Editor/Co-founder

[email protected]
831-566-7334

As a veteran newspaper reporter, I helped establish Santa Cruz Local in 2019 because I believe Santa Cruz needs high-quality journalism that responds to residents’ concerns and questions.

Santa Cruz County is a place of natural beauty, and it has urban problems that challenge us all. As an editor and reporter, I try to decode the efforts of county and city governments to address housing affordability, homelessness and many other problems our county faces. I highlight solutions and write about the people most impacted by county and city policies. 

I’m a fourth generation Californian. I hold a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. I have been a newspaper reporter in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, as well as in Chicago, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. I live in Santa Cruz with my wife and daughter. Read my ethics statement.

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Recent stories by Stephen Baxter