State Transportation Commission Unanimously Approves the Rail Corridor Acquisition
On June 30, 2010—the last day to secure the Proposition 116 funding needed for purchasing the 32-mile Santa Cruz Branch Line rail corridor from Union Pacific—the California State Transportation Commission (CTC) voted unanimously in Sacramento to approve the RTC's request to purchase the rail corridor.
Read the official press release from the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. (PDF)
While a few conditions remain to be met before the 116 funds will be released (expected to be accomplished by mid-August), the action by the CTC represents a major victory for Santa Cruz County.
About twenty of us journeyed to Sacramento—with most of us on the scenic Capitol Corridor train—to encourage a positive vote by the Commission. When the item came up, Supervisor Mark Stone (Vice Chair of our RTC) followed Executive Director's introductory remarks to provide an excellent summary of the situation, and called out all the organizations in support, ranging from ourselves to a number of unions, the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk before asking all supporters in the audience to stand up to be recognized. Immediately we all stood, wearing our fine engineers' hats that Micah had supplied us with—it was a great moment, with good laughter when a few train whistles were sounded.
Supervisor Stone was followed by Bill Tysseling, the Executive Director of our Chamber of Commerce, and Kris Reyes of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, both of whom registered their keen support. A letter of support from Senator Simitian was also submitted for the record. There were none speaking in opposition.
Read the Sentinel's story about what happened.
Special thanks are due to CTC Commissioner Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, who made the motion to approve the 116 funding for the rail corridor acquisition. His quick action to clarify the CTC's staff recommendation was key, and kept us in suspense for a moment or two.
Thanks to all of you who wrote letters of support to the CTC. The Commission's unanimity clearly demonstrates the breadth of community support for this project.
Rail Facts
- The 32-mile rail line passes within one mile of almost half—120,000—of our county's residents.
- The average width of the corridor is 75 feet, which allows for a dedicated multi-use trail adjacent to the tracks.
- The rail line passes by many schools, state parks, businesses and other popular destinations in Santa Cruz, Capitola, Aptos, Watsonville and Davenport.
- The line connects with Amtrak at Watsonville Junction (adjacent to Watsonville), and so will allow a connection with state and national rail systems.
- Extensive documentation is now posted on our Regional Transportation Commission's website. Read a list of FAQs (PDF).
Stop Highway Widening
Check out the Campaign For Sensible Transportation website to read how highway widening induces new traffic and the growth of housing in the wrong places. Read how sustainable transportation programs do a more effective job in reducing traffic congestion.
Support the Campaign's lawsuit to stop CalTrans from widening Highway 1 in segments (next segment is Soquel--Morrissey). The lawsuit seeks legal recognition that widening in segments is an attempt to avoid an environmental impact report that must consider alternatives.
Donate online or send a check to:
Campaign for Sensible Transportation
PO Box 7927
Santa Cruz, CA. 95061
Broadway to Brommer/Arana Gulch Path Update
Despite 800 letter of support (100 against) and the recommendation of the Coastal Commission Staff, the plan to allow for bicycle access into and across Arana Gulch was stalemated at a March 11th meeting at the Coastal Commission. Our local representative, Supervisor Mark Stone, went against both the City and County of Santa Cruz by leading the move to put the project on hold until further study. People Power is working with the city to examine our options and will keep our members posted.
As we've seen over and over again, People Power is powerful due to the care and ACTION of its members. Over the years we've used our passion and commitment to push for bike lanes and paths where no one thought they would be achieved. Now it is time to wrap up a 20-year struggle for a multi-use path connecting Broadway and Brommer Streets, via Arana Gulch. The fact that the California Coastal Commission is having a rare meeting in Santa Cruz means that they want to hear what our community thinks about the issue. So let's tell them.
The current proposal for Broadway Brommer provides a single bridge and a multi-use path that will give people access to the Arana Gulch greenbelt without a car. More importantly, it will provide access to Santa Cruz and Live Oak without a car. Approval from the Coastal Commission is the final hurdle to getting this important transportation link built.
Some people, particular those who live next to the open space, oppose the path. They will be at the Coastal Commission meeting speaking against the path. After having lost their lawsuit and subsequent appeals, this is their last chance to stop the path. If we want this path, we have to show up in numbers and express our different priorities. Below is an outline of the morning's schedule. Times are approximate. If you can't attend all events or would like more information, call People Power at 425-0665 or the Coastal Commission at (831) 427-4863.
To get your t-shirt in advance, stop by the People Power office (call 425-0665 first to arrange a time).
