Quick Take
Lookout interviewed local residents to get their thoughts on why they come to downtown Santa Cruz, what they think of the changes underway downtown and what would encourage them to visit the city center more often.
A Lookout series on the business and politics of development in downtown Santa Cruz >>> READ MORE HERE
With its vacant storefronts and bustling new residential construction, downtown Santa Cruz is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Is it for better or worse? Lookout spent an afternoon interviewing Pacific Avenue pedestrians — along with a few residents in other parts of the county — to get their thoughts on why they come downtown, what they think of the changes and what would encourage them to visit the city center more often.
Their responses revealed a community divided over the future of downtown. Many mourned the loss of independent stores that had been replaced by national chains or vacant storefronts. Several fondly recalled the Pacific Garden Mall era before the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. (Nearly everyone mentioned the Cooper House, a cultural landmark that was demolished in the aftermath of the devastating natural disaster.)
While most acknowledged the need for new housing, several residents said they worry that too many high-rise apartments will extinguish the city’s bohemian spirit. Others welcome development as a way to help build downtown into a vibrant live-work neighborhood. While multiple people mentioned issues such as homelessness and safety, few said they had personally experienced a negative encounter during a trip downtown.
And locals had plenty to say about what the city and businesses could do to encourage more people to visit the city center: easier parking, expanded nightlife options, less bureaucratic red tape for new businesses and new spaces for the community to gather — all with an eye to keeping Santa Cruz weird.
Have your own thoughts on downtown Santa Cruz? Email us at news@lookoutlocal.com with the subject line “Downtown Santa Cruz.”
These interviews have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Lily Sinclair
A former Westside Santa Cruz resident, Sinclair lives in the U.K. and was visiting her grandparents in De Anza Mobile Home Park.
How often do you come downtown?
Once a week-ish for errands or something, maybe go get a drink down there, but not too often.
Do you look forward to going down there or is it something you avoid?
I do look forward to it. I like the open space, the trees lining Pacific [Avenue]. I like the spots where you can sit outside on the road or on the sidewalk. I don’t like the huge new buildings that are going up now. But other than that, I like most parts of downtown.
What’s your perception of the change that’s going on downtown with all the new buildings?
I think they’re not caring so much about the aesthetic quality, the enjoyment of being down there, with these big buildings towering over you. So I would have liked them to take a couple floors off those big new buildings. All the cool old shops that used to be in Santa Cruz, like Logos [Books & Records] and various places, those are gone now. And now you’ve got the big buildings that are taller than everything else. So it feels like the old Santa Cruz is being overshadowed in a way.
Desmond Schneider
Schneider grew up in the East Bay and has lived in downtown Santa Cruz for the past 11 years. He spends five to six days a week downtown.
Do you look forward to going downtown?
I do. I mean, I think the vibe for Monday nights, for me, being an industry guy, I really try to look for those weekdays where there’s not a lot going on. But for the locals, we know, the comedy night they do down at Front and Cooper and then it goes over to Rosie [McCann’s], they do that Monday night kind of vibe. So it’s cool for people that live in town that know what’s going on, it’s just a cool little escape on a weekday.
What are your thoughts on the change that’s been happening downtown?
I think it’s for a positive. I think you’ve got a lot of the older generation that’s been Santa Cruzians, they feel like they don’t want the change. But you’ve got a lot of the younger generation that is making better money and they want change. So you’ve got to roll with the flow. You cannot just halt change because a certain demographic doesn’t want it. Look at all the houses they build on top of houses on top of houses. Everyone gets their view shut down. It’s just the future, man. It’s going to be about bigger and better and creating more of an atmosphere for people to live in.
You’ve lived in Santa Cruz for 11 years. Do you think downtown is getting better or worse?
It’s a combination. It sucks to see a lot of the vacancies down on Pacific, seeing the old bookstore, or seeing where restaurants used to be and places that were hopping for a minute, but are no longer. And I get it, it’s expensive these days. It takes a lot of money and a lot of capital to be successful in Santa Cruz. We’re not only the most expensive county to live in, but it’s hard to open a business out here. So I think, with more of the change and more of the infrastructure, it’s going to allow people to have that dependency on the new development to create new businesses, create more commerce, to really reevaluate and reinvent the downtown scene.
