What is a Westsider, anyway, and why are they so smug? Answers to this and more in our handy crib sheet to the neighborhoods of Santa Cruz County.
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The Great Santa Cruz Beach Trash Haul-Out
It’s been dubbed “the largest garbage collection” by the Guinness Book of World Records for a reason. Since the annual California Coastal Cleanup Day began in 1985, volunteers have removed more than 14 million pounds of trash and recyclables from the state’s beaches and waterways, including items ranging from cigarette butts and plastic pieces to refrigerators, cars and, yes, pianos.
Santa Cruz Guide 2010: Cultural Bargains
September comes to Santa Cruz bearing sun (usually) and 16,332 seasonal student-residents on the prowl for a good time, most of them broke and, whether they know it or not, desperately in need of civilizing influences. Here are few local deals that fit both bills.
Santa Cruz Guide 2010: Nightlife Bargains
Happy Hour deals, dollar beer nights and more from our hardworking writers. (Our handy rule of thumb: the gloomier the bar, the cheaper the drinks.)
Santa Cruz Guide 2010: Live Music Venues
Where to go to feel the noise.
Santa Cruz Guide 2010: Late-Night Eateries
Our guide to dining establishments that are open after a 10-year-old’s bedtime. Because your stomach doesn’t care that it’s after 9pm.
Santa Cruz Guide 2010: Grocery Shopping
The foraging in Santa Cruz is world-class, thanks in part to the town’s longstanding love affair with sustainable everything.
Santa Cruz Guide 2010: Furniture Shopping
Finding a comfy place to lay one’s head and park one’s tookus is the first step in outfitting a dorm room or apartment. It’s a fact, after all, that the hot transfer student on the fourth floor will not sleep over if she’s forced to share a leaky air mattress on cold linoleum. To this end, we’ve pieced together this handy guide to help college students and other impecunious types furnish an abode with minimal abuse to the credit card that just came in the mail.
Santa Cruz Guide 2010: All Things Bicycle
Anyone coming from the sprawl of SoCal and the Inland abyss might not understand Santa Cruz’s love affair with the bicycle. It’s not just a mode of transportation around here, it’s an outlook on life. But don’t let that intimidate you, we’ve got bike lanes on almost every road, a bike freeway that runs along the river (complete with street kid obstacle course) and, occasionally, free breakfast downtown if you ride there.
Santa Cruz Guide 2010: Beaches and Parks
True fact: Santa Cruz County, the smallest in the state of California, has 20 state parks and beaches. That might give us the highest natural beauty-per-capita rating in the state. And we’re no one-trick pony, either. We have sandy beaches, rocky beaches, redwood forests, oak grasslands, marine chaparral and an ecological oddity called the Santa Cruz Sandhills that’s an isolated relic of California’s prehistoric inland sea. For the whole story on local parks and beaches, visit www.santacruzstateparks.org. These are the ones that should under no circumstances be missed, even if you have to get there by musk ox.
