Santa Cruz
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The wildfires scorching our redwoods encapsulate California’s crises overload
The fundamental character of a wildfire is that it destroys everything in its path. Watching the increasing devastation from the all-consuming fury of the massive fires burning in Northern California, I feel a special loss for both the people and natural splendor of Santa Cruz County.
Forty-seven years ago, I followed my destiny to Go West, Young Man. At age 18, I moved from Fort Lee, New Jersey, to Santa Cruz, California, sight unseen. As I watched my first multihued sunset over the sparkling Pacific, I remember thinking, This sure ain’t New Jersey.
I ended up in Santa Cruz because…
What do you get when you mix a university’s blind eye with greedy landlords who prey on naïve students?
What do you think of when you hear the words “Santa Cruz”? The Beach Boardwalk, the surfers, the weed, the chill vibes? A vacationer driving down Highway 1 may admire the long-boarders sailing down the sidewalk past rustic California Craftsman homes and idyllic Victorians. Yet behind the sloping eves and bright paint, the simple truth is that Santa Cruz is built on the systematic exploitation of thousands of college students.
It took me four years of living in Santa Cruz as a student to realize how bad the housing situation really is. Now I just can’t believe how long it…
Though the administration tries to deter it, every year on April 20, thousands flock to the meadow on the west side of UC Santa Cruz’s campus to blaze and hang.
No one is really sure how UC Santa Cruz’s annual, impromptu 4/20 celebration became a tradition, but it could be that people here just really like to smoke weed. Rolling Stone once called us “the most stoned campus on Earth.” Not a student on campus doesn’t know when or where the 4/20 celebrations take place (the meadow next to Porter College), and — just like for San Francisco’s Hippie Hill 4/20 extravaganza — people travel from all over the region to attend.
Though 4/20 has become an integral part of the UCSC experience, college administrators still despise it. This year…
And are we allowed to eat them?
He stalks a UC Santa Cruz parking lot during the daylight hours, threatening those who come too close to his turf. His adoring fans have endowed him (and his offspring) with a Facebook fan page. The students even gave him a name — Hank Hatebeak. And he has a bad habit of attacking car tires while they’re in motion:
But here’s the thing about Hank Hatebeak and the rest of the wild turkeys around here: they’re newcomers — at least, in this geologic epoch — to the…
Coastal Living Magazine named Capitola, California, one of the happiest seaside towns in America, and if you’ve ever visited, you would have a tough time telling them they’re wrong. Between the hippie spirit, the breathtaking natural beauty and the quirky residents, it’s everything you’d dream of finding in a quaint California town.
Besides being known for its overall livability, it’s chock full of weird California history. Alfred Hitchcock got his inspiration for The Birds from a horrific incident that took place in Capitola. On an early summer morning in 1961, residents were awakened at 3:00 a.m. by a “rain of…
The Bold Italic
Celebrating the free-wheeling spirit of the Bay Area — one sentence at a time.