What would make it more appealing to you as a consumer to come downtown?
Stuff should be open later. I think downtown could have a more thriving scene besides a couple of bars that are open until 2 a.m. Some eateries that can be open later, something that could offer some sustenance late at night, instead of a slice of pizza. To see the whole Abbott Square shut down by 9 p.m. on a Friday night, that’s a bummer. You want stuff to be open later. To accommodate the people that work and then still want to go out after work and have some cocktails, have something to eat, I think downtown could use a little bit more of a late-night culinary scene.
Is there anything specific that the city or businesses could do to improve downtown?
Appreciate your locals because they’re the ones that save you through those dry spells of the season, like between winter and summer. If you can contribute a little bit more of an incentive for locals: If you’re an industry guy, come in and get half off a beer. On that you build the business, where there’s some kind of minor incentive.
Sandy Davie
Davie teaches American history at Cabrillo College and has lived in Santa Cruz for 45 years.
How often do you go downtown?
It can really vary. I’ve been going more often, two, three times a month, sometimes more. I wasn’t going at all for a while but I’ve been going down there now for various reasons.
What do you generally go down there for?
The bookstore. I go for Bad Animal, the best bookstore. That is a marvelous, marvelous bookstore. That brings me down there and I bring people there. And then sometimes 11th Hour Coffee.
Restaurant Week, that’s a good feature that really works. So I’ll usually use Restaurant Week. I have a friend that I want to reciprocate something, and I’m like, “I’m going to take you out to dinner.” And then we’ll go downtown. The last time we did that, we went browsing around, we walked afterward. So that was my casing in Santa Cruz moment last year, to really look at it.
What do you like or dislike about the energy or vibe of downtown?
The economy is in such a transitional state and has been for a while. The lower part is so desolate. And then the monstrosities of the poorly designed housing stuff that’s coming up. You go around, it’s the same design everywhere. And it has nothing to do with Santa Cruz. It’s like I’m not in Santa Cruz anymore.
What are your perceptions of the changes in Santa Cruz?
The thing about Santa Cruz, and I’ve been in Santa Cruz a very long time, is the sense of claiming an identity that is of a region. That’s really important in terms of place. Santa Cruz has had that, for all kinds of good reasons, partly because of the place itself, the ocean and the physical environment has its own powerful place. But then the spaces that we make, for a long time, were very much a reflection of the people, they were really local businesses. And then when the chains came in … you could feel how it shifted.
What would make you visit downtown more often?
The sense that there’s support for it being a community. The Dance Week stuff was really good. The stuff at Abbot Square. I remember that coming in, that actually turned out to be a good thing. And that brought me downtown. It’s a nice outdoor space. That works.
You’ve got to change the dynamic of parking. The parking meters are terrible. I’m sure that the revenue from that’s not great because it’s undermining people going there. So changing that dynamic of parking.
And encouraging the creative expression. So Dance Week. I’ve always loved that. There’s that vibrancy. There’s people of all ages. Other kinds of events that are reflective of the community.
To me it’s the support of these buildings that have nothing to do with Santa Cruz that have divided our community so dramatically. And to whose benefit is still really unclear.
Michael Cox
Cox has lived in the Santa Cruz area since 1980 and in Soquel since 2008. The general manager of a small family-owned property investment firm, Cox goes downtown just about every day to work on properties.
What do you like or dislike about the energy vibe of downtown?
The downtown’s changed a lot and Loma Prieta really irrevocably changed it. The businesses that were in there were more old, family-owned, smaller. Because of all of the requirements for bringing everything up to modern codes on the rebuild, it’s so expensive that it just kind of favored bigger businesses.
There’s still a lot of small businesses down there. But somehow the whole vibe changed. Cooper House, everything changed. And now, of course, it seems like it’s kind of on the skids. It seems like things are not going in a great direction. I don’t know if all the building is going to bring it back to life, but clearly there’s a lot of shuttered storefronts and stuff.
The rents are getting really high. I’m pretty immersed in the whole thing. The company I work for specializes in older properties that try to keep the rent 15% below [the] median market, but it’s getting really difficult because of all the expense and increase.
What can be done to keep rents lower?
