We needed to get them to spend money downtown, Cirillo said. To do that the city committed to getting high-tech companies to move into downtown. The city worked closely with the UC Santa Cruz School of Computer Engineering to work toward a high-tech center downtown, something that is only now coming together. In 1993, the City Council in one of its few business-friendly proclamations declared support for local software companies. I think Ceil Cirillo is one of the true heroes of the downtown, Schmidt said recently.
Sales taxes are up again.
Movie theater ticket sales have more than doubled since before the 1989 quake. And even the most prophetic visionaries couldn t have predicted the prosperity that the recent technology boom would bring to Santa Cruz. No one knew. Downtown is packed with residents and tourists. Cirillo regularly fields calls from other communities struggling to match Santa Cruz s success.