers for pregnant women. We’ll investigate with local doctors for the next issue. If you have ideas on the important topic, please send to editor@growingupsc.com Thanks for reading!

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It’s Already That Time of Year Again: School!!!

growingupsc — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 17:02:46 +0000

OK. Mind shift. School? It starts when? Like, now. How did that happen? It feels like the middle of summer. Are you and your kids ready? Parents: we’ve got so much important information in this issue to help. I’m truly proud of this one (Yes, I feel that every month…but this one, wow!!!) We’ve got new columns and new writers I think you will love. Please, drop us a line and let us know what you want to see more of. Some of the hits: we’ve got the story that answers why school starts so soon here, unlike many other places that wait until after Labor Day (which feels right to me). Writer Joanna Jenkins did some digging on this one. We have two stories that focus on something they don’t teach enough of in school: financial education for kids and parents. In one, Colleen Murphy suggests not using chores as a payment option for kids. It’s one of my favorite tools, but her suggestions really opened my eyes to other ways to motivate. In the other, our friends at Bay Fed (and who knows more about money?) break the myths that kids see in handling dollars (you mean that credit card isn’t a magic way to buy anything?). If only for those articles, you’d get your value for the $10 you spend on this magazine (what? It’s free? Oh yeah. What a value!) We’ve got three new columns this month. One, which I’ve wanted for years, is about special needs, the kids who are overlooked and too ignored in our system (and it’s getting worse in a new federal world that scorns DEI). Please send in your questions and suggestions on topics there for Tovah Petra Kolodinski, a brilliant authority. Send them to editor@growingupsc.com. We’ve also got one on women’s fitness, which will have tips and suggestions readers will love. FInally, we’ve got one on grandparents volunteering in the classroom, an invaluable benefit for our struggling schools. Author Steve Miller (not the rock star, but a star anyway), runs Shared Adventures, which puts on recreational activities for the disabled population, truly heroic work. Then there’s Susan Tatsui-D’Arcy’s advice for helping teens in school (kids never stop being kids and they need just as much help as they get older). She’s got very important information about AP classes designed not for students going to college, but for learning about the real world. We need these and I wish I had them when I was a student! On the fun side, Jaime McFaden has a preview of a place to get fit while dancing in lines. It’s becoming quite the fad, right up there with pickleball. And in a feature you have to share with your daughters, Malia Fort suggests how to pick the perfect outfit to start the school year with, complete with photos. On the food front, nutritionist and celebrated author Elizabeth Borelli, has recipes to help trick your kids into eating healthy and making treats they will love. Finally, we have an adoptable pet and advice for how to keep them cool in the summer time, something we all need to know. (Why haven’t they invented sunscreen for dogs?) And on a very positive note: our cover features the best news in a while: free pre-K for all Santa Cruz children! Check About the Cover for info. Thanks for reading and we hope to help you ease back from summer vacation. Brad Kava, Publisher

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Trail, no Rail

growingupsc — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 06:24:04 +0000

Finally, the truth came out. For the past decade the local Regional Transportation Commission has been working on a plan for train service between Watsonville and Davenport under the direction of local officials and voters. But all this time, we never had a valid estimate of what it would cost. The first projections when the county spent $14 million to buy the tracks was well under a billion dollars. Then, in 2022 when 75 percent of the county voted to have legislators pursue the idea of a train, it was said to be around $800 million, much of which they told us would be paid by federal and state grants. Train supporters stood on Highway 1 bridges with signs telling drivers that if they had a train, they’d be home by now, But something seemed fishy. First off, the costs, which a consultant hired for a reported $9 million to produce a study now determined would be $4.3 billion to start and up to $43 million a year to maintain and run. That cost is about four times the budget for the entire county. And how would we pay it, because when the bills come due, we will be the ones paying most of it? An additional sales tax, according to RTC officials, which would raise our current tax of 9.75 percent up to 12.75 percent, making it the highest sales tax in the state. Commissioner Manu Koenig, who was elected in part because of his opposition to the train, said: “The pressure on our local sales tax capacity…would take all the oxygen out of the room for funding any other kind of service through sales tax pretty much ever again.” That had several commissioners waking up to the fact that they could choose either to fund the train or a huge list of important services needed by their voters. The thing I’ve never understood is how they pulled the wool over so many people’s eyes for these years. Basic observation would tell you there aren’t enough people to fill trains between two small cities and the train couldn’t run fast enough to be a solid source of commuting (they are claiming it would be safe to go 60 miles an hour over 45 minutes, on parts of the 22 miles between between Watsonville and Natural Bridges. We don’t buy it. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare for a train in the future and there’s a way we can do it: We can temporarily cover the tracks, or remove them for a time (they have to go anyway for new rail services) and do what they call “railbanking,” which means, they would make a safe bike and pedestrian trail for now until there is the money and honest demand for a multi-billion dollar train. It’s happened in other cities and would be the right solution for us now. We need safe places for kids and families to walk and ride and we don’t have them now and the cost of adding a train instead of building a safe path is simply unfeasible. Are you for or against the train? Let us know what you think at editor@growingupsc.com Thanks for reading. Brad Kava, Editor and Publisher

