Cayucos is becoming a lonely, empty place

September 8, 2024

By DELL FRANKLIN

Editor’s Note: The following series, “Life in Radically Gentrifying Cayucos by the Sea,” to be posted biweekly includes the notes, thoughts, and opinions of an original American voice: author Dell Franklin. 

Franklin’s memoir, “The ballplayer’s Son” is currently on Amazon.

Cayucos, once a vibrant conglomeration of middle-class neighborhoods, has become a lonely, empty place, a preying ground for our wealthiest investors with so much extra money they zero in on places like Cayucos and buy up land or houses and build behemoths that sit empty and turn almost every street in Cayucos into a ghost street.

This is not about the good old hard-working venture of the American Dream, but of inexhaustible greed, the decimation of a small town’s tax base, the scattering of long-time renters who are literally priced out of town, and making it impossible for even relatively affluent young families to buy homes.

Not to mention the siphoning off of most of the character and characters who once lent this town so much of its personality and color.

Because of this, I feel a demoralizing sense of loss as well as a loneliness and emptiness. Because half the streets in town have been reduced to a handful of full-time residents. Because surrounding and towering over what remains are similarly constructed behemoths with no lawns, and which sit empty for not only months but years, until somebody with even more money buys them for still another investment so that only the very wealthiest people can afford to live in this last outpost of a beach haven.

Oh, and I can hear it now: “This is America, and the hard-working Americans who make their money are free to invest it any way they want and buy as many homes as they want and cock up your town, and if you don’t like it go to a Communist country.”

Work hard, my ass! It’s a money game that contributes nothing to the community and has shredded the middle class for decades, and it’s getting worse.

On all sides of me are these new continually empty behemoths (no longer vacation homes or rentals), and it’s almost as if I have no neighbors. Nobody to go to when 30 years ago I was bent over in agony with kidney stones and the man across the street on 14th rushed me to the emergency room and hung out for five hours while I passed them.

Or over 10 years ago when a neighbor rushed me to the ER for emergency eye surgery on a detached retina that threatened the loss of my eye.

Small towns are notorious for community togetherness, for looking out and after one another, for running into each other and visiting, catching up, of knowing there is support.

Empty houses do not do this. They sit idle, appearing so innocent and majestic, but they are squeezing every beach town in the state and possibly in the country into entities devoid of life, stunned into inertia.

Deadsville.

Hours go by and there is no sign of activity on my street, or the street below. Every once in a while, somebody will walk a dog but usually they’re holding onto a leash with one hand and studying a phone in the other. When somebody does pass and we manage a conversation, it feels like I am driven to extend the talk, like a person marooned on some faraway island.

On a walk downtown, only a few old neighbors remain. Strangers pass by, almost always lost with their  headphones or studying their own phones.

Never one to begrudge friends of mine in town who build these behemoths, or work on them, I always wait hopefully for somebody to move into them after they are finished. But that is a rare occasion, and usually the new neighbors are largely invisible and protective of not only what they own, but themselves, as they have nothing in common with the scattering of longtime locals still hanging on.

Hanging on to what?

Cayucos is one of the most beautiful places on earth. There is a quality of light and a drowsy languor that is almost tranquilizing, especially in the winter. It is home to perhaps the greatest dog beach and happiest dogs anywhere; and it makes you feel fortunate to be here, to live here, even as time passes and you wonder what it will be like 10, 20, 30 years from now, when the unquenchable grab-bag for property completely takes over and sends the rest of the middle class to America’s no-man’s-land.

Make no mistake, the people who buy or build these homes care not a lick about this town or its people—Cayucos is becoming an investment for ruthless money grubbers who never have enough.

 


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This is very typical of southing facing coastal areas. These properties are expensive and many rent them out to pay the property taxes,


It’s pretty common in most of the US and I think Europe too. The most expensive property is along the coast. Clearly Dell is angry because he feels left out. I’d offer he has much to be thankful for. It seems he’s fairly healthy for a man of 80. He lives in a beautiful town. Everything changes. I grew up in the rust belt and my hometown has changed too. It’s so dangerous that I won’t go back to my old neighborhood or surrounding neighborhoods. Perspective!


The loneliest moments as a local are walking downtown on any Saturday and recognizing only the employees of a few businesses among the ever changing flow of short term tourists. While the newer and larger homes are certainly monopoly cards in successful portfolios that sit vacant, it’s the small size of the town coupled with the short term rental demand vs what was a traditional vacation “home” town which has contributed to the change and current lack of replenishing cycle of community (full time families and characters). Like Trautman said to Rambo…”It’s over Johnny”


Empty homes will become far more common due to simple demographics – women are having fewer children. Japan will lose half it’s population by end of this century. Japan has 9 MILLION abandoned properties and adds another half million every year. China will lose 200-300M people. All first world countries have negative birth rates (ironically, Italy, home of the catholic church, has one of the lowest in the world). US has negative birth rate too, but immigrants keep slight positive population increase. Pretty soon (next few decades) owning property in the US will be a disastrous investment and you’ll see property values plummet in all but the best areas.


Dell’s reflections on his hometown are always entertaining and informative. I just wish his brilliant observations covered the entire county.


Actually, many genuine SLO County locals appreciate that Dell pretty much just hangs around beach bars and sticks close to Cayucos.


Thank you Bruce Gibson for another example of lack of leadership.


It is normal to lament for the past because it is often filtered by time and perceived to be better than what actually was.


Cayucos really was better for it’s actual residents when it had a hardware store/lumberyard, Halloween downtown (reportedly nixed by a crazy woke parent), full time rental homes, the track meet the whole school participated in with actual winners and losers, normal breakfast spots with earlier hours like Flo’s and Skippers, the Tavern , Storni’s try em’ before you buy em’ gun ranch, no surfline cameras , and more. Did any of that make it a better real estate investment? …. obviously not unfortunately –


Storni’s!


Ahhh, the Tavern. Bought a t-shirt there once that said, ” Liquor in the front, Poker in the rear “.

What a fun place to go and meet the folks of the old Cayucos in those days.


Cayucos realtors like Dale Kaiser and Frank Ciano have sold town to wealthy investors from SF, LA, and the Valley. And, if folks think that building more homes in Cayucos would offset the prices. Wrong. The wealthy valley investors will buy 2 apples leaving the shelves bare for the local families.


When you don’t allow new housing, the existing supply becomes scarce, something to be invested in as a financial asset instead of somewhere to live. An unfortunate consequence of nimbyism is places become a collection of appreciating properties – not a community of people.


It has to due with a lack of leadership at the Board of Supervisors. The homes have become commodities for the wealthy. Even if you allow mass building on the landslides, the wealthy would buy the homes and keep them in their financial portfolio.


I’d love to hear the BOS is supposed to “fix” this. Fix is in quotes because the assumption that something is broken and causing these ills is an incorrect assumption. The market is working as it should when we have wealth disparity are great as we have in this country.


Look at what other communities have done. Stop defending the Board and politicans for not doing their job. Defending their lack of leadership leads to the Cayucos situation.


Board has ignored low income sweat equity homes.and housing for years because of NIMBYS. SO


No it’s not. You need to restrict land like zoning and only allow sweat equity built Caplso houses and no LLCs or out of town investors or Richie’s. free market, lol, no such thing.


Do not build rental or indentured housing, just sweat equity housing for locals.