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 the measure — 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.
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 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.
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Learn more at www.nowaygreenway.com
PRO: tpgonlinedaily.com/vote-yes-on-measure-d-to-get-the-county-moving