Santa Cruz is tolerable if you've got a lot of patience and alot of money. It's getting really crowded though. the UC is trying to up it's enrollment from 15,000 to 21,000. Plus demigraphics predict the county population will at least double in the next 10-15 years. that's not counting the tourists. All that means is rents are going to keep going up. As it is it's hard to find a really small room in a house for less than $500. If you get with the right people you can do OK but the right people are getting scarce, and it's easy to meet the wrong people here. Lots of tweekers, gangbangers, and assorted weirdos.