High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Ryan Coonerty (born March 10, 1974) is an American businessman, academic, author, politician, who served as mayor of Santa Cruz, California, United States (US), in 2008 and 2011. In addition to serving on the Santa Cruz city council, Coonerty co-founded NextSpace Coworking, also in Santa Cruz, in 2008. Coonerty is a lecturer for the Legal Studies department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as the Political Science department at Cabrillo College. He is the author of Etched in Stone: Enduring Words From Our Nation`s Monuments, published by the National Geographic Society (NGS).