"Are residents of Santa Cruz County ready to accept the realities of building the housing required by the state of California? Or, to put it another way, are tall apartment buildings the way forward, or will the strong local strain that opposes new developments have the final say on just how this housing will look?" writes the Editorial Board. "This is playing out in the movement to tax local residents to build more affordable housing and/or to give local voters a say on any massive developments that will, in the views of many, change the character of downtown Santa Cruz for the worse."
The group behind the Measure O campaign, known as Our Downtown, Our Future, organized a conference at the London Nelson Community Center Saturday that examined numerous facets of the affordable housing crisis.