New Mayor Signals a Turn to the Left

In his first speech as mayor of Santa Cruz Tuesday, Don Lane took a sharp turn to the left of the path the city has been traveling down for the past year.

He spent 20 minutes talking about the homeless, something that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has followed his political career, but was a strong contrast to most of the council's discussions of the past year, which were about trying to grow revenues and staving off debt.

Just a few hours earlier, outgoing Mayor Ryan Coonerty was selected as one of the nation's top pro-growth leaders by an organization called NewDEAL, which praised his work bringing business seminars to the city and helping small businesses grow.

But Lane revived a topic that has been largely ignored.  The 55-year-old councilman, who had served as mayor 20 years ago, spent his time out of politics working for the Homeless Services Center and dealing with the problems of homelessness has been close to his heart.

He called on local residents to pay more attention to the homeless and address the problem with more sensitivity.

"For the rest of us homelessness can be an annoyance or a periodic impediment to business, or something unpleasant or just something disturbing we see from time to time, or something we have to deal with in our work," he said. "But the rest of us still have a place to go at night where we can shut the door and climb into a reasonably comfortable bed, go to the refrigerator for a snack, stay warm and dry."

Lane told those who think Santa Cruz is too soft on the homeless, and those who think people choose to be homeless because it's easy, that being homeless is never a comfortable choice or an easy life.

"Everytime he wants to eat, he stands in a long line to eat off a cafeteria tray," he continued painting a gloomy picture of a homeless man in Santa Cruz. "Or he eats out of a trash can...Life on the streets almost always sucks."

Lane urged the city not to try and sweep the problem away to other towns and asked residents not to look away from the people who get categorized as bums, but to look them in the eye and say hello.

It was quite a shift for the city's governing body, which has been smeared as intolerant by the likes of Occupy Santa Cruz, as the city's donations to social services have tapered off by 10 percent, in line with other budget cuts. Lane stressed a more humane approach that he said could lead to more intelligent policy decisions for one of the biggest challenges facing the city.

For the past few years the city struggled to make up an $8 million budget shortfall. City employees, including police and firefighters, have taken salary cuts and making ends meet was one of what Ryan Coonerty said was his biggest challenges as mayor.

He praised the people of the community for making those sacrifices that have benefitted everyone, at a time when others in national debate are frozen into their positions despite what would be best.

"People made a sacrifice, so that one, we didn't have to lay anybody off, and two, we could maintain excellent city services," he said.

Coonerty will serve his eighth and last year on the council in 2012, as a result of term limits.