Santa Cruz town and Westside Cafes

Although the surrounding areas are lovely, the town of Santa Cruz is hard to love. It's an unattractive town with almost no beautification such as trees and landscaping. The streets zigzag in all directions, so that there is no throughfare, but just an endless stream of stop signs and traffic lights. People drive aggressively as a result. The main businesses you see are stores offering mushrooms for your next high, liquor stores, bars with drug-themed names, and luckily, clean and appealing health food markets. All three times I've visited I've felt claustrophobic and just wanted to leave.

The once-loved downtown strip, Pacific Avenue, has nice architecture, but every five steps there is a homeless person with a full setup right there in front of the cafes and antique stores. Drive along it first to make sure you actually want to find parking and go there. We were glad we hadn't walked from our hotel only to end up there. To us it looked apocalyptic and unsafe, and we felt bad for the residents of Santa Cruz who grew up loving their downtown.
As with Ventura and San Luis Obispo, new areas have popped up outside the downtown, where you will find a clean, safe environment for going out. In Santa Cruz, that area is Westside. This is the hip area, where industrial spaces have been converted into breweries, bakeries, coffee shops, and cafes! After checking out three other areas, we were happy to find this area and kept returning to it on our trip. It's kind of stark to walk around, but once you are inside a cafe, it is lovely.
In California towns that haven't changed their policies yet even though the Boise Law (that allowed drug addicts to set up camp on a street anywhere) has been overturned, a good rule of thumb is to look for where the breweries are located, in a former industrial area. This will be the safe area for eating out.
Iveta Westside is a cute cafe, with pretty indoor and outdoor seating. Their roast beef sandwich is delicious, with bread that was crunchy on the outside, and warm and soft on the inside. They also have branches on the UCSC campus and downtown. Usually a good way to find a successful place to eat is to find a local cafe with a few branches. Then you know it has been a success, and expanded. Companion Bakeshop is a good bakery with a beautiful, large indoor (though cold) space with many people studying. One weird thing is that they won't let you request whole wheat bread on your breakfast sandwich.
An area that sounds promising but isn't is Pleasure Point. This is a neighborhood with stores and cafes in a wealthier neighborhood near Opal Cliffs, but it is quite ugly and rundown, with many cafes that are closed. The cafe we walked into was dirty. I saw a European couple on vacation trying to have a night out there and felt quite bad for them.
The beaches in Santa Cruz are extremely cold and windblown, with pretty cliffs or dunes. Lighthouse Field State Beach is a stunning spot where people surf. Natural Bridges State Beach has dunes and an arched bird rock (a bit stinky). Both of these are a five minute drive from Westside.
Santa Cruz Wharf is a nice place to stroll and listen to the sea lions roar. You can see them lazing in the sun on the crossbars below the pier!
Where this town shines is its redwood forest areas, where lush forest catches rays of sunshine, and you feel deeply happy. Walk around University of California Santa Cruz campus, which is in a redwood forest. Visit Land of Medicine Buddha Retreat Center, open to the public, where gorgeous religious statues and temples are set in a forest. Or take a hike on the Ox Trail to a swimming hole at Garden of Eden, in the nearby town of Scotts Valley. Take a train ride ($44) through the forest at Roaring Camp Railroad in Felton (you can catch a train for $46 to the forest ride, at Santa Cruz boardwalk). You will see deer in the forest, and banana slugs in the rainy season, or winter. The forest towns of Scotts Valley, Felton, and Ben Lomond are charming.
Capitola, a twenty minute trafficky drive from Santa Cruz, is an upscale, bright town! Here, colorful houses line the beach where a wide creek meets the ocean. Little restaurants with balconies line the creek. More cafes face the beach with windows you can look out, enjoying the ocean without the freezing cold air. I recommend Zelda's on the Beach, which has fresh sea bass that is delicious. Capitola Avenue, one block back from the beach has sweet boutiques and storefronts, and reminded me of Laguna Beach town. It is warmer than the surrounding areas, and a happy find. I would like to spend more time there.

Directions

Westside Santa Cruz is located at the area where Mission Street meets Swift Street. 
Iveta Westside, 2125 Delaware Ave, Santa Cruz. Open daily 8-3. 
Companion Bakeshop, 2341 Mission St, Santa Cruz. Open daily 7 or 8am, to 1 or 3pm.

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