Good News in Santa Cruz
Great news regarding camping & parking in Santa Cruz–-apparently it’s easier than I thought.
I went down last weekend to visit and do some research on what being homeless there might be like. My first mission was to seek out parking and see if it was even possible to find permit-free overnight parking. On instinct, I immediately turned onto the industrial, north side of River Street as soon as I came off Highway One. Bingo! Almost all the streets were no parking 1AM-5AM, but I was able to find one or two small streets that allowed overnight parking without a permit.
But even better, there were also a few streets on the Westside, particularly that long strip that goes down from campus to Highway 1, Western Drive. As far as I could tell, this area had a huge strip of permit-free parking. But even better, on the way out of town, when you’re going north on One, there are a few beaches that are littered with RVs, campers and sedans, so I guess these are established areas for camping. This was very good news for me.
However, I’m starting to believe less and less that a car will be a necessity on this journey. I think I’ve figured out how to construct locking baskets for my bike that’ll hold my sleeping bag. I might just leave my car with friends in the South Bay in this case. If I have access to a University library, I won’t really be needing my own library, and now that I have a tiny, inexpensive netbook I’m totally mobile as far as doing work.
