Santa Cruz, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| City of Santa Cruz, California | |
 |
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| Nickname: "Surf City (contested)" | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | California |
| County | Santa Cruz |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Emily Reilly |
| Area | |
| - City | 15.6 sq mi (40.4 km²) |
| - Land | 12.5 sq mi (32.5 km²) |
| - Water | 3.1 sq mi (8.0 km²) |
| Population (2000) | |
| - City | 54,593 |
| - Density | 4,356.9/sq mi (1,682.2/km²) |
| Time zone | PST (UTC-8) |
| - Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| Website: http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/ | |
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California, United States.
As of the 2000 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 54,593. It is located on the northern edge of the Monterey Bay, about 72 mi (115 km) south of San Francisco and is considered the overlapping portion of Northern California and Central California.
Contents |
[edit] History
In 1769 the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà discovered the land area which is now known as the City of Santa Cruz. When he came upon the beautiful flowing river, he named it San Lorenzo in honor of Saint Lawrence. He called the rolling hills above the river Santa Cruz, which means holy cross.
Twenty-two years later, in 1791, Father Fermin de Lasuen established a mission at Santa Cruz, the twelfth mission to be founded in California. Across the San Lorenzo River, in what is now known as the East Side of Santa Cruz, Villa de Branciforte was established. It was founded by the Spanish as one of three civil settlements or pueblos in California. The other pueblos were San José and Los Angeles. Villa de Branciforte later merged with the Mission Santa Cruz community across the river.
By the 1820s Mexico had assumed control of the area and within the next twenty years, Americans began to arrive in great numbers. California became a state in 1850, and Santa Cruz County was created in 1850 as one of the twenty-seven original counties.
By the turn of the century logging, lime processing, agriculture, and commercial fishing industries prospered in the area. Due to its mild climate and scenic beauty Santa Cruz also became a prominent resort community.
Santa Cruz was incorporated in 1866 as a town under the laws of the State of California and received its first charter as a city in 1876. At that time the city was governed by a Mayor and Common Council consisting of four members.
In 1907, the citizens voted for a new charter designating a Mayor as chief executive and a City Council consisting of seven members. Subsequent charters gave a Mayor and four Commissioners both executive and administrative powers. At that time the city was divided into five departments: Public Affairs, Revenue and Finance, Public Health and Safety, Public Works, and Streets and Parks.
In 1948, the City of Santa Cruz adopted a new City Charter. This charter established a Council-Manager form of government, with a Mayor and six Councilmembers setting policy for the city and a city manager serving as the chief administrator of those policies. The Charter, with amendments, is still in existence today.
[edit] Demographics
| Year | Pop. |
|---|---|
| 1940 | 16,896 |
| 1950 | 21,970 |
| 1960 | 25,596 |
| 1970 | 32,076 |
| 1980 | 41,483 |
| 1990 | 49,040 |
| 2000 | 54,593 |
Recorded from the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 54,593 people total with 20,442 households and 10,404 families residing in the city. The population density includes 1,682.2/km² (4,356.0/mi²). There were 21,504 housing units at an average density of 662.6/km² (1,715.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city represents 78.74% White, 1.73% African American, 0.86% Native American, 4.90% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander, 9.14% from other races, and 4.50% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.39% of the population.
There were 20,442 households out of which 25.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.0% were married couples living together, 9.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.1% were non-families. 29.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.98.
In the city the population was spread out with 17.3% under the age of 18, 20.5% from 18 to 24, 32.6% from 25 to 44, 21.0% from 45 to 64, and 8.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 99.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.9 males age 18 and over.
The median income for a household in the city was $50,605, and the median income for a family was $62,231. Males had a median income of $44,751 versus $32,699 for females. The per capita income for the city was $25,758. About 6.6% of families and 16.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.5% of those under age 18 and 4.8% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Education
Santa Cruz is home to the University of California, Santa Cruz, which was built starting in the 1960s as an 'alternative' campus with a residential college system based on the British system, (see University of Cambridge or University of Oxford). There are ten colleges, each with a different theme and architectural look. Overlooking Monterey Bay among the redwood trees, UCSC is arguably the most beautiful of the University of California campuses. UCSC originally did not use letter grades and had no organized sports teams, although both of these have been changed and students are now faced with the same choices as any other campus. There are now also a number of NCAA division III sports programs, including tennis, water polo, swimming, diving, basketball, rugby, and soccer. The university mascot, the banana slug, was established by students on an informal basis, and recognizes an indigenous creature that can be found throughout the campus. The campus administration attempted to assign the sea lion as the mascot in the early 1980s. However, after a 1986 student referendum voted overwhelmingly in favor of the slug, the then-Chancellor declared the slug the official UCSC mascot.
