SANTA CRUZ >> The surf, the redwoods, the sun. Santa Cruz County is renowned for those things and more, with many referring to the area as a paradise.

The narrative received affirmation from a poll developed by Gallup and National Geographic to measure what makes a city happy. In a list of 25 of the happiest cities in the United States, writers named the Santa Cruz-Watsonville region as the second happiest place to live in the country.

Writers and researchers took 15 metrics into consideration as they assessed the cities. Some played into the obvious answers of what makes the citizens of a city happy — feeling safe, learning something new on a regular basis, eating healthy every day — while other factors were more unconventional — seeing the dentist at least once a year and managing money well enough to live within your means.

Some residents had already heard of the article, seeing it on Facebook or hearing about it through friends. Heidi Hanich, 30, read about the ranking when it came out and agrees with the assessment for the most part. A resident of the Twin Lakes area, she said she felt happy since she came four years ago.

As she walked her dog near Seabright State Beach, she remembered when she and her husband first moved to the area. She had some trepidation since the only things she knew about the area were that it had a beach and there was a boardwalk amusement park.

Any hesitation quickly melted away.

“After one year of living here, there was no way I was ever going to leave this place,” she said.

She gravitated toward the metric of learning something new or interesting every day, saying that the region had plenty of activities each week.

But she also said that she doesn’t exactly feel safe. In getting to know neighbors and community through the online social network, Nextdoor, crime has emerged as a recurring problem. Headphones can’t be left in cars for fear of tempting would-be criminals, she said.

“It’s almost an every other day thing,” she said. “But being born and raised in the Bay Area, I know it’s not just a problem here. It’s everywhere.”

For Alysia Sharieff, the answer wasn’t as easy as a yes or no. On a personal level, the 45-year-old Santa Cruz resident is happy to live in the area and can see why a survey might show it as a happy place. But she’s quick to point out that it’s too easy to say everyone here can easily be happy.

“All those opportunities are not necessarily available here in the Bay Area. So I know there are plenty of people who are not happy because they’re stressed out and can’t afford to live here,” she said.

An English teacher at Watsonville High School, she knows there are people who can easily meet all the metrics while there are many who struggle to check off one.

“If you’re competing against the Googlers who are making kick-ass wages over the hill and they’re living here with you. And you might not have a college degree or maybe just graduated with a college degree. Competing with that, you don’t have time to be biking or surfing,” she said.

More concerning is the rising rent in the region. While she’s able to afford to live in the area, she said she lives within her means and learned to do so since she became a teacher. But others aren’t as lucky.

“The woman who house cleans for a friend of mine, she works all the time and she can’t even afford to take her kids out for ice cream,” Sharieff said.