50 YEARS AND COUNTING
I want to thank, and commend, your 50th anniversary issue. There are a number of ways you could have gone about that, but the way you chose to do it showed how you put community first, which is why you endure in the hearts of Santa Cruz. Fifty years is a big deal, and to see these many places that we know and love honored, and our history showcased, was a special gift to us all.
Barney Doherty | Aptos
BATTERY DANGER
I wonder if you are aware that there are plans to install three industrial-sized lithium battery energy storage facilities (BESS) in Santa Cruz County. One by Dominican Hospital, one by Aptos High School and one in Watsonville at 90 Minto Road next to College Lake.
Many may be hearing about these plans for the first time because the county is implementing them quietly, just like how Vistra’s Moss Landing lithium battery energy storage facility went in, which most of us didn’t even know existed until it caught fire in January of this year and reignited in February.
What we do know for sure is that once lithium batteries catch on fire, you can’t put them out! You have to let them burn! The fires create poison gases and highly toxic microparticles that contaminate homes, schools, parks, lakes and farmland.
So my question to you is—do you want these toxic lithium battery facilities in your neighborhoods where your kids play and go to school and where your food grows?
If you answered no—for more information please attend a public meeting on July 17 at the Simpkins Family Swim Center, Live Oak Annex Room A, from 6:30 to 8:30pm. You can also find information on the website stoplithiumbessinsantacruz.org.
Polly Hormel | Santa Cruz
NO SPILLS
I have lived in the San Lorenzo Valley for 70 years and I thought it was important to let you know that before Monty bought the Log Cabin it was previously named George’s Log Cabin after its owner George Grazioni. George had cerebral palsy but in spite of his palsy, he could pour a shot to the very top of the glass so that it crowned, without spilling a drop! If you could get it to your mouth without spilling a drop it was on the house; if not, you paid! Most of us had to pay but we couldn’t resist the challenge, plus he got such a kick out of our attempts! He was quite the character!
Juanita Harren Nama
MORE TRAIN THOUGHTS
How can you be so willfully ignorant? You know nothing about methodology for projecting ridership 20 years in the future. FORT has never said or implied that the rail and trail project will reduce taxes, or that the O&M costs will be insignificant.
According to the HDR projection, they will certainly be less than Metro’s O&M costs, though. It’s abysmally stupid to speak of “ROI” in a public works project. The concept or “return on investment “ simply doesn’t apply in the public sector.
Picking at details like the number of stations and “feeder lanes,” whatever that means, is laughable.
There is no rail service planned to Davenport. It’s Watsonville to Santa Cruz. There was no RTC estimate made in 2022. That’s a bogus claim. The “unknown costs” part of the HDR’s extreme worst-case scenario estimate is an artificial contingency factor, standard practice in estimating costs of major transportation projects at the early conceptual stage—it’s not a realistic cost factor.
All engineering details are as yet unknown, and major design decisions are yet to be made. There is no schedule for completion, and no budget proposed yet. The project is still in a very preliminary concept design stage. The RTC principal planner for RTC told me he thinks the project could be completed 15 years from now.
The 2045 date for the O&M cost estimates assumes that the project will have been in operation for at least five years by that time, and ridership patterns will have been stabilized. Your comments are non-serious, and are merely spurious objections meant to bolster your preconceived opposition to public transportation.
Weller James
JONES & BONES
Terrific edition! We bought our beach house in Capitola in 2016 and spend many weekends in Santa Cruz but this opened our eyes to many unknown places to enjoy. The only 40-plus store you may have missed is Jones & Bones, the amazing gift store in Capitola.
Tim & Carolyn DuClos | Capitola
