By Noozhawk Editors | 9:00 p.m. Eight years ago, we had a choice of remaining in Santa Cruz or moving to Santa Barbara. When we compared the two communities, Santa Cruz had a hostile homeless population downtown that would harass you while you were walking around. Santa Cruz had filthy parks with syringes and drug paraphernalia, making it an unsafe and unpleasant environment for children. Santa Cruz had multiple murders within a mile of our house near downtown in the “best”school district. So, we chose Santa Barbara. Now, in seeing the post-coronavirus state of downtown and the parks, it appears that Santa Barbara has chosen to go the path of Santa Cruz. Our children are now deprived of the ability to feel safe walking around downtown or to visit parks without a sense of wariness.