The last 10-15 years has transformed Santa Cruz into something I barely recognize anymore.
It used to be really great. Abundant free parking, a huge multistory used book store (Logos), and a house turned cozy coffee shop overflowing with college students where you could spend entire days studying/working without going broke (The Perg) and without being a jerk occupying one of the few tables at the Starbucks or Peets.
The last time I went there ~2 years ago I couldn't find any free parking other than the grocery store lot, and the coffee shops were hipster cafes without outlets and overpriced everything on very limited menus. At least there's still the Red Room.
I'd like to know where the students go to study now instead of The Perg. I hope they're not paying through the nose at Verve Coffee.
The whole of California seems like that. Places get a reputation for being great, so everybody goes there... which overloads the roads, drives up rents, and makes the city decide they better put in some parking meters. Being "the cool place", when the cool used book shop goes out of business it gets replaced with a joint selling $20 acai bowls or whatever. Half of the state is being perpetually loved to death.
With all due respect, the "too many outsiders spoil thing" narrative is hokum, flat wrong, an not-useful myth.
Back when rents were considerably more affordable, most of California received a similar level of visitor and had similar growth rates. The changes have been driven by massive money coming into real estate, restrictions on building, and an economy where real wages are stagnant.
This is a bit generalized. The city I work in is similar to Santa Cruz - tech adjacent and regularly makes the national magazine market for being beautiful. Outsider tourism brings in money, but the weekend traffic pattern has shifted over 15 years. When there used to be traffic jams heading south to the city on weekends, there are now traffic jams headed north to the wine country on the weekend. I completely see the need for the tourism and its great for the economy, but it has definitely changed the small-town feel.
I guess if you were hostile to hippies living out of their vehicles parking in town and being visible on the sidewalks and at cafes like the perg.
The town has changed since then, there's a lot more traffic and yuppies everywhere. The loss of free parking is just one symptom of how the place has changed. There's a lot more people and money now.
It's not like the elimination of free parking has reduced the number of cars in town, it's changed the kind of people parking there. The lots still fill up, just instead of run down vans and RVs/buses and beater student vehicles it's more nice expensive vehicles.
I fully expect downtown Santa Cruz to look like downtown Burlingame in the future, complete with polished stone pavers for parking spaces. That's the trajectory they're on when I last visited.
The closure of the Perg was devastating news to me. My wife and I were reminiscing of good times there right outside of the building as it was being remodeled during a recent visit and got in an argument with the restaurant owner who was turning it into a pizza place (as if Santa Cruz needs any more of those). He went on about the “riff raff” outside and how he was going to help save the town from it.
It's no replacement for Pergolesi. Pergolesi stayed open late, had food and shows, chess club and other meetings, and catered to the punk/alt crowd in a way no remaining cafes do.
I used to go to Lulu Carpenters as a student back in the 90s. It was a decent place to study then. But the owner has become a jerk toward students. Perg is an institution I still miss.
The free parking had a significant impact on what kind of people you encountered in town.
I lived in a redwood forest near the coast at the time, so what Santa Cruz offered in those areas didn't really affect me. I didn't go to Santa Cruz to see redwoods or the ocean, I went for the quirky town and to hang out around interesting people in a nearby urban center (I lived in Butano SP).
Don't live in the redwoods it's why we have fires. And I'm not sure what you're upset about here your nature destroying frontiersman fantasy is still very much alive in Bonny Doon
> Don't live in the redwoods it's why we have fires. And I'm not sure what you're upset about here your nature destroying frontiersman fantasy is still very much alive in Bonny Doon
It wasn't illicit, the area around the park isn't well defined and there's plenty of private property out there which the park's trails run straight through.
I don't know what you're talking about WRT "frontiersman fantasy", my downtown Santa Cruz complaints have absolutely no relation to a frontiersman fantasy.
The fires are the result of power lines and infrastructure supporting unnecessary exurban sprawl out into our redwoods. Not to mention the septic leaking from houses into the rivers and springs.
Well, no. A lot of Walmarts, particularly in oil country, got rid of the free parking because of people abusing it. Its problematic for sales if people are worried about their safety in a store's parking lot.
So, the campus of UCSC is way up in the hills and it's a long ride on slow public transport downtown (or a nice bike ride...) Most people who don't live on campus aren't going to schlep up to the campus. Also, the library wasn't very conducive to studying (few quiet areas like you have in nice old east coast libraries).
It used to be really great. Abundant free parking, a huge multistory used book store (Logos), and a house turned cozy coffee shop overflowing with college students where you could spend entire days studying/working without going broke (The Perg) and without being a jerk occupying one of the few tables at the Starbucks or Peets.
The last time I went there ~2 years ago I couldn't find any free parking other than the grocery store lot, and the coffee shops were hipster cafes without outlets and overpriced everything on very limited menus. At least there's still the Red Room.
I'd like to know where the students go to study now instead of The Perg. I hope they're not paying through the nose at Verve Coffee.