Santa Cruz STILL sucks!!!! 2011 version (San Jose, Orange: rental market, violent crime, school district)

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by SurfingMama

I was born and raised here. I am a 5th generation Californian. You don't see us when you visit our town, because we aren't all out and in your face. Those that you see are usually the ones that came here for UCSC and the promise of hippie vibes. They had rich parents that paid their way, and then they stayed (our they're currently students). Every year they arrive and the freshman class does some mass blocking of our main roads on bikes in some lame attempt at protesting automobile use (which creates traffic, causing more pollution). Then they go back up the hill and drive their SUV, polluting old car, or their fancy Prius around (braking for no apparent reason, and wasting the gas of all behind them). They grow dreads, and bathe in patchouli. They stink up our streets for an image. Not all of them are this way, but there are a lot of them that are. They look with disdain at us omnivores, as if their complete disregard for eons of evolution is superior.
So when you visit, what is in your face is the worst of, most irritating of those that choose to call Santa Cruz home. Most are very temporary visitors themselves. We are not a hippie town. We are a beach town that happens to have some college on a hill that attracts a bunch of pseudohippies.

Oh, we know that (or at least should). We were addressing the trustafarian transient kids...way back when this thread was last alive.

[ggcd951]

i moved to bay area three years ago, i still think SC is my favorite spot to visit from where i live fremont CA. I think I like coastal city no matter what. Never lived there so cant tell. But visiting is always amazing. I have lived in couple of other areas around the country and usually QOLife in Cali is always better, IMO. In contrast I spend grueling 3 years when I was in college student in Pullman WA. It is a middle of nowhere, **** when you talk about hatred, that I what i hated about being there. City population is ~30000 and 3 miles across at most and there is virtually nothing to do except studying. Get out of town in nearest semi-metropolitan spokane is about 70 miles east and closes major metro Seattle is about 6 hrs drive to west. Even Seattle is sucker place to leave no sun during most of the year. I am glad i finally managed to move out of that town before I lose my sanity .

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by nancy thereader

The absence of these set SC apart from the rest, and residents live there, in part, because of this difference. Go just about anywhere in the country and you'll see the sad, grotesque rampant homogenization malls, Walmarts, McDonald's, Starbuck's etc. have done to small towns. All look the same. Nothing like they used to. Good on SC for defying that. Cuz it sucks.

Santa Cruz is wonderful for tourists and college kids. You have to realize , though, for mothers & people with families who are on budgets, there is nowhere to shop in SC. Target , for one, has prices for food and everyday items that are incomparable to the boutique stores in town. No one I know shops there at all.

Capitola just a short drive south is not too inconvenient. It has the Capitola Mall (yes, relatively small by Bay Area Mall standards but with some familiar stores). They have a Kohl's store, but believe the nearest Target is a little further south in Watsonville. Maybe worth the trip if buying a large enough quantity.

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by nancy thereader

I do go to Costco,, but they (as you said) have a limited amount of items.

Sometimes we go to Target or Grocery Outlet in Watsonville ; we are very impatiently waiting for Target to be opened in the Capitola Mall ( next year). It's also a treat to go over the hill to shop at Valley Fair & all. They have Nordstrom's, Tiffany's and other really upscale stores there, but (most of all) they have The Cheesecake Factory!

Glad to hear Target will be arriving in Capitola soon!

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by crescent22

I've crossed of Santa Cruz from the last of places to ever consider owning a place. Too many issues. Given its isolation, you have to be all-in to want to be there.

It is not that isolated. Thought you were talking about Ukiah or Eureka/Crescent City for awhile there. Silicon Valley is not that far a drive northeast on Hwy 17. Monterey Peninsula is less than an hour south, etc. There are communities like Capitola, Soquel, Aptos, Rio Del Mar, La Selva Beach and Scotts Valley within the SC region as well. Watsonville is also nearby. I am not recommending it necessarily, but "isolation" would not be the reason to avoid it IMO.

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by ibbitybibbitybop

Well, I've traveled across the country twice: both times in a camper and taking 2 months while visiting a lot of cities as well as scenic spots. I spent a lot of time in Northern New Jersey on business, and a lot more in NYC for both business and visiting friends and family. I spent 4 months on a business project in Huntington, West Virginia: the beginning of Appalachia, and a place where of such grinding poverty that one out of 20 houses are literally boarded up and abandoned (and that applies to the entire Metro area, not just to the city).

