I have a lot of reservations about living in CA because of fires and earthquakes, but something there has potentially caught my eye.

Does anyone have any comments about life in Santa Cruz?

My niece lived there for many years in kindof a communal living arrangement.(My brother is closer to San Fransisco) She loved it, but when her husband got a job in San Jose, the commute was a killer. They moved closer to his work a few years ago.

Like many places out that way, the cost of living is pretty expensive!

One of the best schools in the country at least in my day.

I’be been there a few times. Laid-back university town, cute bungalow houses, nice commercial areas. There was a pretty serious earthquake some years ago that did a lot of damage. I always enjoy it there, but I don’t know about life day to day.

It sounds lovely! But

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the cost of living is pretty expensive!

This detail and the earthquake/wild fire concerns are a big turn off

Upside is you’re likely to make more money. Nice weather year round, low property tax. Live in town and fires aren’t an issue. Beautiful country. Population is both liberal and diverse.

Buy a house and it should double in value in 10 years.

Kind of remote.

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Upside is you’re likely to make more money.

I don’t have any real numbers but I can’t figure out if the salary potential is actually higher or just scaled…

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

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Upside is you’re likely to make more money.

I don’t have any real numbers but I can’t figure out if the salary potential is actually higher or just scaled…

Scaled to what? If it’s scaled to the cost of housing you could do pretty well. It’s one of the most expensive markets in the state.

Santa Cruz is pretty idyllic. Not many places in the country that are nicer. If you have a job opportunity there I'd look at it very seriously.

We visited there on a family tour of CA a few years ago. It was pretty awesome - honestly, if I were to move to CA, that's probably where I would pick. There's a beach with a cool boardwalk/old school amusement park. There's a quaint little touristy town section. And right outside of town, there's a lot of wilderness - huge sequoias, beautiful rocky beaches. The skateboarding scene is huge there if you're looking to pickup a retirement hobby, LOL. And then there's this -- certainly one of the most interesting and bizarre (in a wonderfully tacky way!) places I've ever visited.
https://www.mysteryspot.com/

It didn't strike me as a place where there's be wildfires and mudslides either - the climate wasn't as dry and hot as it was in southern california. But I dunno that much about CA geography and climate so I will defer to others for that (and maybe know about the earthquake factor too....). It didn't seem as overrun with people as other places in CA either - I wouldn't call it urban, certainly not compared to SF and LA. In fact, maybe 10 minutes outside of town, on our way to the mystery spot, there was a good stretch where we had no cell service - it actually felt flat-out remote. And going by the cost of the hotel, I'd guess it is a good bit more reasonably priced than SF/LA as well.

I'm with Pique - time for a new adventure! (Plus, I assume you'd be teaching for the Banana Slugs - how can you resist that mascot???!!!!)

How can you not like a team nicknamed the Banana Slugs!

Whether or not a move out there increases your standard of living? That's complex. If your economic happiness is driven by housing, you'll lose. Take your current home and imagine paying 4X as much to get anything approximating its square footage. A head hunter tried to get me to apply for a deanship at St. Mary's in Moraga, just over the ridge from Berkeley. To get anything approximating my Williamsburg home would have cost $1.5m or more. Ah, no. They said, "people live in Oakland or elsewhere and commute" ... over an hour one way. Ah, no. I declined to consider the position.

On the other hand, if you're willing to consider smaller (possibly apartment in town) real estate, and value all the other amenities of a beautiful California setting, it could be a wonderful move. That whole area (Monterey Bay, Carmel etc. is spectacular. And you're a hop, skip and jump from San Fransisco and its surrounding area.

Professionally, you're in a network of powerhouse universities. Lots of potential colleagues and collaborators close by.

P*D and Lisa,

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Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
How can you not like a team nicknamed the Banana Slugs!

Yeah, I mean that is probably the best mascot ever! Although Stanford is a close runner up with its.... Tree...

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Whether or not a move out there increases your standard of living? That's complex. If your economic happiness is driven by housing, you'll lose. Take your current home and imagine paying 4X as much to get anything approximating its square footage. A head hunter tried to get me to apply for a deanship at St. Mary's in Moraga, just over the ridge from Berkeley. To get anything approximating my Williamsburg home would have cost $1.5m or more. Ah, no. They said, "people live in Oakland or elsewhere and commute" ... over an hour one way. Ah, no. I declined to consider the position.

On the other hand, if you're willing to consider smaller (possibly apartment in town) real estate, and value all the other amenities of a beautiful California setting, it could be a wonderful move.

Ugh. On both counts. We love our current house... We don't want to live in an apartment... And no way do I ever want to live somewhere with an actual commute.

Phooey....

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Professionally, you're in a network of powerhouse universities. Lots of potential colleagues and collaborators close by.

This, and the details of the position, are why I haven't written it off yet...

I'm giving myself a week to think about it, because if I'm going to apply, I will put my whole energy into it so even though there's wiggle room before the deadline, if I'm gonna go for it, I'll need to start soon(ish).

Lots to think about .....

(Not to mention the fact that the position is not open rank and I am not going somewhere that would have me reset my tenure clock to zero.... Don't know much about negotiating a shortened time to tenure...)

Lots to think about....

I've only been to Santa Cruz twice, once for a project for PG&E when I worked for Westinghouse and once when we delivered our former exchange student to a conference there after we'd met and gone to Yosemite together. It seemed like a nice-enough town on the coast and far enough removed from any major city to not be overwhelmed by them. That's a plus and a minus depending on what you're looking for - a less-hurried pace, but not so many alternatives for activities of many sorts. It's a significant distance from the Bay area so there is not the possiblity of just popping over to someplace else for an evening on a whim.

I may have missed something, but I was not especially impressed.

Big Al

Most of what I know about Santa Cruz is the Pasatiempo golf course, which is one of the best public courses anywhere in the country. In case Mr. SK likes to play golf ...

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In case Mr. SK likes to play golf

Neither of us like golf