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.