Santa Cruz Noir--blogging the book, Day 9. "First Peak" by Peggy Townsend

(To learn more about my "blogging the book" challenge to myself, go HERE.)

Readers may be surprised that there is quite a bit about Hawaii in Peggy Townsend's story, although the center of action is Santa Cruz. But there has long been a sense of connection between Santa Cruz and these Pacific islands. It's now known, for instance, that three princes of Hawaii visited the city in the summer of 1885 and demonstrated surfing in the mouth of the San Lorenzo river while they were in the U.S. at military school. Both surf culture and musical culture keeps them firmly entwined.

The real theme of the story is the more current tension about Silicon Valley new money coming into town and driving the older community out. As Susie Bright has said in her introduction, she received so many submissions about the gentrification of Santa Cruz that she could edit a whole volume entitled "Gentrification Noir." Peggy' story, Townsend's story offers up its own unique form of revenge.

Boone watched the kooks climb the wide set of steps the county had set into a faux rock wall to foster access for the tourists or something. He remembered when Pleasure Point felt like a community instead of a destination resort, when a carpenter or a teacher could afford to rent or even buy a house because there weren't vacation rentals on every corner--or giant paychecks that allowed people from over the hill to build giant houses that only they could afford. He remembered when you had to walk a narrow path and hang on to a knotted rope to get down the cliff to the water, which kept out the people who did not deserve the waves. 


Audible sample of Peggy Townsend's "First Peak" can be found HERE. Performed by James Patrick Cronin and Derrick Steven Prince.