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Santa Cruz is a lot more than that college up on the hill. It's large and a tourist town, which greatly overshadows the college. Pullman, WA - Moscow, ID are college towns. Take away the colleges and those towns will almost disappear.
Tourism in Santa Cruz is seasonal--it's really only from spring break to early fall that it gets a lot of tourists. The college has a big influence on the downtown and west-side and the housing market in town for most of the year(take away the college and the rental market wouldn't be as expensive) and has a big part in the politics of Santa Cruz(locals complain about them having too much influence on elections). Santa Cruz is smaller than Boulder in total size and about the same size as Corvallis, and it was a completely different town prior to UCSC being built. Without UCSC it would've ended up like Monterey--a more manicured tourist town rather than a super-liberal enclave with a sketchy side. But what I know, I only grew up in the place for 14 years...
Eugene is not a college town. Eugene/Springfield is a regional center with over 300,000 people. Manufacturing, forestry, etc. Springfield is the charcoal briquette capital of the USA.
If U of O wasn't in Eugene it would basically look like Albany, Oregon. No, sorry, it's a college town. And so is Berkeley and Cambridge, to be honest.
Eugene was more famous amongst PNW locals for its annual Grateful Dead stop than its college 20 years ago. Next time you buy a bag of Kingsford Charcoal, think of Eugene/Springfield.
If U of O wasn't in Eugene it would basically look like Albany, Oregon.
False. It would still be a regional center with 250,000+ people. It is at a transportation crossroads with one of the easiest trans-cascades crossings, at the confluences of major rivers, and where the valley meets the forest. Eugene would be scruffier, but it would still be a significant population center.
Eugene was more famous amongst PNW locals for its annual Grateful Dead stop than its college 20 years ago.
You mean when the Grateful Dead used to play at Autzen Stadium, owned by the Univeristy of Oregon... They wouldn't have had the Grateful Dead playing in Eugene if it wasn't a college town--the whole reason you have that hippie vibe there is because it's a college town... Otherwise it'd just be Salem, Oregon without state governement buildings...a sleepy place no one cares about or wants to visit.
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Next time you buy a bag of Kingsford Charcoal, think of Eugene/Springfield.
I'm not sure why you're so fascinated by mentioning Springfield is is the "charcoal briquette capital of the USA" over and over again.
Boulder is a regional center as well(as well as also almost connected to the Denver metro these days with the sprawl of the Front Range) and has governement agencies, high tech and engineering firms and other companies in the area in addition to CU, yet I'm not going to claim that it's not a college town at heart.
According to some on here it's probably too big and doesn't fall within the stringent standards for determining a college town.
If you asked me, I'd say, yeah it's a college town... If you ask people about college towns in California, the ones that come up again and again are Chico, Arcata, Davis, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, and Isla Vista--those are the places people in general recognize as being "college towns". Berkeley is unique, but personally I'd consider it a college town as well, just a more urban one like Cambridge.
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No mention of Missoula, MT? A wonderful college town.
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Otherwise it'd just be Salem, Oregon without state governement buildings...a sleepy place no one cares about or wants to visit.
