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Vote Yes on D to Get The County Moving, By Ellen Martinez, Dr. Steven
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DON’T BE FOOLED BY MEASURE D.
Measure D is NOT Pro-trail
We’re already getting a trail, with some sections already open. Measure D will stop progress and delay the trail for years. Measure D is opposed by:
Sierra Club, Roaring Camp, Democratic Party, Friends of the Rail & Trail, Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce, Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, Cabrillo Federation of Teachers, Youth for Climate Justice For a full list visit nowaygreenway.com/opposed Paid for by No Way Greenway, FPPC# 1442272 P.O. Box 5624, Santa Cruz, CA 95063 www.NoWayGreenway.com
COMMUNITY NEWS
Vote Yes on D to Get The County Moving
By Ellen Martinez, Dr. Steven Plumb, Lisa Sheridan, Robert Stephens & Gayle Ortiz
Dis the right solution, right now to build a bike and pedestrian trail on the unused rail corridor.
The Greenway plan to build a 32-mile trail, accessible to all, is fully funded and can be built now. The trail will preserve the natural landscape and showcase the beauty of our coastline. It will be an amazing community transportation resource, as is the 18-mile Monterey Coastal Trail, built in the 1980s on unused railroad tracks, and now used by over 2 million people per year.
Greenway does not detour onto busy streets, making it the safest route to schools and work. It also promotes the health of our community. That’s why more than 200 doctors support Greenway. The head of the Department of Surgery at Dominican Hospital commented, “A car-free pathway from Watsonville to Davenport will do more to improve the duration and quality of residents’ lives than any health care program in the history of Santa Cruz County.” A YES vote will move more people out of cars and reduce traffic, which supports the County’s goal to increase the percentage of commuters on bikes to 20%, cutting air pollution. Leading environmentalists support Measure D because it is the ecological trail proposal.
“YES on Greenway” page 14
By Mark Mesiti-Miller
Rarely have we seen such unity against a local ballot measure as we’re seeing with Measure D, the Greenway initiative.
Up and down Santa Cruz County and across the political spectrum, organizations and elected officials are taking a stand against Measure D — from the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce and the Pajaro Valley Chamber of Commerce to the Santa Cruz County Democratic Party and the Sierra Club, as well as organizations based in Mid-County, South County and North County. Elected officials and candidates throughout the county are also opposed to deceptive Measure D, including State Assembly, city councils, school boards and more.
“NO on Greenway” page 14
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“YES on Greenway” from page 12
The train and trail plan, if ever built, will result in heavy industrialization of the corridor with concrete retaining walls, fences separating neighborhoods, and cutting down hundreds of heritage trees.
The highly negative and misleading campaign against the Greenway Initiative is a smokescreen to hide 10 years of failure in implementing a trail on the rail corridor. Only 1.5 of 32 miles of trail has been built, a dismal track record.
Santa Cruz County does not have the ridership — or $1.3 billion — needed to replace nearly all tracks and bridges, build stations and parking lots, and operate a passenger rail line. This is an unrealistic “plan” that will never be sufficiently funded. And it will divert scarce funds from our current public transit systems, Metro and ParaCruz, as well as county roads and Hwy 1.
Greenway will preserve future rail options through railbanking, a federal program used by hundreds of communities across the nation.
Let’s Move Forward Now and vote YES on Measure D. A YES vote is the fastest way to get people moving in a safe, healthy and inclusive way. n •••
Learn more at yes-greenway.org.
“NO on Greenway” from page 12
Measure D pretends to be pro-trail and pro-transit, but this sneaky effort would bring a screeching halt to existing plans for zero-emission public transportation and a safe walking and biking trail on the 32-mile rail corridor as an alternative to Highway 1, from Santa Cruz to Watsonville.
Traffic jams on Highway 1 cause working people to lose hours away from their families, while idling cars emit harmful greenhouse gasses. Measure D would stop our best opportunity for clean energy alternatives.
The Greenway campaign claims Measure D preserves clean energy light rail options through a process called “railbanking.” But the fine print calls for ripping out existing tracks, and even rewrites County law to eliminate references to, and all planning for, clean-energy, zero-emission light rail.
Nationwide, it is unprecedented for rail service to return once tracks are removed and paved over — it simply has never happened. Measure D uses slick “green” packaging to conceal its true aim of ending transit options.
Even the impartial analysis of Measure D, completed by the non-partisan Santa Cruz County Counsel and available to voters at www.votescount.com, calls out the fact that, “as proposed, the Greenway would involve the removal of the existing rail tracks” and “adoption of the Greenway Initiative does not guarantee that the Greenway will be constructed.”
We all want a trail. Some trail segments along the corridor are already complete – including rail AND trail – and more are underway. While Greenway’s deceptive Measure D pretends to be pro-trail, in fact, it halts existing trail construction immediately, forcing a decade of delays and wasting millions in public funds.
Don’t be fooled by this deceptive and irresponsible initiative. Join environmental groups, political parties, business organizations and community leaders. Vote NO on Measure D, the Greenway initiative. n •••
Learn more at www.nowaygreenway.com