[edit] Recreation
Santa Cruz is well-known for watersports such as sailing, diving, paddling and surfing. It is the home of O'Neill Wetsuits and Santa Cruz Surfboards, as well as Santa Cruz Skateboards and Santa Cruz Bicycles. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is California’s oldest amusement park and a designated State Historic Landmark. Santa Cruz also houses Derby skate park, the first public skate park in the USA. Home to two National Historic Landmarks, a 1911 Charles I. D. Looff Carousel and 1924 Giant Dipper roller coaster, the Boardwalk has been owned and operated by the Santa Cruz Seaside Company since 1915.
Santa Cruz is the reputed site of the first surfing in California in 1885, when three Hawaiian princes, Prince Edward, Prince David and Prince Jonah Kalaniana’ole, surfed on locally milled redwood boards at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River, but there were no witnesses and scant circumstantial evidence to prove it. Santa Cruz has 11 world-class surf breaks, including the point breaks over rock bottoms near Steamer's Lane and Pleasure Point, which create some of the best surfing waves in the world. Home to the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum at Steamer Lane, which continues to be staffed by docents such as Harry Mayo and others from the Santa Cruz Surfing Club who have surfed Santa Cruz waves since the 1930s, Santa Cruz hosts several surf contests drawing international participants each year, including the O'Neill Cold Water Classic, the International Longboard Association contest, and many others.
The Santa Cruz Wharf is known for fishing, viewing marine mammals and other recreation.
Many outdoor sports are popular in the area such as cycling, camping, hiking, and rock climbing.
In addition to its reputation in surfing and skateboarding, which now has the first public skatepark in Northern California. The Santa Cruz Skatepark is open to the public 7 days a week and is free. Santa Cruz is known for other alternative sports such as disc golf. The De Laveaga Disc Golf Course hosts PDGA tournaments, including the annual Masters Cup. De Laveaga was the disc golf and discathon venue for the WFDF-sanctioned World Disc Games overall event held in Santa Cruz in July 2005.
A skate park, containing both shallow and deep skating pools and ramps and located along the San Lorenzo levee, opened in March 2007.
Santa Cruz provides many great opportunities for birding (see bird list) and butterfly watching.
Many local shops and local color can be seen by spending an afternoon strolling Pacific Avenue, the heart of downtown Santa Cruz. One can walk down Pacific Avenue and see anything from a pair of old men with guitars playing Beatles tunes in front of an entertained crowd to a friendly resident walking by on stilts. Representing an aspect of the "Keep Santa Cruz weird" contingent is Robert Steffen, a gentleman who spends his weekday afternoons walking very slowly down Pacific Street while dressed entirely in pink women's clothing and makeup, including a parasol, thereby attaining the moniker "Slow Robert" and "The Pink Umbrella Man".[2][3][4]
Santa Cruz is also home to KSCO 1080 AM, one of the last independent commercial radio stations in the country.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz holds an annual summer festival at UC Santa Cruz. The festival typically performs two Shakespeare plays and one other play every summer, many of which are performed in a unique outdoor space among the redwoods.
Santa Cruz is also home to the Cabrillo Music Festival.
[edit] Notable Santa Cruzans
Notable Santa Cruz bands:
- The Tikis with Dick Scoppettone, Ted Templeman and briefly, Randy Newman (Surf/British beat)
- Harpers Bizarre (renamed from The Tikis) with Feelin' Groovy (Pop)
- Camper Van Beethoven (Alternative)
- Swingin Utters (Punk)
Grew up in Santa Cruz:
- Actress ZaSu Pitts
- Keyboardist Derek Sherinian
- Timothy Etler "the Master of Time"
- Sports Illustrated and Victoria's Secret model Marisa Miller[5]
[edit] Economy
The principal industries of Santa Cruz are agriculture, tourism, education (UCSC) and high technology. Santa Cruz is a center of the organic agriculture movement, and many specialty products. Tourist attractions include the classic Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on the beach, the redwood forests, and Monterey Bay, which is protected as a marine sanctuary. The best known local high-tech companies are The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) (now Tarantella, Inc.), and Plantronics. Giro bicycle helmets, The Santa Cruz Guitar Company, the Good Earth Tea and Erik's Deli Cafe are also headquartered in Santa Cruz.
