The Broker's Record

Capitola Village Residents Association

September 01, 2008

When I was down at the Begonia Festival the other day, checking out the floats, I picked up a flyer about the Capitola Village Residents Association (CVRA). I love these kinds of resident associations – I find that the communities that have them are generally much better run and have higher property values than comparable communities that do not.

Apparently, it’s a new association. Here is an excerpt from the flyer:

We are forming an association of residents of the Capitola Village and the nearby neighborhoods. Our goal is to closely follow issues of importance to the quality of life the residents of these neighborhoods and to participate effectively in the political process when the City Council makes decisions that affect us.

Some of the “hot topics” right now regard traffic circulation, parking/neighborhood permits and parking meters.

The CVRA Neighborhoods are: Central Village (including Fanmar), Upper Village (including Beulah/Burlingame, Pacific Cove, and McCormick areas), Depot Hill, Riverview Terrace, and the Jewel Box (excluding west of 47th Avenue)

According to the flyer, the plan is that the association will not meet often, but will communicate by e-mail and by a Capitola Village Residents Association Google Group that has been set up.

As anyone who lives here knows, the Capitola Village has a long history as a major tourist draw, and the commercial interests of keeping the visitors coming has had a big impact on the livability of the area. Tourism is a big part of the economic base of the area, but people have to live here, too, and this effort to involve residents to a higher degree in the ongoing development of the area should help to make the area more livable, as well as more prosperous.

Posted by SantaCruzBroker at 11:17am
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Capitola Begonia Festival 2008

September 01, 2008

It’s Labor Day weekend, so it must be time once again for the Capitola Begonia Festival. Despite having lived in Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Aptos for many years now, I must confess, I had not previously ben to the Begonia Festival. This year, however, I made it a point to go. It’s a three-day affair, with the highlight of the fist day being the Sand Castle Competition.

Naturally, the sand castle that first caught my eye was the one with the “Foreclosure” signs placed all around it. Nice. It should be noted that this particular castle didn’t win any prizes – and that can be said of most foreclosure properties as well.

There were, however, a few really cool sand castles there. I even discovered that my friend Rico Suave (aka Richard Robinson, also of Thunderbird Real Estate) was down there working on a pretty cool sand castle – which, unfortunately, didn’t win any prizes either but I thought was surely one of the better ones there.

The 2nd day of the Capitola Begonia Festival is the nautical parade. This is what makes the festival famous – famous in these parts, anyway. Folks create these boats that are covered in begonias – like floats in any parade, except these floats actually float. The floats are constructed there Soquel Creek (alongside Riverview Avenue). There’s a little pathway that starts at the Stockton Bridge, and you can follow it and watch the people building their floats.

As fate would have it, that’s about as much of the nautical parade as I got to see this year. I didn’t know what time the parade started – I had thought it began earlier in the day, and a client asked me to go see some property at 2 PM, so I pretty much had to leave before the floats weighed anchor and went wherever it is they go.

There’s lots more to the Capitola Begonia Festival than just the sand castle competition and the nautical parade, though. They also have a few concerts, an outdoor Movie Night at Esplanade Park, the horseshoe tournament, a fishing derby, and more.

Next weekend, it’s the Capitola Art & Wine Festival. I’ve never been to that, either – but I’m planning on spending a few hours this year as well, if all goes according to plan. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Posted by SantaCruzBroker at 8:53am
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