Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.
Santa Crua County is in the process of designing, funding and building a “main trail” spanning the county south to north as part of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail. From time to time, the route of this pedestrian- and bike-friendly path is described as “diverting” to various places. This is a biased and implicitly negative nomenclature.
Imagine our county did not happen to have an available freight rail right-of-way through it. After all, most counties don’t. Building a substantial non-car network would still be a high priority. It would follow all the usual strategies for building greenway trails: Go along drainage routes and frontage roads, skim parking lots, carve out sections of roadway, parks and other government-controlled land to stitch together a suitable route.
In our unique case, we are extremely fortunate that a great majority of our main north/south greenway can fit into available space near a rail right-of-way. This has simplified and economized the project enormously. The several places that it cannot are not “diversions.” They are just part of the best route possible.
David Van Brink
Santa Cruz