Tips for Writing the Coastal Commission In Support Of The Arana Gulch Master Plan and Multi-Use Trails
Help make the Arana Gulch Master Plan and the Broadway-Brommer connection a reality by writing a letter to the Coastal Commission. Letters need to be received by March 5th.
Your letter should start something like this:
Dear Coastal Commissioners:
Please vote for the Arana Gulch Master Plan. In particular, please approve the Broadway-Brommer bridge and bike path.
Then just add one to three sentences with your reasons. Keep it positive and keep it short. (Shorter letters have a better chance of being read completely.) Be sure to include your printed name, signature, address and date. Mail your letter to:
Dan Carl, District Manager
California Coastal Commission
725 Front Street, Suite 300
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Here are some reasons you might want to include. Putting them in your own words is good. Handwritten letters are fine and show that we are broad-based.
- I would use the bridge and path to get from my house to (your destination).
- The new path is safe, direct and convenient.
- The new path will convince the hesitant general public to get out of their cars and onto their bikes, leading to less use of fossil fuels and decreased carbon emissions.
- The Broadway-Brommer connection offers an alternative to the Yacht Harbor Bridge and Soquel Avenue routes. These routes are unpleasant, out of the way, and intimidating to less experienced cyclists.
- The Broadway-Brommer Bike Path, is an important link for bicycle safety in Santa Cruz County.
Click to view the letter that People Power wrote in support of the plan.
10/7/09
Dan Carl, District Manager
California CoastalCommission
725 Front Street, Suite 300
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Dear Mr. Carl,
We are writing to urge the Coastal Commission to approve the Arana Gulch Master Plan and its Multi-Use Trails, as submitted by the City of Santa Cruz. We request that this letter be made part of the Commission's record on this matter. People Power is an environmental group in Santa Cruz County that focuses on alternatives to the automobile for Santa Cruz County.
The State of California, the City of Santa Cruz, and indeed the coastal Commission itself have all set ambitious and much-needed goals for reduction of greenhouse gases. Approving the Arana Gulch Master Plan gives the Coastal Commission a meaningful way to address climate change while continuing to provide additional coastal access with little negative impact to the environment.
In Santa Cruz, even more so than the rest of the state, the transportation sector is by far the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. In our city, 47% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation—the next largest sector emits just over half as much. Furthermore, in recent years transportation has generated more growth in emissions than any other sector. The City, in its upcoming Climate Action Plan, has found that a substantial majority of the greenhouse gas reductions necessary to meet the 2020 goals will have to come from transportation.
Both the City and the Coastal Commission have a responsibility to provide access to coastal parks and recreation areas in ways that reduce vehicle miles traveled. A key part of these actions will be to provide access coastal resources by bicycle, foot and/or wheelchair and to encourage the use of these transportation alternatives to the automobile. Many communities have demonstrated that when safe and convenient routes are provided, a significant share of local car trips are switched to no-carbon alternatives. In the city of Santa Cruz, 40% of all automobile trips are 3 miles or less. Because Santa Cruz County has the largest amount of public coastal land in the state (including the Arana Gulch property), many of those short automobile trips are made to access public nature areas and other recreational opportunities along the coast.
The multi-use path presented as an integral part of the Arana Gulch Master Plan would be the safest, most direct, most convenient, and most attractive possible connection of Broadway and Brommer Streets. These relatively quiet streets have sidewalks and bike lanes and currently provide some of the best access to schools, beaches and other coastal destinations, particularly for inexperienced cyclists and pedestrians. What is lacking is a ½-mile connection between these two streets. The multi-use path would provide non-motorized access to the Arana property, while simultaneously having the greatest possible effect of winning over today's short-trip drivers to non-motorized means of transportation along the coastal areas subject to the authority of the Coastal Commission. While busy streets such as Murray and East Cliff provide access to the coast for experienced cyclists, they are too busy to attract many new cyclists/pedestrians and do not offer access to many facilities including the Simpkins Swim Center and numerous schools. A proposed rail trail has no completion date and will require a new bridge over the harbor. Moreover, it does not provide adequate routes to Simpkins and other locations, including the Arana Gulch itself.
It is also important that this connection would be available to those with disabilities. It is as important that they have the option of mobility without the car as it is that others have that option. It is a matter of basic fairness. Very few public facilities offer access to the disabled and the Arana Gulch would be the first city property to do so.
While People Power members have a very serious concern for the Santa Cruz tarplant and other endangered species, we are satisfied with the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Biological Opinion (September 15, 2008) that the proposed multi-use trail would not harm the tarplant. Moreover, we believe that grazing and other activities are much more important to the health of the tarplant population and want to see these activities aggressively pursued.
