Hipsters, trains and automobiles.
No Left Turn
Thank you for your coverage of Highway 1 traffic issues (“Jammed,” Cover Story, May 29.html). I must take exception with Supervisor Zach Friend's characterization of highway widening as a “progressive” issue. For him to swath his opinions in the mantle of such a great political movement is a travesty. Progressive means to look toward the future, and I hope, for our children's sake, that that future is not in wider highways.
Jack Bowers
Santa Cruz
Waiting for a Train
I was shocked and saddened after reading your “Jammed” article from the front page of the Weekly. Nowhere in the story was the magic word “TRAIN” that would use the newly acquired Rail Trail track and right of way between Watsonville and Santa Cruz. If our subject commuter Annabel Ortiz in the article was able to take a light rail commuter train on that track, she would quickly and cheaply arrive at her job in Santa Cruz in a relaxed and rested state, ready for work using an environmentally sound and sustainable system of transportation. What's up with that?
Drew Lewis
Santa Cruz
Whose Santa Cruz?
Thank you for your article “Inn Depth,” (Briefs, May 22.html) and for acknowledging the dignity and humanity of low-income persons, and our right to exist in Santa Cruz. I also wish to thank the Santa Cruz Weekly staff for being courteous to me when I hand-deliver letters to your office since I am not an Internet user. Your paper is vastly superior to the Good Times, which is rapidly becoming more like the Santa Cruz Sentinel every day, thanks to their Social Darwinist editor, Greg Archer. Archer’s view of poor people is no different than Mitt Romney or the late Ronald Reagan or that other late notorious capitalist ideologue, Ayn Rand. I have been a resident of the Santa Cruz area since 1982. Although I live in El Rio Mobile Home Park rather than the Palomar Inn, I have just as much right to live in Santa Cruz as Archer and other members of his social class.
Erich J. Holden
Santa Cruz
Keep the Dream Alive
Two adjacent articles in the May 22 paper really spell out the diversity in our town. The contrast between the low-income residents of the Palomar Inn and the hipster hedonists of the Fringe Festival could not be greater.
You guys should quit stirring things up, and just go along with Greg Archer’s dream. People, get together! Keep the divided populous of the Santa Cruz weird together.
Jonathan H. Boutelle
Santa Cruz
