What's Scotts Valley like? (Oakland, Stockton: crime rates, attorney, neighborhoods)

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by tehsquishmeister

Yes it is. I must admit that was my deciding factor to move back and buy in Boulder Creek instead of buying in Scotts Valley.

Coming over Bear Creek I skip the bad part of 17. My commute is a breeze.

As long as 9 or nearby thoroughfares don't wash out or get blocked by felled trees.

[tehsquishmeister]

Yes, of course. I've lived up here most of my life and it's relatively rare.

Besides it's a good excuse to take the day off

[threepounduniverse]

Originally Posted by ebrooks

What makes it like Bakerfield is it is strung out, low-end compared to the rest of the county, and it was just a humorous overstated comparison. As far as a great place to live, that is an overstatement itself. It was never more than a low-rent outskirt of SC, and with the strip malls it hasn't improved much.

*This.* As someone who's been in that town for two hours a day, five days a week for the last 2+ years, that about nails it.

[threepounduniverse]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

As long as 9 or nearby thoroughfares don't wash out or get blocked by felled trees.

Yep. The road you describe is great as long as the roads aren't awash and the trees aren't decorating the yellow lines. That happens randomly several times a year, at least- but not often. However not everyone enjoys the tweaker/crazy local driving style, aka 20-30 mph over the limit and either tailgating you, (on)coming into your lane or passing either (oncoming or around you) on a blind curve, etc... once you learn to drive like a complete a$$clown at high speed everywhere and expect everyone to stay the f*ck out of your way, you are truly ready for the the 'Bear Creek Drive It Like You Stole It Grand Prix' twice a day, Grasshopper... been driving that road intermittently since 1973 and THIS is how bad 17 is... the Bear Creek drive is a sunny breeze and a hoot compared to 17... hell, it's a hoot compared to the Felton Empire Road>Ice Cream Grade Road>PCH 1 drive!

[threepounduniverse]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Yes, if you choose to live in an armpit, you get those great armpit discounts. Too bad the kiddies get to learn all about the wonders of the crankster lifestyle for all those savings.

Hey the kiddies get to learn all about the wonders of the crankster lifestyle right in Santa Cruz... why pay less?

[JXBC]

Originally Posted by tehsquishmeister

Yes it is. I must admit that was my deciding factor to move back and buy in Boulder Creek instead of buying in Scotts Valley.

Coming over Bear Creek I skip the bad part of 17. My commute is a breeze.

Ahhhh, Bear Creek. I used to love taking Sunday drives in my BMW on Bear Creek.

[threepounduniverse]

Originally Posted by JXBC

Ahhhh, Bear Creek. I used to love taking Sunday drives in my BMW on Bear Creek.

True that... the higher performance the vehicle the better the experience... not just dodging tourists/locals/commuters (present company excluded, natch)... riding my 2008 K1200S BMW *motorcycle* over the hill via BC+BC is a freakin' blast!

[JXBC]

Originally Posted by Charles R Higgins

True that... the higher performance the vehicle the better the experience... not just dodging tourists/locals/commuters (present company excluded, natch)... riding my 2008 K1200S BMW *motorcycle* over the hill via BC+BC is a freakin' blast!

Now THAT sounds like fun!

[ebrooks]

Originally Posted by zombocom

Scotts Valley is more affluent, and much safer than Santa Cruz... I'm not sure what you mean by low end.

I'm affected by my upbringing in the area--when SV was not much more than a bus stop (Camp Evers). But to say SV is more affluent than SC? Not so sure. There are no ocean views in SV, obviously. That's where the multi-million-dollar properties are in SC. It is general knowledge that SC is way expensive due to property values. It is true that there is a little more property diversity in SC--you can find the "servant quarters" for example in the Beach Street flats. But that is a small area. SV is a relatively rural outskirt of SC, where you would expect to find lower priced property.

The whole County (excepting parts of Watsonville perhaps) is increasingly gentrified--one of the reasons I have a problem understanding the concern about high crime in SC. Historically crime was never an issue in SC--except possibly drug use, and then only after the State started aggressive prosecution of it.

Then there's Pajaro, across the bridge....but I digress.

[threepounduniverse]

Originally Posted by ebrooks

I'm affected by my upbringing in the area--when SV was not much more than a bus stop (Camp Evers). But to say SV is more affluent than SC? Not so sure. There are no ocean views in SV, obviously. That's where the multi-million-dollar properties are in SC. It is general knowledge that SC is way expensive due to property values. It is true that there is a little more property diversity in SC--you can find the "servant quarters" for example in the Beach Street flats. But that is a small area. SV is a relatively rural outskirt of SC, where you would expect to find lower priced property.

The whole County (excepting parts of Watsonville perhaps) is increasingly gentrified--one of the reasons I have a problem understanding the concern about high crime in SC. Historically crime was never an issue in SC--except possibly drug use, and then only after the State started aggressive prosecution of it.

