By Ryan Masters, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Calif.
It is fitting that youth tech incubator Digital NEST’s state-of-the-art location is a New Deal-era building constructed in 1937 that once housed Watsonville’s post office.
To create jobs and stabilize the economy during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted a nationwide series of experimental projects and programs.
To level the technological playing field and provide opportunity to a young population that has historically not had access to the tools and expertise to succeed, Executive Director Jacob Martinez created Digital NEST.
Thursday’s ribbon cutting and grand opening at the 318 Union St. site drew more than a hundred community leaders, NEST collaborators and supporters to celebrate what Martinez has called “another big step over the digital divide.”
The two-story building is nearly four times as large as Digital NEST’s previous space on Aspen Way and retains charming touches from its former life as a post office. Numbered windows line the downstairs coworking space and a civil notice box that once held FBI’s most wanted posters hangs by the front door.
Yet visitors who climb the stairs will find technologies unimaginable in 1937. As visitors to the new space cycled through the rooms, community curator Nathan Campos, 20, drew on the screen of a 24-inch Wacom Cintiq with an interactive pen.
“This equipment costs something like $3,000, but it was donated for our use,” Campos said. “It’s an amazing learning opportunity if you’re into graphic design.”
Shaz Roth-Lint, CEO of the Pajaro Valley Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, said the new Digital NEST location signals true progress toward the revitalization of the downtown area.
“With youth comes innovation and creativity,” Roth said. “This is the perfect location.”
Watsonville Mayor Felipe Hernandez added that Digital NEST’s central location and higher profile will also play a larger role in the city’s economic development down the road.
“Right now if we were to bring in a bunch of tech companies to Watsonville, there would be no native workforce for them to draw from. They’d be hiring from the Silicon Valley or somewhere else,” Hernandez said. “Digital NEST is an investment in the educational infrastructure of Watsonville tech.”
Dana Sales, who represents South County on the Santa Cruz County Board of Education, said Digital NEST has fitted seamlessly into the region’s educational ecosystem.
“There’s been an organic exchange of referrals between our public schools and [Digital NEST],” he said. “Having them downtown is only going to improve access.”
Kristin Fabos, Cabrillo College’s marketing and communications director, said Digital NEST’s new location could not be more perfect in term’s of its partnership with her institution.
“We’re working on creating a seamless transition between high school and Cabrillo College for local students and having Digital NEST next to our Watsonville campus is ideal,” she said.
©2016 the Santa Cruz Sentinel (Scotts Valley, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