From 1970 to present, Santa Cruz has been the home to numerous boatbuilding companies, including Moore Brothers, Bill Lee Yachts, Wilderness Boats, Alsberg Bros. Boats, C&B Boats, and Pacific Yachts. A common theme amongst these builders was the influence of lightweight surfboard construction using foam and fiberglass, and the result was the creation of the ULDB (ultralight displacement boat). Classes such as the Santa Cruz 27 and 52, Moore 24, Olson 30, Wilderness 21, Monterey Bay 30, and custom boats like Merlin showed that exciting, fast, and seaworthy boats could be made out of materials far lighter than was common in that time. While many of these builders have closed, Santa Cruz Yachts and Moore Bros. still exist.
[edit] Transportation
Highways 1 and 17 are the main roads in and out of Santa Cruz. Geographically constrained between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Monterey Bay, the narrow transportation corridor served by Highway 1 suffers severe congestion.
The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District provides bus service throughout Santa Cruz County. Metro also operates bus service between Santa Cruz (city) and San Jose, thanks to a partnership with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and Amtrak California; connections are possible in San Jose. (Complete transit itineraries between Santa Cruz and San Francisco Bay Area cities and major airports are available from iridethebus.org; see External Links, below.) Greyhound Lines bus service is another option for visiting Surf City.
Big Trees Railroad
The nearest airports for commercial travel are San Jose International Airport, Monterey Peninsula Airport, San Francisco International Airport, and Oakland International Airport.
Santa Cruz has an extensive network of bike lanes and bike paths. Most major roads have bike lanes, and wide, luxurious bike lanes were recently installed on Beach Street, near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Additionally, there are levee bike paths along the San Lorenzo River. A Rail Trail -- a bicycle and pedestrian path beside an existing coastal train track -- is under consideration.[6]
The Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway operates diesel-electric tourist trains between the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and Roaring Camp in Felton, through Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Roaring Camp and Big Trees Narrow-Gauge Railroad operates two narrow-gauge trains, taking vistors through the redwoods to the mountain top year-round. These 3-cylinder, gear-driven, Shay steam locomotives draw many enthusiasts to Santa Cruz.
[edit] Other points of interest
- University of California, Santa Cruz, Arboretum
- Mystery Spot
- Natural Bridges State Beach
- Cocoanut Grove
- Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
- Santa Cruz Student Housing Co-ops
- Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History
- Santa Cruz Surfing Museum
[edit] Gallery
 City Hall |
 Victorian home in downtown |
 Surfer near the lighthouse on West Cliff Drive |
 View of sailboats on the Bay from Long Marine Lab. |
 Front Street downtown |
 Corner of Pacific Avenue, downtown |
 Victorian townhouses, downtown |
 Sunset at Seabright Beach, looking towards the wharf/boardwalk. |
 The Clocktower Downtown Santa Cruz |
 Sea Lion preening under the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf. |
 Natural rock bridge of West Cliff Drive (now collapsed) |
 View of Natural Bridges State Beach and West Cliff Drive. |
[edit] Points of conflict
- After Huntington Beach, CA trademarked the Surf City USA® name, Santa Cruz politicians tried to stop the mark from being registered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office because of 10-year-old controversy over Santa Cruz's nickname "Surf City." [1] Huntington Beach prevailed and a total of seven registrations for the Surf City USA® trademark have been granted. [2]
[edit] Social Activism
As a center of liberal and progressive activism, Santa Cruz became one of the first cities in California to test the state's medical marijuana laws in court after the arrest of several medical marijuana proponents by the DEA.[7] The case was ruled in favor of the growers. In 2005, the Santa Cruz City Council established a "city government office" to assist residents with obtaining medical marijuana. In 2006, Measure K was passed by voters, making marijuana enforcement "lowest priority" for law enforcement.
In 2003, the Santa Cruz City Council became the first City Council in America to officially "denounce the Iraq War."
Santa Cruz has an active community of independent media makers as demonstrated by the Santa Cruz Independent Media Center and many other do-it-yourself media projects. A pirate radio station, Free Radio Santa Cruz (FRSC 101.1 FM), has been in operation in Santa Cruz for a decade, operating with active participation from a cross section of Santa Cruz residents. Incendio is a bi-lingual journal to connect English- and Spanish-speaking anarchists throughout the world to anarchist, indigenous, ecological, and social struggles occurring throughout Latin America. Santa Cruz also has an active independent media outlet.
