Monterey Bay Forum

Big Business Safeway — part of the 1% — has money, clout, connections & pays top dollar for management. Safeway paid its’ CEO $11 million in 2011.

Any CEO such as Safeway’s who is paid $11 million must be worth that much to the company probably knows who to talk to and which campaigns to contribute to concerning the upcoming election for 2nd District.

So, will Safeway readily get the necessary Santa Cruz County governmental approvals to drastically alter the Rancho del Mar shopping center?

The next Santa Cruz County supervisor for 2nd district — which includes Aptos & enviorns — will be …?

Why not ask Safeway’s representative to attend the meeting to introduce possible 2nd District Supervisors May 7 at the Rio Sands Motel? And of course invite all the small businesses which will be eliminated per Safeway’s plans. Great opportunity for all “stake holders” to stake out their positions.

Maybe someone can get KSCO 1080 to put it on the radio live so those who cannot attend could get a few questions in as well? written by drcameronjackson@gmail.com
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Candidate opinions on Safeway sought
An open letter to the five candidates vying in June for 2nd District supervisor: Aptos’ own 99 percent need to know where each of you stands regarding 1 percent Safeway’s planned destruction of over half of the locally owned businesses of Rancho del Mar Shopping Center in Aptos. Details, please. No more generic statements as in the Voter’s Information Pamphlet nor your various “town meetings.” We are looking forward to reading your responses, Daniel Beckett, Doug Deitch, Zach Friend, Rich McInnis and Antonio Rivas.

Letter to Santa Cruz Sentinel, April 29, 2012 written by C. A. Dyer, Aptos

Big box Safeway plans to double in size from 30,000 to 60,000 square feet at their Aptos, CA store located in Rancho del Mar shopping center just off #1 at State Park Drive.

Why? Bigger is not better for the existing Aptos, CA community.

Safeway recently bought the entire Rancho del Mar shopping center.

There’s plenty of parking now and no need for a double decker parking garage. The Rancho del Mar center has the only movie theater and the only ACE hardware store between Watsonville [9 miles south] and 41st Avenue in Capitola [3 miles north] Both the theater and ACE hardware will be eliminated if Safeway expands as planned. As local Aptos users know, ACE is the place for excellent services from the time you enter the door.

It’s likely that many small businesses [a movie theater, a jewelery store, a pharmacy, several restaurants, Ace hardware] will be eliminated if and when Safeway expands from 30,000 to 60,000 square feet.

Susan Houghton is a contact person for Safeway. Per Houghton, it will take about 2 years to get permits and 2 years to build. Several letters to the editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel express concern about the pending changes.

Where and how to speak up: Aptos, CA has a supervisor on the County of Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors. And there’s of course the Planning Department. Is there a disgruntled citizens department? You can subscribe to the RSS feed to get updates to this post.

written by DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
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This spot in Aptos, California on Kingsbury Drive gets the UGLY award.

To the left of the picture was a lookout spot to see Monterey Bay. Now it is ALL brambles.

Update for March, 2012: You can see the KEEP OUT sign in the picture. Public access impossible as still all brambles.