People walking and biking on Watsonville streets die at a rate 70% higher than the county average, according to a Santa Cruz Local analysis.
Community Safety
Plans include road diets, lower speed limits, rerouting highways, and adding engineers to improve safety.
Children in low-income Black communities face higher lead exposure risks from aging schools and homes, which can lead to worse health and learning outcomes.
The increasing number of Immigration raids have sown fear in the migrant community. Many like Alicia Romo are afraid to step out of their homes for fear of encountering enforcement agents.
“The academic in me is never going to say causality,” said Harvard's Jeremy Faust. “But the person with a functioning brain is going to say I’m worried about a causal relationship.”
Violence prevention programs, particularly community-based interventions, can significantly reduce homicides and shootings in the Black community.
Immigration status is not the only source of worry for farmworkers in California. Financial stress cause many in the Central Valley additional psychological distress.
A small town in the California foothills faces chronic water system failures, leaks, and contamination, with aging infrastructure, limited funds, and uncertain future threatening its community and fire safety.
Over the past 12 years in Santa Cruz County, 86 pedestrians and cyclists have been killed and more than 3,000 have been injured, state records show.
Cleanups lag in communities of color here, more so than region-wide, according to a new Public Press analysis.