It’s a very tough situation because, in a way, government is there as a regulator. They have police powers. It’s kind of at the end of a barrel of a gun when you get down to it. It’s the threat of legal action and law enforcement, fines and jail and all that. So when you’re in that position, it’s pretty hard to be in the incentive business.
They try to incentivize and it’s really hard to protect the good when you’re going after the bad. You tend to have to have a one-size-fits-all approach. That one-size-fits-all approach can hurt and scare the smaller, independent landlords and business owners that are more inclined to keep things reasonable, to not seek massive profit for shareholders and for fiduciary responsibility.
Those aren’t the people you want to scare, right? You want to keep the little studio at $900 and not see it go up to $2,800. But sadly, I think because of all the regulatory pressure, everything that’s handed down from the state … they’re telling our cities and counties: This is what you have to do.
Sadly, it tends to favor what I call corporatization. It favors larger, privately held, publicly held corporations that are beholden to stranger shareholders. It’s not a family, it’s not people that know each other. And they have a responsibility to maximize profit. So in an environment like this, where your growth is heavily restricted and you can’t sprawl, you build up. But those huge projects cost huge amounts of money. The only people that can afford to do that are the larger, deeper pockets.
Is there anything that you see that city could do?
My feeling is, why not have an excess profits tax? I don’t care if you’re out of state, out of the country, if you own property and it’s investment property, and you’re hoping for a really good return, that’s great. But if you’re getting a huge return, like 55% net profit, some of that’s got to go back into the community for subsidies to keep, particularly the teachers, the public service workers, these people need to be able to live here. It’s unaffordable. We provide affordable housing for teachers and for retired folks and they all say the same thing: We would be homeless right now if it wasn’t for you guys.
What is your company experiencing?
It’s getting hard for us. It’s to the point where we’re actually pretty scared. We don’t know how we’re going to be able to keep it going. Our insurance, when I started, was $24,000 a year. Now it’s $68,000 a year, and it’s heading for $82,000. The electric bills have gone up three times. We include utilities. The water’s double, triple. So the company hasn’t paid the owners a dividend since COVID. We’re just breaking even, basically. But so far, we’re sticking it out because we’re hoping it’s going to work.
Jill Culver
An Aptos resident of almost six years, she grew up in Southern California. She said she rarely goes downtown and mainly visits for appointments, like going to the eye doctor or getting her hair done.
Do you look forward to going downtown or do you try to avoid it?
I like downtown. I love all the old buildings. I love the funkiness in Santa Cruz. It’s a cool area.
Since you’ve lived here, do you think downtown has gotten better or worse?
Unfortunately, I’m going to have to say a little worse. I think more and more businesses are leaving, so the attraction isn’t there. And sadly, once again, you know the homeless people, it’s increasingly getting worse there.
What would make you want to visit downtown more often?
I think we’re missing a lot of great restaurants. If you have good restaurants, and then you have some good retail stores, then that gives people the incentive to go there and have dinner and then go shopping or walk around. So it’s just that attraction that I think the downtown area is really lacking right now.
If you could change things about downtown, what would that be?
Well, it’s a million-dollar question with the homeless. So I think that’s just an issue in itself. But again, I think if the city focuses more on bringing businesses in, that we can keep the businesses here, and the community can support them, like great restaurants or shopping opportunities or anything that will entice you to go downtown.
There’s a lot of changes downtown – what are your thoughts on that?
The big buildings? It’s just so different for this area. I think this area has managed to keep it small and funky for some time. At first, it’s like, “Whoa!” But I think we do need to progress. I think this is an option that allows a lot more people affordable housing because we lack that here.
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of downtown?
I’m always optimistic.
Sean Thompson
A resident of Santa Cruz, Thompson grew up in Monterey and Santa Cruz. He sells crystals, rocks and gemstones and comes downtown four or five days a week.
What do you typically do when you’re downtown?
I usually have a coffee or sometimes I get lunch down here. I like to take walks. It’s just kind of an exciting thing I do on my days off, and time off. That’s kind of my routine walk where I go from the Westside, I’ll take a walk and do my downtown stroll and then back to wherever I’m coming from.
Do you look forward to coming downtown?
