Finding Home 2: Santa Cruz
Dispatches from our search for the right place to spend the rest of our lives
This second article in the Finding Home series takes us to the north Monterey Bay beach town of Santa Cruz. We spent three weeks there in July and August, when we could experience a bit of the heavy tourist season, as well as that busy period when University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) students return to town for the fall term. We also experienced some of the stark contrasts in weather that are a constant feature of the coast-side and valley communities of Northern California, a feature that fell decidedly in favor of Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic brought on by the Delta variant prevented us from taking in some of Santa Cruz’s exceptional cultural and entertainment options, including the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium (currently a COVID testing center), the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, and the Catalyst nightclub. Nonetheless, the returns on this lovely beach town were largely positive.
The Scorecard
In the series introduction article, we broke our requirements for a new place to live down into five categories: Proximity, Affordability, Community, Amenities, and Weather. This is how Santa Cruz fared in each of these categories:
Proximity: Because our plan is to buy a permanent house away from the Santa Clara Valley, and to then secure a modest condo we can use for frequent return visits, Santa Cruz is pretty close to an ideal location. It’s just 40 minutes over the hill from San Jose, and is well within two hours of all three Bay Area international airports. The one barrier here, though, is California Route 17, the only major roadway in and out of Santa Cruz from the valley. Route 17 is a somewhat notorious, winding road through the Santa Cruz Mountains, and driving it back and forth every week could be risky, particularly as we get older. There is a convenient Greyhound bus line between Santa Cruz and San Jose, just a 42-minute ride, but that also goes over Route 17. California is more amenable than most U.S. states to the prospect of high-speed rail, but the chance any such amenity would be built in our lifetime is pretty close to nil. Because of that barrier, Santa Cruz gets a score of 7/10 for proximity.
Affordability: We viewed a number of houses in Santa Cruz, and have monitored the market there for some time. Unfortunately — though not surprisingly — the area is quite expensive, only slightly more affordable than our former home in the upscale Silicon Valley city of Los Altos. Our hope would be to live on the west side of town, within walking, or at least easy biking distance of downtown and the Kaiser-Permanente Arena. However, houses in that part of town that don’t need extensive remodeling or updating are listing at around $1.5 million, and some are selling for 20% over that. The other issue with Santa Cruz is the wildly different types of properties available there, sometimes in the same neighborhood or on the same street. Because of the area’s steep housing shortage, particularly during the UCSC school year, Santa Cruz encourages owners to add accessory dwelling units (ADUs), so many houses have them — not something we’re particularly interested in. And land is scarce, so many homes sit on tiny lots. With patience, we would probably be able to find something, but it would definitely be a challenge. Unfortunately, Santa Cruz gets a 7/10 on affordability.
Community: From our temporary digs on Chestnut St., we were able to easily walk to downtown, which was very nice and convenient. We shopped at two grocery stores there, and were able to easily step out for a meal or an adult beverage at a wide variety of terrific establishments. More than that, a convenient bikeway made for easy biking to the West End, where a cluster of coffee shops, wineries, and brewpubs has sprung up in former industrial buildings, and the quaint town of Capitola was also easy biking distance away. However, downtown Santa Cruz comes with its challenges: a progressive city locals think of as “a small city with big city problems,” Santa Cruz has a large number of unhoused and transient residents. For people like us, who hail from suburban bubbles, this can cast a pall over otherwise delightful forays into a town peopled with friendly locals and business owners who generally share our values. Let’s just say that, culturally, Santa Cruz would be an adjustment for us, giving Santa Cruz a 7/10 on community.
Amenities: It’s hard to imagine a better place for active people like us than Santa Cruz. Multi-use trails, bike lanes, and pedestrian-friendly streets crisscross a town that is also surrounded by conveniently accessible state parks. We hiked along the oceanfront bluffs at Wilder Ranch and the creeks and waterfalls of The Forest of Nicene Marks, Caroline was able to do her vigorous running through the neighborhoods and along West Cliff Drive, and I was able to ride my road bike into the mountains for long, challenging, scenic rides. We also discovered the Simpkins Family Swim Center, where we got in some great swimming workouts, and a range of publicly available fitness facilities at UCSC. Bottom line is, for amenities, Santa Cruz has it all, and it’s all pretty darn convenient and affordable. Santa Cruz amenities get a 9/10.
Weather: On a typical morning in Santa Cruz, we would awaken snuggled in blankets to keep out the chill of the typically overcast mornings. The temperature might be 65°F at 8:00 a.m., rising to 75 or so by noon. This would be followed by sunny, breezy days that would cool down again in the evening. As pleasant as that sounds, it’s even more compelling when you consider the contrast: a typical day in San Jose during this period was more than 85°F, rising as high as the mid-90s. Beyond that, the air quality was uniformly excellent at a time when wild fires burning in the Sierras were covering much of the state with a thick layer of acrid smoke. Not sure what else I can say: even acknowledging that gloomy, overcast days are a standard feature of the mid-summers here, the weather in Santa Cruz was still a 10/10.
Conclusion: Santa Cruz Stays on the List
What was most interesting about our time in Santa Cruz was what we learned about ourselves. The bottom line is that any new place to live is going to require some adjustments on our part, in both routine and attitude. Furthermore, as mentioned in the introductory article, it’ll require trade-offs. So, we’ll certainly keep Santa Cruz on our list, with the biggest trade-offs being the curves on Route 17 and the challenge of finding a house we can afford. Now, on to the opposite end of the universe: the hot, inland valleys and canyons of Livermore, California!
