Streetsblog Los Angeles

It’s time to declare victory in the battle for a Leimert Park Metro station.

In an exceptionally fast-moving turn of events — by government standards, anyway — the Metro Board has voted today to fully fund what had been considered optional Crenshaw/LAX Line stations at Leimert Park and Hindry Ave.

The move comes just one day after the L.A. City Council voted to spend a total of $55 million in future Measure R fund for the two stations.

While the final battle rushed to a swift conclusion, the fight for a Leimert Park station has gone on since at least 2010, when Metro staffers originally rejected the idea of an underground station as too expensive, while offering too little benefit at an estimated $131 million.

That was followed by a second request for a Leimert Park stop from County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, which received a conditional approval — it would be built only if the entire 8.5 mile project, including the station, could be built out within the original $1.7 billion budget.

Yet that decision ignored the importance of Leimert Park, not just to the local community, but to the city at large. The area is the historic cultural heart of the city’s African American community, one of the largest black middle class communities in the U.S. And an area so vibrant that Wikipedia quotes filmmaker John Singleton as calling it “the black Greenwich Village.”

Not to mention one that could, and should, be a draw for day trippers and tourists from Southern California and around the world. But only if they have what they consider a safe, convenient way to get there.

Before this week, that didn’t look likely. Read more…

Steve Hymon of the Source reports that the Metro Board has just voted 10 -1 to fully fund what had been considered optional Crenshaw/LAX Line stations Leimert Park and Hindry Ave.

The move comes just one day after the L.A. City Council voted to spend a total of $55 million in future Measure R fund for the two stations.

More details to follow.

Evidently, Mayor Villaraigosa is putting his Measure R money where his mouth is.

Last Friday, the Los Angeles Sentinel reported that Villaraigosa had made a strong commitment to building a Leimert Park station on the upcoming Crenshaw Line — something that has long been demanded by local rail advocates and civic leaders, including County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

To many — myself included — the idea of a train line bypassing one of L.A.’s most vibrant and historic neighborhoods in the heart of South L.A. made no more sense than it would to bypass Pasadena or Century City.

Or LAX, for that matter, in a classic error the Crenshaw Line is being built to rectify, as least in part.

Now the city has reportedly identified $40 million in Measure R funds that could be used to build a Leimert Park station, as well as another $15 million for a station in Westchester.

As Curbed LA pointed out yesterday, the original concept for a Leimert Park station called for an underground design at a cost of over $130 million; the new $40 million price tag suggests that some major design changes are in the works. Or possibly, that they’ve found a contractor who is willing to build it for that price.

The matter will be taken up in a special session of the L.A. City Council at City Hall on Wednesday, beginning immediately after the regular session is concluded. Hopefully, we’ll learn more then.

Full details in this report from the City Administrative Officer on issuing Measure R bonds for the two stations.

MEASURE R BOND ISSUANCE- LEIMERT PARK AND WESTCHESTER RAIL STATIONS

Isaiah (center) speaks with Malcolm Carson (L), Tafarai Bayne (R) and Andres Ramirez (far right) at a bike-to-work-day pit stop sponsored by Community Health Councils and TRUST South L.A. Sahra Sulaiman/LA Streetsblog

Stop any cyclist in South L.A. and ask them their thoughts on bike-to-work day and I can almost guarantee you’ll get a snort, a dismissive hand wave, and an, “Aw, man, I do this every day!”

It certainly describes the reaction I got from most people I spoke with who were riding in the area yesterday. And, it describes a lot of the reactions we got while handing out snacks, maps, and patch kits to commuters heading home on their bikes last night at the corner of Vermont Ave. and Martin Luther King Blvd. in South L.A.

So used to their daily ride were the commuters, in fact, Andres Ramirez and Malcolm Carson of Community Health Councils (CHC) — sponsors of the bike-to-work-day pit stop along with TRUST South L.A. — often found themselves chasing after cyclists and trying to convince them to stop, sometimes without luck.

Andres Ramirez (CHC) points to where new lanes will be along MLK Blvd. to a flower vendor on a bike. Sahra Sulaiman/LA Streetsblog

“It’s FREE!” usually did the trick.

Once they managed to get them to stop, it was the cyclists’ turn to be curious about what we were doing there.

“So, bike-to-work-day is…um…it’s a thing?” a puzzled Isaiah asked, pulling out his calendar.

He regularly rides his bike or the bus between his home in Hyde Park and the south edge of downtown, where he works.

We tried explaining it was a once-a-year thing to encourage people to try cycling.

“Oh,” he said, putting his calendar back in his backpack.

He was suddenly more interested in the “Every Lane is a Bike Lane” bumper sticker.

Malcolm Carson (CHC) speaks with a woman taking her son out to run some errands at a Bike-to-Work-Day pit stop. Sahra Sulaiman/LA Streetsblog

“Can I put this on my bag?” he asked excitedly.

He was tired of people harassing him as he rode along MLK Blvd, he said. Especially because there wasn’t really anywhere else he could ride — he’d recently been cited for riding on the sidewalk near Crenshaw.

