Santa Cruz a finalist to host stage of Tour of California cycli...

JULIE JAG WRITES: "Previously, the city has not fit into the organizers' plans -- leaving cycling fans to travel to the San Francisco area, San Jose or Seaside to glimpse"

BECKY: Santa Cruz would be a far better City to bike through than San Jose or Seaside!! San Francisco, is of course, unique in its City views and hills, but San Jose is flat with few views, and Seaside doesn't have the charm Santa Cruz has! We have W. Cliff Dr. and E. Cliff Dr. And even City streets in Santa Cruz go past unique homes and gardens which are very visually pleasing.

I agree that if Santa Cruz is chosen, we would undoubtedly recoup the initial investment of $75,000 -$95,000.

Unique homes and gardens, you say? When did you become an ambassador for the finer points of mainstream life in our city, Becks? Or are you referring to Donna's van and the weed growing in its porta-potty sink?

Don't you just always love it when Becky pretends to be an expert on a subject. And just how would the city see it's investment returned?

When you say "undoubtedly", Becks, do you mean without a doubt? As in, "Donna is undoubtedly innocent and all cops are undoubtedly willing agents of a fascist City Council"? Or as in, "I'm undoubtedly a journalist, since I write fables on Indymedia"?

I'm glad you are positive we would recoup our investment. I would have expected that you would want that money going to Food Not Bombs however, so they could set up a soup kitchen in the middle of Pacific Avenue.

Old Donna will have one of the only ocean-side properties on West Cliff as the bikers go by. Maybe she can offer them all a hit off her pipe. Just as soon as she fishes it out of the trash.

Becky is now an expert on the city's bottom line, but she can't control her own waistline.

I know. Let's make Robert Norse's jalopy the Official Pace Car for the event. He and Becky could lead the bicyclists through town, pointing out the scenery along the way. The ocean, the homes and gardens, Donna's van, the levee, the drum circle, the protest at Bookshop, the quaint drug addict on the corner, the other quaint drug addict on the corner, their good friend on the same corner, the HUFF World Headquarters in the hallway at the County building, the quaint guy looking for bus fare home, the other quaint guy looking for bus fare home, the 3 teenagers who need money for gas...

Yes, they would be fitting Ambassadors for our fine city.

DAVE WRITES: "Don't you just always love it when Becky pretends to be an expert on a subject. And just how would the city see it's investment returned?"

BECKY: In sales tax.

And how much money in sales would need to happen in order for this to happen? Remember, not all of the 8.5% goes back into the city coffers. Not even half of it.

Let me rephrase that. How many incremental sales sales would need to happen in order for the city to turn a profit. We already have sales happening, it would have to be additional sales to cover the expense.

good news-

we really need a traffic tying-"cute" pile of hazards coming in-

I'll just shut up-stew in gridlock-pay the taxes-

as SC hosts a cute event-how to(cause others) waste gas-onna bike!

maybe have a security n fence team for this?n hundreds of cops.

Oh please!

What are these people coming to Santa Cruz supposed to spend money on when they get here. A piece of rock crystal, a wooden buddha head, or some incense? When you really think about it what do we have for people to spend money on? People around the world that would come here for such an event would surely be a little disappointed at the lack of quality object to buy here.
And where would these people be expected to stay? At one of our world class flea bag hotels on Ocean Street? A lovely little hotel with "charm" in the flats?

Do city leaders really think we are at a place to be presenting ourselves to a worldwide audience? People that already come here say "Wow, I've heard about Santa Cruz for years and decided to come. I didn't realize how much of a dump it is until I got here"

Here's an idea. Build some nice hotels, clean up downtown of all the bums, arrest all the drug dealers.

There is a reason why cities that hold the Olympics spend 6 years getting their city ready. People will remember what they see once they get here and decide if they ever want to come back or not.

Here we go again, more of Becky's wonderful math "genius"

I don't trust Becky being behind something like this. Something to increase sales for the local businesses? Helping the city make more money via sales tax?
Right. She wants to help the evil business owners make more money and the corrupt city make more money off of sales tax.
My take. She would love to have a bunch of out of towners come here for such an event..... and then stage a protest with the media tuned our direction. It's a ploy people.
She cannot be trusted on anything she presents.

SARA WRITES: "She wants to help the evil business owners make more money and the corrupt city make more money off of sales tax. My take. She would love to have a bunch of out of towners come here for such an event..... and then stage a protest with the media tuned our direction. It's a ploy people.
She cannot be trusted on anything she presents."

BECKY: I am not an anti-capitalist. Perhaps you have confused me with the Free Radio Santa Cruz and the Indybay.org people who are anti-capitalist. I see nothing wrong with merchants selling their wares and earning a living. IF you actually read my posts, you would find that in every case where I am critical of merchants, it is for some repressive ordinance that they are proposing to impact the rest of us. The last one was Ryan Coonerty's 'no tresspassing in city parking lots' ordinance which removed 10 city blocks of public land from public use.

I am never critical of merchants for selling goods or making money. If they exploit their workers (such as businesses who fought hard against raising the minimum wage) or attack a homeless person ( such as the owner of Lulu Carpenters did) then I am critical.

Try reading. You'd be surprised how much you can learn.

(and thanks for the suggestion about the protest...I hadn't thought of that!!)

Hey Becky, how's it going with getting those figures together to back up your claim? You may want to find out how much of the 8.5% sales tax the city really gets to keep. This might help you before calculating the incremental increase.

DAVE WRITES: "Hey Becky, how's it going with getting those figures together to back up your claim? You may want to find out how much of the 8.5% sales tax the city really gets to keep. This might help you before calculating the incremental increase."

BECKY: Sorry, but I have no plans to compute an educated guess on how much money an event like this could net, but it seems perfect for Santa Cruz. Our life blood is the tourist dollar, we are bike-friendly, and have a great location for such an event. The more motel rooms rented, meals bought in local restaurants, gas bought at local gas stations, means more tax dollars in our coffers. I'm all for it.

Make Santa Cruz tourist friendly, not scare them off by making it vagrant and derelict friendly.

Becky Johnson wrote:

BECKY: Sorry, but I have no plans to compute an educated guess on how much money an event like this could net, but it seems perfect for Santa Cruz.

Considering that Becky has proven incapable of completing basic math equations, involving addition and division, I would agree she cannot compute an educated guess on this subject. It would take someone educated in basic math to do so.
Once again we have an example of Becky making the statement that something would be best for the city without having any facts to back it up. We should just trust her.

DBS WRITES: "Make Santa Cruz tourist friendly, not scare them off by making it vagrant and derelict friendly."

BECKY: That's it in a nutshell!! How to make Santa Cruz attractive to the RIGHT kind of people!! Not those nasty poor people who don't have any money to spend! Because when you make a destination inviting with advertising and Chamber of Commerce type pitches, among those who come are an element you'd rather stayed where ever they currently are. Your statement reminds me of Yogi Berra when he said "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."

One of the signs of our success (and the Seaside Company brags they attract 3.4 million visitors a year!) is that along with crowds of tourists come a few ruffians. So? It's not an excuse to dump the bill of rights and break the arms of 60 yr old women.

Go back to your lair
Crazy fool
Some of them have died
Because of YOU!!