Coastal Rail Trail

The Regional Transportation Commission has not done its job on the rail-trail debate, writes local activist Jack Brown. Here, he offers 12 questions he believes commissioners have failed to answer. Brown supported Measure D, the 2022 Greenway ballot initiative calling for a trail-only option. He says Santa Cruz County has lost too much time and money on a flawed idea.

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors needs to vote Tuesday to move forward with the coastal rail-trail project, writes Matt Farrell, board chair of Santa Cruz County Friends of the Rail and Trail. If not, our community won’t meet the state’s requirements to receive nearly $68 million in state grant funding, he says. Two supervisors, Manu Koenig and Bruce McPherson, voted no on the most recent round.

District 1 Santa Cruz County Supervisor Manu Koenig responds to those critical of his March 26 board of supervisors vote on the rail trail. He writes that the supervisors just want more time to get information on the best way to move forward and that state grants are not threatened. Elected officials, he insists, must be wary of costs and managing scarce resources.

Retired software engineer Peter Gibson says District 1 Supervisor Manu Koenig is out of touch with voters and is hampering progress on the rail-trail project. He says Koenig, who supported Greenway’s 2022 Measure D trail-only option and who won reelection on March 5, is not honoring the will of the people, and he questions whether Koenig should remain in office.