As far as a sheltered life? For 3 years I was on the Youth Council committee for New Haven, Connecticut. New Haven averages one shooting per week. Most of us the committee members worked with the inner-city kids there to try to break the cycle of drugs, gangs and poverty they are trapped in.

So please, by all means, tell us all about your own street-wisdom and your own un-sheltered experiences. Being the seasoned veteran of reality that you are, I am sure that my ho-hum experience of routinely working in a gang-infested area where I might get shot just for trying to get kids away from gangs pales by comparison.

Until then, I stand by my original statement: Silicon Valley is the ugliest area in the USA. Rolling a dog poop in powdered sugar doesn't make it a jelly donut, no matter how much you want to believe it is one.

Have you driven through Stockton or towns in the Mojave desert like Barstow in your travels? Bakersfield and Fresno would also rate less than Silicon Valley scenically IMO. Santa Clara County at least has a couple attractive towns like Los Gatos and Saratoga. The west side is not too bad scenically speaking. Drier to the east generally.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by chessgeek

Have you driven through Stockton or towns in the Mojave desert like Barstow in your travels? Bakersfield and Fresno would also rate less than Silicon Valley scenically IMO. Santa Clara County at least has a couple attractive towns like Los Gatos and Saratoga. The west side is not too bad scenically speaking. Drier to the east generally.

Save your breath. Statements like "Silicon Valley is the ugliest place in the USA" merely suggest one has a personal beef with some aspect of the place (almost always seems to to come back to getting dumped there somewhere in the deep, dark past). Because it is hysterical BS.

Santa Cruz don't suck, neither. Unless one hates weird.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by chessgeek

It is not that isolated. Thought you were talking about Ukiah or Eureka/Crescent City for awhile there. Silicon Valley is not that far a drive northeast on Hwy 17. Monterey Peninsula is less than an hour south, etc. There are communities like Capitola, Soquel, Aptos, Rio Del Mar, La Selva Beach and Scotts Valley within the SC region as well. Watsonville is also nearby. I am not recommending it necessarily, but "isolation" would not be the reason to avoid it IMO.

Santa Cruz only would be isolated for someone without a car or specificallly UCSC students without a car(and then if you live on campus you're not even really in Santa Cruz). For anyone with a car, you can drive to Monterey, San Jose, San Francisco, or the rest of the Bay in about 45 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes(which doesn't feel that long a drive if there's no traffic). I mean living in Santa Cruz, we'd always take day-trips to the Monterey Peninsula, Big Sur, San Francisco, and so on. It's fairly well-situated for quick trips compared to a lot of other places.

[chessgeek]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Save your breath. Statements like "Silicon Valley is the ugliest place in the USA" merely suggest one has a personal beef with some aspect of the place (almost always seems to to come back to getting dumped there somewhere in the deep, dark past). Because it is hysterical BS.

Santa Cruz don't suck, neither. Unless one hates weird.

Just thought I would mention that the Mountain Winery concert venue in Saratoga rates up there as one of the most scenic concert settings IMO along with Red Rocks west of Denver. Have been to the Mountain Winery twice. Outside of the downtown Santa Cruz area, there are mostly normal people anyways despite the hype. Berkeley, Austin and Portland make the same claim about being weird. Don't care who is declared the eventual "winner". Now I will save my breath. LOL.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by chessgeek

Just thought I would mention that the Mountain Winery concert venue in Saratoga rates up there as one of the most scenic concert settings IMO along with Red Rocks west of Denver. Have been to the Mountain Winery twice. Outside of the downtown Santa Cruz area, there are mostly normal people anyways despite the hype. Berkeley, Austin and Portland make the same claim about being weird. Don't care who is declared the eventual "winner". Now I will save my breath. LOL.

Well, yes, the shows at this venue are on the way for 2014. Lovely place, up above Santa Cruz and the South Bay:
http://mountainwinery.s3.amazonaws.c...ebcal2014b.pdf


But nobody who truly embraces the "weird" is interested in "winning" anything. Just enjoying the excellence that is the funky, carefree life that the beachside town has historically offered. Wouldn't want that to disappear (hell, even Venice Beach is keeping it weird, despite the button-down-and-tie types wandering about).