Santa Cruz Changes - 7: Delaware Addition

This is a multi-phase commercial-residential development on the far Westside, built on empty land between Delaware Avenue and the rail trail. It includes two new cross-connected dead-end streets, High Road and Panetta Lane. The first two commercial buildings opened in 2016. At right is 100 Panetta Lane.

The residential part of the development began construction in 2018. Devcon Construction is the general contractor.

August, 2024 update: What in 2021 looked like the beginning of construction on a larger residential development proposed for the west side of Panetta Lane was apparently just a staging area for the other buildings. That large, still-fenced lot now shows no activity, and city records show no active permit application.

Santa Cruz Changes - 6: 1547 Pacific Ave.

For almost thirty years after the 1989 earthquake, there was a giant hole in the ground near the north end of Pacific Avenue - the longest such emptiness ever. For those who were around before the earthquake, the diverse collection of buildings and open space occupying the site was a popular destination: home to Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Coffee Roasters, and the quirky United Cigar store - all facing Pacific, with a walkway to the open dining deck behind, and the original Kelly's French Bakery in one of two newer one-story octagon-shaped buildings behind that, flanking the rear entrance walkway from the Cedar Street parking lot. 

But downtown development doesn't work that way anymore. A five-story-above-parking mixed-use block now fills every square inch of the site. It's not offensive, but neither does it offer any reason for Pacific Avenue strollers to stop. The center of downtown social life has mostly moved south, except for the war vets' weekend sing-alongs across Pacific at the War Memorial plaza.

The one neighboring survivor from pre-earthquake days is Lulu Carpenter's coffee cafe, now the oldest building on Pacific Avenue. The view at right is from 2017 (sidewalk tables close together and no masks!), when construction next door was just getting started.

At left is a similar view in March 2021. The new apartment building is called Nanda on Pacific. No commercial tenants yet. For better or worse, the hole is gone - completely!

Locations in the Santa Cruz Changes blog can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes - 5: Chinatown arch

 

The pedestrian bridge crossing the San Lorenzo River at San Lorenzo Park was built in 1963 as part of the San Lorenzo Park Project redevelopment - as was everything near either end of the bridge. One of the things that went away during redevelopment near the west (downtown) end of the bridge was the last Santa Cruz Chinatown.

A group of local history activists worked to ensure that the vanished Chinatown was not forgotten. The first step was to persuade the City Council to rename the footbridge "Chinatown Bridge" in 2019. Then, in 2020, a commemorative arch was designed, constructed, and installed at the west end of the bridge - overlooking the former Chinatown location.

The Coastal Watershed Council supported the project, and director Greg Pepping wrote this article about it, which included the photo at right. Supporter George Ow, Jr., who grew up in the Santa Cruz Chinatown, is seen standing under the new arch.

Good Times magazine ran this article about the project.  

Locations in the Santa Cruz Changes blog can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes - 4: Pacific-Laurel-Front

Demolition on this major redevelopment project has just begun in March, 2021. The project site is bounded by Pacific Avenue, Laurel Street, and Front Street. The City website page is here. The image below is an architect's rendering.

The old Taco Bell drive-thru on this corner has been closed for several years; here's what it looked like in 2017 (courtesy of Google Streetview).

Two more tall mixed-use projects will soon follow, adjacent to the north between this one and the Metro Center, straddling Maple Alley, which will be widened into a pedestrian way. More on those projects later...

Locations in the Santa Cruz Changes blog can be found on this Google Map.