Is the train dead? That’s up for debate.
Last week, District 1 Supervisor Manu Koenig claimed in his official newsletter that “the train is dead.” Koenig may be a well-known skeptic of Santa Cruz County’s ambition for passenger rail, but the declaration made waves down the line. This is perhaps because, after recent cost estimates putting the passenger rail and trail at $4.3 billion, the project now finds itself on particularly precarious footing.
Although fewer and fewer people disagree that cost has placed the rail in peril, whether the plan to build a countywide, zero-emission passenger rail system is actually dead depends on whom you ask.
Matt Farrell, chair of the board for Friends of the Rail and Trail, or FORT, the leading pro-rail advocacy group, said claims that the rail is dead “are greatly exaggerated.” Farrell said many questions surround the $4.3 billion estimate and that an independent third party needs to review the cost.
“We’re still perplexed that the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit project cost a billion dollars and somehow the cost for our system is going to be four times that,” Farrell said. “Rail is proceeding in communities across the country and I haven’t been convinced that it isn’t something we can do here.”
In his newsletter, Koenig pointed to a recent estimate that sections of the trail aspect of the project faced a $72 million shortfall due to the expense of building it parallel to the train tracks. He has long urged railbanking, which means removing and stowing away the physical rail tracks to make room for the trail. Opponents of the idea argue that picking up the tracks is a difficult decision to reverse later given the technical and political challenges of laying down rail tracks.
The idea of railbanking has gained some momentum after the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, or RTC, which owns the tracks, announced this month that if the rail and trail project were to stay paired as is, the county would face a $72 million shortfall for just over 8 miles of the trail construction. RTC staff have let on that the cost issue could be ameliorated if the county could just replace the rail with the trail instead of trying to build the two next to one another.
Aptos resident Barry Scott, a rail supporter and peripheral political figure in Mid-County, said instead of condemning the rail because of the cost, local officials need to look at the $4.3 billion estimate and ask, “How did we get here?”
“I’m going to agree with Manu and say this is a system that’s going to be hard to afford, but the takeaway is not let’s get rid of the tracks,” Scott said. “The answer is to continue building the trail and take a breather, and look at what the hell happened.”
Earlier this month, the RTC commissioners asked staff to return in December with an analysis on railbanking. That discussion will coincide with a planned vote on whether to advance the $4.3 billion vision for a passenger train to environmental review.
OF NOTE
Justin Cummings announces reelection campaign: There was never really any question around Cummings’ desire to run for a second term as District 3 county supervisor next June, but last week he officially announced his reelection campaign. Now the question is whether he will face a challenger.
Watsonville lawmakers expand police surveillance: Despite increasing skepticism around Flock Safety cameras, the Watsonville City Council voted last week to not only renew its contract with the surveillance company, but nearly double its stock from 20 cameras to 37. My colleague Tania Ortiz has that story.
Legislature passes one of most ambitious housing bills yet: Senate Bill 79, authored by state Sen. Scott Weiner, is being called the California Legislature’s most significant housing bill to date. The law, which passed both houses last week, would automatically upzone the properties along passenger rail lines to allow seven-story residential buildings. The law would apply only to counties with at least 15 passenger train stations, which means just eight counties qualify: Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, San Francisco and San Mateo. The bill now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
County holds onto its radiology lab as social safety net shrinks: After budget cuts threatened the closure of the county’s blood labs and radiology facilities, county lawmakers over the summer voted to keep the services afloat through September. Then, last week, elected officials decided to contract out its blood draw services but continue to finance its X-ray and radiology lab for at least the next year. The decision went against the recommendation of County Executive Officer Carlos Palacios, who said the county needed to prepare for continued federal and state cuts to social services.
Closure of Santa Cruz mental health daytime facility causes a scurry: After winning county funding this summer, Santa Cruz’s Mental Health Client Action Network abruptly closed last month, leaving unpaid staff in crisis as leaders cite financial turmoil, leadership struggles and stalled reimbursements. There is no timeline for the return of the popular program, which offers the county’s only peer-run day center for people with mental health challenges.
POINTS FOR PARTICIPATION
Lookout hosts a film screening and panel next week: Our newsroom will present a screening of the documentary “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink” at the Del Mar Theater in Santa Cruz on Wednesday, Sept. 24, from 7 to 9 p.m. After the film, we will have a panel discussion with media leaders on the fight to rescue local news and its importance to democracy. You can get your tickets here.
Workforce housing measure campaign kicks off this weekend: Housing Santa Cruz County, a nonprofit organization focused on facilitating affordable housing construction, announced it would launch its campaign for Measure C, or the Workforce Housing Affordability Act of 2025, which aims to raise affordable housing dollars through a new annual fee on all properties in the city of Santa Cruz, and an extra tax on home sales above $1.8 million. The measure is in direct competition with the Santa Cruz County Association of Realtors-backed Measure B, also known as the Workforce Housing and Climate Protection Act of 2025. Read Lookout’s coverage of the measures here.
Scotts Valley lawmakers consider designs at two parks: City councilmembers in Scotts Valley have a light agenda on Wednesday, when they will vote on the final design for a replacement playground at Skypark, and a redesign of the dog park at Al Shugart Park. That meeting begins at 6 p.m., and will be the first meeting since Councilmember Allan Timms resigned from the board earlier this month.
Santa Cruz commission takes on e-bike regulations: The City of Santa Cruz’s Transportation and Public Works Commission meets Monday night to discuss possible routes for enhancing e-bike regulations throughout the city, including speed limits, location restrictions and license requirements. In an accompanying report, city staff recommended that lobbying state lawmakers may be the most effective route in regulating e-bike use and safety. That meeting begins at 6 p.m. inside city council chambers.
ONE GREAT READ
Tech prophet Jaron Lanier returns to Santa Cruz, and to music | By Wallace Baine, Lookout Santa Cruz
Jaron Lanier, with his long, gray dreadlocks and turquoise-framed glasses, cuts a memorable figure, even in Santa Cruz. After a short busking career in the 1970s, he ditched Pacific Avenue for the financial windfalls promised by a tech career in Silicon Valley. As tech blossomed in the 1980s, so did Lanier, who pioneered virtual reality technology and became an international thought leader in the effort to keep humanist values at the center of computer progress. As my colleague Wallace Baine writes in this short profile on Lanier, “His books, media appearances and lectures have all been in the service of criticizing a system of a hyper-capitalist business model that fetishizes algorithms and pays scant attention to the human cost.”
However, Wallace didn’t reach out to Lanier simply to pick his brain on the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and increasing ubiquity of advertising algorithms. Lanier has remained a musician and composer throughout his rise in tech and, next month, will host a master class at Kuumbwa Jazz Center titled “Music & the Future of Humanity.”
Despite his long double career as a musician — he’s worked with Philip Glass and Ornette Coleman — Lanier’s tech intellect is what imbues those musical sensibilities with enough mystique to lure Wallace, pen and pad in hand. And Wallace elegantly weaves between Lanier’s two worlds to paint a silhouette of a man who feels distinctly Santa Cruz.