The Diversity Center is a non-profit organization organized in 1989 as the Santa Cruz Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Community Center, Inc. and has served as Santa Cruz County's primary LGBT service agency ever since. The name "The Diversity Center" was adopted in the fall of 1999. The Diversity Center maintains a drop-in space, lending library, and numerous social and support groups. Since 1997 the Diversity Center has been the producer of the Santa Cruz Pride Parade and Celebration, an annual event that draws thousands of people to downtown Santa Cruz each June.
Founded in 1976, The Resource Center for Nonviolence is one the oldest and most centrally located non-profit organizations committed to social activism in Santa Cruz County.[8] The center is "dedicated to promoting the principles of nonviolent social change and enhancing the quality of life and human dignity".[9]
Santa Cruz has arguably the most activist Veteran community in the United States.[10] The United Veterans Council sponsors a community-based program for Veterans dealing with re-entry into society as an alternative to government remedies.[11] The Bill Motto VFW post #5888 sponsors anti-war and peace efforts in Santa Cruz and throughout the country. The Veterans Memorial Building is host to punk, reggae, and hip-Hop acts from Santa Cruz and around the world. It is also the home of the Bill Motto Post sponsored Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. These dinners were started by post #5888 in the late seventies. In 2006, the Thanksgiving dinner served 1,400 people.[12]
[edit] Santa Cruz Radio Groups
- KSCO, 1080 AM
- KUSP, 88.9 FM
- KZSC, 88.1 FM
- Free Radio Santa Cruz, FRSC 101.1 FM
- KHIP, 104.3 FM
- KPIG, 107.5 FM
[edit] Sister Cities
Santa Cruz has five sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI):
A monument next to the downtown Santa Cruz post office has a small circular plaza surrounded by marble posts topped with bronze maps of each of the sister cities.
The sister city relationship with Alushta was established in the waning days of the Soviet Union before the fall of Communism and was controversial at the time.
[edit] External links
Government
Education
Media
- Good Times (alternative weekly)
- Santa Cruz Independent Media Center
- Santa Cruz Sentinel (Local Newspaper)
- Metro Santa Cruz (Weekly newspaper with news and arts)
- Incendio (bi-lingual anarchist journal)
- Santa Cruz International Film Festival
Local Resources
- Santa Cruz Indymedia's community links
- Penny University
- Santa Cruz Public Libraries
- Santa Cruz Wiki
- WikiSCUM at Wikia - for Santa Cruz Underground Music
- Santa Cruz County Veteran's Hall Homepage
Tourist Info
- Guide to Santa Cruz beaches
- Santa Cruz County Conference & Visitors Council - Santa Cruz Visitor Information
- SantaCruz.com Community site with surf spots, restaurant and visitor information
- Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District
- iridethebus.org Public transit itineraries to/from Santa Cruz
- Photos of Santa Cruz
- Natural scenery photos of Santa Cruz, California
- Santa Cruz Area PhotosSurf, wildlife and landscape photography from the Santa Cruz area
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
[edit] References
- ^ Santa Cruz Public Libraries. [http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/weather/popstats.shtml Population Statistics for Santa Cruz County and Cities, 1850-2000]. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.
- ^ "Contra Costa Times" Oct 26, 2006 "Growing pains for Santa Cruz"
- ^ "Los Angeles Times" Oct 17, 2006 "Which Way, Santa Cruz?" (copied onto University of Houston website)
- ^ "Metro Santa Cruz" Sep 28, 2005 "Santa Cruz: The Makeover"
- ^ Fame suits local model. www.santacruzsentinel.com (2002-03-02). Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
- ^ Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, January, 2007, "Santa Cruz Coastal Trail Network Fact Sheet"
- ^ Federal Suit Charges DEA's Raids Of California Medi-Pot Patients Are Unconstitutional, NORML. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
- ^ Santa Cruz Sentinel online edition. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
- ^ Resource Center for Nonviolence homepage. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
- ^ "The Good Fight", Good Times Santa Cruz. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
- ^ Santa Cruz Community Veterans Program. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
- ^ Thousands converge on Santa Cruz Veterans Hall for meals. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
Incorporated places
Santa Cruz (County seat) • Capitola • Scotts Valley • Watsonville
Census-designated places
Amesti • Aptos • Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley • Ben Lomond • Boulder Creek • Corralitos • Day Valley • Felton • Freedom • Interlaken • Live Oak • Opal Cliffs • Rio del Mar • Soquel • Twin Lakes
Other unincorporated communities
Bonny Doon • Brookdale • Davenport • Mount Hermon • Swanton
