Santa Cruz Sentinel: Guest Commentary | Why I’m voting for Santa Cruz Measure C

By Laura Knobel

I moved to Santa Cruz from the Central Valley in 2002 to attend UCSC as an undergrad. While attending the university, I fell in love with our city and wanted to make it my forever home. For the majority of my twenties, I worked full-time as a personnel clerk and then personnel technician (now called HR clerk and HR technician) for the County of Santa Cruz recruiting and hiring other civil servants. Based on the current rates of pay for those job titles, if I were in that job today I would qualify as “low income” under the 2025 California State Income Limits for Santa Cruz County.

Not having much parental support or a partner, I was on the hook for paying my own way, which unfortunately led to $9,000 in credit card debt by the time my now-husband and I moved in together and could start saving a bit on rent. If I hadn’t married someone more financially well-off than me, I would likely still be carrying that credit card debt and likely still be in the rental market.

Now, I am watching other young people who look a lot like I did in my twenties try and make it in our community. Except the market-rate rents they are facing are even steeper than the ones I faced in the mid 2000s. Their incomes qualify them as “low income,” but unfortunately there’s not enough low-income housing stock to meet demand.

The bulk of my sons’ preschool teachers commute in from Watsonville or Boulder Creek every day, because the rents are lower in those communities. All his swim instructors have had second and third jobs. Restaurants are struggling to keep shifts staffed because the lower-wage workers they need are moving away.

I am voting Yes on Measure C to give the young people and working families our community relies on a fighting chance. No one should have to spend two to three hours a day sitting in commute traffic on top of a full-time job. No one should have to work three jobs to try and keep a roof over their head and food on the table. No one should carry thousands in credit card debt just from trying to afford the basics.

Now, at 41, I’m an important part of the fabric of our community — I am the deputy director for a local nonprofit, I sit on the Santa Cruz Sentinel Editorial Board, I am a commissioner for the city of Santa Cruz, and I volunteer at my son’s elementary school. If I hadn’t fought to stay here in my twenties, our community would have lost me, and all of the good I have done for our community over the years and will continue to do. What will we lose if these young people and these young families leave?

I will happily pay $96 a year to invest in the members of our community who are trying to find affordable housing. And for those who are concerned about the real estate transfer tax, when I look at the houses currently up for sale within the city of Santa Cruz limits (where this measure would apply), and throw out the top two most expensive houses on West Cliff and East Cliff drives, the most anyone would pay would be a one-time $53,500 transfer tax. When you’re transferring a home worth $5.75 million, $53,500 isn’t going to make a meaningful difference in the sale. The vast majority of homes on the market are currently listed for under $1.8 million  and therefore would be exempt from the transfer tax. Both the parcel tax and the real property tax will expire in 20 years.

This is a chance for our affordable housing stock to catch up from decades of underinvestment. It probably won’t entirely meet the demand, but it will dramatically improve the current situation. A vote for Measure C is a vote to invest in the young people and families that make our community vibrant, interesting, and sustainable.

Vote Yes on Measure C on or before Nov. 4. Vote-by-mail ballots are expected to be mailed to registered city of Santa Cruz voters next week.

Laura Knobel is a member of the Sentinel Editorial Board and a Santa Cruz resident.