OUR WONDERFULLY WEIRD WORLD

by Neal Coonerty
SC Sentinel, Sunday Dec. 22, 2002, Opinion page F-2

Recently, the New York Times ran an article about a man named Red Wassenich who lived in Austin, Texas. The article told the story of Wassenich, who had watched unhappily as Austin, his funky, once-affordable hometown had been transformed into a high-tech boomtown. Suddenly, he said, people in expensive clothes driving expensive cars were buying houses at ridiculously expensive prices.

Wassenich felt something had to be said to balance the idea of what Austin was becoming. One day while listening to a local PBS radio show that played off-beat tunes, he heard them play a recording of Bing Crosby crooning "Hey Jude." He called up and made a pledge. Whoever answered the phone asked, "Why do you support the show?" Wassenich answered, "I don't know. It helps keep Austin weird."

He and his wife decided to print up bumper stickers with the phrase "Keep Austin Weird." It wasn't exactly "Remember the Alamo," but it got his point across.

Now, I've got nothing against people in our community who work in the high-tech industry --- lord knows I've been selling them book for many years. And it is a little bit dishonest to pretend that Santa Cruz can ever again be the funky town that we choose to remember and wrap in nostalgia. But there are things about Santa Cruz that still make it unique, fun and funky in the face of all the good and bad economic changes.

Street performing downtown is one of those things. And having peaceniks and politicos at tables downtown is another. It is these things that make our downtown unique, creative, interesting and spontaneous. These are some of the things that keep us weird.

Sure, there are occasional bad performers straining to sing their own version of "Proud Mary," but if you walk down Pacific Avenue any weekend night, you may be entertained and delighted by the guy with giant bubbles, someone playing a very good steel guitar, the balloon clown making kids happy, a classical trio, or a costumed guy playing that most maligned of instruments---the accordion. In fact, the travel section of the New York Times recently mentioned that sitting on Pacific Avenue and listening to a street performer is one of the pleasures of this town. They are right.

At a time when our nation's leaders hint that political dissent is a close first cousin to treason, people setting up a political table on Pacific Avenue is another very important part of our civic life. It should be part of every community's civic life, but, in fact, political tabling is absent in nearly every town in our country, which makes us unique. Having a lively political discussion over a card table downtown is healthy for our community family, our downtown and our democracy.

The main street of any town is always about more than just the exchange of goods for money. Our downtown is host to various parades, from our children's holiday parade to June's Gay Pride parade. Downtown displays our town's architectural heritage. Downtown has become the safe place to bring tiny trick-or-treaters for Halloween. It is our retail neighborhood filled with interesting locally owned shops run by our neighbors. Downtown is also the place where we run into old friends and catch up on each other's lives. Pacific Avenue is our community's living room, and we even have some sullen and silly teenagers in black clothes and pink hair lying about to prove it.

The City Council's recent action to loosen some of the recent restrictions was wise, and reinforced the wonderful spirit of downtown Santa Cruz. They opened up the sidewalk by creating a 10-foot corridor along buildings reserved for pedestrians and shoppers. They left a good 5 to 6 feet by the curb for street performers and political tables. They are considering a one-hour move-along policy so that no store is serenaded all day long by the guitar player with a total repertoire of three Dylan songs.

All these are compromise positions that may not completely please the merchants, performers, shoppers, visitors and political pundits. But the bottom line is that the City Council found a way for all of us to share our downtown sidewalk in a reasonable and fair way. In this way, the City Council did something important to protect the rights of everyone who uses downtown and allowed the fun, joy and unexpected delight that happens downtown to keep happening. In other words, they found a way to keep Santa Cruz weird.