Then there's Pajaro, across the bridge....but I digress.

Territory's a funny thing... the only thing you can't defend it against is *money*.

I grew up in a town with 'off the charts' crime statistics/rates... New Haven, CT in the 1960s and early 1970s... my brother, mother and me were the only white people for six blocks in every direction... I had no white friends at all until well into my 13th year... nowadays that means a lot less than it did back then, and we were as broke and angry as our neighbors... my mother was mentally ill and did not work leaving my little brother and me to run the streets with our friends... our Dad was gone and we grew up with not only no adult supervision guidance or protection but no safety, no structure and no food in the frog half the time. My point is that I grew up acting, thinking and I guess being a pretty successful predator and criminal... I grew out of it before I did any serious jail-time, but I know easy pickin's and opportunistic criminals when I see 'em. SC is a 'easy-prey theme park' to criminals, no doubt- and with all the new money coming in it stands quite a good chance of getting much worse before it gets any better.

All that said, I would never raise kids in that town now. Just ask Steve Clark about crime or the editors at the SC Sentinal... crime's higher in SC than many towns and small cities across CA, as several well-researched news articles take great pains to lay out clearly. Crime in SC is higher now than ever. Take Back Santa Cruz also says so. As ever, one is entitled to one's opinion, but not one's own facts.

Fast forward to the heartwarming little hamlet of sun and safety that is SC 2014... Beach Flats isn't the problem- BF is a well-delineated area of familiar problems. The REAL issue in SC is crime, COL and QOL, all of which pretty much suck. I was born there in 1960 and have seen a lot of changes. You, Ed have more history with the town than I- but I'm beginning to suspect you are turning a blind eye to the REAL SC as it is NOW to preserve the image it had back in the day. Today it's another story. I read your posts on Ralph Abraham ...I hope you'll read my posts here about the present-day SC... the 'gentrification', i.e. SV money sloshing over the hill in increasing wave size for the third decade now is displacing whatever 'community' remains in SC and less community cohesion means crime continues to fill the 'power vacuum' pretty easily.

The fact that the biggest power vacuum in SC is at City Hall and has been for decades has allowed a culture of benign neglect crime QOL-wise... SC has gone from the Counter-culture to the Over-the-Counter-Culture and crime is such an embedded part of life in SC that ignoring it is an option with a timer on it nowadays. The pressure to get 'cleaned up' is happening in the hills in places like Lompico and Zayante where firefighters and police are moving because SC is pricing more and more working middle-class out of SC- the very people who've kept crime low with strong community and a lower 'Politically Correct' quotient, NOT the Lexus SUV driving tech money dopes who wouldn't know 'community' from a hole in the ground.

As my childhood friend Keith, with whom I attended a local Head Start program, with whom I was arrested several times, with whom I ran the streets with our crew for years as young kids with whom no one ****ed, not even the infamous and corruption-ridden New Haven Police, the friend with whom I improvised skits in our neighborhood and schoolyard to call attention to the out-of-control racial tensions in New Haven in the 60s said to me over some over-priced coffee on York Street in New Haven in 2012: "Charlie, I finally found the twin city to New Haven- Johannesburg!" Keith received a full academic scholarship to Yale in 1977 and had studied in South Africa for a year. He's now a well-respected and sought-after Criminal Defense Attorney in NYC- STILL a far safer city than New Haven! He is an African-American who stands 6'7" and is the smartest, funniest and wisest friend I've ever had. He STILL gets followed by shopkeepers, security guards and by the Police on any street in town even though he now wears a sport jacket and sports a grey beard and hair. When I visit New Haven these days it's not for work so I often still look like the loping pirate I was back then and no one even takes a second look at me. In SC, almost everyone is white and the crime isn't as easy to assess let alone reduce- but it's getting worse, not better. I've lived in SC intermittently since 1979 and the 2014 SC makes me misty-eyed sentimental for the Trollbuster days of the 1980s she it didn't look like sh*t in SC could get much worse, but it did and it has.

Santa Cruz has systemic issues with governance, police, homeless, drugs, gangs and overflowing infrastructure everywhere which is a symbol for how pathetic it has become. When a guy like me can see how lazy, disorganized punks can ruin a town with impunity and run it like a homeless petting zoo because everyone in town has just handed it over so they can shop at Whole Foods and pretend they surf by purchasing a custom Noe surfboard, between the tourists, the students, the homeless, the drug addicts/dealers/lifestyle vagrants, thieves, gangs and scumbag locals it's obvious that SC is a town with so many friendly ghosts of its mythic past still outlining the fog in Monterey Bay like the silhouettes of surfers waiting in the water on the lane that it's still almost criminally easy (pun intended) to distract oneself in SC from any problems SC might have. That's the biggest irony of all.