The free parking had a significant impact on what kind of people you encountered in town.
I lived in a redwood forest near the coast at the time, so what Santa Cruz offered in those areas didn't really affect me. I didn't go to Santa Cruz to see redwoods or the ocean, I went for the quirky town and to hang out around interesting people in a nearby urban center (I lived in Butano SP).
Don't live in the redwoods it's why we have fires. And I'm not sure what you're upset about here your nature destroying frontiersman fantasy is still very much alive in Bonny Doon
> Don't live in the redwoods it's why we have fires. And I'm not sure what you're upset about here your nature destroying frontiersman fantasy is still very much alive in Bonny Doon
It wasn't illicit, the area around the park isn't well defined and there's plenty of private property out there which the park's trails run straight through.
I don't know what you're talking about WRT "frontiersman fantasy", my downtown Santa Cruz complaints have absolutely no relation to a frontiersman fantasy.
The fires are the result of power lines and infrastructure supporting unnecessary exurban sprawl out into our redwoods. Not to mention the septic leaking from houses into the rivers and springs.
Well, no. A lot of Walmarts, particularly in oil country, got rid of the free parking because of people abusing it. Its problematic for sales if people are worried about their safety in a store's parking lot.
Not the coast, or the redwoods, or the cool book store, but the free parking.