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Your articles are such a great mix of sober, tactical policy analysis and provocative, emotional, rally-the-troops anecdotes like this. Definitely helpful to have both; you're among the few who can do both well

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Thanks for sharing this. One of the best ways it seems to beat NIMBYism is to point out how this morally reprehensible practice affects students. People that you can’t claim, even in bad faith, are somehow inferior or “agents of gentrification” (noting latter was tried in Berkeley, doubt it worked.

In the best of all worlds, the effect of housing scarcity on the homeless would be a scandal, but given it’s been status quo in SF for 40 years, not getting hopes up.

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I graduated from UCSC in 1982, and it looks the same as it did then! If it weren't for the 1989 earthquake it would be the city that time forgot. At that time there were only 6,000 students and you could live all four years on campus without an issue. But the town housing situation was impossible even then. I do think that there are hints of YIMBYism now; there certainly weren't for most of UCSC's existence. I'm sorry you're facing such a nightmare.

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This is horrifying. How many students are dropping out just because they can't find housing, as you almost did?

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I knew many students who dropped out because of housing

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So what’s happening with the new housing element policy and Santa Cruz? If they’re talking about actually enforcing it on San Francisco, surely they’re breathing down the necks of SC which seems to be far worse? (…right?)

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The Santa Cruz area is about a year behind the SF Bay Area in their Housing Element schedule. The areas are spread out so that the state doesn't have to review every city at once. So Santa Cruz is early in the process.

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"ostensibly liberal people" is, in my opinion, crucial to understanding the actions of otherwise "left-leaning" people in places like Santa Cruz. Like most religions, beliefs and actions are a world apart - often completely uncorrelated. This is true of liberalism as well. Your experiences are nothing less than the endgame of a complete moral collapse when it comes to accommodating the humans with whom we co-exist. It is shameful and embarrassing for Santa Cruz and for the state of California.

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Hi Darrell, my name is Moriah and I’m the Video Manager at CollegeVine. I'd love to interview you about your experience finding housing in college for a video I'm doing on UCSC's Camper Park that touches on Santa Cruz's housing insecure students. If this is of interest to you, you can reach me at moriah.kofsky@collegevine.com ! Thank you.

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