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UCSC is an interesting problem. There are have been serious plans to expand into upper campus - which would destroy some beautiful redwoods which people don't
by jrowley 10y ago
UCSC is an interesting problem.
There are have been serious plans to expand into upper campus - which would destroy some beautiful redwoods which people don't like. But is it better to build an entire new UC campus somewhere else? That seems inefficient - there are already serious resources devoted to that campus and I think that more people experiencing UCSC will lead to a better, more educated, more socially conscious world. Maybe we should just increase capacity and build more housing in upper campus. But by increasing capacity we further increase demand for water in a drought stricken area... We can't win without more water. So maybe we need desalination, but to make that work we need obscene amounts of excess electricity... environmentally and socially conscious growth is hard.
- jmspring 10y agoSanta Cruz gets enough rain to sustain itself. However, adding a new reservoir was stopped in the 80s. The area is beautiful, but the same people who preserved a lot of what is special about the place also put policies in place that are destroying it. It's a lack of balance. Sadly local municipalities can't control the decisions that a given UC makes. UCSC should have had enrollment capped at a sustainable level -- water, housing and traffic. Adding more in upper campus, eh, there is really still only one way in -- no eastern access, etc. I understand the benefit of exposure to environmental and socially conscious issues, but reality should factor into planning and that should be a lesson as well.