Santa Cruz City Overview
Introducing Santa Cruz
Recently the 37 year old Shingu City/Santa Cruz sister city relationship has gone beyond just friendly interactions and fellowship. With the aim to restore the real value of community interaction, for the first time we have begun to attempt economic exchanges that benefit both communities. Due to these efforts and in partnership with Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz we have initiated the creation of an online learning center in Shingu City with the assistance of sister city associates in Santa Cruz. We have also engaged in exchanges of expertise with Shingu delegates visiting Santa Cruz in October of 2010 and by inviting delegates from Santa Cruz to participate in the "International Forum on Sustainable Community Tourism in Kumano" in August of 2010. Both delegations learned much about how their counterpart community is working to achieve sustainable living community. For example, our delegation that visited Santa Cruz were very impressed to learn how the people of Santa Cruz are endeavouring to create a fun, lively, attractive, and healthy community that is sustainable for many generations to come. In this section we introduce some examples of how Santa Cruz is working towards becoming a model for sustainable community development that can be of value, particularly to other communities with similar objectives. 
