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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.
"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."
Thanks for the thoughtful reply Charles. It is true that I am a little out of touch. It hadn't occurred to me that the focus on SV was because of the money that the tech business in SV brought into the County. Also you make a telling point re: the invitation extended to criminals by the presence of a lot of well-heeled and vulnerable folks in town. But as you come from hard-core New England, I've spent the last 25 years or so in the Central Valley. I do a small mobile business in the Stockton area. I find myself in very high crime neighborhoods there. I don't live in Stockton, instead in a rural part of the County some 20 miles away--I wouldn't think of living in Stockton. As you may have heard, Stockton is the crime capital of somewhere, US or California, although maybe a second behind Oakland in homicide statistics. But the crime fear factor on the streets in Stockton is higher than Oakland I would say. I grew up in Oakland and returned to work in Alameda County from 1995 to 2007, commuting. So you can see that even with whatever problems SC has, which I'm not aware of, it is a crimeless paradise compared to what I'm accustomed to.
And then there is Rio Del Mar. A poster didn't think as much of RDM as I do. I confidently defend my judgment of RDM. I visit there fairly regularly, just to get a blast from the past, like I did just today. It was one of those balmy January days that I mention in one of my web pieces. Almost balmy. Clear sky, sun shining at mid-day, a light breeze, a totally uncrowded beach and esplanade, the scattered folks there mostly middle-aged, obviously sucking in the vibes and probably drawing on memories from their youth, like me. And the SS Palo Alto standing sentinel.
I don't think anyone would say that there is a crime problem in RDM. If there is I'd like to know the details.
I don't think anyone would say that there is a crime problem in RDM. If there is I'd like to know the details.
The biggest crime in Rio Del Mar is what happened to Cafe Rio. That place used to great seafood, cute friendly waitresses and good drinks, then it all went down hill in the last decade when the original owner sold it and new managament took over... I used to go there with my parents everytime I was in town, now they're like "don't bother"...
Location: Overlooking the vineyards, olive groves, cattle and horses in the hills of San Miguel CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ebrooks
"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."
Thanks for the thoughtful reply Charles. It is true that I am a little out of touch. It hadn't occurred to me that the focus on SV was because of the money that the tech business in SV brought into the County. Also you make a telling point re: the invitation extended to criminals by the presence of a lot of well-heeled and vulnerable folks in town. But as you come from hard-core New England, I've spent the last 25 years or so in the Central Valley. I do a small mobile business in the Stockton area. I find myself in very high crime neighborhoods there. I don't live in Stockton, instead in a rural part of the County some 20 miles away--I wouldn't think of living in Stockton. As you may have heard, Stockton is the crime capital of somewhere, US or California, although maybe a second behind Oakland in homicide statistics. But the crime fear factor on the streets in Stockton is higher than Oakland I would say. I grew up in Oakland and returned to work in Alameda County from 1995 to 2007, commuting. So you can see that even with whatever problems SC has, which I'm not aware of, it is a crimeless paradise compared to what I'm accustomed to.
And then there is Rio Del Mar. A poster didn't think as much of RDM as I do. I confidently defend my judgment of RDM. I visit there fairly regularly, just to get a blast from the past, like I did just today. It was one of those balmy January days that I mention in one of my web pieces. Almost balmy. Clear sky, sun shining at mid-day, a light breeze, a totally uncrowded beach and esplanade, the scattered folks there mostly middle-aged, obviously sucking in the vibes and probably drawing on memories from their youth, like me. And the SS Palo Alto standing sentinel.
I don't think anyone would say that there is a crime problem in RDM. If there is I'd like to know the details.
