Christmas letter to my neighbors in San Lorenzo Valley
We know there’s something a little different about the people who live in the San Lorenzo Valley and the people who live in town. With its towering redwoods and steep canyons leading to and following the San Lorenzo River, most people living in the SLV relish the sense of being far from town and close to the solace of the river or the forest. This beautiful yet unforgiving environment has produced a local “micro-culture” that celebrates mountain grit and selfreliance, but knows the need for good neighbors and community resilience when things go sideways, as they so often do up in the mountains.
Although cleaned up considerably over the last several decades, the SLV has a history of Appalachia-style lawlessness, which, along with the remoteness, gave rise to the necessity of neighbors looking after one another.
The history and terrain has incubated a small town culture that puts a high value on quiet, friendly neighbors, good tools, cowboy manners and helping each other out when necessary. It’s a local culture that respects independence and privacy, but values reliable neighbors when things go wrong, which they regularly do, like roads washing out and/or power lines going down. The SLV is just a little different.
As a city boy moving to Felton more than 20 years ago, I was so impressed with how well rednecks, hippies, hermits, soccer moms, bikers, computer programmers, artists, marijuana growers and school teachers all seem to co-exist more or less peaceably in these mountains, with an understanding that these small mountain towns were their homes, and there were certain manners and responsibilities that went along with living here.
This year has been hard for everyone, but especially hard for the people in the SLV. Oddly enough, in our seemingly remote refuge from the outside world, we got smacked across the face by two of the greatest threats to people around the globe; political extremism and the climate crises.
After Santa Cruz County Sheriff Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller was gunned down in Ben Lomond in June, we faced the incomprehensible fact of home-grown, right-wing terrorism in our backyard. Speaking only for myself and a few friends, our grief for the Gutzwiller family was mixed with shock and shame that the alleged killer grew up in the SLV. But we were also a little proud of our anonymous neighbors who, unarmed, wrestled the gunman to the ground before he was apprehended.
And then, without time to “process” that tragedy, we had to evacuate our homes for weeks, running from the worst wildfires in the valley’s recorded history. Both of these calamities in the middle of a killer pandemic, which was already fraying the local social fabric of mutual support that many depended on, especially the unwell and the elderly.
Many summers ago I worked as a seasonal Park Aid in Big Basin State Park, and one of my favorite tasks was keeping a fire going in the old stone fireplace in the headquarters building on cold mornings. Another heart break this year – a photo of that fireplace and broken chimney in smoky silhouette, all that remained of the historic, CCC-built Park Headquarters after the fire. It’s hard for me to imagine the depth of sadness a person must have digging through the ashes of their home. At least 925 local households did not have homes to return to.
Santa Cruz County is encouraging landlords and property managers in the SLV to reach out and rent legal living space to an estimated 100 households who lost their homes in the CZU Lightning Complex fires, and are qualified for FEMA rental assistance that can pay up to 150% of fair market rent.
These people were our neighbors. If you can help a family return to the SLV and start rebuilding their lives, it would be a right neighborly thing to do. You can register by way of a brief survey at www.surveymonkey. com/r/HFCT6TL .
This year has been hard for everyone, but especially hard for the people in the SLV. Oddly enough, in our seemingly remote refuge from the outside world, we got smacked across the face by two of the greatest threats to people around the globe; political extremism and the climate crises.