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Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

darrellowens.substack.com

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Re: Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

#71

Post by 50 »

rcpt wrote: post #12

Such a great place to live except for the people. Long time Santa Cruz residents have zero shame about telling latecomers to get out. And then there's this https://www.surfertoday.com/surf-movies/the-westsiders Anyway, end Prop 13 now.

It is situated in such a beautiful place. I fondly remember the surf, the woods, the jazz club, and the anarchist literary scene. It's really a shame about the lack of diversity and the racist, anti-homeless natives/long-term residents. I left after having a couple fascist landlords.

Re: Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

#72

Post by millimeterman »

foogazi wrote: post #62
millimeterman wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When does growth stop ? What’s the end-game ? Why should the growth stop? People are clearly demonstrating a desire to move to these cities. I see no reason why NIMBYs should be allowed to artificially decide that newcomers are not allowed. Growth will simply continue as long as people keep moving in.

> People are clearly demonstrating a desire to move to these cities. Yes, they demonstrate a desire to move into these cities in their current non-hypergrowth form Then you follow up and make that desire a reality by putting a down payment on a property Talk is cheap

I think humans have demonstrated time and time again that densely constructed cities are a desirable place to live. Are there some people that would leave if these cities started loosening zoning and allowing dense construction? Sure - not everyone wants to live in a big city. But I would argue that the net change in population would still be massively positive.

Besides, why should existing homeowners get a monopoly on deciding what kind of city Santa Cruz should be? If there is a desire for dense housing, then dense housing will get filled. If you're right that people moving to these cities want suburbia then one would expect new multi-story apartments to go empty. But that's clearly not what happens.

Re: Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

#73

Post by hindsightbias »

standardUser wrote: post #38

What people seem to miss is how awesome UCSC is. In typical HN fashion I see multiple comments talking dryly about college selection like it's a business decision. People flock to UCSC for its exceptional natural beauty, idiosyncratic culture and slightly unorthodox academics. Not because of a cost-benefit analysis. For people like me, it offered a big-campus college experience without the emphasis on sports and the…

This is the campus: https://www.ucsc.edu/campus/colleges.html

Beautiful, idyllic, all that. All of HN would love to live there and 98% of them would probably join all the UCSC admin/students/alumni masses in fighting new housing on the campus the day they got there, or at least when the jackhammers started during their study period.

And then they'd blame the city for not having more housing for those not lucky enough.

Re: Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

#74

Post by vineyardmike »

foogazi wrote: post #25
alistairSH wrote: post #21

Any idea what % of the rental market is students vs UCSC staff vs non-UCSC? It seems like the college shouldn't be allowed to enroll more students than the city has capacity to house. At minimum, it should be building more dorms on campus (I have no idea if that's feasible based on town layout).

UCSC sits on 2,000 acres Unconscionable that they off-load student housing onto the city of Santa Cruz Gavin Newsom should lead by example and guarantee that no UC student will go homeless

Plenty of students want to live off campus, as adults, instead of being on campus.

It’s unconscionable that the city would be so un-accommodating to students while exploiting them for rent money and economic gain.

Re: Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

#75

Post by mixmastamyk »

michaelwww wrote: post #61
Analemma_ wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You don't understand why we're unique and special and therefore need special housing rules that just so happen to be identical to the ones in every other town" is also a bog-standard NIMBY argument. You're really ticking every single checkbox here.

Ok, I'm NIMBY. So? I'm sure you would too if they were to build a 5 story apartment building overlooking your backyard. My point is that Santa Cruz and San Jose are very different. Santa Cruz is a spot of natural beauty worth preserving. There really aren't many beach towns like it on the coast. The closest one to the North is probably Pacifica 50 miles north. Santa Cruz doesn't have much more land available while Sa…

Didn't get a big nimby vibe from your first post, just sounded like you were explaining the local situation.

But now you've mentioned it, nimby is the reason your nieces and nephs won't be able to live there. The richest folks always win when there is a refusal to build.

Re: Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

#76

Post by vineyardmike »

wikitopian wrote: post #20

California can't support as many people as you wish it could and replacing its SFH suburbs with cramped mixed income efficiency apartments would be an aesthetic, ecological, and socioeconomic disaster.

> aesthetic

Most people find European cities more beautiful. SC is an ugly city. Even SF is much more pretty.

> ecological

It’s pretty well established that cities are ecological superior to suburbs.

> socioeconomic

Money extracted from the economy by landlords is money not flowing and being used to spur economic activity. VC firms have lamented that they have to invest in bigger rounds because growing headcount in expensive-rent cities is their greatest expense.

Re: Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

#77

Post by paxys »

Sad to say but the only way to get administration to take these issues seriously is to transfer out. Santa Cruz is the bottom feeder of the UC system. The only reason people take it seriously is because of the prestigious "University of California" tag. There are plenty of better schools nearby (including non-UC ones like Cal Poly and several CSUs) that are more worth your money.

Or think even beyond that. I went to a top 10 school in the midwest and paid $300/mo for my own apartment. After graduating I got a job working next to people from Berkeley, MIT and Stanford with the same career trajectory as them but a tiny fraction of the debt.

Re: Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

#78

Post by paxys »

standardUser wrote: post #38

What people seem to miss is how awesome UCSC is. In typical HN fashion I see multiple comments talking dryly about college selection like it's a business decision. People flock to UCSC for its exceptional natural beauty, idiosyncratic culture and slightly unorthodox academics. Not because of a cost-benefit analysis. For people like me, it offered a big-campus college experience without the emphasis on sports and the…

That's the issue isn't it? Students flock to it not after doing a cost-benefit analysis but because it's an upscale seaside resort where they can have a great time for four years. But then why complain about the cost of living there? Should it be affordable? And should the town have to support this?

Re: Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

#79

Post by michaelwww »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #75
michaelwww wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, I'm NIMBY. So? I'm sure you would too if they were to build a 5 story apartment building overlooking your backyard. My point is that Santa Cruz and San Jose are very different. Santa Cruz is a spot of natural beauty worth preserving. There really aren't many beach towns like it on the coast. The closest one to the North is probably Pacifica 50 miles north. Santa Cruz doesn't have much more land available while Sa…

Didn't get a big nimby vibe from your first post, just sounded like you were explaining the local situation. But now you've mentioned it, nimby is the reason your nieces and nephs won't be able to live there. The richest folks always win when there is a refusal to build.

I'm not even sure what NIMBY means but if it means concerned about the development in my hometown then I'm NIMBY.

Re: Santa Cruz is a Housing Nightmare

#80

Post by rasz »

foogazi wrote: post #42

When does growth stop ? What’s the end-game ? As a techie, Santa Cruz renter and UCSC parent, I sympathize with the author But living here and going to school here are choices, UC Davis, Merced & Berkeley exist I’m sure someone can complain that I outbid them to rent a house But driving up from Berkeley, seeing the housing issue, the homeless problem, and then saying “this sucks, but make room for me” strikes me as n…

>When does growth stop ?

>As a ... parent

Why did you contribute to the growth?

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