Back on March 6, I began what turned into a full-blown obsession. That was the day longtime politico, former Santa Cruz Mayor and City Councilmember, and longtime Metro Board and RTC Commissioner Mike Rotkin published a guest opinion piece in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. In it, he lamented what he saw as mixed messages from the Sentinel’s editorials about the contentious Coastal Rail Trail project.

Rotkin’s Guest Commentary was the usual fare — firm support for the rail project, laced with criticism of its detractors. But one paragraph in particular struck a nerve. He wrote:

“As for the ‘problem’ of so many negative letters to the Sentinel on rail. That is easily fixed by only allowing each of the 12 or so opponents who write multiple letters to the paper one letter on this topic. Soon the letters would stop.”

That comment motivated me to dig deeper. I began combing through the Sentinel’s website and its Letters to the Editor section, looking for pro-rail, pro-trail and neutral commentary. It quickly became clear that Rotkin’s claim — that just a dozen people were responsible for all the anti-rail sentiment — didn’t hold water.

I attended the March 20 RTC meeting in Watsonville to raise this issue directly with Commissioner Rotkin. At that point, I had reviewed every letter on the topic published in 2025, as well as archived postings from 2023 and 2024. What I found was that 51 unique pro-trail authors had been published in that time period — a far cry from the “Dirty Dozen” Rotkin described. To his credit, he apologized.

But I wasn’t done.

I discovered that the Sentinel didn’t post every published letter online. To get a complete picture, I realized I would need to review every Sentinel e-edition In the modern era of the debate since the passage of Measure D in 2022. That meant opening 896 editions of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, from January 1, 2023, through May 26, 2025.

I had already covered January through March 20, 2025, for my RTC meeting research. Since then, I completed the rest. That extra effort uncovered 75 additional letters and commentaries that were printed but never published online.

The final numbers

Since Jan. 1, 2023, the Sentinel has published:

3,050 letters

467 local commentaries and guest commentaries

Of these, 305 (letters and commentaries combined) focused on the Rail Trail debate.

Here’s the breakdown of viewpoints on those 305 items:

5% neutral

38% pro-rail

57% pro-trail

Author patterns

Pro-rail:

54 unique authors, published 115 times

Top 6 authors contributed 50 of those:

Peter Gibson (18)

Jim Weller (13)

Norman Schutzberger (7)

Susan I. Stuart (6)

Frank Rimicci Jr. (6)

Rosemary Sarka of Roaring Camp (5)

36 of the authors were published only once

Pro-trail:

77 unique authors, published 175 times

Top 6 authors contributed 61 of those:

Nadene Thorne (15)

Brian Peoples (13)

Jean Brocklebank (10)

J. Ben Vernazza (9)

Jack Brown (8)

Della Davis (6)

47 authors were published only once

A space for public debate

Surprisingly, the Coastal Rail Trail isn’t even the most frequently discussed topic in the Sentinel’s opinion section. Subjects like elections, the Middle East and Cabrillo College’s proposed name change have garnered more attention. Still, I’m grateful that the Sentinel continues to provide space for this vital community dialogue.

In an age where social media and elected officials often filter or dominate public discourse, the Sentinel offers something increasingly rare: an open and level playing field for democracy to speak.

Jack Brown is an Aptos resident and frequent contributor to this page on rail and trail issues.