Streetsblog Los Angeles

The subway extension route approved today covers this route. The rest of the subway will have to wait for the May, June or even July meeting. Click on the image for a larger view.

The first of several major issue scheduled to be addressed by the Metro Board of Directors was the approval of the environmental documents for the Westside Subway.  After the Beverly Hills City Council formerly requested a hearing earlier this week, Metro staff recommended that the Board split approval for the Subway into two parts so that part could be approved today and part could be approved after another hearing was held.  The first part would cover the extension from the current Wilshire/Western stop to Wilshire/La Cienega.  The route approved would be 3.9 miles of the 8.6 mile route that was proposed by Metro staff.

Despite news that Metro wouldn’t vote on the subway route under Beverly Hills or the location of a Century City station, dozens of speakers from Beverly Hills shared comments that tunneling under the high school would be unsafe and a smaller but still significant number of speakers testified that such a route is perfectly safe and that opposition from Beverly Hills is a waste of time and resources.  The majority of the comments addressed the routing through Beverly Hills.  Because Metro made clear before testimony that they would not vote on the issues regarding Beverly Hills, we’re not going to cover that part of the conversation.

Support for the Subway was overwhelming among the speakers.  Only two speakers spoke out against the proposal to extend the Subway from the Wilshire/Western Intersection all the way to La Cienega Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard.   Of the three speakers who spoke against the Subway in general terms, only the Bus Riders Union’s Sunyoung Yang made the case that the Subway was a waste of funds.  ”There is nothing sustainable or economically justifiable about this project when you are blowing $6 billion on a nine mile project,” concluded Yang.  Oddly, Yang’s comments were greeted by applause by many people who previously testified that they supported the subway and transit before hitting on some concerns unrelated to today’s vote. Read more…

As debate continues at Metro headquarters over the Westside Subway, the Parent-Teacher Association of the Beverly Hills High School released the above video on YouTube. The video graphically illustrates their concerns. Sometimes a video is so clear that commentary from Streetsblog writers is not necessary.

As part of a collaboration with Intersections, South L.A. I had a chance to speak with Damien Goodmon, the head of the Citizen’s Campaign to Fix the Expo Line.  While I jokingly refer to Goodmon as “my evil twin,” a reference to both some people getting us confused and his no-holds barred style of advocacy; I’ve come to respect him for relentlessly pushing his causes even though I don’t agree with him all the time. Of course, I’ve never been on the receiving end of one of his attacks.

On Monday, we were joined by Intersections’ film maker Molly Gray and we chatted about the campaign, lessons learned, the Crenshaw Suhway, and what are the next steps for the Citizens’ Campaign.  At one point (not included on the film) he stresses that it’s the Citizen’s Campaign to FIX the Expo Line, not defeat it.  In their view, there are still crossings that need to be improved before they can rest.

When asked about Farmdale Station, Ground Zero for the battle over grade crossings and safety, and whether he was happy with it, Goodmon gave a complicated answer, “Absolutely not. But it’s hard not to claim victory when you see what they were going to do at this intersection and others … I want to believe the kids are safer than they would have been. Safe would have been grade separating it.”

Intersections posted the video as well, feel free to join the conversation there as well.

Yang speaks at yesterday's rally while BRU members ask the President to take a personal interest in the FTA review of Metro. Photo courtesy the Bus Riders Union

The Federal Transit Administration seems pleased with the progress being made by Metro to change the way it does business to be in compliance with federal civil rights statutes.  Rather than requiring major changes to the way Metro does business, the FTA seems content with changes to its outreach and reporting methods.  The FTA began a Civil Rights Title VI review of Metro last year after complaints from the Bus Riders Union and other civil rights and transit advocacy groups.  These groups hoped the FTA would reverse the over 1 million hours of cuts to bus service that Metro has ordered since the end of a judicial consent decree mandating increases in service expired in 2008.

FTA Adminstrator Peter Rogoff is under fire from the BRU for refusing to roll back Metro's recent bus service cuts.

