I live in Santa Cruz and have for over 25 years, visiting for longer, friends with people who have been here generations. I live on the east side of town near

I live in Santa Cruz and have for over 25 years, visiting for longer, friends with people who have been here generations. I live on the east side of town near where Hwy 1 and 17 meet. For years, I have various DSL offerings (sonic.net was one), through one of the local trunks I was able to get 6Mbps down, 768kbps up. It was...yeah, no. A couple of years back, Cruzio started putting up point to point Wifi. They started on the North (west) side of town at the old Wrigley Building. A former colleague was one of the early residential customers. 20Mbps/sec @ $99/year. Real speeds, a bit higher (using speediest). I was the first to sign up in my neighborhood when they eventually lit up the 911 center. Their network engineer lives a few blocks from me, he was the first over here :) 20Mbps/sec allows me to work well from home. Fiber would be a good thing. It will take awhile for Fiber to be fully deployed, so I suspect I will stay on the direct Wifi for a few years. Do I see this changing the economic development outlook for Santa Cruz? No. The University is the biggest employer, has a great deal of real estate around town and pays no property taxes and hasn't built enough housing to keep up with enrollment. The growth of administrators to staff/students is another issue. Santa Cruz is mostly built out. There are a lot of infill projects going in Santa Cruz, but the uptick in actual tech isn't where it was 2000s. There aren't really any large employers like there were then. Amazon has a small presence, Full Power has been here awhile, Imprivata has a presence, Looker, Cruzio and Next Space have incubators. Apple and Google have shuttles -- yeah, no. Santa Cruz has serious social ills as well. It has had a tolerance for "alternative lifestyles", but the weather, the tolerance, and a blind eye being turned have made things a cesspool too. Prior to the 89 quake and even into the 90s, most of the homeless here were the older drunks, maybe a vet, who were down on their luck. Meth and heroin have taken over, gang issues, the local police blotter is a revolving door of many of the same names -- several (many homeless) arrive here from other areas. Private residents are having to invest in alarms and camera systems. Local hotels are telling people not to leave their bikes on their cars even when parked in a monitored lot. Where things go, I don't know. Personally, I see my days here as being on the decline.