“I’ve seen these big billboards saying I can use the lane,” he said, “but people still honk at me to get out of the road.”

He was glad to hear that bike lanes were going in along MLK. Maybe he’d finally be able to ride in peace.

Yes, cars don’t respect cyclists at all, agreed a bicycle flower vendor (above). More lanes were definitely needed in the area.

Even with lanes, one woman (left) with her adorable son in tow wasn’t sure she’d feel safe enough to get in the road.

“My husband rides on the road,” she said. “But I stay on the sidewalks. It’s much safer that way.”

* * * * * *

"This is my car!" Moammar said, patting the handlebars of his bike. We caught him on his way home to Culver City after apartment hunting south of USC. Sahra Sulaiman/LA Streetsblog

We did meet a few people who were cycling by choice. Read more…

Eric Garcetti at the Empowerment Congress Forum on January 19

Earlier this morning, the Crenshaw Subway Coalition, the umbrella organization for South L.A. groups fighting for grade separated light rail from 48th to 59th Streets for the future Crenshaw Line, released grades for both leading candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles. Both candidates scored an “A-” for their support for adding a Leimert Park Station, but Wendy Greuel scored a “B+” for her support for grade separating the entire line while Eric Garcetti scored only a “C.”

Damien Goodmon, the executive director for the Crenshaw Subway Coalition, explains why the grades on the tunnel are more important than the grades for the station.

“…the MTA board is currently scheduled to decide the fate of the Leimert Park station at theirJune 27 meeting, which is before the next Mayor takes office, so their positions on the station may be moot. The more revealing question regarding the candidate’s willingness to put their political capital on the line for the Crenshaw community is where do they stand on the 11-block Crenshaw tunnel,” said Goodmon. . “Both appear committed to making the Leimert Park station happen if it doesn’t in June, but there are key differences in Greuel and Garcetti’s written positions on the Crenshaw Blvd tunnel.”

In May of 2011, the Metro Board of Directors voted to approve the environmental documents for the Crenshaw Line which included grade separated light rail except for the 11 blocks between 48th and 59th. The Board also watered down an amendment authored by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represents the Crenshaw community, that would have required a station to be built at Leimert Park. The approved motion cleared the station environmentally, but didn’t require the construction to be part of the bids from companies.

In other words, if a contractor could build the station inside a budget designed not to build the station, it could be built. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declared a victory. Journalists (myself included) were confused because a written copy of the amendment wasn’t available. The nearly 600 Crenshaw residents were not. They booed. Read more…

Last week, Streetsblog NYC’s Brad Aaron reported on an advertisement in Metro Newpaper by Subaru calling transit riders “stinking low lifes.” The irony of course is that Metro is given out for free in many transit stations across North America.

Via Copenhagenize, comes a television commercial from Portugal that’s also  something of an insult. In the commercial for Mercedes Smart Cars, we see a lot of the tropes that the car industry is desperately trying to sell to people who don’t want to chain themselves to the costs of owning a car. There’s a woman pressed up against a Red Line door as she just missed her connection. There’s a mariachi band desperately trying to entertain a woman who wants to be left alone. There’s a hipster gazing longingly out the window of his bus at a Smart Car while a suited man is loudly eating a hamburger next to him.

Wait a second, did I say “Red Line door?” I did. The makers of this commercial clearly decided to Go Metro! to make their transit hating screed. Reader Erik Griswold, who tipped Streetsblog to the video, fumed rhetorically, “Who approved this self-loathing (manure?)”

But don’t worry Angelenos, we don’t have to bear the burden of having our beloved Metro system to attack the people who use it. That bus in the second half of the advertisement is from North San Diego County’s NCTD.

This picture is from last fall at the Waterford and Constitution Bike Path, but Percus assures Streetsblog that it pretty much looks the same way now. Photo: Allon Percus

On April 16, Metro sent out a notice to Westside stakeholders of the 405 “Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project” that a bike path from Waterford Street to Constitution Avenue on the Southbound side of the 405 would be closed from April 18 until May 2 from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm. Cyclists groaned.

When a similar proposal occurred in September of last year, cyclists were treated to a three month odyssey of shifting explanations as the community demanded Metro provide a safer route during the path closure. Cyclists are double worried this time because an estimated re-opening date for anything having to do with the Sepulveda Pass (Still Totally Worth It!) Project is always a moving target.

On May 9, mathematical sciences professor Allon Percus approached the path, and saw that it was still closed. He fired off a letter to Metro staff, and was immediately rewarded with a full closure of the bike path for twenty four hours a day, until May 16 at the earliest. Yesterday, Metro re-noticed the community, retroactively, that the bike path would remain closed from May 2 until May 16.

Percus tells his story.