I liked it better a few years ago. I think it’s still nice but it’s kind of a little bit dead. A lot of the food places that I used to really come and enjoy are gone now. I think a lot of things are shut down, even my favorite coffee shop, Peet’s Coffee, used to be down here, it’s all closed down now. I like the music on the weekends at Abbott Square, that’s nice. But for the most part I find it more dead down here than it used to be.
Do you feel optimistic about these changes?
The development here is kind of a shocker. The skyline is kind of gone now because of these big large buildings, which makes it feel more like San Jose or Silicon Valley. I think a lot of locals can agree about that sentiment.
What would make you want to visit downtown more often?
Really good food places, more organic food, more healthy places like Cafe Gratitude, which I used to come down to here quite often. They would bring me down here. But they’re gone. So healthier eateries, not just pizza, it gets kind of boring, and fast food places, but actually really good healthy stuff. Of course, if there was more live music, more stuff, more reasons to be down here maybe some fun little cafes that maybe stayed up late besides [Santa Cruz] Coffee Roasters. More energetic nightlife and food places open late.
What could the city or businesses do to improve downtown?
More free parking. The parking gets a bit rough down here. That would invite people in because when there’s free parking, people tend to come and use those spaces and come in to enjoy. There’s a lot of nice things about it here. I go to the movies here on Tuesday, $5 movie night. That’s a great thing they do. Abbott Square is fun but after 10 o’clock it’s basically over. So it’d be nice to see more like Palookaville, which used to be down here. It was a great music venue. Just bringing that back, letting more street musicians and people come down here. I come to find things that I don’t find anywhere else so it’s nice to have vendors and people out here that carry things that I only can find in Santa Cruz.
Li Quintana and Stephen Beitzel
The couple have lived in Bonny Doon for 15 years. Quintana grew up in Phoenix, Beitzel in Redondo Beach. They come downtown every other day to get the mail, do some shopping and run errands.
What do you like or dislike about the vibe and energy of downtown?
Quintana: It used to be a lot more quirky than it is now, mostly because there were a lot more sort of mom-and-pop places. It’s easy to call out: Palace Arts used to be here. Logos used to be here. Taqueria Vallarta, they used to be here. There were a lot more one-off places. And now so many places are being taken over by big chains and so it’s losing a lot of the very regional appeal that it had. There are so many storefronts that have just sat vacant for a really long time, and the storefronts that just sit vacant end up being sort of colonized by people experiencing homelessness. I understand, people have to sleep somewhere, but that does mean that there’s feces in the street. It just makes it a little less nice for pedestrians walking around. So it’s a huge trade-off to the extent that there’s less foot traffic, less business, that also means that there’s less money to solve some of those problems downtown.
Do you think that the vibe of downtown has gotten better or worse over the years?
Quintana: There’s a lot of high-density housing coming in. I’m hoping that some of that vibe can come back with more people, but it has a lot to do with who the new folks coming in are.
Beitzel: And if everything is really expensive, then the people who can afford to come in are going to have a different perspective from the sort of groovy, living-on-the-edge folks.
The changes have you observed, are they good or bad for downtown?
Beitzel: We’re about to go on a vacation. And the last time we went on a big vacation, before COVID, before the [CZU] fire, everything, we’d come downtown. We were down by Rosie McCann’s or something. We were coming out and there was a guy dressed in a caftan. He had some weird towel on his head and he had this big satchel off to the side. We walked past a kid playing “Comfortably Numb” on a ukulele and that was great. And then this guy comes striding out into the side street and proclaims loudly to the world, “I told the police I would not play with my bocce balls in public. I lied!” And he pulled out a ball and started rolling it against the wall. It was just the most amazing thing ever. I haven’t seen that guy. And where’s the kid with “Comfortably Numb” on the ukulele?
What would make you want to visit downtown more often?
Quintana: Food trucks. I know that a lot of other cities make a whole evening of it. I feel like in so many other cities, that is like a whole event. I feel like that is a fun thing that I have done in so many other places like that. Like in Pasadena, there’s a Friday night, you go out, I don’t even remember the name of the park, and you just spend the whole evening with your friends, going from food truck to food truck, hanging out.
Ron Barr and Sean Gilligan
Both live in Santa Cruz. Barr moved here in 1986, Gilligan in 1988. Both are software developers who work downtown.
What do you typically do when you come downtown, work?
