Metro buses are the main form of "alternative transportation" in Santa Cruz County, despite all the rhetoric about bikes, trains and trails. I have a challenge for people who oppose Measure J but claim to support alternative transportation. Ride the bus from Watsonville to Santa Cruz every day for a week. You'll learn why many Metro bus riders are voting Yes on J. Though the No on J campaign materials don't say so, Measure J will add carpool lanes, giving buses priority on Highway 1. (The carpool lanes are not some extra, optional project; they are the priority project in the measure.) Scheduled travel time from Watsonville to Santa Cruz will drop from an hour and 15 minutes to just 30 minutes, and Metro will be able to run more trips with the same number of buses and drivers. With its focus on carpool lanes, Measure J is good for those of us who depend on the bus.

In areas around Seattle, Wa., there are clusters of homeless people living in “tent cities.� Groups work with cities to find available land, and move tents onto sites. Every time a tent city is proposed in the suburbs around Seattle, there are protests and nasty articles in the local papers. Wild and untrue stereotypes of the homeless fly rampantly without restraint in the media. Before Tent City 4 recently moved to Woodinville, Wa., the local paper ran an article by owners of a Woodinville bed and breakfast. These people claimed a tent city in Woodinville would threaten “agriculture� and “tourism,� would endanger children and schools, and would cost the city money...

ZNet interview

So which City Council candidates have the best positions on homelessness? HUFF found slim picken's at the Housing Candidate Forum in early October. With two new write-in candidates to choose from, voters really need to know where each of the candidates stand when it comes to dealing with the least empowered members of the City of Santa Cruz.

In the aftermath of Florida’s recent barrage of tropical storms, I am sure the “old poor� are slipping under the radar of powers that be, to utilize programs set up for the “new poor.� Programs no one would facilitate for the “old poor.� I saw this in full play after the 7.1 earthquake in 1989 in Santa Cruz, Ca., that collapsed the Oakland freeway. Santa Cruz at that time had a large homeless population. Then the quake hit. And suddenly middle class families were temporarily homeless, due to structural damage to the homes they owned. A shelter was set up at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, with beds, blankets, food and water. We had torrential rains after the quake, so the homeless population showed up to use these cots, dry blankets, food, etc., these things that were set up for middle class quake victims apparently. There was a public uproar when suburban families complained about having to sleep next to “bums� in the shelter. A move was made to separate out the “old poor� from the “new poor,� but it failed. The “old poor� just lied, saying they had been living somewhere that was now ruined. I remember the end result being something like the homeless population took over most of that shelter and the middle class people went somewhere else, probably motels, and the shelter was shut down earlier than it would have been if it had been used by middle class families instead of homeless poor folks.