I arrived by bike at the north end of the path today at 5:40pm (Thursday, May 9 – ed), carrying my 4-year-old daughter on a bike seat.  Even though this was well outside of the work hours communicated in the original closure notice, and even though we are well past the scheduled final closure date of May 1, we found ourselves locked out of the bike path.  The only alternative bicycle routes were a shoulderless highway during rush hour (Sepulveda Blvd. between Montana and Constitution) and a 2-mile detour involving a 150-foot climb.  As you can imagine, this is a distressing situation to find yourself in with a small child.  (In the end, safety won out and we opted for the 2-mile detour and the 150-foot climb.  It is not an experience I’d like to repeat, though.)

For their part, Metro staff assures Percus that the closure is a safety concern, and that the extended hours of the closure are also for safety reasons. Taking them at their word, that the path is now dangerous even when construction is not occuring, their safety solution (available to read in the closure notice) for cyclists and pedestrians is, in a word, unsafe.

Percus explains: Read more…

Metro is in the midst of addressing one of the last Transit Access Pass bugaboos beyond the fixes I described previously: the rather poor quality of service provided by Xerox, the vendor staffing the Regional TAP Service Center.

At the Metro Board Executive Management Committee meeting on Thursday they will consider an extension of the contract with Xerox to facilitate a transition to having the Center be in-house staffed by Metro employees represented by the Transportation Communications Union (TCU).

This is good news. Not that everything will be peachy keen even with this change. Alex Vickers’ comment to my previous post I think brings up a very important point in re gating:

Closing the turnstiles is still going to be a complete nightmare… was held up for 5 minutes the other day trying to get through the turnstiles and almost missed my train. It’s difficult to deal with the huge rush of an entire train of people unloading and the stations weren’t designed to deal with two way traffic. Union Station is going to be a complete C.F

Another commenter, who wishes to remain anonymous because of business with Metro, explains why this could be a good move for customers.

This helps fix one of the biggest complaints about the TAP program, which is the poor customer service. By bringing this in house hopefully you will have staff at MTA Customer Service Centers actually helping passengers with the card instead of directing them to the phone booth where they sit on hold for over half an hour.

Oh, yeah… Read more…

Flanked by City Council Transportation Committee Chair Bill Rosendahl and Sherman Oaks Home Owner's Association President Richard Close, Wendy Greuel argues the city needs to do more for commuters, especially those using the 405. Photo courtesy Wendy Greuel for Mayor

“Behind me, you can see one of the most notorious symbols of LA traffic: Valley commuters stuck in the 405 South daily traffic jam,” began Wendy Greuel at her transportation themed press conference at the Sherman Oaks Galeria. “The 405-101 interchange is the most congested interchange in the United States.”

Greuel, the City Controller who is battling City Councilman Eric Garcetti to be the next mayor of Los Angeles, took a moment to yesterday to highlight what many Angelenos already know. There is not enough freeway space for the number of people that want to, or feel forced to, drive to get where they need to go.

That statement is doubly true for the 405.

Maybe the next mayor should do something about it.

One issue that both Garcetti and Greuel agree on is that further widening of the I-405 through the Sepulveda Pass, one of the few transportation links between the populous exhurbs of the Westside and San Fernando Valley, is a fool’s game. Both advocate for a strong and real transit alternative to driving on the 405.

And advocates agree. David Murphy is the head of Angelenos Against Gridlock (AAG).  In the past weeks, AAG earned a lot of media attention by attacking the widening and revealing the celebrity support of Elon Musk for highlighting how far behind, and over budget, the 405 widening project is.

But Murphy’s group isn’t arguing for further widening, but for rail expansion.

“What does all the attention to the 405 traffic, including even on Good Morning America today, say about the need for rail?” Murphy asked rhetorically in an email.

While both candidates agree that transit is the best way to move people through the pass, they each offer different solutions.

“I am also committed to developing a relief project for the 405,” Greuel continued yesterday. “I began exploring this as a councilmember and, as mayor, I am ready to put those plans into action and provide relief to the 405 congestion. My plan supports investing in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Light Rail, dedicated lanes and prioritizing the city’s bike plan.”

“If you look at the number of passengers we have to alleviate, light-rail probably wouldn’t do enough,” Garcetti is quoted as saying in Neon Tommy. “[The rail would] go from the north San Fernando Valley basically to LAX, including a transit tunnel through the 405 pass that would allow you to be able to go essentially from Sherman Oaks to UCLA in five or 10 minutes.”

While a tunnel may sound cost prohibitive, Greuel hasn’t ruled out the tunnel option. She noted that it might actually be easier to tunnel than build on or near the 405 given recent experiences.

...sure you are...

Read more…

Draft Alternative 1

Tonight marks another milestone in the Union Station Master Plan project. Metro will unveil four alternatives that will be studied, based on the feedback given during stakeholder outreach and public meetings. Honestly, each of the four look like large improvements over the current design and layout of the station.

We were planning a big preview of the meeting, but it honesty wouldn’t have looked much different than the piece The Source did last night. Check out their preview and nearly a dozen renderings of various proposals for Union Station.

The community workshop begins tonight at  5:30 p.m. in the  Japanese American National Museum, Aratani Central Hall, 100 N. Central Avenue. The meeting will be broadcast online at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lausmp