$50,000 Sunday Stroll on the Westside Railroad Tracks

The Train Wreck of an article – the Santa Cruz Sentinel reaches new lows.

I have watched the Santa Cruz Sentinel take a big dive since they moved, changed owners and re-arranged staff. In honesty I never considered this paper anything close to a real newspaper, but its the only one we have.

Recently an editorial ran about the new $2,000 Trespass fine that Untied Pacific was reportedly going to start implementing. The people of Santa Cruz went through the roof as these rail ways have been used by pedestrians since the tracks existed by all kinds of different types of people. According to the the Sentinel Staff, the editorial by David Wright also gave tremendous false information about the Hwy 1 widening project and just about everything else the article cited. It would to have been fair to allow David Wright to at least respond to some of these financial stats he cites in his editorial.

The next day , the newspaper wrote a new article that sounded as if the author of the first article must have been on drugs. Midway through the article after naming numerous errors a sentence starts “Then the Sentinel Editorial Board enters the Twilight Zone --”

At least they blame their own editorial board in the article.

David Wright cited an accident like it was someone walking on the tracks when in reality he was train jumping from car to car while the train was in motion. I assume the guy knew the risks. I did not correct the capitalization of our cities name which I found ironic in a correction article. However what bothered be was the following sentence.

“In fact, injuries to pedestrians from trains in Santa cruz County -- where the trains are very slow and very loud -- are quite rare. UP's enforcement will likely target transients who camp within the rail corridor, not kids walking to school.”

Did the United Pacific say that, or is this just another reporter making appeasing remarks to tone down the dissent against the fine and the issue? Past articles from this month by Sentinel Staff take a different tone.

Previous articles on the same issue tell a different story.

Brian Seals wrote in an article from Jan 17th
“Casual walks and bike rides along the rails in Santa Cruz County might become more costly as Union Pacific Railroad says it is redoubling efforts to combat trespassing on its rail lines.
Maintenance crews were working this week along the line. As they were removing brush they were giving verbal warnings to passersby, telling them of possible $2,000 fines and saying that signs would be posted in the coming weeks. They told walkers that Union Pacific police would begin to enforce the measure and seek help from area law enforcement.

Well I doubt many people camp on the tracks... but they do use th tracks to walk to their camps where they must hide from our draconian Nighttime Sleeping Ban. I assume that the United Pacific will target the homeless walking to their hideouts, and maybe they will not be so selective in their enforcement as our City Police. Most camps are far off the reaches of United Pacific's property. The homeless know enough to camp far from the reaches of the Bull's enforcement.

This is another use of selective enforcement. If you have a trespass law, you either enforce it or not. Words like “transients” are used to appease the average housed person making them feel safe to break the law, while the poor or even if you look poor, must now fear a $2,000 fine because they are... transient. The definition of the word transient used as a noun is “a person traveling about usually in search of work “, as an adjective “passing through or by a place with only a brief stay or sojourn .”

But the newspapers hates to use the word homeless. So they choose the safe word “transient”

To read the staff corrected article titled “ David Wright: Sentinel off track on walking the rails”
Visit
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/story.php?storySection=Opinion&sid=65270

This Article is also not signed by any staff, it simply says Sentinel Staff Article.

I support the actions of this walk and hope that you will fight for the right of all people to use the tracks.

Tim Rumford

To clarify, the bottom of that Sentinel article that Tim links to says, "David Wright is with Santa Cruz County Friends of the Rail Trail." It is confusing that the top of the same article says, "SENTINEL STAFF REPORT" Is David Wright part of the Sentinel too? If not, why does the top of the article say, "SENTINEL STAFF REPORT." And remember, the Sentinel is not Our newspaper. It NEVER was.

Dirty Santa Cruz Secrets: Hanging on Water St. Bridge
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/17862/index.php

"For many of today's youth, the only Santa Cruz they've known is the Santa Cruz of progressivism, surfing and the university. But it wasn't too long ago that Santa Cruz, much like other cities of California, was a hotbed of vigilante violence fueled by vehement racism and encouraged by the Santa Cruz Sentinel."

I couldn't agree more, and the questions you bring up are also good. I have lived here my entire life and the SC Senile as it has been coined for decades by readers panders to interests rather than the good of the community. I agree they have never represented SC. I just noticed a huge dive in spelling , grammar, and worse bad reporting since the changes -- not that the reporting was ever that great.

Thanks for walking for our right to walk the rails unmolested and without the fear of a HUGE fine.
Maybe someone from your group could address all the financial stuff that the article really just confuses the hell out people with.
Hwy 1 widening, etc. Is the correction article correct in that aspect, whoever wrote it. I guess I am asking what can we do to support the ending of this new fine being implemented. I would hope that the City Council does not give the enforcement help they are asking for. Maybe something for the next City Council session.
Tim Rumford

yes - They have tons of copy editing mistakes, including misspellings in titles.

I'm worried about the Sentinel's health during the upcoming recession. The first budget cut during a downturn is advertising, and newspapers have really been feeling a crunch because of alternatives to want-ads such as Craigslist and other internet ad possibilities. Yet, many papers have been having to downsize their staffs during the past 3-4 years while there is relatively low unemployment.