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6 minute read
Highway 1 Groundbreaking
By Jondi Gumz
Everyone who knows about the Highway 1 commuter traffic jam, especially in the afternoon southbound from Santa Cruz to Watsonville, tries to avoid being one of those 100,000.
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Solutions have been elusive but on April 19, transportation leaders broke ground on a $100 million project they believe will break the logjam. The answer, we’re told, is “multi-modal.” ... continues on page 4
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Open on the Esplanade
Sixteen weeks after epic ocean waves crashed into Capitola’s Esplanade, causing enough damage to shutter all the restaurants, nearly all of them have reopened. Once again, people are dining under the blue umbrellas on the spacious deck of Zelda’s on the Beach.
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Full Story page 6 Mermaids
The Cisco Kid and Pancho at the Silvercup
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It was Sunday morning about a week after the big crap game. When I dragged myself out of bed, the house was quiet. Laura and Mom had gone to early mass.
Full Story page 7
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Cover Highway 1 Groundbreaking, By Jondi Gumz
Community News
6 Open on the Esplanade,
8 Hearts & Hands Resolves Litigation With Fine, By Jondi Gumz • Got a Ukelele? Come to Capitola Beach Festival, By Judie Block
9 Brookvale Terrace Mobile Home Park: Thirty Years Of Ownership by Resident Owners, By Stacey Vreeken
10 New Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Leader • Santa Cruz Shakespeare Brings Three Plays To Its Summer Festival, By Lauren Gunderson
11 Breath+Oneness: A Healing Place, By Jondi Gumz
12 Capitola Summer Rec is Back!
13 Affordable Housing Conversations • Jobs in Santa Cruz County
14 Veterans’ Art On Display
16 A Spark of Art in Aptos, By Jondi Gumz
17 Santa Cruz County: $223 Million Needed for Sewer System
18 Thank You, Second Harvest Volunteers
20 Sé’sh Shóto’sh Psí’sh: New MAH Exhibit by Cannupa Hanska Luger
23 New CEO Todd Wilson at Preferred Strategies • Museum Needs Volunteers • Open Seat on Museum Board • Time to Focus on Child Neglect
24 Apply for Affordable Rentals • Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day • County Awarded $5.6M • Mount Madonna Students to Share Washington, D.C. Reflections
California News
17 AG Wants Transparency on Nursing Home Ownership
Monthly Horoscope • Page 26 – A Festival, an Appearance & Pluto Goes Underground, By Risa D’Angeles
Community Calendar • Arts & Entertainment – Pages 28, 29
Featured Columnists
7 The Cisco Kid and Pancho at the Silvercup, By Joe Ortiz • Cream Pudding
19 Recognizing Students & Staff, By Scott J. Turnbull, Superintendent, Soquel Union Elementary School District
22 Mermaids & Mermen: Capitola Swimming Competitions in the 1920s, By Deborah Osterberg
25 Annual Groundwater Report Reaffirms the Value and Need for Pure Water Soquel, By Rebecca Gold Rubin
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27 Student Summit Focuses on the Environment, By Avonlea Harwood
30 Incentives to Buy Electric Vehicles, By Zach Friend, Supervisor, Second District
31 California Native Plants Grow Wild, By Tony Tomeo
SCCAS Featured Pet • Page 31 – Fall in Love With Lovebug
831-359-4670
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Patrice Edwards editor
Jondi Gumz contributing writers
Jondi Gumz, Judie Block, Stacey Vreeken, Lauren Gunderson, Risa D’Angeles, Joe Ortiz, Scott J. Turnbull, Deborah Osterberg, Rebecca Gold Rubin, Avonlea Harwood, Zach Friend, Tony Tomeo layout
Michael Oppenheimer, Ward J. Austin graphic artists
Michael Oppenheimer, Ward J. Austin production coordinator
Camisa Composti media consultants
Teri Huckobey, Brooke Valentine office coordinator
Cathe Race distribution
Bill Pooley, Taylor Brougham
“Groundbreaking” from page 1 phase, from Bay/Porter in Soquel to State Park Drive in Aptos, including an overcrossing near Mar Vista Elementary, with the possibility of construction in late summer/early fall.
What does that mean?
It means investing in multiple strategies: Building auxiliary lanes and allowing Metro buses to bypass traffic on the shoulder — an initiative requiring legislation championed by then-Assembly member Mark Stone — building crossings over Highway 1 for people on foot and bike, and building a trail alongside the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line.
