Some people think the trend of buying vintage clothes is a way to help save the Earth; others think it just makes them look cool.

We go for both.

For decades Santa Cruz has been a capital for buying cool old things, gently used, as they say, but the competition has been better for consumers than for the businesses. Carefully curated vintage clothes are a big draw for downtown and a bunch of other locations around the county, a never-ending flea market, particularly after we have lost the great drive-in flea market that was a mainstay for years.

Fashion writer Morgan Guerra found great treasures downtown, from sweaters to rock band shirts, to boots and hats, masks, statement-making stuff that breaks wearers out of the mass-produced fast-fashion bland landscape.

Our stores are a tourist draw also. Where else besides Haight Ashbury here can you spend a day wandering shop to shop scoring one-of-a-kind treasures? We are to hippie cool what Carmel is to nose-up-in-the-air rich high fashion.

But do we have too much of a good thing? Is the competition killing business for individual stores? And is the seemingly endless construction choking shopping and making downtown a wasteland? Some say so.

Will there be a boom when residences are built and new people are able to do the downtown stroll? One would hope so. See what some of our vintage owners say in our cover story.

Who knew there was such a thing as New Zealand style ice cream? The new owners of Nico’s which just opened downtown with ice cream that blends fruit, are banking on it being a new draw. Read about it in Mark Anderson’s Dining column.

He also covers a special viewing of Food, Inc. 2 and a discussion with co-writer/producer/investigative journalist Eric Schlosser, happening Nov. 23, before a certain food-filled holiday.

This coming year is a big one for anniversaries (Good Times will celebrate its 50th) and the wonderfully collated Comic News has its 40th, defying the odds of a successful print publication. Check out DNA’s story about the great local funny news source.

Thanks for reading.

Brad Kava | Editor

PHOTO CONTEST

SEEING DOUBLE Reflection of the Walton Lighthouse in a puddle, photographed on an iPhone last month. Photograph by Brian Caulfield

GOOD IDEA

Santa Cruz officials stepped up two days after the election in which President-Elect Donald Trump vowed to deport millions of immigrants and refugees, to voice support for local undocumented immigrants and women. “We know this is going to be a very difficult time for our community. We know there’s going to be a lot of fear,” said Santa Cruz County Administrative Officer Carlos Palacios. “But we are here to let you know that we will support you. We will do everything in our power to continue to provide every service that we can to our community and continue as we have been in the past.”

GOOD WORK

Cabrillo College has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to implement the Veterans Mental Health Demonstration Project. The two-year grant is one of ten awarded to community colleges statewide for the project term starting November 2024 through November 2026.

“The awarding of this Chancellor’s Office grant allows us to expand veterans mental health services, while creating professional development programs that enable all Cabrillo faculty and staff to participate in supporting our student veterans,” said Matt Wetstein, Cabrillo College president.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” —Leo Tolstoy