The village of Capitola is built at the mouth of Soquel Creek, which like many of the streams along this coastline sometimes flows to the ocean and sometimes runs out of steam before it gets there. Compare my photo (the creek ends in a closed lagoon) with the Google Maps aerial photo below (the creek flows to the ocean).
Apparently there's sufficient connectivity in the nearshore that Capitola suffered from the construction of the jetties at the mouth of Santa Cruz harbor several miles to the west. These trapped large amounts of sand that otherwise would have been transported eastward past Capitola, leading to rapid erosion. This in turn led to the construction of a large groin at the east end of Esplanade Beach, which saved the village beach, but further exacerbated erosion on the bluffs to the east. I've seen pictures of this same bluff with apartments perched on the edge - apartments since removed.go to Google Maps
This is great!
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