Santa Cruz is a nice place to live, BUT...
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4/12/2006
...one should consider the following:
- Housing will always be an issue. It will never be "affordable" here, even if the housing market takes a huge nose dive.
- UCSC is the disease of Santa Cruz. Students move here, vote on issues that only affect them, and %&@! all the local politics up. They're supported by rich parents, which, in turn, throws the entire local economy off, making it difficult for us LOCALS to survive here.
- Hippies, dirts, and beggars everywhere. I've lived here my whole life and still can't get used to people in their early 20's with their new car parked around the corner sitting on the sidewalk with a puppy begging for change.
- Bloody tourists. Tourism makes up the majority of the local economy, but that doesn't excuse their poor driving practices. Turn on your damn turn signal! No, I won't give you directions to the beach!
- People are rude here. Don't expect people to help you out if you're in a jam. Most people would rather ignore you and continue on their merry way.
- Suffocating local ordinances and bylaws. People make an issue out of *anything* here. For example, this is an excerpt from today's (04/12/06) paper: "A new city law that punishes anyone who spends more than 15 minutes in a downtown parking lot or garage is about to go on the books to improve public safety and make the area more inviting." WTF?
I love Santa Cruz because I grew up here and make my home in the mountains away from some of the aforementioned problems, but it is not the laid-back beach town that it once was.
Sarah | Boulder Creek, CA