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Earthquake Audio

October 15, 2009

At 5:03 PM on October 17th 1989 Santa Cruz was business as usual. The regular eclectic crowd was hanging out in the cooper house courtyard, university students were browsing in Bookshop Santa Cruz, a group of little girls were in their weekly ballet class above Universes records. By 5:05 pm, Pacific Avenue was reduced to a pile of rubble, 60 percent of downtown businesses were destroyed, and 3 people were dead. 20 years later we’re still recovering. This summer a group of Santa Cruz undergraduates worked with Social Documentation graduate and community studies instructor Sarah Yahm to create an audio walking tour that commemorates this event and its aftermath. Read more and listen to the audio.