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The "core" of Silicon Valley really isn't affordable, unless you want to live dorm style, for many. Rents at 3-4k/mo. Families, it's even more challenging. N

The "core" of Silicon Valley really isn't affordable, unless you want to live dorm style, for many. Rents at 3-4k/mo. Families, it's even more challenging. Nearby "bedroom" communities - Morgan Hill out to Fairfield, housing isn't cheap either. Then there is "traffic". When I graduated with my Masters and went to work at Netscape at Middlefield and 237, I could leave downtown Santa Cruz and be there in about 35 minutes. The last time I had to drive to that area for a work thing was near the Google Campus. I was 15 minutes late for a 9:30am meeting and I left at 7:15 in the morning. From Santa Cruz, if I wanted to use "alternative transportation" I could do 17 Express -> Diridon -> light rail/bus in some manner I haven't looked up. Something that would take a couple of hours. Also with BART, parking lots were already saturated on the Peninsula in the late 90s/early 2000s. People need to get to "new transportation" to take advantage of it.

borroka 4y ago
Commuting via public transportation from Santa Cruz to over the hill is simply not feasible. The 17 is a trap that used to cause way more deaths than any developed country would tolerate. It is difficult to believe how backwards some parts of the countries are. One would expect that a very liberal town like SC would be strongly in favor of public transportation over the prison of cars, but it is the same old story: residents of SC are liberal when it means ignoring the homeless nightmare that are the downtown and lower ocean areas, but not when it is time to encourage and support public transportation or freeing the most beautiful coastal spots from the private properties of the rich.
- jmspring 4y ago
  I drove 17 for about 20 years, my parents drove it when there was a suicide lane and no center barrier. I am well aware. Santa Cruz (and other isolated liberal enclaves) will be it's own death. They literally tried a 0.5% sales tax measure (for the city) mentioning basically paying for homeless services. Where, when you count police and first responder budgets, a double digit percentage of the yearly budget (between about 12-20%) deals with issues resulting from homelessness (and drug issues). They have no idea or competence to handle the problem aside from begging for more money. My partner's family has a shitty little bungalow off of West Cliff surrounded by houses that have sold for $4m. The transient issue still propagates into those neighborhoods with attempted breakins. I can go on for days, having been involved at the civic level there and getting burnt out. It's a beautiful place with an inability to cure it's own woes.

borroka 4y ago

Commuting via public transportation from Santa Cruz to over the hill is simply not feasible. The 17 is a trap that used to cause way more deaths than any developed country would tolerate. It is difficult to believe how backwards some parts of the countries are. One would expect that a very liberal town like SC would be strongly in favor of public transportation over the prison of cars, but it is the same old story: residents of SC are liberal when it means ignoring the homeless nightmare that are the downtown and lower ocean areas, but not when it is time to encourage and support public transportation or freeing the most beautiful coastal spots from the private properties of the rich.

jmspring 4y ago
I drove 17 for about 20 years, my parents drove it when there was a suicide lane and no center barrier. I am well aware. Santa Cruz (and other isolated liberal enclaves) will be it's own death. They literally tried a 0.5% sales tax measure (for the city) mentioning basically paying for homeless services. Where, when you count police and first responder budgets, a double digit percentage of the yearly budget (between about 12-20%) deals with issues resulting from homelessness (and drug issues). They have no idea or competence to handle the problem aside from begging for more money. My partner's family has a shitty little bungalow off of West Cliff surrounded by houses that have sold for $4m. The transient issue still propagates into those neighborhoods with attempted breakins. I can go on for days, having been involved at the civic level there and getting burnt out. It's a beautiful place with an inability to cure it's own woes.