What will Santa Cruz be like 50 years from now?
It will be more gentrified and expensive, like a mini-city with more high-rises. The homeless situation will be less welcoming, with police control over the homeless. I’d love rent control so people without crazy tech money can live here, and people restoring the San Lorenzo River … and maintaining its beauty.
Aster Galloway, 22, UCSC Environmental Studies
A lot more commuters will live here, because housing is crazy on the peninsula and people love the small beach town feel of Santa Cruz. I would love the city to champion the community spaces that we have and foster more spaces that allow people to come together and be a community, to meet each other.
Kaia Garcia-Vandegrift, 21, UCSC Legal Studies
I hope for more local businesses. I like the small shops that are locally owned—they make Santa Cruz happier.
Emmi Steiger, 20, Leaf and Vine Urban Plant Shop / Cabrillo EMT program graduate
Santa Cruz is going to be a world-renowned arts destination. People will come here just to see what we’re doing. More art galleries, more performance venues, strengthening theater, dance, and visual arts. … People envision us all in Birkenstocks and tie-dye and we’re so much more than that.
Rose Sellery, 70, Co-owner/Curator of M.K. Contemporary Art
More downtown building—but I think it will be important that somebody had the presence of mind to preserve most of what we’ve got. Hopefully more freedom of movement from north to south and not overly “neighborhood-ized” because of traffic. People don’t travel the whole county anymore.
Richard Rossi, 75, Artist
I foresee Santa Cruz rivaling the oceanside spa towns in Spain, with more and richer tourists. For a lot of rich apartment renters, it will be like a second home. We’ll need more bohemian cafes to counterbalance the arrival of the rich, because this is a very cosmopolitan little city.
Dennis Holt, 83, Folk musician/Guitarist/Troubadour
