#mauro garcia

Sou feito de vitórias e derrotas, de alegrias e tristezas, de certezas e dúvidas, de sorrisos e lágrimas, de sol e chuva, de surpresas e decepções. Sou feito de algumas desistências, costumo desistir as vezes, sou cheio de falhas, mas não tenho medo de recomeçar, do zero, de onde parei. Não tenho medo de desistir, tenho medo de não conseguir mais recomeçar.

Preciso de um tempo para mim, só para…

You’re never far from nature in Santa Cruz, and much of it is under the care of the Parks and Recreation Department. Whether you’re walking down West Cliff Drive, crossing the Trestle Bridge or taking in a ball game at DeLaveaga, you’ve been in a City Park. 

Frequent park goers may have noticed a host of new features in our local parks, like the mile markers on West Cliff, exercise equipment along the levee, new playground in Beach Flats Park and the new dog park in Lower Ocean.

The man behind many of these changes is Parks Superintendent Mauro Garcia.

Along with his team of maintenance workers, rangers and supervisors Mauro has been beautifying the City one little piece at a time since he moved here from San Diego in 2011. “Like many transplants one of the main things that drew me here was Santa Cruz’s climate and culture of outdoor recreation. Residents and visitors alike share a love of engaging with the outdoors around us.”

In addition to Santa Cruz’s more traditional outdoor offerings, Mauro's crew is responsible for taking care of the San Lorenzo River levee, Wharf, golf course, downtown corridor, and the many green medians, pocket parks, beaches and sports facilities in Surf City. 

Parks staff also work closely with neighborhood groups and nonprofit organizations to tackle big challenges.

“Leveraging volunteer enthusiasm allows us to successfully complete innovative projects we wouldn't otherwise have the funding to implement.” Garcia says. “In recent years Police and Parks staff have increased their presence in the Pogonip due to illegal activities. So the idea of building a multi-use trail in collaboration with Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz County was a way to positively activate the space for recreational use and address security concerns simultaneously. The Emma McCrary Trail was built this spring with the help of 300 volunteers and Drew Perkins, a Cal Poly graduate student and trail expert hired by the City to lead the effort. The trail is now getting a ton of use!”

Plans for the coming year include stepping up trail work in Moore Creek, DeLaveaga and Pogonip, and providing support to the long awaited Arana Gulch bike path project which just got underway this past week.

Construction is almost complete on the new Lower Ocean Street Neighborhood Park, funded by a $1.8 million state grant. And, using the McCrary trail as a model, Garcia and his staff are also now looking at a trail through the Jesse Street marsh.

“We work to promote positive use of our open spaces,” Garcia says, “We’re so happy to be able to share this space, and these trails, with our friends and neighbors.”