Every year, we publish a Visitor’s Guide to help people discover the best things to do and places to go. But in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has devastated tourism at a time when local businesses need support more than ever. How to help?
Well, first of all, you’ll find we’ve revamped the format of this issue considerably. While we may not be getting a lot of visitors right now, hopefully this guide can help locals explore Santa Cruz County, too. We’ve also focused on the industries that are open for business and most need help from all of us: the restaurants that are trying to make ends meet with a combination of takeout and primarily outdoor dining, and the local shops that have rewired themselves for shopper safety during the pandemic, but need to get people back in the door.
You’ll find their stories of adaptation and survival here, too—whether it’s the local wine industry that’s endured fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains or the art community that has had to quickly adjust when its biggest event of the year, the Open Studios Art Tour, became impossible to put on due to Covid-19 concerns.
For many of us, the saving grace during the long lockdown was being able to get outside. While the fires and subsequent smoky air took that away for a while, everyone is getting outdoors again, and this issue also features a lot of ways to do that. From trails to farmers markets to bike rentals to surf spots, this is the Santa Cruz County guide we all need right now.
STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR
Read All Explore Santa Cruz 2020 Coverage:
Guides:
Featured stories:
- Open Studios Creates a New Way for People to Discover Local Artists
- Santa Cruz Mountains Winemakers Grapple with Aftermath of Fire
Full issue:
To browse the full flip-through edition of the Explore Santa Cruz 2020 magazine, click here.
There is an insert in the Good Times I picked up at Pleasure Point which is dangerous misinformation. It’s a blue flyer with one side headlined “Victory over Corona-19” and the other “CDC Lowers Corona Death Count”.
Everything from advocating for herd immunity to claiming a HQL variant Hydroxycholoquinine is a cure for COVID-19. Virologists and Epidemiologists tells us herd immunity won’t work for COVID-19 because as with other corona viruses, people’s immunity after infection and recovery is short lived and is crazy because many people will die and hospitals will be overwhelmed. A very recent New England Journal of Medicine report states that HQL does not work for COVID-19 and can cause harm.
Please ensure that such inserts aren’t official GoodTimes distributions. These things make life worse.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. That insert was not authorized by Good Times.