“Yes on Greenway” vs. “No Way Greenway”
Talk of the Bay, Tuesday, April 19th, 5-6 PM on KSQD 90.7 FM & KSQD.org
Game on! The rail-trail debate may finally be decided this June 7th. Will it be rail with trail, or trail only? Last week on Talk of the Bay we went deep into rail with trail. Guests included No on Greenway members, Lani Faulkner of Equity Transit and Zennon Ulate-Crow, president of UCSC’s Student Housing Coalition. This Tuesday, your host Chris Krohn of the Santa Cruz Political Report discusses the trail-only perspective with proponents Tim Brattan and Corrine McFarlane. Both are members of Greenway and both support Measure D, “The Santa Cruz County Greenway Initiative.” Don’t miss this dynamic discussion on the future of the Santa Cruz transportation puzzle. Will there be winners and losers, or will everyone win? Find out Tuesday on “Talk of the Bay” beginning at 5pm on KSQD 90.7 and KSQD.org.
Thanks Chris for hosting. What Corrine McFarlane did not share is that the ‘wisdom council’ she mentioned was planned, organized, and run by Greenway (GW) members, including Manu Koenig, then Executive Director of Greenway and now D1Supervisor. Each breakout group was led by a GW person. GW hand picked mostly new members to our community less familiar with our history as the participants. The end result that all of the attendees came to the conclusion that trail only is the ‘wise’ choice was heavily guided – and with much of the misinformation stated here, no doubt.
An important point Corrine stated is bringing the community together to be involved in these decisions. I agree. In fact, the RTC held numerous community meetings over YEARS and years. The majority of the feedback from the community across the county, over and over, was the support for light rail. There were also Santa Cruz Visioning meetings across the county led by the county where again, light rail was a priority for community members. The county requires meetings to be recorded, so it may be possible to find these recordings. I am a cyclist and coach and many of us who cycle see the value of clean light rail, of having both.
Contrary to Tim’s statement, the railway is not narrow gauge. It is standard gauge. The tracks, once remediated to grade 3 from grade 1 can go up to 50 mph. The Coast Futura Tig/M all electric train that ran in October actually beat traffic from the Boardwalk to Capitola going 10 MPH!!! The train was only going that slow because of the current track grade level. The grade level 3 tracks are rated for both freight and passenger rail.
The cost to repair the line is not $1.3B, much less, and there are substantial funds available and coming available. If we wait, it will be too late. The rail line does not need to be removed, tracks are replaced in segments, a completely different process that is not involved. Removing the entire rail line and regrading for a trail is a huge effort, upends toxins, and destroys the railbed which in the future would not be approved to return back to rails along our sensitive coastal corridor.
We do NOT need to railbank our tracks because we OWN the tracks. There are NO rail banked rails that have been paved over and returned to rail, but gravel. SMART train lawsuits may pass, they are lawsuits by individuals. There are extremely wealthy corporate interests that back these lawsuits to stop rail across the nation. Lawsuits have been occurring against the RTC from GW/Trail Now to STOP the build of the trail as well as rail. Corrine and Tim forgot to mention that Roaring Camp’s right to their Felton line to the Beach Boardwalk would have to destroyed in order to railbank our line, stranding them from the National line and freight service.
The term multimodal with respect to transportation refers to more than just peds and bikes. Multimodal includes rail and busses to create complete streets and a complete ‘system’. For many people, elderly, people with disabilites, and many others, taking a bike to work on the trail is just not feasible. While I personally might do it, not many will. Having both serves SO many more members of our community. I love cycling, but I would use the train to get across town to mountain bike, eat at restaurants, grocery shop, etc.
Corrine talks about rail as the ‘old’ paradigm, but this would actually show that she has not stayed current with the global direction of transit which is that RAIL around the world in booming. Why? Because electric light rail is the most energy efficient and least environmentally damaging form of transit to move distances EVER invented. The more we can get people onto trains, the lower our negative impact will be on GHGs and other toxins in our environment.
I agree with Tim, Bud Colligan and other GW philanthropists have made “Investments” into numerous organizations in this county, as though our town is a business to be tapped and those organizations contribute to a bottom line. Having one’s name on buildings they fund is a one way to exert power. Providing extensive philanthropy with a quid pro quo is another. We are aware of people who have felt the threat of loosing their ‘donations’ from GW supporters if those people spoke about their own personal support of RAIL, for them or the underrepresented communities that RAIL would benefit!
Tim mentioned a section of tracks are under water, which to him means there can be no train on those tracks, but a greenway is somehow OK to build underwater since the trail they want will be built on those very same tracks? Truth is, railways have endured extreme conditions for over a decade and repairs can be made to remedy the situation.
Regarding funding, Greenway is a 501(C)4. Donald Trump in 2018 redesigned this entity so that they function similar to a superpac, so money can flow in and out and GW does not have to report who their donors are or how much they donated. So, while a certain amount of money can flow through Yes, GW, all of which must be tracked, SCGreenway can print endless fliers and brochures, pour money into tv, and all sorts of things and not have to report it to the FPPC. This is a similar tactic they used to get Manu elected. Hey, it’s pretty smart. Not all of us have the deep pockets to do that.