@RunRichRun Here in Santa Cruz the number of vacant storefronts - including the closure of O'Neils - on Pacific Ave kinda suggests that Santa Cruz already is suffering economic losses.

I can say that, even as Santa Cruz city residents, we prefer to go to Los Gatos, Pacific Grove, or Carmel rather than going the much shorter distance to central Santa Cruz.

I suspect that the primary present cause of people staying away from Santa Cruz has little to do with future sea level rise and the loss of some surfing sites. (I wonder: wouldn't future sea level rise create new surfing sites or have we built so many sea walls and jetties that new sites won't form?)

We moved our business out of Santa Cruz because our customers did not want to come to our location because getting to our door too often required stepping over passed-out people and avoiding things like used hypodermics and excreta.

Sea level rise will certainly devastate many seaside areas, but we have many other sources of short-term economic decline.