The multi-use trail in the Arana Gulch Master Plan is very much scaled down from an original plan for a "Broadway-Brommer connection". One of the proposed bridges was taken out and the path was narrowed and rerouted to avoid current tarplant populations and known habitats. While any new asphalt in a natural area is a cause for concern, the current proposal for a multi-use path is a net gain for the environment due to it's effect on creating environmentally sustainable access opportunities to both the Arana Gulch and other public coastal properties in Santa Cruz County.
We urge the Coastal Commission to approve the Arana Gulch Master Plan and its Multi-Use Trails as submitted by the City of Santa Cruz. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Micah Posner
People Power
Lawsuit Filed to Stop Highway 1 Widening
The Campaign for Sensible Transportation (of which People Power is an active member), has filed a lawsuit against Caltrans for an inadequate environmental assessment of the next phase of proposed highway widening, the section between Morrisey and Soquel. (The widening project is referred to as an auxiliary lane project by Caltrans and other government agencies.) Caltrans claims that the $22 million project will have no significant impact on the environment and will not increase vehicle miles traveled. They do not plan to study any alternatives to the project, nor would the project fix the Morrisey interchange. (The current configuration briefly reroutes cars and bikes attempting to cross Highway 1 back onto the Highway.)
The People Power Steering Committee is motivated to participate in the campaign's lawsuit for several reasons. First, it appears to be our only real recourse to stop the widening of Highway 1 in stages, despite a lack of support for highway widening. Only 43% of County voters supported raising taxes to widen the highway in ballot measure J of 2004.
Second, we have made a firm commitment to an ethical and legal framework to control state wide greenhouse gas emissions. Until someone stands up to the assertion on the part of Caltrans that freeway widening projects are good for the environment because they help cars go faster without adding any additional traffic to the road, California environmental regulations will have no effect on global warming gases produced by highway projects. This would have a huge crippling effect on efforts to control global warming gases, given that cars and trucks are the leading cause of global warming gases (32%), and are also the sector with the largest growth (from 2004 to 2006, the share of global warming gasses attributed to cars and trucks went from 28 to 32%, according to the California Energy Commission.) Unless we regulate road projects we will not get a handle on the single largest cause of global warming in California: the automobile.
Under the strong and experienced leadership of the Campaign for Sensible Transportation, People Power is a proud partner in the latest effort to stop highway widening. We have an excellent attorney, Peter Volker, who is charging the Campaign a fraction of his normal fee. Still, we will need to raise a substantial amount of money to pay for his services. Please consider contributing to this campaign. Tax deductible donations can be made out to the Hub for Sustainable Transportation and mailed to 703 Pacific Ave. You can make any size donation.
Read the press release or visit the The Campaign for Sensible Transportation website for more information, and please contact our office with questions or comments. We work for our members.
King Street Bike Boulevard - Action Alert
The City of Santa Cruz has been promising cyclists a dedicated bike facility on King Street for more than 20 years as a way to encourage cycling on the Westside of Santa Cruz and to draw cyclists off of Mission. For the past couple of months, People Power has been meeting with residents of the north-of-Mission neighborhoods to assess and garner support for converting King Street into a Bike Boulevard. This option would not only create safe and quiet neighborhoods for those who live there, but would also create a safe and pleasant through-route for cyclists and pedestrians.
People Power members can help by talking to people who live in the King Street/Upper Westside neighborhood and asking them to sign our petition.
For now, we are focusing on getting signatures from residents of the King Street and Upper Westside neighborhoods. Please contact the People Power office at 425-0665 for more background information before collecting signatures.
Downloads (PDF)
For more information, please contact Micah at 425-0665 or micah@peoplepowersc.org
The Broadway-Brommer Bike Path
The City of Santa Cruz has approved construction of a bike path to connect Broadway and Brommer Streets. The result would be a great new way to bike the length of our Santa Cruz-Live Oak-Capitola urbanized area—the most direct, the safest, and the fastest. And it would be an important action by our community to help solve global warming—a bike route this attractive would entice a lot of people to leave the car at home for a short errand and take the bike instead. Bike path opponents and their lawyers have caused some delay, but so far the courts have completely rejected their arguments. We can hope that this great new cross-town bike route will be available soon, improving local transportation and the environment.
Stop The Downtown Parking Garage
To get directly involved in our campaign to stop the downtown parking garage please read these comments from People Power campaigner Rick Longinotti.
As you may have heard, on September 23 the City Council will vote on whether to fund the initial design for a 5-story garage at Cedar/Cathcart. This structure would cost $42 million over 30 years. It would displace the Farmers Market.
We have the potential to not only stop another subsidy to automobile use, but launch an innovative program of incentives for downtown employees to use alternative transportation.
