The heart of downtown Santa Cruz is Pacific Avenue. It's several blocks long and attracts a wide range of tourists, locals, students and transients. Transient is a politically correct term for homeless people.
In most towns these are people I'd feel sorry for and try to help. They're down on their luck. They caught a bad break. Whatever.
In Santa Cruz, it's a little diferent. The transients on Pacific Avenue wear tie-dye clothes, smoke marijuana, talk about their vibes, hum Sugar Magnolia and ask passersby for spare change. They used to be called Deadheads.
At least when the Grateful Dead was still around -- before Jerry Garcia died 10 years ago -- the Deadheads would leave town when the band was on tour. Now they're here all the time!
And amazingly, Deadheads are allowed on Pacific Avenue but dogs are not! Why? The Santa Cruz politicos are afraid we'll ruin the tourist experience by soiling their precious Pacific Avenue paradise. Like these Deadheads won't? Their idea of recycling is throwing candy bar wrappers, cigarette butts and other trash on the sidewalk where they're sitting. And don't even think about objecting to this crass behavior. "Well, hey man, we don't want the landfill to overflow." Yeah, right.
But the politicos think these characters make Santa Cruz a unique and colorful. That they attract tourists. Please! When was the last time you visited anywhere and enjoyed being harangued by someone wearing tie-dye? Especially when they were so stoned they couldn't remember why they asked you for spare change. Oh yeah, that's a big tourist magnet.
Anyway, I've decided to go to Pacific Avenue -- even though dogs aren't allowed. I'm wearing my Grateful Dead T-shirt to blend in with the crowd. I'll let you know what happens.
I've got to pee now.
No comments:
Post a Comment