Measure D opponents rally in Santa Cruz

UPDATE 11/1/2016 6:15 PM: Santa Cruz County voters face a tough decision in the voting booth next week. According to a synopsis on the Santa Cruz County Elections website, Measure D is supposed to improve children’s safety around schools, repair potholes and streets, improve traffic flow on Highway 1, and provide more transportation and rail options. However, it could come at a cost for people who live, work, or play in Santa Cruz County.

“Traffic is terrible,” one Aptos resident said. “It’s gotten so bad in the last 5, 6 years or so. When I first started driving, if you were on the freeway it was 65 everywhere. Now it’s a challenge to get up to 40 miles an hour.”

A lot of folks can agree traffic on Highway 1 is a challenge, but they disagree on a fix.

“Highway 1 is a quality of life issue,” Shanna Crigger, director of communications of Graniterock, said. “It is not fun to navigate that highway any time of day, it’s a parking lot and it’s frustrating. Frustrating when you’re trying to get to work on time, it’s frustrating when you’re trying to get home to your family, and spend quality time with your family. It’s a really difficult place to be.”

On Tuesday, people with No on Measure D rallied outside of Graniterock Construction in Santa Cruz, who supports Measure D. They said widening won’t work and they think “if you build it, they will come,” referring to folks who visit from the Bay Area. They say other long-term are needed.

“Support these things: Our bus systems, our roads, the projects for bicycles and pedestrians that could be supported but instead, $100 million is going to be wasted on Highway 1 widening that’s not going to benefit anybody,” said Rick Longinotti, chair of No on Measure D.

While his group is against widening the road, they are interested in other ways to fix congestion.

“They’re actually studying express buses on the Soquel corridor, the rail line that the county now owns, some kind of transit there and Metro, the bus system, is studying what’s called “bus on shoulder,” where they run the buses on the median or the shoulder of the Highway 1, so those would be alternatives for some of the people who are stuck in traffic,” Longinotti said.

Graniterock said a half of one percent sales tax increase is a small price to price for big results.

“Santa Cruz County has historically struggled with transportation funding and ways to make our roads smoother and safer and so if this sales tax can help with that, then I think it’s a benefit for the entire community,” Crigger said.

But some voters in the community aren’t on board just yet, and have a big decision to make.

“It’s a challenge because I support helping out, widening out the bike pathways, making the schools safe and all that but at the same time, as we’ve seen on Highway 1, spending a lot of money on widening it really hasn’t eased the traffic.”

ORIGINAL POST:

Opponents of Santa Cruz County’s Measure D held a public demonstration Tuesday to voice their concerns over environmental issues and financial contributions from supporters of the measure.

Measure D is a 30-year half-percent sales tax that would raise an estimated $500 million to fund improvement and maintenance of the county’s transportation network. More than $100 million would be used to expand auxiliary lanes on Highway 1.

The No on D – Widening Won’t Work campaign says the project won’t relieve traffic congestion, will add to greenhouse gas emissions, and is backed by big money from construction companies and unions.

Tuesday’s demonstration took place outside the Santa Cruz offices of Granite Rock, one of the local companies that backs the measure.

KION’s Mariana Hicks is covering the story and will have a full report tonight at 5 and 6.