We are requesting that before authorizing any funding for the garage, the City Council implement the Parking Demand Management measures recommended by the 2003 Master Transportation Study (MTS). (See http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/pw/MST2003/index.htm) The City and the University paid for this $500,000 study that included a list of recommendations for reducing auto trips, and making better use of existing parking resources downtown. According to the MTS, "Managing parking and demand for vehicle travel are the most cost-effective ways to shift travel behavior." Some of MTS recommendations:
- Prioritize customer parking over all-day parking in surface lots and meters. This would be accomplished through appropriate pricing policies, and through moving all permit parking to the existing multi-story garages.
- Financial incentives for employee use of alternative transportation. That could include subsidized bus passes, emergency ride home taxi vouchers, cash, credit at bike stores, car-sharing, discounted permits for carpooling, etc. Right now the downtown workforce occupies over 60% of city-operated parking spaces. Convincing a fraction of these commuters to take alternative transportation will free up the number of spaces that the new garage would provide. That goal could be accomplished at a fraction of the cost of building the garage.
- Park & Ride lots with shuttle service for downtown employees
- Trip reduction ordinance for new developments
For more information and an online petition, see the website: http://www.sensibletransportation.org/vibrantdowntown
Taking Action
- Please take a moment to e-mail the Council on this issue, asking that they implement parking demand management before taking any action on the garage. citycouncil@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us
- Come to the City Council meeting on September 23.
- Send this web page to others.
For more info contact Rick Longinotti longinotti@baymoon.com or, Micah Posner micah@peoplepowersc.org.
Outrageous!
Local Politicians Ignore Voters, Push Destruction of Environment
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) continues to try to widen Highway 1 one piece at a time. Despite the rejection of a highway-widening ballot measure in 2004 by county voters, and a recent poll indicating that county voters would still not pass a tax measure to widen Highway 1, the RTC continues to steamroll and pave over the will of its electorate. We need to stand up against the RTC, and protect our environment and democracy.
People Power Director, Micah Posner, receives United Way's Community Hero Award
This past fall, People Power director Micah Posner was named a Community Hero in the Natural Environment category by United Way's Community Assessment Project (CAP), which honors individuals "whose efforts help move Santa Cruz County toward the achievement of community goals."
Cyclists Allowed (Use of Full Lane)
If this sign had been posted on Mission Street,
two recent fatalities would have been prevented.
Ten years ago the process for designing Mission Street was drawing to a close. Lines were drawn and plans were printed up. Task force members, City Council members, and engineers congratulated themselves. Caltrans and the city council agreed to widen the street to allow four lanes of automobile traffic. Everyone was happy with the design, except for bicyclists. People Power's then-director, Ron Goodman, had lobbied for a three-lane street with bike lanes and a center turn lane—a configuration that is arguably better for slow-moving commercial traffic of all types. He was ignored. "I knew that people were going to get killed as a result of that decision and I told them that. There was too much pressure to increase the capacity for cars." People Power had 60 members at the time.
GreenWays to School
We all know that young people have the power to change the future of our community and planet. Thanks to a grant from the Webster Foundation, People Power will soon be working with local schools through GreenWays to School—a new program designed to help students make connections between personal transportation choices and climate change, oil use, and the health of their planet and themselves.
Rail Trail Purchase Appears to Be Back on Track
After more than a year of inaction, the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) has issued a new schedule for the purchase of the Union Pacific rail corridor between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. The purchase is expected to be completed September 2008. The purchase opens the way to the construction of a bicycle/pedestrian trail along with freight and passenger service.
Bike Traffic Safety School Begins
The first class of the Santa Cruz Bicycle Traffic Safety School opens on January 24, 2008, after years of work by the Community Traffic Safety Coalition with support from People Power and Traffic Judge Kim Baskett. This means that if you get a ticket on your bicycle you now have the option to attend a 2–3 hour class on safe cycling, with a charge of $35, instead of paying a fine of $100 or more.
Folding Bikes Incentive Program
The Folding Bikes in Buses program offers a financial incentive for Santa Cruz residents to ride a folding bike for short commutes or utility trips instead of driving an automobile.
The incentives will assist with the cost of purchasing a folding bike, while also providing discounted bus passes and safety training.
All Santa Cruz residents are eligible to participate in the program.
To request more information, or to enroll in the program, please call the Santa Cruz Area TMA at (831) 423-9569 ext. 125 or visit their web site at:
http://santacruztma.org/folding_bike.htm
People Power Offers Valet Bike Parking
People Power now offers valet bike parking at events. Valet bike parking allows people to ride their bicycles to an event and leave them with a People Power volunteer who will park and watch it within an enclosed environment. more »