The Independence Day weekend will start off with a bang! CBS Radio Philadelphia, Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, has invited me to do a show from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on the Fourth of July! What could be better than doing a show in the actual city where the Second Continental Congress met and ratified the Declaration of Independence?!? Click HERE to listen to WPHT online.
Saturday and Sunday from 4 to 7 p.m. Pacific Time is the Ethan Bearman Program on Hot Talk 560 KSFO in San Francisco. Dr. Kevin R.C. Gutzman will join me on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.to discuss the historical implications of that risky move by our founding fathers. Sunday at 4:30 p.m. will be interviews with the latest victims of the Injection Drug User (IDU) needle epidemic in Santa Cruz. Click HERE to listen to KSFO online.
Then Monday and Tuesday from 5 to 9 a.m. Pacific Time, I’ll be guest hosting for Brian Sussman on the KSFO morning show with Katie Green and Sheri Yee.
Thank you all for your support and spread the word!
Listen to Ethan’s local show on KGO AM 810 in San Francisco, 10 am to 1 pm Pacific Time, online at iHeart Radio HERE, studio number is (415)808-0810 At 11 am there will be a segment regarding the dangerous, used needles infecting the beaches and parks of Santa Cruz, California.
As promised on today’s KSCO Presents with Ethan Bearman, below are the latest spreadsheets of crime statistics for mid-size California cities (50k-99k residents) with Santa Cruz near the top in crime rates.
Last year I performed a survey and series of interviews on the new Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency (HSA) run Syringe Exchange Program (SEP), commonly referred to as a needle exchange.
The HSA run SEP is failing the community and the leadership, both the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the HSA, are refusing to address community concerns under the banner of public health.
A quick review, April 30, 2013 the county took over responsibility for exchanging needles from a private group. The purpose of the SEP, according to the county, “the primary goal of the SSP is to work in partnership with the community to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases associated with injection drug use and to address the community’s concern regarding improperly discarded syringes.”
Photo: Clean Team Santa Cruz
Along with six reported sticks (stepping on a used needle penetrating the flesh, typically the foot) three of which were children, and 2,266 needles found in the last 14 months, do these pictures look like the County is fulfilling its stated purpose? I think not.
Since the beginning I have hounded County Supervisors and the HSA to label their needles so we can have data on where these needles are derived: whether SEP, pharmacies, or other outside sources. They refuse to address the labeling issue. They refuse to acknowledge six people stepping on needles. They refuse to recognize the reality of the situation.
In light of this failure to protect the community and the environment, I am forced to retract my previous support for a one-to-one SEP run by the county and call for a complete dismantling of the program until they agree to address community concerns about safety, waste, and the environment.
How can the bureaucrats and politicians continue to ignore such a problem and hide behind the public health argument, while ignoring the community at large and the heroin epidemic?
These two pictures above were taken on February 10, 2014 after cleaning up in the Harvey West Park area of Santa Cruz. From one of the cleaners: “281 needles found. Location: top of main Evergreen path, 40 feet beyond under the huge fallen redwood trees there was a camp. Below that camp was 20 used needles scattered near a big bag the needles.. in the ivy, in the creek. I’m sure I missed a few. We cleaned out the camp (about a 1 Ron Truck load), and demoed the area. The area is visible from the top of the path.”
UPDATE 2/11/2014 16:44 PST: I neglected to mention the ~200 needles washing up yesterday on Seabright beach as well.
Thanks to the Santa Cruz Sentinel I have added sheets for Santa Cruz County 2012 salaries and Santa Cruz City 2011 salaries.
Take a look, it is an eye opener to see an estimated 32 employees in the city and 39 employees of the county of Santa Cruz exceeding GS pay. Two municipalities that must balance the budget every year, unlike the federal government, busting their budgets on overpaying employees.
UPDATE December 11, 2013 6:40 pm PST
Based upon requests from readers, I have added three new tabs to the spreadsheet with the eye-opening numbers (134 making more than $155k per year) from the University of California Santa Cruz, and the more reasonable California State University Monterey Bay and Cabrillo College (which happens to be one of the very best in the United States).
Click below for the Microsoft Excel format file (new xlsx format)
After interviewing Supervisor Bruce McPherson today (click HERE to take a listen), I had a special surprise brought into the studio by Rosie, a new surfboard! They strung me along until after the show to tell me the truth that a listener, Lester, brought the board in this morning. Thank you LESTER!
These are the shots I took while broadcasting on-air.
“On July 26, Capitola resident and nationally syndicated radio host Ethan Bearman, whose program “The Ethan Bearman Show” is based at KSCO in Santa Cruz, released the results of an online survey he conducted to gauge community opinions on the local needle exchange. Bearman describes the needle exchange controversy as a lightening rod issue for the community. Last year, many began voicing their outrage at finding syringes in public spaces, in some case on sidewalks outside their homes, and generally where they or their children could step on them.
Over the course of 10 days, Bearman got 558 responses—517 from Santa Cruz County locals—and although he acknowledges that it’s not a large enough sample size to reliably reflect opinions among the county’s approximate population of 266,000, he believes it can serve to provoke discussion.
“Ultimately,” Bearman says, “what drove me to do this survey was the disconnect that I heard between county supervisors and HSA representatives and what I was hearing from my callers and the people in my day-to-day interactions.”
He does not believe that local officials are taking community opinions about needle exchanges into account, and hopes the survey gets their attention.”
After much work data cleansing, number crunching, writing, and formatting, the report is complete! Please credit Ethan Bearman, https://blog.ethanbearman.com should you choose to share the report elsewhere. Also note that it is digitally signed and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to open. Click the link below to download:
