Good Neighbor Initiative

Students

• Outreach
• Housing Workshops
• Good Neighbor Guidelines
• Transportation
• Bike Safety
• Water Awareness
• Off-Campus Waste Diversion

Community Outreach

Being an active member of the community is one of the most important parts about being a good neighbor. As interns, we are trying to show Santa Cruz that there are students who are actively working to become good neighbors to the locals of Santa Cruz by attending fundraisers, community events, and neighborhood meetings. Shopping locally, volunteering with community groups, and being involved in community policy-making are just three ways for you to be a responsible member of the city of Santa Cruz.

Attending community events is also an important part of being a good neighbor. By being active in the communities of Santa Cruz, you, as a UCSC student, make a positive impact in your neighborhood.

To learn how you can get involved with volunteer groups, check out http://www2.ucsc.edu/svc

Housing Workshops

Near the beginning of Spring Quarter, the Good Neighbor Initiative will host workshops meant to educate you, a student, about living off-campus. In order to help ease this transition, these workshops will address where and how you can find quality housing, and addresses tenant responsibilities and concerns, such as the Santa Cruz Party Ordinance. The workshops will also provide you with an opportunity to speak with representatives from organizations like SHOP, Community Rentals, Santa Cruz Neighbors, and the Santa Cruz Police Department.

Specific dates for these events will be posted during Winter Quarter.

Good Neighbor Guidelines

In order to foster good relations between community members and you, the student, we've provided the Good Neighbor Guidelines-a few simple suggestions for you if you live in or frequent the city, tailored to the unique relationship UCSC has with its surrounding community.

For a more detailed report of city ordinances regarding students in Santa Cruz: a report by the Good Neighbor Initiative is available.

Transportation

The interns from last year helped to create a Campus Walking Map that was given out to all freshmen. It encourages lowering our carbon-emissions to get around campus by using our own two feet to walk from point A to point B. Encouraging walking through campus is important because conservation of our resources is part of being a responsible member of the Santa Cruz community.

Additionally, the interns are actively working to encourage responsible usage of the Santa Cruz Metro buses and investigating routes that may be better altered to better suit the needs of both you, the student, and city residents.

Bike Safety

In addition to the bike safety tips published by TAPS, the Good Neighbor Initiative interns are working on locating particularly dangerous streets and intersections that bikers should avoid. These include areas where many bicycle accidents have occurred in the past, and places where increased traffic and road conditions make biking dangerous.

Water Awareness

In working toward water usage reduction, we at the Good Neighbor Initiative are making an effort to spread awareness. A first step might include posting water usage statements on apartment and dorm buildings, right along with the energy statements, to get you thinking about how much water you use. Here's why:

UCSC's water usage makes up about 5% of total Santa Cruz Water Department demand. The campus used 19% more water in 2003 than it did in 1986. While per capita water usage is down 36% since 1986, we're working toward further reduction for several reasons:

1. Keep your fees from rising: UCSC must pay the city $6,530 for each 85,000 gallon increase in usage. In 2003, we used 206 million gallons.
2. Create a more sustainable campus
3. Minimize the strain on the city water supply: the city has been searching for new supplies over the last 20 years and is now considering a dam and desalinization plant.

What is Being Done: Beginning with UCSC's 2007 Water Efficiency Survey, the school is making an effort to greatly reduce water usage, in part by projects such as searching for and fixing leaks, and reducing toilet flows by roughly 50%. Overall, we will reduce water usage by 15% and save around $500,000 per year.

What You Can Do: Dorm and apartment water usage make up 40.5% of the campus total! To help reduce this you can:

• Save 2 gallons: turn off the water while brushing your teeth
• Save 4 gallons: wash fruit, vegetables, and dishes in basin rather than under running water
• Save 6 gallons: cut your shower time by 2 minutes
• Save 17 gallons: reduce your weekly laundry by 1 load

The Physical Plant's review of more ways to reduce resource usage is also available.

Off-Campus Waste Diversion

Interns are interested in looking into the opportunities to reduce the amount of waste generated by some students when they move out of their off-campus residences in June. There is work to be done with the City of Santa Cruz to identify areas of high concentrations of students, and this information can be used as a starting point for creating better waste disposal options, such as recycling and donations to non-profit organizations.