Locals are people who have either resided in Santa Cruz for a long time, usually for reasons other than school, or who have grown up in Santa Cruz. Like the general population, this group is fairly diverse and includes lower-income people who purchased their Santa Cruz homes before the real estate market went crazy a while back.
Tourism
Many people in Santa Cruz love the boost tourism adds to the local economy, but hate the tourists themselves, and/or the congestion to the area they bring. In the 1970s and 1980s this sentiment peaked with the use of the term Valley Go Home.
Local/UCSC Tensions
Tensions exist between some locals and UCSC students/university representatives for a variety of reasons. A common complaint is loud student parties in otherwise quiet, family-friendly neighborhoods. However, in the summer of 2005 (when many students had left for the summer), the city council passed an amendment increasing crackdown and fines for loud parties. (For more information on the ordinance, see the SC Metroactive article and the actual policy statement.) More recently, in January of 2007, UCSC gave the Santa Cruz Police Department $25,000 to help with additional enforcement costs (For more about this, see the SC Sentinel article.
Additionally, some locals who have witnessed significant changes over the years (from a sleepy beach town to a booming university city) dislike how the university has changed the look and feel of the town. For example, traffic has increased enormously as the university grew from only a few hundred students to over 15,000 students today.
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