For those of us who don’t deal with inequity on a daily basis, equity might feel like a political concept. But for thousands of residents of our county, equity, or lack of it, determines what happens in their lives every single day. To explore this issue, we invited three people who work on improving equity in our county from three different but overlapping perspectives. On the day we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, they joined host Suki Wessling to talk about equity in our everyday lives.
Gloria Nieto is a local activist who focuses on equity, diversity and inclusion on the board of Santa Cruz Community Health, which provides comprehensive primary care services to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. Gretchen Regenhardt is former Regional Directing Attorney of California Rural Legal Assistance and serves on the board of Housing Santa Cruz County. Lani Faulkner is founder of the local organization Equity Transit, which works to ensure affordable, equitable, and environmentally wise public transit.
At the beginning of the hour, asked to define equity, our three guests built on each other’s statements. Equity, they explained, is equal access, regardless of race or income, to similar quality goods and services being provided where people are. Listen in to learn more.
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Would be nice if “Equity Transit” as an organization was really about transit equity, however it is really just an ‘equity washing’ shadow organization of Rail Special Interest. Lani Faulkner only lobbies for a train. Not better public transit routes, not better ways to make transit affordable, not more modern service, just a train. The board of Equity Transit is nothing more than the same old cast of characters from “Friends of the Rail and Trail”, “Land Trust of Santa Cruz” and other organizations that have been bought out by rail interests all looking for their share of $1 billion in tax money. It’s sad that this is being represented as equitable as a train will tax our county resources and be funded by regressive sales taxes against the vulnerable people they are supposed to be representing.
Dear Jack Brown – Thank you for commenting. Rail/trail continues to be a hot topic, and we’ll have it on the air again on today’s Talk of the Bay (Tuesday 5pm) as Chris Krohn hosts Lani Faulkner and another guest. I’ve shared your message with Chris and he’ll address it on the show, asking the guests to respond to your point of view. Though today’s show includes pro-rail guests only, in the past year Chris has hosted 2 hour-long shows with 2 advocates from each side, and has had another hour with trail-only guests.
We appreciate all listeners and all reasonable points of view, and remind everyone to remain civil, address the issues, and not attack other people. Thanks again. – Howard Feldstein, KSQD Program Director
I’m curious whether Jack Brown publicly posted his close ties to his employer promoting Waymo self-driving cars along with their continued investment for single-use cars?
Car companies like Waymo want to rake in billions by asking customers to subscribe to vehicle features.
Today, carmakers offer subscriptions for automatic high beams, remote start, and other functions.
Consumers don’t seem as excited about the trend as car companies.
Mr. Brown is a Greenway spokesperson.
And, like myself, Mr. Brown and I can toss a ball over our backyard fences and it lands on rail corridor.
As you can see from Ms. Andreatta’s attack and doxx response, the trail contingent lives to make up conspiracy theories. As I have noted on my public profiles, my views are my own and do not reflect the views of my employer. My own opinion is self driving transportation does not have a place yet in Santa Cruz either, but I am sure if I worked for a unicycle manufacture, Ms Andreatta would have a theory that the”Big Wheel” was behind the opposition to trains when the issue simply is we do not have the population density over a large enough area not the tag base to support a trail solution that is redundant to our existing public transit that is sissy being neglected and does not need a train to further stress the system.
And to respond to Ms. Andreatta’s misinformation, I was the former spokesperson for the “Yes Greenway” initiative for the June 2022 election. I am not a Greenway spokesperson. Greenway is a separate organization.