I’m totally psyched for Kids Day on May 2 for a number of reasons.
First: I have used that day for a decade to measure the health of Downtown, which I’m afraid has too many critics and not enough people appreciating the center of art, culture, music and shopping we have.
Some 10 new businesses have opened recently and you can’t miss the giant apartment buildings along the river.
My first reaction to them was yuck, what happened to our small town? But I’ve come to think that city planners were prescient and deserve some serious praise.
They thought if they build housing, which we need, and locate it in the downtown, where there is mass transit, then people will need places to shop and be entertained. Looking around, I see it’s working.
Check out Shiri Gradek’s article about all the kid-friendly stores there. That really makes me happy. It’s a sign of a growing, thriving, healthy downtown, which we desperately need to buck the trend of retail being killed by the internet.
We aren’t a snobby little town like Carmel or a bland semi-urban metro like gasp – San Jose, where there is no there there. We are still cool, friendly and weird, like a slice of Greenwich Village without the pollution.
From the nightly events at Abbott Square, to the Art and History Museum to the varied tastes in restaurants from around the world, the Downtown is a place for everyone, especially on Kids Day when families take over. Are there problems? Some. I worry about parking. Will there be enough?
And yeah, we have street people, but in all my years here they have never bothered me or the kids. You are going to have characters in any city in which you live.
And also, personal complaint: I miss when they trucked in snow for a winter celebration. I loved that. Lastly, I think they have to do something to preserve the Catalyst, the music club that first brought me to Santa Cruz and has been a musical center for decades, bringing in famous names from around the world.
I’ve yet to hear a solid proposal for that. I balance the negatives with the amount of culture we have for all ages.
There are concerts, film festivals, basketball games, poetry readings, author signings, date night activities, antique fairs, parades, protests, makers fairs, farmers markets and kid festivals in such great numbers it’s impossible to do them all.
If you’ve lived in the Midwest, you know that any one of these things would be a big deal, bringing out the whole town. But we have a plethora of them, mountains of them, more than your AI can track. We are spoiled by the local beauty and the culture that people like Shiri have been thoughtful enough to shower us with.
My hope for the future, and I think it will also happen, is for Downtown Watsonville to get on a similar roll. (There’s a candidate running for County Supervisor from there, Tony Nuñez, who shares that vision and I think can help make it happen. Check him out as the June elections approach.)
In so many places across the country downtowns have died, often replaced by malls, which are now also dying. The internet has been our friend and enemy.
But Santa Cruz has taken a stand to keep shopping local and I’m proud of our county and cities. I guarantee kids and families will have a ball on Kids Day when they see just how much is offered here.
Check the maps inside and start planning now. Time will fly by and the day never seems long enough for it all.
