The selection of the “Dirt Road To Davenport” over a badly needed county light rail system demonstrates that climate change means little to the supervisors, councilmembers and bureaucrats of Santa Cruz County.
Monies are found for a dirt road for bicyclists and tourists. Meanwhile the working people whose county, state and federal taxes pay for said dirt road, sit in traffic each and every working day of their lives. Daily vehicular traffic on Highway 1 is estimated at some 90,000 each day (sccrtc.org/funding-planning/statistics).
Every morning hundreds of commuters idle slowly along Highway 1 on their journey from Watsonville to work in Santa Cruz. Each evening they endure a slow and tedious return. Each workday, mid-county residential neighborhoods are inundated with frustrated commuters seeking alternatives to Highway 1 gridlock. Public servants! Work to fix the county’s basic needs first.
The Santa Cruz Branch Line railroad tracks should be the basis of a local light rail system. But this seems to be beyond the reach of this county. Are conflicting and opposing forces at play?
Who is pulling strings to prevent this necessary and needed conveyance from completion and fruition?
If the Capitola Bridge is, in fact, the problem, the roadblock to a county light rail system, then take the money found for a dirt road to nowhere as well as other programs that do little to nothing for this county’s working population and fix the damn bridge!
Don Redmon
Watsonville
Well Said! Thank you Don for your accurate and specific commentary.
Thank you, Don,
Since the remarkable defeat of Greenway Measure D last June, the County and Regional Transportation Commission have been very successful being awarded large grants for rail trail and other projects, including the only federal Mega Grant for a California county, toward the multi-modal aux lanes plus rail trail Segment 12 project.
In Capitola, we need to repeal Greenway’s Measure L which prevents trail improvements in the village and then engage the public in designing an iconic new rail and trail bridge over Soquel Creek. The bridges and trestle there now are nostalgic but well beyond their useful life and if we’re serious about transportation and equity then we need to start planning now.
Good points Don, thanks for the great letter. I think We are really behind on getting this done.