The RTC’s vote for the interim trail marks the first real movement on the rail corridor after a decade of drift, writes Doug Erickson, founder and executive director of Santa Cruz Works. The interim trail — buildable, fundable and immediately useful — aligns policy with reality and public demand.
Opinion from Community Voices
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Don’t blame the trout for Murray Street Bridge chaos
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident objects to what she sees as “insensitive, human-centric” framing in a recent story.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
No, Measure C isn’t a ‘Keeley project’ — and the City of Santa Cruz is keeping its housing promises
Former Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane pushes back on Keven Cook’s recent commentary, arguing that Cook misrepresents the origins and intent of Measure C and ignores the coalition that created it. He points to Santa Cruz’s affordable housing record and rejects claims that the city misuses housing funds.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz County’s push to reduce hybrid work for health care workers defies data — and common sense
Social worker and SEIU Local 521 president Max Olkowski-Laetz pushes back on a move by Santa Cruz County leaders to scale back hybrid work for health care staff. He writes that the change will exacerbate burnout, drive resignations and undermine services residents rely on.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Let’s not call the new rail-trail plan a ‘peace deal’: Paving over rail for 20 years rejects voters’ will
Local activist and yoga instructor Mark Stephens argues that the Koenig–Keeley “peace deal” approved last week by the RTC is not a harmless compromise but a 20-year removal of rail service that effectively kills future commuter rail in Santa Cruz County. He notes that voters overwhelmingly rejected that idea in 2022, when 73% voted against Measure D’s trail-only vision. Stephens warns that paving over tracks would make restoring rail economically and politically impossible, despite claims of a temporary fix. He urges officials to honor the public mandate and take any plan that eliminates rail back to the ballot box.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz’s moonshot: Build the trail now and stop chasing a rail mirage
Santa Cruz County faces a rare moment of alignment: a viable path to build the coastal trail without railbanking or surrendering the corridor, writes trail advocate Jack Brown. With a “peace deal” to build over the tracks before the Regional Transportation Commission, Brown says rail remains decades away and financially unrealistic.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The rail-trail ‘peace deal’ is political theater: It rests on shaky legal ground
Santa Cruz County’s rail-trail “peace deal” promises 20 years of trail use, but it’s built on shaky legal ground, writes retired software engineer Peter Gibson. Federal freight rights — not local politicians — ultimately control the corridor, and those rights can’t be suspended by agreement.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
California’s early intervention for youngsters with special needs is a lifeline — hanging by a thread
Federal cuts to Medicaid will mean fewer slots, longer waits and fewer therapists at Early Start, a program for children and babies with special needs, writes Kelly Keck, who has a child with special needs and is a neonatal nurse practitioner.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Letter to the editor: Unhoused people need an answer for showers and mail in Santa Cruz
In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident writes that nonprofit Housing Matters eliminating day services at its Coral Street campus will be a blow to the area’s unhoused community members.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
California’s coastal ‘Blue Wall’ must rise again to stop new offshore drilling
Updating and expanding laws blocking offshore oil drilling and seabed mining is the most powerful tool communities have to protect California’s coast in the face of the federal government’s new drilling plans. Katie Thompson and Dan Haifley urge the public to get involved.