New York’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Green New Deal with Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey back in 2019 to great fanfare and delight of progressives. The Green New Deal emphasizes good green well-paying jobs, establishing economic security for all Americans, and to “counteract systemic injustices.” It would invest in and rebuild the infrastructure of this country, secure clean air and clean water, foster climate resiliency, offer access to healthy food and create what the authors call, “a sustainable environment.” What might the Green New Deal look like locally? What should be included in a GND for Santa Cruz County? Prof. T.J. Demos writing in the DSA publication, Santa Cruz Left, calls for a Santa Cruz Green New Deal that says “yes to social justice and no to green capitalism.” Kayla Kumar is a nonprofit fundraiser who is “a progressive community builder dismantling the status quo…” She has a vision of what a Santa Cruz Green New Deal would look like.
