Unless it’s some scandal on MTV about a reckless fraternity that’s just stolen a rare specimen of palm tree, I almost never hear anything about my gorgeous Alma Mater. So you have to understand how visceral my reaction was to seeing a thumbnail photo of UC Santa Cruz at The New York Times.

A story about this beautiful little town combatting the chip-on-my-shoulder-ain’t-too-big-for-my-education-UC Regents!

To UCSC alumni this is not news. We all knew there was something wrong with our being able to live in such glorious surroundings and learn from such thinkers as Angela Davis, Hayden White and Donna Harraway, and on a government dime. Especially when you got heroin alley by the boardwalk and a local economy cannibalized by its very temporary denizens. We knew to be thankful. Santa Cruz is great.

Don’t take my word for it.

Jean Baudrillard calls Santa Cruz a utopia in America.

The Boardwalk has been “immortalized” by Disneyland.

There’s a wonderful little song “Santa Cruz” by Oliver Brown that explains it all (advance apologies – the song is not in the MySpace page I link to here, but you should check out Oliver’s schnizz anyway because it’s just great).

And though I’m no SC native, I’d like to think I made my best efforts to become part of the city and not just a soldier of higher public education. I don’t feel hypocritical telling the school to be a little nicer to the city. Santa Cruz deserves nothing but love.