Thursday, July 22, 2010

Pogonip Multi-Use Trail Proposal Presented to City Council Tuesday July 27th

The multi-use trail proposed by Parks and Recreation will go before the City Council this coming Tuesday July 27th at 3 pm. The proposal is item 19 on the agenda (11 MB). The proposal is from pages 210 - 220. I'm not sure what time it will be addressed but you may be able to come late and not miss the item.


The objective is to push out the negative use of the area and displace it with positive use. If this passes then this means a fun new 1.5 mile single track trail that connects Golf Club Drive to the U-Con trail could be one step closer to reality. For those of you downtown and in the east side and Seabright area this is a fun alternative to the railway tracks to U-Con.

This is a very big deal and we would love your support on this issue!

We hope that you can attend the meeting, call or write (or do all 3) the City Council in support of this issue.



You can write to all of the City Council by sending email here: citycouncil@cityofsantacruz.com. Messages to that address become part of the public record so please conduct your correspondence with civility in mind.


You may also contact individual council members:






Mayor Mike Rotkin 
809 Center Street, Room 10 
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 
(831) 420-5020 City Hall 
(831) 423-4209 Residence 
(831) 459-4601 Office 
Email: mrotkin@cityofsantacruz.com 
Current Term Expires: November 2, 2010
 
Vice Mayor Ryan Coonerty
809 Center Street, Room 10 
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 
(831) 420-5027 City Hall 
(831) 423-8939 Residence 
Email: rcoonerty@cityofsantacruz.com 
Current Term Expires: November 6, 2012

Katherine Beiers 
809 Center Street, Room 10 
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 
(831) 420-5020 City Hall 
(831) 426-6108 Residence 
Email: kbeiers@cityofsantacruz.com
Current Term Expires: November 6, 2012
 
Don Lane 
809 Center Street., Room 10 
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 
(831) 420-5020 City Hall 
(831) 426-4272 Residence 
Email: dlane@cityofsantacruz.com
Current Term Expires: November 6, 2012
 
Tony Madrigal 
809 Center Street, Room 10 
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 
(831) 420-5020 City Hall 
Email: tmadrigal@cityofsantacruz.com
Current Term Expires: November 6, 2012

Cynthia Mathews
809 Center Street, Room 10 
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 
(831) 420-5020 City Hall 
Email: cmathews@cityofsantacruz.com 
Current Term Expires: November 2, 2010

Lynn Robinson 
809 Center Street, Room 10 
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 
(831) 420-5020 City Hall 
Email: lrobinson@cityofsantacruz.com
Term Expires: November 2, 2010

You should try to include some personal story about your experience in Santa Cruz and how this trail will make it beter. Some of the points that you can include in your testimony, call or letter should include:
  • Re-iterate your support of the multi-use trail project. Your support of this proposal is the most important thing they want to hear.
  • Support the mountain biking community to design, build, raise funds (for environmental studies and signage) and maintain the trail. The cash strapped City would like the mountain biking community to take an active role in the stewardship of this trail. MBOSC will take the lead in organizing the trail work and maintenance but we want your support.
  • Provides an alternate route to the U-Con trail/UCSC from the City when combined with the San Lorenzo bike bridge and the tunnel under Hwy 1.
  • Provides a safe (but off road) eastern bike route into UCSC for commuters.
  • Provides additional recreational facilities for families and residents.
  • This proposal will eliminate the criminal activity from that area of the park. This was true when we put the U-Con trail in back in 1999. Think of I-5 Colonnade in Seattle or Highbridge Park in NYC. If you have any experience with other areas then please bring them up.
If you are going to attend the City Council we ask that you conduct yourselves professionally and respectfully. 
  • Dress appropriately. Pants and shirts with buttons recommended.
  • No talking over or laughing at opponents
  • Take the higher ground
Our opponents are going to fight this every step of the way. They are organizing right now. Our opponents feel the people do not belong in open space and successfully excluded mountain bikes and equestrians from Pogonip back in 1998. These policies have created a safe haven for drug trafficking and transients. We can change this and we represent the new generation of Santa Cruz residents who believe in sustainable economic development and recreation. We want real solutions to our problems not just talk and block.


Please remember: we have a lot of allies but this is no guarantee of success. This proposal is endorsed by the Santa Cruz Police Department, the Fire Department, Take Back Santa Cruz, IMBA, the equestrian community (SCCHA), the local bike industry and local bike shops. We would love to have your support as well.

Is the future of our city heroin tourism or mountain bike tourism? We can make that choice by what we do and how we act over the next few months.

1 comment:

tobynixon said...

Well, I guess your obsession with "Homeless Drug Addicts" really spoiled your group interest. Because no one really cared about your staged photos, you haven't had a real group in a couple of years. I mean after all, a published novelist, technical writer and a National Science Award Scholarship winner, isn't the type of person you'd expect to be homeless.

But, you know, when some self righteous, snobby kid (like you) pulled the anchor up on my 32' sailing yacht and it beat up the housing on my keel, I lost my home. People don't just become homeless because they are lazy, crazy and drug addicted pedophiles as you so infer.

I have pictures of my own of hundreds of nights in different places all over the bay area and in Northern California I camped at night and you couldn't even tell I was there.

Seriously, statistically speaking Santa Cruz has no more homeless than a city of it's average size. According to a UC Berkeley Study, 80% of homeless people are from the geographic area of the region they are in. Los Angeles and New York have the most homeless of the entire country and are also the largest populated cities in the United States. Go figure right.

THEY ARE YOUR DRUG ADDICTS. Your Neighbors. You may have been some fortunate son, to be born into wealth or a home or a Mason. I mean, they certainly aren't mine. Lots of house drug addicts live around the park and leave their house and do drugs in the park during the day. That's apparent, because the trash left behind after ONE day in a pile of packaging, fast food wrappers costs way more than my budget would ever be.

I mean, Drugs cost a lot, I can't afford them, YOU on the other hand CAN. I mean, can you pass a drug test? I have Fibromyalgia and IBS all the drugs I take are prescribed by a doctor.

DOES a DOCTOR PRESCRIBE the FAT TIRE BEER you DRINK?

So while you parade pictures of trash piles, which could have any number of sources including the most common, ILLEGAL DUMPING. On the other hand, since you call the police and LIE about what people are doing. Well, police normally arrest people and leave their things laying in the park. Which YOU assume would be the fault of the homeless person for being there. But if you had enough intelligence you'd realize that it was indeed the property of homeless person being illegally deprived of it by the officer.

So while you point fingers and ask for a state park for a trail at a city council meeting, we're going to start sleeping at city hall, fighting these tickets and unconstitutional stay-away orders and GROSS POLICE HARASSMENT of your Citizens.

But by all means, I hope you can have a place to ride your bike and pick on homeless people.