TRAIL SANS RAIL
The Santa Cruz County Friends of the Rail and Trail is the transit equivalent of a kid still waiting for their Hogwarts letter at age 40. They’ve spent decades fantasizing about a magical train that will whisk commuters along the coast, but the only thing moving forward is their ability to waste time and money.
At this point, the train isn’t delayed—it’s been reincarnated twice and still hasn’t left the station. Let’s talk about their master plan: a commuter rail for a county where people’s main form of transportation is surfing.
They want to spend hundreds of millions on a train that will average a blistering 15 miles per hour, which is roughly the speed of an ambitious jogger. Need to get from Watsonville to Santa Cruz? You could take FORT’s dream train or you could walk backward while juggling and still arrive faster.
And of course, their obsession with keeping the tracks intact has delayed the one thing everyone actually wants: a completed trail. But no, FORT insists that we must have rail and trail, even though there’s barely enough room for both—like trying to fit a sumo wrestler and a Peloton in a studio apartment.
Meanwhile, other cities have managed to build entire transit networks while Santa Cruz gets another round of feasibility studies and public meetings where nothing happens except more people realizing this train is never coming.
If Friends of the Rail and Trail actually wanted to improve transportation, they’d switch to being “Friends of Just the Trail Because the Train is a Pipe Dream.” But that would require self-awareness—something that, much like their beloved train, is nowhere to be found.
Eric Thiermann | Santa Cruz
NO FAN OF TRUMP
We the people have elected a Man (person with Y chromosome) as President of the USA and Leader of the Free world. He is a “man” with a Very Large EGO and a very Small mind. The Congress has fearfully accepted his choice of incompetent men and women to run the government. We can see the government being dismantled unlawfully every day. The president has declared himself above the Law. We the people are left with the task of challenging the Man who makes “Satisfaction of his own immediate personal wants the mainspring of his actions.”
Sue Kirkpatrick | Scotts Valley
SILENT ABOUT THE BATTERY FIRE
The second lithium-ion battery fire this year at Vistra’s Moss Landing Battery Storage Facility blew toxic metals across Santa Cruz County on Feb. 18 and 19, making many people in our community ill. Santa Cruz County has not announced a health emergency or coordinated plan to respond to one of the largest health crises in our community’s history.
Please contact Santa Cruz Health Officer Dr Lisa Hernandez at 831-454-4818 or li************@sa***************.gov .
Ask for there to be testing and treatment guidelines issued to all healthcare staff in the county. Also initiate a countywide reporting system for those of us affected.
And please contact Director of Environmental Health Andrew Strader at 831-454-2022 or and re*********@sa*************.us .
Ask that they start countywide soil testing for cobalt, manganese, copper, nickel and lithium. Also initiate a countywide reporting system for those of us made ill by the fire.
Keith McHenry | ke***@fo**********.net