Already knowing there was no mechanism to appeal the FTA’s decision, the BRU rallied in front of MTA headquarters yesterday kicking off a campaign calling on President Barack Obama to overrule the FTA’s decision.

“FTA is ignoring the smoking gun uncovered by its own civil rights team,” said Sunyoung Yang, lead organizer at the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union, a grassroots civil rights membership organization of LA’s transit riders that has battled LA Metro for years. “Rather than hold Metro responsible, Administrator Rogoff is allowing the agency to paper over its civil rights abuses through more studies to make its civil rights violations disappear through administrative sleight of hand. Since Rogoff and FTA have abdicated their responsibility to enforce Title VI, we’re calling on President Obama to bring real civil rights to LA bus riders and order the restoration of lost transit service.”

WVTC Performer Raul Cardona with Lady Gaga wax figure. Photo Credit: WVTC

In economics, “free riders” are usually a bad thing.

Starting Saturday, however, Metro encourages you to test out the Expo Line on its opening weekend by free riding to your heart’s content (well, from 5 A.M. to 7 P.M., that is).

To make the proposition more inviting, Metro is throwing itself a party on wheels.

To kick off the events at the new stop at Expo Park/USC, members of the Watts Village Theater Company (WVTC) will board trains with riders, traveling with them and performing site-specific, cultural pieces at several stops. Attendees will have the opportunity to take (and keep) Polaroid photos with performers. Performances are scheduled for 10:00 to 10:30 A.M. at the Expo Park/USC Station, 11:00 to 11:30 A.M. at the La Cienega Station, and 2:00 to 2:30 P.M. at the 7th St./Metro Center Station.

Because one theater experience on a train is never enough, a mime from the 24th Street Theatre will travel along the line and performing at the four major stops of the route. And yes, I’m pretty sure that their mime will be a lot better than this guy. Read more…

(Update, Dave Sotero, a Metro spokesperson responds to the story via email: The Beverly Hills hearing request was received. The Westside Subway Extension Project is still on the board’s agenda for Thursday. The Board of Directors will discuss the hearing request at that time.)

It was a good news/bad news sort of weekend for Metro and backers of the Westside Subway thanks to the Los Angeles Times and the Beverly Hills City Council.

In a comment on Patch, Bev. Hills Councilman Barry Brucker worries that at some point in the unknown future the state might pass a low restricting future construction of schools existing on top of subways, thus the city needs to oppose the subway route under the high school. No such law exists anywhere in the world.

Patch reports that the Council voted unanimously to request a public hearing with the Metro Board to discuss the Westside Subway and the potential routing of the Subway under the Beverly Hills High School Campus.  State law allows municipalities to request such a hearing if a transit project will have a direct impact on their community.  The timing of the request means that Metro will not be able to approve the final environmental documents for the Subway this week as originally planned.

A date and location for the hearing hasn’t been scheduled.  State law gives the agency between 15 and 60 days to hold the hearing.

Throughout the debate on the route of the future Westside Subway extension under Beverly Hills is how the media rallied to support Beverly Hills.  Television stations give the claims of the Unified School District and the City Council equal weight to that of Metro, the region’s second largest print publication, L.A. Weekly, as well as the city’s largest paper, the Beverly Hills Courier, are both hostile to the MTA’s planned route under the high school.

On Saturday, the Paper of Record unleashed a long editorial calling for Metro to advance the Westside Subway, even referring to it as the Subway to the Sea, and blasting Beverly Hills to get out of the way.  The Times gave the benefit of the doubt to Metro’s seismic and geological experts over those hired by the city, brushed aside concerns over routing and even noted the location of the two potential ending stations, the one proposed by Metro will have thousands more riders every day than the one preferred by Beverly Hills and the BHUSD.

But the strongest statement was saved for the argument that tunneling under the high school is unsafe for the students. Read more…

Metro offers "ethnic media" a preview tour of the new Expo Line. photo: sahra

I was invited to join other members of the “ethnic media” (Metro’s term, not mine) yesterday for a preview of the Expo Line. Set to open to the public on April 28th, trips between Culver City and downtown L.A. along the 8.6 miles of new line will be free all of next weekend.

