Santa Cruz, We Apologize
On July 31, 2013, Estately published the article 17 Best U.S. Cities for Hippies. In it, we did not include the California city of Santa Cruz, something that dozens of commenters pointed out was a ridiculous omission. We’ve looked into the matter and have come to the conclusion it was a serious error on our part and one for which we owe Santa Cruz a genuine apology.
On behalf of everyone at Estately we’d like to not only apologize for excluding Santa Cruz from this list, but even more, we’d like to apologize for not including it in the top five. We sincerely hope this omission didn’t harsh anyone’s mellow, nor detract from the good vibes and total bliss that are found in Santa Cruz.
Obviously, Santa Cruz has all the hippie cred necessary for a top-five spot on this list. It’s got UCSC, that little college in the woods with the banana slug mascot, and it’s home to a fat stash of Grateful Dead archives. Aged hippie surfers still putt putt around town in their rusting microbuses and the city has the progressive politics that come from a strong hippie influence. There are 18 stores offering hemp products on Yelp, plenty of vegetarian options for diners, farmers markets, and it’s a lousy place for military recruiters. Hippie-style festivals and markets abound, and there’s plenty of new age spirituality to be found. The 1960s are still very much present in Santa Cruz and it was just absurd that we left them off our list. We offer our most sincere apologies and we hope that in the spirit of true hippies the good people of Santa Cruz will find it in their hearts to forgive us.
Sincerely,
Everyone at Estately