In today's newscast:
Court lets drink tax stand
The City of Santa Cruz has faced years of opposition from corporate interests over its tax on sugary beverages. But last month, the city got a win. A petition challenging the legality of the tax was struck down.
"The court really recognized the local nature of Measure Z," said city attorney Cassie Bronson, "and thought it was a reasonable action by local government to try to make the town better and improve the health of local citizens."
She says Santa Cruz first wrestled with taxing high-sugar beverages in 2018 and its efforts paved the way for four other cities to take similar action.
Coastal access persistently unequal
Coastal access is not equal among communities in California, according to a paper from UC Santa Cruz published this week.
The researchers surveyed almost 1,700 people from San Francisco down to Ventura about their experience getting to the coast. Environmental studies PhD candidate Emma Gee says Black and Brown communities in particular still face significant barriers.
" There has been a very long history of displacing communities of color that live by the ocean that goes all the way back to Spanish colonization and displacing indigenous peoples," Gee said.
She says transportation costs, comfort and pollution can all make accessing the ocean—and its benefits—more challenging.
"We recognize that a lot of these barriers are really intertwined with these very, very large overarching kind of issues of inequality in our country."
The researchers identified a few things that could help: reducing parking fees, increasing public transit routes to beaches, and supporting nonprofits that educate and help underserved groups feel welcome and safe.