Metro, by the way, is working on more solutions: Boosting bus ridership to 7 million by 2027 and building 224 affordable rentals at its bus stations so people could live closer to where they work.
Here are the numbers: Downtown Santa Cruz (Pacific Center North), 120 units, to break ground in late 2023, Watsonville, 60 units, requires 24 months of design and permitting, and ParaCruz project, Highway 1/Soquel Avenue, 60 units, groundbreaking in 5-7 years.
For the third phase, from State Park Drive to Freedom Boulevard with four overcrossings, environmental work is underway.
Michael Tree, named Metro general manager in March, called bus on shoulder “a game-changer” in the agency’s push for buses to be seen as fast and reliable. Metro’s board committed to make buses arrive every 15 minutes, he noted.
Bus on shoulder was pioneered on freeways in San Diego, starting in 2022 for three years, using driver assistance technology.
Future Vision
Sarah Christensen, RTC engineering construction manager, emceed the groundbreaking, promising this would be “the first of many celebrations.”
She said construction will begin in a few weeks on the Soquel Drive buffered bike lanes, another part of the multimodal strategy to reduce congestion, boost safety and encourage more people to switch from cars to bikes for short trips.
2,167 Jobs
Caltrans estimates the Highway 1 project will create 2,167 jobs.
The contractor is Granite Construction of Watsonville.
Another expected benefit is a reduction in greenhouse gases from vehicle emissions, aligning with the state Climate Action Plan.
The multi-modal approach has support from the state with Matthew Yosgott, deputy director of the California
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The first phase of Highway 1 focuses on 41st Avenue in Capitola to Soquel Drive, with the pedestrian-bike walkway over the freeway connecting the Santa Cruz Gardens and Emerald Bay neighborhoods near the Animal Shelter with the Sheriff’s Office, a 2-mile walk to Twin Lakes State Beach or Schwan Lake.
Target completion date is end of 2025.
Bids are being sought for the second
Leaders of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, which is spearheading the project with CalTrans, are so excited about the future they ordered Freedom Bakery to create shortcake cookies topped by icing showing an uncrowded Highway 1 and a parade of people on the to-be-built overcrossing.
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“It’s possibly the largest transportation project in our county,” said Supervisor Manu Koenig, who represents the area where the first overcrossing will be built.
Guy Preston, RTC executive director since 2018, was on hand, despite his foot being in a walking boot.
Comment on Highway 1 Project
May 2 and May 4
Speak up now on the environmental impact report on a project to ease congestion on Highway 1, from Freedom Boulevard to State Park Drive, that stretch that is jammed every afternoon.
The Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission and Caltrans are overseeing the project which involves building auxiliary lanes, making it possible for Metro buses to bypass traffic on the shoulder — a first in the state — and build Segment 12 of the Coastal Rail Trail, 1.2 miles for people on foot and on bikes along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line with four crossings over Highway 1.
Two meetings are planned to accept public input before the final design. A virtual meeting is scheduled for 6-7:30 p.m. May 2.
The other will be in person, an open house 6-7:30 p.m. May 4, at Rio Sands Hotel, 116 Aptos Beach Drive, Aptos.
The environmental impact report covers ways to minimize impacts along with alternatives.
Email lara.bertaina@dot.ca.gov by 5 p.m. June 2 or write Lara Bertaina, California Department of Transportation, 50 Higuera St., San Luis Obispo. Comments must be received by 5 p.m. June 2. n
See the report at libraries in Capitola, Live Oak and Watsonville, Santa Cruz County Public Works Department, fourth floor of the county building at 701 Ocean St. in Santa Cruz, and online at bit.ly/StatePark-FreedomBlvd.
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Transportation Commission, recommending $107 million.
He was in attendance for the groundbreaking along with Scott Eades, named in February as director of Caltrans Region 5, which includes Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties.
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“It’s an iconic symbol, being able to move across the highway,” Eades said.
The multi-modal approach also found favor with Congress, getting $30 million in federal funds. It is one of nine in the nation to receive “mega grant” funding through the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in November 2021.
Officials credit voters for passing Measure D, the half-cent sales tax in 2016, leveraging state and federal funds to meet transportation needs over the next 30 years. n
••• offer from Milgard.
Cover Photo: The April 19 groundbreaking on the Highway 1 multimodal improvements: Auxiliary lanes, bus on shoulder and freeway overcrossing.