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Meals Without Meltdowns: A Parent’s Guide to Dining Out with Kids in Santa Cruz

growingupsc — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:30:15 +0000

I remember a heavy conversation with my then 4-year-old son in a restaurant where we watched pelicans hunting fish. Fish eat worms and bugs, I explained. Then birds eat the fish. Then bigger birds or sharks eat those birds and then other predators eat those animals. “It’s a good thing we don’t eat animals,” he replied. “We eat food.” A kick under the table from his mother told me not to get into the details, so I kept quiet for a while. Eventually, I continued up the food chain and today, although he hates the idea of killing animals, he eats meat because, as he explains, “We are animals and we do what other animals do. And it tastes good.” Kids and food is a perennial challenge for parents. I swear if I could eliminate one word it would be nuggets. Chicken nuggets are a mainstay for him and so many other kids. Particularly the ones shaped like dinosaurs. He didn’t fall for the veggie nuggets I tried on him. And an even bigger challenge with toddlers and up is taking them out to a restaurant. How do you do it without a meltdown? Please send us your tips and suggestions for best kid-friendly restaurants. We will make it a regular feature. We have some listed in this issue and plan for many more. We have some restaurants that really aren’t kid appropriate but plenty of others really do cater to the mini-set. Like Dharma’s, which has a bunch of plastic dinosaurs and animals around for them to play with. That got us through many a meal. (And, sorry, that was my kid who put them in the fountain.) Kids menus have become pretty standard and most come with some kind of drawing to color or games to play. Bless all of you who do that for us. We played so much tic-tac-toe that now he can beat me almost every time. What’s been your biggest meltdown and how did you handle it? What’s your favorite place to eat out with the tykes and why? Please, please help our struggling parents out. We will print your suggestions and your favorite kids menus. Cooking for them at home? Check out our Healthy Eats columnist Elizabeth Borelli’s suggestions every month. She has suggestions to get them off their nugget addiction and keep them eating whole, healthy foods that taste great and are easy to prepare. It’s a parent’s dream come true. Write us at editor@growingupsc.com Thanks for reading. Brad Kava, Editor and Publisher

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Santa Cruz Celebrates Kids Day While Facing Hard Truths About Racism

brad — Fri, 09 May 2025 17:36:35 +0000

On the good news front, May 3 is Kids Day downtown, the most wonderful transformation of Santa Cruz into a huge family festival with kids playing music, dancing, being DJs, acting, doing art, you name it. Streets are closed to cars and booths of kids’ programs are set up along the streets by Abbott Square. If you want to see the city at its shiniest and most fun, come down and check it out from noon to 4pm. If you won our coloring contest and can bring in your photo from the issue to our Growing Up in Santa Cruz booth, we have prizes for you. First come, first served. On the dark side, the racism expressed by two members of the Pajaro Valley School Board has received international attention and a condemnation from School District Superintendent Faris Sabbah. It’s hard to believe it’s happening here and now, as minorities are divided against each other while a dictatorial government seeks to take away the rights and freedoms of all of them. We won’t survive if we don’t stand together. Trustees Joy Flynn, who was appointed and not elected, and Gabriel Medina, the newest member elected last year, attacked Jewish people who questioned an ethnic studies program they feared was simplistic and didn’t present both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Flynn, who is Black, said that Jewish people have economic power that Black and brown people don’t have and claimed Jews have “presentation power, the privilege that comes with presenting as white.” That is wrong on two fronts. First, there is plenty of discrimination of a racial minority despite skin color. They know your race, as surely as if your skin color were green. It’s terrifying to even admit being Jewish in a time when antisemitism is on the rise, even by elected officials in liberal California. Second, by blending in with a room of white people you get to hear racist slurs about Jews you would never be able to hear if you were Black or brown. It’s horrifying and more present than you would want to believe. Then, there’s Gabriel Medina, a left-wing name-calling reactionary much like the racists on the right. “I don’t see you people at protests against immigration,” said Medina to the board audience in April. “I don’t see you at protests when people are being taken away right now. I don’t see you advocating to bring back Abrego Garcia or Mahmoud Khalil. I don’t see you guys doing that. You only show up to meetings when it’s beneficial for you, so you can tell brown people who they are.” When I called him out on it on his Facebook page and noted that Jewish people have supported minorities throughout their history–having been enslaved and later victims of the holocaust–he said he wasn’t speaking about Jews, but rather about conservatives. I don’t buy it. Neither did Sabbah, the superintendent of the County Office of Education, who wrote that the board members “appeared to invoke anti-Semitic tropes.” He added: “I trust your Board agrees that anti-Semitic rhetoric has no place in PVUSD, least of all from the trustees charged with upholding students’ rights, ensuring nondiscrimination, and fostering safe, inclusive educational environments.” Are these board members really the people we want making decisions for 17,000 diverse students? I think not. Write us at editor@growingupsc.com Thanks for reading. Brad Kava, Editor and Publisher

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