True, when you compare SC with the violent crime/murder capitols of CA/US, SC pales by comparison. As it should- but the *kind* of crime escalating in SC and how the 'loving it to death' syndrome exacerbates the intensity of those factors in everyday life of those who live in Santa Cruz underlines how apathetic, self-involved and affluent population snapping up already overpriced properties like there's no tomorrow combined with aan absurdly run government and municipal services division in SC and you have another classic 'perfect storm' of sorts- a town with little civic traditions of community, plummeting community activism that is sadly illustrated by the poor numbers of the 'Take Back Santa Cruz'
It's a puzzle in crime rates, Stockton/Oakland have street crime of the classic urban type: a combination of predatory crimes of violence and theft AND a running 'underground' turf war between various criminal entities- gangs, organized crime with a more hierarchical structure and 'drive-through' stuff from outliers coming in and leaving with whatever they can get on the way through. Random violence tends to be encapuklated within certain areas of town... the exceptions to that tend to prove the rule.
In SC, it's a little more complicated and harder to spot... in almost every neighbor hood, thievery, drugs, and a general lack of really giving a sh*t from a largely transient population- students, tourists, and vagrants... and NOW with the fleeing middle-class, the escalating eastide/westside SC gang rivalry, the 'Watsonville Mafia' coming in and the minority embedded population of generally stressed-out locals who aren't involved in some kind of scamming, sketchy and/or other criminal activity... it's almost as if to afford to stay in SC without a trust fund or tech money means one has to hustle in some way and THAT erodes any organic process of strengthening community in a place that needs it now more then ever. The 'intimidation factor' residents feel when going about their days and nights in SC proper has risen dramatically over the last 20 years, and THAT contributes to community erosion, too... in the same almost 'sub-rosa' ways that frame the crime and 'I've got mine, Jack' attitudes of an ever-increasing percentage of new and increasingly longer-time affluent residents of SC.
You are so correct about RDM... what a beautiful and almost completely unsullied jewel in that 'banana belt' Monterey Bay coastline... a wonderful and immersive exception to the dire straights farther north! thanks for that brilliant reminder, Ed... that's the best motivator for SC residents I can imagine- to restore the rest of the SC area to some semblance of its former glory without removing any more of it's soul!
a town with little civic traditions of community, plummeting community activism that is sadly illustrated by the poor numbers of the 'Take Back Santa Cruz'
Fewer and fewer living by the creed "Keep Santa Cruz Weird."
As we witness accelerating gentrification of SF resulting in an exodus to Oakland, is there a similar exodus from Santa Cruz to...where?
Fewer and fewer living by the creed "Keep Santa Cruz Weird."
As we witness accelerating gentrification of SF resulting in an exodus to Oakland, is there a similar exodus from Santa Cruz to...where?
Good question. Stan Derelian told me some years ago to look at Morro Bay. When you're on The Edge you can go West to Hawaii, north or south on the coast, or bounce back to the interior. Which can include Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. 2d Amendment-wise much better choices.
Good question. Stan Derelian told me some years ago to look at Morro Bay. When you're on The Edge you can go West to Hawaii, north or south on the coast, or bounce back to the interior. Which can include Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. 2d Amendment-wise much better choices.
We wouldn't really want everybody in downtown SC to be brandishing firearms, would we?
All the characters lining Pacific Ave. packing heat doesn't sound like a safer place, no? Can't imagine SCPD would welcome that.
The characters I think you're referring to would not be likely to qualify for a concealed carry permit. If they were qualified and permitted they would have the legal right to "pack heat." SCPD are sworn to uphold the law and a duly issued CCW permit is the law. CCW permit holders add to safety since they are the citizens on the scene when protection is needed against precisely those persons I assume you envisage illegally carrying weapons on Pacific Ave. "When seconds count the police will be there in minutes."
Anyone here actually live there and could give more sense of what's it's like to live there? Any real sense of community or is it just a cheaper place to park your stuff while you do your "living" in the other nearby towns. I'm very interested in the area for the beauty and affordability since I would like to move into NoCal, but can't afford a Mil$+ house. I'm raising a family and want to live somewhere that is good to raise a family and has a close community feel and some charm
I work in Scotts Valley and live in Santa Cruz. You'll have your basic necessities here but not much for entertainment for yourself or the kids. Fortunately, Santa Cruz and the beach are only a 15-minute drive away but is far more hippie/hipster with a larger homeless population that what you'll find in Scotts Valley. I think it's a fine place to raise a family and you'll probably be able to afford more here than in Saratoga or Los Gatos but I don't really see a sense of community.
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