Barr: And eat out for lunch. I eat out every day. Also Santa Cruz Warriors games. I’m a season ticket holder.
What do you like or dislike about the vibrant energy of downtown?
Barr: I like how energetic it’s getting lately. It’s coming back pre-COVID. In terms of walking around on a Thursday or Friday evening, it’s a lot of people. And even during the day, like on a Tuesday afternoon, it looks crowded here again. What I dislike is, I still don’t think we’ve found a way to integrate the homeless community here. And for me, it’s not so bad. But I know my wife in particular feels threatened and is unlikely to come down on her own after 5 p.m.
Have you had a positive or negative experience that’s affected how safe you feel downtown?
Gilligan: I’ve been in several incidents where I’ve been directly or indirectly threatened. I’m able to defend myself, so I wasn’t too worried, but it is a concern.
Barr: I had a couple cases where I sat down with groups of homeless people, just to try and understand who they were and stuff, and I was surprised how mentally ill they were on average. They were fine, I mean, they didn’t threaten me in any way, but just when they started talking, you could tell that they had a lot of trouble managing their lives. I don’t know what a good solution is, but it’s uncomfortable.
If you could change things downtown, what would they be?
Barr: I’d like to see more open spaces that feel safe. Abbott Square is great, if we get more of those. I personally support what’s going on down by Laurel [Street] and all of the housing that’s going in. I would like to see a little better approach to how they handle the street. We’ve got these big buildings going up, but there isn’t a lot of plaza area around these things so far. I like the idea in the plans to integrate better with the riverfront. I’d like to see that advanced. I think that’s more ethereal now, I’d like to see real concrete plans, too.
Gilligan: Parking should be easier. I mean, be bike-friendly and all that, but let’s not be anti-car. A lot of people drive. We need the dollars. We need more shops, more business. And making it easier for people to get here and park is going to help.
What could the city or businesses do to improve downtown?
Barr: It’d be great if we could take advantage of all the open storefronts we have. I know in the past we’ve had artists occupy empty buildings and a lot more pop-ups. We see some of that, but I know there are a lot of food truck owners and restaurateurs and stuff who’d love to have a presence down here, but without having to invest in everything. So while we have vacant properties, I wish we had a better program for taking advantage of those.
Anna Gouveia
Retired from public transit, Gouveia was born in Santa Cruz and has lived in Scotts Valley for the past 14 years. She comes downtown about once a month to go out to dinner and go shopping.
Do you look forward to coming downtown, or do you try to avoid it?
I look forward to patronizing local businesses. I don’t look forward to parking. I don’t look forward to running into the construction area. I try and stay away from that area. But for the most part, this is my hometown also and I’m familiar with all the different personalities, and I like it.
What are your thoughts about the vibe and energy of downtown?
I’m of the Cooper House age. That vibe is gone and I wish it would come back, I really do. I wish we had actual live entertainment. I know that’s what Abbott Square does but it’s not really downtown. It’s sort of off to the side. But when Cooper House was here, it was right there. You could go up and down Pacific and it was a lot more lively, and just really good music. I’m really sad to see all the shops that are closed. It’s a little concerning. Will downtown survive? Because there’s so many businesses that just keep opening and closing, opening and closing. But I’m here, I’m trying. I’m doing my part.
Do you think that it’s gotten better or worse through the years?
It’s hard to say. It looks better, but I think the atmosphere is the same. The same people, UCSC students come and go, the homeless people are still here. You still have the street musicians and entertainment. But it’s not as lively as it used to be. It used to be a fun place to just sit down and hang out. Now it’s like you sit down and you may get harassed.
What would make you want to visit downtown more often?
I’m retired from public transit, I am a transit advocate. It is so easy to just get on a bus at the transit center in Scotts Valley and get off right here, and there’s no worries about parking. If we could get more people to take transit and come downtown and do some shopping and have a little drink and not have to worry about driving, that would be the ideal thing to get more people down here.
What could the city or businesses do to improve downtown?
Maybe more of an overall presence of law enforcement. Not patrolling, but just being a part of the community. Just foot patrol, just walking around, getting to know people. More information on what’s here and the easiest way to get here.
—Tamsin McMahon, Chimera Mohammadi and Hillary Ojeda contributed to this report.
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