Three weeks after the Loma Prieta Earthquake of October 17, 1989, this piece appeared in a supplement to the Santa Cruz Comic News, called The Epicenter:
In the aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake, it is becoming increasingly clear that not all of the aftershocks can be measured by the Richter scale. Perhaps inevitably, many downtown merchants have become frustrated by the pace of the re-entry program allowing them access to their damaged - or not-so-damaged - buildings.
As with so many other issues, where you stand on this depends largely on where you sit. Owners or tenants of red-tagged structures have an interest in delaying demolition as long as possible, in order to retrieve inventories. Green- or yellow-tagged businesses, on the other hand, want the mall reopened as swiftly as possible, so that they can reopen their stores or relocate in more stable locations.
