Measure D: Don't Rip Up Our Tracks
This guest commentary is from Peggy Dolgenos of Cruzio. Each week in May, we will post opinions from both sides of this issue.
Very likely you’ve seen me walking around town, because I walk almost everywhere.
Walking is my way to improve my health and the health of the environment. Recently my walk from downtown, where I live, to the Westside has improved. I get to walk on the newly built rail trail! Lots of people use the trail, biking, walking, in wheelchairs, pushing strollers. And next to the trail, there’s room for a train. I hope to ride that train someday, up to Davenport or down to Watsonville and points beyond.
I wouldn’t want the kind of train the Yes on D folks talk about: too big, too expensive, too noisy. When it’s time to vote, I’d vote against such bad choices. But Measure D isn’t voting for or against any specific train. Yes means rip up the tracks and let potential funding sources know we don’t want a train. It would be very hard and very expensive, after doing that, to install any train system, no matter how efficient and gorgeous and climate-friendly.
Years ago, our state voted for Measure 116, which paid for the old rail line to be purchased for walking, biking, and passenger rail. In 2016, Santa Cruz County voted — 68% in favor — to include funding for trains in a ballot measure that supported many forms of transportation.
We’ve been using those sales tax funds to make all kinds of improvements for walkers, bike riders, and highway commuters. We’ve also used those funds, as they were designated, to prepare for a train.
Public Property Should Be Put to the Best Public Use
Public money was used to purchase the rail trail. That property belongs to all of us. How can we use it to provide the most good to the most people?
A trail for bicycling and walking will allow many of us to run short errands more easily without a car, as well as expanding recreation, which we all need and enjoy. Whether we have rail or not, we’ll have that ability with the bike/pedestrian trail. I think almost everyone agrees that the trail would be a fantastic addition to our area, I’ve seen no one oppose it. In fact people on both sides of this issue claim they will build it faster.
Trail-only plans would use all the public property for a bike/pedestrian trail. There are some folks who’d commute daily 10, 15, 20 miles each way on, say, an e-bike. Some would even do it in the rain or carrying a baby. But not the majority.
Here are some people who often can’t use a bike/pedestrian trail as transportation:
Parents with babies
People carrying large or heavy packages
Elderly people
People with health issues
Working people at the end of a long, tiring day
We badly need better transportation for all of us.
Reducing our Contribution to Climate Change
I used to think that fighting climate change was vital for our children and grandchildren and those who would be here when we are gone. But in the last few years, the effects of our carbon-spewing ways have become real in the here and now. Droughts, fires, and floods threaten us annually. It’s terrifying, to be honest.
Most people in our county support efforts to fight climate change. Since cars are the biggest contributors to local pollution, replacing clogged highways is a priority. Bicycles and scooters, even e-bikes and e-scooters, can’t replace cars in the way that public transit can.
Is our community too small for rail? Because we're nestled between mountains and bay, we’re dense. And getting denser. We are, by choice (1978’s Measure J), building more housing in our towns and preserving the green environment between our them. That trend makes rail — which works well with clusters of shops and housing — more viable, which in turn makes town living more convenient, and leaves the green space green. It’s a positive feedback loop.
Other forms of technology now in development, like self-driving AI-controlled cars, might one day help as well. But while we wait to see how well those substitutes pan out, let's not rip out our ability to choose rail, which is the most likely near-term choice.
Starting Over Will Slow the Trail Down
Pardon the pun, but we’re on track. The Regional Transportation Commission (RTC)'s professionals and our voters did a great job purchasing the underused rail property and working through the complications of environmental review and ownership rights. Since I work in a construction field, I’m very aware that building anything these days is an incredibly slow and difficult process. We all get frustrated watching, but the rail trail planning and execution hasn’t been going slower than other large projects.
From my experience with my company's construction projects, I just don’t buy that idea that stopping the current rail and trail plan and starting over again with a new project will get the trail constructed faster. Just as there are interests who haven’t wanted the rail plus trail in its current incarnation, others wouldn’t be happy with the trail-only plan. Contracts would be broken and need renegotiating. We’d be looking at new engineering, new environmental studies, new lawsuits, and new complaints.
These are lengthy processes.I believe we’ll get a trail faster if we stick with the plan that’s already gone through most of them.
Technology Improves Over Time
I used rotary phones when I was a kid. Then touch tone phones, then a Blackberry. Now I have a so-called smartphone. I expect in a few more years I’ll have something even smarter than my current smartphone.
When I hear people say there can’t be quiet, convenient light rail in our county, it raises my tech hackles. “Can’t?" We solve challenging problems; I think we can solve this one. There was already a light rail demo on existing tracks last year. I don’t think it’s a pie in the sky. I think we can do it.
And we should, because we need to fight climate change with everything we’ve got.
Grants Could Help Fund a Train
We don't have to decide next month how to pay for a future train, just whether we want to retain. our existing infrastructure to build one in the future. And we can work with grants to help that happen, as we do with so many public works projects. We could take advantage of 2021’s federal infrastructure bill and other grant programs, some of which specifically favor rail projects. It seems like an opportunity we’d want to take advantage of.
When it’s time to decide on a train choice, we’ll have the opportunity to vote yes or no on how to fund it. Taxes can’t be imposed unless two thirds of voters agree. I trust that our local voters won’t go for any ridiculous schemes.
But the question of whether or not to raise money for a train won’t be on the ballot in June. Yes on Measure D is pre-deciding that a train is a bad idea before we even have the details.
No Matter What, Let’s Be Friends
Santa Cruz is often a leader in technology. We are a creative community, making a synthesis of the best of all sides and moving forward ahead of the pack. I truly believe our community should be leading the country with our progressive, ethical views accompanying razor-sharp technical minds. But we only synthesize the best ideas when we listen to each other. And it’s hard to speak on this issue with all the passion and the noise it’s engendered. I was hesitant to write this essay because I don’t like making enemies. I enjoy debating topic, even controversial ones, but I don’t like shouting matches. Hopefully Santa Cruz Works is above the fray (I do love you guys).
We should be optimistic about this issue. No matter what, we’ll have a great trail for bikes and pedestrians — just a narrower vs a wider trail. There are a lot of professionals working in our public works departments who do careful and thorough work. They’ve done a lovely job on the portion of the trail already built (shout out to the City of Santa Cruz Public Works — check out the improvements to the Lost Boys trestle bridge!) and I know they’ll create a lasting benefit to our community.
Whatever the decision, I know I will love the new walking/biking trail. And alongside it, I believe a train would be an awesome addition to our daily life. It would join together parts of our county that now seem distant. In a very real way, the rail trail could bring us together. As soon as it stops tearing us apart.
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