The Metro folks were genuinely excited to be opening the new line to the city and eager to share their hopes for the economic benefits it would bring, plans for the expansion of the rail system to other parts of town, and the extensive safety campaigns that had been waged to educate the neighbors of the new line and the people that traversed it regularly.

They forgot to mention the crash that had happened just that morning at a crossing near USC.

The incident occurred at an intersection where cars previously could turn left without having to wait for a signal. My observation of that intersection (which has been intermittent) is that some people seem to be confused by the change and try to take the turn anyways. Waiting for that signal to change so you can make a left can be frustrating — the sensors don’t pick up bikes and, apparently, do not pick up the lighter golf-cart type vehicles staff at USC sometimes use to get around campus. The driver of one such cart, realizing that the signal wasn’t going to change, felt he had no choice but to take his chances and cross the tracks. Trying to merge back into traffic or cross lanes to push the pedestrian crossing button were not viable options for him at rush hour.

There are several intersections along the Expo line path where left turns are now regulated or, in the case of the Gramercy – Expo intersection, are just plain confusing. Read more…

A May 2008 report by Metro looking at possible alternatives to a subway looked at an aerial design for some stations. Read the powerpoint, here.

On Friday night, I received two emails as an online subscriber to the Beverly Hills Courier concerning the Westside Subway.  The first was a screed by the paper’s publisher urging Beverly Hills City Council members to vote for a proposal for the city to officially rescind its support for the subway project altogether.  The second was far more interesting.   The Courier announced that Metro “will now consider an elevated subway station at Santa Monica Boulevard and Century Park East.”

The announcement seemed odd.  Hadn’t Metro considered above-grade stations in its 2008 Alternatives Analysis and dismissed it?  Wouldn’t changing station design from subterranean to elevated rail require scrapping the entire environmental process and starting again?  The report raised more questions than it answered, something the reporter, who’s name is not included in the report, seemed to recognize.

It turns out that the Courier got it wrong this time.  Metro is considering an elevated heavy rail station as much as it considers any of the ideas proposed in reports issued on behalf of the city as it responds to these reports.  An elevated station at Santa Monica and Century Park East, considered in the 2008 Alternatives Analysis, was again proposed in the report by Shannon and Wilson that poked holes in Metro’s methodology but also stated that tunneling under the high school could be completed without lasting damage to the students.

So how did the Courier get the story so wrong? Read more…

It's over. Maybe.

As excitement builds over the soon-to-be opening of Phase I of the Expo Line, it appears the legal challenges to Phase II may be at an end.  Earlier today, the State of California Court of Appeals Second Appellate Division Eight formally rejected the appeal of an earlier decision that the Expo Construction Authority followed state environmental laws when completing the environmental review of Phase II of the Expo Line that will complete the light rail line from Culver City to Santa Monica.

The entire draft of the ruling can be found here, but here is the most relevant paragraph.  Streetsblog will continue to update this story as people react to the ruling:

We find no merit in petitioner‟s contentions and affirm the judgment. Because we  disagree with Sunnyvale and Madera, and hold that use of projected future conditions as  a baseline for analyzing environmental impacts is proper in this case, we publish that  portion of our opinion.

Update I, 3:00 P.M.: So, it’s probably not over.  A lawyer familiar with CEQA cases and this case in particular notes some language makes an appeal to the California Supreme Court likely because the appeals court disagreed with existing case law from the Sunnyvale decision which said that CEQA studies should be based on existing conditions and not future ones.

Photo: Metro Library

I think we all are curious about what Metro’s plans are for Los Angeles Union Station. In November Metro announced six architectural firms had been selected as finalists to compete to be chosen to prepare the Master Plan for the site.

April 25 there will be an opportunity to view the Vision Boards of the six firms. The event is free and open to the public and will be held in the Old Ticket Room of Union Station (Alameda St. side).

Presentations will be from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm with viewing from 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm.

And this announcement states Metro Board Chair and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa will be in attendance.

RSVP to kerenyis@metro.net

Should be interesting.

My thanks to transit activist Ken Ruben for bringing this event to my attention.