I feel for you, but this is not the solution either. By moving to Santa Cruz you are becoming part of the same problem here. Santa Cruz was recently rated the #3 least affordable place to live IN THE COUNTRY based on housing costs and its relatively low wages. You will now join me and thousands of our closest friends as we commute daily over a twisty mountain road to higher paying jobs in Silicon Valley just so we can afford to live here. Sure there are local jobs, but they pay 20–25% less than jobs over the hill (at least). I am a teacher- a profession I love- and my partner is an executive director of a nonprofit, we rent a small 2 bedroom house and our rent is more than most people I know pay for a mortgage. If I took a 25% pay cut not to commute we would be unable even to afford our place.

The University here does not help. They have accepted over 18000 students for next year and have housing available for less than 1/3 of them. This housing is also extremely expensive. So students are being forced into the community to look for housing and this pushes up rents. I cannot blame the students, they just want an education and who among us looked at local housing costs when we applied to college? I wish UCSC would be a responsible neighbor and build enough housing for all of its students- I know it has the land. Students often then are crammed like sardines into substandard housing they can barely afford because rents keep rising and there is still not enough housing.

So while the students put pressure on the housing market from the low end, low end tech workers and other professionals from SV put pressure on the top end because compared to Palo Alto or Los Gatos, Santa Cruz is a bargain. Of course this puts one or two more cars on the road fighting for space on Highway 17.

Obviously the solution is to build more housing, but Santa Cruz cannot seem to do that, nor will that stop the flow of silicon valley refugees to our little town. A region wide solution, from Tracy to Monterey to Santa Rosa is likely not in the works either. I love my career, I love my little town, but I fear you just kicked the can down the road and I wonder where we will be forced to move when we can no longer make it work here.