By now, almost everyone in the entire known universe has seen the Huffington Post’s mashup of Sarah Palin vs. That Crazy Santa Cruz Lady. Whatever you may think of the former Veep candidate, the young Santa Cruzan in the video ranting to the city council about pesticides and slavery in an attempt to, um, participate in our local democracy doesn’t do much to dispel a popular stereotype of Santa Cruz: that ours is a quirky, un-serious town.
I won’t try to deny that Santa Cruz is a quirky place. In fact, I wouldn’t want it any other way. What the rest of the world may see as quirky, most of us Santa Cruzans see as tolerant, welcoming, creative, and innovative. Still, I’m troubled by the possibility that the viral spread of the Huffington Post video is giving our fair seaside town a bad rap. So in the interest of providing a more complete version of the character of Santa Cruz, please take a spin through the following few items:
–In this short video, Greg Gumble (yep, THE Greg Gumble) from The Economic Report shows why Santa Cruz is a unique ecosystem that boasts a balanced lifestyle, a history of innovation, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and a highly educated workforce. These are the exact ingredients for a strong, vibrant economy and we’ve got more than our fair share of those ingredients in Santa Cruz.
–Santa Cruz is loaded with creative designers, scrappy entrepreneurs, and savvy business people. This video, produced and directed by NextSpace member Dusty Nelson, features a who’s who of local educators, engineers, bankers, designers, government officials, and CEOs, all offering their pitch on why Santa Cruz is a great place to work, live, and play. Take 10 minutes and watch the whole thing. It’s an awfully damn impressive piece of filmmaking and showcases some of the world-class talent in this town.
–Speaking of world-class talent, check out this Business Week article about Santa Cruz-based Plantronics and Altec Lansing. Together, these companies racked up six innovation awards at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Tens of millions of people all over the world use their award-winning products and every one of those products was designed right here in Santa Cruz.
–What about the money? You need a pile of it to build great companies, not an easy task in these cash-strapped times. But local social networking start-up UserVoice recently landed $800,000 in seed stage capital. AlgaeOMEGA, a bio-fuels company spun out of research at NASA and UC Santa Cruz, received another $800,000. NextSpace member Carmen Kubas led her company, Lightfoot Industries, to a third place finish in a regional venture capital competition. And local heroes 12seconds.tv are luring investors with their new iPhone app and their huge community of users. Want to invest in some of the hottest new companies across a range of industries? Look no further than quirky Santa Cruz.
Like any city, Santa Cruz has lots of faces. We’re a surfing town, a tourist town, and a university town. Despite our depiction in the Huffington Post Santa Cruz is a town that’s building an enviable ecosystem of business, lifestyle, and innovation. What’s our secret? We take ourselves seriously, just not too seriously.
[...] More Than Just Surf City, Jeremy Neuner, August 4, 2009 [...]