People Power Makes Two-Wheeled Endorsements

With the price of gas at record highs and several bicyclists running for office, endorsements from People Power—Santa Cruz's "advocate for sensible transportation"—mean more this year than ever before, and the bicycle group is not being shy about sharing their opinions.

For Santa Cruz City Council, People Power endorsed Bruce Van Allen and Mike Rotkin. "Both have been champions for bicyclists in different ways," explains Director Micah Posner. "Both are opposed to widening the Highway, including the sneak lanes, and both ride bicycles. While we appreciate Cynthia Mathews and Chris Cobb, who each turned in supportive questionaires, we reserved our endorsement for the clear champions, as there are plenty of other important issues on which to base a vote on."

On Santa Cruz City initiatives, the group supports Measure H, which would raise the sales tax to largely fund road repair, and Measures I and J, which would force the University to mitigate the impacts of its growth. According to Posner, "Our endorsement of these measures can be seen as a vote of confidence in the basic planning policies of the City of Santa Cruz, which is incrementally moving towards a sensible transportation system and deserves our support in maintaining its infrastructure and successfully negotiating with the University."

In the City of Capitola, People Power endorsed Sam Storey, who impressed the group with his negative comments on highway widening, including a commitment to oppose "any widening project that displaced or encroached upon Capitola homes" as well as his support for creating more pedestrian space in Capitola Village by gradually closing parts of it to cars.

At the state level, People Power recommends keeping John Laird and Sam Farr, "both of whom continue to push for trains and trails here in Santa Cruz and nationwide." But People Power does not support State Measure 1B, which would rebuild and expand California's Highway System. Posner claims that 1B simply continues the status quo transportation system, earmarks hardly anything towards alternative transportation, and does not support the state's recent commitment to slow down global warming. Personal cars and trucks produce at least 40% of our state's carbon dioxide emissions.

Again according to Posner, "All the candidates and initiatives who submitted questionnaires put a lot of careful thought into their answers, whether we agreed with their perspective or not. Citizens interested in the candidates' responses in the critical field of transportation should really check out these questionnaires."

People Power questionairre

Santa Cruz City Council Candidate Responses

Capitola City Council Candidate Responses