By Sally Arnold
The recent Sentinel op-ed by Jack Brown, who served as Greenway’s spokesperson during that organization’s failed 2022 Measure D campaign, attempts to paint as “reckless” those who support the rail and trail project in Santa Cruz County. The reality is that our community has understood and supported the visionary rail and trail for years.
In 1990, Santa Cruz County voters approved the statewide Proposition 116, which provides funds primarily for rail transit in California. In January 2011, the California Transportation Commission supported the Regional Transportation Commission’s (RTC) request for $10.2 million in Proposition 116 grant funds to purchase the Santa Cruz Branch Line (the 32-mile rail corridor that runs from Davenport to Watsonville) explicitly for the creation of a passenger rail system.
The rail and trail project will offer pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, visitors and local workers transportation choices that reduce travel times and car emissions.
The rail and trail project is not a simple one. It presents various engineering and planning challenges that RTC, county and municipal staff are addressing. Recently, staff presented an inland rail trail alignment along Park Avenue in Capitola. Rail and trail opponents argued against the proposed alignment and advocated to rip up the rail tracks through Capitola.
Opponents cited Capitola’s Measure L, which passed in 2018 by 206 votes (or 52%). This measure did not ask voters to support ripping up the tracks (sometimes presented as “railbanking”), even though the measure depends on doing so in order to reach its goals.
In 2022, Greenway was more direct with its countywide Measure D campaign. Greenway was clear about its aim to rip up the tracks countywide. When this plan to rip up the tracks was made clear, Capitola voters responded with a decisive rejection of Measure D, delivering a defeat of 60% “no” votes to just 40% “yes.” This is more than three times the margin that Measure L passed by less than four years earlier. Countywide, Measure D was defeated by an overwhelming and historic 73% of voters.
Now Greenway supporters have reverted to hiding the ball. They have been arguing continuously on social media that the Park Avenue alignment would put the trail on the street, which was not true.
Their supporters went to City Council members’ homes to harass them and visited their places of employment to demand they lose their jobs. On social media, they personally attack individuals who disagree with them and spread lies about community groups who support the rail and trail. Their behavior echoes the nastiness and politics of intimidation that dominate our national political landscape. It is alarming to see how it has infected our community discourse.
Greenway supporters also state as fact something that is demonstrably untrue. They claim the trail is not (and cannot) be built, when very clearly it is. They are gaslighting our community, ignoring that several sections have been completed and are in use, while others are under construction or are in the design phase despite their best efforts to stop trail construction.
Here is the actual trail status, listed from north to south:
• North Coast Trail (Davenport to Wilder Ranch) — under construction.
• Wilder Ranch to the Westside of Santa Cruz — complete.
• Westside to Santa Cruz Wharf Entrance — complete.
• Santa Cruz Wharf to 17th Avenue (Santa Cruz/Live Oak) — in design.
• 17th Avenue to State Park Drive (Live Oak/Soquel/Aptos) — in design.
• San Andreas Road to Beach/Walker streets (Aptos to Watsonville) — in design.
• Watsonville Slough to Ohlone Parkway (Watsonville) — complete.
Communities from one end of the county to the other are coming together to discuss rail trail and passenger rail design and construction. The next meeting is at 6 p.m. Wednesday (May 14), at the London Nelson Community Center in Santa Cruz. Visit www.sccrtc.org to learn more.
Sally Arnold is a retired elementary school teacher who serves on the Santa Cruz County Friends of the Rail and Trail (FORT) board and lives in Santa Cruz.