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Nothing Bored About It: Just about everyone who voted agreed: the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is the best Place to Take Kids. Photograph by George Sakkestad Best People and Places POLITICIANS COME AND GO, scandals bubble to the surface then sink back into the sediment at the bottom of the small pond where the big fish live, but one constant continues to burrow under the skin of our readers: Metro Santa Cruz columnist Bruce Bratton, our perennial winner as most Irritating Local Personality. Bruce's tireless crusade against the young female entrepreneurs of the Girl Scouts, his insistence on carrying fluoridated water for the medical-dental-chemical complex, his unending litany of bumper-sticker humor--all these grate on the tender sensibilities of our voters. Even his acceptance speech--"As I've said before, I'm not trying to cause any trouble, I'm just trying to straighten everything out. If irritating causes thinking, and thinking causes action and involvement in our community, then I'm honored to have been part of that"--seems carefully calculated to evoke a frisson of pique. That's why we hired him. In the other categories, we bent the definition of "local" enough to admit George W. Bush as the best Candidate to Recall, even though presidents can't (alas) be recalled. One other anomaly caught our attention: The second-place winner of the Best Place to Take a Personal-Ad Date was simply Metro--whether that means the bus station or our offices we leave to your imagination. The bus station is open at all hours, but we have photos of nude politicians (you know who you are!) in our files. Best Candidate to Recall GOLD George W. Bush SILVER Mardi Wormhoudt BRONZE Kate Canlis Best Irritating Local Personality GOLD Bruce Bratton SILVER Robert Norse BRONZE Psychic Susie Stevens Best Local Politician GOLD Fred Keeley SILVER Mardi Wormhoudt BRONZE Sam Farr Best Local Scandal GOLD DA's Election SILVER Borders vs. Bookshop BRONZE UCSC Expansion Best Local Website GOLD www.cruzio.com SILVER www.goodhumans.com BRONZE www.surfridersantacruz.org Best Park for Dogs GOLD Lighthouse Field SILVER Its Beach BRONZE San Lorenzo Park Best Park for People GOLD Frederick Street Park SILVER Natural Bridges BRONZE Lighthouse Field Best People-Watching GOLD Pacific Garden Mall SILVER West Cliff Drive BRONZE The Boardwalk Best Place to Bring Out-of-Towners GOLD West Cliff Drive SILVER The Boardwalk BRONZE West Cliff Drive Best Place to Take a Personal-Ad Date GOLD Crow's Nest 2218 E. Cliff Dr., SC 476.4560 SILVER Metro (Bus station or Metro Santa Cruz) BRONZE West Cliff Drive Best Place to Take Kids GOLD The Boardwalk SILVER The Beach BRONZE Natural Bridges Best Startup Company GOLD RangeStar Wireless SILVER Goodhumans BRONZE Grey Wolf Computers Readers' Choice Awards Best Food & Drink Best Music & Nightlife Best Goods & Services Best Sports & Recreation Best Arts Best Write-Ins Critics' Choice Awards Jesse Davis: All the Shoes That Fit Stuart Finch: Rock Balancing Act Isabel Piekarski: Latin Dance Sensation Juan Cuellar: Compassionate Warrior Nate Brunskill: Film Fanatic Warren Odell: Tour Guide to an Anomaly Sarah Gerhardt: Woman Who Rides Mountains Seema Weatherwax: Late-Blooming Photographer Stephanie Smith: Student of the Sciences Theo Paige: The Not.So.Mad Fiddler [ Santa Cruz Week | MetroActive Central | Archives ]