In the opening months of her first term, Mayor Hilary Bryant has seen many changes to the city and community caused by recent spikes in crime and the deaths of police detectives Loran Baker and Elizabeth Butler. Bryant took time out of her schedule to sit down with City on a Hill Press to share her thoughts on how those events impacted Santa Cruz, and to discuss which issues students and residents can expect to see city council tackling in the months to come.
City on a Hill Press: Following the recent tragedies of the police officers, what are your thoughts on the event and the repercussions that ensued?
Mayor Hilary Bryant: One thing that I can point to which was particularly powerful for me was, you know, I have never seen the community come out the way they did at the day of the memorial service in support of our police officers. As sad as I was in that moment, I was so incredibly proud of our city. I think our community is forever changed by the events of Feb. 26. I don’t think that there will be a council agenda that does not have some sort of public safety initiative or discussion.
CHP: What can the students of UCSC do to help the community?
Bryant: I think that it would be really valuable that if students have concerns with safety, they email council or come to council meetings. Your voices are so important. You are community members and this is something that is affecting everybody in the community.
What’s also really important is that our police department really wants the students to call 911. If students see a problem, if something doesn’t look right, or even if they don’t think it’s an emergency, they really want people to call it into 911. If the students have concerns, we want to hear about them. It’s not often I get phone calls or emails from students but when I do, they are very impactful. Going forward, we’re going to have this public safety task force that is about citizens giving us ideas of what problems they want to see tackled and what solutions they have for the challenges we may face.
CHP: What kind of changes in the city can we expect to see in the following months?
Bryant: There will be a lot of focus in terms of our budget and how we want to spend our money. For the first time on council, we’re not looking at budgetary cuts and I think what the community and the students will look at is how that money will be allocated. We have to look to our employees, at our infrastructure and at our funding for programs, like parks and recreation programs that have been cut and how to start restoring those services. Going forward, what we do in terms of public safety will be dependent upon funds. There have been conversations about hiring more police officers, but that’s not a quick process. So, all of this is, in some sense, how we look forward with our community and how we want to see our community.
In the opening months of her first term, Mayor Hilary Bryant has seen many changes to the city and community caused by recent spikes in crime and the deaths of police detectives Loran Baker and Elizabeth Butler. Bryant took time out of her schedule to sit down with City on a Hill Press to share her thoughts on how those events impacted Santa Cruz, and to discuss which issues students and residents can expect to see city council tackling in the months to come.
CHP: Following the recent tragedies of the police officers, what are your thoughts on the event and the repercussions that ensued?
Mayor Hilary Bryant: One thing that I can point to which was particularly powerful for me was, you know, I have never seen the community come out the way they did at the day of the memorial service in support of our police officers. As sad as I was in that moment, I was so incredibly proud of our city. I think our community is forever changed by the events of Feb. 26. I don’t think that there will be a council agenda that does not have some sort of public safety initiative or discussion.
CHP: What can the students of UCSC do to help the community?
Bryant: I think that it would be really valuable that if students have concerns with safety, they email council or come to council meetings. Your voices are so important. You are community members and this is something that is affecting everybody in the community.
What’s also really important is that our police department really wants the students to call 911. If students see a problem, if something doesn’t look right, or even if they don’t think it’s an emergency, they really want people to call it into 911. If the students have concerns, we want to hear about them. It’s not often I get phone calls or emails from students but when I do, they are very impactful. Going forward, we’re going to have this public safety task force that is about citizens giving us ideas of what problems they want to see tackled and what solutions they have for the challenges we may face.
CHP: What kind of changes in the city can we expect to see in the following months?
Bryant: There will be a lot of focus in terms of our budget and how we want to spend our money. For the first time on council, we’re not looking at budgetary cuts and I think what the community and the students will look at is how that money will be allocated. We have to look to our employees, at our infrastructure and at our funding for programs, like parks and recreation programs that have been cut and how to start restoring those services. Going forward, what we do in terms of public safety will be dependent upon funds. There have been conversations about hiring more police officers, but that’s not a quick process. So, all of this is, in some sense, how we look forward with our community and how we want to see our community.
